Here's Life lately...

BOOK: Just finished DEAD TO THE WORLD and started DEAD AS A DOORNAIL
MUSIC: Boston...their first album
WORKOUT: Sunday; bike, full body weights
FAV FOOD: Broccoli and carrots!


Life has been a bit overwhelming with school (6 performances in 4 days), personal life and a horrible cold. Nonetheless, we still had some weekend getaways and projects...

I thought some of you might like to see what sort of week I had to dig up in my yard...it survived the winter and has roots all the way to hell!

PIG WEED!

Last weekend the weather was around 50 degrees and so we just went and parked on a sandbar of the Yellowstone.
We enjoyed the nice evening fire and the starts were gorgeous!
Some of us waded out in the water with Gus. Guess who?

Ed and Cathy stopped in during the week and we shopped forever. Here he is playing with George Dog the Cat.
This weekend, we headed to Yellowstone for our anniversary camping trip. Gus usually sleeps when we drive, but things were rather interesting to look at (plus he wanted to herd them!).

Here's what we saw when we looked out our window in the camper! A whole herd of these beautiful elk passed by our window! Spring is on it's way, good thing. Many were incredibly skinny.

And here's what it looked like when we got up this morning...snow. We're home now, it's still snowing. As a matter of fact, we are supposed to get 8 more inches tonight!

But you know what? I learned a long time ago to always be grateful for precipitation, no matter the form! Our poor earth needs it, especially where we live!

Only one concert this week and I don't direct, so it's much more relaxing. My cold is starting to subside and life is good :o)

Coming back soon to report on our Anniversary Weekend!

Taking a break from the blog

for many good reasons.

No pics but...

I have to say that LOLLY has inspired me today. I keep thinking of her making mom's potato soup. Now, if you don't know my niece, lolly, I must say that this is a HUGE deal. Lolly, for many years, didn't cook...anything homemade. This is without judgment. There are LOTS of things Lolly has a passion for and does, many of them better than you or I. But she has never "bonded" with cooking, until recently.

My heart warmed when I read her last blog and she made homemade potato soup, mom's recipe. It looks SO GOOD (I'm sure it was!) ...but of course, the most special part of that is that fact that she used her precious gramma Lil's recipe. Well, she mentioned mom's chocolate chip cookies...OH YES! This morning (after the cat screams woke me up at 5:30 and I made breakfast) I decided to make mom's yum yum recipe! They turned out great, I'll give some to Megs, Michelle and Ter Ter.

Thanks to Lolly, keeping mom's precious love, through cooking, is what I'm about this weekend.

Hope yours is just as warm and fulfilling!

Oh yes, I have the homemade lentil soup in the crock pot!

The Reader.

Anyone see it? It's a VERY powerful movie!

Getting too much snow?

I'll trade ya...for our 8 below zero F this morning!

Off to school today!

First day back from Spring Break and its 7 degrees with a new 4" blanket of snow covering our little town!

Break was good. Here is a pic of our friend, Joan. She was like a gramma to my kids, living across the street from us, when I was a single mom and going to college in South Dakota.
Today, she is living in a very small town in eastern Montana. Michelle and I drove to see her and so glad we did!

Make it a good Monday!

Sunday

the last day of Spring Break. *sigh*

Drive. Hike? Sail? Drive. Jump. Drive.

Scott and I headed out for a nice drive Saturday...(ignoring the interstate and taking mostly frontage and back roads) to our camping spot on the Madison, anticipating a nice long hike again. However, there were a few forces against us. The snow hit there a few days prior, as you can barely see the fence. And for you city folk, that wooden thing in the middle is what they use to load/unload cattle.

And here is the country at a distance...the Bridger Bowl.

We finally reached our destination around 5:30. The weather was pretty nice, except the WIND was really starting to kick up.
I fixed a yum yum dinner but it was also a culprit to my tummy being upset for a few days...the meat was tooo fatty for my digestive system...


So being sick the next day made a boring day for poor ol' Gus Bob. He really wanted to take a hike.
So instead, we decided to take a drive. Here is the madison range. The peak on the left is LONE MOUNTAIN and the pead in the middle is Fan Mountain. This was our view when we lived in Ennis.

The Madison River runs through this valley. Isn't it beautiful?

And it is fly fished all year...

They dammed up the river with a damned dam in the 1930s (I think). Anyway, you soon come upon this sign...

Ummm, yeah. I don't think I'll go sailing here, what about you?

But there's something to be said about the gorgeous rock walls that line this river.


Here is Meadow Lake...the man-made lake from this damn dam. It's about 8 feet deep. Sometimes you see the bald eagles sitting on the edge of the ice fishing for trout.
So...we drove, we didn't hike or sail, then we drove again. On the backroad, we decided to check out the Buffalo Jump State Park.

Before the Native Americans had horses (2000 years ago or so), they dressed as wolves and would collectively herd the buffalo over the edge of a 30ft cliff.

Here's the actual cliff. They found many bones and such in the given area. They also found many tee-pee rings and other artifacts.

Here's more descriptions...

and info about the labor of such a hard job...

as a means for their survival..

We had a great drive home...it usually takes 3 1/2 hours on the interstate. We were lucky to spend only about 10 or 15 minutes on the interstate and about 5 hours on old highways and dirt roads, following some of Montana's great rivers, reading its history and just enjoying the day.

Ya never know what an outing will entail and ya never regret getting out!

Today's Somber Mood...