HAPPY VETERANS DAY

Today on this veteran's day, I have to take a few minutes to thank all the service men and women throughout the world who work each day to protect the freedom's that I enjoy so much and yet seem to take for granted. Thank you to both those who are currently serving and those who have served in the past.

Here's pictures of a few of them:


JW Jr. - Vietnam

JW WWII


My Daddy - WWII



The girl child who will probably not be happy i posted this but I like this picture.

No picture of the boy child scanned in so here's one of the family not in uniform:

Meet Dutch

So, while I'm in Colorado working for the week, JW has been out trying to find the perfect horse.

On Sunday I had called about one horse and the guy had sold it but he had another one that he would sell. He wanted more than we really wanted to pay but he has a very mild-temperament and is one that we feel anyone could ride.

The owner had a complete diary of the horse - all vet visits, dates shod and how he rode everytime he rode him.

He is a registered quarter horse and his registered name is Tuff Dutch - they called him Tuff but I'm thinking that Dutch would be a good name for a horse belong to a Van Haren. We'll be calling him Dutch - starting Saturday morning for sure.

They have kept his mane razed down because they used him for roping but since I like long flowing manes, we'll be letting it grow out. He and Badger are getting along very well and JW tells me he is a perfect gentlemen both on the ground and in the saddle. He's a red dunn - chestnut in color with black skin. Can hardly wait to meet him.

Saying Goodbye

Last Saturday - Memorial weekend, we drove to West Yellowstone, MT to pick up the granddaughters and bring them back to Butcher Creek to spend a week (while the parents went to Mississippi to look at a job). After eating lunch, we loaded up and decided to drive through the park, by the Artist's paint pots, out through Gardiner and on home.

It took us 45 minutes to get into the park because the traffic was so bad. We stopped at the paint pots and hiked the 1/3 mile to the view point. A lovely day for a hike and the girl's loved the bubbly mud - Madison thought it looked like eyeballs when it popped into the air. We got to see a bear just a little ways off the roads, lots of buffalo with brand new babies, elk and some sheep that looked pretty sad with their raggedy hair since they had started shedding.

We stopped at the God Bless America travel bug cache and left off the travel bug. It's still sitting there so if it's still there in 3 weeks, guess i'll pick it up and take it through Idaho and over to the original cache near Alexshuman. Picked up these little croc travel bugs - the pink one is named Madison so going to take them to CO with me tomorrow and place them in a cache there. (if I can find it, my gps cost a fortune and I'm not too happy with it so thinking it is going to be sent in for repairs - does everyone else's gps flake out and tell you to go one way 28 feet and when you start heading that way, it tells you to go a different direction 95 feet - oh well, I digress)

We got home about 6:30, ate sandwiches for dinner and sat on the deck for a while. Then, I told Jules - "We need to take some carrots out and say goodbye to Dudley. Tata is taking him to a new home tomorrow. His feet are hurting so badly that he can't stay here any longer."

I cut up some carrots and took the girls out to feed them to the horses. Then Jules went and sat on the big rock in the front yard, hanging tightly onto her stuffed Dudley, staring at the mountain and crying her poor little heart out. "I don't want Dudley to leave, I want him to stay here".

Last summer Dudley would limp for a few days and then seem to heal up. This summer, he was limping and at first, we thought it was because he hadn't had new shoes in 8 weeks (need to change them out every 6.) Unfortunately new shoes didn't help and when JW took Dudley to the vet a couple of weeks ago, she told him that he had degenerative hoof disease and there was nothing she could do for him. He would just continue to get worse and worse. The only thing we could do for him is to give him this stuff called butte which is a pain reliever. Dudley has never liked medication of any kind, we were not even able to spray him with fly spray as he would just go crazy. To give him butte, John would have to hobble his front legs, then tie one of his rear legs up. It would take both of us to hold his head still long enough to squeeze a couple tablespoons of this paste stuff into his mouth. We decided the best thing to do would be to take him to the open sale auction and sell him - we're not exactly sure what would happen to him but it was the best thing for him.

Tata went out to talk to Jules and then she asked if she could go see Dudley again. So I took along the camera to snap a few pictures.

