Missing In Action

After missing the deadline by 10 years and being hounded to death by various healthcare providers I gave up and had my first and only colonoscopy Thurday.  First and only!

We’ve had some beautiful fall days lately and today was too lovely to stay indoors.  We loaded Emmi and ourselves into the truck heading toward Fishtail and Nye, Montana.  We were a little early for fall color but the scenery still takes your breath away! 

These mountains are part of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness area and are about two hours from our home. 

We saw deer and ducks—no other critters, dang it!

In Fishtail, Montana—don’t blink, you will miss it—there is a restaurant called The Cowboy Bar.  Today we enjoyed one of the best meals ever—both of us ordered the prime rib sandwich.  When the waitress brought the meals we were amazed—a huge slab of beef on each plate with homemade french fries—the meat was fork tender and delicious!  Well worth the whopping price of $11 they charged for the sandwich!!!!

After lunch we headed out the road to Mystic Lake which is located in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness accessible only by foot or horseback.  There are two other lakes before reaching the end of the driveable road—Emerald and West Rosebud.  Huge mountains iced in snow, mountain lakes, a hint of fall color and 60 degrees equals a perfect day!

On the way home through the town of Absaroka the homecoming parade was in progress—not sure why those girls were on the sidewalk with their horses but they sure were taking a lot of ribbing from the football guys on the floats.

A perfect day!

Quiet Days At Home

Lots of rain overnight with snow on the foothills and mountains surrounding us.  Our temps haven’t been above 40 degrees today—we’ve had a fire in the wood burning stove all day.  Not totally unusual for September but certainly not the norm—we will take the moisture, every little drop.

Cousin Pat left on Saturday morning.  The cowboy and I have enjoyed a couple quiet days at home—he has been painting and I’ve been quilting.  We’ve taken walks every day and I’ve practiced some yoga, Emmi has chased her new ball all over the yard—here she is with the old, almost destroyed ball.

Like Al and Kelly, we are starting to plan our migration.  I have a girlfriend trip on the horizon and a yucky medical procedure coming up—once those things are behind us, the packing will commence. 

Life is good!

Quilts Finished, Visitor, Little Indians

A friend has started a new website and while searching for photos for that website, I ran across this one--two wild little Indians—now all grown up, my nephews.  Trenton the oldest is now 22 and Clayton is 20.  When we lived in the other ranch house, my brother Ross, his wife Vicky and the two boys came to visit.  Michael thought the boys would enjoy playing in the teepee but they were scared to death of it—they were sure the “Indians” were coming to get them! 

A Facebook message about lunch time led to our visitor for the night or two—Michael is an only child as was his mother.  His only living relatives are three first cousins and four second cousins—no one else.  I on the other hand have 14 first cousins, 23 second cousins, four aunts and two uncles.  Michael’s cousin Pat was in the neighborhood and came to visit—here are the two “old” guys looking through family history.  Pat brought Michael a diary written by their grandfather—pretty amazing!!

Here are some photos of the quilt I just finished for my dear friend Jeane—it was a small one and the custom quilting was fun—I love this one and almost didn’t give it back!!

 

 

Here is a link to our good friend’s new website—Terry is an artist—he takes new stuff and makes it look old, he takes old cabins and brings them back to life and he takes new buildings and makes them look as if they’ve been around for centuries.  TBaird Construction—check it out! 

A gorgeous day in Montana, a little breezy but sunny! 

And one happy Brooks!!!  Isn’t he adorable!

A Good Day

Tuesday Michael had a routine doctors appointment in Billings—some days we wonder if we should just move to Billings!  We enjoyed lunch at Jake’s, made a really quick (cheap) stop at Costco and were back at Nat’s by 2pm—pretty good for us!  Our stop at Petsmart for dog food/toys/treats made us think the dog eats better than we do—geez!! 

Wednesday Michael was off to town hoping to finish Nat’s shower project—he was successful!  I stayed home and finished a quilt for Jeane—it is absolutely stunning if I do say so myself! 

The UPS man brought me a mystery package this afternoon—beautiful flowers—but no card.  When I called the company they refused to divulge the sender’s name.  My Mom called later in the afternoon and I asked her if she had by any chance sent me flowers—“no, but I know who did.”  Chuck sent them to me as a thank you for being in Arkansas with he and Mom during his illness.  Made my heart feel good!—and it didn’t hurt they arrived on my birthday!

A chilly morning turned into a windy but beautiful day.This time of year we usually see lots of bear scat loaded with these chokecherry seeds—we had a bumper crop of chokecherries this year and have seen not one bear and only one pile of poop—what’s up with that??

Lots of birthday phone calls, Facebook messages and cards—it’s not so bad to be one year older and one year closer to social security!

