Bliss

Are we going to awaken from this dream? Our lives have changed 180 degrees in the past few weeks, and we can't believe it's for good and for real, finally.

It's not the new, nearly completed house that looms just 50 yards from the trailer window where I now sit.

It's that Don now sleeps 8 to 10 hours a night and wakes up rested. And that he hasn't worn a watch in days.

It's that we don't have to think about packing up and "going home" in a few days. We're already home.

These past three weeks in the trailer (a glorified dog crate with three large dogs plus us) have been wonderful. Probably the happiest of our 23-year marriage.

I cross-country skied here today. Been waiting four years for that dream to come true. The XC skiing here is world-class, right on our own 40 acres. Mostly level, with trails, roads, and open fields. A "silence that bludgeons you dumb," as Robert Service would say. And snow you can eat.

Last night we lit our first fire in the kiva fireplace, just to try it out.

Painters are hard at it this week, now that all the tongue-in-groove is up. Flooring should be arriving next week.

I'm going to miss this trailer.

Hey, where did we pack the camera??

No new photos yet....our camera is inaccessibly buried in one of about 80 dog food boxes in our basement, in the garage, or in the barn. We should find it by spring, when the pictures will be lots prettier (and greener) than they'd be right now.

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!

Three Weeks to Go

Don closed Shooters Supply on Nov. 3, but still has a lot of packing and cleanup to do there. We will be out of Yakima by Nov. 30. It's hard to imagine how we'll do it, but of course it'll get done. People do it all the time.

Between Shooters Supply and our house, we have at least four more loads to haul to Shorthorse. The last load will be our three horses.

Don's made the last couple trips while I've stayed home to pack up stuff and take care of dogs & horses. He got back last night with photos of the exterior (almost all the siding is up) and interior (almost all the drywall is hung). He says it feels like a real house now.

The drywallers should finish this week, and a team of Mennonite carpenters will be in to put the tongue-in-groove cedar and pine on the rest of the interior walls.

World's Best Appliance Salesman

His name is Dick Dean, and he works at Lowes in Yakima.

I hadn't intended to buy all our new appliances at Lowes. I actually gave the locally-owned guys a chance about a year ago, but was treated shabbily in their store...so I went exploring at Lowes. You know how many different front-loading washers and dryers there are out there these days? You know the ONE PHYSICAL FEATURE that makes my Bosch pair better than any of the others that Lowe's sells? Dick Dean does! He showed me. This feature isn't even listed in the Bosch literature. Dick knows from personal experience (he and his wife own this same pair) and from lots of time on the sales floor.

Do you REALLY understand how convection ovens work? Dick can explain it with clarity and patience, using very relatable analogies. Lowes typically has four or five different brands of any appliance type. Tell Dick what you want and don't want, and he'll recommend the best for you...and it won't necessarily be the most expensive. His depth of knowledge is phenomenal, as is his credibility.

There may be drawbacks to buying appliances from a box store. But this guy's knowledge and helpfulness outweighed them. If you need any new appliances, seek out Dick Dean at Lowes in Yakima. He knows his stuff!

Tin Tepee Time

Okay, here's the cold, hard truth: our house will not be done this month. Not even close. It MAY be done by the end of November...or at least, done enough for us to move in. Then again, maybe not.

We close on the sale of our Yakima house next week and have one more month to live in it. One way or another, we'll be living full-time in Montana by Thanksgiving. That means we'll be cozying up in the Tin Tepee, our 28-foot 5th-wheel, for at least a few weeks as the snow swirls around us.

That's Don and me, plus two big, hairy, elderly dogs and one medium young dog. Five "people" in this little trailer. We've done it in the past, and it's been fun...at least for a few days at a time when it was our "vacation home." Now it's going to be "home." That may require a slightly different mindset.

Life is simple when you don't have space to complicate it. Our wardrobe is limited. Our food is crockpot-cooked. Cleaning is an easy ritual. Entertainment is a Sirius satellite radio.

