This year has been a “pretty lazy and laid-back year” for my nephew, Dave Balcerzak. He and my niece, Chantel Balcerzak got another grandson this year, named Nathaniel Andrew Kirk. He was born on January 15, 2024, to their daughter, Siara Kirk and her husband, Chris. Siara and Chris had purchased the house next door to Dave and Chantel, and Chantel babysits while Siara works. When Dave gets home, he immediately latches on to that little baby, and they hang out on the couch. My guess is that Dave is teaching Nathaniel the “sports ropes” so they can watch together sometime in the near future. Nathaniel is quite taken with Dave, and the feeling is mutual. Dave loves his grandbabies!!
Dave has been interested in painting cars, and this year, he did first paint job on a car. He’s proud of that. Dave has had a project car for some time now. He has been fixing up his 1968 Pontiac Le Mans. Whenever he can, 
he’s out there working on the car getting it ready for driving, and especially painting. Then, in March, he was ready, so he took the dive and painted it himself. I think he did an amazing job on it.
For Dave, Summer is the best time of year. He loves to putter around the yard and has just about every yard tool imaginable. Chantel was quick to clarify that that while Dave loves to take care of their lawn, and it is gorgeous, and the envy of the neighborhood, Dave is not a gardener, and totally hates gardening. Yardwork is a totally different, and Chantel says, “My man can edge the lawn like nobody’s business!!” I guess that there is just a difference between a garden and a yard, and for many men, that is a line not to be crossed.
Dave has been a lifelong Steelers fan. He loves football and enjoys having the kids come over to watch games with him. Another “football thing” that Dave loves is collecting football cards. Dave will spend hours down in his 
“man cave” with those football cards…sorting them!! That is a practice that completely baffles Chantel, but it makes Dave happy, so she just laughs it off, and lets him do his thing. Chantel says that practice sounds “crazy boring,” but it keeps him entertained for hours!! Hey, if it keeps him entertained, I guess he isn’t bugging Chantel because he is bored, right??Chantel tells me that they have shifted into rest! That is really “marriage speak” for being content, and it’s a great place to be. Today is Dave’s birthday. Happy birthday Dave!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
My nephew, JD Parmely is a mechanic extraordinaire!! He went to college in Arizona for that very thing. He has always been interested in mechanics, even as a little boy, when he would hand his uncle, Bob Schulenberg tool as he worked on a vehicle in the driveway of his grandpa, Walt Schulenberg’s house. My husband, Bob and his nephew, JD were a little team. They still work together sometimes today. It’s mostly when one or the other need some help on a vehicle, or they are a little stumped. JD is a really good resource, if Bob has a vehicle that is giving him trouble. JD has come a long way from the days when he was Bob’s little helper.
JD is a good hand to have around. He often helps his brothers, Barry Schulenberg and Eric Parmely. This year 
he was helping Eric build a new garage. It is going to be a fine garage, and quite big. The guys worked on it quite a while, but they made great progress. Eric and his wife Ashley will really like having that this winter. JD is proving to be quite handy in more areas than just mechanics. In reality, there are very few jobs JD won’t at least attempt to tackle. And if you are looking for an assistant on a job you are working on, JD is often your man. And he is a willing helper too.
JD did run into a little “excitement” earlier this summer, when a pickup he was driving suddenly sprung a gas leak and caught on fire. Now that is get your adrenaline going, won’t it? JD was hauling another pickup for a 
guy, and I’m sure you can imagine how quickly they got out of JD’s pickup. The fire department was called, but by the time they arrived, JD’s pickup was, well…toast!! JD decided that his liked the pickup, so he decided to rebuild it. It didn’t take him very long to find the necessary parts, and the pickup is back on the road. Most of us would have thought the truck just needed to go to the junk yard, but JD proved that it could still function as a truck. I guess that if the vehicle is a favorite, you do what you have to do. Today is JD’s birthday. Happy birthday JD!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
In the height of space travel, NASA decided to set up a mission to take pictures of Venus. The planet is always shrouded in a layer of clouds, with an extremely thick carbon dioxide atmosphere. When looking at Venus in visible light, those clouds are all you would see. That said, even a “flyby” would not give a good view of the planet, plus it would take a long time to get there, so it wasn’t feasible for a manned mission. Nevertheless, a mission was set up in March of 1988, for the purpose of “checking it out.” It was announced by NASA that astronauts Walker, Grabe, Lee, Thagard, and Cleave would be the crew of the STS-30 mission to release the Magellan spacecraft for the flight planned for late April 1989. Thagard had flown twice before, on STS-7 in June 1983 and the STS-51B Spacelab 3 mission in April-May 1985. Walker, Grabe, and Cleave had each flown once before, on STS-51A, STS-51J, and STS-61B, respectively. STS-30 would be Lee’s first trip into space. Walker and Thagard joined NASA in the astronaut class of 1978, Grabe and Cleave joined in 1980, and Lee in 1984. The mission would take four days, during which they would deploy Magellan and its Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) on the first flight day. There was a 29-day window for the deployment of Magellan, as dictated by the alignments of Venus and Earth to achieve the proper trajectory for the journey to its destination. Once it was released, their job, as far as Magellan was essentially over.
