Happy August. It’s been a long hot summer, but we’ve made it to August when eventually things will cool down. Hopefully your summer has included some fun adventures and get-togethers with family and friends. Looking forward to seeing you at our annual August 17 Highlands Summer Bash (see below for details).

Welcome to Matt and Gillian Taylor!  Welcome to Matt and Gillian who recently moved to the Highlands on Cascade Drive. Gillian is Julia York’s twin sister so make sure you are talking to the correct twin. Matt met Gillian during high school in Tooele when he was working at her father’s movie theatre.  The two developed a wonderful friendship. After Matt’s mission to Portland they dated for 9 months and then Matt proposed. Gillian said yes, even after she realized Matt was one of the cool kids who threw tater tots at her and her friends in junior high in the lunch room. They were married in 2014.  Congratulations on the first decade of marriage!  They have four awesome boys: Harvey 8, Bennett 6, Jameson 4, and Dominic 4 months.  Matt works in HVAC and enjoys skateboarding, BMX biking, and the outdoors. Gillian is a wonderful mother.  She also loves nature and art, especially painting. Gillian has worked in the medical field and did track and field in high school.  When asked what values she would want to teach her children, Gillian said, “I want my kids to be honest, have integrity, and be accountable.  They don’t need to be perfect, but if they can be honest, hold true to their values, and be accountable for their actions, they’ll be a trustworthy person – even when they make mistakes.”  When asked about Matt’s qualities, Gillian responded, “I really admire how Matt continues to challenge himself and how his brain works so incredibly to remember everything for his job, and how quickly he can think through everything.”  We welcome the Taylors to the Highlands.  What a fun new family to have as neighbors!

 

Highlands Summer Bash. Get ready for our annual neighborhood Summer Bash at the park on August 17 at 5:30pm. You are welcome to bring a side dish to share. It’s always a fun time to catch up with neighbors and share a meal together.

Farewell to the Barrera Family. We’ll miss Cristian and Casey and their children Olivia and Lucas. Casey was accepted into graduate school to become a marriage and family therapist in Auburn, Alabama. They are driving across the country toward what will surely be a wonderful and challenging adventure. We wish the Barrera family our best and hope they will return soon!

 

Spotlight on Riken. This is Riken who lives with Rich and Gina Thomason and their family on Weber Drive. Riken is a seven-year-old Chocolate Lab. Their son found him as a puppy, the only chocolate one in a litter of silvers, and brought him home to his mom for Mother’s Day.  So, he’s officially Gina’s, but he loves everyone in the family. As a puppy they took him to classes at Speaking K9 for training. He knows lots of commands, including: “stay by me” meaning to walk in heel position, “let’s go” meaning he can explore on his own, “leave that dog alone”, “leave it”, and “mark over there”. He’s also had rattlesnake avoidance training, and once alerted their daughter to one when they were walking. He loves any outdoor activity with his family, including cross country skiing, mountain biking, and hiking. And he loves to ride on and in things like snowplows, kayaks, cars, and drift boats. He loves to go fishing with Rich. Rich is a catch-and-release fisherman, so Riken gets to lick the fish before Rich releases them.

 

Free 55-Gallon Water Barrels. If you need water barrels for storage in case of an emergency, please call or text Brad Winn at 435-851-2002. There are six empty 55-gallon barrels left. First come first serve.

 

A Little Highlands History: An International Incident.  On the morning of May 24, 1825, Johnson Gardner (American trapper leader) took his claim to Peter Skene Ogden (British Hudson Bay trapper leader) and ordered the Hudson’s Bay trappers to leave. Ogden naturally refused, and tension filled the rival camps. But Ogden’s position was quickly eroding. Gardner informed his trappers that they had no further obligation to the Hudson’s Bay Company. He offered each employee high wages of $3.50 a beaver and cheap goods if they would join the Americans. The offer was hard to refuse. Ogden’s overcharged and underpaid men had little loyalty to the company. Several Iroquois and one French trapper, deserters who had joined the Americans a year earlier, visited the tents of Ogden’s trappers to encourage them to desert the British company. Convinced by their stories, some men began taking down their tents and preparing to leave. One of them, John Grey, an Iroquois trapper, told Ogden, “You have dealt fair with me and with all of us. But go we will….If every man in the camp does not leave you, they seek not their own interest.” As they left camp, some of the deserters took with them company horses and supplies. Ogden accused the men of theft and tried to seize the horses. As the atmosphere grew more tense, Gardner announced that he was prepared to defend any deserter. Then, an Iroquois who had left the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1822 shouted, “We are superiors in numbers! Let’s fire and pillage them!” Some of Gardner’s men pointed guns at Ogden while the deserters left camp. Meanwhile, Ogden’s Indian wife was having her own troubles with the deserters. While she was busy collecting her children, several men stampeded the company horses outside her tent. Her eight-month-old son Michael had been tied to the saddle of one of the mares that was herded off. The frightened mother quickly ran to the American camp and managed to seize the child and mare before being caught. On her way back she collected several company horses loaded with furs. That night rumor spread throughout Ogden’s camp that the Americans were planning an attack. But all was quiet, and the next morning Ogden gave a call to abandon the camp. The Hudson’s Bay Company, greatly reduced in numbers and supplies, retreated to the Flathead Post. Though the two parties managed to avoid further confrontation, the incident at Mountain Green only strengthened the long-standing rivalry between the British and American companies. The irony of the situation was that neither party had a territorial claim to the land. Under the Adams-Onis Treaty Mountain Green was part of Mexican territory in 1825. Ogden might have argued that the British were not involved in that treaty. Still, neither company had a license to trap in Mexican territory. Gardner and Ogden, both ready to fight for territorial claims to the land, were wrong from the beginning.

Blast from the Past: Guess Who?  (Answer: Jerrica Deiber.)