Floats and fairs

How's it going out there everybody?  Things are pretty much rolling along here in Billings.  Nothing too exciting, but I'm keeping busy.  I have finished a week's worth of lectures for my intro physics courses and hopefully by the end of today I'll have week two finished.  

I have been able to squeeze in some fun though.  Last week Steph and I were planning on some car camping along the Gallatin River south of Bozeman.  Steph was poking around on the web and found out that the Gallatin County fair was going on.  We decided to check it out before heading to the camping area.

Growing up I loved going to the fair.  The sounds of the rides and the smell of fried bread and cotton candy would always put a smile on my face.  I remember the fried bread being called elephant ears but now all the booths said "funnel cake."  Hmm... must be an Idaho thing.  Now that I'm older the rides do not interest me, I'd probably barf if I tried riding them.  However, I really like the exhibits.  It's fun to check out all the local talent from pictures to plants, I like it all.  Steph and I were talking about fairs on the drive over to Bozeman and during our conversation I realized that I haven't been to a fair since 1994.  I don't know why I guess I just got too wrapped up in the everyday rat-race.  It was fun and I think I'll try the Montana State Fair next year.

This morning I was driving by my new place of employment and noticed some hot air balloons in the soccer field.  It is not everyday that this happens so I zipped into the parking lot, jumped out and snapped a picture before they ascended to the heavens.  Pretty cool.  If I wasn't heading back home I would have whipped out a $20 bill and said to the operator "hey man, how about a Jackson for a float around the city, whaddya say there tough guy?"

Sunday?

Good grief! What happened to the rest of the week? Well wed. we did the usual dump thing then went on into town to pick up a couple of things. On the way home we stopped at the creek where Phillip saw the apple orchard. Hiked over and took a look around. The old timers worked the creek extensively for gold. Lots of rock work in the creek to channel water. Phillip took a video of it with his still camera but it didn't turn out. He wants to do it with the new camera and see how that works. He did one short on just to see how to do it but none since. I haven't figured out how to do videos with it yet but I did get a few pics at the place with it. I didn't hike up the creek very far because my legs are doing the same thing they do every summer about this time. Darn things just don't want to work right. I think it must have something to do with the heat because when it's cooler I don't have the problem.

I finally got the pics Phillip took down at the river when we saw the pigs, processed. Can't see the pigs in the weeds down there in this pic, even I know they are there.

I caught Phillip coming out from under some of the apple trees.

Got these pictures out of order but these are some of the pigs going up the bank. Definitely not good pics of them. They went so fast up the bank and into the trees.

Let's see! Thursday was volunteer day. Phillip met a dude there that is into rock hunting big time.

No rain so on Friday we went down to the river and soaked our feet a while and got 35 gallons of water while we were down there for the garden. Good free water since we were down there any way.

Saturday, the Guy Phillip met at the Senior food distribution, called and wanted to have us come out to his place to see his rocks and stuff. He is an older dude and he wants Phillip to help him get some equipment organized and running. He has big saw and will cut some of the stuff we got on shares. We went out to his place and Wow! he has some fantastic beryl and smoky quartz crystals he got somewhere around Mount Antero in CO. One smoky crystal that weighed 100 + pounds. He sold the crystal but had lots of pictures of it on the wall of his shop. His showcase had Aquas in it that would make you drool. Interesting dude.

Now here it is Sunday again and Phillip is out in the shop working on his sticks. He said he will get pics of them when he is done.

We got a little rain last night. Just about enough to settle the dust. At least the lights didn't go out for a change.

Iv'e got to get off this darn thing and get some things done.

Granny

Rats!!

Water Water everywhere and not a drop to drink. Tried to up load a video but don't know how. It uploaded but didn't post. I'm computer illiterate when it comes to stuff like that.

Granny

Nice day!

Happens all the time.

