2011 Catch-Up

The retired life here in Trout Creek, MT, is so good that I just haven't wanted to spend time sitting down and recording it all in this blog this year.  But here it is September, and we're housebound by our first VERY rainy day since June, so this seems a good time to reflect on the highlights of 2011 to date.  By the month:

January

I started yoga classes for the first time in my life.  Love it.  We're blessed with a wonderful, patient, kind instructor here.  Her name is Patty English.

Since I want to train Angus, our young Lab, for obedience competition, I started a small class for friends with similar goals.  We began meeting weekly for group classes. 

February

Kayaking off Kona

Six female buddies and I went to Hawaii for a week of active adventures.  We stayed for cheap at the Kilauea Military Camp (Big Island).  We hiked volcanoes, snorkeled, swam with dolphins by day and manta rays at night, kayaked, rode horses, zip-lined, discovered warm springs, and more.  A spectacular trip that some of us intend to repeat in 2013.

March

Don and I entered show business....him as the stage manager and me as one of the performers for the local animal shelter fund-raiser variety show.  It was a hoot, although it required some major rehearsing and coordination.  The troupe got such rave reviews we were invited to "take it on the road," but we declined.  We'll save the energy for an even better show in March 2012!

Goose hunters in South Dakota

After the big show, Don went goose hunting in South Dakota with Jim Pearson.  They had a great time and brought home a bunch of geese.  We used Jim's recipe for goose jerky, and it's absolutely delicious.

April

The new berry garden

Don started working in earnest on the berry garden out behind the barn.

I went to an agility trial in Moses Lake with Lizzie and tore up my left knee.  At least, it felt like torn tissue, but....(stay tuned).

We bought a Nintendo Wii so we could get the Wii Fit program, and we've become addicts.  We're weighing every morning and doing balance tests to judge our "virtual Wii age."  My best so far is about 35, but Don has already been in the 20s.

Lizzie and me in Moses Lake

May

Angus' first obedience trial, in Spokane

Don's been helping the Noxon Rod and Gun Club on some major renovations and upgrades, and he's also now the treasurer. He's  been pretty regular for a while about attending Sunday shotgun shoots there and Wednesday shotgun shoots at the Thompson Falls Trap Club.  And of course, the Rocky Mountain Rangers (SASS shooting club) are back in action for the season, so Don tries to attend those matches as frequently as "farming" obligations will allow him. (Lots to do this time of year, with dragging, fertilizing, spraying, pruning, mowing, etc.)

Our Lab, Angus, debuted in obedience competition with me in Spokane and earned a fourth place in his very first trial.  We are so happy with the way he's growing up!  He's a great dog!  He also loves agility and is getting much better at retrieving.

The knee was not getting better, so I got a cortisone shot from VA.  They've scheduled me for an MRI in Helena (in late July....that's socialized medicine  for you), but meanwhile the cortisone has been miraculous.  While in Missoula that day, I also saw "Atlas Shrugged," the movie many of us had been waiting to see for years.  Was not disappointed!

Lizzie and I went to a three-day agility trial in Helena and another three-day trial in Spokane.  The camper has become our second home.

June

Rain, rain, rain.
Angus and I had three splendid days in Missoula at the annual dog show/obedience trial.  He placed all three days, took first on the last day, and finished up the qualifications for his AKC "Companion Dog" obedience title.

Because of all the rain, hay will be abundant and ready early this year all around our neighborhood.  Don has begun cutting wood for next winter.

The garden is complete and all the berry plants are in.  We have 37 blueberry bushes and 5 raspberry bushes, plus strawberries.  A friend from yoga class gave me tomato and green pepper plants too.  Everything is/will be late this year due to the cool temps.

Lizzie and I went to Moscow, Idaho, for a three-day agility trial

Ric and Darilynn McClary

We had a great three-day visit with our old Yakima friends Ric and Darylynn McClary, who now live in Vermont.  Ric heads up a major Christian radio broadcasting network and has traveled all over the world representing it.  We were fascinated by his tales of India and Africa!

 July

Our friends Will and Teresa Bron from Granger, Wash., came over to present another three-day driving clinic, featuring their beautiful Friesian horses.  It was well attended, fun, and a great learning experience, especially when we had a brief but exciting runaway incident inside the arena.  Sadly, we learned that two days after the Brons arrived home, one of the two horses they had brought to the clinic died during the night in his pasture.  Apparently his intestine had burst.  We all grieve for Teresa's beautiful "Mica," who was just seven years old.

Hay is in the barn, and there's still hay on the ground all over the county.  Too much of a good thing.  It's hard to see it going to waste, but the market is simply saturated.

