Emmi To The Vet

Poor Emmi—today was her first real veterinarian appointment—she had her puppy shots but this was much more traumatic.  She wasn’t impressed, she growled at Kirk, our vet, when he took her temp and yelped when she got her shots.  We also had to draw blood to do the heart worm test before we can start her on heart worm meds.  I discussed the rattlesnake vaccine with Kirk, too.  I wanted to discuss it with Michael before we went that route but I think we will probably give Emmi the vaccine—Kirk said I was right that a rattlesnake bite would probably kill a dog as small as Emmi. 

If my poor Michael is any better it is only by a slim margin.  We are going to the little clinic in Big Timber tomorrow to discuss other options and to get a prescription for more pain meds.

Gina, Rollie and friends of theirs—Dale and Mark came up for dinner—Gina even brought the dinner, taco soup, with her, now what more could I ask for??  We visited for a short while then they all headed off to show Dale and Mark our Natural Bridge State Park. 

This morning before we went into Big Timber I took compost out to the compost pile and noticed that the whole cantaloupe I tossed in last week was no longer whole—most of it was missing.  As I began my walk back to the house a large “pile” caught my eye—YEEKS—bear poop with chokecherry seeds, very close to the house. 

The brown spot in the lower right corner is the bear poop—this is where we park the motorhome behind our house and the fence is an enclosure around our apple trees and garden. 

Calli came and picked up her quilt today, she was very pleased and so was I.

We are hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Home At Last

Saturday night after Gina, Rollie and myself got back from YNP we enjoyed a delicious dinner of Gina’s beef stew and cornbread—the weather was perfect for it, cool and rainy.

During the night Michael was up and down with lots of swelling in his hand and lots of pain.  Sunday bright and early we decided to head home and try to find a doctor to see again.  Gina and Rollie need to pick up a motorcycle lift for Mike and Pat in Livingston so they decided to stay until Monday. 

By the time we got home, Michael was miserable.  I discovered that the walk in clinic at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Billings was open on Sundays so off we went.  Michael decided we should take the motorhome in case there was the chance we would be referred to a specialist on Monday.  We were SO glad we took the motorhome.  St. Vincent’s has electric hookups for patients in one of their parking lots so we even had power.

We walked into the same day care around 4pm and the long process began.  I was a bit disconcerted when someone from the business office came in, asked a bunch of questions and asked for my credit card.  All this before we even saw a doctor—in my past career as a nurse, it was unethical and I think illegal to request money before treatment! 

And we waited some more—after more than an hour we finally saw a nurse practitioner who was totally baffled by Michael’s symptoms.  Next we saw a physician who was also totally baffled but started the ball rolling by moving us to the ER department where things were supposed to happen a little faster, NOT!  Lots of blood work drawn, an IV and IV antibiotics and STILL no diagnosis.  At least they gave Michael something for pain so he was a little more comfortable.  Finally after 10:30PM we are being released to go—the doctor wanted to admit Michael but we vetoed that idea.  Michael really needed some pain medications but refused to wait any longer in the ER for someone to finally get him something.  OK, now it is almost 11pm and we are upstairs waiting at the pharmacy window—the tech comes and tells me they had to call the ER doctor because the dosage for the antibiotics was incorrect.  We wait and wait, Michael is getting more and more uncomfortable—I lost it—I picked up the house phone on the wall, asked to be connected to the ER and told the nurse on the phone, “find that Dr. Parker and light a fire under him—tell him to call the pharmacy NOW.”  Shortly thereafter the phone rang in the pharmacy and we were on our way. 

We were so incredibly glad we had decided to bring the motorhome.  Emmi stayed in it while we were over at the hospital and now we could just crawl into bed.

Mike feels some better today but did not feel able to drive the motorhome back to McLeod so I did!!!  I managed to get us out of the parking lot with Michael’s direction and we headed home.  This motorhome drives so well compared to our other one. 

It is a very cool 45 degrees and raining, we are relaxing in front of the fire in the fireplace and are very glad to be home.