Beautiful day today. Got to about 78 and partly cloudy. Still muddy as all get out but Phillip and I decided while it is a bit cooler today we would go looking for more walking sticks. Too muddy to go to our usual haunts so we parked along side the road going to Prescott and went over the bank to the creek to check for sticks. I went one way and Phillip went downstream toward town. He spotted some asparagus plants next to the creek. There are a few apple trees we have seen there on the way back and forth to town. He took a side creek and found an old homestead with a big apple orchard. Said there were no building left but there was a lot of rock work around. He did see some iris they had planted. We want to go back and mark the asparagus plants so we can dig them up this winter and plant them here. I want to go see the old homestead and see if there are asparagus plants there. The ones on the creek came from somewhere. Seeds probably carried by the birds. Same with the apple trees by the creek. Who knows, there might even be a rhubarb plant there as well. This place was probably made by some of the miners who worked a mine not too far up the creek. Only thing left of the mine is a big tailing pile. You can see where some of the old big trees down by the creek have been fire charred a bit. May have been a forest fire that wiped out all the buildings at the mine and homestead. Maybe more mines and homesteads in the area. Will have to check it out. Have to remember the camera when we go.

Got 10 new sticks and we got them peeled. Just have to let them dry, and hope none of the split.Looks like 1 willow and the rest box elder. Phillip like the alders to wood burn on best but there wasn't any nice shaped ones in this creek.

My bed time, Nite.

Granny

HO-HUM

Had two days of pretty good rain with the thunder storms rolling through.  So much rain that we won't have to water the new grass for a few days to say the least.  Gotta go to the doctor tomorrow....she is going to want me to go see a pulmonary specialist......yeah, I get to go through the CAT scans crap again, no doubt!!  Clack, clack, clack, noisy dang machines...and don't forget to hold perfectly still..and....hold your breath!!  Don't pass out while you are holding your breath......shheez!! 

Working on a new quilt top...blocks are made by placing a 5 inch square right side down on a 6 inch square and sewing diagonally from corner to corner on the five inch square.  Cut away remaining fabric with a 1/4 inch seam and fold over and press the five + inch triangle for your finished 6 inch square. All 6 inch squares are light colored in various prints and all 5 inch squares are dark colored prints. 

I decided to sew the remaining (cut-away) fabric to make roughly 4 inch half-square triangle blocks which I will incorporate as a border or as rows within the quilt...don't know yet.  I will need to lay the blocks out on a design wall to figure out.  When I get further on, I will post a pic. 

LOOKING FORWARD TO THE KIDS COMING TO VISIT....Dad is too.....he has been working on the yard in order to show case it!!

I knew it!!

Last Wednesday I made a post about a hike that Steph and I took up on Lake Fork of Rock Creek trail. On that hike I saw some plants that sure looked like huckleberry bushes, but I wasn't sure because I've been told that these tasty morsels do not grow this far east in Montana.  So I took a picture of it for the digital record and we went about our hike.

This past weekend we attempted to hike from West Rosebud Lake to Mystic Lake.  I've had some pretty good luck fishing on West Rosebud this summer, actually it is the only place I have caught a fish so far.  All the river fishing I've done hasn't worked out for me yet.  Here are a couple of pictures from our hike up to Mystic Lake.

However, we didn't quite make it to Mystic Lake because I got distracted.  I saw those plants again!  This time they had purple red berries on them!  Now, I'm no Grizzly Adams, but I do know that one shouldn't eat plants in the wild if they do not know what they're eating.  On the other hand, I have not seen anything in the wild that looks like a huckleberry plant+berry.  From my experiences and observations there is nothing you could confuse a huckleberry bush+berries for.  If you get sick from eating something that you thought was a huckleberry then you didn't look very close, that's my opinion.  Maybe there is a poisonous huckleberry impostor out there but I haven't seen one.  However, I was a bit cautious as I picked a berry and with the tip of my tongue and tasted the juice from the tear were it had been attached the plant.  There is no mistaking the awesome flavor that is huckleberry goodness!  I was so pumped I excitedly exclaimed "Steph! we could pick these and put them in the Gatorade jar and make a pie!!!"  To this Steph replied "look at these bushes, there is like 2 ripe berries for every five plants.  At this rate we would have to hike all over this ridge to get enough berries to make a pie."  The look on her face seemed to indicate that she did not want to hike all over the ridge to pick berries and then go home and make a pie.  So we just picked the berries we could see from the trail.  So no pie, but we did get enough to make some sauce to pour over some vanilla ice cream.

