Well, bah.

I am supposed to have this new program (with a gorgeous blue book icon, btw) that will allow me to type up my desired posts off-line, and then send it here when I get back online.  

Only I can't make it work.

Which brings me to the so-far-greatest annoyance about my new Mac.  Which is not specifically an annoyance about the Mac, as much as it is an annoyance about some of the software written for it.

Their help files are rotten!!!

If a person wants to know how to use a program to its fullest; how to do this or that operation using said program; what to do if certain promised operations are not working ... a person goes to the Help Menu Tab, yes?  This person does, yes.  

Only the Help Menu for the two programs so far that I have tried to make use of it in, does nothing but point you to the location of other menu items.  I type 'co' into the Help Search Box and am rewarded with a list of things starting with co.  Every single one of which is a menu item, and if you click on it, does NOTHING but show you where to find it.  

Ahem, Apple People.  THIS IS NOT HELPFUL!

And I thought Microsoft's help files were worthless, sheesh.

Yay, pictures!  They are nearly all from my field - stretching from Charlo/Moiese to Ronan, Polson, Hot Springs, Plains and Thompson Falls.  The few that are not from that area are the lake and the tractor at the gas station.  Those were this summer in Wyoming.

As soon as I find my camera again, I'll add in some winter pictures.  

Well.  We're nearly half-way through special meetings.  I've just jumped ship in Lewistown and arrived in Helena, leaving the rest of the folks there to continue on north and eastwards, whilst I join up with another group and circle around Great Falls.

It's been really nice.  So far, I've been in Billings, Round-up and Lewistown; with Helena, Havre, Fort Benton and Great Falls yet to go.  The weather has been good, altogether.  It snowed in Billings, then was clear until Lewistown, where it snowed Sunday night and Monday.  Once I got past GF though, the snow vanished away and sunshine took its place.  And today is absolutely beautiful - cold (I like it!), clear and sunny (I like all that too!).  The sunrise (yes, don't look so shocked, I did see it - sort of.  At least, I saw the sun before it was very far off the horizon, that counts, right?) this morning was like something out of a fairy tale.  The sky was cloudy so that the sun was obscured, but it turned the clouds above and the land below into gold.  And the valley was slightly misty and frost every where, so that all the buildings and trees that the sun hit looked like golden things rising out of a misty lake.

We stayed out by Winnett last week - out in the country, country.  Gorgeous.  Not too many trees (hardly any, hee) and lots of grass and wind.  And it was a COLD wind, too.  And horses and cats and goats and books.  Steph and I went together, and we were glad we'd left early enough to have plenty of time, too!  All three people who gave us directions said the same thing:  Go along this road until you get to a T and our house is right there.  Now, it had never before occurred to me that 'a T' might not mean exactly that:  a T.  Your road comes along and T's into someone else's road and you are forced to stop going forward and must choose a direction to turn.  But apparently, it does.  

So off we go, assured that we can't possibly miss it.  15 to 20 miles and we'll be there, and plenty early for lunch too.  45 minutes later, we stop talking and look at the now-dirt road uncertainly.  The cows are highly impressed as well; I don't think they see many cars.  There has been no T, this is clearly obvious because we are still driving.  T's require you to stop.  There has only been one road that we could have mistakenly not taken - it was a sort of Y'ish proposition, but our road was definitely the straight one, and they most certainly told us to continue going straight...

Well.  There's a bit of a knob up ahead, maybe we'll be able to see something useful from it.  I am picturing us standing there, surveying a landscape spread out before us, and our eyes landing triumphantly on The House.  'That one!' we will shout and pile back into the car.  Alas, from our knob, we only see another knob, a little higher.  

It's funny how your inner promptings can turn so swiftly from 'Why don't we go a little farther and see' to 'It's time to turn around...'  So back we go, bumping through the cow pasture until we arrive once more at a nicely-traveled gravel road.  Most heartening, that.  We weren't even late for lunch.

But from now on, I'm getting definitions from everyone who gives me directions!  Every single one of those kind people who told us how to find their house, described the T we were to meet - from the other road.  They did not say (as they should have, says I!), You will see a road on your right.  Take it.  

I should really update this more often.  All my posts are way too long.  But just enough time, surely, for a few thoughts I've enjoyed from the past week+.

*If you're working at being humble, stop it.  Work at serving God.

*The marks of charity in I Cor 13 aren't goals to aim at, to think, 'I really need to be more kind, I'd better try harder at that,' but tests to measure ourselves by.  If I'm not kind, I need more of the love of God.

*Love is a fruit of the spirit, and God gives his spirit to those who ask for it, and to those who obey him.  We ask, and God gives us his spirit.  Then his spirit begins to move us, and when we obey it, the fruits of the spirit start to grow.  If we don't follow the promptings of God's spirit, we will lose it.

We had an interesting thing happen yesterday.  Some of us girls met at the mall - 20 maybe? - here in Billings; just to have coffee and get to see each other and all.  So this lady came up to us and asked, "Who are you?  I've never seen a group of such powerful women."   !?!   Not exactly how I picture myself.  But then, if we have power, it's not ours.

