New Great Granddaughter and great great niece

69º here in Callaway, NE with overcast sky. Forecast for 93º as high.

Got more use out of the Instant Messenger on my smart phone yesterday than in the last 3 years.

At left is Jessica Lynn Long, our first Great Granddaughter, born about noon yesterday in Cedar Rapids, IA.

 This is the proud Grandmother, our daughter-in-law Patty Miles with Jessica.

And this old man is proud grandpa Cameron Miles - our son - with Jessica.

This is mamma - Ashley, our granddaughter, with Jessica, picture taken this morning.

Mom, Dad & Jessica shortly after birth.

And this morning found posting on Facebook that my brother's grandson Steve and Melissa are now parents of Emma Jean Miles.   This is Steve's post on Facebook - "Introducing Emma Jean Miles! She was born June 21st at 1234 in Sulzbach-Rosenberg Germany. Both mother and daughter are doing great and should come home today"

And here is little Emma Jean,
guess she would be my great-great niece.

 Last evening we went to Broken Bow and ate with Monte Jo McFate (in photo above with Don Ferguson) and Madeline McFate, Phyllis, and Carla (Don's Daughter)
Below is Don Ferguson and his brother Lawrence Ferguson.  Another brother Jake Ferguson and his wife Helen also ate supper, but had left before I got the camera out.

Earlier we had taken lunch in to Dixie & Dick G'Schwind's place and got to visit with them before Dick went back to the field to "ditch" the corn, preparing for gravity irrigation.

At left, Sharleen Stivers is checking her cucumbers and tomatoes that she is growing in containers that had been "lick tanks" of molasses for cattle.  They are pretty good sized and I am trying to locate some to take with us.

Will sign off for this morning.  We are going to go to ranch of Nancy Willis this morning to visit her.

Considering going to the Seven Valley's Rodeo which starts here tonight as part of the Pioneer Picnic celebration for this weekend.

Later, Lynn

Cool morning in Callaway

60 degrees in Callaway when woke up a little after 7 pm this morning.  Almost cold compared to much of the weather we have been in.  65 degrees now at 8:30 am and predicted high of 87 degrees.

I climbed the 75 steps to the top of the Lookout Tower in Halsey National Forest near Halsey, Nebraska - the only planted National Forest (1902)

 Not the largest trees we have seen in National Forests, but remember -- this is in the middle of the sand hills.  Surrounding is only sand dunes.

This is a photo of the planting back in 1902 in the somewhat barren sand hills.

Website of Halsey National Forest
Click on link above for info on this forest in the middle of the sand hills.

I posted a whole bunch of photos of the sunset over the Rocky Mountains taken from Grand Lodge just to the north of Grand Lake on Facebook.  Here are a couple of them.

We had eaten at Grand Lodge (Beth & Steve's 47th wedding anniversary).  Had taken guided boat tour of Grand Lake earlier in the day and the guide had recommended seeing the lake, and the sunset from the Grand Lodge and it was worth it.
At left is Phyllis and her sister Beth.

At left Steve and Lynn

Here are a few of the nearly 200 pictures I took of the places on Grand Lake.  Some pretty fancy.  A few reachable only by water or snow mobile over the ice in the winter.

Some are pretty good sized.

There are several sculptures in the city of Grand Lake, CO that were made by Howard Neville.
He also did the Glenn Miller Sculpture in the Glenn Miller Birthplace Museum in Clarinda, IA
Neville's Facebook Page

On Tuesday, on our way from Grand Lake, Colorado to Callaway, Nebraska, we stopped in Broomfield, Colorado long enough to go to lunch with Donna and Ricky Zoerb.  Rick was a high school classmate of mine.  They won't be coming to the reunion this weekend in Callaway, so was nice to visit with them.

As we drove east from the Denver area, towards Nebraska, the temperature kept climbing.  I had taken several photos of the thermometer - first at 100, then 101, then 102, then 103, and finally when we were near Sterling, CO it reached 104º

Plenty warm!

Yesterday, Wednesday, we stopped at Don Ferguson's place north of Ansley, NE and then went to lunch.  His brother Lawrence showed up and we all got to visit over lunch.

