http-equiv='refresh'/> Tin TeePee/Log Cabin: June 2013

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Busy Sunday

We’ve got to stop thinking we have to accomplish everything in a day!  I started the day with a long to do list and Michael’s chores just evolved.  He was successful in righting the horse shelter which blew over onto its roof several weeks ago—this time he dug holes (with the skidsteer auger) and planted railroad ties securing the horse shelter to the ties.  Maybe the horse’s home will stay upright now???

I cleaned both the house and the motorhome plus Emmi! Smile And she also received a hair trimming.  Michael sprayed weeds and changed irrigating water through the course of the day.

Claire—look what we got:

IMG_7245Our friend Claire brought us several strawberry plants in 2011—the year we had so much rain and it was such a cool spring.  Last year we got a few strawberries, I even covered the plants with netting to prevent the birds from stealing the berries—something ate all the strawberries—one day I had berries, the next day I didn’t.Sad smile  This year the vines look healthy and they are loaded with fruit.  Home grown strawberries just taste so much better than the store bought ones!

I bought some peaches at Costco the other day—and surprisingly they were good—not Arkansas peaches but good.  The peaches were getting ripe too fast and as Nat was coming for lunch I made a peach tart—oh, my—I could have just eaten dessert for lunch!

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Dang it—wasn’t bird lady Judy a math teacher???  She caught me in my subtraction mistake last night—oh, well—it was still a mighty good turn out for a reunion! Winking smile

Another warm day—I think our high was 87—probably shouldn’t complain as the temps in Arizona are in the 115 degree range!!

The Reunion Is A Done Deal

Yesterday was a fast paced, busy day right up until we arrived home after 9pm and crashed.  The skies were vivid blue and the temps were way warm for Montana but we all survived.   Arriving in town about noon I dropped Michael at Ullman’s Lumber, the site for their gathering, so he could assist in setting up tables and chairs, etc.  (I’m thinking a bit of beer drinking went along with the work, too! Smile)

As we were going to be gone far too long to leave Emmi alone, she got to stay with Nat for the afternoon and evening.  Some people are comfortable leaving their dogs for hours and hours, Michael and I just can’t—the longest we’ve ever left her alone is about 7 hours. 

I ran a few errands then found a spot to have some lunch, dining with friends Jill and Terry.  The vendors providing food were outstanding—I had something called “cowboy tacos” which were delicious!

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By then it was time to find a shady spot to watch the parade—I tried calling a couple friends trying to find their locations but something was wrong with the cell phone system in our area—everyone was complaining about calls which wouldn’t go through.  But when you sit on a street corner in a small town you get lots of company—I got to see and visit with folks we haven’t seen in a long time!  And this group was also looking for a shady spot, joining me to watch the parade—our friend Geoff, Nancy and their dog Shine plus their daughter Beth and her baby Della.

  IMG_7248Our parade in Big Timber is perfect, lots of noise, color and just the right length, about thirty minutes—no time to get bored.  Fire engines, horses, floats, little kids scurrying to get the candy thrown from the vehicles—some of the best of small town living.

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IMG_7268Isn’t this the most awesome team of horses!!  This rig belongs to horse shoe pitching friends of Nat’s—Steve is doing a great job of driving that team!

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After the parade everyone gathered back at the lumber yard—the Ullman family has owned this extremely busy business for three generations here in Big Timber.  Sox was so gracious to allow the class the use of one of the big bays for the gathering on Saturday.  The large garage doors at either end allowed cooling breezes and we had plenty of room.

IMG_7288Dinner was a catered affair and was delicious.  There was lots of talking, laughter and reminiscing.  There were 56 members of Michael’s graduating class, nine have died since 1963 leaving 45 surviving members with probably about THIRTY-ONE of those 45 showing up for this reunion! 

Michael’s good friend Sarge is a spray pilot and owns his own plane—he flew the plane from northern Montana where he had been spraying crops down to the Big Timber airport on Friday afternoon.  As the dark clouds began to brew in late afternoon, Sarge became VERY concerned about his plane sitting out in the open up at the airport.  He and Sarah made one trip up to the airport to check on the plane tying it down more securely but when the clouds really began to look ugly more drastic measures were called for—Sarge called the local guy who operates the airport who then met them at the airport, planes were moved around in the hangers and Sarge rolled his plane under cover—whew!  Now he could enjoy the party!