Got my MRI at Ft. Harrison in Helena (200 miles away).  Results were negative for tissue tears in the left knee.  Apparently it's just "bursitis," so I'll be heading for physical therapy.

August

Lizzie and I went to Lolo (south of Missoula) for a three-day agility trial.

My good friend Barb from Yakima stopped for a couple nights on her way back to Yakima from Iowa where she'd been visiting her dad.  The night before she was to leave here, she made an "emergency dismount" from Brimir, our Icelandic, whose saddle had slipped while he was turning sharply to look at my horse.  Barb didn't get up from the grass.  We had to call an ambulance, and they transported her to the Plains hospital 40 miles away.  She broke six ribs!  She ended up convalescing at our house for the next 10 days, unable to do much of anything.  We found a friend to drive Barb (and her car) back to Yakima, where she continues to recover.

A week later it's Huckleberry Festival time in Trout Creek.  Don once again managed the "Huckleberry Homesteader Pentathlon" booth, which he developed last year.  I helped the Huckleberry Hounds Agility Club produce its third annual HuckFest Fun Match and public demo.  Huckleberry Festival is a stressful but rewarding time for those involved in this arts and crafts fair, which has been going on for 34 years.  Trout Creek's population of several hundred swells to several thousand.

Don enjoys elk burgers at Cougar Peak Lookout

With HuckFest behind us, we headed up for our annual night at a local lookout tower.  This time it was Cougar Peak, where we could look down on the whole placid valley and all our friends and neighbors.

Next weekend it was back to Spokane for another three-day agility trial.  Temps were in the 90s and there was virtually no shade.  Lizzie got to feeling poorly, so we pulled out a day early and came home.  She was miraculously healed as soon as she jumped out of the pickup here at home.

 September

Don has begun staining the new building he put up last fall.  It's a big toy shed, very attractive cedar, lots of big sliding doors.

Our new toy barn

He has all our winter firewood split and stacked in the woodshed, and the propane tanks are full.
The garden is looking good.  Next year we should have our first good harvest of blueberries.  We're planning on picking 10 pounds a week when they ripen the following year.

We've both continued to shape up and lose weight, thanks in no small part to the Wii Fit program holding us accountable every day.   This weekend is the Friends of NRA auction/dinner down in Plains. Our friend Dusty will be here for that.  On Sunday we're all going to Sandpoint for the International Draft Horse Show.

Don has two elk tags this year--one bull and one cow--so we hope to have a freezer full of meat by the end of the year.

Since getting the Wii in April, I've lost 34 pounds that should not be coming back.  This winter I'll be writing a book about how I did it.

Golly, it just stopped raining, so I'd better get outside and play some more.

Christmas at Shorthorse

Last December was our fourth in Montana.  We made the final big move from Yakima on a snowy, nasty day--December 1--in 2007.

We've established new traditions and routines to mark the Christmas season, and the weeks of December now roll by with relative ease....much different from the frenetic pace we kept up while still working in Yakima.

It starts with local craft bazaars...Trout Creek's is first, followed by the "big one" in Thompson Falls.  Our dog agility club had a booth at the latter.  We sold homemade dog cookies, doggy Christmas stockings, and hand-made dog scarves and collars.  Made a whopping $300, which was pretty good for a short day's work.

The next major event is the "Christmas on Main Street" night parade in Thompson Falls, generally the first Wednesday in December.  Unfortunately we chose not to attend this year's, as it was pouring down freezing rain an hour before parade time.

We attended the Christmas program at Trout Creek Elementary School  and enjoyed a presentation of "A Scrooge Christmas."  It was fun, even though Don says he couldn't understand a single word of the script!

The biggest event in our season has become our annual "open house" here at home.  On Dec. 19 we hosted about 32 folks this year for a festive evening of food and beverages.  My friend Barb Madsen came from Yakima to help me with party.

Once our annual party is over, we coast downhill through the rest of Christmas week.  Mike and Susan Schell came over from Yakima to enjoy a week of real winter at their getaway cabin just outside Thompson Falls, and they invited us to a great post-Christmas/pre-New Year evening gathering at their place. 

Don and I dropped the "gift exchange" routine several years back, so Christmas Eve consists of candlelight service at the Whitepine Church, and Christmas Day means dinner at our neighbors', Jim and Kathy Hill.

We had a special treat over New Year's weekend; Jim and Judy Pearson, our old friends from Yakima, came over for a couple days with their two dogs.  It's been a long time since we've had four dogs together under one roof, and they provided great entertainment!  This was also the first time we'd had both Pearsons here at the same time.  They celebrated New Year's Eve with us here, along with Schells and the Hills.  It was pretty tame, but miraculously no one crashed before midnight.