This transitional home will be another new adventure for us. I think of the pioneers who left everything familiar and struck out into the new territory in covered wagons. That experience was a real equalizer, just as ours will be. Wealthy or poor, those folks all had to get to their dream destinations the same way: in bumpy wagons a fraction the size of our 5th-wheel. But the destination was almost always worth the journey!

Job Openings in God's Country

WANTED: Carpenters, excavaters, law enforcement officers, and veterinarians. Come live and work in the sportsman's paradise of northwestern Montana. Benefits: great hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation on your days off. Salary: low and lower, depending on experience.



If I were a young, adventurous, single man, and somewhat skilled in any of the above professions, I would race to this area to get some of the enjoyment "before all the doctors and lawyers ruin it," as Woodrow Call would have said. But the problem is this: Sanders County is an economically depressed area, and wages are low here, even though the cost of living is the same as in Yakima. Thus, they have a hard time attracting qualified go-getters for some of the jobs I've mentioned above.

Anyone who can drive a nail straight and show up on time each morning can get a job tomorrow. If you're interested in law enforcement, we desperately need some good sheriff candidates for the next term. And if you'd like to buy a well established veterinary practice, Dr. Bob Gregg in Plains would really like to sell it to you and retire. To live here, you have to be committed to small-town life and all that goes with it. It also helps if you love to hunt, fish and play golf.

We saw a "Help Wanted" ad in the Sanders County Ledger a few months back. "Sporting goods store seeks sales person with knowledge of guns and outdoor sports. Salary $6-9/hr DOE."

Dealing with Delays

It's the best season. Cold, starry nights. Morning fog that lifts by 10 a.m. Sunshine that illuminates the quakies and cottonwoods as temperatures "soar" to 65 degrees. Deep blue skies.

In about a month we'll be here for good...and the 5th-wheel will be home for a few weeks till the house is liveable.

Fireplace is done, except for the mantle. Roof completion was delayed when a roofer fell off the wet metal last week. He wasn't seriously hurt, thank goodness, but those dry days are becoming few and far between now.

Gene, the stone mason, had to go home before completion of his job, due to a bad hip. He'll be back soon, we hope.

And then one of Larry's carpenters quit last Friday, so it's back to a crew of two: Larry and Eric. Any carpenters out there want a job in Montana? There are immediate openings!!

The baby bear

Before we left Shorthorse last Sunday, Gene Carner showed us what he and Alan had found next to the road on their way to our place that morning. He began pulling something out of a blood-spattered garbage bag. The stiff, stout black legs came out first. It looked like some sort of plush toy.
It was only toy size, but he was real. A baby black bear, maybe eight months old and about the size of our little pit bull Lizzie. He'd been struck by a vehicle on Highway 200 just moments before Gene and Alan happened upon him. He'd obviously been killed on impact by a blow to his head; one side of his face was pretty messed up. But that was the only visible injury.

We all marveled at the quality of his thick, shiny coat. He'd ready for winter! His big slipper-like paws were incredible. His ears were soft and pliable. As I stroked him from head to foot, I realized what an incredible, bittersweet experience this was.

Gene debated what to do with him. The kill was already several hours old, and we had no refrigeration at the job site. Gene planned to keep him cool in the basement until quiting time, and then take him back to a local taxidermist for an assessment. He offered the baby bear to us; I would have loved a full body mount. But Don thought it was probably too late.

The opportunity to immortalize this little bear is now gone, except for the writing of this story. We didn't even think to take a picture of him!

It's definitely fall. A little sooner than usual, but the cooler temps and moisture are welcome. Normally at this time, we're packing up the trailer for the season and preparing to say goodbye to Shorthorse for a few months of winter. But this year, the momentum is in the other direction. We're packing up Yakima and preparing to settle in for good at Shorthorse.

Tree haircuts

We have 40 acres of trees that need pruning...for fire protection, aesthetics, a healthier forest, and a better view from the house.

