On The Mend

What do “they” say—colds usually run a weeks course—well, in my case it did.  Friday night I went to bed determined to go on the ATV ride to Date Creek on Saturday—nope, decided being out in the cold wind wasn’t a good idea and spent the day being low key.  Today, a week since I acquired these germs and I am almost back to my old self!

Saturday morning Michael, Emmi and the rest of the ATV gang minus Donna and Parker headed out to Date Creek—the link will take you to the blog I wrote in March, 2014 about a previous ride to this same area.  They rode over 50 miles and came home dusty, tired and happy!

Today Larry and Caryl dropped by—seems Caryl has a quilt show quilt which needed a resting place???  It’s a quilt she is entering in the Vulture Peak Patchers quilt show in late January; the quilt had been folded and Caryl needed a place to lay the quilt out flat so the creases would go away—hopefully.  The queen bed in the motorhome provided the resting place. We enjoyed a good visit with them—it’s been a while.

The cowboy started working on tax preparation today—UGH—time for Emmi and me to lay low!  Barry called and asked if Mike was busy—I said, “NO, come get him, take him away, anything, I will pay you!”  But Barry was no help, he just brought his CanAm over to place it in our enclosed cargo trailer while they take a little side trip in the motorhome. 

Barry and Donna’s little poodle Parker has our place figured out.  When Michael goes out the house door, he frequently leaves it ajar—Parker is fed on a schedule and he has figured out that Emmi is not, her food dish is always full and the door leading to that dish is frequently open!  Barry and Parker arrive, I am sitting in the chair and see this black flash go across the floor—it’s Parker heading for Emmi’s dish where he manages to grab a couple bites before I stop him.  I laughed and laughed—it’s amazing how smart these dogs are!

A good day in Arizona—I need to start painting again, the rest of the house is waiting!

Happy New Year

We wish all our friends and family a spectacular 2016!

A little warmer day here at North Ranch with lots of sunshine—all the Christmas decorations are down and stored plus the cowboy removed the remaining used cabinets from our front porch—sure am glad that blue tarp is gone!

The activities center was in use yesterday and last night for the New Year’s Eve party so yoga was postponed until today—in spite of it being New Year’s Day we had about 12 participants and I received a present—thank you Chris!!

We stayed home last night—not unusual for us—and were asleep by 9pm leaving the New Year to arrive without our help.  The rest of the ATV gang danced up a storm at the North Ranch party—Happy New Year to all our readers—we appreciate you!

Back In Arizona

Travel by air is such an incredibly horrible experience these days—packed in sardine cans along with 150 other fish and you have the breeding ground for tons of germs just looking for a host!  Michael was ill within two days of our arrival in Montana and is just now starting to feel better.  I avoided the airplane germs but couldn’t resist hugging/smooching Lora Elizabeth—well, you know what they say about kids—“germ factories” and Lora donated some of her germs leaving me with the worst head cold.

Lonn, Katie, Laci and Lora Elizabeth came over to our house Tuesday just after noon to retrieve us.   After getting the house all buttoned up we headed over to their house to spend the afternoon.  Braving the snowy/icy roads, Lonn had us at the airport in plenty of time to catch our flight—which due to the weather turned into a long wait.  We were to have departed at 7:37pm but it was after 9pm before we taxied down the runway landing us in Mesa just after 11pm.  We grabbed a quick McDonalds and headed out across the desert with me driving—it was a loooong trip home—we were in our driveway right at 2am—ugh!—and asleep shortly therafter. 

We enjoyed some computer time this morning—we both suffered withdrawal while in Montana—we were missing our DSL!  Took a short walk with Emmi not getting too far from my chair after that.  Donna so kindly made us lunch which Barry delivered through the door wearing a gas mask (not really, but I bet he was thinking about it! )  It was delicious Donna!

It is good to be back—the temps are on the cool side but the sun is shining and the ground is not white!

It's Still Winter

Yep, it is still winter in Montana, 8 degrees this morning when I started the coffee and lots of snow on the ground. 

Christmas Day we spent with Lonn and the rest of the family.  The majority of them including baby Lora are under the weather with nasty head colds so it was a quiet but very enjoyable day.

As you can tell, Lora Elizabeth was not up to par--her little cheeks were so red--her Mom wasn't feeling the greatest, either!

Aunt Katie and Uncle Michael were the only healthy ones of the bunch--but hanging out with that little germ factory may change that!  Katie and Michael are practicing--we are looking forward to the birth of their baby in late April!

Lora loved the little rocking horse and even tried to give her baby a ride--

Katie cooked Christmas dinner and the food was fabulous--that girl can cook a turkey and I am not a fan of turkey!  We spent the afternoon visiting, watching Christmas movies and playing cribbage before heading back over the snowy hills to our home.

