There's Snow Business

...all over the place, here in Cohagen.
And, truth be told, we're not happy about it.  But we're making the best of it.

Being a thoughtful blogger, I'm not including all the "real" pictures:
Maggie sitting on the porch floor, bawling because she can't get her snowpants zipped right.
Wayland, bowling with cats, out the front door into the snow.
Angus, hot cocoa on his face and shirt and the table and the dog and the floor and everywhere but in him.
Me, sitting in a chair, head in hands, while the children play Annie-Aye-Over the kitchen table with an apple, screaming at the top of their lungs.

No, these are the more sanitized versions of our family, snowed in. 
I draw the line at sweet (posed) pictures of popcorn, blankies and a CandyLand board game.  Milton Bradley has sold a TON of those games with that image. 
Our "real" pictures would sell anti-depressants.  Or vacation packages. (Get away from it all!)
(If ONLY.)

Alright, EVERY year we have the SAME picture....Angus, out in the elements, with nothing but his underpants and perhaps a tshirt, if we're lucky.  Here's the photo for 2010. 

 This is what the Farmer does, all morning, every morning.  We don't usually have to feed this much, this early in the year (ranch time) so it's a little worrisome.  Costs a LOT to feed cows properly, during cold weather, and it feels like we're running money out the cake feeder, instead of pellets, sometimes.

PopPops gave Maggie this ranch girl hat.  She wore it for 36 hours, in the night and subsequently at breakfast, with her cereal.  We FINALLY got it off her, to shampoo, but she ADORES this hat.  She's been wanting one like mine for a couple years.  The mark of a ranch girl, like a badge of honor...

 They only go outside so they can come in, five minutes later, and slurp hot cocoa with whipped cream. 

 And yes, she DID start out with a hat, but hats really cramp the style when one is trying to eat snow.

Sunrise, this morning, over the sea of snow...-10 degrees.  So....sort of like the Arctic Ocean sea of snow.

 Hello, cross country skis! 

Hello, ibuprofen!

Well...hello, muscles I forgot I had!

Turns out, running every day has NOT make cross country skiing any easier.  But it's a really great change from the "dreadmill", and I'm enjoying it. 



Country Roads

....and they ALL broke out in song, "Country ro-o-o-a-ds, take me h-o-o-o-me, to the pla-a-a-a-ce I belo-o-o-ng..." 

Sorry to have to do that to you.  Now that song will be in your head all day, I know.  Isn't that wicked?  (At least it's not Frosty the Snowman or something like that...)

I didn't really have a great place for these pictures, from the last week, but wanted to show you the roads we drive and some of the scenes we see from them....miles and miles and miles of them.  Another ACTION-PACKED post, from the Farmer's Wife....try to keep your heart rate down....

This was taken from my in-law's road, in the direction of our house.  The light was incredible right then, but it's impossible to convey depth on a landscape that just rolls on and on, like a welcome mat.

Before I get scolded...I did NOT look through the lens to take this picture!  I know better.  But I loved how the clouds were backlit.  Same evening as the picture before.

This is a curious sort of Garfield County road.  Blacktop and then....bam! gravel. And that's all she wrote.  This is what our autumns look like...grey, grey, grey. Makes me so thirsty for color, sometimes!

 Such a typical Eastern Montana landscape.  It almost bugs me, because it's so....stock.  But then, perhaps, I'm used to looking at it and others will enjoy it more.

 I WASN'T driving at the time I took this picture!  But this is what I see in my rearview mirror when we're coming home from the bus.  Eight miles from the bus to our house! 

 And this is the scene through the windshield, at the same point. (A TREE!!!)

It's that time of year again...

....when everyone counts their blessings and feels the urge to list them and share with every acquaintance/passerby/FaceBook friend/family member/blogger/etc. 

I certainly look at my life with no small amount of gratitude and joy.  But my contrary heart gets absolutely balky when the entire world is urging me to share what I'm grateful for. It's the assignment of the week...EVERYWHERE!  Makes me cranky.  And obtuse.  And stubborn.

You really want to know? REALLY?

Alright.

But I must warn you....it's not a warm, fuzzy, pull the kids in close and remember the moment sort of list...

