It has been a busy day. Michael loaded up the mini-excavator and headed off to work today (yes, that dirty word, "work"). We have owned a excavating business for several years and he still does some work for clients he always enjoyed working for.
I stayed home but didn't do any less work, that is for sure. Things like laundry and weed spraying just never seem to end, do they. I re-worked the drip system to our shrubs and some newly planted shrubs today.
After lunch I hopped on the riding mower to mow a walking path around our 40 acres. The young horses being pastured on the ranch we used to own make walking over there not very pleasant so I wanted to create a place where we could walk on our own ranch. The grass was so tall, it took me many trips back and forth to get it short enough and I got stuck in the irrigation ditch--riding mowers are heavy when you have to push them! Dang thing threw muddy water all over me, too! For those of you who don't know about irrigation, water is precious here in Montana. There are these irrigation ditches everywhere coming from the little creeks and rivers and the ditches are built on grade and gravity flow to each ranch owning water rights. Ranchers and farmers use the water to irrigate hay fields and crops. The moral of this story, don't cross irrigation ditches that have water in them with a slow moving riding mower unless you want to push!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Monday After
It was a busy weekend of entertaining, parties and guests and we are pooped! It is always so enjoyable to visit with friends and family but it is also enjoyable to just get back to the two of us or rather the three of us if you include the Jazzy dog.
I'm beginning to sound like a broken record but Michael did slave away on his garage today again. I fired up the weed sprayer and murdered a lot of leafy spurge, burdock and houndstongue again. After I fixed lunch, I jumped on the riding mower and mowed the walking paths around our place and our old ranch where we still walk. A friend is pasturing some young horses on the ranch we used to own and they are like a bunch of teenagers--a pain in the you know what! Act like you are going to open a gate to drive the mower through and here they all come to help you. I told each and every one of them today how worthless I thought they were!
It was such a beautiful day that after the mowing and garage building, we took a ride on the Honda into Big Timber. I needed to mail our Air Force granddaughter a letter, I missed the mail man at home. Her parents heard from her again yesterday and the poor girl is so homesick, my heart hurts for her.
An Evening Primrose we spotted on our walk this morning.
A young buck mule deer that wasn't the least bit concerned about us including the yapping Schnauzer Michael was carrying so she wouldn't chase this deer.
I'm beginning to sound like a broken record but Michael did slave away on his garage today again. I fired up the weed sprayer and murdered a lot of leafy spurge, burdock and houndstongue again. After I fixed lunch, I jumped on the riding mower and mowed the walking paths around our place and our old ranch where we still walk. A friend is pasturing some young horses on the ranch we used to own and they are like a bunch of teenagers--a pain in the you know what! Act like you are going to open a gate to drive the mower through and here they all come to help you. I told each and every one of them today how worthless I thought they were!
It was such a beautiful day that after the mowing and garage building, we took a ride on the Honda into Big Timber. I needed to mail our Air Force granddaughter a letter, I missed the mail man at home. Her parents heard from her again yesterday and the poor girl is so homesick, my heart hurts for her.
The Crazy Mountains which are up close and personal to Big Timber. These mountains just seem to rise up out of the prairie and are very majestic looking. We can even see them from our ranch which is 22 miles from Big Timber
An Evening Primrose we spotted on our walk this morning.
A young buck mule deer that wasn't the least bit concerned about us including the yapping Schnauzer Michael was carrying so she wouldn't chase this deer.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Friends and Dog Grooming
Happy Father's Day!!
Yesterday, I spent the day getting ready for a happy hour type gathering of many of our friends here at our home. I love to entertain and cook so I was in my element! We have new neighbors, Nancy and Geoff who bought the home of friends Jill and Terry. Their home is located about a mile from us right on the river. We invited other neighbors and spent a wonderful evening eating, drinking and visiting. It was actually warm enough of us to sit out on the deck for a change.
Michael is still working very hard on our garage. He put up one of the big truss supports this morning--all I can say is that I am sure thankful we have machinery--that was one big board!!
It is a beautiful day in Montana and the forecast calls for several more just like it. The sunshine is so welcome.
Poor Jazz is a very traumatized dog. For the party occasion, she got a bath and then this morning while we were on our walk, once again, she found something nasty to roll in--guess she is telling me she doesn't like baths. Soooo--we came back to the house and as she hasn't had a haircut since before we left Arizona, I bathed her and gave her a buzz job! I cut most of her hair off and she doesn't look so much like a Schnauzer, now. It will be easier to keep her clean this summer while she is outside so much.