I love pruning. You take a bunch of scraggly-looking, messy, tangled dead limbs off the lower third of a tree and suddenly you have this spectacular pine towering above you. It's like taking an old cocker spaniel that's lived outside all his life and never seen a groomer. He's matted, infested, smelly and tangled. You bathe him, clip him, clean him up, and suddenly he looks like a show dog.

Pruning with the 12-foot pole saw is the fun part. Disposing of the trimmed limbs is the drag. We've accumulated lots of burn piles for this winter. We're also using the chipper Don has mounted to the tractor, although it has a hard time handling the bigger, dry pine limbs.

Pruning is a healthy addiction, and that's fine since I have enough work here to support my habit for at least 20 years.

Importing hay for the winter

Yesterday we hauled three tons of nice grass hay over from Yakima (Mike Drury in West Valley). Here's Don off-loading it under the barn lean-to. We couldn't find ANY to buy in this area of Montana because it was such a dry year. Nobody grew much, and what they grew, they've kept for their own animals. By next year we'll be better networked with local hay producers.

The hay is supposed to go in a special area of the barn (inside), but the barn is full of HOUSE stuff...so it won't get to really be a "barn" until we can move everything into the house. Lucky Don! He gets to move three tons of hay a THIRD time!!

Stone and Steel

It's starting to look more like an almost-finished project. The green steel roof is going on quickly. That should be done in another day or so. And stone mason Gene Carner and his helper Alanare zipping along on the cultured stone. You can see their nice chimney work in the roofing photo. In other photos, they're working on the face of our 50-foot porch (which is a cobblestone-brick pattern of stamped concrete on top). The other photo is of Don, upstairs, admiring what they've done on the chimney thus far. This cultured stone is fabulous. Unless you were in the business, I don't think you could tell it wasn't the "real thing." Needless to say, it's much more economical and goes up a lot faster.

What we're leaving

For 30 years, Shooters Supply has been the daily gathering spot for a many a good man. Like a neighborhood tavern, it draws a congenial bunch of faithfuls who help themselves to the coffee and conversation while purveying the day's newest merchandise in the candy case. Shooters Supply has sold about 30,000 guns in its three decades in Yakima. Don and his gunsmiths have worked on at least twice that many. His customers now include second and third generation descendants of his original customers. For some of these folks, Shooters Supply is the only gunshop they've ever frequented. It's the one where they could always get friendly, helpful and absolute honest answers (whether they liked them or not) to their questions about firearms, reloading, repairs and...oh yes...politics, especially Second Amendment issues.

My husband started Shooters Supply in 1977. His original intent was to have a small firearms repair business, without much retail. But the retail side naturally grew, and by 1984 he'd outgrown the small shop on 11th and Tieton, and moved just two blocks west to the corner of Queen and Tieton.

I never spent much time there until this past fall, when I've been standing in for bookkeeper Christina, who's on vacation in Scotland for three weeks. Now that I'm there every day for a few hours in this winding-down time (he'll close the shop for good in about two months), I'm reminded of how important Shooters Supply is to so many people. Not only is it the only place in Central Washington providing full-service gunsmithing by truly knowledgeable and skilled craftsmen. It's also a place that has played a tremendous role in the lives of many regular customers over the years.

Phil Lamb, one of the regulars, has coined the term "Post Shooters Supply Stress Disorder" (PSSD) for what a lot of people will go through when Don closes the doors in November. Every day there are folks who wander in and say they "just heard." Their reaction is almost panic. "Where will we go? You can't leave! What will we do? Who'll fix my guns?" We don't have any answers for them. And who knows where the daily patrons will find a new gathering spot with a coffee pot?

They are a good bunch of people, these regulars. Retired teachers. Dentists. Attorneys, CPAs, financial advisors, medical technicians, farmers, entrepreneurs, Scout leaders and World War II vets. They enjoy each other's company and they appreciate and admire guns as mechanical works of art.

Leaving them will be difficult. We hope a lot of them will visit us at Shorthorse.

