There May Be Hope

As I type this at about 6pm, we have been Emmi accident free today and she is even acting as if she "gets it." Jeane and I were enjoying a glass of wine out on the deck and Emmi got this look on her face and took off for the end of the deck that leads into the yard, her potty spot. I was so proud of her for not doing it on my deck.

Michael worked on the motor home again today and thinks he has the majority of the problems kind of fixed. He did get the steps fixed!

I made some business phone calls today and tried to quilt for a while but Emmi had other ideas and needed attention.

After lunch my friend Jeane came up bearing her new Dell laptop ready for a computer lesson. Jeane is computer savvy but would like to learn more about moving photos around and inserting them into various internet applications so we spent about 3 hours playing. After computer school we had a glass of wine and gossiped. Jeane was one of the first friends of Michael's that I met after moving here and I treasure her friendship.

Today's Emmi photo.


How's this for a nice buck?? He was up on the hill above our house probably waiting for me to go inside so he can come down and snack on my flowers again!
Another beautiful almost fall Montana day.

Patience Wearing Thin

I think I am too old for a puppy! After e-mailing friends with dog raising experience, Emmi is having a rude awakening today. She is in her crate, my lap or outside, no more freedom and we have had an accident free afternoon. Jazz was so easy to potty train--this puppy is flunking!

Michael started working on the motor home this morning, trying to gain access to the radiator. When he got bored with that, he started working on our Kawasaki mule--last week when he was driving the mule, the seat bracket cracked away from the base making it extremely dangerous to sit. A long time ago we bought two seats and Michael always intended to make the mule a two seater, well today was the day and the mule does not look the same.


The problem child.
I spent the day doing laundry and quilting, getting a log cabin quilt belonging to my aunt on the frame. Emmi also took up a lot of my time. And hopefully for the last time this season, I weed whacked the area around the house. The grass got a much needed mowing, too.

Our mountains. The house we used to own overlooked these mountains and we miss our view but like where our current house sits by the creek in the trees.

36 degrees this morning but it warmed up and turned into a glorious day.

Home from Hungry Horse

Saturday morning it was still raining and had rained most of the night--plus it was only 48 degrees. It is next to impossible to potty train a puppy in the rain especially one that seems to be flunking potty training!

While eating my Polebridge cinnamon roll with berry filling for breakfast I tried to talk Michael into going back to Polebridge but nope, he was ready to head home as was I. We took our time getting ready and left about 10am.

Drove through showers and wind most of the day and about 80 miles from Hungry Horse near Seeley Lake saw this scene on the mountains---yes, that is fresh snow. The aspen leaves are also starting to change in this area.

Mike's Mom and Dad lived in Seeley Lake before her death and it is a beautiful area.

The motorhome performed great yesterday and I even drove for a while--I think I can do that!

We didn't get home until about 8pm and were pooped, unloading only the necessities. Today we have unloaded some more and Michael is working on some motorhome "issues". The steps have all of a sudden decided to not extend completely making them very narrow and dangerous! When this motorhome was built in 1988, the curtains used to cover the front windshield were installed as electric. At first I thought, "how cool" but now I think, "what a pain." We like to boondock without hookups, electric curtains are just one more thing for which you must use power. So, Michael made them non-electric this morning, YEA!

Nat came for lunch and I made a great meatloaf and garlic mashed potatoes. It was 36 degrees this morning, it is cloudy and there is a very cold wind blowing--what happened to summer???

More Updates From Hungry Horse

On Thursday after leaving our friends we stopped at the Visitor's Center at Hungry Horse Dam. Legend has it that two draft horses wandered away from logging camp one winter and when found in the spring were skinny and starved but recovered--these two "hungry horses" gave a creek and the dam the name Hungry Horse.

There were two nests in tall burned trees along the water's edge, a forest fire swept thru this area in 2003, both nests contained young osprey.
Still raining on Friday. We headed out to Polebridge having read many articles about the remoteness and beauty. We didn't see much beauty as it was pouring rain and the road was incredibly teeth jarring--probably worse than some of our Sweet Grass County roads. Fourteen miles of this road and we arrived at Polebridge with what seemed like the rest of the world, the place was packed. The little general store has a bakery and some of the best rolls and pastries we have ever tasted--amazing, out in the middle of nowhere!

Headed back over that awful road and stopped at the Apgar Visitor Center in Glacier National Park for a few minutes. The weather is terrible, we are running the furnace in the RV to stay warm and I feel sorry for the people a few campsites from us camped in tents!

We had grilled brats and hamburgers for dinner along with some corn on the cob and tomatoes we picked up at a local farmer's market.

Our campsite.

One of the photos Jim took of Emmi on Thursday, she fought with that branch for several minutes getting soaked.

