A little bike trip

On Wednesday Steven and I rode to the post office to mail some stuff. This is about 2 miles from town, on the county rd. That's Steven way ahead n the yellow shirt! It took me a while to get my camera out, so he got away from me!

Barbara went to Kalispell for 10 days on Thursday, to work while Bonnie is on vacation. I hitched a ride with her as far as Wal-mart, then loaded up my bicycle bags to ride to Becky's.

There's Barbara by her car.

I rode 17 miles to where I camped NW of Columbia Falls. I rode in behind a gate and camped along an Elk trail. The mosquitos were terrible! As soon as I had my camp set up I jumped into my tent and read for the rest of the evening!

My camp from the other side of the tent. During the night was was worried about grizzly bears or about being trampled by elk, but the worst that happened was coyotes being really noisy between 10:00 and midnight!

Becky had a real treat for us...Godiva chocolate! Mmmm, delicious!

It was cool when I woke up in my tent this morning. I could see my breath, and my tent was dewy. I packed up camp, wet tent and all, and rode to Becky's house. I got there around 9:30 and she made us some chocolate bear mush (coco wheats, basically). Lunch was the Godiva chocolate! We sat out in her driveway for a while, talking and looking at her flowers. She was working on laundry, so I got to watch someone use a real wash machine and dryer! I still don't miss it... :)

On the way back down to Kalispell I passed a junkyard we used to buy car parts at, and they've been creative with the by-product of the cool, wet summer we've been having!

The wind was howling out of the SW, and I had to fight to pedal into it all the way. It was kicking up a lot of dust and my eyes and throat felt gritty by the time I got to Tim's house. I was in low gears most of the way, on a mostly-flat road. Nice and warm out, but the wind made it a disappointing ride. The plan was to spend the night in Kalispell and ride home the next morning (Saturday). At least it wasn't windy Saturday.

Steven went shooting out at the shooting range near Eureka with Tristan, Randy, Brent, Isaiah, and a couple of other guys late Saturday afternoon. He came home and said he had a good time.

Who is this beautiful young lady making my sandwich for dinner?

It's EMILY, the subway queen! Hardworking and sweet as can be. I'm so proud of her!

Third week of July

This flower is blooming among the raspberry plants! It's beautiful!

Let's all pretend we can't see Steven!

We made a shopping trip to Kalispell and ate at a place we hadn't eaten at before: Five Guys Burger and Fries.

Larry, Moe, and Curly!

(Barbara, Me, and Emily)

This cool tall cloud skyrocketed over Kalispell.
Later that night it rained, and there were two cool, rainy days to follow. Not at all like normal July weather here, but our garden is happy about it!

Last stop was the gas station. We filled all the gas cans so we'll be ready for wood-cutting season and other projects. Some of the other projects require the welder, which requires the generator, which requires gasoline! We bought six golf cart batteries at Costco to replace the battery bank for our solar electric system. The Wal-mart deep-cycle batteries have served us well for 6 years but are getting tired. In the crates is the rest of the stuff we bought, like hot cocoa mix and taco seasoning and other things. We also bought dog food and a case of bleach. We're pretty much ready to hole up at home for the winter!

A salad made from our garden: Leaf lettuce, chard, spinach, and shredded carrots. Not from the garden: some turkey sandwich meat. Delicious!

The problem with canning everything that fits into a canning jar is finding a place to put the jars! Thank goodness for dehydrating and for the root cellar; they cut down on how many jars I need to find places for!

Fun, family, and cutting hay

I took some leftover flower plants to Barbara and caught her sneaking up on Victor and Steven with her camera! They were cutting down 3 trees for 16' logs, which they'll use on top of the cement pads to build the house on.

Here's some of the pathetic, straggly flowers I planted, but for .50 a flat on mark-down, I can deal with bringing them back to life!

I get my own wood chips for mulch by finding well-rotted trees in the woods and scooping up that lovely red mulch.

The cat in captivity pretends to adore Tristan until it sees an opportunity for escape!

Krystina and Tristan. They just LOOK well behaved...

Sorry for the blurred pictures but my camera shutter wasn't fast enough in low light.

Tristan pounces on Krystina, and...

...she shows she can give it right back to him! 'Atta girl!

'...the snake slithers across the floor. Uh-oh, it's been spotted. Stops and feigns sleep. Just be patient...that's it...brace myself for the pounce..."