JW was Dudley's best friend - it was so hard for him but early Sunday morning, he got up and headed into the auction. 5 hours later he came home with an empty trailer. The girls and I had gone out to spend some time with Badger because he was really missing his partner. They hadn't been able to spend much time with Badger because Dudley was always pushing him away so it was fun for them to be able to go out into the pasture and pull Dandy's (dandelions) for Badger - "who is going to feed him when we go home?"

I told Jules that we were going to dig up an old bush and plant a new bush that we would call the Dudley bush. On Thursday, we went to the Rocky Mountain Flower Farm in Red Lodge and when I told one of the lady's who work there what we were looking for, she took us over to the bushes the deer wouldn't eat. She showed us several including a spirea named Little Princess. Of course, Jules wanted that kind so the lady showed her the 20 or so bushes she had and let Jules pick out the exact one she wanted.

We worked and worked Thursday night to get out the old cedar bush but just couldn't get it done. Tata and Jules finished digging that out on Friday morning and when I took my lunch break, we got the Dudley bush planted. Can't wait until the pink flowers start blooming.

JW has been looking on the website for a new horse - it is not good for Badger to be alone - horses are herd animals and don't do well alone. He found several paint horses for sale - when I told Jules I might buy a painted horse, she said "why don't you want a real horse". JW said that Friday when I took the girls into Billings to see their great-grandma Mary, Badger went into the barn and just hung around him while he was doing some work. He said the next morning when he went to get him off the pasture, there was a young calf who had come over the fence into our pasture so Badger was just hanging out with the calf in a corner.

John is going to go check out a mule and a horse tomorrow - this time we are getting something that me and the girls can ride. The girls will be back over this way in a couple of weeks so hopefully we'll have a new horse that they can enjoy.

Jules sent me this story a few weeks ago (her Dudley is a large stuffed horse that I bought for her when she was here exactly 2 years ago so 2007 not 2006 - typed exactly as she wrote it)

Dudlyl and I mett in 2006. So I bought Dudlyl. My Nana said. "Ther's go home. When we got home I showed Dudlyl Nana's Dudlyl. Nana said "They almost look the same. But yours has a dot on its fourhed. Then the wind blew Nana's Dudly's hair bles. I said "Hey they look the same. See? Yes I do. I rode on my Dudlyl.


We'll miss you Dudley but it was great that we could have you in our lives for 5 years.

NEXT

I am almost finished with JW's quilt - just have to finish tacking down the binding on one side - woo hoo. Told him I had to finish it before I go to CO and spend a week in a confined space with people from all over the world and end up with swine flu.





Also got this little thing ironed together so I can work on it in my spare time in CO - have to blanket stitch around all of the pieces of fabric. Bought this about 3 years ago in Payson when hairball and I ran into a quilt shop - thinking it's about time I get it done so I can hang it on the wall in my new guest room. (Now if I only had some guests to put in that room.

The Tale of the Whole Wheat Tortillas

Okay so since I've been faithfully working out 1 hour a day on weekdays - prepping my body to do some hiking if this snow ever stops and we can actually drive in to the hiking trails - I decided I should try to make some whole wheat tortillas. I also decided I should use olive oil which is actually good for you instead of lard.

I put 2 cups whole wheat flour, 2 Tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp of salt in a bowl. Mixed this together thoroughly and then added 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp hot water. Then pulled this mixture out of the bowl to knead for a while.

Normally when I make tortillas, I knead the dough in my hands by twisting it and turning it and as I do this, it turns into a very manageable dough. What i found with the whole wheat dough is that as I kneaded it, it got stickier and stickier.

So I formed it into 6 balls and lightly coated each with a tiny bit of olive oil and left them on the counter to set a bit. While they were setting, I browned up some chopped onion and garlic then stirred in a bunch of chopped green chile and shredded pork. Added about 1/2 cup of water and left that to simmer on the stove.

I then heated up my griddle with the intention of rolling and stretching the whole wheat flour tortillas and cooking them up. I discovered that they rolled pretty good as long as there was plenty of flour to keep it from sticking. After rolling it out as much as I wanted to, I picked it up off the counter to stretch it out. It did not stretch at all. I put it back on the counter and rolled it out some more until it was as thin as I wanted it to be. Then placed it on the griddle to cook.

