Rip, Rip, Rip

You know that customer quilt I talked about last night—how the quilting design was eluding me???  Well, I got brave today and quilted two large squares of the quilt—after lunch I started ripping it all out.  Rip, rip, rip—2 hours later I am only a little over halfway finished, GRRRRR!

Thanks for all the comments about mattresses.  Some kind of memory foam mattress is probably in our future.  Don’t think I want a sleep number bed—have heard too many cons about those plus they are way expensive.  But, so is a Tempurpedic mattress. 

It was a beautiful Montana day—sunny, cool, with our requisite afternoon thunder boomer.  Nat came for lunch and I made spaghetti and homemade bread. 

Another not so news worthy day on the Boulder in Montana.

We Sold It

Well, the little toyhauler rolled down the driveway at about 6pm tonight.  A young couple with 2 small children from Billings purchased it—we hope they get many years of enjoyment from camping!  We had lots and lots of calls about the RV, I think those small bumper pulls are a demand item.

Not much else going on around this household today.  We took a walk, had lunch, etc.  Michael did some paperwork and I tried to quilt.  The current quilt I have on the frame has me stumped for inspiration—maybe some inspiration will strike while I sleep tonight????

Remember this photo

taken not quite two weeks ago—well, the baby birds have grown and we now have a nest full of baby birds—three of them I think:

What kind of mattress do you all sleep on??  No, I’m not just being nosy about your sleeping habits, we have a terrible mattress that is probably not even three years old.  We both wake up with aches and pains, me especially.  I hate to go out and buy another one that will not be comfortable either! 

A Very Quiet Day Around Here

Quiet and sad—no running, laughing, chasing Emmi, playing little girls, no conversations with my sweet niece, no teasing Eric and no getting a hard time back from Eric.  But, school starts in Arkansas in about a week so they had to go home.  We so enjoyed their visit.

Michael went over on the West Boulder to try and measure/design a 4-wheeler trail up the side of a mountain for a customer.  The process went well with him finding a slightly better route than before.

I ran down to Joe and Tammy’s house which they were so gracious to loan us for Niki and Eric’s stay.  Niki had gotten a good start on the sheet laundry brigade and I finished up.  It is so nice to have the use of that house for when we have guests.

Naps were in order after a lunch of leftovers, neither of us slept well last night, I was sitting on the couch at 1am reading my Kindle just because I couldn’t sleep. 

I did manage late this afternoon to get a customer quilt loaded onto the frame.

If you read Rollie and Gina’s blog you know they recently celebrated the birth of their first grandchild, Abigail Faith.  I made a quilt for the baby using the pattern my Grandmother used for making baby quilts.  It is adorable!

 

It was with sadness that we heard of the death of one of our RVing/blogging friends, Doug Dubrouillet.  We met Doug and JoAnn along with Jim and Ellie several years ago while staying at Doc Justin’s RV Park in Tucson, AZ.  Doug and JoAnn also joined us in the desert for a short time this past winter.  Doug’s health had been declining making it difficult for him to handle the RV and truck causing them to return to their park model in Florida.  Rest in peace Doug and may the wonderful memories the two of you made comfort you JoAnn. 

Their Last Day

Michael, Emmi and I took a nice walk this morning before it got too warm then we both started in on those icky old chores.  Ms Emmi got a bath which she sorely needed and I started cleaning the little toyhauler.  We’ve decided to sell it—reason reined and we knew we wouldn’t use the rig.  By the time I was finished cleaning it sure looked a lot better than when we bought it! 

Michael and Eric worked on the old truck again today with no success again unfortunately!  It’s making Michael grumpy!

For lunch we dined Cajun style thanks to Rollie and Gina.  When they came to visit they brought crawfish and the makings for etouffee.  We didn’t eat all the crawfish while they were visiting and today I used Gina’s recipe and made crawfish etouffee—it was an absolute hit even with the little girls!  Thank you Rollie and Gina!  We also had fried okra brought from Arkansas and salad.  I made focaccia bread for the first time in my life and it was a definite hit! 

This afternoon Niki, the girls and I drove over to the West Boulder to visit John Worth, the potter.  John makes beautiful pottery, my everyday dishes were made by John many years ago and I have many of his serving pieces.  Niki’s Grandmother, my Mom, gave Niki a set of John’s dishes as a wedding gift 14 years ago.  Niki needed some new pieces and I can always use pottery!  I love the square plates—I may have to get a set of those—square plates and bowls sure fit in a cabinet better!