Back at Don's Phyllis and Don are studying his garden.  He was putting grass, as mulch, around some of the plants.





Got to go now, so will pick this back up some other time.
Later, Lynn

Granby Ranch, Colorado

50 degrees at 8 am near Grand Lake, CO -- forecast of 81 for high today.
Click on photos to enlarge.  Make comments at end of blog, if you wish.

 After a delightful brunch mid-morning in Grand Lake we all went south to Granby Ranch  
where the ski area is used for hiking and biking in the summer time.  Jason and Tyler took their bikes on the trails while the rest of us rode the ski lift up to the top and did some short walks at the top

On the ride up.

Nearing the top.

Chairs were set up facing the view to the east (Next Photo) for a wedding.  Later when at the cafe at the bottom of the lift we saw some of the wedding party.

View from the top to the east, with many flowers in the foreground.

This is a map of the area showing the winter routes for skiing.  I thought I had taken a photo at the top of the lift showing the hiking/biking trails, but guess not.

This couple started down on this route that had a jump at the beginning

.

Back at Beth & Steve's time was spent on the front patio visiting over munchies.

 As sun began covering the front patio, moved to the deck at the south side of the house.

After a delicious meal, including pulled pork, the Denver Coopers put their 4 bicycles on the back of their pickup for their 2-hour drive back home.  Inside the box area was their huge dog.

This morning we are heading up to Grand Lake for a guided tour on a pontoon boat.

Will be heading out for Callaway, NE tomorrow (Tuesday) morning where temperatures are to be in the 90's during the rest of the week we will be there.  Pioneer Picnic and Rodeo and All-School Reunion on the weekend.

More later, Lynn

In the Rocky Mountains for the weekend.

47 degrees in Grand Lake, CO at 7:21 am, MDT.

This is at Phyllis' sister's place near Grand Lake, CO last night.  A nearly full moon was out as they made "smores" over a log fire.  Jason and Kara Cooper with their two kids Megan and Tyler had come up from Denver.  Kara is Phyllis' niece.

Note the nearly full moon.

 

 Thursday evening we went, with Patty Steckelberg, to Elliot, IA to visitation for good friend Lowell Schaaf.  He taught us square and round dancing in the 1970's and again in the 1990's.  he had been calling for over 50 years.  When he retired, nearly 20 years ago, he became a minister and was serving 3 small rural churches.

Many square dancers (many who we had not seen for many years) were there and we got
to visit with them.

 I have had about 400 bricks that originally came from the streets of Clarinda in the 1940's or 1950's and decided to see how they would look by the shop.  Don't know if this should be a project to mix some masonry and make them permanent?

 After putting it off for nearly a month, I finally got up and washed the front of the trailer and got most of the bugs off.  did a light - quick job on the rest of the trailer.

We headed out with the trailer Friday morning.  Stopped near Rocca, NE briefly to visit with Jan and Lynn Freye (Jan is 1st cousin of Phyllis')
and headed on west.  Stopped in Hastings, NE briefly to visit with Dale Peer, a classmate of mine from Callaway, and on to Broken Bow and then Callaway, NE.  Photo at left shows the temperature mid-afternoon.

We set up our trailer beside Lynn & Sharleen Stiver's trailer in their back yard in Callaway.

 The Stivers took us to Broken Bow to the Elks Club which has a fantastic Mexican Restaurant in it now.


We were joined by Sharleen's daughter and her husband.

 

We were on the road (without the trailer) before 7 am on Saturday.  These photos are between Callaway and Arnold, NE.  Sprinkler irrigation systems running a lot.

This is on the edge of the Sandhills and pretty country.

We stopped in Sterling, Colorado at a re-hab nursing home that Jo Kuhlman is in following a stroke on May 10th.  She had a therapy session while we visited with her husband, Les.  He is a first cousin of Phyllis'.

 From Sterling we went to Estes Park and over TrailRidge

Snow still on the mountain tops.

And we drove by some snow.

We arrived at Beth & Steve's about 5 pm, local time.  Their daughter Kara and her family arrived from Denver shortly after and we visited during the evening and enjoyed a great meal together.

If some of you are wondering why I haven't mentioned fathers day -- I don't do any holidays.

Will see what today brings.

Later, Lynn