JW teased me about these saying they would never be able to be used to make a burrito. And since the first one felt a bit crispy, I thought he was probably right. We were both rather surprised when I put one on a plate, spooned on some green chile and rolled it up very easily.

Now came the taste test. We found them to be edible but the whole wheat totally overpowered the green chile. Back-up plan - a bowl of green chile accompanied by bite size Tostitos.

So, while the whole wheat tortillas might be more healthy, the occupants of this house are going to stick with the traditional enriched white flour tortillas made with lard. But, at least, I can say I tried.

Fabric Galore!!!! - and no two pieces the same

So last Friday, the Montana Shop Hop started - for those of you who don't know what that is - it means that from April 17 to May 9 about 40 quilt shops in Montana are participating in the circle of friends shop hop with special things for shop hoppers - including a grand prize of a new sewing machine.

Well, there are 6 circles and due to work, Saturday was really the only day I could try to complete a circle to fill my passport and get one drawing in for the prizes. Since we'd never been to Glendive, I decided my quilting partner and I would get up very early Saturday morning and drive to Glendive to be there when they opened at 10 and then work our way back home stopping at the 6 shops in the Eastern Circle.

Since I work at home and don't get out of the house very often to really meet anyone, my "quilting buddy" is also my best friend and hubby. Just don't let him hear us say that. (it's really hard meeting people when you don't have kids in school - think they need a website for people who just want to find a friend - someone with common interests). So I coerced JW into being my chauffer for the day and also told him that he was going to have to carry a passport so we could get two chances to win the sewing machine.

He was so good all day and so funny talking to all the ladies in the shops. At Glendive, he carried my pile of fabric up to the counter and announce that was his pile. I had to buy quite a few fat quarters because at the Enchanted Room, they had all of them on sale for $1 a piece.

We left Glendive and drove back west to Miles City. As we got off the interstate he kind of made a comment that the quilt shop probably burned in the horrible fire they had there a couple of weeks ago. I told him no way. However, as we drove through downtown and by the block that had burnt, I found that the only building standing on that side of the street was a smaller number than the address we were looking for - it had indeed burned down.

We drove back through downtown and stopped at Subway where I had my favorite Italian BMT with lettuce, onions, tomatoes, jalapenos, black olives and pickles and hot mustard - it's about the only place we really enjoy eating. I especially love the salt and vinegar chips.

After eating, we drove further west to Forsyth, picked up some more fabric and then back the 95 miles to Billings - having to get there before 3 o'clock when the first of 3 quilt shops we had to stop at in that town closed. It was a quilt shop that I had never been to but after some searching, we finally found it. JW helped me pick out some fabric for a Christmas hanging I want to do - a hot pink stocking filled with goodies - it's the perfect width to fit in the window by my front door.

<--- fabrics for my Christmas wall hanging

Then we went to Backdoor Quilts - my normal quilt shop. I picked out a number of short bolts (they sell you these at $5 a yard but you have to buy the whole rest of the bolt. I also needed 1/2 yard of a gingerbread brown color and 1/2 yard of orangy-red that would match the salmon on the alaskan panel for the quilt I want to make for the new grandchild.

While I was getting my fabric cut, JW kind of fell in love with a quilt on the wall - it had elk on the fabric and he was really wanting a quilt of his own to take to "summer camp". So now I have one more project and of course this one has to have priority over the others since I have to get it done by June 27.

(And no alexshuman, I have not forgotten I have to get you a quilt made too - I picked up a few fat quarters that I'm thinking will look good in your quilt - really want to get that one started. )

Last stop was at Bernina quilts where JW burned his hand on a price tag on a sewing machine - I keep telling him that the price of new machines is why I'm perfectly content to keep sewing on my almost 30 year old viking - at least it's not made of plastic). The ladies there teased him a little but then also told him it was nice of him to do the shop hop with me. Here, JW picked out fabric he wants me to put around the Packin' In panel that I've done for a quilt for our bed. Plus, he helped me pick out some fabric for a border for the upstairs bedroom quilt (however, because one of the short bolts I bought at Backdoor quilts happened to be the perfect color of the room, I'm going to use that instead.