Judy asked the other day what was the significance of the photos sitting on the new table runner.  The one there in this photo is our wedding day photo taken almost 17 years ago on the porch of our friends in an October snowstorm!  The other photo was one of my two nephews taken many years ago—they are almost grown now! 

The gang is taking off in the morning headed toward Arkansas and much warmer temps.  It will be awfully quiet and lonely around here!

We Had An Awesome Day

I was off early this morning to meet up with Niki and the gang in Livingston.  They spent yesterday in Yellowstone Park with my Mom and Chuck.  We left my little car in Livingston, loaded up the Tahoe and headed to Gardner.  With life jackets, helmets and tons of safety instructions we loaded onto a yellow school bus with a whole passel of other folks.  At the river we heard more safety instructions then hauled the boats down to the water.  Shortly after we paddled out into the river the fun began—I’ll let the photos (I did not take these photos, the rafting company did) tell the story:

   

The little girls, Leah and Elizabeth had a great time, too—the guide suggested Elizabeth “ride the bull".”  She sat up on the bow of the boat and held onto the ropes through some calm water and some minor rapids getting a full face of water at one time.  They both had a blast. 

It was just a fabulous day—our guide was great as were our boat mates, a family from Reno, NV.  After our river trip we headed back to Livingston—a little shopping for Eric at our friend Jordan’s store, early dinner at the Rib and Chop then home allowing the girls to take turns riding with me in the convertible. 

Michael elected to stay at home today—he doesn’t like cold water and let me tell you that water was cold—straight off a snow bank. 

The family enjoyed seeing my Mom and Chuck yesterday and did a whirlwind tour of parts of the Park. They saw this grizzly bear as they were heading to their hotel last night.

Just one of those perfect Montana summer days!

A Trip To Billings

We left home happily in our little bumble bee colored jeep this morning headed for Billings and a doctor’s appointment for Michael.  Emmi got to keep Nat company for the day.

The jeep performed great—we got about 18mpg which is what we expected, the air conditioner worked, we could listen to the radio and carry on a conversation—much better with a hard top!

Chicken cesar salads at Costco served as lunch and we then picked up a few items before heading home.  After a stop at Nat’s and a visit we started back up the Boulder.  It was 95 degrees in Billings today but up here near the mountains it is nice and cool.

Niki and her gang went over into Yellowstone Park this morning to visit my Mom—her Grandmother—and are spending the night in Gardner.  I’m going to meet them in Gardner tomorrow afternoon and we are doing a guided river rafting trip on the Yellowstone—fun! 

I purchased this dragonfly fabric when we had our first spring quilt retreat and am finally getting it finished—I love the fabric, makes me smile!

Anyone know what these red berries are??

A reader, Christopher, sent us an email last night containing several links to various sites for repair info regarding 1995 diesel trucks.  When Michael quickly read through the sites this morning he said, “these links are invaluable—send that guy a big thank you!”  So, Christopher, thank you again for the information!

The Girls Go Shopping

The kids didn’t come up here until about 11am so Michael and I just spent the morning doing this and that.  I started some laundry and did some clean-up from last night’s party.

For lunch we had ribs made using my Kansas City friend Kelly’s recipe.  The ribs were so, so good—falling off the bone!  We had a great salad and roasted potatoes too.  We eat really well around here, don’t we!

After lunch the “girls” headed off to town.  It didn’t take us long to shop all the good stores in Big Timber before heading back home.  Niki and the girls found a few treasures and I found some summery cocktail napkins. 

Michael has a 1995 Ford diesel pickup that several years ago ran one day then didn’t run the next.  He tried fixing the truck with no luck then took it to a mechanic who also couldn’t make the truck run.  Off and on Michael has dragged the truck into the garage, purchased various parts and tried to make it run with no success.  Today Eric got in the game—sure would be nice if they could make the thing run—it was a nice truck!

Leah and Elizabeth are back in the creek finding more bits of china and other glassware.  Elizabeth is also looking for gold—hope she finds some!!

Elizabeth was in a mood last night when we took this photo so we have to find a time to get one of her with me, too!