WRAPPING UP

After Dave flew back to Texas, Peggy and I balanced our time with soul talks, drives and work projects. One of our favorite places is the Izzak Walton Inn in Essex which started out as lodging for employees of the Great Northern Railroad and is now open to the public. They have engines, cabooses and hotel rooms available as well as a nice dining room. If you come for a visit, there's a really good chance that Dave and I will bring you here for lunch where you can still see an active train yard; our favorite railroad's, the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe!

Stopping at Goat Lick, no mountain goats but beautiful fall colors!

Peggy volunteered for some "dirty jobs" like cleaning out the wood stove, stacking wood and learning how to use the log splitter.

One day we decided to grab some snacks and enjoyed a drive through Glacier, our backyard!

Logan Pass was socked in with fog and clouds but it was still pretty cool!

More Fall colors and raining in the Two Medicine area.

The big project that Peggy and I worked on was surprising Dave by decorating the house for Christmas! I want him to be totally caught off guard when he walks through the door. Except for hanging porch lights and getting a live tree, everything is done! It took a lot longer since this is the first time and I didn't have a reference from previous years on where to put stuff. Here's a sneak peek:

Those three weeks flew by but it won't be long now!

SHENANIGANS

A few months ago Dave and I decided that our sister-in-law Peggy could use a little therapy, the best kind of therapy, the Montana kind! She flew in on the 12th and stayed for two weeks with us. It was a combination of work, relaxation and play time. We picked her up at the airport and waited for the shenanigans to begin!

After we got home we got her settled in and then we had a nice pot roast dinner I had been cooking in the crockpot.

Peggy helped me with getting a lot more stuff purged and organized. One morning we went to Montana Coffee Traders for breakfast.

One night I went to bed before 9 PM and had chills and fever all night long. I "slept" almost twelve hours! I was pretty run down that whole day but Peggy and I just took it easy. Originally, the three of us were going to hike in the Two Medicine area and then meet our Contractor Randy and Chris for dinner at the Glacier Park Lodge. Peggy urged Dave to go on and that she really didn't mind just relaxing at the house with me. There's always the next time:

I also got to visit my new Chiropractor for the first time. Our Son in Law Corey had an issue last summer when they drove up for a visit and I got him a referral from our friends (Corey ended up giving them a good review!) It seems that all of the loading of boxes and furniture into the U Haul truck, 1,800 miles on the road, unloading the truck and moving boxes made my hip problem flare up. I go to my Chiropractor here in Texas every month for maintenance since undergoing PT and numerous adjustments back in 2011. As a result, I didn't do any hiking on this trip since I didn't want to make it worse. One day, we took a drive to Many Glacier (inside the Park) going on the "Going To The Sun Road" and we enjoyed the Fall colors all along the way!

Peggy and I decided we would hang out at the Many Glacier Hotel reading and I was going to do some crochet work while Dave hiked to Iceberg Lake. We forgot that the MGH is undergoing renovations and the giant lobby and fireplace are closed. We found a nice spot to sit and relax and eventually went into the Ptarmigan Dining Room for lunch.

When Dave got back he decided to go have a bowl of chili in the dining room and he told us that for the first time ever, there wasn't any ice on the lake. This is one of our favorite hikes and I hope that winter restores the "icebergs" we are accustomed to seeing!

Of course we also made time for going to the Huckleberry Patch and having our Huck Pie with Huck ice cream and drooling over a vintage T-Bird!

We went to the Lodge at Whitefish and celebrated my 56th birthday over dinner.

Peggy's first week zipped by and soon we had to say goodbye to Dave since he had only taken two weeks vacation. She and I still had another week together but time spent with loving family is always the best time!!

FRUSTRATIONS AND WORK

I had scheduled installations for phone, TV and internet at the beginning of our stay in order to have everything completed before coming back to Texas. Initially, we thought everything went smoothly with Direct TV but it has turned out to be my greatest source of frustration. The Tech came out and after determining placement and Dave sawing off a couple of tree limbs, he set up the dish at the very back of our property, before it goes down hill to the creek. He explained that it was temporarily "secured" to some firewood and weighed down by pavers and that he would be back out on the 21st to "set" the dish permanently.

