Under Construction

You might have noticed the Reading and Thinking tabs at the top of the blog.  There's also a Cooking page tab that is saved in my drafts.  Don't bother checking them out.  I was wanting to add to these pages like I do with the home page, but these pages are static, which means they are just one page and they don't change.  I may think of a way to use them, or I may figure out how to delete them.

I'll probably keep track of my reading, and what I want to read, by using Good Reads.  I'll start a new blog for my recipes and cooking adventures.  I might have another blog for quotes and thoughts that I want to keep.  This is a little insane though since I already have 3 blogs and 4 Shutterfly web sites that I try to keep up, and I'm always behind.  I started with the thought of just doing something for family history.  I've found it's really good for me to write.  But when?

The other part of my blogging lesson has been partially successful.  I've used Windows Live Writer on this computer, and the pictures upload fast, I can make collages, and I can see what the post will look like while I'm working on it.  I was able to add all three of my blogs too, but when I tried to install it on one of the other two computers that I use, it was a mess.  Microsoft installed all kinds of things, but I couldn't find Live Writer.  It took Terry 40 minutes to uninstall all the dreaded Microsoft stuff that he hates.

So the blogging lesson gets two stars out of five.  I learned some things, but I don't know if I'll be able to use much of that knowledge.  I'm not giving up though.  I'm going to have Stacey give me another lesson on customizing all the background and header.  That should be easy.  Everyone does it.  If it goes well, I'll get one more lesson on making a blog book.   

Not Again!!!

I don’t know if I’ve just been under too much stress or if I’m just losing too many brain cells as I age, but while in Big Sky I broke our new family rule again.  (Never leave a restaurant table without checking for things we’ve left behind.)  We went into a little market/deli for an ice cream, and I left my purse (with camera in it) hanging over the back of a chair.  A few hours later when I went to get my glasses out of it I realized it was gone.  We called, then drove back down the mountain to retrieve it.  The girl said, “That’s the good thing about little places like Big Sky.  Nobody would take anything.”  She might be right.  They didn’t take anything in a little place like Weiser, only in a big place like Ogden.  I don’t want to keep testing the theory though.  Terry doesn’t handle it very well.

Hard Labor

Every year I sign-up to work in the cannery one day in the summer.  Actually it's only a four hour shift.  The cannery's open and running (on mostly volunteer labor) six days a week, but there is usually only one day in the summer when our stake has an assignment.  I like it because I don't have to take time off work, and because it's usually apricots or peaches.  (Once, back in '91, I did meat chunks.  I was pregnant at the time.  Never again.)  You work on the line with people of all ages and professions.  It makes you feel good to volunteer and do a service that is so necessary and appreciated.

You always make friends, but this time I went with a friend and we worked side-by-side.  No matter what job you're doing, the first hour always reminds you of the episode of I Love Lucy when she's working in a chocolate factory and can't keep up.  It always makes me laugh when we're so inept.  We were assigned part of the line where the cans are filled with apricots.  There were three of us (all elementary school teachers) who had to either knock a few apricots off, if the cans were overflowing, or put a few in, if the cans weren't full.  We either didn't have enough apricots, or our trough was overflowing.  It's really funny in a panicy sort of way.

After the first hour you get into a kind of groove, even if it's not very efficient.  You figure out a few tricks or some sort of system that half-way works.  By the third hour it's not near as funny.  You keep checking the clock.  You feel it in your feet, legs, back, neck, and head.  It's really noisy in there.  You're wet and sticky and sweaty.  When you leave, you're beat.  You have a whole new appreciation for people who do all kinds of manual or menial labor.  It's hard!

Just a side note - My favorite assignment is to be put on the machine where the apricots are sliced in half.  I always line up the crease in the fruit so it gets sliced there.  It really bugs me when I'm working some place else, and I see apricots that are cut every which way.  Next time I'm going to request that spot, and I'm going to train the others up to do it right.  Who wants to open a can of apricots that have been sliced willy-nilly?   

Makes You Wonder

I neglected to mention a few weird things from our trip.  Here’s a list:

• These construction vehicles parked along with other cars in visitor parking spaces.

