The Babbling Brooks

Home Visit!

We're leaving this afternoon for a quick trip home to Mountain Dreams! Our homeowners meeting is on Saturday and we really need to be there for this one. We'll have 3 full days to enjoy being home...no internet, no satellite TV...it's all been turned off. I'll be working on catching up on my photos and posts. See ya when we return!

Deposition

   From Wikipedia...Deposition is a process in which gas transforms into solid (also known as desublimation). The reverse of deposition is sublimation. One example of deposition is the process by which, in sub-freezing air, water vapor changes directly to ice without first becoming a liquid. This is how snow forms in clouds, as well as frost and hoar frost on the ground.

This is what I saw this morning when I looked outside...ice crystals forming in the sunshine. There it was in a beautiful shaft of sunlight...like glitter in a snow globe :)

Winter at Mountain Dreams...

     

Merry Christmas.....

  

to all of you! We wish you many blessings for Christmas and the New Year...      

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

  

This was the scene at the post office in Kalispell this afternoon. So pretty! It was a balmy 11 degrees today while we were finishing up our Christmas shopping and errands. It snowed most of the day so we have a good accumulation at home now and the trees are laden with snow. It was dark by the time we got home, so I'll try to get some frosty photos tomorrow! 

BTW, I forgot to mention that we had another window crack, this time in the bedroom. It didn't crack into a bazillion pieces this time, just one long crack across the window. Riverside Windows and Doors are supposed to be here next Wednesday to replace both windows. Someone must have not been paying attention the day they made those windows!

Winter Visitors

     

The winter herd of elk is back in the valley. John saw about 40 of them across the border the other day. Three of them came wandering around our place looking for a snack this afternoon. We enjoyed watching them out in the snow. Last year we saw about 250 of them at one time just off Airport Road. You haven't seen a real elk crossing until you have to stop and wait for all of them to get across in their own sweet time :) 

Snow Plowing!

      

John got the chance to use the new machine yesterday. We had about 5-6 inches of snow. He'd put the plow on the ATV last week so it was all ready to go. He started with the circle at the top of the drive and then was able to get the 900+ feet of driveway done with 4 passes. He came in for lunch just as I was leaving for a Cookie Exchange at the Owl's Burrow (our neighbor's house). They have a long uphill driveway like ours and I think it's steeper. John said he'd do theirs, too, if they'd like. So I asked when I got there and gave him a call. They were very appreciative!

We've Been Dusted!

     

We've been waiting for this! We're headed for "record low temperatures" later this week...don't know if that includes more snowflakes or not! 

It's Hunting Season

 

So we went hunting today with our cameras. We were pretty successful and found a herd of mule deer up on the slopes on the east side of the valley. This is my favorite photo of the day. We also saw some elk, but they were hiding themselves in the trees and we couldn't get a really good photo. As we were driving back we spotted some turkeys, but they were moving really fast to get into the tall grass.

One more summer adventure to share....Mt. Marston

This is the Mount Marston lookout, one of two that overlook the Tobacco Valley. (The other one is at Black Butte just west of town. There's a web cam on that one, HERE is the link!) The watchtower is at 7348 feet and has quite a view. We made the drive up there in August and enjoyed all the wildflowers. At the top we could see our valley to the west, the Ten Lakes region to the northeast, and Glacier Park to the southeast. The last couple of miles the gravel road narrowed to a lane and a half. Of course, that's exactly where we met someone coming up on our way down!

    

  

Glacier Park...the east side!

 

In September we finally got over to the east side of Glacier National Park. We hadn't been there since 1993 when we went to Glacier on our vacation. Even though it was July it was cold and rainy and, as John says, we only saw the bottom half of the park cause all the peaks were in the clouds. We did go to Swiftcurrent Lake on that trip so that Brad, Chris, and my nephew, Ryan who was with us could fish. This time was much different. It was cold at night with warm sunny days. We camped at the Swiftcurrent campground and did a little hiking and exploring around the lake.

                                

We were lucky to see a lot of wildlife this time! Mama Bear and her two cubs greeted us just before we got to the park entrance. That evening we saw a moose by the lake. He was pretty elusive as I tried to get a photo and it didn't help that the park rangers kept shooing us out of the wildlife corridor that Bullwinkle was in. As we started back down the road the moose was running in the same direction, so I took a chance and tried to get a couple of shots. The next day we saw another bear while driving in the northeast corner of the park and the last day we saw mountain goats at Logan Pass. (oh, and a bee!)

