Happy Mother’s Day and Mike McFall You Won’t Believe What Came Home With Us

Last year Mother’s Day was spent in Texas and I got to spend the day with my dear Mom.  This year she was far, far away in Arkansas and I missed her.  We did talk on the phone and I sent her flowers.  Her Mother’s Day present from us is my arrival in AR around the end of the month!  Happy Mother’s Day to all your Moms out there!

As you all know we’ve been looking for a truck so we could haul this truck camper to Alaska.  Well, the pool of trucks for sale in our price range and specifications was poor in Montana to say the least.  We would find the perfect truck, call and be told, “oh, by the way, the truck has 300,000 miles on it!”  Saturday just before lunch Michael came in and said, “I’ve been thinking.”  Oh, no, red flag waving—I hate it when those words come out of his mouth!!! 

His thoughts were if we couldn’t find a truck why not start looking for a good Class C motorhome to take to Alaska.  After Saturday lunch I sat down at my computer and even though I wasn’t enthralled with the idea of a Class C (I could still remember Al’s blog about falling out of the top bunk) started looking.  The first ad which caught my eye read, “Foretravel—1990—Many Improvements.”  Oh, my!!!  Absolutely gorgeous inside—new carpet, new captains chairs, sofa recovered in soft creamy, buttery leather, new flat screen TV’s, new mattress, new shower door, walnut cabinetry, the list went on and on. 

Michael looked at the ad and he too was intrigued—the only problem, it was in Missoula, almost five hours away.  But, what else did we have to do on a crummy, snowy day???  I wanted to go in the comfortable Cadillac but my practical husband said, “let’s take the jeep and if we buy the motorhome we can tow the jeep home.” 

As you know we spent last night in Missoula—oh, how I hate hotel rooms!!—and went to see the motorhome about 9am this morning in a pouring rain/snow storm!  We spent a couple hours looking it over and took it for a test drive—it’s a gas powered motorhome so doesn’t have near the power our diesel pusher Country Coach does.   We puttered home over the two mountain passes at a slower speed but we did just fine!

It was beautiful, comfortable and SHORT—29 feet!!!!  Perfect for taking to Alaska!  And we bought it!  The owners of the Foretravel, Bill and Susie were a delight—I fell in love with their standard poodle Charlie and their Yorkie, Zoey. 

So, now we have two motorhomes and a truck camper—anyone in the mood to buy a RV???  We will put the truck camper back together and sell it.  Depending on our future plans—property in Arizona or not—we will probably sell one or the other of the motorhomes when we return from Alaska. 

When we got back to Big Timber tonight there was this huge stormy cloud hanging in the sky up the Boulder.  We drove home in a blizzard!!  This also meant the three miles of gravel road we traverse to our house was a muddy/mucky mess.  The Foretravel and the jeep now need a bath to say the least!

That isn’t peeling paint on the front, it’s snow!!

Emmi seems to be right at home doesn’t she!

You never know what this gang is up to, do you???

A Different View In More Ways Than One

Early this morning while the sun was still shining we took a longer walk to check out the irrigation ditch flow—this time of year with the high water flow the culverts can stop up with sticks and junk causing water to flow over the ditch bank—really, really not a good thing!  The view from that elevation is even more breathtaking than what we normally see every day and gives my readers some new photos!

Michael spent the morning working on one of those wobbly legs which hold up the truck camper—it had a leaky spot which of course he fixed!  I spent the morning working on Jeane’s pink quilt and almost finished quilting it before lunch! 

After lunch we left in a proverbial blizzard—literally it was snowing/raining/sleeting in wind driven sheets!!  We were heading to Missoula—we are on a mission—more news to come later!  All afternoon we drove through storms—we would have sunshine for 5 miles then snow/rain/sleet again.  The Butte hill was really blizzard like—roads were good, just wet.

Now in Missoula it is spring—sunshine, trees have leaves and the daffodils are blooming—what’s up with this???  Most definitely a lower elevation I am thinking cause our trees are still winter ugly with no leaves!!

More tomorrow!

One Less Toy

With a little sadness we watched our Toyota MR2 head down the driveway just after lunch time today.  We bought this sweet little car several years ago and loved using it in the summer for road trips to Yellowstone Park or up to Niehart to visit friends. 

But, it seems our interests have changed—ATV’s and jeeps—plus we found the Cadillac to be a much more comfortable car for driving the distances we drive here in Montana.  The MR2 is a rear engine car with absolutely no storage—the spare tire is under the hood and the engine is in the trunk so to speak.  There were two very small compartments behind the seats—if we made a trip to Costco, it had to be a very limited trip!   Still, it was sad to watch it leave today but we are starting to downsize—we still have three licensed vehicles not counting the motorhome and only two drivers!

I spent the entire day in the quilting studio—I finished quilting my bear art quilt and now all that’s left to do is attach the binding.  I loaded a quilt for my friend Jeane—it’s a pretty pink quilt—ready to start quilting tomorrow. 