It's snowing out, which is lovely.  :)  Not much yet; just enough to color everything white again.  And not too cold either - about 29.  Which is good and bad: the bad half is that everything will melt and then freeze tonight and be horrible tomorrow.  Thankfully, I don't think anyone needs to go anywhere early in the morning.  

We got all the plans for special meetings this morning, and, shocker of shockers, I'm only speaking twice the whole rounds!  I had to look twice!  

Mom and Dad are off to Peru.  I called them last night and they were planning to leave this morning at 8.  They fly to Houston, then to Miami, then Peru.  They will arrive at 5 am tomorrow.  Bright and early!

Mac Update:  I like.  I like.  I will probably be reporting all my nits, but that's because they are mostly so small that I don't have anything else to complain about!  And after all, this is a report; I have to say SOMEthing.  So.  Today's gripes:  The CD player is very noisy when it plays.  VERY noisy.  :(  It whirs so loudly.  

Gripe #2:  I can't find where to see (I don't know if it exists to find, even) my internet status.  I can see that it says I'm connected, but not the strength of the signal or if it's processing anything or...  That was very useful, being able to see if any in or out-bound packets were moving, then I knew if the signal was working or not.

All for now, it's lunch time.

I GOT IT!!!!

It's little and white and has this apple icon on the back that lights up when you turn it on.  I'm not sure about that... I may need to make a patch to cover it up.  Of course, it's rather pointless to try and hide that I've got it on.  ;)  But it might be nice not to have extra light beaming out the back if I'm trying to use it whilst other peoples are napping.

Good things:  The keyboard is not too small.  I was a little worried about this since I had to down-size in order to be able to afford computer.  I like how it types.  Nice clicky-crisp keys.  The whole thing is white!  This is cool in one way and not-so-cool in another way.  Cool half is it looks really nice.  Not-so-cool half is my mother's voice in my brain saying, 'White things show ALL the dirt!'  

I am rather pleased, impressed, etc. by the number of things that work the same as they did on a PC.  One small for instance that I use a lot:  Shift Tab to go backwards.  Of course, there's no reason it should be different - but neither did it necessarily have to be the same.  I mean, after all, anyone who builds a computer with only one mouse button might be expected to do /anything/.  

The pictures are prettier.  Well, not sure that's the right word, but it comes with a lot of very nice screensavers installed.  Of course, it could just be that I think they are so neat because they are different from Microsoft's, which I have seen for so many years now as to consider boring.  Perhaps there are ancient Mac users out there for whom these nifty pictures are also boring.

The weird/confusing/not so good things:

I can't find any word processing program.  I am assured by everyone I have talked to so far (2 people) that there IS one, but I have no clue where.

I can't figure out my wireless deal.  I am connected, obviously, but I don't know where on earth it says so, or where it tells the name of the network, or the strength of the signal or anything like that.  If it even does... I wouldn't even know I was connected if I hadn't opened my browser out of sheer curiosity.  There was no 'You Are Connected' msg.  No little icon (that I can find) that is blinking at me with a signal.  Nuffink.  I opened this thing called Airport which the manual told me was the wireless manager; but it insists that there are no base somethings to be found.  I am not sure what a base whatever it is actually is, but I thought perhaps it meant hotspot. ??  Anyways, I apparently am connected to some ghost network.  :)

MacSword is nowhere NEAR as good as e-sword.  I am either going to have to buy Parallels after all (which I still may end up doing, for my music programs); or see if I can find a different bible program that is better.

This is all for now.  So far, we are coming down on the side of This Is Really Cool.  Mostly, I think, the problems are from total non-exposure, and should resolve themselves as I continue to doodle around.

I really need to take the time to get some pictures up on here. It is gorgeous out! For those of you who don't know this area of Montana, we are nestled right up against the mountains. The foothills rise straight out of the pasture behind the house here. They are covered with pines, and beyond them are the Missions, with their snow-covered peaks. Right now, we've got about 6 inches of snow - so everything looks like a postcard.

The exciting news of the moment (to me!) is that I'm getting a new laptop - and it's going to be a Mac! My HP (which I have loved... mostly) died and to fix it would cost over half the price of just getting a new one. And I am annoyed with Microsoft and everyone who sells it, and finally did enough reading to convince me I could survive in a Windows world with an Apple.
So now I spend my time hovering (metaphorically) by the door eagerly waiting its arrival!

I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Plans! I'm not going to be eating cold soup from a can while sitting under a bridge on cardboard!
Ok, so that was never a danger. ;) But now I know what all is happening with the cars and the plans and Sandy and my rides and all. So I could make plans as to where to really spend Thanksgiving. Leroy and Lindy had invited me, so I will be there for about a week, I think. Maybe a little longer, we'll see. I'm looking forward to getting to help cook stuff, wander through the woods and visit the horses, laze about in the hottub...

Other exciting stuff: Mom and Dad leave the 29th for Peru! Mom is getting excited - I'm getting excited for them! You can probably tell this by how I used the word 'exite' three times in the past two sentences. ;) I wish I could go too. Maybe I'll hide out in their suitcase. :D

We're listening to a tape about the Mann Gulch Fire in 1949. I find it rather ironic that back then such great expense and effort was gone to to put out /any/ fire, whether it was near habitation or not; while now people are thinking that letting the fires burn some would be better and cut down on worse fires in the future. Now we are in the future that, possibly, if back then some fires had been let to burn, we might be better off.
I'm not sure that preceding sentence actually made any sense outside of my brain.