                        

The last day at the park we dropped our travel trailer at the St. Mary Visitors Center and headed up to Logan Pass. (There are road restrictions on Going-To-The-Sun Road that don't allow travel trailers or large vehicles.)

        

We really enjoyed the fall colors throughout the park and were glad we found the time to make the trip to the east side before they closed the park for the winter!    

Back to August! Trevor was here!

Trevor came to visit in August. We visited another watchtower, this one at Garver Mountain. It was a little harder to get to than the one we visited in July with Legend. The road was a little rougher and stopped a quarter mile from the tower, where you had to hike the rest of the way. We figured it wasn't very far, no problem. The description did say the trail was steep for a short distance. Are you kidding??? It was steep for the whole quarter mile. I guess the first section where you had to clamour almost straight up would be the part the Forest Service considers steep. I went to the top and stayed there till the next day when it was time to leave. John and Trevor returned to the Explorer for the second load of gear. It was another fun experience, but we probably won't be going to that one again :)

            

When we were driving down the mountain the next morning, we were lucky! A buck and two does were standing right on the road. We stopped and they gave us a good look. We slowly followed as they made the bend in the road. Now they were getting worried, but the buck had a plan to protect them. He sent the 2 does into the woods on the left and he started into the woods on the right thinking we would follow him. When he realized we were still there and not giving chase he quickly turned around and bounded onto the road in front of us, then headed down the road so we'd give chase and leave his women alone. What a treat to see! 

         

Here's Trevor at the Fair...

Trevor was here during the Lincoln County fair. They have a lot of things geared towards kids...a ride in the Lincoln Electric cherry picker, kids games, a petting zoo...

                                     

Montana Traffic Jam...

As I was coming home today, I made the turn off the main highway and encountered this.....my first real traffic jam in Eureka! Most of them gave me a look as they went by, wondering what the heck I was doing there. If you have to stop for traffic this was so much better than sitting bumper-to-bumper and waiting for a string of stoplights!

 

 

Our Legend Summer (Montana Edition: Big Creek Baldy Watch Tower)

When we left Washington with Legend in tow, we had several days left to enjoy him. One of the things on John's To Do list was to stay overnight in a watch tower. Legend loves to be outdoors and to camp. John found a list of fire watch towers that have been decommissioned and are rented out to the public and we decided we'd take Legend to one. We stayed at the Big Creek Baldy Watch Tower about 30 miles northwest of Libby in the Yaak. We were able to drive to the base of this tower, but we were glad we now have a 4-wheel drive vehicle cause we wouldn't have made it up the last bit without it. We hauled our gear 41 feet to the top and found a propane stove, 2 propane lights, 2 chairs, a table with a bench, a double bed, and a single bed (no bedding, you bring your own...we brought sleeping bags.) We had a 360 degree view here, even from the ground. The old cabin next to the base of the tower is where the watch keeper slept long ago before the quarters at the top were enlarged.  

We hiked around for a bit to enjoy the views, then built a fire and roasted hot dogs for dinner (with smore's for desert, of course!) Last year Legend told me that roasting marshmallows was his favorite part of camping.

        

John had gotten a slingshot and given Legend a lesson a few days earlier, so they brought it and Legend got in a little practice...

   

We watched a gorgeous sunset and settled in for the night. The next morning John and Legend made entries in the log book and Legend got a lesson in calling in a fire and determining it's position.

         

The next morning we gathered up our gear and got ready to leave. While we were packing the Explorer, we noticed some Mountain Bluebirds going in and out of the nesting box that was at the bottom of the stairs to the watch tower. I got my long lens and waited patiently for them to get brave enough to go to the box with me standing there. My patience was rewarded!

 

Being the hardy campers that we are we loaded into the Explorer and stopped at the Libby Cafe for breakfast on the way home. We had a great time staying at the tower and are planning to do it again next summer for a longer time. We also stayed at one when Trevor was here in August...watch for that later.

Stay tuned for more Legend stories.....

 

 

   

Bluebirds!

We had fun this spring checking our bluebird boxes. We put up 4 nesting boxes this year. We only had one nest, but that's okay for the first year.Here's some photos of the parents and their babies. We didn't have a second nesting this year, but sometimes the parents come back and have another brood. We've been seeing adult bluebirds here the last few days, but we think it's too late in the season for them to nest again.

No, Mama bird does't mind if you pick the babies up. Apparently they have no sense of smell. If we were looking into the nest and she or Dad came back with food, they'd just sit on a branch somewhere and wait till we were through. That's our dear friend (and former coworker) Elaine on the ladder. She and I were too short to see inside the nest without the ladder. The bluebird group told us they need to be up that high or the birds wouldn't use the boxes.