(Bulletpoints, because they are efficient.  And one of my readers lives and dies by them.  Today looks like a "lives" day...)

• Tweezers.  Yes, you read that right.  As women age, they get...whiskers, sort of.  (Well, they DO!)  And without tweezers, we'd look like Wolfman Jack.  Or maybe the guy from ZZ Top.  I'm truly grateful for these little tools.  And now, so are you.
• Paper towels.  I don't even want to contemplate how life would be without these precious things.  And yes, I know I'm killing trees by the hundreds of acres, everytime I use them.  I can live with that. 
• A friend that commented on my skinny butt with true sincerity, right at the moment I was ready to burst into tears over a bookkeeping error that is really going to hurt.  I completely forgive her for telling me earlier in the year that I was getting weird-ER.
• Football. That's all I have to say on that point.
• Multiple people who have taken on the role of my parents and family. Karen Yost (one of my mothers) MADE me watch "While You Were Sleeping" for one line..."Lucy! You're BORN into a family.  You don't just join them, like the Marines!"  She said I did that.  I don't know what's worse, that I joined their family or that they put up such a feeble fight.  But I love my families...all of them.
• Whipping cream...the whole fat kind.  The kind that actually makes a plopping sound as you pour it in the coffee cup.  When you whip it up, it's love on a spoon.  *sigh...*
•  Bacon.
• (I'll get away from food, now, or the list would start becoming all sentimental and sappy...)  Maggie's funny people pictures that we mustn't laugh at and Angus's kitten traps. And their "true" stories about dinosaur bones that they just found over the hill! (Dinosaurs and cows apparently had very similar structural make-ups. This is a scientific wonder that not many outside the family know about.)
• Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, Cowboying with Earl and For Better or Worse.  Gosh, those are funny comics! I see my world everyday, there. 
• CD's....those magical little discs that scratch the minute you break the seal on the package.  I couldn't cope without them.  Pat Green, my friend, I'm sure you're going to hunt me down and have me arrested, because I've copied Wave On Wave for multiple people, but get this: they're now fans, too, and buy their own.  Please forgive me.   

I have more, but this should fulfill the requirements on the blog challenge.  And the desperate pleas of my friends who want me to list what I'm grateful for.  Bet they don't ask for that next Thanksgiving....

Oh, Boy!

Short, multiple choice quiz for you.  There's only one right answer to each question, and it's not "C".  I put "C" in for the grandmothers, who actually SAY things like that....to my FACE!  Pretty sure the woman who raised me did not hold that same philosophy when I was four.  At any rate, "C" is gratuitous. 

1. All our cats have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  This is caused by the boy doing what?
          A. Setting traps for them, tackling them and closing them in drawers to "save for later".
          B. Dressing them in doll clothes.
          C. Not knowing how he just over-loves them, precious little thing!

2. How many underpants does the boy go through in a day, on the average?
         A. Two...accidents happen.
         B. Five....that we can tell.
         C. Have you ever seen anything cuter than those tiny little Incredible Hulk underpants?

3. If the boy tells you not to go in the bathroom, right after he's been in there...pleads, in fact....you'll subsequently find:
          A. An entire new roll of toilet paper in the bowl that didn't flush for some reason, and water everywhere.
          B. Little piles of cat hair and a razor. (No...no cat.  Just hair.)
          C. Why was that baby left alone in the bathroom?  He could get hurt!

4. Reverse question 3:  If you are in the bathroom and it gets incredibly quiet, you will return to the kitchen to find:
          A. The sorta bald cat, in doll clothes.
          B. The remaining 4 pancakes from breakfast, in little bite-sized pieces, covering the floor, for the cat.
          C. He's SO imaginitive! You need to encourage that kind of thinking!

5. The porch + the boy + dogfood + boots = ?
          A. Tea party for the cats, complete with softened food he's "cooked" for them, in the boots.
          B. Cats, chuffed in the boots, and dogfood being prepared in the deep sink, that is plugged and about to run over...
          C. He's so GOOD with animals.  It must come from my side of the family.

6. It's snowed 6-8 inches.  The boy will wear, outside, after fighting about it...:
         A. Shorts, t-shirt, flipflops and a smile.
         B. Pajamas, snowboots, and a smile.
         C. He's just trying to come see his grandma!  He can wear whatever makes him happy.