The internet company came out a few days later and actually dug the hole, poured the concrete and "set" the dish all at the same time. Smooth as can be. The telephone line was another story. We had determined that we needed a land line for 911 calls since we live out in the boonies. The tech came out several times and for whatever reason (lack of knowledge or apathy over his job) couldn't seem to install a jack inside the house even if his life depended upon it! Our contractor Randy had ran the necessary wires through a conduit from the meter box (which he had moved to the garage when we had done the new porch and electrical project a couple of years ago) to the breaker box inside the house. The Tech told us he would have to cut a hole in the house and run the wires up and over windows and such but he'd have to come back out to do that. We talked to Randy who was just as bewildered as us over his inability to do the obvious and Dave and I decided to just have a jack installed in the garage, no one was cutting holes into the house!! On the day he was to return, he called and I explained to him that we were just going to have him install it in the garage; the next thing I know, a different Tech shows up to do the install. I explain one last time that the wiring is in place already, he goes in and installs the jack and was gone, all within 10 minutes!!

On the 21st, Direct TV was a no show and a no call. I contacted them to find out what was going on and was told there was nothing indicating a work order to finish the job. And yet...I had received an email confirming that the work order had been completed! I was told that the Tech shouldn't have left and it was considered incomplete...REALLY!? I was told the first available appointment was October 2nd which I explained would NOT work since I was leaving the 27th! The whole point of me scheduling things at the beginning was to insure that this sort of thing wouldn't happen! In all, I spoke with several reps but the one that really got my blood boiling was the one who told me that it looked like I was the one who cancelled the order and that I would have to contact the utilities and have them come out and mark for any kinds of lines, etc! I told her that me cancelling made NO sense and that no one, not the Tech or any of the other people I had spoken with, had EVER said anything about me contacting the utility companies! I set an appointment for "setting" the dish November 28th and told her that if it gets buried in snow or blows down into the creek I could care less! Once I got home, I filed a complaint and we are getting credit on our bill. On October 2nd, we got a phone call from Direct TV and the lady said, "You're Tech is here to set the dish, where are you?" I had to take a deep breath, force myself to be polite and explain for the umpteenth time our situation. Now I'm wondering if someone will actually show up November 28th? Give me strength...

The internet company gets it right and Direct TV is clueless!!

After a couple of days, Dave was having cabin fever and took a "play day". I opted out since I was in work mode and wanted to finish unboxing and organizing the kitchen. He drove up to Logan Pass where it was 36 degrees and socked in with clouds and fog. You can barely see Hidden Lake and he couldn't even see Bear Hat Mountain!

How it would normally look!

Dave didn't care, he was just glad to relax and feel like he was on vacation. I had a different mindset, I am already retired and no longer have any kind of work expectations upon me so I was focused on work rather than play. I wrapped up my work in the kitchen and decided to split the last of the logs that were in a huge pile in the backyard. Dave had chopped a little earlier in the week but I wanted to surprise him with getting the rest done.

Putting the Log Splitter from my Dad to good use!! This is about two hours in. It was incredibly easy to operate and so much safer for me than using an ax! I worked close to six hours and was just finishing up when Dave got back.

The next day, Dave started stacking the wood onto his newest firewood rack that he ordered and when it was full, he did his own "freestyle pile".

When he finished that project, he took on his next one: assembling the new snowblower. It is going to a HUGE asset to us this winter!

Pretty sure this is meant for snow...

As always, hard work deserves a hearty dinner!

To be continued...

