Let’s talk about Priest River

Chelsea Earls wrote that the kids and teachers at House of the Lord are having quite a time with slivers from their old playground equipment.

Here’s your chance to help them out – and possibly win a cord of firewood!

Downtown Priest River just keeps changing – and looking better all the time.  I stopped for a few minutes not long ago to take pictures of the newly renovated store fronts, and was impressed.

NE Corner, Downtown Priest River

NW Corner - The Beardmore Building

Not a parts store any more!

I love the little park by the Priest River Library

Since when is it this hot in mid-September?

I read on the Q-6 weather report that Priest River set a new record this week with an “official” reading of 88 degrees. But someone told me a reader board in town said 92.

Even this morning’s heavy rain turned to heat by mid afternoon.

But I’m not complaining – I’ll just enjoy it while it lasts.

Meanwhile, I’m covering the garden at night and I see that where the covers didn’t quite make it to the edge of the squash plants, they’ve been nipped.

Reading the difficulties Priest River Animal Rescue is having over setting a date for their annual dinner auction makes me shake my head.

With so few “events” going on here, it seems like it would be a little less troublesome to pick a date.

After checking with the Times to see if anyone else was advertising an event on September 26, PRAR chose that as their date for the auction.

Help the rescued critters

They made flyers, printed tickets, and even sold a few…

Then, this past week they learned that the Chamber of Commerce had decided to move the date for Octoberfest to September 26.

Ummm… I always thought Octoberfest was held in October some time, but guess I was wrong.

Anyway, the latest is that the PRAR event is now moved to October 17.

I’m sure volunteers will be around soliciting merchandise for the auction, so if you have a business and want to get some publicity while supporting the animals, be thinking about what you’d like to donate.

Individuals are welcome to donate as well, so don’t be shy… the lost, abandoned, and abused pets in our area need every bit of help you can offer.

Trees in front of Priest River Junior High School - Uprooted!

The Thunder / lightning / wind storm that hit Priest River this week did enough damage in a couple of hours to keep crews busy cleaning up for days.

The trees in front of Priest River Junior High look pretty sad now…

But what seemed really strange was how bone dry the roots appeared to be. The close up of that huge root snapped in two showed no moisture at all, and the soil just a couple of feet down also appeared bone dry.

One has to wonder if the dry conditions led to the roots breaking in the strong winds during the storm.

So strange for a year that started out as rainy as this one did. And since the grass is green, I assume that the lawn had been watered regularly.

Huge tree root - snapped in two like a matchstick.

I didn’t make it all over town to get a lot of photos, but saw at least one house with a badly damaged roof and a couple of yards with trees across the lawns.

One story I heard was of a mobile home that was sliced in two, barely missing a child.

The good news in that sentence is the word “missing!” Losing a house is tragic, but it could have been so very much worse.

Apparently this storm hit in isolated spots all over Bonner County – some say we had small tornados, but I’ve heard no official word on that.

If you have a “storm story” I hope you’ll add it to our comments!

Wow. That was some storm last night. The crashing and booming must have lasted for at least 3 hours.

We were fortunate here. All that happened is that I now have to re-stack this woodpile! Guess all the shaking was more than it could take.

In town, trees fell on homes, causing a ton of expensive damage. I have to wonder if the insurance companies will cover it, or if they’ll call it an Act of God and say “Sorry.”

Let’s all hope for the best on that one.

Tomorrow I’ll go back to town with my camera and bring you more photos. Meanwhile, I’m glad there are no reports of injury.

If you have stories or photos of what happened at your house, please share!

Today’s e-mail brought a message that I thought was disturbing. See what you think about it.

Ed McMahon died this week.
He was a great entertainer, but prior to his stage accomplishments
he was a distinguished Marine Corps fighter pilot in
WWII earning six Air Medals and attaining the rank of
Colonel. He was discharged in 1946 and was later
promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the CA
Air National Guard.

Farrah Fawcett died this week after a long career in
Hollywood as an actress.  After she was
diagnosed with cancer, she became an activist for cancer
treatment and devoted her last remaining years encouraging
people to seek treatment.  She documented her plight on film
and used it to encourage others to stay positive and upbeat
despite their diagnosis and suffering.

Michael Jackson died this week.  He was perhaps one of the
greatest singers of modern time.  He will also be remembered
for his eccentric lifestyle that included sleeping with a
chimpanzee, living in a carnival-like atmosphere at
Neverland, his fascination with Peter Pan, and his numerous masks and costumes.  He also admitted to finding pleasure sleeping with young boys and paying out millions of dollars in settlements to the families of these boys despite being acquitted by a court on one                         allegation of sexual molestation.

QUESTION – Which of the above did
the House of Representatives declare a moment of
silence for today?  (Hint – It wasn’t the first two.)

QUESTION – Which of the above family received a
personal note of condolence from President Obama?
(Hint – It wasn’t the first two.)

The little monsters are everywhere!

Today I walked outside and stirred up a huge cloud of them, so by the time I went back inside I was picking them out of my hair.

Later I could feel someone “walking around” under my shirt, but couldn’t find it to get it gone. It wasn’t until a half hour later, when I was on the telephone with a copywriting client, that it decided to jump out from the neckline of my shirt. Then I had to explain to my client why I dropped the phone.

He probably wondered what kind of backwoods gal he was working with!

I went on line and found out that grasshoppers live for about 6 weeks – and since they’ve been here for a week now, it looks like we’ll be putting up with them for a while. And then, of course, they’re busy laying more eggs, so… Maybe until frost?

None of us have ever seen this many grasshoppers before. So my question is this: Where did these creatures come from, and why are there so many?

Anybody know the answer?

Priest River country duplex for sale

Are you looking for an investment property?

The long-term tenants in one side of my son’s duplex have now moved to a nursing home, so it’s time to do some cosmetic work in their unit… and he doesn’t have the time.

If you have time and talent, you can earn some fast sweat equity on this one – and still have a little cash flow from the rental income.

Go here to learn more.