A Day In Billings

We left home very early this morning dodging elk and deer on the way to town to meet up with Lonn and LoraLee at Nat’s.  Then it was off to Billings where we spent the entire day. 

There was a horrible accident near Big Timber this morning—we noticed the Sweet Grass County sheriff had both lanes of I90 west bound blocked, we also met a state trooper heading that direction at a high rate of speed.  A pedestrian walking along the interstate (who knows why) was hit by a driver who did not stop.  According to news reports there were no witnesses and there are no leads.  Terrible!

Rain, wind and more wind again today—we have definitely entered the fall/winter season!  Nothing else going on around here, not a thing. 

Off In Different Directions

Sunrise on the East Boulder this morning.

Lonn called a couple days ago and asked if we would like to take an ATV ride on Sunday.  Well, I thought about it for a while and decided I would send Michael off with Lonn and I would have a whole day to myself to sew—and that’s just what I did!  Got all those bunnies sewn together—all nine of them. 

I said we had wind yesterday—well we REALLY had wind today!  I almost had to put an anchor on Ms. Emmi while we were out walking—it was hard to stand upright.  Almost back to the house I heard a loud crack—as in a tree falling and wondered where it fell.  Around the back of the house to play with Emmi in the back yard and I noticed tree limbs on the creek side deck—uh-oh!!  The tree was across the creek and the very top of it hit the deck doing no damage—the larger tree also took out a smaller one so Michael now has a good sized mess to clean up.  Our friend Dortha said on my Facebook page, “bears in your yard, trees hitting the deck, time to head south.”

This afternoon I made pumpkin scones and blueberry/lemon scones—YUM!  One of the yoga group has a birthday this week! 

A Saturday In Montana

Warmer this morning when we awoke than when we went to bed last night—reason—wind and more wind.  Fall and winter in our valley tend to be very windy and this fall has started out with a bang.  We took a walk then I headed to town with a quilt packaged to mail and a grocery list.  I don’t shop at our local Big Timber grocery store unless I am desperate—well today I was out of bread, eggs, flour and a couple other essentials—so I guess I was desperate. 

Lunch, naps, computer time, puttering—that’s about the extent of our day.  Michael did get a little done on the shed and I made two bunnies—only three more to go! 

Tonight we had dinner with Joe and Tammy, along with their son Jeff, his girlfriend Riley and her Dad, Paul all from Colorado.  Jeff and Riley are both attending Montana State University in Bozeman.  Today was Paul’s birthday and Tammy did a wonderful job of making it a special day for him.  George and Shirley also joined us.  Tammy moved the dining table into the living room so we could all admire the gorgeous view from their windows.  We miss that view—I can remember when I dated Michael, we would come up the Boulder to the unfinished house, pull this old wicker couch up to the windows, prop our feet on the window sill, drink wine, eat popcorn and admire that awesome view.  We are glad Tammy and Joe appreciate the view as much as we did.

Back home tonight Ms. Emmi let us know it wasn’t right to leave her here all alone!!  But Mom did play with her today and Brenda, she is doing just fine without basketballs—we have soft bones to fetch—better for her teeth!

Playing With Picasa

Well now Mother Nature, I think Sept. 27 is just a mite early for snow, don’t you think???  It sure made for some beautiful photos today and I took the opportunity to play with Picasa—not sure why at this late date—our blogging friend Rick thinks Picasa’s days are numbered—you can still use it on your desktop but Google may not support the program. 

Our morning view as we walked. 

I spent the morning loading a baby quilt for my Mom and making another bunny for the “blind bunny” quilt. About noon when coming upstairs to make lunch for Nat and Michael I saw these two huge dogs in our driveway—behind the dogs were Joe and Tammy—the owners of our former ranch.  They had come to spend the weekend.  They joined us for a simple lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup—one of Michael and Nat’s favorites—go figure!  We haven’t seen Joe and Tammy in a while—it was fun to get caught up. 

Finished quilting Mom’s little baby quilt, labeled it and now it is in the box ready to ship out to her.  I may just work on the blind bunny quilt tomorrow and Sunday! 

