Leafy Spurge

Not a very exciting day around here. Nice temperatures but a little too much wind. I did some "seasonal" laundry today, rugs and blankets--it was a nice day to hang it all outside and it dried very fast.

Michael has been working on his garage all day and if I read the noises right coming from out that direction, things are not going as well today as they have. He did take a break mid-afternoon and leveled the road through one of our ravines so I can get the Kawasaki mule farther up the road to spray weeds. I have a 10 gallon tank on the back of the mule and if you happen to get tipped sideways on a hillside just a little too far, the liquid shifts and can cause the mule to flip very easily.

We have a very noxious weed here in Montana called Leafy Spurge--it is a beautiful weed as many are, bright green stems and leaves and vivid yellow flowers. In the fall it turns an awesome shade of red. This weed takes over allowing nothing else to grow and cows and other animals won't eat it with the exception of sheep. Here in the valley where we live, the spurge is not as prevalent as it is in the main river valley coming from Big Timber. On our own place, we only have small patches of it here and there and we keep a close watch, pulling and spraying any we find. I found a larger than normal patch this morning and it was located where it can be reached only by back pack sprayer, UGH, so Michael felt sorry for me and leveled the road. Many of the locals living here work hard at controlling the weeds, we can only wish that our more wealthy, famous neighbors cared as much!! It is a strong bone of contention in this valley of millionaire, billionaire absentee land owners.

On our walk yesterday, we surprised this mom and baby and they took off as if to say, "let's get out of here."

This is a red columbine in my flower gardens. Some of the guests at the July 4 party accused me of having fake flowers they are so plentiful and beautiful this summer.

A Good Watchdog and a Motorcycle Ride

Last night I snapped this photo after hearing Jazz barking loudly. The deer in the upper right of the photo is a young buck mule deer and he was obviously in the Queen's territory and she was telling him about it. He was totally unconcerned. As you can see in the photo, Jazz is on one side of a cattle guard--her electronic fence runs under that cattle guard and she knows she cannot go past that point. Love that electronic fence.


I was brave today and took the Kawasaki mule up onto one of the irrigation ditch banks to spray weeds. Last year when I did this, I panicked at one point and almost put myself and the mule in the irrigation ditch. The ditch is high up on a hillside and on one side of the narrow driving spot is a deep ditch filled with water and on the other side of the driving spot is a steep hillside and that I would not want to tumble down! I was successful today and got lots of houndstongue pulled and sprayed.

It was a beautiful day in Montana, perfect temperatures but hazy from forest fires somewhere, probably California. After lunch we took the motorcycle into Big Timber to pick up a few groceries and I do mean few--the saddle bags on the Honda are small--the eggs rode home on my lap!

Wild Roses--the water in the rivers is still very high but the level is going down some every day, so the old timers must be right when they say, "high water is over when the wild roses bloom."

A Quiet Day

It has been a very quiet day around here. We had thundershowers last night and started this morning out with cloudy skies and cooler temperatures. It has been that way all day, cloudy and cool--unusual for July 6. We took a long walk this morning around our former ranch and managed to avoid the brainless horses. By the time we got back, Jazzy was a hot little dog.

I decided to spray at least one tank full of weeds and after I fell down the hill twice, decided one tank was enough! Michael worked in the garage all day long--he is making such great progress. We enjoyed our lunch out on the deck, the weather was so nice.

This afternoon, I installed a new HP printer/fax/copier/scanner successfully, finally and did some cleaning and straightening in my sewing room. Michael loves these shirts called brushpoppers by Wrangler--they are a very heavy cotton and have snaps instead of buttons. The shirts are hard to find sometimes. One of his brushpoppers had a fraying collar and I remembered that Grandma and Mom used to turn collars that were frayed if nothing was wrong with the rest of the shirt, so I gave it a try and it worked--so he can get some more wear out of one of his favorite shirts.

I noticed this small butterfly in the front yard grass this morning--he looked so delicate. We also had these large yellow butterflies today but I was never able to get a photo.

Garage building going on.
Another garage building view.

It is thundering again as I write this--it is that time of year in Montana. There have been 2-3 fires in the Billings area all ready; I hope we can avoid those this summer!

