All Alone

Some folks like to be alone. I enjoy my days alone where I can dye yarn, spin, make jewelry, garden, bike or do whatever. But I look forward to spending evenings with Houston or I especially love it when my kids are home. After a week's visit, Forrest and his girlfriend, Kim, drove into the west, back to Missoula, Montana. I also took Houston to the airport where he's flying to Missoula to begin his big adventure riding his bike to Alaska. I won't see him until the end of July when I meet him in Alaska. So my house will be quite empty.


I won't see Forrest until maybe Christmas so if that isn't sad enough, I won't see Casey until who knows when. Casey came into our lives 6 years ago and has been my constant companion all these years. But we got him as Forrest's dog so I knew the day would come when Forrest would want him with him in Montana.


Casey loves car rides (truck rides even better) so as soon as we opened the door, he jumped in, an hour too early but he didn't want to get out in fear he would be left behind. We tried to explain to him that he had over 2200 miles of riding in the back seat alongside a bass drum (Forrest had to have his drum set too!) but he still wouldn't get out to run around before the long ride.
The kids got off by 8:00 a.m., drove 8 hours until the car broke down. They got a tow, spent the night in a small town in Ohio, and waited all day until the car got a new radiator. On the road again by 4:00 in the afternoon and those kids drove straight through to Missoula, nearly 1900 miles! We tried to warn you Casey! He will be so confused when he sees Houston today. Hey, how did HE get here?!

Hoop Dreams

Memorial Day weekend we went to an annual bluegrass festival outside Cumberland. It's held at a beautiful venue with the Potomac River running alongside the fairgrounds against the backdrop of tall cliffs on the opposite banks.


Delfest is bluegrass, newgrass, and just barely grass with a variety of folks getting their toes tapping, their hips bopping and everyone having a good time.


This young guy is starting his pickin' early. He was REALLY good too.


It rained heavily the day before but not like last year's 'perfect storm'! This cute little girl cooled her tootsies off in the cool mud.


Bunches of people made their way to the river to cool off too.


This is a multi day event and hundreds of folks crowd into the campgrounds.


Since it was so hot, umbrellas were everywhere.




But what I found most fascinating were the hoops. Last year I saw 3 hula hoops at the fest and this year there must have been 300. All ages and sizes were hooping. There was even a vendor selling hoops. These are not your gramma's hoops though. The 21st century hoops are heavier and bigger and some even light up.


Hoopin' family


and this woman was amazing. I sat mesmerized watching her hoop-dance to the music. There is a gentle choreography to this hooping and I was smitten. With hours of practice one can walk, dance, hoop with your head, shoulders, elbows, knees and ankles. They make it look so easy, but whoo boy, it is not.


Kim and I hooped for hours and got much better than when we began.


But poor girl, she got hooped out.


As the sun set and darkness fell, the pro hoopers got out their LED enhanced hoops and gave us a light show.


I looked on line and these can be very pricey, from $80 to $250, custom made with your choice of colors, size, and light frequency.


After being inspired last year, I made a few hoops out of irrigation tubing, a connector and colored electrical tape. Upon returning home, we got them out again and hooped into the night.


I was so into hooping madness that I didn't realize how sore I'd be the next day. I was bruised and battered behind my legs....


...behind my elbows....


and on my forearms. Little did I know that hooping was a contact sport! But I'm determined to get this thing down. Hopefully my arms and legs can stand it.

Chicken Wrangling

Because my chicken run was wide open and available for a fox to come on in and have a chicken smorgasbord, I moved my chickens to Camp Ann's while I was away in Montana. They had a nice secure run there, playing, scratching and pecking, doing crafts in the day, singing around the campfire at night. Upon returning home, we (Forrest, Kim and I) finished putting up the chicken wire around the run, brought in fresh hay and water, making the coop cozy and inviting and hopefully fox proof.


It was then time to get on over to Ann's to wrangle those chickens into boxes and bring 'em on home. We donned our chicken wrangling gear, hopped into our sportsvagen and off we went. Those chickens had grown a third more in just 10 days and were much quicker. When I brought them over I had gotten all 12 chickens into one box all by myself. The three of us had a hard time getting them into the box and keeping them in. As soon as we'd open the box to put a chicken in, the previous chicken would hop out. One can't be 'chicken' when grabbing a chicken, just lunge and hang on tight. We finally managed to get the 11 chicks into the box but Flopsy would not fit so Forrest held her in his lap for the short ride home. He thought she would like to feel the breeze in her comb so he gently held her out the window. And she DID like it!


