Warmer Yet

Snow is melting fast around here, drip, drip, drip.  We warmed up to almost 60 degrees by mid afternoon.  Our first thought this morning was to take a convertible drive but Michael decided he would rather stay at home today—so stay at home we did.

I finished up some quilting for myself—a fall table runner and three little Halloween jack-0-lanterns.  I have a new book on the iPod—The Appeal, by John Grisham making the time go by quickly while I’m quilting.

Michael worked on various projects out in the garage—gates, quilting tables—he’s been busy, we both know our time for southern departure is drawing close—time to get stuff done!

Leftover ribs with oven fries for lunch and no dessert—time to get back on the lesser eating bandwagon!!  No more lemon bars or ice cream for a while!

I’ve been trying some of The Bayfield Bunch Al’s Picasa photo editing tips with success—I never knew some of those features existed until I started prowling around.

A nice, peaceful Sunday at home!

Happy Birthday Michael

Today is my dear husband Michael’s birthday—may we enjoy many, many more birthdays’ together!  He opened Danny and Ann’s card yesterday—it contained an Amazon gift card.  Today he received money from his Dad and new slippers from me:He’s also had birthday phone calls—I think he has had a very good day.

Nat came for lunch and I made beef stew and cornbread.  We had some of those leftover lemon bars for dessert—YUM!  He and Michael spent a lot of time after lunch talking about old stories.

On the quilting frame today—a table runner for me, one which I made last October at the quilt retreat!  A little behind on my stuff aren’t I but isn’t that always the case.

We were just a little nippy this morning at 15 degrees with two inches of new snow.  But today has been a beautifully sunny day and the snow is melting fast.

Tonight our friends Jeane and Steve invited us to dinner at the Grand with Jill and Terry to celebrate Michael’s birthday.  A wonderful evening with good friends—yes, I would say my Michael had a very good birthday!

Vacation Is Over

Breakfast, a walk in the brisk air, suitcase packing—that was our morning.  About 10:30 Ann and I headed to town—we had a party to attend!

Today was my quilting buddy Gay’s birthday—a significant one—let’s just say she now carries a government insurance card.  Our friend Mary had planned a surprise birthday party and Gay was surprised!!  To say the least.  High school friends, family and quilting buddies all gathered at the Grand to wish Gay a very happy birthday.  A very fun time!

As the party was ending Danny arrived in town in the yellow jeep to retrieve Ann and their rental car.  Vacation is over and it was time to see them off to Bozeman and the airport.  We so enjoyed having them here and the house was awfully quiet when I got home! 

I spent the afternoon getting some tasks out of the way, cleaning up the house a little and playing with Emmi.  Michael was out in the garage working on the new longarm table most of the afternoon.

Lonn called tonight, “guess what I’m doing?”  When I couldn’t guess he said, “sitting here watching elk wander across the county road and through our driveway, oh, and there goes a bull, too.”  The elk were in hiding when we were all over there last night but decided to show themselves tonight I guess!

Another Quiet Day

Danny and Ann wanted to go up to Natural Bridge this morning to try and get some photos to use on their Christmas cards.  So, after a late breakfast, off we went--the scenery was gorgeous—snow on the mountains, beautiful river. 

Nat had called early and was having trouble with the thermostat in his horseshoe pitching room—Michael went into town and fixed the thermostat doing some banking for us while he was there. 

After lunch Danny and Ann went out to count deer.  Danny is a hunter—loves to look for wildlife and to hunt.  They are just amazed at the number of deer we have here—today between the East Boulder Road and town—19 miles, Danny counted 238 deer in the hayfields next to the highways. 

Tonight we had the pleasure of going over to Lonn and LoraLee’s—to look for more wildlife.  I made Brenda’s cheesy potatoes (Brenda—they all loved them!!) and a salad—we took steaks to grill—another delicious meal.  For dessert we had sour cream lemon bars that were so yummy!!!  But the wildlife didn’t cooperate—after dinner Lonn took Danny, Ann and Michael up the mountain to find elk—usually there are dozens, tonight only three cows.  Oh, well, Danny and Ann said the views were worth the drive!

Another wonderful day in Montana.  Some of our commenters asked if it was early for snow here—nope, Michael has seen snow every month of the year.  In my eighteen years living here the only two months I haven’t seen snow were July and August in some years. 

Our Fire Season Ended Today

When we woke at 6am this morning it was to the sound of rain which by the time we got up turned to snow.  About 6-7 inches fell and more fell and melted during the day.  I would say our fire season ended today—halleluiah!!  One downside to the moisture—our power was out for about 5 hours—the trees still have leaves and the branches became heavy with snow probably falling on a power line and causing the outage.

Tonight Michael and I just got back in from taking Emmi for a walk—not a nice evening weather wise out there—windy, snowing again and rather chilly!

Danny and Ann gave in to boredom with no electricity and drove into Big Timber to do a little shopping.  Michael retreated to the shop for a some work and after the power came back on I did such exciting things as unload the dishwasher, wash and dry clothes, etc. 

For dinner tonight we had Gina’s taco soup and cornbread—a perfect dinner for wintery weather. 

Sunset a couple nights ago. 

Tomorrow is Danny and Ann’s last full day here—maybe we can think up something exciting to do?? 

Independence

In the late 1800’s, early 1900’s, Independence, MT was a booming gold rush town.  Today it is a collection of fallen log structures—it would be wonderful if those buildings could talk.  Independence is about 30 miles from  Natural Bridge (the waterfalls where we take all visitors).  Thirty miles of teeth jarring, bone chattering, jeep crawling awful road.  It took us one and a half hours to go one five mile stretch of the road.  We had a ball—the weather was perfect, the scenery beautiful, great picnic lunch—what more could we ask for??  Well, Danny and Ann would have preferred catching a fish or two to losing their hooks to the Boulder River rocks.

We thought about continuing on to Blue Lake, about another five miles but our teeth and bones couldn’t handle any more—we pointed the jeep toward home.

Back home we warmed the ribs I cooked yesterday afternoon on the grill, roasted some potatoes from the garden and sautéed some green beans.  Dessert was strawberry and vanilla ice cream.  We eat very well around here!

Life is really good.  Our hearts go out to our little friend Harley who with her parents Bradley and Kerri have visited us here in Montana—she is 10 years old, fell off the monkey bars at school today and broke one wrist and the other arm—she has casts on both arms—OUCH!

 

Such A Good Day

On the spur of the moment last night we decided to hike to the West Boulder meadows today and what a good decision it turned out to be!!  One of the most beautiful places on earth looks a little different now.  In 2006 a forest fire roared through this scenic, remote wilderness spot changing the landscape for our lifetime!

 In 2005 one year before the fires.

And today with a little smoke thrown in from the most recent fires.

The trail is one of the easier hikes in our area, three miles in to the meadows, three miles back out.  Parts of the trail once you reach the bridge are quite steep causing lots of huffing and puffing!  Emmi went along and did very well until we headed home—there is no shade and it was warm—she ended up catching a ride in Danny’s backpack!! 

We enjoyed our picnic lunch by the river and we all remarked—although the area is burned and forever changed for us, it is still breathtakingly beautiful.

A glorious day!  Michael elected to stay home and complete some more winterizing chores—blowing out another sprinkle zone, draining the pump and tank we were using as a fire engine and doing some repair work to our wood burning stove downstairs.  Our weather pattern is forecast to change significantly Wednesday—let’s hope so!

Danny and Ann went to town when we got back from our hike to get fishing licenses—we are off on another adventure tomorrow!

A wonderful day in Montana!