Leaving Shooters Supply itself will be difficult too. This is, after all, Don's legacy. This, and Sun Valley Shooting Park, which he also started and developed into what it is today. He, of course, would deny that and share the credit with a few other hard-working members of the Central Washington Range Conservancy. But if it hadn't been for Don Manning's time, sweat and leadership, the range certainly wouldn't be the showpiece it is today.

And then there's Manning Dog Training, my own unanticipated success. I didn't go to college to become a dog behaviorist. It just sort of happened. It, too, evolved and grew, taking on a life of its own. Last January, after 15 years of teaching people how to live more harmoniously with their dogs, I sold the business to my long-time manager, Jane Bumgardner. Unlike Shooters Supply, Manning Dog Training will continue on it path without as much as a speed bump. With Jane's guidance, it will be around a long time. Manning Dog Training is a gathering spot too, like Shooters Supply. Some are there nearly every day with their dogs, attending a variety of classes and activities. Manning Dog Training has changed a lot of people's lives. We've helped some marriages, saved family relationships (of dogs AND people) and launched many an unsuspecting dog owner into new hobbies that have totally redirected their lives. Example: first-time dog owners who just want to teach the new puppy to stop play-biting. They become lifelong students, get their dogs into obedience or agility competition, and end up buying motorhomes to travel to weekend dog trials for the next 15 years!

My students (four-legged) number 6-8,000 over the past 15 years. Between Don's business and mine, we seem to know at least half the people in Yakima. He's the "gun guy." He IS Shooters Supply. I'm the "dog lady," or Don Manning's wife, or Manning Dog Training.

Now we're moving to a small town where basically no one knows us. We're just new faces in town. They don't know he fixes guns. They don't know I work with dogs. Yet. We kind of want to keep it that way for a while, so we can actually enjoy retirement. As soon as word of his talent gets out, Don will be as busy as he wants to be. I plan to just volunteer my services with the local community.

We're finishing a 30-year chapter of our lives when we leave Shooters Supply, Sun Valley Shooting Park, Manning Dog Training, and all the people associated with them. It's time to start writing the new book, titled Shorthorse.

Premature furnishing

I couldn't resist. I've been picturing these old snowshoe chairs here for a long time, so thought I'd give them a try. Sure enough, they fit just fine. Of course they'll look better with real walls behind them....

Windows arrive!

The windows arrived a couple weeks ago. Thirty-three of them. Our Yakima house has eleven. Yikes.

Well, we wanted lots of natural light...as much as we could get into a two-story house without having a glass ceiling. (We DO have two functional skylights! They are there under the pretense of providing much-needed ventilation for this very tightly built home...but I'm delighted with the idea of being able to look up and see stars at night!!)

We chose Milgard windows. Clad in dark green fiberglass on the outside, and wood on the inside.

Good thing we were there when the truck arrived. Those 33 windows were heavy, and Larry (the builder) has a very bad back. So Don got to help unload them.

Now, if I can just get him to wash them, too...

The biggest adventure of our lives

Last night I mentioned to Don that building this house was probably the biggest adventure of my life.

He said he definitely felt the same way.

Between the two of us, we've led very full and satisfying lives. We've had the opportunity to see and do a lot of exciting and unusual things. We've both been pretty blessed.

That said, neither of us can think of any experience that tops this one. The project has consumed our thoughts (and money!) for more than four years; before we even bought the property, we were planning the house.

As we both head into retirement in Montana, I'm proud knowing that both Don and I have contributed significantly to our country, economy, and social passions over the past 30 years. Now, we're channeling a lot of that energy toward our OWN destination: Shorthorse.

A close-up look at our SIPS roof

This is Lizzie, our pit bull, posing atop one of the few scraps remaining from the construction of our roof, which is made of SIPS panels like the rest of the house. You're looking at a piece of dense styrofoam sandwiched between two pieces of 5/8" OSB. The roof panels are two inches thicker than the walls, providing extremely good insulation.

For more details about our SIPS-constructed house, read the earlier post titled SIPS: A Foam House.