Michael's Dad, his son and his family are coming over this afternoon for an early dinner so I best get busy. We are having steaks on the grill, twice baked potatoes and homemade cream cheese pound cake for dessert--I am hungry all ready!
One traumatized little dog!
Yesterday, I spent the day getting ready for a happy hour type gathering of many of our friends here at our home. I love to entertain and cook so I was in my element! We have new neighbors, Nancy and Geoff who bought the home of friends Jill and Terry. Their home is located about a mile from us right on the river. We invited other neighbors and spent a wonderful evening eating, drinking and visiting. It was actually warm enough of us to sit out on the deck for a change.
Michael is still working very hard on our garage. He put up one of the big truss supports this morning--all I can say is that I am sure thankful we have machinery--that was one big board!!
It is a beautiful day in Montana and the forecast calls for several more just like it. The sunshine is so welcome.
Poor Jazz is a very traumatized dog. For the party occasion, she got a bath and then this morning while we were on our walk, once again, she found something nasty to roll in--guess she is telling me she doesn't like baths. Soooo--we came back to the house and as she hasn't had a haircut since before we left Arizona, I bathed her and gave her a buzz job! I cut most of her hair off and she doesn't look so much like a Schnauzer, now. It will be easier to keep her clean this summer while she is outside so much.
Michael's Dad, his son and his family are coming over this afternoon for an early dinner so I best get busy. We are having steaks on the grill, twice baked potatoes and homemade cream cheese pound cake for dessert--I am hungry all ready!
When our guests were leaving last night, the sky was spectacular, this photo really didn't capture all the colors but you get the idea!
One traumatized little dog!
Friday, June 13, 2008
Small Town Politics
I have a soapbox today! As you know, we live in a very small community here in Montana and like any other small community across the country, everyone knows every one's business and if they don't the small town newspaper tells you.
It is the custom of our local newspaper to publish a column titled the "Sheriff Report" which lists all the arrests made the previous weeks. Many times I am upset to see a name followed by MIP, meaning minor in possession of alcohol. The weekend following graduation, two recent high school graduates received MIP's. The names of these two young ladies were not published in our local newspaper. It is my hope that our local newspaper rather than bowing to pressure from these parents has decided to stop publishing the names of the young people caught with alcohol.
Because we are a small town, it is difficult for a young person under the age of 21 to buy alcohol because everyone knows everyone. So, that means some adult is providing it for these young people. Michael and I both have very dear long time friends that have lost a child each to drunk driving when they were under the age of 21. Buying alcohol for underage children is against the law and heartbreakingly dangerous. I am all for teaching teenagers to drink responsibly but buying alcohol for underage young people is not the road to go down!
That's my Friday soapbox!
It is the custom of our local newspaper to publish a column titled the "Sheriff Report" which lists all the arrests made the previous weeks. Many times I am upset to see a name followed by MIP, meaning minor in possession of alcohol. The weekend following graduation, two recent high school graduates received MIP's. The names of these two young ladies were not published in our local newspaper. It is my hope that our local newspaper rather than bowing to pressure from these parents has decided to stop publishing the names of the young people caught with alcohol.
Because we are a small town, it is difficult for a young person under the age of 21 to buy alcohol because everyone knows everyone. So, that means some adult is providing it for these young people. Michael and I both have very dear long time friends that have lost a child each to drunk driving when they were under the age of 21. Buying alcohol for underage children is against the law and heartbreakingly dangerous. I am all for teaching teenagers to drink responsibly but buying alcohol for underage young people is not the road to go down!
That's my Friday soapbox!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Birds and Crummy Weather
The crummy weather we are having has really brought out the birds around here. They don't like the rain, wind and snow any more than I do and seem to be very hungry.
I recently read a review for a new birding book Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America and picked up a copy yesterday during our mega shopping trip to Billings. The only birding book I had was the National Audubon one and I had never been really happy with it. It did not show any photos of the female birds or young birds. I love this new Smithsonian book--it has both male and female photos for most birds, a range map for each species showing breeding, year round, migration and winter locations. The photos are awesome, very clear. That's my two cents worth! The book is very new, published in 2008.
Our trip to Billings yielded a full SUV and an empty pocketbook. We are having a neighborhood get together here at our house on Saturday afternoon, so I did lots of grocery buying for that. Our printer also gave up the ghost so I bought a just on the market HP--I'll let you know what I think when I get it set up.
We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at our favorite Billings restaurant, CJ's.
It has been cold and windy today and Michael worked outside all morning removing the forms from the concrete we poured on Monday--we have garage walls, now. On to the roof!
This lady paid us absolutely no mind this morning when we spotted her while out on our morning walk.