On New Year's Day the company departed and Don and I pulled down all the Christmas decorations.  Now it's really time to settle in for that "long winter's nap."

The Cruel Side of River Views

Photo from internet

Today, Christmas Eve, I skied for a couple hours along the bank of the partially frozen river.  It was a spectacularly beautiful experience, until I spotted something horrific about 20 feet out on the ice.  It was a deer lying motionless on her stomach, with her four legs splayed out to the sides and her bushy white tail stretched out behind her.  From a distance it looked like she was still alive; her chin rested on the ice and her ears were up, as if she'd spotted me and was waiting for my next move.

Photo from internet

But she wasn't alive.  She was dead, frozen in time and in thin ice.  I spotted the hole she'd evidently fallen through, about 30 feet out.  Ice fragments had been thrashed around over the surrounding ice.  It looked like she'd fallen in and then struggled shoreward and up onto more thin ice, where she collapsed from exhaustion and hypothermia, unable to gather the strength to pull herself any farther along on the slippery surface.I couldn't help but linger at the scene for several minutes, trying to accept the cruelty of nature and wondering what I'd have done if I'd found her alive and struggling.  How long did it take her to die?  What were her thoughts?  Was she in pain?

Silly human questions, asked from a human perspective.  Yet we all fight death, whether we're humans or animals.  We all cling and claw.  None of us likes to be cold, wet, helpless, or vulnerable.  Surely there are a few moments of animalistic panic for just about all of us when death looks us in the eyes.  We can't be that different from each other.  Thus, I owed it to this deer to linger, out of empathy for what she had experienced in those final minutes of life.

Just two days ago we'd heard a former neighbor mention how hard it had been for her to live on the river bank and watch animals die in the ice each winter.  And just last night, another riverbank neighbor told us of foolhardy rescues he had attempted over the years....rescues that put his own life at risk.  Some ended happily; others ended in tragedy.

Fortunately Don and I don't live right on the river.  We're up several hundred yards from it, and there are thick trees and railroad tracks separating us from the view.  Waterfront river property might be prime in some people's books, but not mine.  I couldn't stand to watch these never-ending natural tragedies on the ice. 

Lizzie goes visiting

Lizzie goes visiting once in a while.  She has good friends at the nursing home in Plains (about 40 miles east of us), and she likes to go see them on Tuesday afternoons.  So I drive her down there and watch her work the hallway.

She loves to see these folks, and they love her.  We'll go from room to room, and she'll jump up on a patient's bed if she's invited.  The patients enjoy just watching her, feeling her warmth, stroking her, and reminiscing about the dogs they used to have as kids.

I'm not sure she understands how much joy she spreads when she visits them.  But I do know how much she gets out of it herself.

This little pit bull, who came to us via a Safeway parking lot puddle four years ago, has brightened many lives.  I'm very proud of her.

Don vs. Tasty: Don Wins

"Tasty" is the name of every buck who shows up on our property.  The does are all named "Sweetie."
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With about two weeks left in this year's season, Don had come up short one buck on all his hunting expeditions.  Fortuitously, "Tasty" himself wandered through our 41-acre property one day and Don nailed him.  The shot was clean, death was instant, and Tasty was promptly dressed out and delivered to the local butcher.  He yielded about 110 pound of absolutely exquisite meat--the best venison I've ever had in my life.  It tastes more like beef than wild game.  Really.

We attribute much of his good flavor to the way he was taken.  Augustus McCrae ("Lonesome Dove") would have said, "Yes sir, he died fine."

Welcome, "Women of Shooters Supply"

Don, Christina and Judy

Judy Pearson and Christina Ashbaugh came from Yakima to see us in October.

Judy is Jim Pearson's wife.  Both she and Jim have been dear friends of ours for several decades.  Christina is a good friend of Judy's, and also a former long-time Shooters Supply employee.  We were delighted to see both of them for a few days, and this was a first visit here for both of them.

Christina worked in Don's office at Shooters Supply.  She had lived and worked through the daily trials and tribulations Don shared during the building of our house here.  Those were stressful days back at Shooters Supply, involving lengthy phone conversations with the contractors here in Montana, and frequent long weekends when Don and I would escape to Montana to oversee the building project.  Christina was there through it all, listening to--and sharing--Don's frustrations.

"It's nice to see the finished project," she said while visiting us, "especially after living through all the day-to-day stress with you.  It all finally seems real now."