THE GREAT OUTDOORS

I have a confession to make, I am a PINTEREST addict. A friend told me about the site a few years ago but when she warned me it was addictive, I poo poo'ed her. For the record, she was right and I was wrong, VERY wrong! Most everyone, unless you've been living in a cave somewhere knows what I'm talking about, it's electronic hoarding without the clutter! Now, the only thing I have to feel guilty about is the amount of TIME I spend on there searching for ideas rather than the amount of CRAP I have accumulated and have to store!

My latest obsession is outdoor living. Initially, I thought it would be a great idea to have a Pergola set up on the back patio where we could have summertime dinners in the late afternoon or enjoy a glass of wine under the stars. I imagined soft lighting, a Chiminea and maybe some music wafting through the night air, a little Romantic Sax or some Al Green perhaps...

After giving this some REAL thought, I realized that THIS is our reality, endless pine needles from this magnificent 100+ foot tall pine tree that I sweep off the patio every morning and an avalanche of snow coming down off the family room roof, in winter...

I am not one to be deterred once I have set my eyes on something I want, I will just roll it around in my head until I figure out a way to get it. This is where PINTEREST came in. I saw some creative ideas to design the outdoor living space I wanted but I can make it completely mobile.

The directions are pretty basic, sinking either posts, or in our case we have some leftover tree trunks from a remodeling job, into concrete. I can place each one on top of a plant caddy with caster wheels, so I can move them around the patio easily as well as for wintertime storage. Drill a couple of pilot holes near the top of each trunk so I can screw in some hooks and then string my globe lights between the poles. I picked up some red, white and blue globe lights on clearance after the 4th of July and yesterday I found this cute bistro table and chairs marked down to a ridiculous end-of-summer clearance price!

Since we upgraded to a 26 foot U Haul truck, it looks like we will be able to take the gas grill with us after all rather than buying one up there. I have already planned our first evening meal outside, some grilled Salmon in Raspberry Chipotle Glaze with fresh Rosemary garnish, a favorite of ours along with a nice Spinach and Strawberry Salad with Pralines and Feta Cheese and maybe some fresh steamed Broccoli; top it off with a scoop of Huckleberry Ice Cream for dessert...life is sweet!

FOR THE LOVE OF MONTANA

Oh my goodness...our 15 day trip to our version of earthly paradise has come and gone. The days went by at a nice pace, unlike the fast pace of our daily grind here in Texas which tends to be filled with responsibilities, job demands, drama and so forth. We had a nice work/play balance while we were there, accomplishing many home projects as well as getting some hiking and fishing in (for Dave). Our evenings at the house were so anticipated because they were relaxed and fulfilling. We brought almost all Westerns up with us, to watch on the TV...the 2010 version of "True Grit", "Silverado", "Lonesome Dove", "El Dorado" as well as our vacation DVD's were a great way to wrap up the day. Nearly every evening found me in my pajamas next to Dave on the sofa with a blanket to keep me warm.

One of the more pleasant aspects of our Mountainview Hideaway is the temperature. The house is only eight miles north of Columbia Falls but because of the mountains surrounding us, our temperatures are cooler; so far the greatest difference has been eleven degrees! When we first bought the house we looked up the annual snowfall amount in Columbia Falls which is on average around sixty inches. We have since discovered that up on the North Fork we can get up to three times that amount!! It makes sense when you think about it; if it is in the mid-thirties and raining in Columbia Falls, it can be in the twenties and dumping snow up at our place! Another aspect of the house which is extremely enjoyable is the inside temperature. On this recent trip we were in Columbia Falls and it was 85-90 degrees in town, maybe 75-80 degrees at our house but inside it was a consistent 68 degrees! It was cooler than running the air conditioner back in Texas which struggles to maintain 77 degrees inside, in the heart of the summer. We would open the windows overnight and by 10 AM we shut the house up and it would stay cool throughout the day. We have lots of beautiful, tall trees creating a significant amount of shade for the house, this explains why I would cover up with a blanket while watching a movie at night!

Overnight with the windows open in the guest bedroom and the temperatures going down to the fifties and even the upper forties, meant lots of snuggling under that Denali fleece bedding!