Yellowstone Park Day Two

The weather was cooler last night for sleeping but learning the ins and outs of a new motorhome kept us awake a lot.  There are two roof vents with fans, Michael thought he had the vents open with no fans but during the night the vents starting going up and down of their own accord—GRRRR.  There is also a propane sensor that must be turned on before the refrigerator will operate on propane or the propane stove burners will light—the stupid thing has this little green light that blinks on and off rapidly all the time—in the dark, it looks like a strobe light—that has to go! 

And added to all the ups and downs last night, Michael’s wrist is killing him—very painful, swollen—I think a visit to a specialist is in order EARLY next week.  We can’t even think of going to Canada with the kind of pain he is enduring so we have to get him fixed!  So he elected to stay in today and Rollie, Gina and I left for the Park about 8am this morning.  We took the Mammoth to Norris to Madison to Old Faithful route enduring the proverbial Montana/Wyoming construction .

We made many stops for photos Rollie & Gina at the Firehole Falls Firehole Falls

We arrived at Old Faithful and discovered we had only an hour to wait before Old Faithful was predicted to erupt again.  It was raining hard at this time so we spent the time browsing the gift shop in the brand spanking new Old Faithful Visitor Center and walking over to Old Faithful Inn. The visitor center opened this past Wednesday.  Old Glory flying from the second floor of the Old Faithful Inn.

Quick, hurry, time for Old Faithful to show her stuff-- This was only a third of the people waiting for Old Faithful to erupt. Rollie and Gina are patiently waiting, now the little kids in front of Rollie and Gina were not so patient—the little boy in the green coat was making obscene noises with his mouth as little boys will do, his mother was embarrassed, I was amused!There she blows!  After watching Old Faithful, we browsed through the General Store and headed out.  We took the route that travels by Yellowstone Lake and back through Canyon Village where we stopped to give Mom and Chuck another hug.  Yellowstone Lake

When we got home Gina proceeded to finish making her beef stew and cornbread.  What a delicious meal and the stew hit the spot on such a cool, rainy day.  After dinner in their rig we adjourned to ours for cheesecake with peaches or strawberries. 

It was another great day spent with Gina and Rollie!  And oh, by the way, they are also two of the most giving people in the world—I’m sure Mike and Pat would agree—not only did they fill my truck diesel tank this morning, pay our way into Yellowstone because Mike and his senior pass weren’t with us, they also treated us to a beautiful set of coasters for the motorhome and a new sweatshirt for me.  I am feeling mighty spoiled!

Yellowstone Park First Day

I can’t began to count the number of times I have been to Yellowstone Park beginning with a trip out here from Arkansas in 1972 with my family.  I’ve been into the Park on snow machines in winter and made countless summer and fall trips over here.  Today was a great trip through the Park.

All four of us and all three furkids spent a restless, hot, sweaty night—it never cooled off all night long, a rarity for Montana.  But we all got up with great attitudes looking forward to showing Gina and Rollie Yellowstone Park for their first time.  We took all three pooches with us today and it worked well—better than leaving them alone for hours and hours.

We stopped briefly in Mammoth before heading out across the Lamar Valley to Cooke City.  Our lunch stop was along this beautiful little creek. Leaving Cooke City we headed back to Roosevelt Junction and over to Canyon Village and the Upper and Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  Gina and Rollie were suitably impressed! Upper Falls

Lower Falls After viewing the Falls we headed to the employee campground to find Mom and Chuck.  They had fixed hamburgers on the grill for us and fruit salad, it was all very good hitting the spot.  We visited for a short while then they drove with us over to the gift shop so we could take advantage of their employee discount.  With hugs all around we made our way back to our little spot by the Yellowstone River. 

A perfect day in Montana and Wyoming.

To Yellowstone

Posting this from Michael's laptop which doesn't have Live Writer and no SD card slot so I can download photos.

We all loaded and loaded, bathed dogs, did laundry and sweated in the heat before finally getting out of Dodge about 2:30. Drove to Big Timber, stopped at Town Pump to get fuel and the fun began. Why in the world do gas stations think a rig with a 165 gallon tank can fill up for $75 when the price per gallon is $3??? And when you complain the station has the audacity to tell you it is your credit card that has the limit. Sorry, but no, my American Express has no limit and I'm not buying that explanation! I did get more than a little agitated and ended up calling the station to apologize to the manager of the station--but seriously, someone needs to figure this out, we were at that station for almost an hour!!! I should have just taken a credit card inside but when I tried to do that, the line was eight people deep!

