Old man winter is causing some beautiful sites here in the Bitteroot Valley of western Montana. And of course the big snows are creeping closer and closer to us every day.
The one (and only) advantage of the clear nights with these cold temperatures is that our days are filled with wonderful sunshine. I believe it climbed all the way up to 16 degrees today!! We drove into Darby early this morning and noticed when Montana people stop at the store for something they leave their vehicles running. And when we came out of the store after just a short shopping list, we knew why...our truck was VERY cold. So we are learning to do as the locals do!! And I must say, we are truly loving it here in Montana.

This is a everyday scene in my front yard, side yard, back yard, on my back deck. It doesn't seem to matter to these deer...I can hear them clattering on my back deck even during the night!! Yes, I am sure it isn't Santa Claus!!! But I certainly will let you know if I spot him. Yes, I will post a picture when I see him.

Yes, I know the deer are cute but I don't believe they will look very cute as they are biting off the leaves and flowers of all my beautiful plants and hostas this spring!! I will have to arm myself to do battle with them. Yes, JW gave me a beebe gun, so I don't think the wildlife around here have much to fear!!

Guess who came to visit us today?

Yes, old man winter stopped by for a short visit....I didn't invite him!!! Hopefully it's just a very short visit.

The building across the way in this picture is JW's machine shop. I took the picture from our front porch. Close to home and easy to get to...the commute isn't too bad!! He is still arranging and trying to get organized but there is an end in site now!

The weather man has stated that Missoula may get up to 8 inches of snow tonight so it's any ones guess how much we will get. But we went into Darby and Hamilton early this morning to get groceries and other supplies so we can stay comfortable at home if the weather does get bad. What a wonderful life!!!!

WHAT A WONDERFUL WAY TO STAY WARM!

This is the wonderful old stove that JW has installed in his new machine shop not far from our house here in Darby. It puts off such wonderful heat and so far has cost nothing to heat because of the fallen trees and tree limbs just across the road from his shop! (How handy for us!!!)
And of course all good English men MUST have their tea!! The ornate top of the stove slides to the side so he can place his tea water on the top of the stove and enjoy a hot cup of tea without even leaving his shop!! The door is open just for my picture taking and the stove carries the label Idaho Queen. We need to trace the history on this old stove. It heats the entire room so well I wish we had it in our living room.

We have beaten old man winter so far but the weather man is calling for several inches of snow over night then more during the weekend with temperatures as low as -12 degrees. Oh boy, stoke the fire, it's going to get cold!!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE

We shared a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with my step daughter and her family. The food was wonderful and the company was fantastic. I have so much to be thankful for in my life...a wonderful husband, loving family and friends and a warm cozy home to live in, and good health. Life is wonderful, filled with so many blessing and I am truly thankful for each and every one of them.

A VIEW NEAR OUR HOME

Old man winter is getting closer everyday! This is the Bitteroot Mountain Range just to the west of us. If you climbed over these mountains you would be in the state of Idaho. Lewis and Clark passed through our area on their way back to the east coast in 1806. His journals talk of fording the West Fork River that is very near us. I try to imagine what they must have thought of this wide valley after traveling through such rugged mountains on their return trek back east. The valley is several miles wide in places and at that time had many indians living close by who apparently stole many of their best horses during the night.

But I am sure old man winter is about to make himself felt around here. The locals all say that the snow is very late this year...hurray!! Spring is just that much closer!!! Yes, I am already looking at seed catologs. And I have my list of plants that deer supposedly do not like. Yeah, we will see!!

A COMMON SITE IN THIS VALLEY

This game check station is just down the road from us and it has been posted since about the 14th of October...when hunting season opened. The deer around here are some times very smart..they know they can stand in the field behind this check point station and no one can hunt them, because it is private land. The amount of deer in this valley is amazing, but they are so stupid when it comes to cars and hiways, because it seems that more deer are killed by cars than by the hunters. I have yet to drive into town and not see a dead deer along the hiway. There is a road crew that does nothing but drive between Missoula and Darby every morning(and probably south of Darby) picking up dead deer from the hiway. What a lousy job.

OH, I HAVE WORKED SOOO HARD!!!

This is the cat that let's us reside in the same house as she does! Yes, she does think she's the boss! Well, we do feed her when she meows and we do let her in and out when she meows...Gee, I think she has us pretty well trained! By the look expression on her face I think she agrees!!!

We are heading into Hamilton to do some errands so I will take my camera with me and see if I can find some interesting pictures between home and the "big city"..

BRRRR..IT'S COLD OUTSIDE!!!

This was the temperature when we awoke early this morning. But fortunately it has been warming into the 40's in the afternoon. I am possitive that we will see much lower temperatures before spring arrives in this valley! But we are settled in and ready to do projects that will keep us inside where it's cozy and warm.

