Saturday In Montana

We had a fabulous dinner at Robyn and Claire’s last night—awesome food and great company.  George and Shirley plus Nancy and Geoff were there with us—we enjoyed some great wine, too!

Today Shirley, Jeane and I decided to head over to Livingston where one of the quilt shops was having a grand re-opening sale.  The first shop at which we stopped is a newer quilt shop and was just stocked full beautiful fabrics and patterns.  Many folks in our area have remarked, “how can Livingston (pop. 7000) support two quilt shops?”  Well, if the older, newly remodeled shop having its grand re-opening sale doesn’t watch out, the newer shop is gonna rule the roost!  We all three purchased a few things and drooled over the new Pfaff sewing machines.  I found the really, really stiff interfacing I needed for the baskets I am going to make—LoraLee gave me the pattern the other day.  We had lunch at the Rib and Chop—it was a great day.  Last stop was the Depot Wine and Cheese Market—a really small very specialized wine/specialty foods/cheese store.  They have some inexpensive, good wines and some really good things such as olive oil.

Michael was busy today—here’s a section of his new fence-- and his replenished woodpile. And a photo of our leafless trees and snowdrifts! 

Fence Building

Michael was up really early this morning but Emmi and I decided our warm bed was just too nice to leave!

Later in the morning, we decided to take a nice long walk and hiked up the hill to the irrigation ditch—imagine our surprise when we found running water in the ditch which means our head gate way over in the neighbor’s pasture had probably fallen closed during the winter forcing water into the irrigation ditch instead of down the creek.  It is way too early to start irrigating around here.

So, our hike got longer as we walked over to where the head gate is located and found the gate wasn’t letting much water down the creek.  Got that chore accomplished and while doing that Miss Emmi managed to get really involved with a burdock bush—a nasty weed with huge stick to you burrs.  Her coat is so fine she is a magnet for burrs!

Back to the house where I spent probably a hour brushing and cutting the burrs out of her coat and then decided since she was all brushed why not give her a bath.  Now she is a sweet smelling little dog!

Did a little cleaning and looked outside to see my husband pounding steel fence posts and stringing barbed wire—I guess he is feeling OK cause that is way physical labor!

Got the ball rolling with Michael’s primary doctor today to refer us to another rheumatologist.  It was great to hear him say the exact same thing as the doctor yesterday, “it is important to find a doctor you like and trust to follow this arthritis issue.” 

It was a chilly 20 degrees here this morning and there was ice on the irrigation ditch water. 

Tonight we are going to Robyn and Claire’s for dinner—all our neighborhood friends will be there—it will be fun to see everyone!

Weary Travelers

We left the house in the middle of a blizzard this morning just after 7am headed for Billings and three doctor’s appointments for Michael.  Emmi girl got to spend the day with Nat which he loves. 

All the appointments went well, the rheumatologist is happy Michael is doing so well on the rheumatoid arthritis medication and the other two doctors were happy with him too!  It was still very trying today. 

I would love to teach a class to students entering medical school:

1.  Have a sense of humor but not so much so that your patients think you aren’t listening to them.  Don’t turn every one of their questions into a joke.

2.  Listen to your patients, don’t act as if you can’t wait to get out the door.  Don’t just sit and click buttons on your computer with your head down.

3.  Make eye contact with your patients—let them know you are listening.

4.  If you have your patients complete paperwork listing any changes occurring  since the last visit—read that paperwork!

5.  If you say you are going to call prescriptions to the pharmacy, do it!!!  Don’t let us get to the pharmacy two hours later to find out you never called—that adds extra hours to our all ready long day.

6.  Listen, listen, listen and ask questions—don’t always assume you know all the answers.

With all that said, we are looking for a new rheumatologist.  The favorite of the three doctors we saw today is just the greatest—he does ALL the things listed above, he pays attention and has time for you.  When we asked him to recommend another rheumatologist (unfortunately he doesn’t know them well enough) he said, “it’s important, very important for you to like and trust your physicians.” 

We did our usual Costco runs and have found out the best time to make a run through Wal Mart is 8am—there wasn’t another soul in that store, I was in and out in less than 20 minutes!  Lunch was at Famous Dave’s and it wasn’t the best. 

Back in Big Timber we relieved Nat of his dog sitting duties, came home, unloaded the truck and collapsed! 

Town, Road Building and Quilting Buddies

Quilting buddies are the best, especially when they live just down the road from you—Shirley came up this afternoon and picked out some backing fabrics for quilt tops she finished this winter and we had a good “chin wag” as they say.  Next week she is going to take a longarm lesson—I can all ready see a convert!

To town early this morning for an appointment and while Michael was doing his thing I got to spend time browsing all the new stuff at Cinnabar Creek.  Some really nice new clothes, lots of new cookbooks and gifts.  Purchased only a little hostess gift and a latte. 

When Michael was finished we drove out to Nat’s and installed the super loud ringer for his telephone which we purchased from the telephone company.  Nat had been complaining (he is very hard of hearing, wears a hearing aid) he couldn’t hear the phone ring when the TV was on—let me tell you, he can hear it now!  Jeez, if I am sitting next to the phone when it rings you may have to peel me off the ceiling—the thing works!