Saturday we hung out at home--Michael has been under the weather since we got here and "knock on wood" I am still healthy.  I worked with the little quilt most of the day and have made great progress!

Today, Sunday, we came in to visit Nat and to meet our friends Terry and Jill for lunch.  The roads are treacherous--snowy/icy/drifted--makes you think twice about getting out!  Our time in Montana is drawing to a close--by the time you read the next blog we will be back in sunny Arizona!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve--my Dad's birthday--was always celebrated with my grandparents when I was a child.  My Dad was the oldest and only male child and like my little brother (my 6 foot 4 inch only brother) my Dad was special to his mother and she always wanted to make his birthday dinner.  We were allowed to open the grandparent presents at that dinner so it made waiting for Christmas Day morning a little easier.  I have beautiful, fond memories of my younger year Christmas seasons.  

We've been coming and going from our house to town, visiting with Nat--the roads aren't too bad--we are in town at his house today, celebrating Christmas Eve.  I made a wonderful pot roast, garlic mashed potatoes and green peas.  When shopping for groceries in our little not so great local grocery store I found some dinner rolls that have turned out to be delicious--wish I had purchased more!  After I post the blog we will have cherry cheesecake pie for dessert.

A while back I wrote a blog about losing my quilting mo-jo and it hasn't come back--but being in Montana must have piqued my interest again--I cut out and partially pieced a small quilt yesterday--I might even get it finished and quilted before heading back to Arizona.

We have a deer carcass just below our house on the hillside--don't know what happened to the critter but this beautiful bald eagle was dining on the dead dear this morning.  

We wish all our friends and family a wonderful Christmas!!  

Montana

Monday morning early had us back at the airport after an almost sleepless night in our fancy/schmancy hotel room—it might be a new hotel but the bed was awful!  The air conditioner sounded as if a freight train was coming through the room.  We left Mesa right on time arriving in Bozeman, Montana around 10am—our chauffeur, Lonn was waiting. 

The roads are good/bad in places but our driveway was plowed thanks to Lonn.  He dropped us off at home, we turned up the heat and then headed back into Big Timber in our truck.  Nat was anxious to see his, “little black friend,” as he calls Emmi. 

This morning I had the pleasure of going to yoga with my Montana yoga ladies—it was great to see all of them and the yoga was outstanding as usual!  Then it was off to Nat’s again—I had cooked a big pot of vegetable beef soup and his favorite cookies.  The wind is blowing now which means the roads may get even dicier! 

Saw two bald eagles on the way into town.

We are not activating our DSL or landline while home so blog posts may be sporadic.  The Verizon MiFi device we have just barely has a 3G signal at our house—it comes and goes so posting blogs is impossible, especially with photos.  Will post when we come into town.

We wish all our friends and family a very merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

OK, that's it--when we have settled after the holidays, I am going to work on switching my blog to Word Press--I typed this whole thing in Live Writer and it would not publish, my last one would not publish, either and I had to cut/paste into Blogger.  I'm done.

Great ATV Ride

Do you ever just go ahead and plan something fun although you know you have way too much to do?  Such was my case Saturday—by the time you read this blog we will be back in Montana for the Christmas holiday—we had lots to do in preparation for our Montana trip but chose to join the gang for an ATV ride on Saturday—and a great one it was!  Update—I had pre-scheduled this blog to post for Sunday evening and we headed to the Mesa Gateway airport where Allegiant Air and the Bozeman weather put a hitch in our plans!  Our flight was canceled and we are tucked into a gorgeous, new Courtyard Marriott near the airport—going to try again in the morning.  Such is travel this time of year!

We trailered the ATVs to a OHV staging area off Highway 74 near Lake Pleasant—huge staging area and camping is allowed.  Any size RV (even ours) would fit if you can tolerate the dust and noise—it was a weekend day so the area was probably busier than it would be during the week.  There are miles and miles of trails for dirt bikes, ATVs and jeeps.  The riding was challenging at times!

This is Tom and Sandy coming up one particularly steep/rutted spot.

We rode in the washes and across the ridges with beautiful views—we could even see Lake Pleasant at a distance.

Last year Geri and Larry introduced us to “muffler cooking.”  Wrap food in aluminum foil and place it on the muffler—by lunch time you have a toasted sandwich or a warm hot dog, etc.  Today I made a little aluminum foil trail for some of the tasty leftovers left from Friday night—what a treat to have a warm lunch on a chilly day!!

Brisket, calico beans, wild rice/sausage and tater/tot casserole. 

We will be in Montana for several days—Christmas is coming!

I’ve finally resolved my Live Writer issues but am still not convinced I will continue with this program.  When life settles again after the holidays I am going to explore Word Press a little more.