Now I'm fired up to head to Noxon in a couple of weeks to hit the productive patches! and then a pie will be made!

I did it.

We both did but it was slow going there for a while. We had another storm go thru today. Lot's of thunder boomers but very little rain. Phillip went out and got the squash and radishes and said the little rain we got didn't even wash off the mud from the last storm. Plants are still muddy. Rain predicted again tomorrow. ( holding my breath?). Anyway a 40 percent chance of thunder showers. If it's like today it will just be the thunder without the showers. Happens only too often. Every time it thunders and lightnings here the power goes off. Was off for 4 hours today. Phillip couldn't watch tv, woodburn or cook anything so he pestered me the whole time. At least I can read when all else fails to excite me. The thrill of being a mother.

Granny

It's friday kiddies!!

Granmaw always told me!!!

You know that old saying" If at first you don't succeed BS". I found out it's truth.

You know she said " what's the hurry, you'll be old soon enough". Damn true.

She said" to thine oneself be true". I'm still on the anti-depressant wagon but I keep wanting the fix.

Another thing she always said" Be careful what you wish for, It may come true". So right you were Granmaw. We were wishing for rain and today we got it with a vengeance. A typical monsoon gully washer. The yard was a lake. Phillips garden under a good 4 inches of water backed up by the 2x4's he put at the bottom of the fence to keep the pigs from rooting under it. In other words we got enough rain in 1 hour to last all week. As usual, the power was off til just about an hour ago. Phillip fixed a cold supper of gazpacho and egg salad sandwiches. Power came on as soon as we were done eating. Perfect timing don't you think? Power always goes off when it rains down here.

Granny.

Hiking report from the Beartooth Mts.

Howdy y'all!  I hope everybody had a wonderful 4th of July holiday!  Ours was pretty low-key.  We just went out for a short walk and did some fishing.  I've been slackin' in downloading pictures to my computer.  Normally I'm on the ball with this stuff, but lately I accumulated a backlog.  Here are a few of my favorite pics from our last few outings.

Two weekends ago we went for a hike up the East Rosebud Creek trail.  Here is a picture of East Rosebud Lake.

We got a late start which was unfortunate because it was hot, hot, hot!  By the time we hit the trail (noon) it was already in the mid 90's.  Steph was a trooper though and persuaded me to hike on.  I wanted to wuss out and turn around but Steph wanted to reach Elk Lake.  What made the hike extra tough was that a fire had ripped through the area in the mid 1990's so all the trees were only a couple feet high so there wasn't much shade to be had.  However, the flip side was that around every corner was an unobstructed view of the beautiful scenery.

After what seemed like an eternity we reached Elk Lake.  I went for a head dunk, but in retrospect I should have jumped in clothes-and-all because it didn't take long for me to get hot again on the walk back to the car.

On the 4th we went for a short walk up to Woodbyne Falls.  It was very pretty and some nice folks snapped a picture for us.

After checking out the falls we had a picnic lunch and stopped at a few places along the Stillwater River on the way back home for some fishing.  Didn't have any luck though.  It's a good thing I had a nice sandwich for lunch otherwise I would have had an empty and fish-less stomach during supper time.

This past weekend we went for a hike up the Lake Fork trail off of Rock Creek.  It was much cooler than the previous weekend so that was nice.

Not only was the temperature cooler but the trail had some natural shade.

Along the edge of the trail some plants caught my eye.  Now, I'm no botanist but I could swear that I saw some plants that looked like huckleberry bushes.  I've been told that they do not grow east of the divide but these things sure looked like little tiny developing huckleberries to me.

My last picture is from a couple of weeks ago.  I've found some hot spots to go fishing and so far the summer count is up to 9 fish.  This is more fish than I have caught in the span of 2002 to 2010 combined!  So far browns are the most fun to catch and are the biggest trout I've landed, but brookies are the best tasting.  Prior to this summer the only brook trout I have caught (and ate) was on the Pack River before we moved to Oregon.  So it was a treat when I cooked up the brook trout (smallest fish in the picture) and re-discovered how good they taste.  The one I caught almost had a salmon-like taste.  They are small but from now on I think rather than tossing a small trout back, I'll look first to see if it is a brook trout.  If I see those worm-like markings on the back I just may be steaming up some tasty fish that night!

