26 July 08 - 16:34
Family reunion
Dave is the oldest of four siblings. They were all born and raised in Minnesota but his two brothers have since moved to White Bird, Idaho. White Bird is a town of about 400 people in the Salmon River valley.It's a place that gets very hot in the summer but we had amazingly good weather. We never even turned on the air conditioning in our RV during the three days we were there. It did get hot in the sun but we parked in the shade of the old house and mostly sat in the shade of the new one.
Dave's brother designs and builds the most intriguing houses. One he built in southeast Minneapolis made page one of the Home & Garden section of the Sunday Minneapolis Star Tribune back in the 70s when he built it. One he designed for his parents up on the north shore of Lake Superior took such good advantage of passive solar heat that they had to open windows during Minnesota winters to let out some of that heat. This one is a tower with one room on each floor. He plans to publish details of it someday but he did give me permission to publish a picture of it here.
The back yard is terraced leading down to the creek.
This is where we play the traditional game of croquet. I guess I should clarify that it is traditional for the family to play croquet when we gather. The course is never traditional; it always includes some sort of terrain challenge. This year it started on the top level of the lawn but had the center wicket by the bridge on the path down the hill with the remaining wickets on various levels below. It's always challenging but fun. Part of the fun is deciding which rules are in force this year since various spouses grew up with different rules. We usually pick the ones that help the most.
The new game this year was golf. There is only one hole on the course but the tee area moves from one part of the upper lawn to another part. There are two clubs: a six iron and a putter. Two of the players are left-handed but there was no left handed iron. Who ever said life is fair?
The last night we were there Dave's youngest brother gathered his friends for a jam session so we could meet them and hear how his music is progressing. They played in the back yard of the house next door and served a potluck dinner with it. It was a lot of fun.
We gave up and went to bed before they did. Dave says they played until 1 am but his brother said they played until 3 am. You couldn't prove either time by me; I was asleep.
TTYL,
Linda
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