We snuck over the border into Idaho last week, and had a bit of a party with our neighbors! Jenith made curry, and, oh, was it ever good. MMmmmmmmmMM. I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it.

Oh, and the larch/tamarack mystery has been solved. Tamaracks are also known as Western Larch... I'm sure you're all relieved to hear this.

Beyond that? The main breaking news is just that. My laptop is broked. :( I have taken it carefully to the doctor and left it there for a (hopefully!) brief hospital stay. Having not heard anything yet, I am unsure if my hope is going to be fulfilled or not. Alas. A laptopless life is a hard one.

We've been reading through Jeremiah. It's my fault, I freely confess it - I had slowly made my way through Isaiah, and wanted to go on to Jeremiah, so we decided to read it in our studies with folks. It's slow going - every couple of chapters, we read in Luke, to get something more hopeful. And, of course, sometimes the people we're with are reading somewhere else, so we read that together, instead. But let me tell you, I'm glad for the help! We read the 10th chapter today, and there's a verse there where the Lord says, 'This is my grief, I must bear it'. It just made me so aware how much it does grieve God when his people turn away from him; are careless with the gifts he's given, or refuse them entirely.

Today is an incredibly gorgeous day. It got down to about 22 last night, so this morning, everything was covered with frost. Now, there's only frost left in the shade. The air is chilly, but there isn't even a hint of a cloud in the sky. And we're surrounded by larches. (Although, I have now been told that /these/ trees are tamaracks? Up until today, I thought they were larch! Whichever, they're turning yellow. ;) And I plan to put a picture up when I've got a better connection.) I've never been anywhere where they grew - it's fascinating to watch the hills. All these trees that look like evergreens, are turning yellow! This morning, on first brief glance, it fooled me into thinking the sun was up already; but no, just all those yellow trees.
I wish that they didn't have to lose their leaves until spring; I could be much more content with long grey winter days if there were all these gloriously yellow and orange-leafed trees brightening things up.

It's a day that makes me want to go riding. Of course, there aren't many days that I wouldn't want to go riding in, so maybe that's not such a good description. ;) But maybe a hike instead - we're out of Thompson Falls a ways, surrounded by the hills and woods and meadows. Not another house to be seen. But it's also hunting season... either I'll have to wear orange (don't own any), or sing-song loudly, 'I'm not a deer, I'm not a deer...' all the time. Ugh. Besides, then I'd probably get shot out of sheer irritation as I scare all the real deer away. ;)

There is a store here called Three Dog Down. Back when Mom and Dad were visiting, we got wondering about it. Why on earth would you name a store that sells (presumably) down products (down comes from birds...) after dogs?? Dogs have No Down. And why three of them? I don't care how many dogs you get, none of them will have down!
Anyways, for those of you who were once like me, unenlightened and wallowing in ignorance; you may now become again like me! Not quite so unenlightened and a little bit less ignorant!

Once upon a time, so it is told, the people of the northern climes lived in ice houses, and with them lived their dogs. The people could be cold, often, if their fires went out or their clothing wore thin, but the dogs curled up under the snow, warm and cozy. The people looked at the dogs and they began to think. And from that point on, if it was a cold night, a certain dog might be chosen to sleep with you and keep you warm. If it was extra cold, it was a night for two dogs. And if it was really really exceedingly frost-between-the-stars cold, three dogs.

Hence Three Dog Down. These products says the company, are sufficient to keep you warm on a three-dog-cold night. Cheers.

Sandy and I are having a lot of fun being right on the spot here with the re-building of Ronan convention. Last week, we measured counters and picked out a border of wallpaper, and bought a fridge. Now we are trying to decide where to put which drawers and if we want them deep or shallow. The dishwasher has already switched sides of the sink at least 4 times. In January, we’ll be painting the brother’s quarters - they decided they don’t want bare plywood walls, can you believe it! I think we should paint the sister’s too... I don’t want pink walls. ;) But of course, my wants are considerably farther down the scale of importance (especially since I don’t even know that I’ll ever be here for preps!) and at least we HAVE paint and not bare wood.

Monday, we went back to the Bison range and watched them run their herd through. They weigh them, read a microchip, brand the calves and give them any shots they may need; then turn them back out for another year. This herd has one of the most diverse gene pools, they say. They try to keep about 350; if there are more, they send them to other ranges or sell them to private herd. I think we saw the biggest bull of the herd, too. There is a pneumatic sort of cage to hold them in while they take samples, and this one bull filled it entirely. His hump touched the top bars and his nose and tail reached from the front to the back. He was VAST.
We got to stand right above where they were working. There's a sort of wide walkway, and you can lean on the fence and watch from above. That is, if you're early enough or lucky enough to get to the fence! There were at least 9 schoolbuses full of kids, plus all the other interested onlookers! But we did eventually work our way close enough to see. :)

And last little bit of trivia. Did you know you can padlock a piano? I never did - but the one in the hall we use on Sundays is padlocked, well and firmly. Good thing both Sandy and I can sing, because we certainly won't be using the piano for the hymns.