• We saw a dead beaver in the middle of the road up by Big Sky.  Why would a beaver cross the road?
• I’ve seen watch for livestock or deer crossing signs before, but never a bighorn sheep crossing sign.  I kept my eyes peeled, but I didn’t see any sheep.  I would have liked to.
• We were behind this big F 150 on the way to Bozeman.  Why would you buy one in New York and drive it out West?  Just ‘pick-up’ one when you get here.
• There were only 2 or 3 exits in Bozeman, but as we were leaving town, we couldn’t find a gas station to save our lives.  We drove from the U of M campus out to the middle exit, through all kinds of shopping centers, including a Costco, but couldn’t see a gas station.  Finally on the far side of the exit there was a little mini-mart with pumps.  This is a business opportunity for somebody.
• In a ranch outside of Livingston, Montana, we saw a pasture full of llamas.  I’ve see farms where a few are living.  They’re a nice hobby or FFA project.  There must have been 75-100 of them in this field.  It made me happy.  They (along with quail) always make me think of Dr. Suess characters.

Long Way Home

We didn’t take our longest option, just a longer one.  We went north from Big Sky and then east (home is southwest) so that we could see the towns of Bozeman and Livingston, then enter Yellowstone at Gardiner, up by Mammoth.  It’s the only Yellowstone entrance I have never used.  There’s a big stone arch there in honor of Teddy Roosevelt.  It was so worth the extra miles.  Terry actually didn’t enjoy the corner of Yellowstone.  It’s slow going, with some traffic and crowds around attractions.  He was in get home mode.  Here’s a picture of him by the Madison River.

He cheered up when I started driving and we exited at West Yellowstone.  We stopped in Rexburg for a frozen custard at Nielson’s.  When we came out the car wouldn’t start!  The nice BYU-I coeds that worked inside gave us a jump.  It ended up that we didn’t need a new battery, just a new starter. We can take care of that in Boise.  The rest of the way was freeway driving.  At least half of that was orange cones, one lane, and construction, but we made it.   

Sunday Speakers

I didn’t want to miss church on the last Sunday of July because the month has been filled with the best speakers.  Brother Rockwood has been rocking the sacrament program.  But the branch in Big Sky did not disappoint.
First of all, they only have a two hour block, sacrament meeting, gospel doctrine, and a primary or YM/YW meeting.  I told Terry I want to move there.  We hit a missionary homecoming.  The branch president’s son had just returned from Las Vegas.  He was outstanding.  When announcing the program, they said that he would take the remaining time, but he could take as little or as much time as he wanted.  “This is Big Sky.  We’re pretty casual up here.”  I told Terry I wanted move there again.  I’m pretty casual.  At the end of that meeting we all turned our chairs toward a blackboard for Sunday School.  There were 32 people in the room, and only 1 was from Big Sky.  The branch presidency comes 55 miles from Bozeman each week.  They need us in the Big Sky Branch.  I want to move there. 
Oh, and they fed us chocolate cake that had thick icing like fudge right after the meetings.  It was left over from a Friday night social.  I really want to move there.

Big Sky, Montana

When we left Rexburg, Terry and I decided to take a couple more days to just relax.  I had been skiing at Big Sky back in the mid-seventies and early eighties.  Chet Huntley, the newscaster, had built a lodge there and developed a little resort with a tram and I think two other lifts.  You follow the Gallatin River through a corner of Yellowstone and the beautiful Gallatin National Forest.  It’s an wide valley with mountains climbing over 11,000 feet.  The ski lifts go pretty close to the top.  Now there are 16 lifts that cover several mountains.  You couldn’t ride all the lifts in a single day!  Condos and cabins are all over the place, but the developments are spread out and each has their own nook.  There’s a golf course, rafting and kayaking, horseback trips, hiking and fishing.  It’s a huge resort with a very friendly, small town feel.  I like it so much more than Park City, Tamarak, or Sun Valley.  I didn’t want to leave.

Here’s the original Huntley Lodge and a ski run where they do zip-lining in the summer.  We found the oxygen bar in the corner of a mini-mart in a mall right by the lodge.

This rainbow was stunning.  It was actually a double rainbow that stretched from one side of the canyon to another.  I know there’s more treasure in Big Sky than could be found at the end of the rainbow.  I’ve spent quite a bit of time since our return just day dreaming about retiring up there.  I might open a little yarn shop.  I’d sell hats, scarves, slippers, and maybe have a counter with fudge right up by the front window.