Guess Mother Nature has been drinking again. We got snow this week and it has been cold.  10 degrees last night.  I was in Texas for a week.  So much to do and so little time. I spent most of the time at my sister's house.  On Friday drove to Pt Lavaca and then to Port O'Connor.  Went by the Tackle shop that we owned in the 70's.  It's in poor shape.  POC has grown with lot s of million dollar homes.  While I was there, I visited Julie, my upline at Rodan and Field. She has a beautiful home.  Good visit.  Then that evening I attended the Calhoun HS Sandcrab football game. They won against Floresville.  IT was was very cold! Then I was supposed to go to the VFW but my GPS took me everywhere except the VFW, so I went back to the COLD Hotel room.  On Saturday, I went to lunch at Whataburger.  I had a cheeseburger with jalapeños. Yum.  That night I attended my 40th HS reunion.  It was a lot of fun. I won the most changed although the two other ladies had changed as well.  Beautiful.  It was so good to see my FB friends.  I then drove back to SA on Sunday. Again, GPS took me a long way back. When I arrived I picked up some Barbacoa and Menudo.  Again, YUM.  That night we had a get together to celebrate Nick's 35th.  It was so good to see my grandsons and spend time with the family.  I arrived back in Montana on Monday afternoon.  Temps were in the 20's and snow on the ground.  Looking forward to warmer day tomorrow.

Steve has worked all summer to get to this point.  it took over 100 hours on the tractor and backhoe to dig out the basement for our addition  28x14 feet.  Although Steve said he was content in our cabin (32x14), I need just a tad bit more room.  Things can be chaotic during the winter, with all the winter coats, gloves,and  boots, plus we don't have room for any guests.  We will move the washer and dryer to this basement and then Steve will have a nice reloading room.  Today the concrete is bing delivered.  Two of our neighbors, Charles and Harlan are out here helping. Who knew that concrete would be so hard?!  

We have kept busy.  We are members of the Search and Rescue organization in Forsyth and we recently had our fund raiser.  We pulled off a pancake breakfast at the fair, three days in a row with only 4 members.  Fortunately two of our neighbors, Juanita and Paul M came out and helped.   As you can see without good neighbors, things wouldn't get done. 

My chickens are laying about 10-12 eggs a day.  So many eggs and not enough neighbors to give them away to, lol.


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I recently saw the meme from the Montana weather site. Go home Mother Nature, you're drunk and thought "how true".  June 21st the official day of summer and there was snow in the mountains.  Here is was in the 40's, had to wear a sweatshirt.  We are having the neighborhood picnic this week and it has rained all week. Oh well, hopefully it will hold off for a while.  The wind is currently blowing out of the North and it seems to be drying up the wet areas.  

My chickens are thriving.  The littles will be 4 months old in 2 weeks.  They are still frightened of the 4 older hens.  Bobby Sue is the meanest.  She hadn't been laying so I threatened her and she started up again. Well now it's been 4 days and no sign of brown eggs.  I had to threaten her again with being sent to the neighbor who doesn't mess around. She will kill the chickens for food.  I wonder if I raised meat chickens if I could butcher them?  Probably not, lol.  

Steve and Harlen saw a black bear last Saturday. Only two miles down the road.  Where I used to run.  I haven't been able to run recently, knee and back issues plus the weather.  Will see what the VA has to say on my injuries. UGH.

The Grandson's were here last week. We had so much fun.  We went to Mount Rushmore. Such an amazing site. Fourteen years of labor and the monument was complete yet at Crazy Horse monument, which has been in progress for 71 years, they only have the Chief's face done.  Sad.  We also went to swim in the Yellowstone Hot springs.  What an experience.  Miss the boys already, well except for the bickering, lol.

Well need to get ready. Taking Ginger and Phoenix to get their rattlesnake vaccine booster.

It was in the 80s earlier this week. I helped the neighbor fence and it was HOT. Today it was in the 50's and cool. The weather report says snow this weekend. Really, snow in May?  Steve what did you sign me up for?  We purchased a Camp Chef Pro 24 DLX pellet grill so Steve has been barbecuing.  The pork loin and the ribs were so tender, you could cut it with a fork.  Very tasty.  Been busy learning how to use my Silhouette Cameo 3 cutting machine. I've made decals for cups, T-shirts and bags.  It's a lot of fun but I need to put it away until later as we still have a lot of projects to do. Steve has been busy digging out the basement for our addition.  The changing weather patterns have not helped.  Snow, rain and mud have been our constant companions this spring.  Most of the plants in my raised garden died during the freeze 3 weeks ago.  I now understand the comments about short growing season.  We also got our bees a few weeks ago. It was almost too cold to move them into their hives.  The other day while I was doing laundry, I saw Steve just staring at the hives.  He was watching the worker bees fly in and out with a lot of pollen on their legs and face, so hopefully this means that we will have two successful hives (Italian and Carnelian) .  Mother's Day weekend we went to Wildfire training.  The longest 2 days of my life.  We live so far off the grid that we have to know how to handle wildfires as the county fire trucks won't get out here in time to stop the fire from spreading.  Now Steve wants us to be Wildfire fighters III. In order to get our red card we have to run/walk 3 miles with 45 pounds on our back. Did he forget how old we are?  We aren't spring chickens.  The good thing is that he received a good cardiac report from the cardiologist in Billings. His heart is good to go.  Well need to go to a meeting, hopefully it won't be so long before I post again.