Still updating.... (just in a different post because of being a different subject).

Sandy gave me the best birthday present of all! She'd asked me the other day what I'd like to do, ideally, for my b-day, and I'd said 'Oh, if I could do anything, I'd go horseback riding, but that won't work. Mom and Dad are coming, etc, etc.' So this morning, she said she'd fixed it all up!
We had a beautiful ride. I think I was on the tallest horse I've ever been on - or nearly, if not quite. His back was at about my chin level, and the stirrups were almost to my waist. I had to climb onto the back of the four-wheeler to get on, and I didn't dare get off during the ride, for fear of never getting back on again!
We went along a sandy dirt road that made a big loop down the hills into the river bottom and back up again. Horse A (mine - we never did learn their names, bad us) was of two minds about this riding business. He rather thought he liked it at first, and we did a bit of trotting and cantering; then he seemed to realize we were Going Farther, and got a little rebellious. But after going in circles in the road for a while (because he wouldn't go forward and I wouldn't go backward!), we came to an agreement: he would do what I said. ;) And, as I said, the ride was beautiful. It wound down through pine and aspen trees, along the river, back up through a thick grassy sward, and took us about 2 hours total. The whole time, the mountains to the east were visible, snowy and with the sun lighting them up. For a while, after we turned on the loop and were heading back again, the river was just beside us, those mountains were in the background, and I felt like we really should be on the front cover of a Country Magazine!
When we got back, it took me a few minutes to straighten my knees back out to walking position - along with being one of the tallest horses I've ever ridden, he was getting close to being the largest, too. Oh glorious day. :D

It seemeth to me it is time for an update!
Saturday, Mom and Dad arrived for a visit. They stayed until today. Monday, we had planned to go to the Bison Range near here and watch the annual round-up - at least until we found out that it wasn't until next week. But we went anyways; just drove through. It's a hilly area of who-knows-how-many acres, all fenced into various humongous pastures. Very pretty, especially with the fall colors starting. We saw some buffalo right up by the road; then several different instances of deer. Then we stopped at a little rest-area right at the top and walked out on the path there and... dumdumdum... heard an elk bugle. This was very exciting, until Dad (who had gone on ahead) reported back. It was a guy standing just below the edge of the ridge out of sight. Bah.
BUT! Just around the corner, we saw REAL elk! Three nice bulls, feeding along casually and ignoring the deceitful guy around the hill. And just after that, we were inching down a hill and saw, below us on the next switchback, a bunch of cows - and with them, the biggest bull yet. It was fascinating to watch them. We shut the car off, rolled down the windows and tried not to breathe loudly. We were close enough that we could hear their hooves in the dry grass; could hear the bull talking to the cows - he made a noise rather like water bubbling; and we could hear him bugle, which he did. A lot. We also got to watch him chase a few strays back into the herd, and then start to shepherd the whole bunch along. I think he wanted them to come towards us, but they weren't having any of that (CARS! You've GOT TO BE KIDDING!) - so in the end, they went up over the ridge and into the trees. That alone was worth having missed the roundup. After that, we ended up seeing several more bulls; no more avec harem though.

I learned the value and definition of submission again. It just hit me so clearly - this is why the kingdom works. There was a small situation and one person said: So&so has said this, and here is how we want it to be. A while later, the other party involved said: That situation - they said this and we said this and WE feel... (I braced myself) it should be the way they would like it.
Instant resolution - from something that wasn't, but could have been a problem; to something that never will be a problem. I need more of that spirit.

Sojourn in the 1800's

I feel like we've been living in another century - or at least partly! - these past two weeks. Cooking on a woodstove, doing laundry in a wringer-washer, hand-cranked ice cream, hand-pressed apple cider... The other day, the guys cut the neutral line in the main electric circuit that went through our kitchen, and it didn't faze us a bit! We shut off the lights, the fridge grumbled and revved, and our lovely wood stove went right on cooking supper without a blink.
I love, really really love, (as well as thoroughly enjoy) cooking on a woodstove. Of course, it's very handy to have an oven thermometer - I wouldn't want to try it without. I didn't try making bread in it, but I did bake muffins and they turned out great. I can't really say I've done all that much personal cooking on it - though I made sausage gravy for breakfast - because most of the cooking has been someone else's plan, and I've just watched the fire and stirred and chopped as needed. But I did make both plum and chokecherry syrup, and applesauce all myself. (That makes it sound like I did no cooking either - that's not right...) Anyways, suffice it to say, I likes the wood stove. It's great fun, as well as warm and cozy, (ok, so I don't really want to try using it mid-summer either!)

AND, I think that Anna and I can justly claim to be the first ever to make caramel mocha macchiatos on a woodstove. :D Did I forget to mention I made Dorlene's caramel sauce? Or mostly did - it somehow ended up being thinner than hers. I don't know what I did wrong, Dorlene. It tasted good though! And ended up being just perfect for froofy coffee drinks. We made extra strong coffee, stirred hot cocoa mix into it, and heated the milk to steaming on the stovetop. Here's the recipe: 1 squirt of Hershey's chocolate syrup. 3 tsps of caramel sauce. Pour coffee in to about 2/3 full. Froth steamed milk in a 1 cup glass measuring cup with a teeny-tiny battery run frother, and fill the rest of the cup. Stir around a bit and serve. We got rave reviews.