There's sure to be a scene of devastation, behind Door Number One, that occurred while I was typing this...

Posted

Yesterday, I dropped Angus off at preschool and raced to my friend Anne's house for a small CUPS gathering.  "Small" being her and I, and her babies.  A sanity break!

On the way back, I saw things on fence posts.  Montana things, that I usually take for granted and drive right by.  Who looks at fence posts, right?  If you're a rancher, you are reminded of the hundreds of miles of them that need fixed or replaced.  If you're a hunter, you look for signs that say you can't hunt there.  If you're a kid, you wonder if it would burn, given enough flame. 

Here are some of the things I found yesterday. 

License plate....I never know which locals are reading the Chronicles.  It turns out there are WAY more than I ever knew!  So if one of you knows whose plate this is, give 'em a call.  Found it on the Brusett road, on the Murnion fence.

 Boots!  Probably a half mile of fenceposts with boots on them.  Isn't that cool?  I'm quite sure The Farmer's father would never let me do that on our fenceposts, but I love it.

 Rain gauge; or Montana Mood Predictor.  This one is probably as old as I am, truth be told.

In Garfield County, even the fenceposts are friendly...

Tumbleweeds....grrrr....temporary residents of the posts.

 Maggie found this one and we had to take a picture! 

I was SO disappointed that the dead fox who has been hanging on a post by the bus stop was gone, yesterday afternoon, and the huge golden eagle who had been working over a roadkill by the Hay Creek road was gone, too.  They would've been the stars of this post!



Next challenge....

....is supposed to be about my life as a writer.

This is a truly terrifying post for me, and thus late. 
In fact, I've been avoiding the whole BLOG for a week, because of it. 

How mature is THAT?

Don't answer that....


Everyone writes, for the most part. 
Grocery lists.
Phone messages.
Notes to self.
In the dirt on someone's car. (You think I didn't know about that? Yeah. I'll deal with YOU later...)
Memos on checks.

And I have friends who write as a vocation....
Susan Kushner Resnick (Goodbye Wifes and Daughters)
Homer Hickam (The Dinosaur Hunter, The Rocket Boys, among many others)
Shannon Popkins (Poppie! I don't have yours right off the top of my head...sorry! Except Tiny Paragraphs; your blog.)
Chris Brauns (Unpacking Forgiveness)(We've never met...e-friends; so, it's real to me...more on that later.)

I think I fall somewhere in the middle.
More toward the list end, actually.

The reason I've been avoiding this post is that I have very kind friends and blog readers who absolutely insist that I'm a writer, and that I need to write a book or (at the very least) a newspaper article.  You all are so very generous!  But you need to know....when I write, I write with my voice as though we were sitting across from one another at the table, and I'm showing you pictures or telling you a story about my day.  I have no plots!  I have no beginnings or endings or turning points! I couldn't craft or recognize a reputable dangling participle to save my life! (I have no idea why they might be important to a story, but my high school English teacher seemed to think they were.)

I struggle with telling you that, because I don't want it to sound all humble and "aw shucks" or anything like that. I simply don't feel that I'm a publish-able sort of writer. (I know.  Publish-able isn't a word.  Except in my world. )

 I read such AMAZING writers, daily; (see the list above) sometimes I read them aloud, even, because they have such power and grace and verve and humor! To be a writer, I believe you must be a voracious, curious reader.  But because I'm a such a reader, I'm intimidated and stop writing. 

I'm going to end this....mercifully....to be done with the challenge for the week and to free myself to write a post about posts.  (Really!)  So in summary, my life as a writer is really better described as a life of a reader who journals.  Fair enough?

Thank you!
Now...
let's move on, shall we?

(Whew....)

Challenged...

I'm challenged in many, many...MANY....areas. 
I needed one more. Really.

Because, you know, you're not really living if you aren't just completely and totally committed to impossible tasks every waking minute of the day.

Quite often, finding matched socks in less than 30 minutes to be able to meet the school bus in shoes can be an impossible task. (I've NEVER met the bus barefoot. The thought crossed my mind in the last frantic seconds of the sock hunt, I can tell you that, but I've never actually done it.)