And the skies did open—oh, my—did they ever open.  We experienced one of the worst storms I think I’ve ever seen!  The winds were almost tornado force, the rain came in sheets—this storm lasted for over thirty minutes—we were in a metal building with a metal roof—the noise was deafening!!!  There was flooding in the areas around Big Timber but surprisingly not much wind damage.  At our house we got some rain but not as much as fell in Big Timber. 

The classmates finally ran out of things to talk about, we retrieved Emmi and headed up the Boulder getting to see the most spectacular double rainbow—one of those which makes a full arc across the sky!

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Short Blog

It’s been a really long day, we are just home from Michael’s reunion, I will write a complete blog in the morning—a good time was had by all.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Fifty Years

No, that’s not how long Michael and I have been married!! SmileBut Michael graduated from high school in 1963, fifty years ago.  It is rodeo weekend in Big Timber—a big event for our small town and it’s even bigger this year with the class of 1963 celebrating fifty years.  Sixty plus young men and women graduated with Michael and the reunion is well attended. 

This afternoon we gathered at Sox Ullman’s lumber yard to build the parade float—this is a very basic float—hay bales and some printed signs, no rose petals on this float. SmileMichael’s family lived 25 miles from town.  When Michael was in high school and playing sports he lived in town during the school year with family friends and acquaintances.  His senior year he lived in the home of his classmate Sox Ullman.

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We enjoyed the rest of the evening visiting and eating.  Tomorrow is the rodeo parade followed by a catered dinner once again at Sox Ullman’s. 

IMG_7235IMG_7239These three are trouble, particularly the two on the left Sarge and Royal.  The man on the right is Ron—he also lived up the Boulder—once when he and Michael were teenagers they were working on a car—Michael was under the car when it fell off the blocks pinning him.  Ron lifted the car enough for Michael to squirm out.  A scar on the right side of Michael’s face is the only injury he had. 

IMG_7241Sox (owner of the lumber yard)—they all three seem to be saying, “is that float gonna be safe for us to ride on???”

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Back To Work

Play time is over, time to go back to work.  I started my day off with a great yoga session—one of our friends and neighbors, Mona, has agreed to lead our yoga lessons and Nancy has graciously allowed us the use of her guest house.  There were five of us in addition to Mona today and we had a great time!

Nat came for lunch (the Big Timber senior center does not do meals on Thursday) bringing some kind of piano bolts which needed straightening—Michael used a vise and took care of those crooked bolts.  We had crispy herbed chicken which if you didn’t know better could pass for fried chicken—it’s done in the oven and I got the recipe from the back label of a container of corn meal.  The chicken is really good, even my dear husband who is not so crazy about chicken likes this recipe. IMG_7223

After lunch it was time for chores—first on my list was gutter cleaning, I don’t think the gutters got cleaned last year and geez was it time—YUK!  But it’s done!  Lawn mowing was next and in between I was doing loads of laundry.  My last chore for the day was re-working the drip watering system to some lilac bushes we planted many years ago.  The deer have munched these plants so many times they never seem to grow—this year they are growing and I thought water might help them grow better.  Mice and other critters sometimes chew apart the hoses for the watering system and that was exactly the case today.  Made a couple repairs and we are good to go for another year. 

Dinner was Pioneer Woman’s salsa with chips—it was hot here today, 87 degrees and hardly any breeze—warm!  Salsa makes a good warm weather meal!

IMG_7221All the snow is gone from Boone Mountain.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

We Are A Bit Tired Of Driving

Early this morning we were on the road to Billings leaving Ms. Emmi with Nat for the day.  We managed to finish all our errands—Wal Mart, Costco, etc.—before meeting Greg and Jan for lunch at Famous Dave’s.  Once again here are four people who are strangers to each other and somehow we found enough to talk about that we occupied a table for over 2 hours!  Greg used to install satellite dishes, so did Michael.  Jan loves to read a lot of the same authors I do.  We had a very pleasant and enjoyable time getting to know these two fellow bloggers.  They took a photo of us but I wasn’t thinking—instead I snagged a good one from their blog:

Greg and Jan

After lunch it was time for my hair appointment followed by Michael’s routine doctor visit which checked out just fine.  Home sweet home about 6:30pm after retrieving Emmi.  I don’t think I want to ride in a car for a while!  Our weather is warming up—87 degrees in Billings today!

Anyone know where you can still get regular incandescent light bulbs???  Those fluorescent bulbs forced upon us by the powers that be stink as in they don’t last!  We bought three LED bulbs today and made a large dent in a $100 bill!!!  Ridiculous!!!  Yes, the LED’s do last and are supposed to use a lot less power but we will be in the poor house by the time we replace the older bulbs in our house! 

