Does He Know Something I Don't?

Got that quilt on the frame yesterday afternoon and even quilted some today. But--does my husband know something about the upcoming winter that I don't?? He is squirreling away firewood as if we lived in Siberia! Just before lunch we went up to Robyn and Claire's again and cut a huge load of firewood. My poor aching back says thank you very much for equipment such as the mini-excavator we used to load!

West Boulder mountains thru the aspen trees.
A ruffed grouse.

Now we are home tucked in by the fire burning some of that wood.

A Day With Friends

Quilt Guild on Thursday night was fun--we leaned how to make an easy, fast little bag. Someone brought pumpkin scones, delicious!

Friday morning, Nancy arrived at my house about 7:30 and we headed into town to Jill's house where Jeane also joined us. Jill was gracious enough to drive and we started for Billings and the annual Junior League Marketplace Magic--kind of an upscale bazaar. It was a perfect day, sunny and warm and on the opening morning of the show, very few people. We shopped, met up to leave, decided to shop some more. I purchased some Christmas presents, candles and cards. When we finally left the Metra, the car was getting full. Next stop was Gainans, a local institution. It is a flower/home decor/everything wonderful store and of course it is decorated for Christmas. I only came out of there with peppermints for Michael. While in Gainans, we ran into Joy, a friend who has a cabin up the Boulder. She recommended a wonderful restaurant (not CJ's) called Bin 119--it is a wine bar that serves great good. We each had a different sandwich and then shared, YUM!!

OK, where to next--Hobby Lobby and Target. Last stop of the day was for gelato--oh my, is there anything better than pumpkin gelato?? We waddled out to the car and pointed it toward Big Timber.

The husbands met us at Jill and Terry's and Fritz and Amy also joined us. We had hamburgers and brats on the grill. Jill had made a cream cheese pumpkin roll and Jeane made homemade pumpkin ice cream--now we were definitely waddling!

After dinner Michael and I climbed into the little sports car, picked up Emmi at Nat's (boy, was she ever glad to see me!!) and headed home collapsing soon after arriving! It was a special day spent with wonderful friends--life is very good.

Michael woke with a very cranky shoulder--he doesn't know what he did to it but massage and a little heat does seem to help.

Two very fat horses!
Wintry looking aspen trees.

I think I am going to try and get a quilt on the frame this afternoon.

Puttering

Robyn outdid herself last night, we had a delicious meal and wonderful company. There were ten of us so the conversation was varied and loud at times--a wonderful evening. Emmi stayed home alone and was a good girl!

Spent the day puttering but did get the binding sewn onto the quilt I finished, got a label made for the same quilt without messing the label fabric up and played with Emmi. Not a super productive day but I feel like I accomplished something! I can now ship that quilt off! I did some ironing today, too.

A photo of the mountains while Emmi and I were taking our walk this morning.

She has the wildest hair, I can brush her and 5 minutes later she is having a major bad hair day!

Sorry Ross--another photo of Emmi.

Michael just walked in the door, he finished his project at Lonn's today. I am off to quilt guild tonight so it is good that he came home--he can babysit the Emmi dog!

Cookie Baking

Michael again took off early to go work at his son's and Emmi and I took a walk.

This morning a woman and her husband from Great Falls arrived to test drive my longarm quilting machine with an interest toward purchasing one. They enjoyed learning about the machine but the wife is having a hard time justifying such an expensive purchase, we will see.

I spent the rest of the day baking cookies--10 dozen to be exact--most of which I am sending to Laci in Iraq. I did get some of the binding sewn onto a quilt I have finished while talking to my long lost friend Cheryl. I never could understand what all the fuss was about Facebook until I found Cheryl. I had attempted in the past to Google she and her husband Bill without any success because I did not know they had left Denver and moved back to the Dallas area. It has just been wonderful catching up with each other after 15 years apart.

I call this group of birds the "hoard." The grey-headed finches arrive about this time every year, stay a couple of months then depart. We usually have 20 or more of the finches so they can clean out a feeder quickly.
Emmi and I took a walk this afternoon to get the mail and to hopefully exhaust her--she is staying home alone tonight while we go to Robyn and Claire's for dinner.

A Day At Home

Michael headed for Twelve Springs early this morning leaving Emmi to walk with gimpy Mom who is still gimpy but much better.

I spent some time today getting doctor's appointments worked out for Nat--he has to have some follow up work done from his trip to the dermatologist a few weeks ago. Have I mentioned how much I hate all the HIPPA/privacy stuff that dear President Clinton saddled us with??

The rest of the day I spent in the quilt studio, yea!!! Finished one project and got it off the frame and now all I have to do is finish the hand work and it can go in the mail.

Poor Michael came home about dark, tired and cold. I revived him some with a great supper--ribs, homemade french fries and coleslaw.

Emmi has been the problem child today. She was outside, got into some terrible tiny weed seeds and was covered in them and snacked on horse poop! Then she came inside and while I was downstairs decided to eat the inside of Michael's slippers. She has been a pain today!

Looking toward the Crazy Mountains--the horses belong to a friend.
Our mountain in its winter glory.

Firewood Cutting

Robyn called yesterday to invite us to dinner later in the week and she and Mike also made arrangements for us to cut firewood on their place today. They live about 4 miles farther up the East Boulder from us.

My sister Ann sent an e-mail early this morning saying her week was not getting off to a good start--she locked her keys in the car right off the bat when she arrived at work. Well--I think I can top her bad start! Vacuuming this morning, bent over, couldn't get back up--Michael had to help me. Went to bed with a muscle relaxer and heating pad for a while and did manage to get up to go help Michael cut firewood. I wasn't much help but did manage to load some of the smaller pieces and clean up the limbs he cut from the trees. While I am cleaning up the limbs, I trip and fall flat on my face, taking the skin off my chin. And, Emmi was so much help, while I am laying on the ground crying (Michael has the chain saw running and can't hear me) Emmi is walking on my back. When I manage to get to my hands and knees, Emmi is still on my back--bratty dog! We came home for lunch and I loaded up on muscle relaxers again and we were off to get another load but this time taking the mini-excavator and loading 10 foot lengths of trees instead of cutting it into small pieces.

Robyn, Mollie and Pokey coming to see us.
An owl was sitting in the tree along the driveway when we came home at almost dark.

The moon setting yesterday morning.

So, although it is only about 7pm, I am going to bed--maybe tomorrow will be better!

Catch Up Day

My house was a wreck and it was just time to clean so after our walk this morning, I got started. Also started bread dough, baked cookies and cooked lunch for Nat. We had delicious steaks on the grill and twice baked potatoes with cookies for dessert, YUM!

Emmi was outside most of the day, I would look outside and she would be halfway up the hill to the pastures, grazing on horse poop, YUK or I would call her and she would come out of nowhere. She loves to be outside when the weather is decent.

When daylight savings time ends we seem to have a hard time adjusting so it was nap time this afternoon.

Then I called friends Nancy and Geoff and they came up for wine and munchies. Nancy has also gotten into bread making and brought a loaf of bread with rosemary added--delicious.

Just a quiet, relaxing Sunday.