It's batty around here!

Yesterday when John opened the (outside) door to the crawl space, this is what rolled out from between the top of the door and the frame. We've seen a few bats flitting around outside. We're thinking a bat house is in order!

Catchin' Up!.....Glacier National Park

I have so much to catch up on over the last 5 or 6 weeks! I'm starting here with Glacier Park and I'll be adding posts as fast as I can...stay tuned! We've visited Glacier Park three times this summer. Our last visit was July 8th...the day we left for southern Utah for Shayla and Roger's wedding reception and to pick up Legend for a summer visit. Yes, it was a long day. We left early to make the detour through the park, They'd just opened the Going-To-The-Sun Road two days earlier. It was a beautiful sunny day and Mother Nature was really showing us her stuff. There were record snowfalls last winter and the waterfalls were gushing down the mountain sides. Here's a peek at what we saw...

     

The Going-To-The-Sun road is being repaired and there can be 30 minute delays to get through the construction area. There's our little Beetle waiting patiently to get through. That day we drove to Orem, Utah (instead of Idaho Falls or Pocatello (like we usually do) so that I could visit the new Archiver's scrapbook store at the University Mall the next morning. We got to our hotel and finally fell into bed after midnight, but it was a great day and we didn't have to get up early the next day.

Next...the wedding reception and our visit in St. George...

Two Is Better Than One!

Just before we left for Utah on the 8th of July Mama Whitetail brought her twin fawns to see us. John happened to look out and see them on our small lawn. Before I could grab my camera and get a picture of all of them together Mom and one baby had moved to the edge of the trees and the more curious fawn was left standing alone and wondering who the heck those people in the window were. We saw Mom again and were guessing she was hiding the fawns nearby. Since we've returned to Montana we've seen Mama three times and Legend is so excited about seeing deer. Last evening she was drinking from the bird bath and the night before that we could hear grass munching outside the bedroom, but it was too dark to verify it was her (gee, can you guess why it is tough to grow anything here???). This evening I looked up and there were the twins outside. Legend loved seeing them and they were just as curious about him. He was right at the open window waving at them and they didn't mind...Mom, of course, was watching from the edge of the lawn.

The Reenactment

John had read about the Custer's Last Stand Reenactment somewhere and we decided it sounded like fun. He called sometime in May to book a room in town for last weekend and everyone just laughed. They fill up a year in advance. No problem, we found space in a private campground and decided to take our travel trailer. (It turned out to be a good experience as we were able to determine what kind of gas mileage we'd get with the new Explorer towing the trailer. Ahem, not so great...just over 12 mpg. So,we now know that if we are driving any distance or traveling we may as well stay in motels.)We got tickets for the reenactment on Sunday. It was hot and dusty, but fortunately the sun was at our back and John had thought to bring our large golf umbrella. We climbed to the top of the stands so we could keep the umbrella up and it turned out to be a good spot for the battle. We watched as Lewis and Clark met the natives on their way west, the pioneers circled their wagons, treaties were signed, and finally George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Army galloped across the hills to defeat Sitting Bull and the Sioux.

And here I am with my new best friend...did I mention that Custer lost?

Hardin, Montana

Last weekend we traveled to Hardin, Montana for Custer's Last Stand Reenactment and Little Big Horn Days. There was a parade in Hardin on Saturday morning and games in the evening. Here's a peek at the parade...

OK, those last two were not part of the parade. Hotel Becker was built in 1912 and is a charming building. Check out the Lariat Motel....isn't that Woody???

Saturday evening there were games and races downtown. We went to watch the fun. They started off with "pony"races, followed by egg tosses and finished up with bed races. If you look closely at the pony races you'll see that some of the adults and most of the kids are cheating. They carried their horses instead of riding. But the judges were watching and I don't think anyone got away with it!

Look closely at that last one. They were the winners of the bed race. They could see they were going to take the prize of $150 dollars and were so excited they just gave the bed a shove and let go sending it right into the crowd! We had a little luck, too. They were giving away prizes for answering trivia questions, etc. and also gave prizes to travelers. John and I won a country music CD for being the Montana residents that traveled the farthest!

That afternoon we'd visited the Battlefield of the Little Big Horn (it's no longer called Custer's Last Stand). I had been there in the 60's. I don't remember a National Cemetery there, but there it was. We drove out to see the battlefield and the graves before heading back to camp (We'd taken our travel trailer.)