Yep..I am staying inside..too damn hot outside!

Man, we have hit the triple digits the past couple of days. Due to all of the rain that we have had in May and June, it is so dang humid in the afternoon that if you step outside it feels like a sauna!!  The forecast-ed highs were supposed to be in the low to mid nineties but not up here is has been much warmer than that.  In town, next to the Clark Fork River, it may be a bit cooler than up here, I suppose. 

Anyhoo...Bruce is outside mowing the lawn right now.  I got brave and decided to make a cake...even though the house is hotter than the dickens.   In about an hour we can open all of the windows and cool the house down before bedtime. 

Here are some projects that I have been working on in varying stages of getting competed:

Now, I have some ideas for animal blankets for small kids......made like quillows so they tote them to wherever...babysitters, friends, grandma and grandpas, to the park....should be fun making them.  Hope they will sell at the craft fairs and holiday bazaars next year.  Oh and I named the quilts tops:  "Huckleberry go-round" and "Sleepin' with the fishes".   Ha-Ha  I have to get them quilted now.
This bottom quilt will be for Travis when I get it finished.

Yippee!

""~~~~HOT~~~''

This goes to show you just how hot it is down here. Even the deer think so.
Don't know who took the picture, I stole it off the net. Never the less, It's damn hot.

Went to the doc this AM. Didn't confess my addiction because I decided to quit cold turkey. Didn't stop by the store and replenish my anti-depressants. But(giggle) I did get some ice cream bars. Shush, I'm not yelling it out loud you know. And you really can't call them an anti-depressant because there isn't enough chocolate in them. Oh well! Cold turkey wasn't such a good idea after all. Just wondering how long I will last. Any way the doc did give me another year. He must have meant it because he said he would see me then.

Phillip picked 4 green peppers tonight and made some sauteed peppers, onions and mushrooms for supper. So good with the pork chops. Yum! I thought he was going to pick squash but he says they need to grow more. He did get a few radishes for the potato salad he made yesterday. By the way, I think there is still some of that left in the fridge.
Just looked at the clock. It's almost my bed time.
Granny.

Forsooth!!!

I have a confession to make... Yeh I know I shouldn't a done it but, forsooth, I did. I have become addicted. Yeh, I know I should be more careful but darn it, anti-depressants are so very addictive. And these ones are the most addictive of all. You have no idea just how bad it is until you have gotten yourselves hooked on them. Yep!! I looked in the jar and not one hershey's kiss left. I don't know if I can make until I hit the store tomorrow after I visit the doc. I really don't know if I should confess my addiction to him or not. Better not,because he might tell me to go into drug rehibilitation. I just know I would never make it back with out some kind of chocolate fix. Sheeeesh!! What to do? Now is this a revolting development, or what?
Granny.

Cooler day at the river.

Phillip caught this butterfly slurping nectar from a mint sprig. Actually he took several pictures trying to get one with it's wings all the way open. Darn thing was just pigging away and wouldn't cooperate and keep his wings open. Ungrateful wretch!... Can you believe the nerve of that creature. Any way it lead Phillip a merry chase trying.

We went for a walk down stream and saw the hawk waiting on a limb just below the nest. The nest is in a huge clump of mistletoe. We were below him when Phillip took this shot of it. This is a huge tall cottonwood tree, and the nest is almost at the top. The hawks used the same nest last year, but never could get a pic of either of them. Phillip tried with the Sony but when I tried to zoom in and crop it out the pixels spread too far apart. Zoomed in 5 times with this new camera and cropped this out.

A pic of some penstemons. This was before the rain so they are a bit droopy. Quite a color splash in a somewhat arid scene. They were growing along side the road.