Hope You Had A Great Labor Day Weekend

Did you know the first Labor Day celebration was held in New York in 1882 with a picnic and a parade?  Oregon was the first state to set aside an official holiday, in 1887, and in 1894, President Grover Cleveland and Congress made it a legal federal holiday for everyone. Outside the US, especially in Europe, the first of May, also known as May Day, is the day the labor force is honored.

We are usually in the midst of beautiful weather this time of year but not this Labor Day—we even saw a little snow Sunday when we took a drive to Neihart, MT to visit friends Royal and Nancy.  Please excuse the blurry photos!  As we traveled along yesterday, there appeared to be a mass exodus of RVs heading for home and who could blame them—it started raining Saturday night and was literally pouring rain on Sunday—not good camping weather!

And not good weather for the annual Neihart Days celebration.  Those folks are hardy and strung tarps in among the trees to give shelter from the rain but it was dang cold too!  Royal is a world class pig roaster and provides the meat for this yearly party—we sampled a bite or two before heading for home.

It was back to town for the cowboy today where he labored on Labor Day—making good progress with the shower install.  Emmi and I held down the fort here at home.  I’m custom quilting a small table topper quilt for my friend Jeane—custom quilting is hard on the neck and shoulders so I take frequent breaks and Emmi is glad—more ball playing!

Again, not much blog worthy going on around here.

Pop Goes The Weasel

While making the bed a couple mornings ago, I heard a noise at the glass door and looked up to see some sort of critter jumping at the window.  He jumped and jumped—I ran to get the camera stepping out onto the deck in hopes the little guy was still around.  He was but my goodness he moved fast—thus the blurry photos.  A weasel which Michael tells me is a good thing to have around—cute, isn’t he!

The shower enclosure was finally delivered on Friday morning.  Michael has started working on the project and hopes to be finished soon.

I’ve stayed home and tackled projects—detailing Nat’s truck which we purchased from him as he’s not driving any longer, mowing the grass (could I hope this is the last time for the season???), laundry, vacuuming dust bunnies and even quilting.  Sarah brought me a bunch of tomatoes the other evening when we all went to dinner—they were ripening faster than I could eat them.  The cool weather made me hungry for “comfort food” so I used all the tomatoes in a batch of spaghetti sauce—YUM!  Homemade macaroni and cheese was on the to do list also.

Not much blog worthy going on around here—just normal stuff. 

Fall Weather Is Approaching

And none too soon as far as I’m concerned.  Since my internal thermostat went wacko I am very intolerant of the heat and it’s been dang hot around here the last few days—in the 90’s!  And remember, we don’t have air conditioning!  We open the doors and windows at night letting the cooler air circulate through the house.  In the mornings around 9am I shut the doors and windows—the house stays very cool until about 2pm when the southern sun starts to shine into the house.  By about 5pm, it’s HOT in here!  I’ve been tempted to purchase one of those portable air conditioners but we have so few really hot days in Montana it just isn’t justified.  Now, if I lived in Billings where it was boiling hot today, I would have to have air conditioning!

Tomorrow is our last warm day then we are heading in to a long stretch of 50’s and 60’s—heavenly!

Today we made a Billings run—I had a dentist appointment which was a rude awakening!  I needed a cleaning plus it was way past time for a full set of x-rays.  Seems I need some dental work as in a LOT of dental work meaning a LOT of $$$$$$$!!

In Nat’s home there is a walk in shower in the master bath and a tub/shower combo in the guest bath.  His companion, Barb, uses the master bedroom suite and Nat decided it would be safer for him if another walk in shower was installed in the guest bath for his use.    The cowboy, aka his son, will be the carpenter/plumber, etc.  So—Amazon to the rescue!  Michael ordered the shower enclosure from Amazon Prime on August 19 with the understanding that shipping/handling might take an additional 2-3 days longer than the usual Prime 2 day shipping.  It’s a large package weighing almost 300lbs and was sent by a freight carrier, not UPS.  The original carrier turned it over to a local small time carrier in Billings.  They received the package on Monday and still haven’t delivered it.  So yesterday and today I rattled cages—the shower enclosure will be delivered tomorrow morning and Amazon issued a $75 credit to our account for the inconvenience!  That’s another reason why I love shopping with Amazon!

Wednesday evening we traveled to Livingston to have dinner with Sarge and Sarah at the Rib and Chop House.  The owners of this Wyoming/Montana chain of restaurants are Baton Rouge natives—where all the massive flooding has occurred.  On August 31, the owners of these fabulous, incredibly busy restaurants donated 25% of their sales to the Baton Rouge, Louisiana clean up effort.  We had a marvelous meal and great conversation!  Thanks Sarah for the tomatoes—they are delicious!

The forest fire smoke creates some beautiful sunsets!