Tuesday

I found this in the folder on my computer for scanned slides. It's Bitter Root, or at least that's what I thought it was back then. I'm glad I got so many of my slides scanned. Even though they've been stored properly, the colors have shifted.

This is a photo of the old outhouse that is still on the hillside by my house. It leans a little more every year. I had thought this was "Heavy's" outhouse. (That's the only name we ever knew him by.)

But in the old slides that I scanned, I found this, and I had written "Heavy's Outhouse" on the slide. They're not the same outhouse.

There's one more outhouse down the hill a ways. It was where Rex and Thelma Wardell lived, and later, Belle Carr lived there. There's also an old lilac bush and a crab apple tree there. I haven't even noticed if they leafed out this year.

Ever hear the songs of Kate Wolf? She is a folk singer, and has a song called "The Lilac Bush and the Apple Tree." Very nostalgic, about an abandoned place where the houses have been torn down and all the people gone.

Happy?

This is the Montana shirt I bought Kasey. She really was having a fun time playing in the yard, and Chloe had come up for her to pet. Don't know why she has this woebegone look on her face.

Getting sprayed for mosquitoes.

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I hope I finally got my Dishnet and Century Tel bills straightened out. Couldn't even begin to make any progress on Dishnet's website to update my billing information. So I finally called. Got a nice lady who was, of course, very hard to understand, but she got it done for me.

As for Century Tel, I was sure I got that autopay information, but I got a bill last week. I guess if my phone gets shut off, I will know it isn't.

Kind of lazy today, but I am seriously considering taking my sprayer with Roundup down to the driveway, and the rocks walk at the front of house.

Saturday

More yard, and more Yellowstone:


This is the patch of rhubarb in my back yard. It was there when I moved into this house about 35 years ago. It is growing on the hillside where the water runs out, so it is constantly soaked. It seems to like it.

In Gardiner, MT, I sat in the pickup while Barrie walked the dogs, and watched this sign at the entrance to Yellowstone. What a kick! Carloads of people would pull up, pose the family in front of the sign, and hand their camera to somone to take their picture. Then the other person would pose their family, and someone in the first group took their picture. I must have watched well over 100 people go through this routine while I sat there. Darn! Barrie and Kasey and I did not stop at the sign.

There were a bunch of cars stopped watching something in the park. We saw it was a coyote, and then noticed he was putting the sneak on a big old bull buffalo that was laying down there. Wonder what he had in mind?

Here are some tourists! Barrie had just taken Kasey up the path to Gibbon Falls. Across the highway was a marsh, and the frogs were extremely loud and happy sounding. Kasey is listening to the frogs.

My poppies are just beginning to bloom.

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My friend Mary Lou is back for the summer. She called last night. She plans on coming to art group again.

I'm dubbing the VCR tape "Earl Durand" for Rollie and Judi today. I really hate this VCR/DVD player recorder! I can never figure out what it will do next. Even Barrie admits it's tricky. Don't worry Judi. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this!

Friday, and it's summer!

When summer hits Pinedale, it really hits! Just all of a sudden, it is here, and it's hot.


I took my camera out in the yard today and wandered around so see how things were growing. I live in a jungle!



One of the strangest things in my yard is this hollyhock. I planted seeds I got from my mom years ago, when she still lived on her farm. This same hollyhock has been coming up on the south side of my house for at least 20 years. It blooms, has rather plain red flowers, but the seeds never have time to ripen. Some years it gets as tall as the roof of the house.


The year of the lilacs! It's not very often lilac bushes bloom here. We usually get a hard freeze after they bud out.

I used to think these were wild phlox, but found out last year they are Dames Rocket (I think). I saw a house on a hill in Montana, and the entire hillside was covered with these. Looked beautiful.

I think this is a currant bush. Don't know if its a wild bush or not. There used to be some currant bushes at some of the houses Julie tore out. I'm sure the birds planted mine.

My back door. Seems like more water than usual. I was just downstairs and should have checked to see if there was water in the basement. Oh well. There's nothing I can do about it if there is.

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The dogs were in the back yard, and I scared Maddy when I showed up at the back gate. But not half as much as she scared me! When she saw me, she started "bellowing" and charged at the gate like an elephant. She was so embarrased when she saw it was me. She is so friendly to people, but evidently she is also very protective.

Thursday

This is the road starting up Odgen Mountain, where Barrie used to live in Montana. We never made it all lthe way to the place she lived, because John and Kathy B. sold it, and the new owners have a locked gate.


The finish line for the Race to the Sky in Lincoln, Montana. Most of the roads we drove on were part of the race route, or places where Barrie trained in the winter.

Wet, miserable looking colts! This might be part of the Whitetail Ranch, which we drove to. When Ogden Mountain burned and they were evacuated, Barrie was sent to the Whitetail. She had 30 dogs in her dog boxes, and was pulling a horse trailer with her horse. It was a very hot day, and all the dogs and the horse were suffering by the time she got there. The people helped her unload all the animals, and get them water and some shade. She thought she was lucky that they all made it.