STS-30 lifted off on May 4, 1989, utilizing space shuttle Atlantis, which was on its third space flight. Of course, STS-30 lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Its five-person crew included Commander David M Walker, Pilot Ronald J Grabe, and Mission Specialists Mark C Lee, Norman E Thagard, and Mary L Cleave. They flew a four-day mission that deployed the Magellan spacecraft, which was then managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, to study Venus. This mission would unite NASA’s human and interplanetary spaceflight programs. It also marked the first US planetary launch since 1978. The astronauts successfully deployed Magellan and its upper stage on their first day in space, sending the spacecraft off on its 15-month journey to Venus. I can imagine that it was an exciting venture for them.
Once Magellan arrived at the cloud-shrouded planet, it spent four years mapping Venus in unprecedented detail. The mission vastly increased human knowledge of the planet. The Magellan spacecraft arrived at Venus on August 10, 1990. Using radar imaging, Magellan began its primary goal of mapping the surface of Venus. The radar imaging was able to “peek” through the thick clouds which made visual observation difficult. While there, Magellan made the first global map of the surface of Venus and global maps of the planet’s gravity field. It was inserted into a near-polar elliptical orbit and continued its mission for several years. After its journey to Venus, the Magellan spacecraft, finally arrived at Venus in 1990. It then made the first global map of the surface of Venus as well as global maps of the planet’s gravity field. NASA was quite surprised at the findings 
Magellan produced, including the fact that it had a relatively young planetary surface that was probably formed by lava flows from planet-wide volcanic eruptions. After completing its four-year flight mission, NASA deliberately plunged the Magellan spacecraft to the surface of Venus in October 1994 to gather data on the planet’s atmosphere before it ceased operations. It marked the first time an operating planetary spacecraft had been intentionally crashed.
In thinking about the story for my niece, Katie Balcerzak, I decided to enlist the help of her sisters. In my experience, sisters often have great stories about their sisters, and great pictures too. Katie’s sister, Bernnie Steadman tells me that one of her favorite memories of their childhood is when they moved to a new house on Brentwood Street. Where the girls had shared a room before, they now got their own rooms. As exciting as that was, the girls were used to sleeping with each other, so every night Bernnie would hear the pitter patter of Katie’s little feet coming downstairs to Bernnie’s bedroom. Bernnie loved to read and would often stay up late, totally immersed in a novel, so Katie would always bring one of her storybooks with her, so they could lay in bed and read together. Bernnie, being an avid reader would read out loud to Katie sometimes or they would just read their individual books. Katie could never outlast Bernnie, and always fell asleep first and Bernnie 
would shut off the light and read by flashlight, so not to disturb her sweet little sister.
This memory of Katie as a little girl is very different than the Katie we know today, but there are things in the story that I can totally see in how Katie is today, especially with her sisters, and with her kids, Reece and Aysa. Katie is a great mom, and her kids, much like her are always laughing and smiling. Katie has been perfect for Keifer since the day she was born, and they have known theirs was the perfect match since they were kids in school. I’m sure that Keifer took one look at Katie, and he was hooked. She is a beautiful girl, inside and out.
