It’s Warm, It’s Wonderful

Poor Lonn—to have to get up at 3:30 am was a chore—we left for the airport in Bozeman at 4:15am and the rest of the travel day went like clockwork.  We landed early and departed early, our suitcase appeared as it was supposed to plus Brown’s Taxi Service arrived soon after we called. 

By 11:30 we were sitting in the shade of John and Brenda’s patio.  By 12:45pm we were at the Headquarters, a restaurant in Maricopa having a great lunch.  After lunch Brenda delivered me to the nail salon so I could have this:

Shiny new toes!

The rest of the day, the cowboys solved all the problems of the world--

of course with Emmi’s help!  I spent a little time unpacking then joined the cowboys to solve the world problems.

Even the horses got in on the act, wondering I’m sure, where their evening meal was???

At 6:30 pm, the cowboy and I were fading—our 3am wakeup call was starting to make us wish for our bed.  Tomorrow we will be raring to go again, all rested!  The weather is perfect, 80 degrees today!!  Thank you John and Brenda for all you’ve done for us—taxi service, motorhome sitting, parking spot—we appreciate it!!

One More Sleep

As Brenda always says, one more sleep.  Today was a very low key day—getting the house ready, emptying the refrigerator, having leftovers for lunch, packing last minute items—it was nice to do all these tasks in slow, easy motion.  We usually leave in the motorhome in the wee early morning hours.  It’s usually dark, snowing and bitterly cold, making us hurry and making us forget things.  It wasn’t snowing when we left home this afternoon but it was cold and the wind was howling. 

Lonn arrived about 4pm to retrieve us—we are staying the night at his house as we have to be at the airport earlier than early—he lives closer to Bozeman than we do!  He’s also cooking dinner, steaks on the grill!  I teasingly asked him what he was making for dinner thinking we would just snack, but no, he was cooking! 

He’s now giving Michael a lesson on the Garmin GPS we got at Christmas time:

So, tomorrow about 10:30am I will be exchanging my wool socks for flip flops plus I have a pedicure appointment at 2pm.  And, Brenda is cooking dinner, life in the desert is hard, isn’t it!!!

When The Snowplow Gets Stuck It’s Time To Leave

On our morning mud slog, walk we could see the next storm coming over the mountains.

It took its sweet time getting here but around 11am the snowstorm hit with a vengeance!  Good grief—it snowed 4-5 inches in one hour!!  Nat was going to venture up the previously dry Boulder Road and have lunch with us before our upcoming departure.  The snowstorm put a stop to those plans so Michael and I headed to town to take Nat to lunch.  On the way in to town we came across a privately owned snowplow/sanding truck which had slid off the road—I’d say it’s past time to leave!!  We made it to Nat’s and went to lunch at the Thirsty Turtle enjoying apple pie and ice cream back at Nat’s.  He’s sad to see us go but even sadder to see Emmi girl go I think!

Big Timber had no new snow—the Boulder road was a little better on the way home but the wind is now howling causing the snow to drift terribly.  I am so ready to write a blog that states, “it was 80 degrees today!!” And I bet you all are ready to read a blog that doesn’t even mention the weather!

Back home I tidied up the quilting studio, cleaning and oiling the longarm, covering it with plastic sheeting.  I must confess—I didn’t get any more UFO’s quilted Paulette!!  I did take one quilt top out of the cabinet, measured it and got the backing ready but that’s as far as I got. 

Michael has been practicing his low flying helicopter skills in the basement—keeping the helicopter just above the floor, practicing his hovering, etc.  His skills are improving—I didn’t hear any crashes today!

That’s it for our Sunday in Montana—departure for the south is drawing near!!

Oops and Saturday Up The Boulder

I’d say this was a big oops!!  Taken in 1949 or 1950, a semi truck loaded with a D8 Caterpillar bulldozer attempted to cross what is referred to as the “twelve mile bridge” and ended up in the river.  This is a major bridge on the Boulder Road and we travel across it every time we come and go to Big Timber.  There was a private bridge on the Ellison ranch which people used until this bridge was repaired.  Can you imagine how this truck driver must have felt!!!  As you can see, Michael was working on his history and photo project again today. 

The cowboy played helicopter pilot a couple times today—just a little too much breeze to be flying.  This afternoon late when the breeze died down he went out and had a case of pilot error again crash landing the helicopter way up the hill—he had to climb through hip deep drifts to get to the thing.

I spent most of my day cooking—fixed Pioneer Woman’s pot roast for our late lunch, made a pot of chili using a new recipe from Sunset Magazine and baked cookies for Nat.  I’ll let you know how the chili turns out!

I’ve started to pack up a few things getting ready for our departure—we are both really ready to see some sunshine!

Once A Cowboy Always A Cowboy And Helicopters

While at Nat’s the other evening, he gave Michael a box of old photographs.  We thumbed through the photos while sitting there with Nat—what amazing history was in that box.  My favorite photograph in all the ones I saw that evening was this one of my cowboy on a horse called Tom Thumb--

Isn’t he just the cutest cowboy you ever saw??  And still is on this Valentine’s Day!