It was a perfect time to visit the battlefield. It was in full bloom! We hadn't expected that.

And why do I remember that I was in Hardin, Montana in the 60s??? Because that's where I was when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and said, "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind". We were staying at the KOA campground and my Dad made us get our butts out of the pool and inside to watch history in the making on the little TV in the game room. Thanks, Dad!

Stay tuned for photos of the Custer's Last Stand Reenactment!

Orvin Day

A few months ago John heard about a Eureka old-timer who still flies his Piper Cub and has his own airstrip on his property. John has been interested in compiling a history of aviation in the area. So, he contacted Orvin and made arrangements to meet with him. He's been there several times to see Orvin and his wife, Echo (Isn't that a great name?! I've been out there with him once and met them, too). Orvin was a crew member on a B-17 bomber stationed in Europe during WWII. Like most veterans he has lots of stories to tell and he's been able to tell John a lot about aviation in the Tobacco Valley, too. John read a few weeks ago that the Wings of Freedom Tour would be stopping at Glacier Park International airport (Kalispell). They are touring with a P-51 Mustang and three bombers...the B-24, the B-25 and the B-17. He knew Orvin would have a great time seeing the B-17 and reminiscing. He contacted some other Eureka pilots and they cooked up a plot to take Orvin to Kalispell for the famous $100 hamburger (those of you that fly know what that is :). John also contacted the head of the tour to make sure Orvin would get a tour of the plane and this man called The Daily Interlake to let them know that Orvin would be there. It all worked out perfectly. Orvin flew to Kalispell with Dale thinking they'd be meeting some of the rest of us for lunch. The rest of us carpooled and were there to greet them. Orvin was full of smiles and today was the front page headliner in The Daily Interlake.

Here's the Eureka pilot contingent watching the planes land and taxi to the display area...Roy (whom you've met before as our "hangar angel"), Willy, Dale, Orvin, John, and Bob.

 

A little summer joy.....

is bursting out all over Mountain Dreams!

More Glacier Park...

as promised...here's a few more glimpses of our latest trip to Glacier Park. I can see that we'll be spending a lot of days here and loving it. We had a wonderful visit with Elaine, our former coworker and dear friend, and this trip was part of her week with us. John suggested we take the morning boat tour of Lake McDonald. It was a good choice as the water was calm. Later in the day the breeze had picked up and the reflections were gone. After the boat ride we had lunch at the Lake McDonald lodge, one of the old historic lodges in the park. The road still was only open to Avalanche Creek (they'd had another 2 feet of snow up at Logan Pass on the 10th of June). We parked there and took a walk through the woods on the path along the creek. If you're coming to visit with us, be sure to include a day at Glacier on your wish list!

Birdies!

When John and I first visited Plant Land to pick out shrubs I spotted this little birdbath and had to have it. (We left the one we had in Bonney Lake.) We put it out where I can see it from my studio and surrounded it with rocks and moss. The birds have discovered it and are making good use of it. I am really enjoying seeing them. The birds here are more varied and are much more colorful than what I was use to seeing in Washington. And, lucky me, my Aunt Jean is a birder and has been able to help me identify some. She's also recommended a couple of good bird books, so I'll be looking for those. Today it looked like there were almost a dozen birds out there at once. I need to get faster with my camera or figure out how to make sure they don't see me moving through the window!

Sisters Visit!

My sisters were here for their first visit to Mountain Dreams last week!We could have used a little better weather, but we were lucky to get some sun breaks during our adventures. We spent Friday visiting Glacier National Park. The Going-To-The-Sun road was only open as far as Avalanche, but that's far enough to enjoy some great mountain and lake views. When we first arrived at McDonald Lake we could see it was raining on the opposite side. As we got out of the car and walked to the shore we saw lightning strike the shore and the east end. Although the sky and water were very gray, it was gorgeous. I was able to get a photo of the lake and some brightly colored rental boats. It'll make a great subject for our painting classes...John, get out your gray scale!We headed north towards Polebridge first, one of the less traveled roads in the park. We stopped at a small parking area and were treated to a great view of the mountain peaks, then headed back towards Apgar and on up to Avalanche. WE ended the day back in Eureka. Corki requested that we eat dinner in town, so we had a great meal at Jax By Night (Cafe Jax morphs into Jax By Night 4 nights per week).