Every day, I've thought of things that would be fun to post - but every night, I am too tired to type anything at all. Or think, for that matter. And the thinking's the difficult part. So... uh... I can't remember the best bits.

There's a bear that frequents the plum orchard.
Dan came flying out in his snazzy red helicopter (over which I drooled and drooled).
We slept outside several nights. It was gorgeous - I grudged having to go to sleep for wanting to watch the stars. I saw several brief shooting stars, and one that went across nearly half the sky.
Oh! And if you're wondering - we picked the apples and plums and chokecherries ourselves. :)

Now it's nearly done. Tomorrow, everyone who hasn't already left will be gone. And I should be packing - so this is nearly done too.

There and back again

Man, where to start. I can't. I guess the best way to explain would be to say:
In the middle of 200 strangers, I didn't feel even slightly intimidated or overwhelmed.
and
I barely noticed being tired of sitting.
It was really really nice. I met Eric who was one of the brothers in the field when my friend Isabelle first started coming to meeting. There were 44 of us who started since 2000, and 14 in 2004. That's pretty neat. We slept in different little dorms here and there - they'd divided it up by when you started in the work - so all us girls from 2000 and later were in one dorm. I'm not sure the divisions... maybe every ten years? Bonnie R made it up there; we were all delighted. She had a wonderful time - only missed one meeting, and that was good. It got her rested enough to appreciate the rest. She was the oldest one present. Lyle told us it had been 81 years since the last time there had been any such meeting in the western half of the continent. Hope they don't wait that long until the next one!
What else? A few notes, maybe.

*Sheep are born looking for a place to die.
*Job 39:25 - the warhorse brings to the battlefield the one who has the weapons and skills to help in the fight.
*When God wants to do a work in us, he sends difficulties. When he wants to do a great work, he sends impossibilities.
*God isn't asking us to serve him with someone else's ability, or to push ourselves to try and keep up with someone else's pace. Do the best we can with what we have been given.
*If we don't care who gets the credit, great works can be done.
*Nothing will happen until it happens in our hearts.
*The secret to a successful marriage is forgiveness, not love.

We left after lunch Thursday, got to Shelby for the night; left again the next morning for Ronan. Sue's mom's funeral was Saturday, so we stopped by the funeral home so Sandy could discuss music. It was a really nice funeral. Robert and Scott spoke - Robert mentioned 'she hath done what she could'. She did what she could for her country, for her family, for herself, for her friends. Got to the grounds here just in time for supper. I need to get in bed now, so Life On The Convention Grounds To Be will have to wait for another day. :) Suffice it to say, we're here, and tomorrow, the framing starts. Speaking of which, I'd better go erase some pictures from my camera so as to be all ready for taking more.

We're here!
It's been so nice to meet all these folks whose names I recognizes, but whose faces are new. And doubly nice to see those I already know again!
The weather is nice; about 71. It's muggy though, so feels a bit warmer. Only major annoyance are bugs! Zillions and zillions of teeny little bugs. You can't open your mouth. They get in your hair and on your clothes and thankfully THANKFULLY they aren't inside too.
First meeting tonight after supper.
AND. I didn't bring my computer. I'm already having withdrawal pangs, so it's nice of Anita to let me borrow hers to check my email.

Alberta Bound

Well, tomorrow we head north. Goodbye, Wyoming, but only for now, I hope! It's been a great month: horses, rocks, sunshine, wind, fairs... I even sewed something! I hope everyone is properly impressed. If you don't know why you should be impressed, I'll be glad to tell you. ;) Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture. :( I forgot. Take my word for it that it's really cool, though, ok? Picture this: one of those three-panel room divider screens, with red bamboo for the frame and a gold and red upholstery fabric for the panels. It looks really nice. I have to confess though, that it's a little on the wobbly side - I really should have put screws in or something, but I didn't have any, or a drill to do it with. But I think the recipients are planning to rectify that.

Adventures of the month:
Squashing my leg in a gate - my fault, I tried to ride my horse through a too-small opening. I thought it would get bigger, see, but the gate stuck on the ground and we kept going. Ouch. But I learned something! Bruising and swelling both travel downhill. My foot is all swollen and it's hard to get my shoe on. If you looked, you'd think the horse stepped on my foot instead of just bruising my leg. I had a gorgeous ride though. Out into the middle of a great wide-open field; untilled, uninhabited - no cows even. It was great.
Getting stung by a hornet. Startled me enormously. We went outside to check out an old metal screen for height; and, unbeknownst to us, there was a huge grey paper hornets' nest behind it. They were Not Happy. And soon, neither were we. On the up side, I am still not allergic to bee stings. ;)
Making jam and pickles. Well, ok, three quarts of pickles is all, and all I did was squish the cucumbers into the jars. But I did help pick the plums, and cook them down, and boil them and pour the jelly into the jars, so that counts a lot more.

I think that's about all... at least, all I can remember right now. :) More news likely after Didsbury, which I am sure will be wonderful. At least, I am sure of it when I remember not to think about how long we're going to be sitting...