A Visit from an Old Friend

Peg Holloway is 96, but you wouldn't know it to look at her.  She still drives to and from church and the  food bank in Clarkston, Washington (where she volunteers several times a week), and she climbed in and out of our horse-drawn cart, without assistance, when she visited us here at Shorthorse in October. 

Peg and her late husband Marv were family friends of the Mannings when Don was growing up in Pomeroy, Washington.  Marv worked for the Forest Service.  The Holloways and Mannings spent  lots of time together camping, fishing, hunting, and playing in the Blue Mountains of southeastern Washington.

We've stayed in touch with Peg over the years and encouraged her to come visit us here n Montana.  Don's sister Martha finally made it possible when she drove Peg up to see us this past October.  We got to spend three great days in the company of both Peg and Martha (who now runs a bed and breakfast in Pomeroy).

While they were here, I was honored to take Peg for a couple rides in our horse-drawn cart.  Peg said it was like going back to her childhood in eastern Oregon, when horses and buggies were the only means of transportation.

It was great to have Peg and Martha visit us!  Ironically, we forgot to ask these special guests to sign our guestbook...which means they'd better come back in 2011 and do it!

The Sign Is Finally Up!

In 2006 we purchased a custom-made sign from J. Dubbs in Ellensburg.  The sign was our "logo" of Shorthorse, our place here in Montana.  We'd decided that, instead of the traditional log arch over our driveway, we'd just find a big rock and face it with this J. Dubbs sign.

It didn't happen until today, four years later, but it's been worth the wait.  The "Shorthorse" rock at the end of our driveway is now in place.  It needs a little landscaping and spiffing up, but basically it's THERE now.

The rock fortuitously came from right across our road.  The neighbors, Jim and Kathy Hill, were gracious enough to let us dig it out of the embankment next to the road.  Actually, the guy who did the excavating was Jason Hill, who does it for a living and makes his home about a mile from our place.

Don didn't have any trouble drilling holes in the rock to mount the sign.

No one should have any trouble identifying our driveway anymore!

Night at Gem Peak Lookout

Continuing our new summer tradition (started in '09), we spent a full-moon night at another Forest Service lookout in the neighborhood in late July.  This year we went to Gem Peak, about 25 miles from home (as the crow flies), northwest of our place.  Like so many others, the lookout is no longer manned but is available for nightly rentals by the public.

We made our reservations on-line with the Forest Service back in February (you have to make them at least  180 days out), reserving a mid-week night with a full moon in July.  We packed our bags, a cooler, and one dog (we took Lizzie and left Angus with a housesitter) and headed up the mountain.

The weather upon arrival was mixed.  Within an hour of getting unpacked in our home three stories up, the storm hit.  The clouds swirled around us up there on the mountaintop, blowing mist in and out.  We got some thunder and lightning and a bit of rain.  Then it cleared up enough to see the full moon rise over the Clark Fork River far below.

We slept well, and awoke with glaring sun in our eyes (sunrise comes early on a mountaintop).  After breakfast, we headed back to civilization, stopping along the way to pick some huckleberries.

Hooked on Agility

Lizzie and I have taken the plunge from casual agility competitors to serious, hardcore agility athletes.  Not sure when it happened, but I discovered my little pit bull's amazing talent to work with me (or in spite of me) in this sport, and we've suddenly gotten serious.  Agility now shapes our days here, from working with the Huckleberry Hounds Agility Club, to training the 4-H kids for the fair, to pursuing our own competitive highs in trials around Montana and eastern Washington.  The camper we bought last fall has gotten some good workouts, since it's the home away from home for Lizzie and me when we travel to weekend trials.

I'm actually considering going to Yakima for the three-day agility trial there in October.  There's not much else that could get me back to Yakima, but the thought of competing on the old home turf of Fullbright Park (in Union Gap) once again is somewhat appealing.  If we go, I'll also swing by our old neighborhood out in the Ahtanum, and see if I can glean some apples off  "Uncle" Kenny Bates' trees.

Thus far this year, Lizzie and I have gone to agility trials in Spokane (twice), Lolo (twice), and Moscow, Idaho, and we've done well at all of them.  We have a trial coming up in early October in Helena, followed by Yakima two weeks later.

Visitors!

We have been blessed with lots of company this spring and summer.
 Among our visitors:

Barb Madsen (Yakima), Kate & Fred Riebe (Ellensburg), Bob Sears (Clinton, MT), Dusty Rosenthal (Yakima), Rollie Taylor (Yakima), Larry & Kathy DeMoss (Yakima), Christine Canter (Kennewick), Bob Rains, finally (Yakima), Jim and Jeannie Cassatt (Yakima), Teresa Bron (Granger), Jacki Cacchiotti (Yakima), Jim Pearson (Yakima), Tom Moore (Yakima), Dusty Rosenthal (Yakima), John Jay (Milton-Freewater), Jim Reddick (Yakima), Charlie Reddick (Yakima), Bob and Shirleen Jones (Grandview), Dale and Sheila Fosjord (Billings).

