Blue ribbon porch delivery
This qualifies as Reason No. 9,420 for why I love where I live. When I bemoaned in my Aug. 26 column not seeing my fair favorite, the award-winning Ekness North Idaho Beer Balls, at the North Idaho Fair Food drive-thru it prompted a blue ribbon porch delivery.
Keith Ekness and his beautiful mother, Joyce Ekness, delivered the fair to our front porch on Friday. Keith even told us a joke, in honor of the thousands of Ole and Lena jokes his much-loved father Lyle told to fair-goers through the years.
Packages of beer balls (small sausages with a pinch of jalapeno, so named because they pair well with beer) and a couple of onions since they know I prefer my beer balls with grilled onion. This was so thoughtful and sweet and unexpected. I grilled up onions and beer balls and corn on the cob (my second favorite fair food from the Lions booth) for dinner that night.
The Ekness family has been part of the community for decades and are still mourning the loss of their patriarch, Lyle, this past December. Then when COVID-19 appeared in March it brought their three-generation catering business to an abrupt halt for months as gatherings were prohibited and cancelled.
And yet there on my front porch were the smiling faces of Keith and Joyce, thoroughly tickled to have thoroughly surprised their #1 North Idaho Beer Ball fan. I could just picture Lyle's smile from Heaven.
You can enjoy their tasty beer ball treats at the remaining farmer’s markets, Wednesdays in downtown Coeur d’Alene and Saturdays on Prairie Avenue. I’m sure you’ll become a fan, too!
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To the parents, students, teachers and staff of our local school districts, here’s to an uneventful and ordinary 2020-21 school year!
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This summer and especially the past few weeks the number of really large private jets flying into and out of the Coeur d’Alene Airport has been quite a sight to see in the skies. My guess is that many belong to wealthy summer residents of Gozzer Ranch and luxury lake front homes.
Some of these jets are larger by far than the Lear jets that we’ve become more accustomed to seeing. How sweet it would be to skip the TSA checkpoints and crowded flights of commercial travel.
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Happy birthday today to Dani Zibell-Wolfe, Mary Larson, Kibbee Walton, Seth Anderson, Dominick Pokosa, Daniel Connelly, Krysta Azzollini, Marty Meyer, Donna Boise and Chase Price. Tomorrow Gregg Gain, Mary Ellen Denton, Tami Martinez, Mark Browning, Helen Terway and Annette Kennedy celebrate.
Jim Pierce, Hannah Epstein, Cameron Epstein, Cyndie Brubaker, Jeremy Siegler, Kelly Hanson, Mark Compton, Patty Roberson, Lily Hollibaugh and Darrell Dlouhy blow out the candles on Friday. On Saturday Rose Backs, Nelson Gourley, Tiegan Horton, Nancy Adam, Walter Cole, Norman Oss and Polly Gava do the birthday dance.
On Sept. 13 Mike Pearce, Larry Riley, Joy Seward, Janell Mollett, Kelly Sheffield, Chris Mann, Ryan Bartlett, Thomas Vigil, Mary Langenberg, Stormy Purcell, Ray Harwood, Lori Turchik, Laura Fierro, JulieAnn Sparrowgrove, Cher Rhoads, Nicole Hamilton, Gina Davis and Debbie Margraff take another trip around the sun.
Leslie Orth, Connie Glass, Tammy Rubino, Diane Lemas, Wayne Dust and Anna DeTar put on their party hats on Monday. Marking birthdays on Tuesday are Pat Near, Claudia Brennan, Brad Medlock, Jerry Deitz, Jean Wright, Shannon Englander, Kathie Colosimo, Angie Purcell, Liese Razzeto and Nick McDonald.
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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.