One of the denizens of the deep. Well probably deep for him anyway. Actually he was in about 4 inches of water. He kept wanting to hide under the rock and I kept tapping it till he came out. Gotcha!!! Lots of these guys down there in the river but too small to catch and eat. Lots of tiny fish in this hole as well. Some are bottom feeders and some look like trout. Too darn small to tell for me.

As usual all this excitement made me weary so I went and parked my butt in the chair and put my feet in the water. Doing the thing I do best this time of year, Nothing!!! My favorite thing next to playing puter games when it's too hot for anything else.

Today was another exciting day in the life of the AZ Hanks. Yes by golly, we got to take the garbage to the dump on the way to town. Had to pick up a new tire because one of the back ones got a side wall puncture. Oh joy!!! We needed that like a new hole in the head. See what I mean by excitement? Sheeeesh!

Granny

Oh yeh!! It's Friday.

Yep!! And is has been all day.

Makes me wish I was a kid again at times.

The better part of the day was when the laundry was finished and put away.

It was a lot cooler today because we still have some left over clouds from a rainy Fourth of July. Finally!! The poor corn in Phillips garden was beginning to look a little stringy and more like corn stalks you see in the fall. He really planted it along the fence to shade the garden. He did that last year, not expecting to get any corn due to poor pollination but we got quite a few ears. Who know what will happen this year. Rain really makes a difference. Can't seem to get enough water on the garden.

Jake was saying he don't like spiders bigger than a dime. There are spiders down here as big as the palm of your hand. They are called tarantulas. Quite harmless to people but nice to have around in the yard to eat other spiders and bugs. Phillip dug up a huge yellow and tan one when he was putting in the water line to the shop. Should have gotten a picture of him. We see them all the time but never seem to have the camera ready then. They are real shy.
Gotta post this, Phillip almost has supper ready.

Granny

Ain't that the truth???

You can just go into the next room and then wonder what the heck did I come in here for. I have to go back to what I was doing just to remember what I went in the other room for. Have you ever put something in a place just so you would remember where it was? Then now you can't remember the place?? I better go see where I put that right now. What was I talking about? Better read back and see. Oh Yeah!!! Never mind....

Yep, that the way it was when dad was laid off work almost every winter till he went to work at Bunker Hill. Funny how things come back in style.

That 24 hour thing is just so much horse pucky. The darn things breed and multiply tenfold in that amount of time and they never die.

Went down to the river today because they said it was going to be 99 or a 100 and clear. Ha!!

It was clouding up just about the time we got there and It was so cool I almost didn't want to come home. We got clouds and you could count the sprinkles, they were so few. The rancher up on the hill has put cows up there and the darn things come down to the river to drink. Cow poo all over. Tomorrow is 4th and there will be people down there with their kids expecting to let them play in the water. Gonna be a nasty revolting developement when they get there. Everthing way too dry to have a weiner roast with out burning up the country side. Won't be a good day for parents down there.
Oh well , que sera, sera.

Granny

Birthday drive

Yep another one of those days.  Bruce and I went for a drive yesterday for my birthday.  We were going to go to Missoula to the Fort Missoula museum, then to the Memorial Rose Garden and then to the Elk Foundation Visitor Center....but I started getting a flare up in my right foot (which is rare for me) and by 2 am my foot was so swollen and in screaming pain...didn't get much sleep.  Hobbled out of the bedroom to go stick my foot in the bath tub with nice cold well water for a few minutes.  Got a glass a milk and took some ibuprofen, layed in the recliner until about 6:30 dozing off and on and then finally the foot started feeling much better went back to bed and slept till 9 am.  It was still hurting me after that so we decided the museum would have to wait for another day................bummer!! 

We decided to go for a drive. We went up Hiway 56 and took a road that should have taken us into Idaho and from there we would have connected up to the Lightning creek road or we could have gone down the Trestle Creek drainage. We planned on having dinner in either Hope or Clark Fork BUT... we ran into fallen trees and snow up near the top so we had to go back down to 56.  We ate in Libby, MT.  Got back here around 8:30 PM.  Here are some pics I took along the drive:

I had to get this big mushroom thing. It about 8" in diameter:

Oh and the drive coming back down!!