SUMMER PLEASE!

Hello one and all, It's me your favorite blogger and as ususal I am up to all sorts of things and very active... The last blog I was working on my yard and garden, Craig was out of town and the weather was awful. I worked for a few days putting bindings on quilts that I planned to enter in the up coming Quilt Show in Stevensville. I finished a project, which I would consider my best ever...at this time I cannot disclose the project but can tell you it involves 2 different fabrics. Our quilt club does a fabric "challenge" for every show. You get 2 fat quarters ( no a fat quarter is NOT a body part)and the rules are you can make ANYTHING as long as the fabrics are included. Now you will all just have to come to the show to see what I made or wait until after. If I win, I will post the photos of my special project. I do have 7 projects entered and 5 of those still are not 100% complete...I keep telling myself TODAY TODAY! So what am I doing here? Filling you all in on my day-to-day life! So Craig made it back from his male bonding trip to Yellowstone. We had exactly 4 days to rethink, repack and get ready for our next adventure, but first we had to take care of ranch business. The weather was sort of improving, sunnier and no wind so that meant a day of playing hired hand. I get to drive the ranch truck while we bring the herd in for spring shots. We have a very small herd of Herefords. The girls are all very sweet and gentle and provide us each year with beef for our freezer. Yes we do eat our pets...but the ones that end up in the freezer don't have names. The hired hand day consists of bringing in the herd, running each one down a cattle chute and administering shots, foot trimming, new ear tags and just a good going over to make sure everyone is healthy. I love seeing the new calves each spring. The next day I got down and dirty and planted the some more of my garden..this time it was lettuce, spinach, carrots and zuchini..it was nice and hot and got to 80*. Beautiful day for the middle of May. So May 16th we take off on a HUGE adventure....this will be our first actual trip out on Salty, our C Dory. We have been planning this for over a year. Drive out to Anacortes Washington and then boat from there to Friday Harbor, through the San Juan Islands to spend three glorious days on the water. We had so much fun and met some of the nicest folks...there were 43 boats ( all C Dorys)at the function. We were greeted by a welcoming committee at H Dock. Boats from all over Texas. Oregon, Arizona, Idaho Florida and British Columbia and of course Washington. The weather could not have been nicer... We pulled into our slip and immediately had new friends. Everyone could not believe we had 3 dogs with us....on a 22 ft boat. Tess loved sitting on the cooler and watching the world go by. She only jumped out of the boat once (a the dock)and promptly got in trouble for it. Getting out is a big NO-NO unless you are invited out! The 2nd day of our "gathering" Craig wanted to do a short day cruise.. Off we went on a day adventure to Jones Island. The dogs were able to get out stretch thier legs and get a good romp. It was a magical place and the day's perfect weather added to a perfect trip. You have to imagine these places are like water RV parks...boats come, hooked onto a mooring "ball" and sit and relax. Folks are sitting out on their decks with books and cocktails and just watching the world go by. Now it's time for us to go back and go to our Saturday evening potluck with all the other boat owners. Everyone brings a dish. One fellow from Texas entertains us with music and gets to know each other better. We plan to attend next year. Sunday we have to head back. We have checked out many other boats and done our homework about just how to actually campout on our boat. It is going to take putting on the canvas camperback...like this one..That will be this falls' project... Ours will be blue and we also plan to put the higher radar arch on the top so we can also haul our rubber dinghy. So much to do to get us ready to travel and be safe on the water. The camper back will add more "living" space. Keep the dogs safer and just add more to our travels. So after a week of water travels we head back to Montana. We decided it is best to leave Salty in Washington...Too much to do and too little time here in Montana to do boating AND horsey things. Salty is safely tucked away on dry land waiting for our return in September or October to do yet another week of exploring the San Juans. We head home to snow and cold weather... Next we attend our granddaughter's graduation in Kalispell. I cannot believe this wonderful young lady is finished with her high school education ad will be attending MSU this fall. The function was fun and it is always nice to be around family... I cannot continue with out a paragraph on Hadley....AND I cannot wait to see her. She is coming NEXT week to spend some time with her Montana family. And I have big plans for her. Praying the weather will be good so we can do some fun things... I think she is adorable...what about you? The totebag diva....just like her mom.. and she loves to go camping...she's got my heart....what a happy girl! So now it's getting to be June....our weather has been totally awful....cold wind rain but despite the crud I do manage to plant the rest of the garden on June 3...corn, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, cukes, tomates, brussels sprouts, spaghetti squash and keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have that last blast of frost... Shoes also go on the horses and all the flowers are planted....I am now ready for summer but only instead we get more rain and cold.....depressing and I am flat getting mad. All I want to do is get outside and do something. On June 7th I get my first wish...the weather is decent so Craig and I load upand get our 1st horseback ride of the year....Are you kidding....June 7th for the 1st ride??? Ok I will take it and quit complaining... June is always very bittersweet for me. This year especially. I have been involved with Montana Mule Days for most of my married life. I volunteer each year to help do what I can. For the past several years I have worked the T shirt booth. Selling embroidered shirts and sweatshirts for the benefit of the club. It is a three day event and working gives me a sense of involvement. After losing my donkeys to old age in the past couple of years I am now out of the actual showing scene. It is very hard to just sit back and watch the fun. So I just sold my last cart...and realize that I really am finished with this chapter of my life......or am I? That will be determined in the next year...stay tuned for details.... So my very last adventure just happened this week. I sometimes wonder if I do too much. I just cannot sit still and guess I work better under pressure. So this week alone I did a 6 1/2 mile ride with Craig on our horses, lunch with the horse group I am riding with and then an all day bike ride on one of the most awesome bike trails in Montana and Idaho....the Hiawatha. a 17 mile ride through 7 tunnels and over 8 train trestles. What a great week it has been. One slight injury a twisted knee from a very uncoordinated bike dismount. I am still mending but looking forward to my next big adventure... Today I stay close to home....yep I am actually staying home, doing my wifely chores...awh you know we all need clean undies... Until next time Be kind and love one another. Life's too short to be crabby!

