Summer 2007

July 4 on the river was great.

I  bought a Toyota based micro-motorhome, and this was our first time out with it.

My buddy Haley Tabor came out and camped with me the second night (Grace had to be somewhere) so that was a lot of fun.

 I did try to counsel him on his choice of tent sites.  The roots of the tree he camped next to were all washed away by the river, the tree itself was about 4 feet out in the river and 12 feet up.  I thought the tree would fall in the river when I pulled onto the camp site, and when I came back from the boat, he had set up his tent right beside that tree.  I told him he would probably wake up in the river, he didn't. (wake up I mean) (it's like a joke)

 Haley is a true free spirit, so he is a lot of fun. I don't see him nearly as much as when we car pooled together when I taught at Standing Rock High School.

At the farm, the vinyl siding that melted when the garage burned down was replaced.  The crew works for my old friend Lloyd Counts.  He used to do a lot of this kind of work, he shingled my house in Bismarck a couple of years ago, and shingled the farm house too, after finishing the siding.

 I teach summers at Sitting Bull College at Fort Yates, I believe this was the sixth summer.  I always enjoy it, the numbers are so much less than the number of students I have at BSC, that it is a real change of pace, and the students have been great.  I enjoy it and this summer was no exception.

I liked this statue.

 I really don't know anything about it, just thought it was neat.

It has character.

By the end of summer school, the siding was pretty well done.

Keystone Colorado is a ski resort area where we went for a Blues and Arts Festival at the conclusion of summer school.

It's a beautiful setting.

My favorite was Marcia Ball.  I had heard her music on the blues channel on satellite radio and liked her music, now she is one of my favorite performers as well.

If you like boogie woogie style piano (and I really do) you gotta love her.  She rocks the house with it, and makes it look so easy.  I don't think I have ever seen a performer rock the house with their legs crossed before this.  If you get a chance to see her, I think you will love it.  (Another performer I was very impressed with was Hamilton Loomis, although every act was a good one)

To see more of my summer, click here.  (I call it return to farming)

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