Country Mouse - Homemade Jam

I really am turning into a Country Mouse. Yesterday I picked raspberries and today I made them into homemade jam. Tomorrow I plan on making some fresh bread to try it out. Mmm!

Country Mouse - A Day at the Beach

I had no idea we lived so close to a beautiful beach! Yesterday our family went to Skookumchuck Park and played all afternoon on the banks of the Salmon River. It's a scenic site featuring a swimming beach and shady, grassy picnic area that's only 20 miles south of Grangeville. Other than the water being a little chilly, it was almost like being at the ocean... practically in our own back yard!

Country Mouse - Border Days

"Border Days" is a 3 day long 4th of July celebration in Grangeville. The festivities begin each morning at 9am with street games. Kids of all ages run races down the middle of main street (which has been closed off, of course). After the races they have the biggest egg toss I've ever seen. Hundreds of people line up main street in pairs and toss eggs to each other and the last pair with their egg in tact wins a small sum of money, a plastic trophy, and bragging rights. A parade goes down main street at 1pm with lots of horses, tractors, a couple of fire engines and people throwing candy. They do this every day for 3 days!

One morning after the egg toss there was a toy scramble for kids under 6 years old. Kids line the side of the street while people spread candy, toys, and coins out (not in the same part of the street where the broken eggs are though). They give each kid a bag and let them fill up their bags with whatever they can get. Jack and Nate loved it!

We had delicious "fair" food - my favorite part. Harrison and Rio climbed a big rock wall, Jack jumped on a bungee trampoline and Nathan rode on a pony. We didn't go to the rodeo (Border Days' biggest attraction), but plan to next year. We all had a great time and Border Days is easily my new favorite part about living in small town USA.

Nathan and Jack tossing the egg

The parade coming down main street

Nate getting his goodies in the toy scramble

Riding a pony!

City Mouse - Front Yard

Gardening services are extremely common here. I don't think anyone on my block mows their own yard. I certainly didn't trim our shrubs into these crazy alien space-shapes.
I know renters can't be choosers, but I wish our landlords were more into something with flowers! I've walked straight into one of these shrub-nubbins with my face - ouch!

This One's For You...

We were looking at some property about 12 miles north of town when all of a sudden...
WILD TURKEYS!

Awesome.

Baseball in the Country

Because our little town is so limited in the entertainment options, baseball season is a BIG deal. Everyone signs up his kid to be on a team and the adults have a softball league too. This year 3 out of our 4 kids played (our youngest can start next year) and Micah and I played on his company team.

So far it's my favorite part of being here. The baseball fields are beautiful! They're kept groomed and green, there's a line of trees growing behind with a small creek running along and occasionally you can see a cow or two beyond the fence. There are playground toys for the kids who don't want to sit and watch the games. Popsicles are only a quarter and the hamburgers smell delicious. We played in an all night tournament a couple weeks ago and watched the sun set behind the mountains in the west and then watched it rise up over the mountains in the east.

Our small town field:

And the trees/creek that run behind the fields: