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.