We traveled to Missoula yesterday afternoon to do some shopping at Costco. Missoula is about a hour and 20 minutes from Darby and it felt good to go for a drive. We also looked in some furniture stores...we are still planning to purchase a gathering table for the dinning room area,
then we met JW's daughter and her family plus JW's son there for a nice dinner at the Outback restaurant. JW's son lives in Renton Washington and is here for a few days of visiting. So we had a very wonderful evening filled with lot's of sharing and laughter. Our waitress told us that the dishwasher had broken down so the staff was trying to do the dishes and glasses all by hand and she apologized for the problem. But she was wonderful and we felt no delay or disruption to our evening.

Today we are planning to watch the biggest college football game of the year for Montana. Montana and Montana State are playing in Missoula and it should be a very exciting game.

PICTURES---I'M TRYING!

I am still struggling with this picture thing. I have no idea why sometimes a picture posts twice and then none at all so bare with me while I figure out this whole process!

The first picture is not a picture of a piece of cloth nor a sheep's back! It is actually a picture of our mailbox yesterday morning when it was totally covered in ice. I thought it made a great picture.
This is the view we saw on our last trip into Montana. The trees were turning their beautiful fall colors and the entire hillsides were gorgeous. Of course now many of these trees are loosing their leaves and standing in a cover of snow.

I'M GETTING CLOSER WITH THE PICTURES!!!!!

These pictures aren't exactly what I had hoped for but I am thrilled that I am finally getting closer to uploading them. I just can't quite upload my choice of pics!

These pictures were taken last week when I made a trip to the mail box. This is actually ice that had formed on the side of one of the neighbors mailbox. As you can imagine, it only lasted a little while as the sun was finally peeking out from behind the clouds. I will post my favorite photo from that morning if I can find it!!! It's good to be back posting with pictures!

I have spent a lot of time today trying to solve my picture problem but so far no luck. I will contact the company and see if they can help me. I am very frustrated about not posting any pictures so I hope to resolve this issue very soon!!!

I must tell you a little about the remark I made in my previous post about the furniture all matching...there are some new pieces and a wonderful antique piece we purchased separately and hadn't put them all together until we moved into our new home. So finding that they all matched was quite a fun surprise. Even my Grandmother's very old hope chest that we are using for a bench under the living room windows has the same tones of wood as the rest of our furniture. That was a fabulous surprise. She would be thrilled. She passed in 1994 at the wonderful young at heart age of 103 years old. What a wonderful lady she was. I think of her every time I find myself seated at the window watching the wonders of our new neighborhood.

OH MY GOSH!!! I FOUND THE LIVING ROOM CARPET!!!!!

Wow! We can see the entire living room, dining room and kitchen! We are just about finished with the office/library, and the master bedroom. What a great place to live. It is very comfortable and all of our wooden pieces of furniture in the living room actually match in color! Gosh I like it here!

In just a few days our unpacking and rearranging each room should be completed and my hope is to get into my crafts and begin some projects I have had in mind. I plan to settle in for the upcoming winter weather so as soon as it's too cold to go on my walks comfortably outside, then I will pull our the craft books and have some fun!! We still haven't solved our picture uploading problem but I will post pictures as soon as I can. No snow here this morning..Just more rain. So old man winter has missed us again...Thank goodness!!!

Progress is being made!!

The mountain of boxes has shrunk considerably in the last few days. It has felt like Christmas opening up the boxes...You do forget just what is in all of those boxes even though they are labeled! But several rooms have taken shape so I know we are making some progress.

The weather is still playing games with this state. We have had so much rain that the rivers and creeks are overflowing but today we received snow in the mountains around us and then there was lot's of beautiful sunshine. So we never know just how much clothing to wear when we leave the house!!

Our computer did not survive the move here. We will take it into Hamilton (a town near us that is somewhat larger than Darby!) and have it looked at. We did bring along a old computer that we haven't used in years and of course it made the trip without any difficulties. Go figure!!! So I am using it now to post but I am unable to post any pictures just yet. I sure hope I can soon...Putting the pictures on was one of my favorite parts of this website. So please bare with me and I will post some as soon as we get this computer thing straightened out! It is so wonderful to be back on line again with all of you!!!

OH MY GOSH, WE ARE FINALLY BACK!!!!

Hi everyone!!! We are finally back on line!!!! We are almost completely unpacked in our new home in Darby Montana, and just acquired our new satellite hookup for our computer!!! Boy have I missed posting on my website!!!!!! I love it here in Montana and will do a complete posting maybe later this evening. I have missed all of you and will be looking forward to hearing from all of you soon!!!