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

We Made It Home

Without a new to Michael truck but having had a wonderful visit with friends Gene and Mary.  We haven’t seen them in such a long time—we met Gene and Mary in January, 2003 while participating in Cowboy Action Shooting in Tucson, AZ.  We became almost instant friends sharing happy hours, dinners and visits to each other’s homes.  One fall we drove out to Washington, met them at their home then they proceeded to take us on a tour of Washington state parks particularly along the coast—our favorite was Port Townsend although that campsite in Olympic National Park where Michael had the rear end of our fifth wheel hanging out over the ocean was pretty hard to beat!!! 

We last saw them in late August, 2011 when we were on our way up into Canada for about a month.  Since that time Gene’s health has gone downhill significantly—he will celebrate his 84th birthday this summer and we are so glad we got to see them.  They have a lovely home near Spokane with outstanding guest quarters in the basement—Mary spoiled us!  Their dog Sadie doesn’t seem to mind a visit from the little schnauzer monster either.  Mary and I even toured some quilt shops yesterday—The Quilting Bee is a great spot Mary F.!!

The trip from here to Spokane is a favorite drive of ours—lots of mountains, rivers and endless views.  We took a little back road to check out a USFS campground near St. Regis on the way over and spotted this fellow nosing around—unfortunately I didn’t get a very clear photo.

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IMG_7216All the homes in Mary and Gene’s neighborhood are beautifully landscaped.  These trees in Mary’s yard remind me of soldiers standing at attention!

IMG_7220Mary and Sadie, Michael and Emmi on our morning walk around the neighborhood.

A good trip—can you believe we are heading off to Billings in the morning—Michael has a routine doctor’s appointment and I have a hair appointment.  We also have plans to meet fellow bloggers Greg and Jan for lunch!

Sunday, June 23, 2013

What Will We Think Of Next

Michael is truck shopping and found the availability of the particular kind of truck he was seeking in short supply in Montana. So---we have wonderful friends who live in Spokane which is only about 7 hours from us. We drove over today after lunch, had a wonderful reunion with our friends Mary and Gene--tomorrow we will look at a couple trucks and head home on Tuesday. What will we think of next??? Blogging may be short, sporadic or not at all!

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Can You Believe We Needed A Heater??

It was cold at our house this morning, 37 degrees—we started out with sun, had rain and wind, ending the day with a little sunshine but still not very warm!  Our basement is heated with radiant floor heating which does not provide instant heat, it takes a while to generate any heat—we hate to have it on this time of year as one day it is hot the next day it is 37 degrees.  The studio is right under our master bedroom so if the radiant heat is on our bedroom gets too warm.  It was cold in my basement quilting studio—I was wearing a long sleeve shirt plus a sweater and still had really cold hands.  My dear husband said this morning, “I think I have some baseboard electric heaters around, why don’t I just install one in your quilting room?”  Isn’t he just the best! 

IMG_7199The mountains look as if they are smoking this morning.

I loaded a quilt for Mom onto the quilting frame taking a break from gardening, resting my poor back.  This afternoon we headed up the Boulder hoping it wasn’t going to rain us out—we were going to Tom and Gay Watt’s party called the Watt’s Happening.  The music is great, lots of friends and neighbors, plus the food is delicious!!  Almost all my quilt retreat group were there—it was so good to see them—lots of hugs and yacking!  Only in Montana do you have to wear long pants, two shirts and a jacket on the second day of summer!  No flip flops for me tonight!

IMG_7206You can tell which of these folks has lived in Montana a long, long time—the guy on the left ( our friend Steve) with the heavy coat—he knows what to wear for July in Montana! 

IMG_7204The music man—he does a great job!

IMG_7205IMG_7207Tom and Gay on the stage with Jack.

A very good day in Montana even if I did have to wear real shoes and socks on the second day of summer!

Friday, June 21, 2013

Still Aching!

Got up this morning feeling pretty good in spite of all my digging and bending yesterday so I decided to tackle the big garden—what was I thinking?????  Michael brought me a skidsteer loader scoop of horse manure, I tilled and tilled that fertilizer into the soil then covered the unplanted ground with black plastic.  Because we arrived back in Montana so late this year our garden is small and I am tired of weeding all that extra ground space!  After lunch I decided to weed the strawberry path which hasn’t been weeded probably since last spring—good gracious!!  Now I can hardly get out of the chair by back hurts so bad.  I think I will quilt tomorrow—you think????

Michael worked on his shed project all day—a thunderstorm rolled in about 4pm and I dashed up to get him in the Kawasaki mule—wish I had taken the camera, it was spectacular watching the storm coming in.