When Gina and Rollie arrived we made the mistake of bragging about our wonderful weather, how we had not hit 100 degrees, well, today we hit 102 degrees! Here at almost 10pm, it is still rather warm but today was to have been the last day for this kind of heat.

We made it to the fishing access along the Yellowstone River just outside Gardiner, MT just in time for happy hour. Gina and Rollie are very pleased with our spot and we had dinner outside by the river. I think we are going to like this motorhome. Will post again tomorrow with lots of photos, I hope!

Packing The Motorhome

Jeez, one day it is cold enough for a sweatshirt the next it is so hot you could stroll around in a bathing suit and still be hot!  Today was the hot day and of course it was the day for packing the motorhome. 

I got an early start on finishing the quilt which is on the frame—it turned out beautifully!  I even sewed on the binding for the customer. 

After lunch I started packing the motorhome, making the bed, trying to decide what to take.  Mike and Rollie got our new batteries installed and we have lots and lots of power now!

Gina has been doing laundry all day and Rollie has mostly been helping Mike with a few honey do’s thrown in for good measure. 

Rollie decided to use his macerator pump and empty his tanks today—when he was finished he noticed there was water standing in the drain connected to our septic tank.  UH-OH, then I happened to mention that for the last few days our drains had been gurgling, something they never do—UH, OH!  We have a two tank septic system and the liquid is pumped up the hill to our drain field as our house sits too close to the creek to have the drain field down here.  Michael got the excavator and dug up the drain field—nope, it was functioning well.  Next he dug up the concrete tank that holds the pump—big UH, OH—it was full of liquid which means the pump was malfunctioning.  Thank goodness Michael had a brand new extra pump and they are installing it now.  And once again, what would we do without Rollie?? 

This guy was getting a drink this morning and we were within 15 feet of him before he decided we were scary.

Rollie is thinking—UH, OH. 

Gina and Rollie Experience Billings

It is almost 9pm and we just rolled in about an hour ago.  Left home early this morning—the rest of the gang dropped me at the hairdresser’s for the first stop.  Did I mention we were traveling in the BIG truck??  All the girls in the hairdresser’s were just staring when I climbed down out of that semi.

And the good news I think is that my sweet husband does not have gout!!!  Since last Sunday Michael has been absolutely miserable with severe pain and swelling in his right wrist and as he is right handed, the pain has just about incapacitated him.  We have had him on over the counter meds plus some prednisone I had and while we did relieve his pain most of the time, he wasn’t getting any better.  Today was the day to finally visit the doctor.  His blood test came back negative for gout, could be arthritis, could be an injury he didn’t know he had??, could be anything.  But, the best thing of all—the PA he saw confirmed his nurse wife’s recommendations which he wasn’t willing to follow—“you need a much higher dosage of prednisone.”  So, now he is on a higher dose of prednisone for a week.  Dear Rollie has been a God send this week helping Michael with anything that might injure or hurt his wrist—we couldn’t have done it without him.  Gina has also been a God send—ribbing Michael in just the right way to go to the doctor!  As Mike and Pat McFall say, we love Gina and Rollie and we love having them here—they have the best attitude and their faith is an inspiration!

Our Billings trip was grueling—lunch, stops at Sam’s Club (where we bought four huge batteries for the new motorhome), Costco and finally Wal Mart.  We were driving the big truck but I’m not sure we could have gotten much more in there.  We took the three dogs—Rollie’s truck has a residential air conditioner that you can leave running without leaving the engine running. 

It was a great day spent with great friends!

A couple recycled photos of our four wheeler trip to Blue Lake last August.

Dang It’s Cold

We all had a great time at Geoff and Nancy’s last night, dinner was delicious and the company outstanding.  Gina and Rollie really enjoyed seeing Geoff and Nancy’s place, too.