Michael and Nat are making great progress on the shed in spite of our crummy weather.  By noon the sun was out and although it was still cold and breezy—the scenery was simply spectacular. 

Wow, What Happened To Fall

Our high temp today was 42 degrees—it was cold, rainy and blustery—did we go straight from fall to winter.  If so, oh, well—bring on the snow!  No more bear sightings today, dang it.  I went to yoga this morning after putting a pot of vegetable beef soup on the stove.  Nat came for lunch and I served the soup with homemade bread.  Whipped up a quick batch of brownies using the recipe from the big Costco sized bag of chocolate chips.

I did something I’ve never done—ran out of thread on the spool while quilting.  I was probably less than a hour from finishing LoraLee’s quilt, I was at the bottom and all I had to do was go back to the middle and finish up some close work—dang it!!!  Superior Threads to the rescue, should have the thread by Monday.

Michael worked on the shed all day and Nat even went up and sawed a log into boards after lunch.  He must have wanted to saw logs in a bad way—he is not normally willing to be outside in cold weather—says he had enough of that when he was feeding cattle in the winter.

Another sadness—my friend Kelly from Kansas City lost her Daddy this week—I’ve spent time around him several times—he was just a hoot, funny and very personable—John will be missed so much.

Hope you’ve all had a great day!

Our First Bear Sighting and Clouds

Our morning started off with some excitement—I was peacefully sitting in my chair reading blogs and drinking coffee when Michael became very excited, “Janna, look, look!!!!”  I jumped out of my chair saw the tail end of a bear, grabbed the camera and ran to the back of the house just in time to get a butt shot of the bear as he headed off into the aspen trees.

It was a cold, blustery, low hanging clouds kind of day—the weather forecasters were predicting rain and snow in huge amounts for today and tonight—not happening yet!  In spite of the weather Michael made great progress on his shed building and after I finished talking on the phone I quilted and quilted—LoraLee, that is one huge quilt!! 

In the late afternoon I took Michael a thermos of hot chocolate and we sat watching the low hanging clouds move across the sky, reflecting on how extremely blessed we are to live where we do and to have the lifestyle we have. 

Looking a little chubby there Mr. Red!

I made bread today using the Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day cookbook—I made the Light Whole Wheat Bread—I am not a bread maker or rather I should say I am not a kneader.  I’ve never liked kneading bread so using the recipes in this cookbook are a breeze for me (no kneading) and they turn out right every time!  We had bread, cheese and wine for supper—delicious!

More Garden Work And The Tin Tee Pee Is Finished

Sunrise on the East Boulder.

Michael started his day off early, after our walk he headed up the hill to work on the shed and didn’t come down until about 6pm except for lunch.  I started my day with yoga which helped my aching back tremendously allowing me to finish winterizing both gardens.  We still have lettuce, swiss chard, and carrots growing so I left those but the rest of the ground is tilled and covered with heavy black plastic to deter weeds. 

On our walk this morning Emmi and a mule deer doe had a stand-off:

OK, who is going to blink first??

and the little black dog is off, the deer seems to be saying, “seriously” but she did run when Emmi gave chase and barked.  Our former schnauzer, Jazz would also chase deer and NOT come back—she would not listen to our commands, sometimes going out of sight long enough for us to go get the Kawasaki mule and start searching for her.  Emmi chases the deer just long enough to get them out of her space where they then stand and look at her as if to say, “there, are you happy now you little yappy dog???” Emmi comes back immediately when we call—much better and much safer!

The Tin Tee Pee is basically finished inside and only a little polishing remains to be done on the outside.  Know anyone who wants to buy a fully restored 1976, 23 foot Avion Travelcader travel trailer?? It was always our intention to sell the trailer when we finished the restoration—now’s the time. 

Late this afternoon when I came inside I decided to try my hand at making some more “blind bunnies” for the Buggy Barn quilt—finished one before Michael arrived and it was time to make some supper. 

Our weather is a changing!  Tonight and tomorrow it is to be colder with rain and possibly snow but back up to 73 degrees on Saturday.  Typical fall weather in Montana.

