Southern Living And Update

Since leaving Arkansas I’ve not had a desire to live in the south ever again—biting bugs you can’t even see, humidity so thick you can see it, mold, cockroaches the size of mice, etc.  Having said this, when I do come home to visit my family I get nostalgic—there is nowhere on earth more friendly than the south.  Where else can you have a fifteen minute conversation with the ladies in the doughnut shop??—and yep, in times of stress, I eat doughnuts.  Where else do you strike up conversations with other families in the CCU waiting room—and they say and mean it, “we will pray for you.”  Where else do people show up with carloads of food and paper goods before the deceased is even cold??? 

I love southern mornings before the humidity builds, when the sun is just coming up and there is still a coolness to the air.  In my last home located in the south, we had a huge multi-layered deck and I spent many a morning out there with coffee listening to the world wake up. 

Chuck’s condition is still very grave and we are just taking it one day at a time—one step forward, two steps back.  He is in a coronary care unit and we spend lots of time waiting between visiting times—we are so grateful for this hospital owned guest house!

Update

There is not much change in Chuck’s condition, he is stable but still very ill.  To protect his privacy, I will just tell you a couple medical stories while I am waiting to go back to the hospital tonight to visit. 

This is a small community hospital about 30 miles from Little Rock.  I went to college in this small town which is now a much larger, bedroom community to Little Rock.  The pulmonary doctor and all the nurses have been fantastic.  But—Chuck has been in this hospital since Thursday and we had not seen hide nor hair of his cardiologist, the primary/main doctor.  No calls, no visits, nothing.  Last night I told Chuck’s nurse that I was firing this guy and requesting a new cardiologist.

As we were sitting with Chuck this morning, the pulmonary doctor came to visit.  He asked me what the cardiologist thought.  I said, “how should I know, we’ve never met him.”  The poor guy was so taken aback he didn’t know what to say, finally stumbling out with, “Dr. **** hasn’t been here??”  I said, “no, we’ve been in that waiting room out there, non-stop since Thursday and we’ve yet to see him.”  We talked about other issues for a while and he left.  In less than 15 minutes the cardiologist walked in the door—I think the pulmonary doctor must have put a bug in his ear!

It is about a 70+ mile drive one way to this hospital from my Mom’s house.  That was getting old!  Barry and Donna offered us the use of their home, they live only about 10 miles outside this town—and we appreciate that offer so much more than they will ever know!  But, yesterday the nurse told us about the hospital’s guest house only two blocks from the hospital.  The price was unbeatable—free!  It’s a very, very old home, high ceilings, lots of built in cabinetry, beautiful, dark hardwood flooring—we will be comfortable here. 

Thank you all for your many thoughts and prayers—they are much appreciated!

A Journey

My mother’s husband, our dear Chuck became very, very ill Thursday.  I will be leaving early Saturday morning flying to Arkansas to be with my family.  Michael and Emmi will hold down the fort here in Montana.  Life can change so quickly--

Last night when my brother called me, I began looking at plane tickets.  United and Delta are the major carriers here in Montana.  United flies to Little Rock, Arkansas with one stop in Denver.  Delta has two stops, one in Minneapolis and one in Atlanta(ugh!).  On the Delta website I found information about benevolent flights for extreme illness or death, nothing on the United site.  When I called United this morning I was told by a person with an extreme foreign accent, “United doesn’t offer those fares any longer.”  Well then!  The Delta agent was wonderful, giving me a slight discount on the last minute ticket price but the best thing was they made my ticket fully changeable with no fee so my return date can be flexible.  I have always been a Delta champion, even more so now!

So—expect blogs to be sporadic/boring.  We do appreciate our readers so much!

The cowboy has been busy being a mechanic lately—seems my car needed new brakes but before that when the weather was exceptionaly icky, he painted--

 

Billings Day And Baby Buffalo

Yellowstone National Park seems to be inundated with idiots these days and there is no other polite word for people who would walk up to a buffalo or put a buffalo calf in their SUV—idiots!  There has been lots of back and forth on social media about the poor little buffalo calf and why couldn’t the National Park Service save the calf.  Yellowstone National Park buffalo are carriers of a disease called brucellosis which can cause the female buffalo to abort her calf.  Buffalo are prolific breeders and survivalists—the wolf population has done very little to decrease the buffalo herds prefering to feast instead on the easier prey, the elk.  Buffalo are like cattle and at times lose their offspring or just don’t feel like being a mother that day—those calves die or are eaten by predators such as bear and wolves. 

Burcellosis is contagious and can be contracted by domestic cattle herds living outside the park boundaries—thus the state of Montana and the USPS have a management plan.  The link is an excellent article explaining how the herd is managed.  Yellowstone Park does not have a fence—the buffalo are free to wander. 