 

There was more rain on Saturday and we stuck closer to home. We went to visit Deep Creek Quilts and the Antler Gift Emporium (formerly The Antler Inn...Corki was sorry to learn the restaurant was gone, it was a great place for dinner!) Afterward, we came home and Corki baked a raisin pie for me! Yum, it's one of my favorites that our Mom use to make and I am not a good pie maker. I leave that duty to Corki. They started home Sunday morning, carefully watching for wildlife on the road. It wasn't until they reached North Bend, WA that they saw a black bear crossing the road. Go figure!

Mother Nature does it again!

The weather people were predicting record low temperatures for today, just 11 days shy of summer. I took this photo this afternoon when the clouds were beginning to clear. Yep...that's SNOW on the 10th of June!

We have babies!

6 of them! We joined Montana Bluebird Trails and have 4 nesting boxes on our property. We have one nest and the start of another, not too bad for the first year. We were excited to find 5 eggs which then became six. Mama doesn't mind us peeking and we were told that we can even pick the babies up when they are a little older. They should be ready to fly around the 21st!

Small Town Living...

We received a nice thank you note today from a man who was given a tour of our home while we were gone last week (Paul will be building his home, too). Check the address...and it found it's way to our PO box. We had to chuckle cause if he'd used our physical address...it is most often sent back as there is no mail delivery in our part of the valley. But he just put the name and town and someone at the post office took the time to look up our box number. I love living here :)

Two Weeks Later....

We have been busy, busy, busy and there's a lot to catch up on! We spent most of last week in Washington. We needed to return for our rescheduled dentist appointments. This time we stayed with Elaine and had a nice visit. Her little doggies and the kitty keep us entertained, too! The first night we were there my laptop blinked to the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). It did it several more times over the next couple of days. Elaine found an HP laptop on sale at Office Depot and it had a $200 rebate. John and I stopped in to look at it. It didn't quite fit my needs (loads of memory and a huge hard drive), but I did spot a nice little Sony. It was on sale and because it was the demo model, it was knocked down another $150. So I now have a very girly little pink notebook computer. So far, I love it!

Huge thanks go to Elaine for teaching me how to share files across a network! With her help I was able to move all my photos and files over to the new machine without transferring them to a billion disks. And my old laptop? I've been expecting it to go, it's over 4 years old and I was really overtasking it with all my photos and editing. But, I've now had it plugged in and running for almost 48 hours without seeing the BSOD. I think the secret is to not overload it. I took most of the files and programs off of it and am hoping that I can use it for cutting to my Wishblade.

Brad celebrated his 26th birthday on April 22nd and we were able to take him to lunch and give him his gift in person. He'd asked for a Jack LaLanne power juicer and that's what he got :)

We decided to stay an extra day to travel to the Skagit Valley to see the tulips. They usually bloom earlier in the month, but the weather in western Washington has been colder than usual, so the end of April was perfect for enjoying the flowers!

Back at home it looks like we are getting some new neighbors. There is an organization here that counts and cares for bluebirds. There are hundreds of bluebird boxes all around the valley. We now have three. One of them can be seen from my studio and I noticed one going in and out of it a couple days ago. I also saw a pair of bluebirds on the tree outside our bathroom window. They were there a long time and kept flying up near the window into the theater. I went upstairs to investigate and discovered that they were trying to get in...that pesky glass in the window was keeping them out. Anyway, they are beautiful birds. The ones I've seen around the house are Western Bluebirds. We've also seen Eastern Bluebirds in the area that are a brilliant blue. I'm hoping I can catch a photo of one, but those things are fast!

Pond Skimming!

Last weekend we went to the pond skimming competition at Whitefish Mountain (formerly known as Big Mountain). It was crazy, but lots of fun. Keep in mind it was about 25 degrees :)

   

C'mon...You've Gotta Be Kidding!

John hollered at me to look out the window today (the 10th of April) and this is what I saw...

Mother Nature Has A Sense of Humor......

This is what we woke up to on April Fool's Day :)

There's A Rebel In Every Crowd....

(This bunch of turkeys was outside our back door when I got up this morning :)

I'm Excused!

