How Moose Make the Trees Grow

We were on our way up to Sandpoint yesterday to go huckleberry picking and then to my Aunt Kelsey's 80th birthday party in Clark Fork. Laney suddenly brought forth this nugget of "wisdom" gleaned from who knows where (nature shows gone awry?):
Moose make the trees grow because when moose die, the other animals eat them and then that makes trees grow.
[our response: ???!! What?]
Because moose eat trees and when the wolves eat the moose, then the moose don't eat the trees. So then the trees grow.

So. There you have it. Kill the moose, grow a tree.
We went up Schweitzer Mountain to go huckleberry picking and tried to find the spot that my cousin Brian told us about. I think we started counting switchbacks before we should though. We found huckleberries, but they were already picked over and at the end. We needed to go a little higher. But by the time we had hiked up the hill and through the brush for a while, we weren't in the mood to stop again and repeat. We ended up with about 1/2 gallon of berries. Which is not too bad considering we were picking with three toddlers. For those of you not in the know about the huckleberry: it is not a cultivated berry, grows at high altitudes, looks something like a blueberry but it is a lot better tasting. Berry picking involves hiking around in the forest and, since bears including the grizzly also enjoy the berries, we go armed. It adds a certain something to the process. Honestly though I've been doing this for my entire life and have never seen a bear (up close). Kenna was not at one with nature yesterday so she was just cranky about everything. We had a very edifying moment in which we all learned the fine art of peeing in the woods. Girls pee facing uphill, boys pee facing down hill. After picking berries we drove the rest of the way up to Schweitzer ski resort for lunch. The view was great but I shut Griffin's finger in the door of the car so that wasn't so awesome. I couldn't believe how different it was up there. I haven't been up there in a really long (ahem. decades) time and never in the summer.
We went to Uncle Phillip's house to rest and recoup before heading on to Clark Fork. Another place I haven't been to in a long, long, long time. Clark Fork is situated where the Clark Fork river enters lake Pend Oreille. We met up with all of the Hatcher clan at their family home in Clark Fork. I guess Reno's mother owned this little log house there. It's a funky little place and very filled with Hatchers. My aunt Kelsey is my grandfather Phil McNearney's little sister. She married Reno Hatcher and they had 8 kids. Who all had lots of kids (or adopted lots of kids).  Between marriages and adoptions they are sort of a mini UN.
I'm torn between having Charles help me remove doors to paint or taking the kids to Art on the Green today.

August Already?

It's been a difficult summer. Dad went in to the hospital the day we left Tucson with pneumonia and he didn't leave again until last week. His pneumonia led to a heart attack and then on to pulmonary edema, kidney failure, a tracheostomy, medical coma, a series of stents for the arteries in his heart that were blocked 99% (and no bypass surgery because he couldn't survive it), bacterial pneumonia, staph infection, possibly another stroke in a series of strokes, a rehab center, a recucitation, ICU again, a rehab/extended ICU hospital again, another rehab center and then home to my mother's 24-hour care. He was brought back from near death 3 times. He lost so much weight I could see the outlines of all of his bones. He had ICU induced psychosis. Let's just say that it wasn't the summer that I thought it was going to be.
So I haven't written much in my neglected blog. Somehow I need to get back in to the habit again. I'd post pictures, but my camera broke too.
Anyway, enough of all that. What else have I been doing this summer? Yes, I have done other things besides sit in a hospital. I'll give a quick run down of the high points and then I'll try to go back to fill in with more detailed posts.

• We built a chicken coop! My hubbie did a great job and we built the cutest little coop that is just perfect for our two borrowed chickens. The kids named the two hens Peach and Boy. The saga of chicken keeping is worthy of a whole post of its own.
• We painted our house (and are still painting it). Ourselves. Specifically mostly me. I even tore down the old gutters myself and boy was Charles impressed with me climbing on to the roof and banging the gutters off. Not only did we paint it, we painted it black. Ok. Not exactly black. It is a very dark grey/brown called Ebony Field. Yeah. I know. This is also worthy of its own post. And pictures!
• I've made jam like it's a calling from God. Seriously. We went out to Green Bluff with the kids one afternoon and picked strawberries (they taste amazing when eaten in the field) and then made jam with mom. I think we made 24 or so pints that day. Then I got crazy with my bad self. I picked our raspberries and made jam. I picked Dana's cherries and made jam. I'm going to pick huckleberries and make jelly. I bought my own canner this year. I'm officially a grown up.
• We went camping for 6 days over the 4th of July.
• I planted my first garden. It was sort of late since we had to deal with tilling issues and weather, but I put it in and have eaten things that it produced. My first vegetable garden!!
• I made curtains for my living room. Mostly.
• I hosted a pampered chef party and a book club party.

I have a whole list of stuff that I'd like to do before we head home this fall. Some things are little and some are bigger. I want to go huckleberry picking, go to the fair, go kayaking, go to Art on the Green, take the kids hiking on Tubbs hill and to the beach, take the kids fishing, host a cowboy themed birthday party for the twins, drink a few really excellent lattes, maybe make some applesauce, and start to remodel my bathroom. I've got 4 more weeks!