I AM TIRED AND DESERVE TO BE!

So today I figure I need to get myself sort of caught up on household duties. Now remember some of these are not totally my duties but I figure I can do some of them.... . First thing I start out with is sorting the laundry.a perfect job for inside ...and put one load of jeans in the washer. I know boring so far, right? It gets better..read on. I was really planning to bury myself in fabric today and sew. Craig is out of town on one of his "male bonding" trips with an old friend from Billings. It is just too nice outside to be inside so I figure I can get the lawn mowed and then I won't have to mow again until next week. Mower out but, first I have to move a 120 LB bale of hay that is blocking me. Okay done..mower out and I proceed to mow...first the front yard then the driveway area. BTW I do have a riding mower... I proceed to the front yard again to get the street part ( mostly weeds) and notice that part of the fence in the front yard is falling down....rotten posts and since it is just ornamental and really non functional I decide to tear it down. So hammer and wire cutters and this gets done. But look the corner where it was is full of weeds and some concrete blocks...Okay down on my hands and knees and digging out the weeds and the weeded in blocks...okay done, but the blocks need to be hauled back to the shed. So my muscles are now starting to grumble...but that job gets done....As I wander back out to survey my work I notice the old garden area also has concrete blocks lined along the fence....full of weeds. This time it takes the heavy duty bar thing that Craig uses to dig in fence posts. I work for over an hour prying each block from the ground. Cinder blocks have 2 holes and I had a big idea long time ago to plant something in them....well they had something in them weeds, roots and tons of little black biting ants. I got all but 1 of those darned things cleaned out and stacked. So I decide its time to take a little break.. the neighbor drives by and I get a great idea to get rid of all these cinder blocks I have laying around....jump on the 4 wheeler and drive over for a nice chat...yep they will take them and come load them up tomorrow.. Yeah one less thing cluttering up my driveway. Oh yeah I now remember Craig told me to turn off the irrigation line, I am now off to the North 40. I don't do this very often and it takes me a minute or two to figure out just which way the handle goes in and just how far I have to twist and turn it....but not fast enough..As the sprinklers turn it takes more than one revolution for me to figure out the turn off process and I manage to get soaking wet. On a nice warm day it was okay! So I go back now to my blocks. After stacking up the cinder blocks I have to fill in the trench left where they were..so rake in hand I get that done also pulling all the weeds that lined the fence as well...project complete...sort of. Now what...oh yeah I need to do some more mowing..this time back yard but now I want to put the grass bagger on the mower so I can scoop the grass clippings. The dogs tend to bring in lots of dry grass. I haven't used the bagger since forever and after a few tries finally get it on and actually picking up the grass. ( all it takes is patience and a real good hammer) But I need to have someplace to dump it....ah ha the new garden spot...perfect. Out through the pasture gate and the mower won't fit through the garden gate. that means taking apart one panel to get the mower through . Oh look, the grass is growing and will soon take over my new garden spot.. better mow it too. But first I need to pick up all the rocks in the area. So area is now clean but not good enough. I manged to hit more than one rock and figure it is good enough for now... So back to the front yard to finish but I need put the mower away. I have three whiskey barrel planters in the driveway for my tomatoes....They work really great and I always grown plenty. Problem is they are so close together that I can't mow around them very well. I have to remove most of the dirt from 2 of them to be able to roll them away from the center one...All done and now it's getting close to horse time....All the equines have to have a hay snack before we turn them out. We have found that if they are not ravenously hungry they don't eat so fast causing colic.. remember that 120 LB bale I moved earlier.....well 1/2 of it goes out for the critters. Wait 20 minutes and turn everyone out. ..but I am not done....Now timer on and I have exactly one hour to finish my projects...the mower is put away and now I weed eat the entire back yard and most of the front yard. Plus clean up the flower area near the back gate and put way some of the clutter in the driveway...okay everything is looking pretty darned nice right now.... jump on the 4 wheeler and trot all the horses back in. Lock down everything and it is now 6pm and I didn't even stop for lunch. .. I think I deserve a medal for all I accomplished today..I definately deserve to be tired....oops remember that load of laundry I started this morning....it's still in the washer and can wait til tomorrow to find the dryer. And I may just spend the day sewing or doing something utterly lazy!