Achy Muscles

OH, MY did I ever work up some achy muscles this morning!  When we chose our garden spot alongside the pond and built the fence—weeds outside the fence never crossed our minds.  There is a little strip of ground between the fence and the water—not enough room to stand and pull weeds unless you want to take an unexpected bath.  Pulling weeds from a kayak would not be a good idea, either.  Today Michael pulled the fencing panels up with the little mini-excavator and even pulled some of the weeds with the machine.  I pulled and shoveled out the rest—well almost the rest—before my aching back said, “enough!”  We are going to do a little fencing rearrangement to keep the deer out and still allow me to get to the weeds along the pond bank.  Maybe tomorrow I will finish that little project—depends on what the “back” says!

Lunch was leftovers then Michael headed up the hill to work on his new shed project—he made lots of progress today in spite of twisting a backhoe tire off the rim!  I got in a few good hours of quilting and book listening—I love to listen to people read to me and it makes the time go by quickly. 

Answered the phone this afternoon and received a very pleasant surprise—Mike and Pat are leaving their place in South Dakota heading for Arizona and are stopping by here over the weekend—yea!!! 

Tonight for dinner we enjoyed among other things carrots and green beans from our garden—there is something about home grown carrots—much sweeter than the store bought ones!

The Russian Apple Sharlotka cake I baked over the weekend was delicious, really delicious.  It’s different than any other apple cake I’ve baked—it is not too sweet, there are no nuts—it looks beautiful and tastes wonderful.  Michael loved it!

I took this photo the other morning as the big ole moon was going down over the mountains.

Snow on the mountains again.

Mushrooms—big mushrooms!

To Powell, WY We Go

I had the choice of either packing the motorhome again (which means unpacking when we get home) or taking a LONG day trip to Powell, WY—I chose the day trip—the thought of packing and unpacking made me way too tired!  We were off to see our friends Jane and Rich along with their daughter Elizabeth and her baby girl Tegan.

I moved to Powell, WY from Houston, TX in 1992 to become the operating room coordinator—soon after I arrived the Director of Nursing quit and I took that position.  Jane was one of my nurses and I eventually trained her to work in the operating room.  Rich worked in the laboratory at the same hospital.  When circumstances occurred which left me on my own in Powell, Jane and Rich took me into their family and we became the best of friends.  They were not sure of my sanity when I quit my position at Powell Hospital to marry a cowboy and move to Montana—but they grew to love Michael as much as they loved me.

Life dealt their family a tragic blow in 2002 and now life isn’t being so kind to them again—dang it!!  We drove over to take lunch and get in a long visit.  Plus we got to see Elizabeth and 17 month old Tegan whom we had not met!  Elizabeth is expecting their second baby, a boy sometime in November—Dad is a Navy pilot stationed in California. 

I think Jane likes being a Grandma—what do you think??

We had a great visit and little Tegan is a doll—she wasn’t sure about these strange people in her Grandma and Grandpa’s house but she warmed up and smiled at us eventually. 

The drive over to Powell is a lesson in geography—you go from irrigated farm land along river beds to barren desert skirted by rugged mountain.

The rugged Beartooth mountains outside Clark, WY. 

It was a great day—we retrieved Emmi at Nat’s—he had a BIG horseshoe pitching tournament yesterday and is mighty exhausted—he said he and Emmi spent a lot of time napping in the recliner today. 

Look What We Grew And A Drive

Look at those gorgeous, delicious carrots which came from our garden—I’m thinking we will be planting more carrots next year—at least they grow in Montana with our short growing season.  That’s swiss chard in the bowl and in the bottom of the bowl is another bunch of green beans.  Maybe I should forget about planting tomatoes??

What is it with this time of year.  Is anyone else as tired as we are—we are NOT sleep late type people, it is rare for either of us to be in bed after 6am.  Lately we’ve been sleeping until 7am or after—this morning was one of those times—which means we take a walk later and I get started on the puttering later—oh, well! I puttered in the kitchen, made tacos for lunch then Michael suggested a drive.

We took a road which headed off from Swingley Road near Livingston—how’s that for directions??Rough, nasty road but oh, my was the scenery ever beautiful!  See for yourself--

I just baked an apple sharlotka—a Russian apple cake—it looks good, will let you know tomorrow how it tasted—the recipe came from the Smitten Kitchen.