We've been delighted to see our old friends and share our new home, and we hope to see many more this fall and winter! 

The guest room is always ready and the pantry and bar are stocked!

The Driving Clinic

Friesians....they're big, black, beautiful horses with thick flowing black manes and tails and  "feathers" on their legs.  You've seen them in movies, usually ridden by knights or mythical beings.

We were graced with three Friesians in our pasture back in July when my friends Teresa Bron and Jacki Cacchiotti (from central Washington) brought them over to present a three-day "driving clinic" to local horse enthusiasts.  Two of the horses belonged to Teresa, and one to Jacki.

They arrived on a Thursday evening.   Friday morning the three of us went for a two-hour trail ride on these massive yet graceful horses.  It was my first time on a Friesian; till then I'd only fantasized about riding (or owning) one.  "Durk," Teresa's nine-year-old, was my horse for the weekend.  Teresa rode "Micah," and Jacki rode her horse "Fabio."

Friday evening Teresa began the clinic at the local arena, with about seven eager students.  The clinic continued on Saturday and Sunday, offering everyone the chance to drive the Friesians behind a two-wheeled cart.  As frosting on the cake, many of us had another chance to ride them around the indoor arena.  These three huge black horses stirred up some dust and made the ground shake!

We hope to host Teresa and her husband Will, and hopefully Jacki too, some time next summer in another driving clinic.  Teresa and Will drive and exhibit all over the western U.S. and are gaining quite a reputation on the show circuit, so hopefully we'll be able to find a time when they can treat Sanders County to another weekend of Friesians!  Meanwhile, we extend a heartfelt "thank you" to Teresa and Jacki for giving us a wonderful and educational experience.

Huckleberry Festival 2010

Last year Don came up with the idea of a "Huckleberry Homesteader Pentathlon" for the annual Huckleberry Festival in Trout Creek.  The festival features arts and crafts vendors from all over the west, and has been held every August for 31 years.  Don thought it would be good to offer an activity that involved everyone visiting the festival, so the "Pentathlon" was born.

It involves 5 timed/scored events:  pounding nails, pumping water, shooting an AirSoft pistol, casting a fishing line, and sawing a log.  The Homesteader Pentathlon booth was one of the most popular events at the Huckleberry Festival this year, so Don is probably hooked into doing this every year from now on.

Meanwhile, right next door to Don at the festival, our Huckleberry Hounds Agility Club hosted a "fun match" and public demo.  This was our third year to be invited to the event, which was great exposure for our sport of dog agility.

We had help at both our activities from friends from central Washington:  Bob Rains, Christine Canter, and Barb Madsen.

I tried my luck in the Huckleberry Dessert contest again this year, after taking second place two years ago.  But my recipe for huckleberry buckle didn't place, so Don and our guests got to eat the results.  If I do say so myself, this year's entry was even better than the last one I entered!

Weather was tremendous and everyone was happily exhausted at the end of the three-day event, held Aug. 13-15.

Angus grows

Here it is September 1, and little Angus isn't little anymore.  At just five months he's huge--tall and rangy--and due to be snipped on Sept. 22, his six-month birthday.

He is an exceptionally sweet boy with a strong will to please.  He doesn't do the things that so many Labs do...like dig, chew on siding, jump on people, play-bite, bark incessantly, chase shadows, eat rocks, etc....nor does he retrieve very much.  Hmmm.  He's improving in that category, however, as Don works with him.  He is not ball-obsessive, thank goodness...in fact, he doesn't have any obsessions at all, which is wonderful.  He will retrieve happily and obediently three or four times in a row, and then we quit before he gets bored with it.

He also loves to swim (finally).  I had to get in over my head to prove to him it was safe, but once he discovered his own buoyancy he was fine.  He's very good at retrieving from the water.

Angus did suffer a mishap that nearly cost him his tail back in July.  One of the horses went after him when he was sneaking a horse turd out of the corral.  The horse bit his tail so badly the vet was afraid he might lose it.  Fortunately the tail mended and Angus gained a healthy respect for the horses.

Lizzie and Angus get along famously.  Lizzie's a bit peaved Angus has gotten bigger than she is, since she can no longer boss him around as easily.  But they're bosom buddies.