Our thought and prayers are with our Canadian friends—all that rain John and Brenda are getting is scary!  At the moment they are not in any danger of flooding at their place but friends and relatives have been evacuated near Calgary.  The photos of the Calgary area defy imagination—using grain combines and huge dump trucks to rescue people, water covering cars—very scary!

We are still so amazingly glad to be back in Montana—I bet one of us states on a daily basis—“gosh, it is so good to be home in Montana!” 

IMG_7172Once again the columbine in our flower beds is just beautiful—that’s one thing which grows really well in Montana.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Oh My Aching Body

We enjoyed our last yoga session with Ebbie this morning—Nancy was so kind to offer her guest house for our yoga studio.  There were eight of us and by the time we all left for home there was not a dry eye in the house.  Ebbie is one of those people who comes into your life and you realize how special some people can be—Ebbie is beyond special!  We are so incredibly sorry to see her go.  Max made a wonderful rhubarb cake and we enjoyed a tour of Nancy’s yard, deck and house.  May all your dreams come true Ebbie, we will miss you.

Back home I made a homemade pizza for lunch—I tried a new dough recipe from the Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day cookbook and it was delicious! 

Michael headed back up on the hill to work on his project, digging and setting into the ground the poles we purchased yesterday.  There isn’t a flat spot on our 40 acres so you have to create one! 

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And look at the view Michael gets to see while he is up there working:

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After lunch I made a strawberry pie using a recipe I found on the internet which I hope is similar to the one Gina made right before we left Texas.  Then I headed for the garden—the source of my aching body!  We have two gardens—a larger one and behind the house a small one in which I have always planted radishes and lettuce.  This year I hadn’t planted anything in the small one until today—I had to dig all the weeds out by shovel, till the soil with the Mantis tiller, add some of our composted material and till again.  THEN I planted radishes, lettuce, spinach and carrots.  I can hardly walk—I think I need a massage AND another yoga session!

On our walk this morning Michael suddenly touched my arm and pointed.  Out in front of us less than 3 feet was a fawn curled up in a little ball.  The baby never moved—we gave it a wide berth and I did take a photo.  Michael went back up after lunch and it was gone—Mom came and got him.

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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Lots Of This And That

Well, now—we must have had one heck of a gust of wind last night or yesterday afternoon—we neither one noticed any strong winds but our horse shelter sure noticed!!  We have a three sided shelter for the horses to get in out of the weather or to get away from the flies—this morning we found the shed upside down on its roof!!  We didn’t notice anything else out of the ordinary—maybe an aspen tree or two down but nothing else—strange!

I sprayed weeds this morning—an on going battle on 40 acres, packed up a quilt for shipping and made lunch.  After lunch we headed to town with the truck and trailer—first stop was at Nat’s to retrieve some railroad ties he had.  While Michael was loading the ties Emmi and I borrowed Nat’s truck for our run out to the vet to get Emmi a rattlesnake vaccine.  Yes, there is a vaccine for rattlesnake bites.  The vaccine does not totally prevent the bitten dog from getting sick but does greatly lessen the symptoms.  In Emmi’s case, as small as she is, the vaccine might save her life according to our veterinarian. 

Off to Livingston we went—to buy some 16 foot long poles for the shed Michael is building.  Oh The Places They Go—Pam and John, this photo is for you

IMG_7181We Montana women are versatile and many of us have heavy equipment experience. Smile Notice the driver of this loader is a woman—she was extremely adept at loading those poles for us.

We came home “over the mountain” via the West Boulder Road and stopped in to see Lonn and LoraLee for a bit.  The scenery today was just awe inspiring—there were thunderstorms in the area making for strange lighting.  Wouldn’t you love to have the view from the house on the hill?? 

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Tonight I went out to the McLeod Bar to have a celebratory drink with the yoga group—Judy was celebrating a birthday—71 years and I sure hope I’m doing yoga when I’m 71!!!  SmileThis is a bittersweet week for our yoga group—our instructor Ebbie announced to the group on Tuesday that she is leaving.  Her reasons are very sad and we are very sad for her and for ourselves.  Sad smile

And finally some quilt photos.  I take photos of every quilt I longarm quilt, tonight I was looking for the photos I took of the quilt I sent Gina and Rollie’s daughter Nicole to celebrate the birth of their twins.  Nope, no photos—dang it, I will just have to wait for Nicole to slow down long enough to take photos of those babies on that quilt!  But here are a couple I just did for my Aunt Margaret.

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