Michael got all the low tires aired up on the backhoe this afternoon and started the road work in preparation for moving the cattle guard and the road—Rollie, it will be much easier to get that big motorhome you are looking for up the driveway now, he’s straightening out some of the curves! 

Lonn and LoraLee stopped by this afternoon on their way to pick up a horse, we walked down to get the mail and that’s about the extent of our day!

While LoraLee and I were chatting Miss Emmi decided to make herself at home:

In the motorhome she would get on the back of the loveseat so she could see out the windows.  She has never tried to get on the back of the sofa here at home until today—looks pretty proud of herself, doesn’t she!  Those boys in the photos sitting on the sofa table are my nephews—those photos were taken a LONG time ago, Trent, the oldest is now 17 and Clayton is 15.  Guess I should hit them up for some more recent ones although I like these—I think their Mom took the photos. 

Snow and Sunshine

It is definitely April in Montana, woke to snow and the day will end on a sunshiny note!

Michael gave me more blog material yesterday—we are sitting with our coffee, I am reading a seed catalog talking about gardening and I say, “I would sure like a greenhouse.”  He replies, “well get yourself a paint brush and some green paint.”  OK, was he just being funny or was he totally not listening to our previous conversation about gardening???  I threw the seed catalog at him!!

Spent the afternoon getting the longarm ready to sew again.  Jim and Sandie (well, I think Sandie) asked what “to longarm” means in a comment left a couple days ago.  A quilter pieces a quilt—she cuts all the little shapes, sews the fabric together and creates a quilt top.  The longarm owner takes that top, adds a layer of batting and a layer of backing fabric making a quilt sandwich.  Then the longarm quilter loads this sandwich onto a huge longarm quilting machine and quilts a design over the entire quilt securing the three layers. 

I placed my seed order with Fedco Seeds today—I like their product because the seeds are not genetically modified.  As a kid in Arkansas in summertime, we grew up in a vegetable garden—Mom and Dad had a huge garden and of course we three kids weren’t thrilled about helping—needless to say our wants didn’t matter and we did help!  My sister Ann and her husband Danny have a big garden in the same spot now.  I get all excited when the gardening season starts, order seeds and start planning.  By September when all I’ve gotten is lettuce, radishes and the occasional cucumber or squash, I wonder—was it worth it???  Montana’s weather just isn’t conducive to gardening unless you like lots of lettuce!

A poor photo of a golden eagle I think!

A Beautiful Day

It was such a nice day I hung my sheets outside to dry!  About 50 degrees and sunshine, not warm enough to sunbathe like Kelly of The Bayfield Bunch was doing but nice!

Michael started a huge project today.  When we built this house we made our parking area too small.  In addition there is an area down by the creek I wanted to turn into a little garden area with plants and a place to sit, maybe a picnic table—I couldn’t do any of that cause the horses have access to that spot.  So, today Michael started preparations to move the cattle guard and fencing down from the house about 200 yards giving us a better parking area and fencing out the horses.  There is probably about 400-500 yards of fencing to do—so he has started a huge project.

I finally unpacked the last bin and box today in the quilt studio and tackled all the dust bunnies there which accumulated over the winter.  Maybe tomorrow I will get to do something fun like quilt!

Lonn, LoraLee, Katie and her Michael are coming for dinner tonight, I made spaghetti and homemade bread. 

Talked to Gina today and she is feeling a lot better. 

Emmi loved being outside today and was a good girl—she didn’t wander off anywhere, I need to get her electronic fence thing up and running.

We Have Sunshine

A cold nasty wind but with sunshine!  Some of the mud left today and things started drying out.

Michael repaired his broken air compressor, discovered the little sports car wouldn’t start--dead battery (that makes three batteries we need now, the diesel needs two) and started taking down some fencing in preparation for remodeling our yard area.

I attempted to start unpacking the quilt studio but something kept coming up.  Nat has a really bad cold so I felt I needed to go into town and check on him.  I whipped up some of his favorite cookies and some soup and took off.  Spent a hour or so with him visiting and he is actually feeling and looking better.

Stopped at Barb’s and picked up a quilt she wants me to longarm for her—it will be an easy one, she has it pinned to the zippers and a large portion all ready quilted.  It is a fourth of July quilt, lots of red, white and blue—Barb wanted feathers in the white parts and didn’t feel confident enough to quilt those so I will do that for her.  Last fall at the quilt retreat all the ladies got their names on a list, lining up for longarm quilting services when I returned this spring.  Started on that list today—ladies, do you know where you fall on the list—are your quilts ready??

We can hear the sandhill cranes all around us, this is a photo I took last year—this couple was doing a fine mating dance!

My dear husband is really good about providing me with blog material.  As I was mixing cookies in my handy Kitchen Aid heavy duty mixer today I remarked, “this mixer is another thing I miss when going south.”  My dear husband says to me, “well if you only took three pair of shoes instead of dozens, you could take your mixer.”  I considered throwing the mixer at him but it is too heavy!  Hey, a girl can’t have too many pairs of shoes, especially flip flops!

Life is good!