Bernnie wanted me to know about Katie’s very endearing qualities. Katie was always a happy kid, and she has the best laugh. In fact, her laugh is contagious. When the girls were kids, Bernnie tried to be silly all the time, just to get Katie laughing. Once she got started, all the sisters would be giggling. They couldn’t stop, because every time they would stop, one or the other would start back up, especially Katie. Katie has such a kind heart and out of all the sisters, she’s always the first one to forgive. That is a very special quality indeed. We think 
sometimes that we can always go back and make up with our siblings, but some people can’t. That ability to forgive quickly keeps the lines of communication open, and the hearts softened. The person who can forgive and forgive quickly is a rare gem indeed. Bernnie says that Katie was always the peacemaker, if they were upset with each other. And today they are all the very best of friends. That is truly such great a blessing!! Today is Katie’s birthday. Happy birthday Katie!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
If I told you about a snowstorm on Lake Michigan, you would very likely say, “Ok…what is so unusual about that?” Most often, you would be right. Snow squalls and icing on Lake Michigan, as well as the other Great Lakes is a common event every Winter. The Great Lakes generally attract the snow due to the fact that they tend to have almost their own weather patterns. It’s a phenomenon called lake-effect snow. “Lake-effect snow is produced during cooler atmospheric conditions when a cold air mass moves across long expanses of warmer lake water. The lower layer of air, heated by the lake water, picks up water vapor from the lake and rises through colder air. The vapor then freezes and is deposited on the leeward (downwind) shores.” Anyone who has lived near the Great Lakes, knows that “lake-effect snow” usually means much deeper accumulations and colder weather than many other places in the United States. Amazingly, the people of the Great Lakes region usually just embrace the weather and get out there to have fun, even holding festivals from time to time. My sister, Cheryl Masterson and I were for a short time in our childhood and got to attend the ice festivals while living in Superior, Wisconsin. While we don’t remember much of it, the pictures our parents took are a nice memory for us, even if it is one that we only heard about from our parents. Cheryl might remember those things, but I was pretty young at the time.
Of course, most of us have seen weather events that are out of the normal everyday events. It can happen just about anywhere in the world, and when it does, you find yourself thinking, “Well, that was odd!!” I remember in 1975 on the 4th of July (easily remembered because my daughter, Corrie Petersen was born on June 30, and so we were at home that July 4th) that for a brief time, it snowed in Casper, Wyoming. It was an odd enough event for it to stick in my mind. Nevertheless, weather phenomena are possible in any location in the world, at any time of the year.
That fact became abundantly clear in 1882, when another remarkable event occurred. This one on Lake Michigan…was an August snowstorm. According to the available reports, a thick cloud burst over the decks of a ship traveling on the lake, and it blanketed them with snow and slush. The snow and slush reached an accumulated depth of six inches. The ship wasn’t the only August snow location that day either. In addition, 
snow showers were observed at shore points that same day. It was quite an unexpected weather phenomenon for the summer, and especially for August, which tends to be typically one of the hottest months of the year, coming in just slightly below July in Michigan. While it can happen, most snow and ice come in the depths of the winter. Still, I’ll bet it was an event the crew of that ship talked about for a long time and remembered for the rest of their lives.
My grandniece, Melanie Harman joined our family when she married my grandnephew, Jake Harman. Jake is so in love with Melanie, and he can never say enough nice things about his “perfect wife.” Jake knows that Melanie is just that…perfect for him. As a semi-truck driver, Jake looks forward to getting back home after a long day to the sweet home his wife has created for their little family. Melanie has worked for the State of Wyoming for two years now, and she is loved by everyone because of her bubbly personality and perfect smile.
Jake is so happy with his bride, calling her “the best mother in the whole world” and saying that he should know, because he had the best mom and so knows what a great mom is. Melanie has embraced that title because their kids love her so much. 
He is impressed at how she can work a full-time job and still manages to take care of her kids and husband (also a big kid) without missing a beat. Melanie makes sure that they never go with out in any way, because she goes above and beyond for them every second of every day.
For Jake, thoughts of Melanie bring up her smile…the most amazing in the world, a laugh that melts the hardest of hearts, the voice of an angel, and a face that he can only say is absolutely proof of God’s existence, because only someone who is perfect and complete and total love could make such a perfect wife as she is. Jake is a teaser, and every year he tries to steal her birthday and say it’s his. He does the same thing with their babies, Izabella “Belle” and Jax. While that part is a joke, Jake really does feel like every day is his birthday, because having Melanie as his wife, makes everyday seem like his birthday. Having Melanie as his wife has made him a better person…hands down. Jake tells me that he was an alcoholic thief, who would do anything to get booze 
and smoked 2 packs a day when I was drunk and 1 a day when not. Then, he met Melanie and fell completely and madly in love with her. He quit drinking, so he wouldn’t miss her or miss her smile. He never went back to drinking. He quit smoking, praying that it would let him live longer next to her. He says that she has given him the best children in the world. His wife and kids are his best friends, and his life is awesome, and it’s all because of this day 33 years ago that his perfect mate came into his life. Jake says that without Melanie Jo, he would still be nothing today, so he says, “Happy birthday Jake!! This is your day, because on this day your life began!! I love my beautiful and amazing turtle.” Today is actually Melanie’s birthday. Happy birthday Melanie!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
My brother-in-law, Mike Reed is always a busy man. He is always working on some project, or working on their place, or helping other people. He is one of those people who retired to be his own boss, but make no mistake, he still works. This year, he has been busy working on restoring older vehicles. Many of these cars will be sold, online or at auctions. It’s a rewarding pastime for sure. I know he likes to see what they sell for, as much for the satisfaction of knowing that his hard work iv appreciated as for the money. He and my sister, Caryl Reed have enjoyed the auction circuit, even if the vehicle they sold didn’t go for as much as they had hoped. Still, the vehicle was very much appreciated, the bidding just went low. I suppose that is the nature of auctions. Everyone bids as low as they can to get a good deal. Sometimes the seller wins and sometimes the buyer wins.