The fair was great. Small, true, but lots of fun. :) We went through the quilt and other crafts exhibit hall (mostly all quilts), and the hay barn (did you know that they actually have Hay Judging??? I didn't.) It sure smelled good, though all the bales looked pretty much alike to me. I did manage to distinguish between grass hay and alfalfa though!
Oh, and ate disgustingly greasy fair food. Whee. One note though - if getting a corn dog at a fair, double check the place you're getting it from. I got one that was just nasty. I didn't even try to eat the whole thing; gave up and went to get an Indian Taco from another stand instead. And, wouldn't you know it, they were selling corndogs too, and ones that looked much much better. Ah well. I consoled myself with a funnel cake. Mmmm.
And then.....
drumroll
the pig wrestling!
They started with the kids' teams. Looked mostly like younger teenagers, though one team was probably four 10 yr olds. The pig was almost bigger than they were! I should back up a bit. It's a ring; maybe 15 feet in diameter, lined with heavy plastic and filled with clay-mud and water. Duane said it was probably bentonite. There's a barrel in the middle that you have to stick the pig into.
Ok. So, they auctioned the teams off first - the kids' teams went for anywhere between 50-100 dollars; the older people usually 100-200. A couple teams were up in the $400 range though, and one men's team was $500! That seems awfully high to me! I guess that is the prize money though. 15% goes to a scholarship, and then the first and second place teams split the rest 60/40. Then they let a pig into the ring, slathered mud on its back, and the fun started. It wasn't very fair, I didn't think - they put extra water in before the women's teams started, so it was much slippery. And I think they gave them bigger pigs!
But it was really funny, and the people trying to catch the pigs hammed it up. But amazingly enough - if they actually managed to catch the pig, it only took an average of 30 seconds to get it into the barrel. There was a firetruck standing by - I wondered if it was there to resuscitate any pigs who had heart attacks! But no, they were just loaning their hose to wash the contestants off. And believe me, they needed washing!
AND... I got 9000 steps out of the deal. :) I'm a whole day away from Independence now. At this rate, I'm going to starve in the mountains like the Donner party. ;)

We’re in Douglas today and tomorrow. And we’re going to the State Fair tomorrow night. To watch *drumroll* pig-wrestling. Apparently how this goes is someone dunks a pig in the mud and then you try to catch it and stuff it in a barrel. Also, you have a time limit. Yes, you read that right up there; we’re going to WATCH. NOT catch and stuff. It’s a dinky little fair, really, but it will be lots of fun. And dinky is only relative. Maybe somewhere out there, there are smaller fairs. I’m not sure where you’d find them, but it’s possible!

Shawna and I are finally together. It's very exciting - AND we've made it more than three days! Which is a great relief; I don't know if I could have handled another month like last year's.
But all is going well. We're in Riverton at the moment, and will be heading back to Casper maybe on Thursday. There's something historical and cool going on at the Casper Interpretive Center, so we're hoping to get to go.
I'm enjoying getting to spend a little time here. I've been through both Casper and Riverton, but never to stay more than few days; so 4 weeks seems like a wealth of riches.
The nasty part is the mosquitoes though. Not that there are so many, or that they are so large - Portage was much much worse, and so was Saskatchewan last year - but these mosquitoes are evil mosquitoes and buzz around threatening you with terrible diseases! This is not going to help me getting to Oregon faster, but I am still determined. Mosquito repellent, here I come.

America on the Move

I may actually have found something that will get me off my lazy duff and getting a little exercise.
www.AmericaOnTheMove.org
It's a place online where you can keep track of your daily steps (yep, got to have a pedometer for that) or just the length of time you've exercised if it's something other than walking. I haven't done anything with that feature yet though.
The really cool part is that you can sign up for a Challenge. There are 5 or 6 routes that you can walk, and the challenge is to complete them in a certain number of days. I picked the Oregon Trail, and it's actually got me wanting to do a little more walking every day because I'm barely out of Independence, Missouri so far! There are checkpoints along the way, and links to click that tell you about where you've gotten to. You can't click on them until you've actually walked far enough to get there thought - tricksy of them! I have a long ways to go, and I'm almost entirely certain that I'm not going to make it to Oregon by Sept 14, but we'll see. :)
Also, you can have Challenge Buddies; so you can keep track of their progress (AND they can keep track of yours and scold you if you're sitting around too much). And did I mention its free? I'm a sucker for free stuff.
All in all, I like. Two thumbs up.

Er... sorry, Nichole. I saw another moose.
Not very clearly, she was obviously feeling shy. Darla and Michael took their trailer up into the mountains to park it for a while (to be visited on certain hot afternoons), and as we were driving lazily along the roads coming home, there she was - having a nice peaceful dinner in the willows. I don't blame her for hiding - I wouldn't want people driving by to stop and gawk at me while I was eating either.
Wednesday, I will be heading down to Casper to meet Shawna.

