Jelly and Lunch

Michael woke up a little on the glum side this morning and working on the motor home did not improve his disposition! Now the power steering and hydraulic pump is leaking. By the time I got back from town, though, he had the pump off, our local parts store has the gasket and his mood was much better.

I started the morning out making chokecherry jelly getting another 11 half pints. Then I cooked a batch of Judy's Carmel Apple Jam, can't wait to try it in the morning, it smelled delicious while cooking.

I also made a trip into town to take Jeane a couple of coolers so she can transport cold stuff to ID for her son's wedding this weekend. We had lunch at the Grand and a good chat. We wish Reed, Hilary and Hilary's twin daughters the very best as they start a new life together.

Our hops has grown by leaps and bounds this summer--now we need to figure out how to make beer!

The poor broke Explorer--that was one big deer we hit going 70mph!

My jelly and jam.

My camera came back home today and the thread I ordered last Friday also arrived--now I can get started on that bear quilt.

A Birthday Party and A Wreck

Yesterday morning we all took a hike around our usual path and then Ann and I decided to pick some more chokecherries--got another couple of ice cream buckets full. Jill's Nutri-Steamer worked well again and we got 2 quarts of juice to make more jelly. The rest of the morning was spent cooking for the picnic we had planned for today.



About 2pm we headed out for the annual Reedpoint, MT Sheep Drive. Many years ago one of the 100 people in Reedpoint decided that if Montana could have a centennial cattle drive then why couldn't Reedpoint have a sheep drive. The drive caught national attention and an article even appeared in the Wall Street Journal about an earlier sheep drive. There are vendors, an auction to raise money and the sheep drive. The proceeds from the event support community projects as there is no city government or budget. Danny and Ann enjoyed their first ever sheep drive!

After the sheep drive we all went to Nat's house in town to freshen up and drop off Emmi. Then it was on to Steve and Jeane's for my birthday party that Jeane was so gracious to host for me. I have the bestest friends! It was a great party, good friends, wonderful food--even a birthday cake! We had a wonderful time--thank you so much Jeane!

Steve, Arch and Michael.

Jill on the left, Jeane in the middle and Jeane's daughter Jordan on the right.
Terry, Mark and Gwen

Deb and Jill

Danny and Ann

Today, my birthday, we went to Yellowstone Park to meet Mom and Chuck for a picnic. What a wonderful birthday weekend I have had! Present, phone calls and cards! The park was wonderful today, not as crowded as the summer, cooler weather and a spectacular picnic even if I did make some of the food!

Danny and Ann had decided to get a hotel room near the Bozeman airport for tonight instead of getting up at 3am to make their 7:30 flight tomorrow morning. We were on our way to Bozeman, going up the Bozeman pass when we hear Danny say loudly, "There's a deer and he is going---" WHAM! There was another car in the passing lane, Michael had no where to go and we hit the deer dead center with the front of the car. The front of the Explorer is a mess! But no one was hurt except the deer, the air bags did not go off and we got Danny and Ann to their hotel and we are home.

An exciting end to a great time of visiting with my sister Ann and her husband Danny.

Bears, Hiking, Jelly and Apples

Last night when it started to get dusk we walked over to the ravine near our house to look for bears. All four of us were sure the critter we saw making the bushes move was a bear eating chokecherries. Nope, when the critter finally showed herself, she was a big black cow!

This morning after breakfast Danny, Ann and I took off for a hike--the same hike I did with Tammy and with Ellie and Dortha this summer. A nice, less than 3 mile easy hike. We got back just in time to fix lunch for Nat and Mike who had been working on the motor home again. I made a sour cream pound cake that is to die for--YUM! We had that with fresh strawberries for dessert.

After lunch Ann and I decided to make chokecherry jelly from the juice I made the other day. We got 12 half pints of jelly--it is such a pretty deep red color.

The other day on Judy's blog she had a recipe for carmel apple jam and I wanted to try it. Our friends and neighbors Russ and Eileen had lots of apples and said we could have some. We went over this afternoon with a bucket and a ladder and picked apples--tomorrow we will try the jam recipe.

Sunset last night while we were "bear" watching.
Danny and Ann on our hike this morning.

Arkansas Relatives Arrive and Customer Service

Tonight's blog is for Emmi fans. Michael took pity on me this morning and gave me my birthday present early, a new little pocket camera, a Canon PowerShot A1000. He told me I was a little lost soul without a camera and I have to agree with him. Canon has shipped my other camera and it should be home on Tuesday next week.

