Sunshine Is A Wonderful Thing

A beautiful sunny day—a little cool—but sunshine all day!  Michael worked hard on his road remodeling job and got the area around the house and garage looking very nice today.

I spent the day getting ready for our dinner party tonight.  We feasted!—Pecan Chicken, homemade macaroni and cheese, orange marmalade glazed carrots and asparagus.  For dessert I had made a chocolate swirl cheesecake and did I remember to take photos of anything, nope! 

It was good to see Jill, Terry, Steve and Jeane.  We always enjoy the company of these two couples who have been Michael’s friends forever and mine since I came here. 

Jill brought me some “spring” tonight.  Our friend Kelli and her daughter Bonnie have recently opened a small greenhouse and their opening day was today.  Jill stopped in and picked out a basket of colorful, springy flowers.  I think I will keep the basket inside for a while considering our weather!  Jill also contributed some really great appetizers to our dinner, too—cheeses with crackers and a corn and black bean dip that was so good I could have eaten the entire bowl!  Must be all the cold weather making me hungry, you think??

Jeane and Steve brought us another bottle of that really good wine we enjoyed this winter.  The original bottle was a gift from George and Shirley and we shared it with Jeanie and Ray down in Arizona.  It was just as good as we remembered! 

Tomorrow is Easter, may we all remember the reason we celebrate and give thanks.

Look What The Easter Bunny Brought

Well, maybe not the Easter bunny but the mailman—don’t they look like beautiful colored Easter eggs??  Gay, see that lime green, that’s for you!

What a nasty day in our neighborhood weather wise—the road going to Big Timber was icy and slick this morning.  The temp never got above 30 degrees, the wind is out of the north and bitter cold, just yuck!

I had a massage this morning—oh, what pleasure!  We did a little grocery shopping and hit the library before coming home.

I’ve spent the afternoon cooking—I made cheese straws—something I had never tried before and oh, my are they ever good and addictive!  I have a chocolate swirl cheesecake in the oven.  Jeane and Steve along with Jill and Terry are coming for dinner tomorrow night and I’m getting a head start!

Emmi hasn’t even wanted to go outside today it’s so cold! This was not our blue sky today!

Ripping and Tearing

Ripping and tearing in more ways than one.  Michael ripped out the old cattle guard today, dug out the concrete supports and moved the whole thing down the driveway about 100 yards.  We are so thankful we have machinery for these momentous tasks!

I on the other hand was doing ripping of a different sort.  LoraLee brought me a pattern for making the cutest fabric baskets and I attempted to begin one of these baskets yesterday afternoon late.  Well, whoever wrote that pattern needs to go back to pattern writing school!!!  Thus I was using my seam ripper today, a lot!!!  Now, after talking to LoraLee I think I am on the right track.

Due to all the snow and rain coupled with the dirt work we are swimming in a sea of mud—poor Emmi gets almost a complete bath every time she comes back inside.

These three cranes were sure fussing this morning—bet they are having a harder time finding something to eat with all this snow!

This is a photo of our next rain/snow storm rolling in over the mountains to the west.

Cattle Guard Walking Dog

Jazz our first schnauzer taught herself how to walk cattle guards and never went around one.  Many people found this remarkable—Greg, the guy who owns Lake Medina RV Resort outside San Antonio thought that was the greatest thing—a cattle guard walking dog.  Emmi has expressed no desire to learn how to do this trick until yesterday—we taught her how to walk a cattle guard!

OK, so we got a foot of snow, today we woke to clear, sunny skies and a temperature of 11 degrees—that’s Fahrenheit for our Canadian friends!!!  11 degrees!!!  Guess I won’t be having any tulips this year and my day lilies may have gotten frosted, too—time will tell. 

Shirley came up and took a longarm quilting machine lesson this afternoon—she caught on quickly learning where all the buttons were.  In no time at all she will be quilting her own quilts.

Michael worked on his road/cattle guard moving project today and changed the oil in our Kawasaki mule. 

The trees in the front yard had icicles hanging really making them look like Christmas trees.

Well, Well, Well

Remember the weather forecast on last night’s blog—woke to about 8 inches of snow and by the time it stopped snowing we had 12 inches of new snow on the ground—so Al I really don’t think you can complain about a measly little 4 or 5 inches!  It looked like winter instead of spring around here this morning.  Just before lunch time the sun came out!!  We now have rivers of melting snow along with a sea of mud!

Michael plowed snow and friends dropped off quilts for quilting.  Gay brought me the most cheerful, bright little quilt for longarming—it will make me smile! 

