Thursday, October 27, 2011

love is like a booger
you keep picking at it
till you get it
then you wonder what
to do with it



I ran out of cheques yesterday.
I found the box of replacements
It had an old register in it
I wondered why I saved that
I was looking it over
I had scratched this quote on it
I found the quote on the chalk
(yes! I said chalk)
board in the ski patrol headquarters
at kicking horse ski resort in BC
can't remember what year that was.
I still find it wise and funny

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Troy Color

View from the bank parking lot uptown Troy.
THis is "Wanda's Cut and Curl" yard.
The infamous, Wanda's! 

"Shavin' the Mushroom"

That is what my little sister, Annie, called carving the pumpkin when she was little.
It is so funny, it has just stuck with me. I have to mindfully call it carving the pumpkin, 
my head wants to call it "Shaving the Mushroom". 
 I often do bats and oak leaves....I was wanting to branch out,
Sunflowers? Seems fall-ish, doesn't it?
In hindsight, I should have done skulls.
Maybe I will put some on here tonight.....
 I actually have a lightbulb inside.
It just shines brighter and longer.
It was cool to come downstairs in the dark this morning and see the house
illuminated with an orange glow.
The pumpkin is on the porch right outside the window
so it offers insideand outside light.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Fight Your Way Through

Apple Harvest

 Even though the apple tree is ensconced in the garden fencing,
the bear in the neighborhood sniffed out the apples and was
doin its very best to try and get at them.
 I actually saw it up on its hind legs shaking the fence
so that the tree branches would shake and the apples fall!
We could see where it had attempted to scale a fence post
and it actually had some success, as it broke a branch off the tree.
 I was waiting for a harder frost to set the sugar, but with all this action
I could wait no more, the apples had to be picked or the tree could get ruined.
I was babysitting for baby Zayne, and I was not sure how she would feel about
my picking apples, but as you can see, she had no problem with spending
a couple hours in the garden!
"look, Ma! NO hands!"
Randy did show up to help out. 




Troy Street Life

I heard a noise and looked out my office window,
and this is what I saw! Very cute!
I opened the door and said, "Hi"! and got the chorus of verbal greetings
and waves back.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Sunday-go-to-Dinner....outing

My friend, Tony, was raised in this historic boarding house in downtown Troy.
He and his wife had a Montana Fish Taco feed on Sunday evening and I was invited.
The fish was northern pike that they had recently caught and as ever, with Valeries cooking,
it was stupendously delicious!
This is the kitchen of the old boarding house. Tony still lives here.
I LOVE this old wood cook stove!
It gets used to make the very best meals!
Tony said that when he was little and then when his kids were little, they would sit on the oven door in the mornings before the house was warm.
That is how big this stove is.
I could actually sit on that oven door, but you could line up probably 3 kindergartners on it.
The food that is cooked on this is better than regular food, just because!

Autumn Colors

Mossy tree trunk
 Devils Club
Oplopanax horridus
Wouldn't that be a great name for a Bar?
One of my favorite wild plants, it is SO gorgeous in all seasons.
You definitely do NOT want to touch it!

 Wild Ginger
Asarusm Caudatum

The ferns, they are a changin'

The story of the tree

So. This is an aerial photo of our property.
See how we have a little corner that crosses the road there on the west side?
That is our neighbors driveway.
It is a long driveway; it goes from the highway up a mile or more to the last place.
The nearest neighbor you can see there, the white rectangle and the green dot outside the blue.
These are new neighbors; they moved here from California.
They carry guns, well, because, you just never know when a bear or a bad guy is gonna jump out from behind a tree and try to eat or molest you. You just really never know. It is wild here in Montana.
Really wild.
They have gated their road and have asked the neighbors to please call prior to visiting, therefore, we don't visit because we can just wander by when we are out in the area.
In the corner of our property that crosses the neighbors driveway once stood a big douglas fir tree.
It had lived a long and happy life and was now dead.
A few people had asked us about that tree and if it was on our property. We affirmed that it was indeed ours and we had plans for it. Mike is dreaming of a shop and this tree was to provide us with beams.
When we met the new neighbors (we had them down for libations) we laughingly told them the most recent story about a tree inquiry and mentioned to them how our property crossed the road leading to their driveway. Last week, while Mike is gone a hunting, some stranger from the area noted the said tree and was gazing at it with true firewood lust. The new neighbors came by and questioned what the lustful firewood gatherer was doing on "their" road. They had an interaction which ended with new neighbors assuring the lustful firewood gatherer that the property above the road was "indeed timber company property" despite the fact that we had painted ALL the boundaries orange and Mike tied a big old orange ribbon around the tree,
(and he is not here to verify this) but I think he wrote "do not cut" or some kind of thing on the ribbon.
So, said wood gatherer swiftly fell the tree, limbed it and rolled it off the steep bank and into the ditch readying to buck it up into firewood, when, thankfully, another neighbor came driving up the road and set him straight. I was oblivious to all of this. The corner of property is far from the house. I was singing away, fixing dinner, when someone knocked on the door.  I just hollared"come in!" as usual thinking it was neighbor Barb coming to visit (I was expecting her) and in walks a stranger, the firewood gatherer.
He came to apologize, profusely and tell me the story and leave his number for Mike in the event Mike wanted to tear into him for tresspassing. He didn't mention the neighbors telling him it wasn't our property and to go ahead. He did say that someone had verified it was comapny land before he started cutting, as I inquired as to whether he had noticed the ribbons and markings and what he was thinking.
Anyway, the story made it around the neighborhood quickly.
The next morning, before it was light, neighbor Art, the one who set wood gatherer straight, phoned to tell me his side of the story and to offer assistance in getting the log before another wood crazed person came along. I donned my rain boots and coat, as it was POURING out and took a private property sign up and stapled it to the log. Then I heard from other neighbors. The new neighbors apologized, and Eric, of the BarbErics offered to help. So Art and Eric got Arts tractor and cut the tree into log lengths and hauled it up to Erics mill where the saved tree will become the beams that Mike has been dreaming of.
Now those beams will have a story!


And I finished my posting-of-the-signs venture out into the rain with a walk.
The rain let up.
So here I am out on my walk in the woods.
Armed and dangerous! (snort!)
Should any bear or bad guy try to molest me....
Their foreheads would have been filled with staples!
WE are a bit alarmed that our new neighbors are motivated by fear,
and not only that, that they are packing guns and seem to be anxious to use them!
They, at least, love to talk about packing their guns around.
There goes the neighborhood!
The up and coming "other new neighbors" are from Texas and he packs a big knife and a gun,
just in case one weapon is not enough!