A hot and miserable job, especially since he's allergic to grass. Steven used the sickle to cut hay, which we'll dry for the goat to eat this winter. We usually tie it in bundles but since we have so much odd stuff cut for the goat, we're going to make something like an old-fashioned haystack and cover it.

This will practically eliminate the feed bill for the goat, but it sure is work. We've also dried all the weeds we pulled in the garden, all different kinds of plants, for the goat to eat this winter. He's not as picky when his other options are only hay! This time of year, when he's tethered out to graze, he eats his "dessert" first, then grudgingly eats whatever he can reach. He's very useful for keeping the brush cleared out around the edge of the yard!

Bernice Ende, The Lady LongRider

What a treat! Kathleen invited me to go along with her to Trego last night to hear Bernice Ende, the lady longrider, speak. She's ridden her horse 16,000 miles (total) on four different long rides since 2004

Bernice tells one of her many interesting stories.

Out in the yard her two horses wait patiently. The paint in the foreground is her saddle horse, and in the background is her pack horse.



The tent she shares with her traveling companion dog, Claire

She had maps, pictures, trinkets, and her journals displayed around the room.

The pair of jeans hanging on the wall had been repaired repeatedly by Bernice. She also sewed booties for her dog and several pair were on display.

Lots of picture, all labeled on the back as to what, where, and when. Kathleen and I agreed we'd love to spend hours reading the journals she's kept in spiral-bound notebooks!

Bernice is a delightful and animated story-teller!

Her last ride, from March 2009 to June 2011, took a twist from the planned route through the northeast and back to Montana by way of Canada when her original saddle horse died after a freak accident in Texas. Both horses were in a corral and the saddle horse shattered it's leg on a metal fence beam. They think the horses were running around and clowning. The leg was badly broken and the horse had to be put down.

Bernice had several offers of horses and she went to look at several, and accepted the paint horse in the picture earlier in this post.

With a new horse to get to know, Bernice cut her trip short and headed to Minnesota to visit family before returning to Montana.

Her routes for various years are shown on the map, along with the year and how many miles.

Many of her stories involved rain, snow, and/or wind. She crossed a lot of mountain ranges in remote place and off of highways.

Bernice holds her hands out while telling a story. She's one of those people that you hear jokes about, that if you tied her hands down, she couldn't talk! It was captivating watching her while listening. I felt like I was there with her as these things were happening. She brought my imagination to life!

Her motto came from her mother: "Live your life to inspire others and you too shall be inspired. Inspiration comes from within. Inspire yourself."

Her website is http://www.endeofthetrail.com/

On the way home we passed a moose standing in Dry Lake just outside of Fortine!

Fishing, and a delivery from Lowe's

"Meh...you go fishing. I'll wait here. Be sure to catch something! I love fish!"

On the way over to the lake we stopped to take pictures of bear tracks in the mud near a cronic puddle on our road!

Marl Lake in the early morning light.

Mist was rising off the water as the rising sun warmed the air.

A bird was fluttering over the lily pads looking for breakfast.

The Island on the east side of the lake.

Steven caught a perch, and...

...I caught a Pike. We decided that was enough for a meal, so we went home and had mashed potatoes and fried fish for lunch!

Snake attack!

"I give up. Time for a nap!"

Steven put on a new fuel filter and replaced a bad section of gas line. The sun was blinding him so I propped an umbrella against the car with a couple of sticks.

This picture belongs on the next post. Tristan's car was in front of his girlfriend's parents' house, and it wouldn't start. He'd replaced the water pump, which led to a serious of misfortunes, like breaking the mountain hub, and in the process accidently breaking something to do with a module, by bumping into it. He nicked the fan belt and had to replace it. Then the battery was dead from all the attempts to start it. He's NAPA's new best friend! The truck is fixed now and has a lot of shiny new parts. Poor Tristan! Cars/trucks haven't been kind to him.

Monday morning Lowe's from Kalispell delivered the building supplies for Barbara and Victor's house. Or should I say, the part of the house they're building this year. It'll be a 12' by 16' with a sleeping loft. Cozy (realtor's code word for tiny and cramped!), but it'll be warm. They'll have enough room for what they need while they save money to build on the 20' by 20' they want. That sounded small but now seems huge compared to the 12' by 16'! They have wonderful attitudes about it, so I'm sure they'll be fine.

The guy used a cool 3-wheeled forklift thing to offload the truck.

We loved the bumper sticker on the forklift!

The building supplied were set on logs laid parallel on the ground near the building site.