So...I made it to Libby yesterday morning in 1 hour and 45 minutes, not too bad considering the weather. I signed in with the Clerk of the Court (see post below!) and went to the jury room to wait with the others who'd been called for duty. One woman was called and excused before we ever made it to the court room. She was the wife of the arresting officer who would be testifying in the case. Gotta love rural living! I think everyone there (except me, I was probably the newest county resident) knew at least one other person. As we were questioned as potential jurors for the criminal case before the court, it became apparent that many of the group knew someone involved in some way in the trial...the defense attorney, the prosecutor, the judge, the defendant himself, the victim..they were golfing buddies, neighbors, church goers, school mates, or had been involved in some previous judicial dealing with them. The alleged crime had taken place in Libby and it seemed that those of us who didn't know any of these people were all from the Eureka area or the West Kootenai. The juror questioning was done and the jurors selected just before noon. I was not selected, yeah me! I had raised my hand in response to a question. Seems like most of those selected were the ones who'd not said a word in response to anything asked. Great timing...I was excused to go home just in time for lunch :) After salad and a couple pizza slices at Pizza Hut I headed back up the lake to Eureka and was home just before 2:00 pm. So, I didn't make it by noon as I'd previously hoped, but it was close. I am now off the hook for jury duty until at least the end of July when the next pool is called. In this county once you're called in during the "jury cycle" you're done till the next one :)

Reporting for Duty As Ordered By The Court

Well, I made the call to Lincoln County after 5:30 pm as directed and the answer was..."Yes"...I have to report to the courthouse at 9:00 am tomorrow for what is anticipated to be 4 days of jury duty. Geez, do you think they could have timed it any worse? So, while we are hoping to get things wrapped up at the house so we can move in (not to mention all the phone calls, foot work, and paper work in anticipation of a mortgage and insurance) I will be sitting in Libby. Which by the way happens to be a 65 mile drive...one-way...in the snow and ice! If there is any mercy they will decide to settle this thing tomorrow morning before things get under way and I'll be home by noon :)

Where Did It Go???

This was yesterday....

This is today...ok, so we knew the snow doesn't pile up all winter in the Tobacco Valley, but we were surprised when the wind went from cold to almost tropical and here's the result! So for those of you that think there's too much snow to visit in the winter....think again!! It's all in the timing :)

                                           

It's Snowing!

It's been snowing lightly now for almost 24 hours and it is starting to pile up. We decided this would be a great opportunity to drive up to our house to take some snow photos for our Christmas card! Quite a change from the one we did last year sitting in the sand on Papohaku Beach on Molokai'! After taking a few shots with the snow covered trees in the background we blazed a trail over to our neighbors and I took some photos of their home in the snow to send to them (They live in Everett, WA). We did a little Christmas decorating with the wreath we bought in Trego yesterday (It was Bazaar Day in the Tobacco Valley and it was a big thing!) That will probably be about the full extent of our decorating for this year :) John put new traction tires on the Beetle last month and we were happy with the way they drove in the snow. We had no problem getting up the hill that is our driveway :) Note however how the Beetle was plowing through the snow, the front grill is plastered! It may be time for John to seriously consider what sort of snow plow machine he wants :) We are looking forward to waking up to snow and that beautiful light it reflects into the house and being able to sit in front of a roaring fire with our hot mochas in hand....just about 3 more weeks! I'm going to start packing things up later this week. I may have lost 4 days of packing/working time....I was called for jury duty in Libby beginning December 11th, what timing!

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St. Ignasius

Just a gorgeous little town along Highway 93 (40 miles north of Missoula)...we have it in mind for a day trip to visit the mission!

Brrrrrrr!!!

This is what I've been seeing when I go out to my car in the morning. I am learning to love the spray deicer can :) Friday when I left for Kalispell at 9 AM it was 15 degrees. It has been warming into the 40s and low 50s in the afternoon. John just checked the forecast for the rest of the week here in Eureka. We are wanting to seal the deck or at least the decking on the porch. We need 40 degrees for 24 hours. Well, that's not going to happen, but we figured we could tent the front porch and put a couple of heaters out there to get that part done. Well, there it is in the forecast....the first snow of the year predicted for Saturday. It doesn't say "chance of snow" or "snow showers", it says "SNOW"! Gotta go find my hat and gloves!

Dinner Guests

Each evening for the last week or so when we come home (to the rental house) here is what we see grazing in the back of the house. The first night I think I scared the bejeezers out of them when I came quickly up the driveway and I saw 5 of them run up the hill. Since then I've been pulling in slowly and they are getting use to me. Now they just perk up and look at me as I get out of the car, gather my things, and go in the house. We think maybe they are also bedding down in the tall grass at night as we've seen them there when we come home later in the dark.

We were told there was a large bull elk standing in the driveway right outside our new house a couple of weeks ago. We know there are a couple of large herds that come down from Canada in the winter. We saw them near the airport several times last fall.  There is a spring just down the hill from our house on the forest service land, so apparently they head there and hang out.