<-- packin' in panel with fabrics to turn it into a king size quilt - now if I only had a plan.

For a reward, I treated JW to dinner at famous dave's - he had the brisket sandwich and I had a salad - then on home cause "we had animals to feed".

Next year, if he's nice, I'll take my vacation at this time and we'll do all 6 circles - I think that would be a blast. (However, I'm sure my "partner" would use other words to describe that")

Elk Picnic???

The company I work for decided that in order to improve their bottom line for the quarter, all employees had to take 6 days of vacation between Jan 1 and mid-April. Not that I don't enjoy vacation but I only get 17 days a year so kind of like to take it when I want to. But insteady, I had "forced vacation" this week. JW isn't working so had to think about him when trying to plan what to do this week. He didn't want to go south to visit family - he has this attitude of "if they won't come and see us, I'm not going down there". Course, money is a little tighter this year so couldn't plan a big trip - or would have went south without him.

Springtime in MT is not exactly the time of year to be playing MT tourist. Too much snow to go to Glacier Park. Too many museums and other things are only open from Memorial day through Labor day. We've had over 2 feet of snow in the last 10 days. Beartooth Pass is still closed for another 6 weeks.

So Monday, I got this bright idea that we would drive to Gardiner (the Northern gateway to Yellowstone National Park) the next day and spend the night. Then Wednesday, we would drive into the park and do some snowshoeing. We knew most of the park is closed but they do keep the 53 mile stretch from Gardiner to Cooke City open year around.

We got to Gardiner about 3:30 Tuesday afternoon. JW had physical therapy in the morning and then we spent a little time in Livingston and the Backporch Quilt Shop. (was looking for some yellow and orange fabric to use for flames for the campfire in my Packin' In quilt.) We walked into the few open junk stores in Gardiner to see if we could find any little treasures.

We then checked in to our room and walked across the street for dinner. I ordered the tri-color pasta with portabella. I'm beginning to think that most little restaurant's don't actually know what a portabella mushroom is because the last 3 times I've ordered a dish with portabella - it has had only regular little mushroom slices in. The "tri-colored" pasta isn't exactly what I had pictured - it was ravioli - about 1 1/2" x 3" squares that were brightly striped white, red and green. Not really bad - just not something I would order again.

Wednesday morning, we got up, ate breakfast and headed into the park. When you go in through the north entrace, the first thing you get to is Mammoth Hot springs area. So we had to drive up past the terraces.

My favorite part of going into Yellowstone Park this time of year is that it is so peaceful - you can pretty much pull off the road anywhere you want without worrying about causing a big traffic jam.

We were surprised at how little snow there was in the park so we figured out very quickly we weren't going to be doing any snow-shoeing.

In the summer, most of the buffalo can be found in Lamar Valley towards Cooke City but this time of year, they go anywhere to find food. We saw at least 1000 of them in various little groups - since there was a little snow, they seemed to find it easier to walk down the pavement.

We got to Cooke City around 10 - I was thinking we could go into the "junk" store and look around but they shut it down for the winter. Good thing cause not too many places to pile snow except in front of buildings. Whoever owns the car below is going to have fun digging it out as it may be staying snowbound for a few more weeks.

We turned around at Cooke City - mainly because the road is closed just past the town so had to drive back the way we came.

When we got back to Mammoth area, we found that the elk who had been eating when we had entered the park were now settled down for their mid-day rest.

The weather was gorgeous and it was a great day to drive through the park. Especially enjoyable when we get up this morning to another snowy day. Oh well, what's Easter without snow.

The Real Jenny or is that Ginnie????

And that is the banana girl at the end

I'm not going!!!!

Well a couple of weeks ago when I posted the information regarding Flat Stanley - we thought we were going to be making major changes around here within the next week as we were going to have to decide what to do.

At that time, JW had a good job offer in Gillette, WY - they would even buy our house here, pay for all our moving expenses, put us up in temporary housing for 60 days while we got settled, give us $5000 cash to use on whatever expenses we needed to pay for in regards to moving such as autoregistration, utility deposits or whatever.