Another view of the bridge over the Missouri at Toston. The Missouri is SO big!

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I am taking an on-line writing class, and am not enjoying it very much yet. I have learned the difference between story and plot, learned bout the common plot templates, the three-act structure, protaganist, antagonist, etc. Who cares? I have learned all these definitions, and would rather have spent my time reading my new book.

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Here's a definition I do like:

Shin: device for finding furniture in the dark. (also useful for locating your ball hitch).

I hate it when your seat belt randomly locks and you can't move. Do all vehicles do that, or is the a special feature of Chevy pickups? And it only happens on the passenger side.

Tuesday

I couldn't upload anything to Blogger yesterday, so I finally just gave up.

Kasey is eating a lemon that came with my meal.

A Toston dog. A very mellow one.

Three more of the old buildings I photographed in Toston.

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I think I mentioned that Barrie packs enough food for an army when we travel. One thing she brought was beef jerky, and it was so good. Yesterday I had her buy a roast, and I am now drying some jerky in my dehydrator. Hope it is good.

Barrie brought one of her sled dogs to town, gave him a bath and brushed him. Then she left him tied to the swing set outside her bedroom window all night. She said he was quiet all night, and woke her up about 5 minutes before her alarm went off. Our neighbor Tara said she thought we were yodelling.

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For Judi - when we were driving up Ogden Mountain, which is where Barrie used to live in Montana, she said the area has a lot of Morrel mushrooms. They used to bring large crews of Vietnamese in to hunt them.

Speaking of Ogden Mountain, I told Kasey her Mom and the sled dogs used to live there. Kasey said "No, the sled dogs are at home." I told her again they used to live on the mountain, and she said "No, that's Jarvi and Shorty and Maddy."

I have found you can't win an argument with Kasey. We spent three days arguing about a pond, or a lake, or a river, or a puddle. She never would admit there was water in a pond.

Sunday

Toston

When we were in Toston, Montana last year, I saw a lot of old buildings I wanted to photograph. But as we started through the town, a pack of 6 dogs attacked our pickup, including one Chihuahua! We got away from them, and another pack of 5 dogs came after us. And there was a Chihuahua in this bunch too! We got out of town, and as we were leaving, 2 more dogs chased us.

This year, we only saw two dogs in the town. One was afraid of us, and the other was a friendly pup. So I got to see the whole town and take all the pictures I wanted.

Toston is right on the Missouri River. This is an old one-lane bridge that crosses the Missouri.
I think this was my favorite of all the old buildings. Notice the basketball hoop.




I think someone lived in this house. Notice the variety of curtains on the windows.

An old shed

An old brick building.

Home, had a great trip, but happy to be home again. My cat is acting very weird. She is meowing at me, rubbing on my feet, and letting me pet her. She is even purring. All because I abandoned her for four days.

Click on images for larger view

Wish I could remember the exact location of this. There was a walkway and a viewing platform built over the river to see the falls. Kasey stuck her head out through the fence to look at the falls. An elderly woman came out onto the platform, and freaked out. She was so upset that "That little girl had her head through the fence over the falls." Her friends couldn't even get her to go the fence to look. She must have been a fun travelling companion!

Barrie posed Kasey with her head stuck through the fence and took a picture. Haven't seen it yet.


The Montana deer are Whitetails. They make me laugh. When they flip that tail up and run, they look like dogs to me. It's that tail, wagging in the air.

Lincoln is a logging area, so of course there are many things made of logs. This is the sign for the Lincoln Medical Center, carved from big logs.

The Boot Tree

Barrie told me about trying to find someone who lived on "Boot Tree Road" once when she lived in this area. There was no sign for the road. We were driving a dirt road into a logging area, and Kasey said she had to potty. So Barrie stopped. She looked up and said "Oh my gosh! It's the boot tree!" Sure enough, we found the boot tree. Seems it has something to do with an old logging tradition, or maybe someone just got drunk and threw their boots up in this tree, and it others followed. Anyway, I thought it was pretty neat!

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I actually found this on the Internet, on a site about Orvando, Montana:

"Boot Tree Road: The Old Timer’s Boot Tree is gone but a new one is starting up again. Look for the boots – and other foot paraphernalia—being tossed into the branches. A dirt road going through some post logging areas, but not too strenuous and nice views. The road is located just east of Ovando. "

Wet Montana

Tonight we are in a motel in Helena, MT. Barrie and Kasey went down to the swimming pool. I am on the Internet for the first time in two days.

Barrie drove us over miles of the race route of the "Race to the Sky" today, out of Lincoln, Montana. It has never let up raining since we got here, and it is so beautiful and green.

