The Story of a Montana CSA

Yesterday Shaun and I were so fortunate to be able to enjoy the most beautiful day ever! And even more fortunate to be able to witness the progress of my mom's Community Supported Agriculture project (CSA). Two teams of draft horses came to the farm to plow a field for planting. The horses were so beautiful and amazingly powerful. Watching them work was such a cool experience, especially since plowing a field with horses is just not something one sees these days. And holy cow what a gorgeous day! I had so much fun taking pictures and they all turned out so well! I am attributing it all to the expensive camera that I bought to document our adventure. Which, by the way, I love.

Again, the title of this is post linked to the photos on Facebook.

This team is Sophie and Harry, both about 7 years old. Charlie (with the white shirt) is their driver.







Harry on the left, Sophie on the right.



This team is Blue and Bell, about 6 years old, and Paul is their driver.





Blue on the left, Bell on the right.





Just to make all that really really worth it, this is the weather we have today...
Can you even believe that?
TODAY


YESTERDAY!!!


And to make yesterday even more amazing! On our drive through the country, we saw two Sandhill Cranes in a field. They were too far away to get any really good pictures, but they are some of my favorite birds, so it was really nice to see them and to just listen to them for a few minutes.



And this handsome fellow is Dog O' the Day. I don't remember his name.

Tent Testing

We decided to camp out at Revenue Flats after work yesterday. It was a beautiful day, so we loaded up the car and took off. We neglected to take firewood with us and couldn't find any, so we climbed in the tent not long after dark to play cribbage. Upon snuggling in, we realized that we hadn't really brought a reliable source of light either, so we just ate some incredibly bland freeze dried chicken stew and went to bed.

We were planning on climbing today, but in the middle of the night the wind started blowing and we could barely even get out of the tent this morning. Not to mention we didn't have any stakes, so only one of us could leave at a time to keep the tent from blowing away. It was so windy we decided to just leave and not try to climb.

We set up camp in a small rock sheltered area between these rocks just behind the one in the center. There were more smaller rocks behind these, creating a complete rock circle around us.

Doggy-of-the-Day: Harvey in all his glory!
He looks like he's bracing himself against the wind on this snowy downhill slope.

1123 Days.......Since St.Patty's???

So for those of you who sometimes read my blog, you may have noticed that my countdown that normally hangs out at the top of the page is gone. Well get this...the other day I came on to post a new blog and immediately looked to see how many days Shaun and I have left. I was horrified to see '1123 days'! My countdown had changed itself from our departure date to last years Saint Patrick's day. It said 1123 days SINCE St. Patrick's day. That's not even correct! It's been one month since St. Patty's!
I tried to reset it and change it back to our countdown but it just wouldn't do it.
What the heck.
As far as the countdown goes anyway, all I know is that we are one day closer, due to a rescheduling of our flight. We now leave on the 27th instead of the 28th. When you plan a trip like this almost a year in advance like we have, it seems that one day isn't much of a difference. Because it isn't.
But when you have been planning a trip like this for almost a year and you are less than one month from departure, finding out that you have one day less to wait is only cause for more excitement.
So we danced around for a bit.
Ok. Done dancing. Back to the planning and packing and stuff...

Harvey

He's beautiful! And really getting on my nerves today! Just stop BARKING!!!

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter! This Easter Sunday was absolutely fabulous. It was such a beautiful day! We had a wonderful family brunch and took quite a few walks to the river. Everyone was so happy, all the dogs were playing, and it was just a great day.

Of course, Shaun doesn't do the whole 'family' thing very well or the whole 'group social activity' thing very well, so as soon as they finished eating, Shaun, Pav, and Armando rounded up some boats and went on a river adventure. I was under the impression that they were floating from nearby Gateway to the bridge at our house, which would take about an hour or less. Many hours later I started to worry a little bit, so we drove around for a while until we spotted them. Turns out they started their float 8ish miles further up river than they said they were going to.

Armando crashed into a tree and lost his shoes and shirt.

Shaun and Pav left our soggy shoeless friend to watch the boats while they walked just down the road to get some matches and a couple shots from Stacy's Bar.

Doggy-of-the-Day is Suka, of course! Featuring his beautiful hand carved leather collar.

Whiskey Gulch Adventure

Today we went exploring. We were looking for a certain group of giant rocks in Whiskey Gulch near Whitehall, Montana. We trekked and trekked and found many a large rock, but alas. We were unable to find the ones we were looking for.
Here are some of my favorite moments from the trip:
1) Suka ran in front of the car for almost a mile on the drive in.
2) We all shared a subway sandwhich which was delicious.
3) I was able to identify 6 different kinds of poop.
4) I slept the entire way home in the car.












I started making this baby booty last night. I am very excited about it. It is an incredibly strange pattern for me, but it works. I assumed it would be knit top down like a normal sock, but it's not that simple. It is knit top down circular to the bottom of the rib, then you hold all the stitches aside and just work the front panel back and forth. When it is the proper length you pick up stitches along the edge of it and work the whole thing circular again for a ways. Then this is the part I think is strange. You are supposed to again only work the front panel by binding off all the other stitches. I didnt' do that. When your panel gets long enough, you bind it off, fold it under the toe, and sew it to your bound off stitches and it forms the sole of the sock.
Kinda weird.
I have changed the pattern quite a bit. Instead of doing the very basic 8 stitch cable down the front, I picked a fun cable with Irish knots from my stitch pattern book. I can't remember the name of the cable right now.
Instead of working the entire heel and sole in garter stitch, I worked the heel in stockinette and am continuing my cable all the way down to fold under for the sole.
And... I guess that's it for now. I don't think I will use this pattern again. It definitely wasn't written in an American style, and I just don't like cutesy baby things.



To see the rest of the pictures from our Whiskey Gulch adventure, click on the title of this thing to link to my facebook picture page!