MONUMENT – On Tuesday, July 12, we had chicken stir fry, fried rice, green salad, and cake. We also had 46 people here to help eat it. Kevin Metcalfe and Rocky Jordan are here from Salem for a while; Jaden and Sierra Brown are here visiting grandma Susan Hyder, Elyzabeth Wynne, Jennifer Cirkendall, Kristine Wenzell, Marla Capon and her two daughters, Kayla and Grace. Becky and Dalton Stewart were here with Becky’s sister, May DeEtt Hinton. LaVerda Cox was here also. She told us that her husband, Carl, was in the nursing home in Canyon City, in case you’re going over and want to stop by to see him.

Our monthly trip to John Day was on Thursday, July 14. We always enjoy ourselves over there. We visit with old and new friends, the meals are always great and if I’m not too slow and hold everyone up, then shopping is fun, too. They think I need more exercise so I can’t ride in that little buggy and I have to push my own cart. It is good exercise, so I don’t complain too much. The box boys are a lot friendlier, also, they’re not running and hiding.

In case anyone needs eggs, Lonnie Lawrence has some to sell, so give her a call or run up the river and get some. That makes me think of the signs I used to see in Louisiana “Yard eggs for sale.” I asked a friend and he told me that it meant the chickens are running loose in the yard. Makes sense to me.

Now for the sad side. We’ve lost another of our pioneer generation. Luella Neal left us Friday, July 8, and services were scheduled for Saturday, July 16, with a potluck dinner afterward out in the park. By the time it got to my generation, there wasn’t a whole lot of us that could have set out and developed a homestead without very much money and a lot of gumption and grit. Luella could have. She wasn’t very big, but she was tougher than a boot. She never made excuses for herself, ever, but the kid could do just about anything, short of murder, and she would find a reason for them to have done it. I loved to tease her, it was like teasing a Banty hen, then I’d work to make her laugh.