Mike has also been helping with the garage raising at our sister, Allyn and brother-in-law, Chris Hadlock’s place. The 
old garage that was there from the time Chris’ parents owned the place, was in pretty bad shape, so the guys, along with brother-in-law, Mike Stevens; their son, Ryan Hadlock; grandson, Ethan Hadlock; and all the girls in the Hadlock family, have worked diligently to tear out the old garage, put up a retaining wall, and build the new garage (which they purchased as a kit) in its place. The new garage is going to be an amazing replacement, with plenty of room for all Chris’ tools, vehicles, and toys.
An avid hunter, Mike is involved in the Dallas Safari Club. That is a club that promotes hunting but also helps the community with donations they receive. One of their greatest projects is to help disabled veterans to do hunts, and they also work to get younger people involved in hunting. For Mike, this is an ideal project and a great way to volunteer and give back to a deserving group of people. Mike really enjoys being a part of that.
Of course, a top priority is the crops Mike and Caryl are growing on their ranch west of Casper. They planted a very large field, and that keeps him busy watering, watching the level of the irrigation pond, which can drop if 
too many people are watering at the same time, and preparing for cuttings as they come along. Mike and Caryl had a very good crop of hay this year, so they are looking forward to selling that when it is harvested. With all that, you might think that Mike has not time to play, but they make sure they carve out a little time, to do anything else. Nevertheless, they have been able to get some golfing in this year too. They deserve a play break sometimes.
Sometimes, towns get their names in unusual ways. That is exactly how the town, now ghost town of Bayhorse, Idaho got its name. In the Yankee Mining District, about 40 miles east of what would later become the boom towns of Bonanza and Custer City. Bayhorse was founded, a bit unconventionally in 1864, when a few small gold veins were found, and a small camp began. That all seems normal for gold strikes, but from that came an unusual tale of how the settlement came by its name. The most popular story is that area prospectors met a miner digging between Clayton and Challis with the help of two bay horses. That doesn’t seem unusual either, but when asked who the miner was, they couldn’t remember the name, so they said, “The man with the bay horses.” The name stuck.
The actual date of the founding of Bayhorse is recorded as 1877, although active development of the town did 
not begin until 1880. While Bayhorse stared out as a gold mining town, the gold was really not the mainstay of the town. Though prospectors continued to comb the area for the next several years, sometimes finding small amounts of gold, it wasn’t until 1872 that the Bayhorse area began to attract numerous miners. Then, three men by the names of WA Norton, Robert Beardsley, and JB Hood discovered a rich vein of silver, and the focus of the town shifted.
In 1882, the town increased its smelting capabilities, and soon began producing $300,000 worth of silver over the course of the year. That figures out to $9,240,441.18, in 2024. The town had grown to 300 residents by 1885, and the town had a mill, three stores, a hotel, a restaurant, a meat market, a lodging house, and five saloons. I always find the number of saloons to be rather comical, though common. That same year, the town built a refinery, which allowed the mining industry to issue silver bars. By 1900, the town had extracted over 
$10 million in total ores, including silver, lead, and copper. That amounts to $308,014,705.88 today.
In 1976, the entire community was added to the National Register of Historic Places, making it officially a ghost town. In 2006, the town property was purchased by the state of Idaho and opened to the public in 2009 as part of the Land of the Yankee Fork State Park. The ghost town has several preserved ruins of houses and mining equipment that are still visible on the main dirt street. There are also charcoal kilns that are still intact, that were used to make charcoal to smelt the ore from the mines. In all, it’s an interesting little old ghost town.