He also had his old boss in Nome saying that he thought someone from the care and maintenance team that they kept on was going to be leaving and if that happened, he wanted JW back up there.

I definitely did not want to move to WYO so was glad there was this 2nd option that might work out - otherwise, JW was pretty adamant that we were moving.

March 9 is when the boss in Nome was supposed to be back in the office. Mar 13 is when we were going to be in WYO to check out the place and make a final decision.

March 9, we sent Flat Stanley back to AZ and waited to hear from D Jarvis the guy in Nome. Weird thing is that the guy in WYO was named M Jarvis - not exactly the most common name in the world. Felt like a big conspiracy.

Monday March 9, a big blizzard was raging in Nome - very few planes were getting in or out.

Tuesday March 10, JW sent an e-mail to DJ to let him know we were going to have to decide about WYO.

Wednesday March 11, finally DJ got back to Nome and had a chance to talk to the guy he thought was leaving - nope he isn't. He e-mailed JW and told him that he thought he should take the job in WYO.

Thursday March 12 - we went for a long walk up the road and over the snow-covered hills - it was very peaceful except I had to rush back to a 4:00 meeting with my boss ( a meeting that she cancelled at 3:00 while I was out walking). When we got back here and found out I didn't have a meeting, we sat down to discuss what to do.

I had thought he was anxious to get started on this new job while in fact, he didn't want to move away from our spot. He thought I was anxious to get him back to work while in fact I too did not want to leave this fabulous spot in Montana. I had spent the past two weeks trying to think of all the things I hate about this place - couldn't even come up with 5 things. And moving to WYO definitely was not going to fix any of these.

We then decided that we would go to Gillette - we would be open-minded while looking at houses and if we thought we could do it, then we would.

Friday March 13 after I got off work, we headed southeast. Stopped in Sheridan and had a way toooo expensive dinner - which definitely wasn't worth the effort. Pulled into Gillette about 7:30.

Saturday March 14 we went for a leisurely breakfast (since someone decided we needed to get up at 6 o'clock to meet the realtor at 8 - it never takes us more than 20 minutes to get ready in the morning and 20 minutes to eat breakfast) We met up with the realtor and went to look at the 3 houses we had agreed to check out. All 3 were modulars on acreage. There is a boom over there right now with all the coal mines so houses are outrageous and you can't even find a stick house to buy.

The first house we checked out was too old. It was on 122 acres which was nice but was in very poor shape and had actually been moved twice so financing would not even be possible.

The second house was brand new. Two bedrooms but our bed would not even fit in the master bedroom and I don't know why people think you need a big bathroom with a huge tub in - to me that is a total waste of floor space.

The third house was okay but 4 bedrooms - 3 of which were about 9 x 9 (if that large)

We went back to the town and got our truck, then we drove out past the mine (which is 54 miles from Gillette) then another 50 miles to Newcastle where some people stay. It was a strange little town but at least it was kind of in the pines. We drove on over through Spearfish, SD and then back home - knowing that JW would be turning down that job and he'd keep looking.

If we were a lot younger, maybe we would have went ahead and gone but at our ages and knowing that we hope to retire in a few years, we didn't want at the "end of the day" to be in a mining town with a house that we may or may not be able to sell. It would be starting all over again and I guess we're too old for that.

For now, we'll stay here. JW will keep looking for a job and they are still talking about reopening the mine in Nome. If they do, he's at the top of the list for going back - this time, I'm going with. If not, we'll be able to pay the bills as long as I keep my job. While they are waiting to do that, he's signed up for Archery Guide service so in July will go to 4 week camp for training. Then they have a list of people wanting guides so he can go straight to work. It will be fun for him and good experience since that's what he was hoping to do when he retires.

Here's the view from one of the houses in Gillette and my view. Hmm let's see - an oil rig running day and night with a diesel engine making noise 24 x 7 or a peaceful view of the Beartooths - obviously not hard to pick between those two.

A very unexpected visitor

So last Monday, JW went to the post office to pick up the mail and came back with a guest. Abenanna's grandson sent Flat Stanley to visit Montana.

This is Flat Stanley getting acquainted with a very indifferent Tinkerbell.

Flat Stanley made a little snow man. It was pretty warm that day so in the sun it melted, melted, melted.

