The Mannings have landed

The Mannings have now been full-time Montana residents for more than a week!

Anyone who's ever made a big move knows pretty much what we've gone through. It wasn't fun. Our final “big haul” was Dec. 1, in bad winter weather. We arrived at Shorthorse that night, in the snow, cold, and darkness. How nice it would have been to come home to a warm, cozy new house, but instead we came home to a 5th-wheel that has been our vacation cabin for the past four years and will be our full-time home until the big house is completed. How long will that be? Well....let's just say we won't be having that big Christmas party this year.

The house IS coming along...and getting more gorgeous every day. Outside work is basically done, so all the activity is inside now. The kitchen walls and ceiling are completed with tongue-in-groove pine. The bar room is ready for the adobe finish on the walls and kiva. All the other drywall is up and ready for paint. The cedar is up on the ceilings, as well as on the walls of the library and master bedroom. The breezeway and Don's shop are all lined in pine. Flooring is on its way, and cabinets are ready for installation.

And yet, it seems so far from completion.

So we've settled into the tin tepee with humble resolve. We will remember these days forever, and with fondness, even if it is incredibly crowded and somewhat stinky with three large dogs and two large people. Since most of our clothes are packed away in boxes we can't reach, and there's limited space to store clothes in the 5th-wheel, we're recycling two or three “outfits” apiece, and everything gets worn for several days before we make a trip to the laundromat eight miles away.

That's even harder on Don than me. He's used to wearing clean clothes every day, and now he's getting up to four days out of a pair of jeans!

We do have hot water—not lots of it, but enough to take a quick shower every couple days. Every once in a while I glance at myself in the mirror and am surprised by two things: one, that I look so old and tough, and two, that I don't care! Priorities are much different here than in Yakima, and people judge each other here by how they act, and not how they look. There's lots of poverty here in Sanders County, and virtually no pretense.

Our three horses are now at home here, thanks to the incredible generosity of Will and Teresa Bron of Granger, who offered to haul our herd for us. The Brons own a dairy. I'd met both of them through dog-training and had become fast friends with Teresa several years ago. They're horse people too, with seven Friesians. Teresa does dressage, and both she and Will also drive horses in competitions and parades.

Knowing how I was stressing about hauling our three horses over here in potentially bad weather, they made their gracious offer and we accepted. They lifted a tremendous burden from our shoulders! Not only would I have EXPERIENCED horse people hauling my three in a very nice trailer, but it would free up our own stock trailer for other household stuff and would mean one less hauling trip for Don.

Will and Teresa made the seven-hour trek last Monday, Dec. 3. They had good driving all the way and arrived in daylight. All three horses made the trip just fine...Brimir, the Icelandic (and namesake for Shorthorse); Bernie, my Tennessee Walker gelding; and Babe, the 32-year-old Appaloosa mare and matriarch of the herd. The horses are currently pastured half a mile away (until our corral is completed), and it's with great pleasure that I drive up the hill to feed them twice a day. They have a beautiful pasture with a breathtaking view of snowy mountains right across the river...although I doubt they appreciate the vista!