Can you believe we got snow April 28th to May 1st?  It didn't stay but it did leave muddy roads.  So many things to do, not enough time.  We finally finished the chicken palace.  Steve installed a water system so I don't have to lug the waterers in and out.  My littles turn 2months on May 6th.  They are still frightened by the big hens.  I even named them, lol.  Heckle and Jeckle are the 2 barred rocks, the 4 americans are Lucy, Ethel, Toni and Dawn, the 2 buffs are Samantha and Tabitha and the Silver Wyndottes are Star and Dancer, you know for Silver Stars and Silver Dancer.  One, Samantha ventured out and ran out of the coop area by the bigger hens.  I'm kind of obsessive about my babies.  I went inside, counted 9, recouted and still only 9. Fortunately I found Samantha under the coop. She came right to me. It pays to bond with them.  The silver Wyndottes and the Americans are still skittish around me.  The Buffs and Barred Rocks come right up to me.  Oh and did I say that Bobby Sue my older hen started laying again.  The day we opened the coop for them to get outside, I told her she had better start laying or she would be soup. Lol  Well enough about my chickens  Wishing you all a good day and week.

Do you remember the  1970 song, "Sign, Sign, everywhere  sign" from Five Man Electrical Band? Every time we go anywhere and we have to travel these muddy roads, I think of that song.  The mud is everywhere and makes driving a challenge. The weather is getting warmer and the snow is melting and for those of you who haven't experienced when snow melts and the ground is frozen, snow turns to water that has no where to go.  There are huge lakes of water all around us.  The picture on the right is of the "lake" behind the community well. Normally there is a small pond there.  The one positive is that our water pipes finally unfroze.  We have running water to the cabin.  What a relief.  I re-washed all the dishes in hot bleach water.  We can also pack away all the water containers and the Camp water heaters.  This little cabin of ours was cramped.  Once Winter is finally over all the boots, hats, gloves ,and coats get put away too. I finished my last blanket of the season. For my friend, Paloma, a fellow veteran. Well, I need to go. Have to go check on my baby chicks.  Have a great day! 

Three times a charm, or something like that, right?  Steve, myself and our neighbor drove to the other side of the Ranch which is only about 5 miles for a By Laws meeting.  When we were done, we dropped Steve off at a controlled burn with another neighbor.  Dottie lives less than a quarter a mile up the road so since I was driving the F350, I thought no problem, drop her off, back up and then I wouldn't have to face the muddy roads. Yes we still have snow but its rapidly turning into mud. Yeah, that didn't work. I drove right off the road into about a 4 foot snow bank. I was stuck! Walked home, filled up the generator, started my clothes in the dryer and then went inside to dress a little warmer. I thought I'll just ride the ATV down to where I dropped Steve off and he would get the truck out.  While I was putting on my coveralls, Dottie was knocking on the door. She said "I'll help you get out". So I followed her down the drive, with snow shovels.  While she was putting chains on her truck, I dug the truck out.  It was not an easy job but I did it.  By the time I was finished digging the drivers side out, Dottie was back with her truck. We hooked up the tow rope and Easy Peasy, she pulled me out. GIRL POWER! I got home, put my stuff away and here comes Steve up the drive. He missed my adventure but at least I now know what to do.

Today we went to Harlan's for dinner. I took a Mock Apple Pie.  This is the second pie we've taken over to Harlan. A few weeks ago, he mentioned his mom made him Shoo fly pie and Mock Apple Pie.  Shoo Fly pie is basically a molasses pie. Mock Apple is made with Ritz crackers, cream of tarter, and sugar. Seriously, it tasked just like I added apples.  Look up the recipe and try it yourself.  He made an enchilada casserole.  It sure was tasty. Finished up 2 blankets and one more to go.  Then packing up my blanket making material, because Spring is coming! Have an awesome day. Time to shower and then watch Ancient Aliens, because there is SOME KIND OF Something out there, lol.

Today we celebrated 27 years of wedded bliss.  We went to Miles City for showers and then we met friends at the Black Iron for lunch.  We had a great time.  The night before, not so much. We had gone to Miles City earlier in the day to do laundry and take showers.  We then went to the other side of Wildhorse to deliver some lumber to a neighbor.  The day was warm so the snow was melting.  We went over a particularly slushy area and my ever helpful husband decided to back up and see if he could fix the drainage in that area. So what do you think happened?  We got stuck in a snow bank.  Fortunately it was warm so we didn't get too cold as we walked up the road (about one mile) to another neighbors house who has a tracked CTL.  Unfortunately, his machine was down, so the neighbors gave us a ride back to our house. We were within one mile when you guessed it, we got stuck.  Their Mercedes could not make it up the hill and instead, we drifted down into a snow bank.  So after another mile hike to the cabin, I was able to call another neighbor.  Harlan pulled them out of the snow and then went down the road and pulled us out.  

​Oh and I have 11 little baby chicks.  They are so cute.  I still have some work to do to finish the big chicken coop but apparently my four older hens are in heaven. I am now getting eggs!! Yeah!