July 4 Celebration

Yesterday was a wonderful day. It was hot but bearable in the shade, we ended up with 29 guests and way too much food.

It was a day to remember what a great country we live in. While we all have some complaint of some sort about our country I am sure, it is still the greatest place to live. Our freedoms are unmatched by any other country. It is such a tragedy--the Olympics being held in such an oppressive country as China. Our travels into Mexico last year were eye opening. I for one, am very thankful we live in the United States.

We had way too much food to eat--hamburgers, hotdogs, salads, baked beans, homemade ice cream, pies and all sorts of other goodies. This is my flag cake creation. All our friends brought potluck and outdid themselves!

This is a very rare site, look quickly, Michael is cooking! He did a fabulous job and relieved me of that duty!

The person on the left is a friend and neighbor, Robyn, the couple in the rear are Joe & Tammy, the owners of our former ranch and the lady on the right is Shirley, our closest neighbor and friend.

This is a gang of friends and neighbors in our backyard which looked wonderful yesterday. A beautiful little creek flows through this grove of aspen trees.

It is a wonderful life!

It Got Hot!

Very, very warm day today and supposed to be 96 degrees tomorrow on July 4. We haven't ever had a July 4 party and took the plunge this year. We have 30+ guests coming!!! I have been cooking and cooking some more today and I can't wait to eat. Everyone is also bringing potluck so I doubt there will be a shortage of food. This diet we are on is sure working but homemade ice cream is not to be resisted!

The new owners of our ranch are here and Tammy came up and visited this morning. They live in Colorado and Joe works for a beer brewing company. He always comes to visit bringing us great beer to try. They have two teenage sons and brought along an extra teenager this time. We are invited to their house for dinner tonight which is great since I have been cooking all day for tomorrow.

My brother, his wife and their two sons are coming to visit sometime next week. They live in Arkansas on the farm my grandfather owned. It has been a long time since they have visited so we are really looking forward to their coming.

No photos today but I will post some of the big July 4 party tomorrow.

HAPPY JULY 4!!

A Laid Back Day

Michael headed off to work today early and Jazz and I went for a short walk--the grass was so wet, we both had very wet feet when we got back.

I did some phone work on health insurance and our state of Montana contractor's license. I also got a head start on some of my cooking for July 4. After lunch, the grass finally dried enough for me to mow our small yards.

Health insurance is such a rip off. As I have said in this blog before, we are basically self-insured with a very high deductible policy in case of catastrophe. The agent I spoke with today gave me better options for lower deductibles ($6000 instead of $10,000) but the premium was over twice as much as what we are paying now. So, I guess I either do more research or live with what we have.

We seem to have smoke in the air today--don't know if it is coming from the California fires or if a fire has started here in Montana from all the lightening we have been having. We have had so much rain it would be surprising if the fire was in Montana.

All the old timers say "when the wild roses bloom, high water is over." The rivers are still running strong but don't seem to be rising any higher, so maybe high water is over. This a waterfall Michael created in our little creek to give us more water noise and to the right of the waterfall is a wild rose bush in bloom.

A closer view of the wild rose bush.
Michael finished his project today and brought all the equipment home, YEA! Now he can help me get ready for this July 4 party.

Cooler Temperatures and Rain

It started out to be another very warm day but by late afternoon, it was 60 degrees and raining.
When I came home from Big Timber, there was hail in big piles along the side of the road. The lightening was fast and furious for a while.

I went into Big Timber today to get a massage (heavenly) and to pick up a few groceries for our July 4 party. Two of the teenagers belonging to the owners of our former ranch hitched a ride with me, they wanted to check out the fireworks stand--they weren't disappointed. I also had 4, yes 4 propane bottles to fill--I for some reason hate to get propane bottles filled, so I put it off until I have one left--the one attached to the grill. And as I will be grilling lots of hamburgers and hot dogs on July 4, I thought it might be smart to get some more propane.

Before going into Big Timber, I cleaned out our little creek bed here by the house, making it look and sound so nice. This is a wonderful time to be in Montana.

This is a blooming prickly pear cactus we saw when visiting Natural Bridge on Sunday--you can't see the cactus for the blossoms!

Another Montana sunset looking out toward the West Boulder Mountains.