Midwife to a Dragonfly

Nichole and I went swimming at a lake near their place last night. That is, to be precise, she went swimming and I played in the water. But it was a lot of fun, and felt VERY good in 104 degree weather! When it cooled down to 99, we both started feeling a little chilly.
There were tons of blue dragonflies swarming all over just a few inches above the water. They were really beautiful; small and iridescent. So I'm standing about chin deep in the lake, wiggling my toes in the mud (pitch black very soft squooshy mud) when I see something swimming on the top of the water towards me. I scooped it up to see what it was - I thought at first it might be a tadpole with half of its legs out. But here was this strange pale green creature - half dragonfly (front half), half fish (back half). I wasn't sure what to do with it - it seemed perfectly happy in my hand, but I wanted to play! Can't do it with a bug in your hand. But I didn't want to put it back in the water if it would drown there; nor did I want to put it on dry land if it would dry up and die. Such a dilemma.
So eventually, I set it on the edge of the land, and let it decide for itself; and went back swimming. After a while, I came back to see what had happened, and the tail had turned into a pair of wings! It was sunning itself and drying out its wings. So somewhere out there on the shores of a lake in eastern MT, I have a dragonfly godchild. If, that is, it is still alive.

I got to Darla and Michael's just before they walked out the door to go to meeting. Time enough to brush my teeth and hop in the car and leave again. Jonathan was very good all through meeting, but as soon as we stopped singing, he hopped off the couch and hurried over to give me a huge hug. (That was the sound of my heart going pitty-patty, btw.) That, apparently, was sufficient, as he was out the door to play the next second.
Tonight, we read 'Potty Time' three times over and were starting on number 4, when Mommy rescued us with 'The Runaway Pumpkin'. Whew! But never let it be said I have shirked my Auntly Duties!

"I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind... At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme, I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy, and wise in spite of themselves."

Robertson Davies, The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, 1947

Hee. I love it.

Back to the States

Two rather special things about Bowsman:
There were a lot of children who were professing, and in every meeting from the very start of convention, some of them took part and prayed.
And in most meetings there were only three speaking, and it just happened that many times, they were finished a little earlier, often leaving about 30 minutes for testimonies. And there wasn't a meeting where no one was ready to give their testimony until Sunday afternoon - I really thing it's possible that everyone at that convention who wanted to had a chance to have a part. It was very nice.

Portage was very flat. Also very humid. Also very mosquitoey. VERY mosquito-ey. I am not fond of mosquitoes. I squash them with impunity. Even with glee.
It really wasn't too hot though, not until Sunday. Then it was around 90, which isn't so bad if it's just the heat. The problem is the humidity. That runs right up there around 95%, I'm sure - and so 90 degrees is fairly well sweltering. I'm down at Nichole's parents again, and it is 106 here, but much more bearable (so I say as I sit in the air-conditioned house...) because it is dry.
A few days here and then I will head on down to Darla and Michael's for a week or so. Then on to Casper for the month of August.

Bowsman MB

Now that I have a bit more time, I'll try to tell you about Manitoba. Or at least the parts of it that I have seen so far.

We left Plentywood Monday morning and drove north to Regina and then east. It rained all the way across Saskatchewan. It rained all the way through Manitoba up to Bowsman, and it continued raining after we got here. In the greyness, with the clouds hovering low and the rain streaking the windows, it looks an awful lot like Washington. You can even pretend that the Cascades are right there - hidden behind the clouds. Lots of green fields; lots and lots of trees, all of them green too; frogs (yep, green)... and water everywhere. They get most of the water for convention (not the drinking water, but for the toilets and laundry and everything) from a dugout. That is, you dig a large hole in the ground and wait for it to fill up. This would never happen in Montana or Wyoming, but it works quite well here. Unfortunately, along with all this water comes mosquitoes and humidity. Two of my favorite things.... Not. It's not been too bad so far though - it's been fairly cool and rainy. Yesterday, there were several cloudbursts, and once it hailed. And for the excitement of the day, we saw a huge black cloud in the distance that they told us was a half-mile wide funnel cloud. I haven't heard that it ever turned into a tornado though, which is a very good thing. I took a picture of it just in case, but it doesn't look like anything other than a large black cloud. You can't even see any hints of funnelling.
They grow a lot of canola here. All the yellow fields are very pretty, and cheer up the incessent greenery quite nicely, I think. Oh, and here's another similarity to W. Washington that you don't see in MT/WY! I took a walk down the road (gravel) and all along it there are ditches!! Filled with WATER! And cattail reeds and little frogs. (Toads, Nichole told me. They're bumpy on the back, not smooth.) I managed to scare an entire herd of cows by mooing at them. Perhaps they aren't familiar with American mooing and only understand you if you moo at them in Canadian. None of the cows I moo at in the States ever takes off at near-stampede speeds! I was a little offended!

Bowsman is a smaller convention, about 450 people at the biggest. The barn looked very small tonight - not so many folks had shown up yet. I couldn't tell you a number... 200 maybe? But that is entirely a guess, I really have no idea at all. I don't even know how many people were in the dining room. Nichole and I arrived on the grounds Monday night to find out we were both speaking Wednesday night. So I was just a little distracted at supper time tonight. There are positives and negatives to being first off, we've found.
Plus: You're done right away and therefore have the rest of the convention free to listen comfortably.
Minus: You're done right away and therefore have no idea what to do with yourself for the rest of the convention, as you know no one to talk to and can't study for meeting.
I also think perhaps we were practicing for when we go to some other countries - our little cabin has the main ironing board as well as the main email plugin and telephone for the sisters near us; so lots of people were coming and going all day. It wasn't bad; we put in earplugs and stayed happily deaf and undisturbed - it was just a little amusing. Not quite like getting ready for meeting with chickens and pigs and shouting kids running around like some people do! No five-times-daily call to prayer either.