Kayaking for old fogies

By most hardcore kayakers' standards, my L.L. Bean boat's a scow. It's made of thick plastic, it weighs a lot, and it would just about take a tidal wave to tip it over. But it's perfect for me. With four hip replacements under my belt, I frankly never thought I'd be able to get in or out of a kayak. But this one's wide enough and stable enough for me to get in and out safely, albeit with GREAT care. The biggest risk for me is slipping and dislocating.

Because the boat's too heavy and bulky for me to pick up and carry, I drag it down from our property, across two sets of railroad tracks, two access roads, and down to our launch spot. Once I'm in the kayak and pushing away from the rocky shore, my boat glides through the looking-glass and becomes part of the 360-degree picture.

You see and hear incredible things from out on the water. Bald eagles, deer, heron, ducks, geese. Once in a while, an otter. Lots of jumping fish. You become part of their world, sitting in a kayak that puts you IN the still water, not just ON it. It's a privileged place to be.

Last August I found myself surrounded by a huge school of fish. They looked to be maybe 10 to 12 inches long and were close to the surface. Everywhere. It's like I couldn't paddle without touching them. There were thousands in a stretch of river about 600 yards long. Although we have Northern Pike, some bass and some trout, I think these were probably just perch.

Don has yet to try the kayak. He's afraid he might like it too much. One thing's pretty safe to say: by the time we start having regular guests at Shorthorse, we'll probably have a second kayak available for you...that is, if Don isn't using it!

Plagues of August: Smoke and Yellowjackets

According to environmental experts, every August for a long time to come will be a season of smoke in the western states. We're getting a taste of it in the Clark Fork River Valley.

Last Thursday when we arrived at Shorthorse, we were greeted not by a spectacular view, but by an eery haze that all but obscured the mountains around us. It was like wearing a pair of dusty glasses, only you couldn't wipe the haze away. The air smelled like a campfire. When the smoke smell first hit us up around Sandpoint, it was almost pleasant...pungent and fresh, and reminiscent of many good times around fire rings with friends. But as we drove east into a thickening air, that nice smell began to slightly sting nostrils and eyes.

The majority of smoke was rolling west from the "Chippy Creek Fire." This wilderness fire has consumed about 90,000+ acres of timber, brush and clearcut in remote mountain areas about 40 miles from us. Meanwhile, about 28 other fires were burning around the state, including a scary blow-up in Frenchtown, on the north side of the freeway at Missoula. Highway 93, our common route to Missoula, was closed because of that fire, called the "Black Cat." A bunch of really fancy horse farms had to be evacuated.

The ground at Shorthorse was tinder-dry. Everything crackled underfoot. The temperature's been in the high 80s and 90s for many weeks, with virtually no rain. The smoke-laden air was perfectly still. There was silence around us...no tractors, no chain saws, no recreational shooting. Even if there weren't Stage II fire restrictions on such activities, people around here wouldn't take chances like that anyway. Not now.

We live with the threat, and yet we fortress ourselves as best we can against a fire. We're clearing, thinning, pruning and mowing when we can, to establish a defensible area within 200 feet of the structures. It will take a while, but we're working on it. The fire departments actually maintain a list of people who have "done the work," and in a triage situation they will respond to the properties on the list FIRST.

We also have separate circuit breakers at the house, the barn, and the pumphouse...so that, in the event of a structure fire, we can still power the pump and garden hoses from a remote location.

Our SIPS construction is much more fire resistant than most building materials. That should help minimize damage.

Don is considering getting some of that flexible "K-Line" irrigation hose...something that can be towed around by the tractor to where it's needed.

And we also feel that being down on the river at the bottom of the hill probably offers more protection against wildfire than being up on top in the wide, flat valley floor.

Fire is a risk we live with. Don used to be a wildlands firefighter in his "younger" days, so he knows its power and has good knowledge of how to deal with it. Me...I just get hysterical. Good thing he's around!

And then there are the yellowjackets......