My sister Ann and her husband Danny arrived this afternoon with their friend Pat and Harley. They have been in Glacier National Park the last few days. Pat and Harley had a late lunch with us and then went back to Bozeman--they have a very early flight in the morning headed home to Arkansas. Danny and Ann don't leave until Tuesday morning.

We spent the afternoon visiting and then ate again! Emmi has been the center of attention and is sound asleep now.

Emmi at thirteen weeks. Her little legs are growing longer by the day.
Isn't that the sweetest face??

I recently ordered some medications from CanadaDrugs.com which I have done many times. The package arrived in a timely manner but when I used the first adhesive patch which is supposed to adhere for a week--it fell off in the shower the first night. I called CanadaDrugs, the customer service rep gave me an address to return the defective medication and said she would send a replacement that day. I thought that was impressive enough but then today I received the following e-mail--

"Thank you for expressing your concerns to our Customer Service Department. We appreciate your feedback as it helps us make necessary changes to our services so that all our customers are satisfied. Here at Canada Drugs Ltd., customer satisfaction is our main priority.We sincerely apologize for the misinformation you received during the processing of your last order. This level of service is not what we strive for. We assure you this situation was not taken lightly and a thorough review has been done.We highly value you as our customer and look forward to serving you in the future. If you have any further inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us at the toll free number listed below or email us."

If the rest of the Canadian medical system is run as well as CanadaDrugs.com, I'm ready for a single payer system!

What Happened To Yesterday??

Yesterday went by in a blur. We got up late, took a walk and then I mowed the grass and weed whacked. Nat came up for lunch and I fixed some of our friend Brian's shish-k-bobs on the grill.

After lunch I decided while cleaning I would cook the chokecherries I picked to get the juice. Nat had brought me my friend Jill's Nurti-Steamer and I wanted to try it out. If you don't know about chokecherries--they are tiny little fruit with big seeds so you don't get much in the way of juice or fruit even when picking large quanities. But, they have the most incredible flavor and color, a deep, deep red. This Nurti-Steamer (if I had a camera) is like a giant double boiler with a collection pot. Water goes in the bottom, the juice collector with a hose attached to the outside for filling jars is next and the fruit goes in a steamer basket at the top. The fruit is steamed for 1-2 hours and walla--you have juice. Canning chokecherries before meant I turned the entire kitchen and all my utensils red--the fruit had to be smashed through a manual crank juicer and it splattered everywhere. I love this Nurti-Steamer--may have to get one!

About 4pm I left home to meet Marjean and Debbie to go to quilt guild in Livingston. I don't know these two ladies very well and it was fun to get to talk to them on the trip over. Last night's guild meeting was for the purpose of putting together five quilt tops for Quilts of Valor. I will post more about this organization when I get my thoughts together--it is an awesome endeavor.

So, it was almost 10pm when I got home last night, thus yesterday's blog is today's.

I Got To Quilt Today

Forgot to say yesterday that I picked almost 2 full ice cream buckets of chokecherries. In the spring we thought we were going to have a bumper crop but something happened--frost, too much rain, who knows but we have very few chokecherries. So, I was lucky to get as many as I did. I am going to make jelly.

Early this morning after our walk I finished washing the rest of the windows in the house--all done, YEA!

Then, I headed down to the quilt studio (calling an unfinished basement room a studio is probably stretching it but oh well) and by the end of the day I finally had my bear quilt stitching all ripped out, the borders taken off and replaced since I put a couple of holes in the borders while ripping and the quilt reloaded back on the longarm machine. I am ready to quilt now, just have to figure out what to stitch--didn't like the first stitching, thus all the ripping so I am going to be very selective this time!

Michael got the radiator back in the motor home late this afternoon--none of the pipes are hooked up but it is bolted back in. It fit!

Still No Camera

Canon still hasn't shipped my camera back to me--I miss it!! So, no photos for a while longer.

It rained a little during the night with thunderstorms. Today was a perfect temperature day with a slight breeze. We took a walk this morning, Emmi is doing great on our walks, she keeps up and we don't have to carry her anymore. Sometimes when we are going down a steep hill she goes too fast and ends up going end over end a couple of times--gets up and takes off again.

I spent the day cleaning and doing laundry. I also made some phone calls to get ads in some local papers for my quilting business.

Michael worked on the motor home all day long. When he came in about 6:30pm, his face was almost entirely black from all the cleaning, cutting and welding he had done today.

My sister Ann and her husband Danny along with their friends Pat and Harley all from Arkansas are in Glacier National Park. They arrived yesterday, will spend four days there and come here on Friday, I can't wait.