It stays light noticeably later into the evening, though we aren't even as far north as Smeaton (SK). It is 10:10 right now, and looks like about 9 at home. Some of this, I suppose, is because we're not far into this timezone. It really IS about 9. Or so my body thinks. ;) I never realized I was such a creature of habit... I even get hungry on schedule! I'm hungry now - at 9 pm (my time), when I generally have a snack. The problem is that they had snacks out at 9 pm (their time... an hour ago!) when I wasn't the slightest bit hungry. Le sigh. Guess I'll have to raid the chocolate stash again. After all, I can't go to bed hungry! Speaking of my chocolate stash... le sigh again. I cleverly had broken pieces off the latest candy bar Mom got for me, and put them in a little tin in my suitcase. Bite-sized, all of them. At least, until they melted together in the trunk. I guess it was hotter than I realized.

The only bad thing about it up here is that I am having the hardest time getting online. I'm sorry, everyone, that's why no speaking list yet. :( It's very frustrating. We've been having a wonderful convention so far.

Sunday night we go on down to Portage. :)

Tonight, we're in Plentywood. Tomorrow, Manitoba!
Only problem... just a slight one... we still don't have an address or directions, and no one answers the phone. Hmmm.
Oh well, we're sure to get in touch with someone eventually. At least we know which town we're heading to!

Mapapa Acrobats

Medora (North Dakota)

Darla's told me about this place called Medora ever since I met her the first time, I think. I'm pretty sure it was that long ago, because I have this hazy memory of wondering what on earth was Medora... it sounded like it ought to be important and famous and all that, and I'd never in my life heard of it. Town? Amusement Park? Museum??
So last night, we went. I wish we'd had more time to dink around the town; but I can't complain, as it was mostly my fault we didn't. I took a nap instead of dutifully hopping in the car. It's a cute little town (hotter than blazes...) with lots of fun shops. AND.... drumroll Licorice ice-cream. Drool. I got a milkshake out of it, and let me tell you, it was GOOD.
Very good. Excellent. I wanted another one and I wasn't hungry before I bought the first - I only got it because I wasn't sure I'd ever see licorice ice-cream again in my life.
And actually? That was the best way to see Medora the Town possible. Because it really wasn't all that hot if you were drinking something frozen while walking around. I should have gotten two - one for the musical - because that's when I was really hot.
The musical was fun, too. We had front row center seats - which was amazingly better than we were afraid they might be. It might have been just a little nicer to have been 2-3 rows back, so as to be a little higher; but it was really nice being so close. You could see the performers very well, and I like that. I like watching them and looking at their expressions and wondering who they are when they're not singing about being Texaco Men or something. One boy was so skinny, I thought he must surely be sick. But he had enough energy for two of the others, so he must have been healthy enough. And the man who was sort of the main character was dressed in so many layers of very heavy-looking clothes that I was a little worried he might have a heat-stroke in the middle of the play.
For those of you who, like me, have not been privileged to have absorbed information about Medora in the womb, it's all about Teddy Roosevelt. An actor who looks like him wanders around saying hello to people and every now and then during the musical, he pops up with some historical tidbit - like that he once sent cowboy boots to his daughter, who didn't like them. In between times, Buffalo Dale (instead of Buffalo Bill) narrates a sort of loose plot. This year, it involved his sister coming home in a hot pink semi-truck (read gussied up golf cart) and the two of them taking a road trip round and round the stage, while the singers sang and danced and did atmosphere stuff. The songs were appropriate to the journey - like Route 66 and Texaco Man and Convey. It was a lot of fun. At the end, they told about the national park system, and told everyone that if a plain ol' cowboy like Bully Teddy could become president, any one of us could do anything we wanted to.
The best part of the whole thing was the intermission entertainment. They had these men from Kenya over, who are incredible acrobats and they limboed under burning poles and leaped into fantastic pyramids. Talk about strong. They didn't just climb up over the other mens' arms and legs to get to their spot - they hurled themselves onto each other. And all the time, they whistled. I wondered if that's how they applaud in Kenya, or if it was sort of like how we would shout "Go on, you can do it!" to encourage a fellow. It was great!

Lazy Days

Hanging out in Nichole's living room, feet up on the chest, quilt wrapped cozily around the legs, munching on carrots and potato chips .... playing games!!
Ok, really, that should be Lazy DAY - since tomorrow, we've got plans. Big ones, involving Cake and Medora - which is a place I have never been, but have been assured by multitudes of people, starting with Darla way long ago, is a Cool Place To Go. So I'm going. :) For the first time.
Saturday, maybe I will be lazy again. Don't know yet. Sunday, we drive to Plentywood, and Monday, take off across the border (hopefully, the border police will be rational) to Manitoba!
With Nichole. What fun.