New Post.....for me... 2

Why is it that I work hard on a post and then hit something and it vanishes. Maybe a senior moment but this time I will make it short and sweet....
I am on my way next week for a Hadley fix. It's been 2 months since I last saw her and hear she's doing all sorts of cute things.. It's the pits being a new grandma and 500 miles away. Winter doesn't help.
Here she is in March.....what a cutie!

I miss her so much.

I just returned from Quilt retreat Number 1....this one was at Double Arrow Resort and put on by Deer Country Quilts...It was a whole lot of women in one place. My friend and quilt partner shared a room with me directly below the quilting area. Needless to say we didn't get a whole lot of sleep. One person decided to wear her Dansko clogs the entire weekend and was apparently a very early riser. How does one gracefully tell someone that she needs to take off her army boots so others can get some sleep. Sewing quarters were small so I didn't get anything huge done. Pictures later, maybe.
Retreat number 2 is later this month at my favorite place...Ghost Rails Inn. Grace does such a terrific job of taking good care of our group. The meals are the best and rooms are devine. I look forward to this one. We go here twice a year...half are quilters and the other half are scrapbookers but we all get along and have a fantastic time!
So I have a lot on my plate the next few weeks. I have to play farm wife for 2 weeks while Craig goes to play. He has some boating issues to deal with in Washington and then has a few days planned in his favorite spot, Yellowstone, with an old hiking buddy. Then on his return we will return to Washington to get Salty and attend the annual C Dory gathering at Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. They are expecting about 40 boats just like ours all in one spot...it probably won't look like this.

40 boats at one dock will be fun to see. It is a 3 day event and will be my very first "sleep on" trip. May be interesting with 3 dogs too.
So another big happening in our life is Scott's latest promotion. He was promoted to Master Sargent this past week and is now sporting this very important badge of honor.

We are all very proud of what he has accomplished in his career in the United States Air Force. I know he will make Chief one day. Way to go!
So I am also going to get back into gardening this year after taking last year off. Craig has promised to lend me his brawn to get my spot moved and readied for mid May planting. The old spot was just too shady to allow for much stuff to grow so the spot is being relocated. What a huge project...it will be in the horse pasture, close to water and in full sunlight. I plan to surround it with the old corral panels and hope they don't shed too much shade on my goodies. Of course I have to place everything far enough away from the fence so the ponies don't snack. Wish me luck!
Well that's my life right now....busy as always. The snow is slowly leaving and the gound warming. My next step is to get shoes on the horses and get riding. I am back at Weight Watchers and hoping to get pounds off before we really start our summer life. You know me, I don't sit still for very long....
Until next time!