I recently read a review for a new birding book Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America and picked up a copy yesterday during our mega shopping trip to Billings. The only birding book I had was the National Audubon one and I had never been really happy with it. It did not show any photos of the female birds or young birds. I love this new Smithsonian book--it has both male and female photos for most birds, a range map for each species showing breeding, year round, migration and winter locations. The photos are awesome, very clear. That's my two cents worth! The book is very new, published in 2008.
Our trip to Billings yielded a full SUV and an empty pocketbook. We are having a neighborhood get together here at our house on Saturday afternoon, so I did lots of grocery buying for that. Our printer also gave up the ghost so I bought a just on the market HP--I'll let you know what I think when I get it set up.
We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at our favorite Billings restaurant, CJ's.
It has been cold and windy today and Michael worked outside all morning removing the forms from the concrete we poured on Monday--we have garage walls, now. On to the roof!
I just love these little lazuli buntings, they give me so much pleasure to watch. With all the cold weather, it seems like I have many more buntings than I usually do.
This lady paid us absolutely no mind this morning when we spotted her while out on our morning walk. 
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Blessed
My sister reminded me today how blessed Michael and I are to live where we live. It is so incredibly beautiful and private here. We have each other, our health, our families and friends and of course the Jazzy dog. We are truly blessed.
I fired up the weed sprayer today and got some nasty old burdock and houndstongue murdered. We thought the weather report had been wrong--the morning was beautiful then the wind came up, the temperature dropped and a snow/rain squall went through. I was weeding our backyard flower beds and had to retreat inside.
Bet some of those folks at the RV Dreams Rally in Branson, MO wish they had a little of our cooler temperatures!
Our power company is working on the system tomorrow and have told us we will have at least six hours without power starting at 8am. So--we are taking the day off and heading to Billings for some serious grocery shopping and other shopping.
Count your blessings, today.
I fired up the weed sprayer today and got some nasty old burdock and houndstongue murdered. We thought the weather report had been wrong--the morning was beautiful then the wind came up, the temperature dropped and a snow/rain squall went through. I was weeding our backyard flower beds and had to retreat inside.
Bet some of those folks at the RV Dreams Rally in Branson, MO wish they had a little of our cooler temperatures!
Our power company is working on the system tomorrow and have told us we will have at least six hours without power starting at 8am. So--we are taking the day off and heading to Billings for some serious grocery shopping and other shopping.
Count your blessings, today.
More of the wild iris have bloomed
Monday, June 9, 2008
We Have Walls
At 10am the concrete truck roared up the driveway and we started pouring the final half of the garage walls. We had a really talented crew--Nat, who is 86 years old and had heart surgery last November, one-armed Lonn who is Michael's son--he has one arm because he is dealing with a torn biceps tendon and to add insult to injury on top of that, got bucked off his horse Saturday. The final member of this great crew was me who doesn't know the first thing about pouring concrete. Michael got to run the skidsteer loader and supervise but, we got it done, it is working and we now have garage walls.
On our early morning walk, we spotted two fawns hiding in some bushes. We tried to sneak closer for some photos but weren't too successful--one fawn took off and the other hid himself even more into the bushes.
We had sunshine early today but now we have clouds and our forecast does not look good for a few days so expect some whining from me.
There are actually two fawns in this photo but it is hard to tell.
Jazz walks this log across the little creek that is there--you would think she doesn't want to get her feet wet but she had all ready been in the creek several times this morning.
Michael is out spreading tar on the older concrete walls of the garage to help prevent moisture from seeping in when he backfills dirt against the walls. He is dressed in the grubbiest clothes he can find so they can go in the garbage if he has too much tar on him when he comes in. He has on an old black cowboy hat that should have gone in the garbage long ago so maybe I will get lucky and it will get tar on it so we can throw it away!
On our early morning walk, we spotted two fawns hiding in some bushes. We tried to sneak closer for some photos but weren't too successful--one fawn took off and the other hid himself even more into the bushes.
We had sunshine early today but now we have clouds and our forecast does not look good for a few days so expect some whining from me.
Nat looks like he is looking for something he lost!
There are actually two fawns in this photo but it is hard to tell.
Jazz walks this log across the little creek that is there--you would think she doesn't want to get her feet wet but she had all ready been in the creek several times this morning.
Michael is out spreading tar on the older concrete walls of the garage to help prevent moisture from seeping in when he backfills dirt against the walls. He is dressed in the grubbiest clothes he can find so they can go in the garbage if he has too much tar on him when he comes in. He has on an old black cowboy hat that should have gone in the garbage long ago so maybe I will get lucky and it will get tar on it so we can throw it away!
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