Went to bed last night with doors and windows open and by morning Michael had icicles hanging from his nose.  It was about 39 degrees this morning and as I write this at 9:30pm the thermometer says 40 degrees.  It could freeze overnight and if it does, my garden is toast.  Oh, well!

Michael, Rollie and Gina left just after noon today, traveling up the Boulder to Jeane and Steve’s old place where they retrieved the little house hoisting it onto our big trailer and hauling it north of town where Steve and Jeane now live.  Gina was the official photographer for the day.

I stayed home to quilt as I really need to finish the quilt that is on the frame before we head over to Yellowstone Park.  I made great progress just not as far as I wanted to get!

I made spaghetti and homemade bread for our dinner and afterwards Gina and Rollie headed to their home.  Michael headed for bed and I did a little more quilting, now I am off to bed.

A Slow Peaceful Sunday

We woke to rain showers and cooler temps.  Emmi, Mike and I took a short little walk before I started quilting.  I have a quilt on the frame that is a wedding gift for the best friend of a young woman in our community.  I promised the quilt would be ready by August 31 and I am going to make it.  Finished all the borders today, now to quilt the inner pieces.

Michael and Rollie took the VW and went up to Jeane and Steve’s old house this morning to look at another Steve project.  There is a small little storage type shed at the house and the current ranch owners have given Steve permission to move it to their place north of town.  Michael is going to haul the building tomorrow with Rollie’s help.

Today has been just a very pleasant, peaceful day.  Our sunrise this morning.

I have a rhubarb crisp in the oven and the four of us are going up to Nancy and Geoff’s for dinner tonight. 

Quilts On The Lawn

Gina and I left home at a very early hour—just after 7am headed to Bozeman to meet my quilting friends for a day of quilt show fun. 

Our first stop was the Bozeman Farmer’s Market, which was just awesome!  Tons of fresh veggies, lots of pottery, jewelry and food items.  Gina and I had to make two trips to the car to unload our purchases.  We came home with corn, tomatoes, cantaloupe, fresh bread, etc! 

Next stop was the Emerson Center for the annual Quilts On The Lawn quilt show-- most of the quilts are displayed outside on racks and the fences surrounding the grounds.  It was a beautiful display in a perfect setting. This little quilt was one of my favorites.  Guess Mary P didn’t want her photo taken!

The heat was starting to get to all of us so off we went to find lunch.  Mary F. had researched and chosen a restaurant called Cat’s Eye—it was delicious and the decor was fun and eclectic.  The restroom signs said—“Litter Boxes” with an arrow pointing in the right direction.

After lunch the rest of the gang headed off to another quilt store and Gina and I decided to head to Wal Mart.  We picked up a prescription for Gina and other things for both of us.  I found some beautiful new rugs for the motorhome, Gina got a griddle to make pancakes—as we were filling our common basket all of a sudden I remembered, “Gina, we’ve got to stop shopping—we are in the convertible!!”  We did manage to stuff it all in, Gina had to hold the griddle on the way home!

Once again Rollie treated us to a delicious dinner, baby back ribs.  We had Park City corn on the cob and coleslaw—outstanding.  After dinner we sat on the deck visiting until the day just began to lose light and I suggested we go over to the far gulch and watch to see if we could spot a bear.  We watched and watched, no bear.  Just when we are getting ready to leave, Mr. Retired Navy says—”this is like looking for a submarine in the whole ocean!”

I so thoroughly enjoyed my day with Gina!  Mike and Rollie got the dash in the motorhome put back together and we are tentatively planning a little trip over to Yellowstone next week. 

A Tour Of Big Timber

It was a beautiful, gorgeous morning in Montana—39 degrees and sunny.  Gina and Rollie decided to forego the morning walk and instead sat in their chairs drinking coffee and drinking in our views.  Rollie had exciting news, while out rolling up the windows on their truck late last evening, almost dusk, he heard something, looked up and there went a large brown bear down the upper side of our pond.   Gina is quite upset that she didn’t get to see the bear!

OK, I haven’t been taking a lot of photos and here is my one and only for today—my first cucumber out of our garden.  It is very small—four inches in length??