At first though Forrest was worried that Flopsy would poop on his beige pants, but she was a good girl and they both got comfortable.


After introducing them to their new/old coop and run, they all settled in nicely and were thrilled to see all the greens to eat.


When I went to check on them the first night, all the chicks tried to get on the roost that they had fit on 2 weeks previously. Since they had grown so much, they had to squish. The white chick had graciously spread her wings over the two beside her, taking them 'under her wing'.




Her name is now Angel.


Angel was tired of the flash going off, disturbing her sleep, so enough for now and good night. Sleep tight.

More Montana, Random Musings

One of my favorite spots in Missoula is 'The Break', a cool, rustic, westerny coffee house. We spend hours here, visiting friends, doing internet stuff and of course, drinking their fine coffee.
It has exposed brick walls, heavy wood furniture and great artwork and their scones are to die for.


I had lots of mom time, which was awesome since I get to see her so seldom.

I'm head-ed for trouble!


Forrest is taking a summer job at a local vineyard, 25 miles northwest of Missoula. It is right on the Clark Fork River so Clark Fork Vineyard is an obvious choice for a name.


They are just in planting mode right now so the grapes won't be ready for a couple more years. A deck is being built to look over the river, for future wine sipping.


Along with grapes, hops are being grown. It's hard to see, but the hand made gate sports the word, hops.


This is the 'cabin' where Forrest and his dog Casey will be living. We visited for a day of food and wine consumption. A friend of the owner, Conrad, seems to be the personal chef so Forrest will be well fed. Conrad and Jorge (the owner) made a huge dish of paella for us all and we had a nice evening of wining and dining.


Happy times

Along with seeing lots of friends, we met some new ones. Kim, Forrest's girlfriend, had her family visiting from Michigan to celebrate Kim's sister's graduation. Above is Kim's brother-in-law and their little blues brother, Finn.


We attended Becky's wedding (most awesome wedding ever, really!) 2 years ago and now Becky and Gary have an adorable little cowboy, Mathias. Many of Becky's friends knit (as does Becky) so there are plenty of hand knit items around.

Including matching (?) baby and momma socks.


Seen across the street from Becky's. This is one way to get around....a St. Bernard pulling some guy in a wheelchair.


When Forrest got his bike stolen he got this amazing retro Schwin as a replacement. I fell in love with it and totally took it over. What a nice ride!


He also put another bike together at a place that has a heap of bike parts that for a fee, one can assemble an entire bike. Since he recovered his stolen bike, he now has 3 bikes. Yep, he's our son!


So after a week of partying and travel and having family constantly around, Forrest can chill and look back on his four amazing years at University of Montana. We're proud of you, boy.

Glacier Gladness

Ahhhhh! Glacier National Park. This is just one awesome place!


We were able to spend a couple days in this northern part of Montana, relaxing...


throwing rocks....


...and hiking. The Going to the Sun road is only open to the Avalanche Lake trail head due to snow plowing. One can ride bikes on the closed road (until you hit too much snow) but we didn't have bikes so hiking it was. It's an easy 3-mile hike up to the lake through dense forests and rushing streams.






We stopped along the way to photograph small woodland flora and fauna.


Glacier lilies that have just shot up as the snow melted. Edible and very tasty indeed.


This is a harlequin duck, rare to see and such a delight. We watched it paddle around in the stream, ducking under the water for nibbles until it got caught in the rapid current and was whisked downstream.


Plenty of mountain goats were grazing way up high as there is an abundance of fresh green grass to munch on.


One of Forrest's friends, Eric, was able to join us for our stay.


Dad and boys


and finally making it to Avalanche Lake.


Avalanche Lake lies in a cirque high in the mountains. It was glass like this day with warm temperatures and no breeze.


These awesome vans called Jammers (named that because of having to 'jam' the gears) take tourists around the park. Here Forrest is buffing one up, readying it for its turn on the road.




Time to leave as a big thunderstorm approaches from the west.


Back to our little Swiss chalet where we ate great food cooked by Houston, drank wine, played games, read books and tallied some good down time.


Night scene across the 'pond' from our chalet.


Mom spent pleasurable time drinking wine and reading.


Our little chalet was called 'Moose'.


Taking a hike along the river, we came through the ranger's village, all neat and tidy. It was hard to leave Glacier as we hit it at a good time as most of the park was not open so there were no crowds. But with Forrest staying out in Montana, we'll soon be back.