Wednesday in Hungry Horse, Montana

We made it!! Left home about 7am Wednesday morning with cooler weather temperatures and cooler engine temps. We did unhook the Explorer in Cardwell to go up over the Butte pass not taking any chances until Mike has a chance to clean the radiator.

I like this motorhome traveling--I got up and made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as we traveled along--it is an extremely comfortable way to travel.

When we stopped at the Clearwater Junction rest stop for ice cream floats from our own refrigerator, Emmi met a beautiful schnauzer named Fritz. He was his owner's fifth schnauzer.

We arrived at Hungry Horse Reservoir Lost Johnny Campground just a little after 4pm and found the perfect site right on the lake. By this time our clear morning skies had given way to rain.

With the motorhome parked and set up, we jumped back in the Explorer and headed into Coram where our friends Jim, Ellie, Mark and Dortha were camped. Of course Emmi went along, Jim and Ellie have two schnauzers. Emmi was the star attraction getting so many photos taken she felt like a movie star. Our friends also presented her with a rhinestone studded collar and a stuffed duck so Emmi really felt like a star. We enjoyed a delicious fajita dinner with these friends--a wonderful evening. Mr. BoJangles and Jasmine were not impressed with the little rug rat that invaded their motorhome.

Emmie and her new duck.

Emmi meets Mr. BoJangles

It rained during the night and was still raining when we got up on Thursday morning. Michael worked on a few little things that were problems and the rest of the morning we enjoyed our coffee and reading.

Close to lunch time, our friends arrived to check out the lake and our campground and to take more photos of Emmi who put on quiet the show. After visiting for a while

we were all hungry and headed into Hungry Horse for lunch at the Packers Roost Bar and Grill for delicious hamburgers--Dortha and Ellie were good and had soup and salad. After lunch we said our goodbyes, these friends are headed to Cour d' Alene, ID and the Pacific northwest tomorrow. We will see them down the road somewhere we are sure.

Hungry Horse Lake

The view of Hungry Horse Lake from our campsite.

Hungry Horse Dam in the distance.

We Are Back Home

We left here about 8:30am this morning, motorhome with Explorer in tow. Stopped at Nat's and ran a couple of errands, leaving Big Timber at about 9:45. We were almost at the top of the Bozeman pass when the engine started to overheat. Michael made the decision to come back home where he has many more tools for working on things. So---short trip, 80 miles!

Poor Michael spent the afternoon working on the motorhome and late this evening, 8pm, decided to pressure wash the radiator--not--a turbo cooler covers the entire radiator and he will have to remove that turbo cooler before he can do anything with the radiator, a full day's job.

The cooling fans that were not working, he has working now so we are going to try it again tomorrow. I may be writing the blog from home again tomorrow night, but lets hope not.

I spent the afternoon puppy sitting and cleaning my house.

These are some more photos from our trip to Blue Lake.

The two pointed sharp peaks in the far distance are Pilot Peak and Index Peak, located just outside Yellowstone Park near Cooke City.

East Fork of the main Boulder River--doesn't that valley look gorgeous?
I sure hope we make it tomorrow, if not, there will be another time.

Blue Lake Trip

We were to have left for Glacier National Park this morning but last Thursday when Lonn and LoraLee came for dinner, Lonn made us an offer we couldn't refuse--a trip to Blue Lake on ATV's.

We have the good fortune to live in one of the most beautiful parts of our country and today's trip was no exception. We have been to Blue Lake but only on snow machines and the entire landscape was extremely white. Today it was breathtakingly beautiful.

Our home is 22 miles from Big Timber, we drove an additional 14 miles up the Boulder Canyon on a not so great road and unloaded the ATV's. There were six of the ATV's and LoraLee rode with Charlie, a young man who is both a friend and an employee; the rest of us rode individual ATV's. 24 miles of teeth rattling road later, through gorgeous scenery, along the Boulder River and we arrived at Blue Lake. Michael estimates that we were at 9500 feet--it was cool, we needed jackets and the mosquitoes were hummingbird sized and hungry.

We enjoyed a picnic on the shore, drank in the view and marveled at our good fortune. We took Emmi and she played with the other two dogs along on the trip, Zip and Gus. Emmi rode in a milk crate on the front of Michael's ATV--at times she rode inside his coat.

Our granddaughter Katie and her boyfriend (a very nice young man) Mike.
Leaving after one of our rest stops. Notice Emmi's little head poking out of Michael's jacket.

Blue Lake

Blue Lake--Nancy, no global warming going on up there--those snow banks will still be there when the snow flies again.

Another view of Blue Lake.

Although we are exhausted couch potatoes tonight, we are both so glad Lonn invited us on this trip, we had a ball.

Tomorrow we head out in the motorhome on its inaugural trip to Glacier National Park. There may not be any blog posts for a few days, we will see.