Frost On The Pumpkin

Heavy frost this morning, last night I covered my tomato plants which are on the deck under the eaves of the house—I think they survived—if they didn’t so be it—late September is one heck of a time to be harvesting tomatoes!

Michael worked on the shed he is building up on the hill and I quilted much of the day.  Homemade pizza for lunch then Michael headed out to get a couple used ATV tires—our Kawasaki mule has a ruined tire and new tires cost $100—we depend on that old ATV a lot—it has a dump box on the back which we use for hauling “stuff” around.  My frugal husband just could not bring himself to pay $100 for a tire for the mule which is probably almost 20 years old. 

When Michael got back we decided to take an ATV ride—kind of late in the day, didn’t leave the house until after 3pm but we went all the way to Moccasin Lake.  It is such a beautiful drive and today the sky was clear blue, the trees vivid green, the aspens starting to show a hint of gold—we both enjoyed the ride immensely on this gorgeous fall day.  We left up there just before 5pm and the sun had gone behind the mountains—thought we were going to have to stop at Robyn and Claire’s for a restorative, warm-up drink!!  Needless to say, it was a quick trip home!

Not a very clear photo and the turkeys were making tracks, heading for cover.

We’ve entered our most favorite time of the year for living in Montana!

Too Smart

That’s my Cadillac, too smart for it’s own good and with way too many gadgets for going wrong!!  If you leave your blinker on too long, the car chimes to let you know—of course when it chimes you have no idea what’s wrong because you don’t hear your blinker all ready!!!  When you put the car in park and remove the key, the driver seat slides back automatically—squishing people such as Jeane who happen to be riding in the back seat on the way to quilt retreat—it didn’t really squish her but she couldn’t get her bag out until I re-adjusted the seat. 

It has a tire monitoring system that has been acting a little squirrelly lately.  It would tell us the right rear tire was low—we would put air in that tire then it would began to tell us every tire was low.  Right before we left for quilt retreat Michael cycled the system and put air in each tire which made the silly thing happy.  I drove all the way to Deer Lodge, MT and back, a total of 400 miles round trip and the system never showed a low tire.  When I went to yoga on Tuesday, there it was again, right rear tire low.  Michael aired up the tire and we drove to Billings—while I was in the doctor’s office he took the car to a tire shop where they found a HUGE nail in the tire!!!  Amazing that I was able to drive all that way without the tire ever reading low!

Yoga this morning and Nat coming for lunch—I made a meatloaf, set the oven to start automatically and I was off to yoga.  I almost had everything ready by the time Nat arrived.  He and Michael spent a couple hours talking history after lunch.  At 91 years old it is amazing how sharp his brain still is!

Not much else happening around here—my house is spiffy clean—I worked hard all afternoon in between playing with Emmi.  No more balls for Emmi—when we were in our veterinarian's office a while back, Kirk noticed Emmi’s canine teeth were very worn as in almost gone!!!  He said this happens to dogs who chew on rocks or bones or balls.  Poor Emmi, no more basketball—she would try to bite the basketball which is probably what wore her teeth away. 

Snow On The Mountains

Yes, you read that correctly—we got rain down here and our mountains received snow:

It was a blustery, cool day here and in Billings. 

I had my yearly physical and mammogram done today—not the most pleasant of experiences but necessary. 

Emmi girl stayed with Nat and we spent some time visiting with him when we got home.  He is a busy man—a while back one of his long time friends and horseshoe pitching buddies died.  Arne’s three daughters decided to donate money for a Arne Mosness Memorial Horseshoe Pitching tournament which will be held at Nat’s indoor court on Saturday.  The three daughters are cooking the lunch and Nat is expecting a good crowd.  For his sake, I hope it’s a BIG crowd!! 

And that’s all there is here on the East Boulder today.

Another One Of Those Lost Days

As in where did the time go???  I went to my first yoga class in over a week and thoroughly enjoyed it—I’m a little sore but that’s to be expected when you’ve slacked off going to quilt retreats, etc.