We took Flat Stanley on a hike and a few other places.

Now, Stanley is upstairs in a box - awaiting to be taken to the post office for his return trip to Arizona tomorrow - he has to be back in Cool-town by March 16 and we don't want him to be late getting back to school.

Pretty sad life when a paper boy coming to visit causes excitement on the crick. JW was feeling a little displaced by the "Flat Guy".

Oh well, changes are a comin' - so life will be totally turned around 7 days from now ---- stay tuned.

Yeah for HAPPPPPPY HOLLY DAYS!!!

So for several months, I looked forward to Christmas. The kids were going to be here even if JW wasn't going to make it home for the holiday (the only silver lining on the dark cloud of the mine in Nome shutting down is he got to come home. I spent way too much money on some new decorations. Bought a new tree for the "man cave" so I could put a bigger one upstairs in the living room - one that I could put more presents under. Bought a little white flocked tree to put in the girl's bedroom. I even scooped up some frozen deer poop in a plastic bag and sprinkled in a little red glitter so we could leave it as evidence that Santa had been there. Broke down and bought Christmas dishes, silverware and napkins that I had wanted for years. Bought special Christmas mugs for the girls to drink from and some cheapy ornaments so I could put them on a tree out on the front deck.

Even Tinkerbell loved the upstairs Christmas tree and is finally getting a little used to the girls. For the first time, she did not hide in a dark hole in the basement all day while they were here.

I bought too many things for my favorite little girls - so many in fact that a few days before Christmas, I hid a couple of presents deciding to wait for Easter to give them some pink building things - similar to tinker toys. I arranged for a flight for number one child so she could spend Christmas with us for a change. I bought socks, socks and more socks since that is tradition - everyone gets socks for Christmas.

I cooked and cooked and cooked - way too many cookies and every kind I made, I had to make a few and bake them before I added nuts since youngest granddaughter is very allergic to nuts. Then I added nuts and baked more. I made caramels (with and without nuts) and some dipped in chocolate. I made fudge and spiced pecans and chocolate covered cherrys. Terrible thing is that I'm the one with the major sweet tooth - I think everyone else would have been just as happy if I had only baked a little.

We made tamales and after the girls got here, we made sugar cookies and decorated them so we could leave some for Santa. They helped mix the dough, cut the dough and then decorated. Jules had to do more than her half of the decorating, because Madison like to put lots and lots of blue sugar on her cookies - she says purple is her favorite color but I think she really prefers blue.

The girls got to spend some time sledding down the hill along the side of the house. But when they returned Christmas eve, the wind had blew all the snow away or into big drifts. So Christmas morning, they tried to sled down a big drift in the front yard. It was a short trip and Jules kept heading into the tree.

The day after Christmas, Nana and Tata hike out back to the other side of the hill to find a place for sledding. It was a little windy and awfully cold out. But, we found a perfect place and came back to get the rest of the family. We then all hiked out across the hill and spent the morning sledding down the hill. Even this old lady went down the hill twice. First time I've ever really sledded. I've secretly been wanting to go back out there and can almost guarantee that if we get another nice snow, I'm going to sneak out back and spend some time on that hill. At least back there, no one could see me.

Saturday evening, we took a lot of photos of the family. Wanted at least one decent picture (considering the subjects) of the whole group since it's been so long since we've all been together here at "my" house. We also decided that next year, we're going to go back to doing charity gifts instead of buying for the adults in the family. Even got the son to agree to that. However, the sock fairy is not happy that I've been told I cannot even buy socks and I cannot buy Happy Thanksgiving socks or Happy New Year socks.

Next year, Christmas is going to be very quiet wherever we are since we have to let the grandkids spend the holiday with their Grama Toni. But we are planning to all meet together in 2010 for another holiday (but I'm thinking less candy and cookies the next time around.

Not sure what new adventures await us this year. But whatever happens it will be okay. JW is applying for every job he thinks he would qualify for. We probably won't jump into moving somewhere until he works there a while and it looks like something that will last. The house is still up for sale and if someone snaps it up this summer, then we'll have to decide where to go. But until that day, we continue to work on the house and enjoy life here on the crick.