Sunshine yesterday but rain today.

A Quilting Labor Of Love

After yoga, lunch, a little quilting and a little mechanic work we headed into town to deliver to one of my quilting buddies, Donna, her labor of love quilt.  Donna and Gary’s daughter Jessie is a Physician’s Assistant working in a cardiac surgery program in Boston, MA.  One of the nurses working in the operating room with Jessie lost her beloved grandmother not long ago.  Jessie decided her mother Donna was just the person to take the grandmothers nightgowns and housecoats to create a quilt.  And create a quilt Donna did!!!

Donna received a box of nightgowns and housecoats with which to work.  She decided on this Grandmother’s Flower Garden block, English paper piecing by hand each tiny hexagon then hand appliqueing each block to the background piece.   She used collars from some of the housecoats to accent the corners.  It is truly a labor of love!!

When I saw the quilt top I was worried about how the longarm would treat some of the fabrics—they were not all 100% cotton and some were very thin.  The longarm never gave me a moments trouble—the tension was beautiful.  I used a thin Warm and Natural batting with Glide thread top and bottom. 

It was a pleasure to be part of this project!

We also got a tour of Donna and Gary’s house—it’s an old log cabin, moved to its current site and rebuilt by Donna’s brother Rich—beautiful with fabulous views.  Donna’s quilting studio is also awesome—separate from the house, a perfect space!! 

After leaving Donna and Gary’s we stopped by Nat’s and decided to have a pizza with him—not on the diet but sometimes you just have to splurge.  We spent time visiting with him before heading up the Boulder dodging all the suicidal deer! 

A good day up the Boulder.

Emmi On The Run

It’s a pleasure to have a dog who responds to the word, “come!”  And with joy as you can see from her expressions!  I sure love this little pooch!

Well, we must have been on the edge of the storm as we only got about 1-2 inches of the white stuff but it sure caused a feeding frenzy at the bird feeders.

After a delicious lunch of grilled top sirloin we headed in to Big Timber for errands.  The cowboy is building some fireplace doors for friends Jeane and Steve so we went out to get some measurements.  Jeane had quilts to give me for quilting too.  It was a great visit—we hadn’t seen Steve since February.  A few more routine errands and we were back home.  We did stop and try out the new frozen yogurt at the pizza place—YUM!! 

After a light dinner we headed up the hill for a walk—the sun was trying to shine and I knew the mountains would be beautiful:

and they didn’t disappoint. 

What Happened To My Day

It’s 5:30pm, dinner is in the oven and I’m enjoying a glass of wine—it seems as if I just woke, what happened to my day??  It’s pouring down rain and the rain will turn to snow—we are under a winter storm warning for 12-20 inches—did someone forget it is May??  My friend Jill and I were talking today—why do we always complain about this kind of weather in May when it if perfectly normal for Montana??  We get snow in June, perfectly normal! 

I’m not really sure what I did all day—made some doctor’s appointments—trying to get all that stuff done before our Alaska trip.  I listed three sewing machines on Craigslist, a Featherweight, and two Pfaff’s—one a Grand Quilter and the other a Creative 7570 which comes with an embroidery unit.  I’m downsizing, can’t you tell??  It takes a while for me to create a listing—first I have to set the machines up and take photos plus sew a few stitches so I can be sure they work then write the listing. 

For lunch I made Gina’s taco soup—it was so good on this nasty weather day.  Emmi has been needy she can’t go outside or rather she won’t go outside!  The birds have been busy at the feeders stocking up for bad weather I guess. 

Taken a couple days ago, certainly not today!

Busy Monday and Extreme Jeeping Video

A reader, Linda K. sent me an email today with a link to a National Public Radio broadcast which showed that seniors who learned new tasks such as quilting or computers delayed or prevented memory loss.  See fellow quilters, there’s another good excuse to use on our husbands when we buy more quilt fabrics!! The article is interesting (you can also listen to it), check it out.

Yoga was first on my list of things to do—our instructor Julia had another commitment tomorrow on our usual day—and we are all flexible in more ways than one, so we met today! Back home I made a quick lunch of bean burritos and melons so I could get started on the next project.

For the last two summers we have used the little Toyota MR2 Spyder convertible very little and have decided to sell it.  I have it listed on Craigslist and had an email from someone wanting photos of the engine, etc.  So, I decided to give the sweet little car a bath—made me not want to sell it!!

My next project was a killer!!  The truck camper, aka Truck Tee Pee, had some kind of wallpaper around the dining table and it was peeling badly in places—so I ripped it all off today.  A lot of it came off easily but there were some areas which required a paint scraper!!  Haven’t decided what we are putting back on the walls—maybe just paint??? 

More shooting stars.

Remember when we were in Moab, UT and I took some video of these guys trying to climb extremely steep slick rock with jeeps and pickups?  My video would never upload as our internet connection was so slow—well, we are back in the land of DSL internet connections and here’s the video, it’s just over a minute in length.