The Abenaki people were a tribe of Indians with a number of names…or at least meanings for their names. They were also known as the Abnaki, which was pronounced OBB-uh-nah-kee. This people spoke Algonquian, and called themselves Alnôbak, which meant “Real People.” That was probably the closest to describing the actual essence of the people. Another version of their name was Abenaki, which means “people of the dawn.” The Abenaki were a linguistic and geographic grouping, rather than a single tribe, which would explain the various meanings of their tribal name. The Abenaki people were made up of numerous smaller bands and tribes who shared many cultural traits. The Abenaki people called their homeland Ndakinna, which meant “our land” and extended across most of northern New England, southern Quebec, and the southern Canadian Maritimes.
While the Abenaki people included a number of tribes, they were classified into two geographic groups, the Western Abenaki and the Eastern Abenaki. The Eastern Abenaki population was concentrated in portions of New Brunswick, Canada, and in Maine, east of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Some of these tribes included the Kennebec, Maliseet, Penobscot, Ossipee, Mi’kmaq, and the Passamaquoddy. The Western Abenaki lived in the Connecticut River Valley in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. Some of those tribes included the Pennacook, Pequawket, Sokoki, and Winnipesaukee.
Before the entrance of the Europeans, the Abenaki (excluding the Pennacook and Mi’kmaq) were estimated to have numbered approximately 40,000 people. Unfortunately, when they came in contact with the Europeans they were exposed to numerous diseases and ailments such as typhus, influenza, smallpox, diphtheria, and measles, and with no prior immunity to these things, these outbreaks often resulted in a 75% mortality among the tribes.
Those things didn’t slow down the immigration, and as the settlers continued to populate New England, many 
of the Abenaki retreated north into Quebec, Canada. The ones who stayed decided to join with the Wabanaki Confederacy to fight the European encroachment upon their lands. This brought them into a total of six Indian Wars, including King Philip’s War from 1675 to 1678, King William’s War from 1688 to 1697, Queen Anne’s War from 1702 to 1713, Lovewell’s War from 1722 to 1725, King George’s War from 1744 to 1748, and the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1763. These long years of war and disease, took a heavy toll of the Abenaki people, leaving less than 1,000 Abenaki remaining after the American Revolution. The descendants of those 1,000 Abenaki people live on two reservations in Quebec and are scattered around New England.
My grandniece, Elliott Stevens is six going on sixteen, and she loves riding anything with a motor. Recently, she drove her Papa Mike Stevens’ ranger at the lake over the Independence Day fun. She didn’t want to get off. She was totally in her element. She regularly drives her dad, Garrett Stevens’ 4-wheeler with him, and she drove Papa Wes Smiley’s 4-wheeler last weekend. Of course, her daddy or one of the grandpas are with her, but make no mistake, Elliott is the driver. She wouldn’t have it any other way. She always wants to drive Garrett’s truck on dirt roads. Elliott may have ten years left before she can get a license, but she can drive now!!
Driving isn’t the only grown-up thing Elliott likes to do. She is really getting into tech stuff too. Like most kids these days, Elliott is very good at the challenging games on her tablet. She is very smart. She loves her school which is a self-directed learning center called Wildflower. She is flourishing there!! Elliott is very mature for her age and understands more than she should for a six-year-old. 
Elliott is the best big sister. Sometimes it’s hard for her, because her little sister, Maya looks up to her so much and Maya will do anything Elliott will do, and Maya will do it way more than Elliott. That means that anything Maya imitates that Elliott has done, needs to be a “good example” rather than things done in anger or impulse. Hard as it can be sometimes, Elliott tries to set a good example for Maya, and that can be a big responsibility for a six-year-old girl. For the most part, Elliott is a good example, and she is the guiding person for Maya…even more so than their parents, Garrett and Kayla. Maya absolutely loves Elliott, and Elliott is her role model, whether Elliott means to be or not. Elliott has also been a great help in the tasks they have been doing recently to get our house fixed up, so they can sell their home. Elliott is her daddy’s little helper for most tasks. She is a little girl, and her “help” does slow Garrett down a little, but he tries to have the patience to let her help and learn. She is so interested in everything, and she will learn with patience and practice.
Elliott very much into gymnastics. She has gymnastics class every week, and she also has a bar at home. After 
watching her “hero” Simone Biles perform at the Olympics this week, Elliott couldn’t stop doing gymnastics tricks. She has liked Simone Biles for a long time. She even did a school project on Simone last year. After Elliott watched some highlights last night, and she was bouncing all around doing hand stands and stuff. Her parents thought it was so funny. She was talking about Simone Biles with her mom, and she said, “She is the best in the world, but the smallest one on the team!” Yes, she is, Elliott. Today is Elliott’s 6th birthday. Happy birthday Elliott!! Have a great day!! We love you so much!!
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