PSAAC @ Hot Springs, Montana

Hot Springs, Montana...a little known, out of the way place...but Marlo knew it. He'd flown there once and mentioned in July while we were on the Air Tour that he thought it'd be a great place for a fly-in. And so, he was encouraged to pick a date. The date was last weekend. It turned out to be mostly a drive-in due to weather (only one plane from Lewiston was able to fly), but there was still a great turnout of PSAAC (Puget Sound Antique Aircraft Club) people. Seventeen showed up even with the long drive from the Seattle area. John and I decided to drive there on Saturday for the day rather than spend the night. It's right in the neighborhood, just over 2 hours. The unstructured event was held at Symes Hot Springs in the town of Hot Springs. Rich and Carol brought their motor home and were able to park it right next to the pools...a convenient party hang-out for the whole group! Many of us went to the Harvest Festival being held just outside of town....a blast from the past, for sure!

The rest of the afternoon was spent solving the world's problems by both the guys circling their wagons outside and the women comfortably nestled in the motor home. The pools were hot (up to 107 degrees) and relaxing. We all ate dinner together in the hotel and listened to the local band. John and I had a great time visiting with friends and relaxing in the pools. Great idea, Marlo!

A Change of Season!

Not only was today the first day of autumn, but it was a gorgeous day for a walk. John and I headed up Purdy Road behind our house (the rental where we live now) and enjoyed the crisp fall air, beautiful blue skies, and seeing snow in the mountains! Fall is such a great time here...cold nights and mornings with warm, sunny afternoons. Time to break out the sweaters!

September Morning :)

Stopped to enjoy the view while driving out to our house this morning :)

Amish Wedding Chicken

One of the things you'd least expect to find in the northwest corner of Montana is an Amish community. But, here they are. They have a community in the West Kootenai with a store, one-room schoolhouse, and all they need to be self-sufficient. I think I read somewhere that they came here about 20 years ago from Ohio. We see them around town occasionally when they get a ride from the non-Amish residents to do some shopping and have lunch. I think some of the kids go to Lincoln County HS here in Eureka cause I see the teens more during the school year and they'll be hanging out with the local kids. Every year in June they have a HUGE auction to raise money for their school. They sell quilts, furniture, even log cabins and get big money for them. We've only been once (I was in St. George this year when it was held), but we'll go again and maybe we can snag one of their beautiful quilts. But this story is about the Wedding Chicken dinner! Every Friday night from May through September they serve dinner at the Kootenai store owned by Andy Yoder. John and I went last night. Oh my, it was like going to Grandma's for Sunday dinner. The Wedding Chicken was baked in the oven in gravy and served with mashed potatoes (real ones, no potato flakes here:), gravy, fresh green beans with bacon, broccoli salad with cheese and nuts, and homemade rolls with homemade butter and huckleberry jam. Oh my it was good! For desert there was carrot cake with creamy vanilla frosting or pink angel food cake with icing to match. Drink choices were peach iced tea or coffee. Dinner was served buffet style with seating at picnic tables in the store, out on the deck, in front of the store, or where ever you'd like to set yourself down. The kitchen was open and it was fun watching the girls hustle around getting the food from the cook stoves to the table. I was able to sneak one little photo of some of the kids that were eating with us, the rest are the dinner, the store, and the surrounding scenery. It was a really fun thing to do and if you ever visit us when they are open we'll be sure to take you!

Smoke In The Valley...

 

You've probably heard about all the wildfires burning in Montana. It is extremely dry due to the unusually hot weather we've had for the last month. We are use to having some smoky, hazy days now and then. When we came home from Bozeman on Sunday, we noticed a large fire over the ridge to the west of the Flathead Valley. The smoke was blowing northward and we drove through it on our way to Eureka. This morning on the way to the hospital in Kalispell (see post below), I noticed how clear the air was and was surprised to see that it had cleared out so much. I was inside till about 8:30 PM. When I turned west to take the back road around Whitefish I noticed a large plume of smoke to the southwest and realized that it was the Brush Creek fire near Marion. Wow, it had really grown and the smoke had spread to completely cover the area to the south and out over Flathead Lake. Then I looked a little north and saw that the one we'd seen on Sunday was not only a lot bigger, but a lot blacker. It was blowing north of town and then circling around to the east side of the valley. It was so thick that the Swan Range was completely obscured. Such is life in the west. This is a reminder to me of why we are spending extra $$$ to use fire-proof siding (cement fiber Hardiplank) and fire resistant roofing and why we have a couple of small hydrants from our well. Before we move in, I am making an evacuation list of what to pack in the vehicles if they ever tell us it's time to leave!