The Park made the following statement in answer to the social media uproar:  “In order to ship the calf out of the park, it would have had to go through months of quarantine to be monitored for brucellosis. No approved quarantine facilities exist at this time, and we don't have the capacity to care for a calf that's too young to forage on its own. Nor is it the mission of the National Park Service to rescue animals: our goal is to maintain the ecological processes of Yellowstone. Even though humans were involved in this case, it is not uncommon for bison, especially young mothers, to lose or abandon their calves. Those animals typically die of starvation or predation.”

And then we have the idiots walking on Grand Prismatic Hot Spring for financial gain.  Seems this bunch of morons has performed their tricks in other sensitive areas also.  A warrant has been issued for their arrest.

OK—off my soapbox! 

We were off to Billings Tuesday--

That darn scale—I know I am pounds lighter after my favorite hairdresser cut my hair in Billings Tuesday but that stupid scale doesn’t say so!! I’m supremely picky about my hair, neurotically so I would say (or Michael would say!)  I’ve been using Becky at Synergy Salon in Billings for probably close to 15 years—every time I walk out of the salon I love my hair—she does tell me I have hair which is challenging to cut—thick, cowlicks, etc.—maybe that’s why I have so much trouble finding a decent haircut when traveling.  I’m not a Supercuts kind of girl!

We had lunch with two very special people—Katie and Brooks Michael.  Brooks was very accomodating, sleeping peacefully in his carrier the entire time—mom got to eat!! 

Lora learning to make mud pies—don’t know what happened to her shirt!

Well, all you memory foam bed ads popping up in my various feeds—you can give up—we bit the bullet yesterday and purchased a Costco Comfort Grande 14” Gel Memory Foam mattress.  We researched and read, then researched some more.  One of the sites made an interesting statement, “Lower priced mattresses – namely those $600 to $1500 – often rate similar to or better than more expensive options.”  It’s amazing how beds now come in boxes—we opened the packaging and let the mattress expand overnight.  Tonight will be the first test—the dang thing is so tall we may need a stepladder!!! 

Michael has been a mechanic today for us and a friend—he didn’t do so well with our Kawasaki mule—he took it to the mailbox to try it out after working on it for most of the morning.  The mule quit on the cowboy forcing him to make that 1/2 mile hike up the hill to the house!!!

It was mowing (gorgeous day), weed spraying and laundry for me today—oh, joy! 

Thankful For The Rain

While neither of us is enjoying the much cooler temps and having to stay inside, we are thankful for the one inch of rain this area of Montana received last night and today.  During the night I would wake up and hear water pouring over our “must be stopped up” gutter—it was loud!  Today I cleaned that gutter in the rain so as not to have a repeat tonight!  And speaking of noisy—sometime in the night I woke and stretched my leg—next thing I know I am up out of bed dancing around with the worst cramp in my calf—moaning and groaning.  My sympathetic husband didn’t even stir!!!  That calf is still sore today!

I’ve finished the small quilt I’ve been working on and it’s ready for the quilting frame once the backing comes out of the dryer.  I have another customer quilt to do—a t-shirt quilt—I’ve never done one of these. 

Michael painted again yesterday and today turning out another nice one.  He also spent some time researching Cadillac keys or key fobs.  My car came with only one key and one fob—at times it would be nice to have another set but geez they want a lot of money for one of those coded keys!!  So he was looking on eBay and Amazon for replacements.

And, we are in the market for a new mattress—we want to try a memory foam—any ideas out there??

On the subject of buttermilk—Brenda reminded me about using milk and vinegar to make buttermilk—I’ve done that before but sometimes we don’t even have milk as neither of us drinks milk.  Michael uses almond milk on his cereal. 

Have you all seen the news story out of Yellowstone National Park—two men from another country saw a buffalo calf, thought it was cold and put it in their SUV taking it to a park ranger.  They were fined and today the news states the buffalo calf was euthanized as the herd had moved on without him and the calf was approaching people and cars.  What’s the answer—bus people into Yellowstone as they do in Denali???  Today the news shows four young men walking out onto a the Grand Prismatic Spring—they are dang lucky they didn’t fall through ending up with burns!!

  I read this book a long time ago—it’s a great/sad at times read about all the strange things people actually do in Yellowstone National Park.  (can you readers see the Amazon tile with the book name??)

And Brooks Michael at one month old--

Cabin Fever

My artist in residence completed another painting today, I cleaned house and baked rhubarb bread.  Then cabin fever struck and we were off—first to deliver the rhubarb bread to a friend here in our little valley who has been fighting breast cancer this winter—damn cancer!!  She looks great and is doing well! 