Back home I made chicken fajitas for lunch and then busied myself cleaning the TinTeePee and restoring all the stuff—dishes, towels, etc.—to their rightful spots.  We are auditioning different products trying to find one which will take away the hazy film on the outside of the TinTeePee—I am thinking it will involve lots of elbow grease!

Last evening we took dinner over to Lonnie and LoraLee—ribs and those crash hot potatoes.  It was fun visiting with them—we haven’t been over in a while.  All day it rained a few drops but about the time we got over on the West Boulder last night it turned nasty—lots of rain and wind. 

Our bear activity has picked up a bit—seeing more “piles” if you know what I mean!

On our way out last night we spotted our neighbors picking apples—had to stop for a photo!

Russ and Eileen

Here’s wishing you a good Wednesday!

Sometimes Technology Defeats Me

This collage isn’t what I had in mind but Picasa had other ideas tonight—I may have to seek Rick’s help in creating slideshows and decent collages!  I tried Google+ also and didn’t have any more luck there than in Picasa.

Today was spent unpacking and catching up—laundry, etc.  I did manage to get a couple rows quilted on LoraLee’s quilt.  I looked longingly at my unfinished projects as I unpacked—maybe I will get back to those soon! 

The TinTeePee had two rows of orange-ish trim which had faded to a dirty gray—this trim went around the entire outside of the trailer.  Michael pulled out the old and installed new, bright orange trim today to match the decals.  He also put the couch back inside the rig as well as the two twin bed mattresses.  When I get the trailer all cleaned and the beds made I will take some photos.

Yesterday we lost a very good friend, Gene.  Mary and Gene live in Spokane and we stopped to visit them on our way home from the Oregon coast.  Mary and Gene had a wonderful life together—they were both school teachers retiring early, sailing, traveling and enjoying life.  Gene’s health had been deteriorating for several years and Mary called this morning to tell us he had died.  We met them in Tucson, AZ in 2003 while participating in the Cowboy Action Shooting sport—they were both shooters.  We will miss him very much, may he rest in peace. 

One of my favorite photos of the two of them.

Glad To Be Home But Wishing I Was Still Sewing

What is it about getting together with a group of really good friends who inspire you??  Makes you want to stay another day or two but Michael and Emmi were ready for me to be home!  Fall quilt retreat is history and we had so very much fun.  We laughed until the tears ran, we ate until we were stuffed, we sewed, shopped and talked.  Now I need a vacation from my vacation. 

At the retreat in April, Shirley showed off a quilt she had made using the book by Buggy Barn, Stir Crazy, this is the page from the book.

 

She had yet to sew anything thing onto the bunnies for eyes and the rest of the gang began calling her quilt “the blind bunny quilt.”  Everyone got into the act and began buying kits and books for making bunny quilts, including me!  Mary F. got us all started yesterday—we laughed so much making those bunny blocks especially when Gay and Roxie had an accidental bunny head mix-up—that one had us all literally rolling around on the floor laughing!!

Roxie’s bunny.

Jeane’s colorful bunnies on the left, mine on the right.

Mary’s pretty bunny. 

Last night during gift exchange—the gifts had to be homemade—some beautiful things were received, stolen and stolen again—have you ever played that gift game???  Seems kind of cruel to open a present and then have somebody steal it right out of your hands, doesn’t it!!!  Gay was determined to not let anyone see what was in her bag so it couldn’t be stolen--

This sweet little bug was made by Jane who chose to accompany her husband to Chicago rather than attend quilt retreat with us—what’s up with that???

When you are sewing lots of tiny pieces such as for the bunny quilts or the string quilts we are making for charity, it is nice to have access to an iron right by your chair.  The high wattage irons we all use these days are not kind to electrical breakers when several of those irons kick on at the same time.  Jeane as well as Donna, Bette had purchased these cool, tiny steam irons from Amazon which did the trick. 

Rather than overload your computers with photos, tomorrow I will put together a slideshow of all the beautiful creations and quilts which happened this weekend.  After a delicious brunch prepared by Mary F., Gay and Roxie we all slowly began finishing projects and started packing.   We all left with hugs and promises of getting together BEFORE the next scheduled quilt retreat in April, 2014. 

There was one happy husband and one ecstatic little dog waiting to see me when I rolled in the driveway!