Tack and Jibe on the Flathead

Who would of thought that after living next to Puget Sound for the last 30 years I'd come to Montana and take a sailing lesson? It's something John has been wanting to do for quite a while. He found a marina in Dayton on Flathead Lake that gives lessons and rents boats....today was the first lesson and I decided I may as well give it a try, too. It was fun and I found myself remembering all those long, hot summer days on the water when I was growing up! Jim took four of us out in a 21' boat after a short land lesson and the real learning came with the hands on time on the water. We learned a whole lot of nautical sailing terms in a short bit of time. Some of them were explained, but mostly we just caught on as we went. We had a two hour lesson on the water which was designed to give us enough information to safely take a small boat out and, hopefully, come back in one piece :) After lunch the four of us took the boat out on our own. Jack and Ed, our sailing partners, were nice people and we all worked together maneuvering the boat....taking turns at the tiller, the mainsail, and the two jib lines (that's sailor talk :) So, will we do it again? Yes! We'll rent a boat a few times and see if we like it enough to pay the pricey rental fees or perhaps buy a small used sailboat. A little more practice and we can take you out on the lake when you come to visit!

I Am Home...

and so glad to be here.....back with my sweet hubby :), out of that crazy traffic, pollution, and noise. I have tons of stuff to blog about (sickos, beach, movies, friends, zoo, house construction), but it will all have to wait. I had a long day of driving, but made record time.....at least until I got to Libby. I stopped at Rosauer's for some chicken for dinner. While I was there, the lights started to flicker, the wind came up, and the dust blew so hard we couldn't see across the road. I ran to my car just as the rain started and the lightning bolt hit the ground. The thunderstorm chased me up Lake Koocanusa and finally won, but in the process blew me all over the road and left me dodging tree limbs. It was faster than I was and I followed it into the Tobacco Valley to see lightning up near our property and trees knocked down at the north end of town. Check back!

Welcome to The Yaak

We made the trip to The Yaak today. It was rainy this morning and we knew we wouldn't be able to see much of the mountains, but we decided to go anyway and planned a lunch stop at the Dirty Shame Saloon in Yaak (the town). We crossed over the Koocanusa Bridge (highest and longest in Montana at 270' high and 2437' long) and started up into the Purcell Mountains. We saw a couple of cars going the other way while we were still on the West Kootenai Road, but as soon as we went left at the Y onto Forest Road 337 that was it. Not another soul for the next 50 miles. The road is not maintained during the winters and it just opened recently. We had to watch for rocks on the road from the storm we had last Thursday. The pines there are huge and the forest was thick. This is grizzly bear country and we were hoping to catch a glimpse of one or maybe a moose, but we only saw deer. We went up over the pass with snow falling all around. It looked like there would be a great view down the valley if the clouds had lifted. We'll have to go back there this summer.

When we arrived in the town of Yaak, there was the Dirty Shame just as we expected. When we pulled up we noticed a hand-written sign in the window that announced they were closed till further notice due to a sudden illness in the family. It did look like a fun place and we liked the sign on the door. We thought about crossing the street to the Yaak River Tavern, but decided to drive on to Troy for lunch. Good thing we had crackers and cherries in the car!

Just down the road from Yaak we came to Yaak Falls, which we had no idea existed...which once again proves that one should never put a canoe, raft, inner tube, or anything else in the river if you haven't scouted the entire route :) So, we rolled into Troy looking for lunch and ended up at Odie's Big Sky Cafe where they serve real home made food...real fries, berry cobbler with a Bisquick top, etc. I guess my face cream is working cause the waitress kept calling me "young lady" and thanked John for bringing his daughter :) We saw Terrel's gallery was closed and decided to wait for another day rather than bothering her at home to open it for us. Rather than turning north for Eureka at Libby we drove on to Kalispell and Whitefish just for the drive. We thought we might stop for a movie, but the only thing we saw playing that we wanted to see was "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and the lines were long outside the doors at both theaters that were showing it. No thanks, we'll go another time. No we're not becoming anti-social...we've just given up doing crowds :) It was almost 5:00 by the time we got home...a long day, but lots of fun and new places! 

Spring Surprises!

John was driving along Meadow Creek Road yesterday when he spotted these turtles on a log in the lake. Who'd have thought we'd have turtles hatching from the mud in Montana? (And who says it doesn't pay to always have a camera with you?) I spotted these flowers growing on our property. I was surprised to see them because I'd only seen them growing where there is a little more moisture available. They look like the Balsa Root flower that grows in the high desert of eastern Washington. If that's not what they are, I'm sure they are related. I'll have to do some research and find out.