...And There's Fire on the Mountain...

We got an early wake up call this morning at 5:30. Since Tim is the fire chief and an EMT he was expecting it to be an emergency call at that hour, so he was headin' to the door! It was a fire call, but it was my mom calling to tell us there was a tremendous fire north of them. She said dad had gotten up at 1:30 to go to the bathroom and looked out the window and could see huge flames. They couldn't tell where it was located, thinking it was just over the hill from them. They called it in and took off to see what they could find. It was such a jaw-dropping line of fire. Apparently it had started north of Geyser. The winds were gusting upwards of probably 70 mph, and it didn't take it long to spread. It burned rapidly to the east, burning Round Butte, over onto Square Butte and continuing on east for who knows how far. It had burned down into the breaks and was following that line. We are talking probably at least 20 miles. They had fire crews responding from Raynesford, Geyser, Stanford, Windham, Denton, Coffee Creek, Geraldine and Fort Benton. Since we were wide awake at that point, we hopped in the car and headed out. Normally you can see Square Butte almost the whole trip from Judith Gap and Stanford, so we thought we would be able to see it once we got on the road, but the smoke was so incredibly thick there we couldn't see anything until we got to Stanford. By the time we got there, things had died down quite a bit, but you could see plenty of hotspots as far as you could see. At about 7:30, we started making sandwiches to take to the crews that were on standby. There were several trucks stationed at the Junction of Hwy 80 N. and MT. Hwy 81, which is where the turnoff for Denton meets the highway going north to Geraldine. It looked as if the fire had burned to within about a mile of the highway there. It was a concern that if the wind had swithced and blown south that so many homes would be in danger, my parents included. They did have people in Geyser alerted. It was reported that the fire had burned an estimated 18,000 to 20,000 acres. There were about 13 haystacks that were lost, about 200 tons/stack. And it was also reported that someone in Choteau county may have lost some cattle. But to think of that much acreage that it had covered, no homes were lost. What a blessing.

Benjie Goes To The City

Today we made a quick trip to Billings (as fast as quick trips to Billings can go) to get some plumbing supplies for a bathroom remodel we are doing. We only had 2 places to go and since it was a supposedly quick trip we decided to bring Benjie with us. Well, 2 places turned in to 5 places as is normal for us. But it still wasn't too bad. Since Benjie was such a good boy, we rewarded him with a little ice cream cone from Dairy Queen! He sure enjoyed it-- down to the last crumb!

Birthday Boy!

Today is Tim's 31st birthday. We celebrated last night by going to dinner at the 19 after church. Today, since we have been doing so much running around, Tim just wanted to stay home and do nothing....so that is exactly what we did. We spent the morning flipping channels, watching 3 different movies. Then we sat in the office and played computer games most of the afternoon. I made a tasty dinner of Jambalaya. And to finish the evening, we had some delicious ice cream cake that I made. There were seven layers of yummy goodness. I used strawberry cheescake ice cream. Oh yeah. I'm glad I only made a 9x9 pan of it, cuz we would be in trouble! Happy Birthday hon, many Birthday Blessing to you!

Birds of a Feather...

There has been a sizable flock of grouse hanging around the ranch. There were a few last year, but they must have told all their buddies that this was the place to be. They are pretty fun to watch scurrying around. We bought a bird block for them last year, but they didn't touch it. It might have been too close to the house. When our cat finally decides to go out, she is quite the huntress. She did manage to catch a grouse about a month or so ago. So, for now we will watch them in their safety from afar.

Plumbing and Pepsi- Not a Good Mix!

We have been working on the plumbing in the house. Today we were in the basement running the cold water pex tubing. We had gone to Pizza Hut for lunch and as you always do at Pizza Hut, you have a Pepsi with lunch. (Except for Tim- hardcore Mountain Dew!) For some unknow reason this particular Pepsi went straight to my head! Maybe because I hadn't slept well last night and was pretty tired. Anyway I was feeling pretty silly and was dancing around to the music and just being a weirdo. I was helping Tim put a section of tubing up and it flick out of my hands and hit me in the face. Thank goodness I was wearing my glasses! Then I got to thinking, what if I would have lost my eye? That would be horrible! Then I thought, well Benjie and I could go to support groups together. Whoever doesn't know- our dog is blind in one eye. Then I started thinking of all the money I would save on contacts! Then instead of glasses, I could wear a monacle! Oh how classy I would be with a monacle! I would be like the Monopoly Guy! Come to think of it, this temporary silliness probably could have been started with the fumes of the primer and pipe glue we were using. Very potent stuff! Well, luckily for Tim this little charade didn't last too long-- but probably long enough!

Walking in Sunshine

The sun was a-shining today and there was NO wind and it was almost 50 degrees out. So we donned our mucks and ventured out. We have been really missing our daily walks and today was the perfect day for that. Benjie was very enthused to be out and about. He couldn't resist stopping at every cowpie and occasionally taking a sample! Needless to say he will definately be getting a bath tonight after trecking in the mud, guck and cowpies!

We have put the subflooring down in the bathroom. It definately feels a little more secure since you can't see down into the basement anymore! Tim has been working on finishing the shower walls. And I have finally finished texturing. That was a long process but it really turned out well. We have also made a pass-through window from the kitchen to the dining/living room. That really opened the kitchen up. Tomorrow we are going to Billings where we will spend half a day at Home Depot getting supplies for the house. It's always fun going through the checkout counter with at least 4 heaping carts. We have done that on several occasions. Wish us luck!

Progress!

We have finally been putting in some good hours at our house in Lewistown. It is a relief to finally move from demolition to reconstruction. I tell ya, almost every square inch of that house was covered in wallpaper. Even the bathroom ceiling, which apparently was where all the smell was coming from, so it's finally nice to have that gone! I hate wallpaper. I think it came with the house when it was built in the 1940's. We were tearing down wall paper on this one wall in the livingroom, and discovered paneling behind it. So we tore down the paneling to discover more wallpaper! It was papered directly to the plaster. Oh yeah, the whole house is lath and plaster. Not fun stuff!! We decided to do a couple of accent walls, namely because the plaster walls are in pretty tough shape, and on one of the walls, the wallpaper will NOT come off, so I decided to do a mud texture. I think it's going to turn out pretty neat. I'll post other pictures when we get it painted, and also other progress we make. So we are finally moving in the right direction after almost 1 1/2 years!
1. Wallpapered Paneling
2. Wallpaper on plaster
3. Detailed shot of texture

Spring? Nah...

The weather was so beautiful yesterday. The snow is melting and the air is so fresh. I had to take a couple of pictures of the sunset yesterday when we were coming home from Lewistown. They were taken with my cell phone while we were driving, hence the blurriness. But It was such a sight since we hadn't really seen clear sky in a few weeks. I was almost getting spring fever, but I had to quickly talk myself out of that and remind myself that it is only January...

Dad's Handy Work

I gotta brag about my dad a little bit. He builds custom cabinets, furniture and other odds and ends. He does such beautiful work. He made beautiful mahogany end tables for Tim and I for a wedding gift. And he made oak cupboards for his and mom's laundry room/porch addition. And he made mom a potato and onion bin. For Christmas, I had him make Tim a keepsake box. It's oak with mahogany inserts. He put Tim's initials in it too. It turned out just awesome. Something we will truly cherish forever. So, here's my plug-- if anyone ever needs any cabinets or furniture of the sorts, you know who to call!