Here’s the recipe for the rhubarb bread—I’m not a fan of rhubarb pie and was tired of my rhubarb crisp recipe.  This recipe popped up on my Facebook feed and it’s a keeper!  It calls for buttermilk which I never have but I do have this:  and it works in any recipe I’ve tried which calls for buttermilk.  You just add the required powder and then water.  The stuff has to be refrigerated after opening which takes up space in my RV refrigerator but I cope!

Back home we retrieved Emmi as we most certainly couldn’t go to Nat’s without Emmi!  We spent the afternoon visiting with Nat listening to stories—Big Timber stories and World War II stories.  After a quick stop for ice cream and groceries we were back up the Boulder where the wind is howling.  Rain/snow in the forecast for the next few days—ugh!

Robins, FitBits, And Quilting

Before the snow on one of our nicer days the cowboy noticed a lot of dried grass around one of my car tires—seems the robins thought the top of the tire on the Cadillac might make a nice, sheltered place to build a nest!!!  Well—think again bird!!  Michael removed all that grass and we drove the car.  Yesterday I was out braving the cold wind playing ball with Emmi and noticed the grass again—this time the dumb birds had built the entire nest—have you ever removed a robin’s nest—I chose not to think about what that gunk is which holds that nest together! Sorry robins—go find somewhere else to build your nest!

Do you have a FitBit—I wear one on my wrist but I sure question the accuracy at times.  Once a week an email appears giving me the weekly stats--

OK—if I’ve burned almost 16,000 calories in a week I should be a walking bean pole, right???Well, I’m not!!  Do I really walk that much??  The FitBit tells me I walk more than 10,000 steps—five miles—per day.  I do go up and down the stairs of this house many, many times a day in addition to our morning walk with Emmi but really??? 

Back in Arizona I wrote about losing my quilting mojo—having no interest in sewing anything.  Well, the mojo has come back—I quilted a customer/friend quilt and she picked it up today.  She loved it—isn’t that a cool log cabin pattern!   I’ve also been working on a small quilt and am going to start longarm quilting some of my own quilt tops—I have quite the stack! 

Beautiful day today—Emmi spent lots of time outside.  Our spring/summer birds are arriving—we’ve had goldfinches, rosy red finches and one lone lazuli bunting. 

Should Have Stayed In Arizona

Our phone rang rather early this morning and it was Larry and Geri calling to brag about their beautiful weather in North Ranch—that wasn’t very nice was it?? We went from a beautiful day on Sunday to rain on Monday and woke to this on Tuesday morning:

It has snowed off an on all day and the temps never rose out of the 30’s.  At times the wind was howling making for a mighty miserable day!  But, we both stayed busy, Michael painted another landscape and I finished a customer quilt—yep, I actually quilted!! 

Monday afternoon we drove to Livingston and had dinner at the Rib and Chop with Sarge and Sarah to celebrate Sarge’s birthday.  It was a very enjoyable evening—before we left North Ranch, Sarah asked Michael to create a painting for her to give Sarge as a birthday gift.  The two of them met many years ago at a dude ranch on the West Boulder where both were employed.  Michael created a painting using the mountains surrounding that dude ranch as the backdrop—they both loved it!! 

And, of course there are grandchildren photos--

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Mother’s Day

What a beautiful day we are having in Montana—a perfect Mother’s Day.  I’m just going to let these photos tell our story—this first one is my sweet Mom and her husband Chuck. 

Mom and her favorite granddaughter (her only granddaughter! )  This photo was taken in 1992, pre-Michael, up on the Beartooth Highway.

And this is Michael’s Mom, Joy, as a young woman in Detroit, pre-marriage to Nat.

Joy as a young mother with Michael on the family ranch here in Montana

And right before her death in 2000 holding her first great grand child, Kristen.

I sure miss my Mom and hope she had a wonderful day spent with the rest of our family!  Saturday night we enjoyed a pre-Mother’s Day dinner at Lonn’s.  I never had children of my own but I am blessed to have Michael’s children and grandchildren treat me as if I were their own. 

Lonn and Michael (Brooks’ Dad) holding Brooks.

Little Lora Elizabeth can now say, “Mimi!”  and as the photos show, she is full of herself at 17 months!!  Brooks Michael is doing what babies do best—eat, sleep, poop, repeat—he’s adorable!

Happy Mother’s Day!!

Too Early For Smoke

It’s way too early in the season for fires!  The  footage from evacuations in Fort McMurray, Alberta is both frightening and heartbreaking.  That is one massive fire—way too early in the season! 