Right after lunch we left in Rollie’s big truck for Big Timber.  Rollie needed to get a tire fixed and Mike and I had several errands to run.  They enjoyed walking around our little town and we enjoyed showing it to them.   Hey, I could get used to riding around in a semi!!  Gina and I sat in the back on their bed—air conditioner going, refrigerator right there, could have taken a nap—it was great!  In Big Timber we still have a drugstore with an old fashioned soda fountain where we indulged in milkshakes this afternoon. 

My dear friend Jeane has been lucky enough to have a grandparent alive when most people have lost their parents, and both her parents are still alive and fairly healthy.  Jeane’s Grandfather died at the age of 96 and his funeral service is Saturday.  Jeane and Steve have a houseful of company and we drove out to their place today and took cookies to help feed all those people.  Gina and Rollie enjoyed meeting them and seeing their house which is part of an old historic carriage house.

Then it was home to check on all the pooches.  Gina and Rollie decided to cook dinner—Louisiana shrimp, homemade alfredo sauce, sautéed green beans and pasta.  Absolutely delicious, and all I had to do was warm the bread—I particularly like these guests!

Gina and I are off to Bozeman in the morning to meet up with my quilting buddies at the Quilts on the Lawn quilt show and the Bozeman farmer’s market.  The guys are staying home to dog sit and work on our motorhome. 

A Slower Pace

Gina and Rollie were out and about early taking the pooches for a walk and at 8am we all set off for our morning walk.  Gina took lots and lots of photos—our friend Jim’s horses were down by the fence looking for attention which Gina and Rollie gave them.

When we got back to the house I told Rollie if he could wait 45 minutes I would fix him a breakfast treat.  I made a Cinnamon Nut Ring, more commonly called monkey bread and we almost ate the whole thing while enjoying a beautiful morning out on the deck. 

Zoey, one of their pooches was in need of a bath so our mud room sink was pressed into action and poor Zoey even got a haircut after the bath.  Tomorrow it is Angel’s turn!  Emmi is starting to look worried!

I quilted until about 1pm then began to get our late lunch together.  Rollie and Gina supplied buffalo burger and Louisiana sausages.  Nat came up and joined us and it was pleasant enough to eat out on the deck.

More quilting after lunch, Michael napped and I think Gina and Rollie did too although they did get in a short four wheeler ride.  We took another drive this evening going up Elk Creek and a ways up the East Boulder.

Gina supplied our evening treat, pie and ice cream—delicious.  Everyone has retired to their respective homes including the dogs.  A perfect day in Montana.

One of Gina and Rollie’s readers suggested that if Rollie was going to continue to talk about that pound cake then the least he could do was provide the recipe.  Well, here it is:

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

1 ½ cups butter softened
1 (8oz) cream cheese softened
3 cups of sugar
6 large eggs
3 cups all purpose flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add sugar beating well.  Add eggs, 1 at a time beating until combined. 

Combine flour and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating at low speed until just blended after each addition.  Stir in vanilla.  Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch bundt pan.

Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 40 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pan on a wire rack 10-15 minutes; remove from pan, and let cool completely on wire rack.

 

They Are Here

Gina and Rollie called about 11am and said they were in Big Timber.  They almost made it to our house last night spending the night in Reed Point which is only about 40 miles from us!  We waited about twenty minutes then headed down the driveway to meet them. Rollie drove that big ole rig up our driveway like a pro and got it turned around and parked. 

It was so good to see them—they got parked and set up, we took a tour of our new motorhome and spent some time on our deck. 

Zoey made herself right at home—Emmi wasn’t impressed—that was her Dad, her chair and her duck—who was this strange dog???

We enjoyed an early supper of pork tenderloin, roasted potatoes, salad for some of us and good wine.  Rollie got to enjoy lots of cream cheese pound cake along with the rest of us. 

After supper we took a drive over to our local tourist attraction about which I have blogged in the past, Natural Bridge State Park.  In times of high water, the river runs down a hole and over the top of the rock “bridge” creating a spectacular waterfall.  In lower water times such as now, all the river flow disappears through the hole and come out at the bottom of the falls—not as spectacular but still interesting and worth seeing. You can see the river above and to the right of Gina and Rollie—it disappears into a hole and comes out below.