Here is where I was this morning, on Huckleberry Pass, out of Lincoln, MT. It was so beautiful. We didn't go clear over. There was at least 8 inches here. We were almost to the top, but Barrie said there were steep switchbacks on the way down the other side. And we would have ended up back in Lincoln, anyway, so we turned around.

An interesting obstacle in the road. Well, almost an obstacle, anyway.

The "historic" Lincoln Inn, where we stayed last night. They didn't have all their rooms ready because of a wedding, so we had a room with just one double bed. They brought us a roll away, which wouldn't fit in the room, so Barrie took the mattress and put it on the bathroom floor.

Here is a view down the hallway from our room. There was one lamp in the room with a low wattage bulb - that was the extent of the light. I tried to read by the lamp, and Barrie read with her headlamp.

They did not have Internet Access, and they didn't even have a plug in for the computer , except by the bathroom sink.

I checked the door of the room across the hall - I was pretty sure no one was in there. They had not locked it. I used the bathroom, and took a towel, soap and the shampoo from our room and had a shower in there. I wiped the shower down, put the bathmat back up, and I'm sure they will never know I used it.

Stopped at the Copper Queen Saloon in Helmville this afternoon. What a neat place! Barrie has lots of friends in Helmville, and several of them were in there. We had tacos, and Kasey enjoyed it.

Road Trip

We've had a great day. Traveling with Kasy is a day filled with entertainment. And Barrie is the dream travel partner. She stops whenever I ask, and she brings a whole cooler full of snacks, chips, cheese, etc. She had the makings for tuna sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly. Wonder where she learned that?

We're in a motel in Ennis, Montana tonight. Arrived in a lighting storm and rain. No motel rooms in West Yellowstone (not a surprise) so we drove on to Ennis. I love this area. It is beautiful here. We were ready to leave the crowds of Yellowstone.

Stopped to take pictures just outside Ennis. Beautiful sky, beautiful country.

We arrived just after Old Fathful blew, so we sat around an hour waiting for the next eruption. Did a lot of people watching, entertained by a chipmunk, and enjoyed watching it erupt.

Came across a buffalo herd just outside of West Yellowstone. The calves were so cute, running, bucking and and cows looked sleepy.

Tomorrow we should be in Helmsville, where Barrie used to live. Looking forward to it. I didn't take enough photos there last year. And we will go to the Copper Queen.

Monday

The sun is actually shining! The forecast says it should be nice for a couple of days, then thunderstorms on Thurs. and down to 31 degrees.

Kasey has recovered from whatever was wrong with her yesterday. We are off to Yellowstone and Montana tomorrow. I'm looking forward to a fun trip, and should have some pictures to post at last. We are taking my truck, and I think that means I should get to be in charge of the radio. We'll see. Kasey might want to hear some heavy metal head banging music.

A cute design for a tee shirt.

Somewhere on the Internet, there is a page of photos showing construction mistakes. I liked this one.

Another tee shirt design.

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I am taking my laptop computer with me. Maybe we'll have a motel with Wireless. I think I'll feel lucky if we have a motel at all! We've not made any reservations.

Sunday

Now playing on the XM Radio - "I'm Marriked to the Waitress and I Don't Even Know Her Name".



The Natioinal Weather Service is forecasting a huge snowstorm, mostly on the other side of the mountain. They don't need it right now. Fremont County is going to float away! I really don't think they have to worry, though. Once the NWS makes a prediction, the weather will almost always be just the opposite.

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Kasey is sick this morning. She ate a little yogert, which ended up in Grandma's recliner in the living room. She doesn't cry or fuss - just is quiet and doesn't do anything.

I don't even have one picture to post today, so I snitched the card out of Barrie's camera.

This is Porter. He is trying to put his own harness on.


Lucky - the little mustang Barrie rescued from the wolves last winter from the upper Green. He is mowing the lawn at Chuck's house. He has four brands on him, none of them Wyoming brands. Barrie paid a dollar for him.

These are old pictures of Kasey taken at Easter. The top one was taken at the Easter Egg Hunt in the Park. Barrie never did figure out why all the cops were in attendance. Violent children fighing over eggs maybe? Or maybe the mothers got out of hand?

Road Trip

Yay! Kasey has a full week off from her visitation schedule, so we are taking a road trip. We went to Montana last year, and I want to go back. Barrie wants to go to Yellowstone. Those two destinations fit in well together, so that is the plan. Of course, Barrie is in charge, because she is going to be doing all the driving.

Am really looking forward to it. Don't really care too much what the weather will be like. We'll have fun no matter what. Barrie has already shopped for travel food - cheese, crackers, granola bars, etc.

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My brother joined Facebook today! Yeah!

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These are from a tee shirt shop I found on-line. Pages and pages of these, and it kept me entertained for a while.


No, I know this is not politically correct. But it's funny.

Like this.

You have to have seen the movie "Deliverance" to appreciate this one.