Remember this photo of our mountains I posted a couple days ago--

Well, this is what it looks like today:

Today the smoke from the Alberta fires rolled into Montana.  News reports tell us the air quality is unhealthy—you can smell the smoke and while I was weed whacking this morning I could feel my eyes burning.  I read one report stating the weather was going to give firefighters a break in Fort McMurray, we sincerely hope so!  And let us pray for rain, rain and more rain! 

Thursday we took our first Billings trip of the season doing a Costco run to re-stock the freezer and pantry—almost broke the bank!  We enjoyed a great lunch at one of our favorites—Jake’s—and our favorite waitress even came over to welcome us home!

Today I re-packaged all the meat we purchased yesterday and did some more dang laundry!  How do two people generate so many dirty clothes??? 

Nat is downsizing a tad—he has a roommate/caretaker living with him and they needed some room for her things.  Facebook local online garage sales are a great place to sell things you no longer need.  In the last few days I posted a bed—one of those adjustable ones—and it sold almost instantly.  I also posted a riding lawnmower and it garnered so much attention there was almost an online fist fight!!! A father and his son came this afternoon and purchased the mower—the son has a lawn mowing service in the summer.  I remember this young man—he was a wild child when small but has grown up to be a very polite, well spoken young man!!  His mom home schools he and his sister—kudos to her!!

And that’s about the extent of what is happening around here—get to see the grand babies tomorrow!!!

Busy, Busy

As I said in the last blog post, the chore list this time of year is never ending!  We’ve had some glorious weather the last few days but the forecast is calling for several days of rain starting this weekend.  So, I was trying to get weed spraying/mowing/weed whacking/flower bed weeding all done today—didn’t make it but close!  The poor CanAm took a step down today—a weed spraying unit!  Our little Kawasaki mule is old and not four wheel drive.  It was great to be able to plough through the irrigation ditches with the four wheel drive CanAm instead of going around all of them.

The riding lawnmower made sure my FitBit received the appropriate number of steps today—I turned off the mower to move some fence posts and the dang thing wouldn’t start when I got back on.  Of course I was as far from the house as possible, down by the road, a half mile away significantly uphill! 

I’m hoping to do some quilting during the up coming rainy days.  I have a t-shirt memory quilt to do for Paul and Kathy—people we met while working down in Texas and I have a graduation quilt to do for a friend/neighbor.  Hope I remember how to use the longarm!

Emmi is loving being home in Montana—she can be outside during the day when Michael is outside—always ready for someone to kick the ball for her.

While mowing our neighbor’s yard I noticed her trees were flowering—I think this is a plum and if so, I sure hope Tammy gets as many plums this year as we did a couple years ago—they made delicious jam!

And the first photo of the season of our mountains--

Our neighbor to the south has a bumper crop of dandelions in his hayfield!

A Different Take

The washer and dryer have been going non-stop, I almost did myself in spring cleaning today, Michael has been grading our road and mowing grass.  The chores seem endless this time of year.  Our weather is fabulous for the time being—70 degrees and sunny but we know better than to think ole man winter is finished with us!

Want a different take on what we do for fun—ATVing—take a look at the Spotted Dog Ranch’s newest blog.  Do we agree with Chinle—to a certain extent.  Moab has become over run with people, jeeps, ATVs, motorcycles, bicycles, hikers, and RVs.  Town is a nightmare, traffic is horrible.  The boondocking spot we normally use was so crowded it felt as if we were in a RV park!  We saw more people on the ATV trails this year than ever before. 

OK—with that said, now we start to disagree.  We are respectful ATV riders, members of our group have added additional mufflers to quiet their machines, we don’t rip and tear, we stay on the marked ATV trails and if we chance upon a hiker or bicyclist, we slow down, give them plenty of room and try to minimize the dust. 

As with any sport/activity there are bad apples who ATV.  There are bad apples who don’t pick up after their pets.  There are bad apples who are sport shooters, there are bad apples who are snowmobilers, there are bad apples who are hikers—these bad apples end up ruining it for everyone.  We are all individuals and each prefer our way of seeing/being in the great outdoors.  We don’t always understand the other person’s activity—I struggle with understanding why anyone would want to ride a bicycle on a very busy/dangerous highway—but to each their own. 

I used to hike—a lot.  I’ve hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and hiked back out twice, I’ve hiked 12-15 miles per day in Zion National Park.  Michael and I walk/hike about three miles every day.  Neither of us is physically able to do long distance hiking any longer. 

We don’t know the answers but we do know we enjoy ATVing very much and would not want to lose the right to do so. 

Snow covered mountains and trees about to have leaves.