After all that hiking we came home and had some more pound cake.  Gina got great photos of a couple mule deer bucks with beautiful racks.  We were looking for bears but none tonight.

A great day showing Montana to our friends.

And Another Busy Day

The people who installed the gutters on this house didn’t know what they were doing (Nat and me)!  The gutters have always leaked and sagged and more especially so when the leaves and trash haven’t been cleaned out.  So, today was the day for gutter cleaning, UGH—but I got it done.

I also cleaned the house and bathed Emmi so the day was a busy one! 

Gina and Rollie called around 11am and were just leaving Custer so will arrive tomorrow morning instead of today.  Hope that cream cheese pound cake lasts until then, Rollie!

About 4pm I headed into town to get a few groceries, we were out of fresh melons and other fruit.  Made stops at the bank and post office before coming home.  We had hamburgers on the grill and melons for dinner.  Michael and Emmi have gone for another walk, I opted out!

A Busy Monday

Whew—a walk, four loads of laundry, quilting, ripping out quilting, fixed lunch, weed-whacked,  and mowed the grass.  I’m pooped!

I’m sitting here with my friend Mary’s favorite drink, a gin and tonic trying to catch my breath. 

Miss Emmi has developed a rotten streak—I wear ear plugs to sleep and usually leave them on my bedside table.  Well, Miss Emmi has taken to getting up on the bed via her ramp, finding the earplugs and giving them a really good chewing.  Guess I better find a hiding place!  Michael was working on the motorhome today and she found a bunch of paper towels tearing them up all over the yard.

One evening this weekend we had a spectacular sunset.

I wrote last night that I had printed a user manual for my camera from the Canon website.  I sent Canon an email late last night and asked if it was possible to purchase a replacement manual.  I received a reply at about 7am my time this morning—how’s that for customer service??!!  But sadly, the answer is “they don’t print manuals anymore.”  Does that mean if I buy a new camera I only get the manual on disc??? 

Visiting

I can remember while growing up that Daddy would announce on a Sunday afternoon, “we need to go visiting.”  We kids would groan because it meant visiting older relatives with no kids, having to behave ourselves and generally having a boring Sunday afternoon.  Well, we went visiting today.

Our first stop was the fairgrounds to watch Michael’s daughter Shannen and our granddaughter Kristen compete in barrel racing. None of the action shots I took of Kristen were good.

Next stop was Nat’s where he gave me a lesson in player piano restoration, he is making progress. 

Our final stop was the nursing home to visit with our friend Jim—his wife, Beryl is the one who gave me the VW just before she died.  It was good to talk to Jim, he is almost 88 years old and still communicates well.  He has that rotten disease—macular degeneration and is almost blind. 

Then it was home where I made another delicious homemade pizza. 

Somewhere last winter I misplaced the user guide for my Canon camera.  I was able to print one from the Canon website but it is so big it sure won’t fit in my camera case like the original guide did!

Tomorrow we may wax some of the motorhome and I need to quilt.  Our friends Gina and Rollie will arrive on Tuesday evening and we are looking forward to that!

Saw this guy on our walk this morning.

Geez It’s Cold

40 degrees and a fire in the fireplace on August 14!  And the low tonight is supposed to be around 35 degrees!!!  I sure hope it doesn’t freeze my garden!

I thought I would post some photos of us all dressed in our Cowboy Action Shooting clothes.

This is a group of us at an awards banquet in Cody, WY.  The couple on the left side of the photo are friends that used to live here in MT but now live fulltime in Congress, AZ.  I am on the left next to them.  On the right is our friend’s cousin, then Michael, then Mary and Gene—the couple we stayed with in Spokane while buying the motorhome. 

Mike is in the center of this photo—he doesn’t look much different than his everyday wear, does he??

A group of winners at a shoot near Las Vegas—Mike is second from the right.  The guy second from the left was a Vietnam war veteran who lost both legs—it was amazing how well he walked and shot.  Ole Deadeye (we all had to have aliases) died about a year after we left the sport.  Michael’s alias was Montana Gambler and mine was Southern Belle.