After lunch I tackled a task I have been putting off all winter.  Michael gave me an IPod Touch for Christmas—I wanted to download library audiobooks (free) and listen to them on the IPod while quilting.  While in Arizona and using the Verizon aircard with its 5GB cap I didn’t dare download anything—when I downloaded ITunes, it put us close to halfway on our 5GB limit and we were not even halfway through the month. 

Today was the day—I got started just after lunch and finally was listening to an audiobook at 6pm!!!!  What a complicated process Apple!!!!  Do you think you could have made it more complicated Mr. Jobs????  The next time it won’t be so hard but I sure struggled this afternoon although I never lost my temper which is rare when I am dealing with computer issues!  Now, I just have to learn how to download music, too.

OH, my—has anyone read ' target=_blank>Heaven Is For Real???  I noticed the little book in Costco yesterday, read the back and decided this might be the book I needed to read right now.  I read it last night—the whole thing, now I am going to go back and re-read the book.  The book is a true story—a not quite 4 year old has emergency surgery and ends up in heaven sitting in the lap of Jesus.  When the little boy comes out of surgery and begins to recover he tells his parents things that he couldn’t have known otherwise unless he truly was in heaven.  I loved the book and got such comfort from it. 

This robin is wondering why in the world she/he is in Montana in a snowstorm!

“I know it’s in here somewhere, I just know it is!!!”  Michael would throw a snowball and Emmi would chase it then bury her head in all that snow looking for the “ball.”

A good day in the life of the Clark’s!

And Yet Another Trip To Billings

Left bright and early this morning dropping Emmi off at Nat’s and then on to Billings for a routine test for Michael.  It was snowing again when we left and here I think is the reason for our mood funk:

”Winter Storm Warning remains in effect until midnight MDT
Tuesday night...
A Winter Storm Warning for heavy snow remains in effect until
midnight MDT Tuesday night.
* Impacts: reduced visibility and snow packed roads will make
travel difficult and hazardous.
* Timing: snow will be heavy tonight and Tuesday. The snow will
taper off Tuesday night.
* Snow accumulation: some areas will accumulate 12 to 18 inches
of snowfall by Tuesday evening.
Precautionary/preparedness actions...
A Winter Storm Warning means a significant amount of snow is
expected or occurring. Strong winds are also possible. This will
make travel very hazardous or impossible.”

Karen and Steve are also dealing with a winter storm in Wisconsin—we sympathize!

We had lunch at Jake’s where I enjoyed some really good fish tacos and Michael had his usual burger.  A quick stop at Costco along with a couple more errands and we were back in Big Timber by 2pm. 

I purchase meat at Costco, divide into smaller packages then freeze—got all that taken care of when we got home, now I am sitting in front of the fire looking on the internet for somewhere warm to be! 

Maybe a couple photos of the desert will improve my mood!

Sunday In Montana

Rain during the night and snowing when we got up, sunshine by day’s end.  Tonight the weather gurus are predicting 6-8 inches of snow—I can hardly wait!

Started up the longarm today and quilted some on a customer quilt.  Also started quilting a Christmas wall hanging I made about a year ago.  It was good to be using the longarm again!  I have a quilt retreat coming up the end of this month and a stack of projects I need to cut out for the retreat.  There is usually a lot going on at the retreats—people laughing and talking, coming and going—I prefer to doing my cutting at home where I can think without distraction—wouldn’t want to ruin perfectly good fabric now would we??

Nat came for lunch today and we enjoyed a great meal—filet mignon steaks, garlic mashed potatoes, fresh bread and fruit salad.  We all ate too much but it was so good!  Nat and Michael spent the greater part of the afternoon hashing out old history.

My friend and quilting buddy Shirley shares her old magazines with me—she subscribes to a lot of magazines.  I am slowly making my way through the stack she brought the other day.  Found this quote in the November, 2010 Country Living:  “Clutter is the poetry of our homes.  It is an intimate view that is not always perfect—a few dishes in the sink, books piled next to the bed.  Everything in its place may give a certain satisfaction, but a lived-in room exudes comfort and warmth.”  This quote was taken from a book by Mary Randolph Carter—A Perfectly Kept House Is The Sign of a Misspent Life.

Now, I really, really like the title of that book and the quote—I think it may become my mantra!  Clutter is a good thing, right?? 

We took Emmi for a walk this late afternoon and noticed the neighbor’s feeding their cows

Have really been having a conversation with myself—I received an email from the ranch where Emmi was born.  They have had another litter of puppies from Emmi’s parents.  No, I do not need another dog but the thought has crossed my mind—better not go look at them, if they look anything like Emmi did as a baby, I’m sunk!