Michael is sorting all these photographs plus others we had into groups and albums.  This afternoon he brought me the following two photographs which he doesn’t remember ever seeing—Michael’s mother Joy is the child sitting in the doorway and Michael’s grandmother Flora is in the middle.  The other woman is a cousin.  They lived in Detroit and were on a vacation to the Upper Peninsula. 

Michael can usually identify most any car but he is having trouble with this one—any ideas blogging world??

We don’t usually exchange Valentine’s Day gifts—we give each other cards, usually homemade and if we are near a Costco close to Valentine’s Day, Michael will buy me flowers—I got white roses this year:

Well, this year Michael’s been a little down considering all that been happening around here plus the miserable weather so I decided he needed a little treat--

He got a remote control helicopter—he had asked for one as a Christmas gift but I had all ready purchased the Garmin hand held GPS unit, so the helicopter had to wait.  Emmi hates the thing!!

Wait, come back, come back—can you see the black dot in the top center of the photo??  The cowboy was having a little trouble with the controls, the helicopter went out of sight of the controller and crashed on the other side of that steep hill.  So, we climbed the hill and spent quite a bit of time searching before we finally found the helicopter.  Operator error to say the least!!

Here’s a very short video of me trying to catch the dang thing with the camera--

It was a good Valentine’s Day here in Montana—and happy birthday Chuck!!

Dinner Out

It’s amazing how much snow the warm temps and wind melted--

Don’t get me wrong, we still have tons of snow—there are drifts around our place which will still be there when we get home in the spring!!  And the wind is still howling! 

I went to yoga and just as we were finishing up one of those 30 minute snow storms blew in and you should have seen the size of the flakes.  Thank goodness it only lasted less than 30 minutes and it might have gotten really deep around here!

Michael has a favorite coat he wears all the time when we are going out or to Billings, etc.  The zipper broke the other day and I told him I would fix the coat—zippers were never my strong suit—I used to make all my own clothes and I would rather make 10 buttonholes than put in a zipper.  Well, I ripped out the old and started on the new—got one side done before we left for the afternoon—not sure I’m totally happy with it, we will see.

This afternoon we drove over to Lonn’s for Michael to help him with a little project.  I baby sat all the dogs—the little guys were in need of a lap which of course didn’t make Ms. Emmi happy but I told her to just get over it!  After the guys came back we headed over the hill to Livingston and the Rib and Chop House for dinner.  It was delicious as usual!  Thanks Jim and Ellie!! 

Lonn and the girls are doing OK—each day brings a whole new set of feelings I am sure—LoraLee was such a presence in this family, she is missed so much.

A Trip To Billings

Off to Billings this morning for a good haircut before heading south and taking my chances with the unknown—can you tell I’m a slight bit picky about my hair?? We made a quick Costco run—not much food but some staples such as shampoo.  They did have beautiful strawberries and a container of those came home with us.  The cowboy also picked out some Valentine’s Day flowers for me too, white roses. 

And no, Bob, I wasn’t in emergent need of the restroom , I thought we were going out again in the truck but the little blizzard we had put a stop to those plans.  Paulette also commented on my un-quilted tops, wondering if they were indeed UFO’s.  Lots of New Year’s resolutions involved finishing off all those UFO’s—un-finished projects—well, I said in a blog I didn’t have any UFO’s—my quilt tops were finished just not quilted—so I guess that does make those quilt tops UFO’s!  I will get cracking Paulette, I promise but those warm sunny skies of AZ are calling—can’t you hear it??  Rod tells us the temp is 78 degrees—and yes Rod, quilting is a hobby for me, one I enjoy very much!

We also got new tires for the little VW bug while in Billings today—it was hard to find those size tires, our local tire shop where we usually buy all our tires couldn’t get these.  Not sure how old the tires on the VW were but—the people who gave me the VW towed it to Mexico behind a motorhome in 1971 with these tires!!!  Beryl and Jim accidently towed the VW while it was in gear, ruining the engine on that trip.  They brought it home, replaced the engine and never used it again except to run around the ranch.  So, those tires were older than 1971 plus Michael thinks the spare was original to the 1959 bug!

My gosh did the wind ever blow today—we were hit by gusts on the way home which literally blew us sideways.  Wind means higher temps although, 50 degrees this afternoon coming back to Big Timber.  Michael and his Dad talk about the winter of 1978-1979—it was a bad one with way more snow than usual.  We have several photos of the Boulder Road with 10 feet drifts in that winter.  Of course then they did not have the snow moving equipment available to us now.  In the last couple days there was an article in the Billings Gazette stating Billings has received more snow this year than in the winter of 1978-1979—so see, I do have something to complain about!!

And that’s it for our Wednesday in Montana—a good day spent with the cowboy!