And, that is me in the black hat with my 3rd place award at the big shoot.  I made most of my clothes for the sport, even the white ball gown I have on in the first photo above. 

Mom and Chuck left mid-morning headed to Bozeman, Mom needed a Wal Mart fix.  Michael has worked on the mess the thieves made of the motorhome dash all day and I have quilted.  Finished Aunt Margaret’s Japanese Yen quilt.

Tonight we are going over to Lonn and LoraLee’s for dinner, Lonn is cooking—should be interesting! 

A Cool “Summer” Day

It was 44 degrees and very cloudy this morning, raining off and on all day.  When Mom and Chuck arrived she convinced me to build a fire in the fireplace—a fire in August????  Ellie was reminiscing about how cold she was here in Montana last summer—she is now in Red Bay, AL and it is anything but cold there!

When I posted last night I was very tired and promised more about my thoughts on organizations.  One of my quilting buddies, Marjean who belongs to the same guild called this morning to ask me what I meant.  She assured me that the guild would turn out in force to help with this quilt show.  The guild holds a large quilt show every other year and this October is the date.  A quilt show requires an enormous amount of man power and this is a two day show.  I saw signs of no cooperation last night, only a small number of people doing the work and Marjean assures me this won’t be the case and that is a good thing! 

Michael and I were involved in a shooting sport a few years ago called Cowboy Action Shooting.  You shoot through the course of a “stage” three different type guns—2 pistols, a rifle and a shotgun.  The sport required you to dress in period, late 1800’s costumes and shoot replica type guns from that same time frame.  Scoring was based on speed and accuracy.  This sport is why Michael and I started going to AZ in winter.

Michael and I participated in the sport for seven years.  The sport was labor intensive—there was a “posse marshal” who was in charge, a person who ran the timer, three people who served as spotters looking for hits and misses on the targets, someone picked up all the rifle brass once a shooter finished a scenario—everyone participating in the sport, us included reloaded all their brass, you couldn’t afford to do the sport otherwise going through 300 rounds per couple per day.   Another person watched the loading table to be sure each person loaded their guns safely and a person watched the unloading table to be sure all guns were safely unloaded.  There were people helping reset targets and a person to document each shooter’s score. 

Each posse usually consisted of 15-20 people and it always seemed that there were 6-8 people doing all the work and the rest were chatting and sitting on their laurels.  Michael and I just burned out even though we were both competing very well—in 2006 I place third in my class at a major 500 person shooting event in Phoenix, AZ. 

I’ve belonged to other organizations in my career as a nurse and it was always the same—lots of people but only a few doing the work.  I was president of the Chamber of Commerce for our county here in Montana when I owned Cinnabar Creek—same thing—lots of people, only a few doing the work—so that’s my take on organizations, right or wrong!

My friend Gemma and I went up to Peg’s house this afternoon for a lady’s afternoon.  We enjoyed great cookies, lemonade, coffee and even better conversation.  Michael went out to Jill and Terry’s to talk to them about a sprinkler system. 

And that is it for a another great day in Montana.

The chokecherries are starting to turn—bears will be coming!!

Our morning scene.

A Trip To Livingston

The quilting machine was humming shortly after 9am this morning and I came real close to finishing the quilt I have on the frame before going upstairs to make lunch. 

After lunch I began making preparations for heading to Livingston for the annual quilt guild picnic.  Made a couple of stops in Big Timber—one to discuss a new health insurance policy with a local agent. 

Then it was over to Livingston with a stop at the grocery store and Radio Shack before heading to the park for the picnic.  We installed a trucker’s antenna on the previous motorhome to enhance our Cradlepoint router reception for the Verizon aircard.  Well, that antenna went with the motorhome so I picked up another one today.  I priced the antennas on the 3G website and the price was about $25 dollars more than at the local Radio Shack so I felt like I was getting a bargain! 

The picnic was fun but the guild part was not—what is it about organizations??  More on this tomorrow when I am not so tired.