Or writing, editing, and formatting the Christmas book for the grandparents the night before it needs to be submitted or I'll have to pay $900 extra shipping to have it here before April. (Not $900, but it sure seems that much.)

Things like that.

My friend Kim (I'll try to link this to her blog) is a teacher in Billings and is taking a technology and writing class this fall. She discovered a blog challenge for teachers, but thought perhaps it would work for ANY blogger. Like...me. 

I'm IN.

I'm in over my head. 
I guess that's why they call it a "challenge".

So the post this week is supposed to be about small moments of significance in our lives, and what we learned or experienced in that moment.

My life is nothing BUT small moments, so I had to narrow it down a bit.

This week, I learned that if I don't get the laundry done and my son doesn't have Captain Napalm underpants that he's unwilling to go commando or wear his sister's Tinkerbell panties.  And it will be tragic.

There was a moment that I thought I wouldn't make it to the computer recharger cord before the power was completely sucked down by my last email, and that all the dire, bloodthirsty, earth shattering warnings about what would certainly occur, nearly did.  But I made it. (Doesn't your heart just race when the laptop or Droid does that?)

One of the small, significant moments that stands out is that if my college football team loses, I can barely go on.  But if, the next day, my NFL team wins, it brings on three days of giddy euphoria and gloating that no one can stand to be around.  And vice versa.  They almost never win on the same weekend, which is fortunate, because I don't know if I could take the thrill.

These are all silly moments, and I'm glad I have them, because odd little things that make me laugh are great.  I tend to take myself a little too seriously; little things like this bring me back to basics.

But there are also mornings on the couch with my daughter in my lap, coffee beside me and the day slowly easing in.  I love watching my son's face light up when he's telling a whopper of a story.  My old dog, yelling at me when I'm not trying hard enough on my run...I'm so grateful she's still coming; 11 years, now.  It's gratifying to work alongside my husband and father-in-law and feel like we're accomplishing something bigger than just moving cows; that people will be fed because of what we sweat over, here.  Oh! And moving cows night before last, when the whole world was gold and blue, and the black cows looked like silhouettes floating...that was indescribably beautiful.  Or the sound of my friends' voices, laughing and chattering. 

It's the little things that become the big things.

Be looking for challenge posts once a week.  I have no idea what day I'll get to them, but I'll try to mark 'em so you won't get in the middle of one and think I've completely flipped my lid. 

Doesn't bug ME....

Maggie very rarely shares stories about what they're studying at school. Usually, I have to stab around at subjects until I hit a hot one and then we can chat.  But lately, they've been studying bugs (insects, I was informed).

Bugs are just fascinating to my daughter and she actually checks out books from the library to look at bug pictures.  Some of you know that earlier this year, she started a stink bug collection.  Live stink bugs.  It was an extensive collection.  At the high count, I believe she had 13.  Live. In her room.  (Yes, they were in a bug cage, but STILL....I'd lay there reading her bedtime stories and hear their scritchy legs, climbing up the screen...shudder!)

Tonight, she cheerfully told us all about insects and what she'd learned at school.  She commented that yellow and black bugs were poisonous to eat.  The Farmer and I have each eaten bugs by accident, driving 30 mph on fourwheelers, and didn't have the chance to check to see if they were yellow and black.  (Since we lived...must've been good.)  We told her that SOMETIMES bugs can be accidentally consumed.  They shouldn't be eaten, ordinarily.

We have to tell her this.  Maggie ALSO loves the show, Survivorman, and he eats bugs with regularity. And relishes them.

She told us she didn't eat bugs.
Except fried grasshopper legs.

After a little pause, I jokingly said, "Well, you must not have had many, because I've never fried grasshopper legs!"

Immediately, she reassured me, "I know.  I get them off the pickup."

I'll give you a moment....


Same child, who not 10 minutes before, was making faces at having to gag down waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.

Every day adds another layer to the surreal world we twirl around in...

With permission

I get to share a few pictures of some beautiful country girls that I was privileged to spend the afternoon with a couple weeks ago. You can't tell (hopefully) but it was stinking cold, both girls had colds, and the wind hit us at about 30-35 mph in the middle of this. They were such good sports in spite of those challenges!
There are two grandmothers who look at the Chronicles, occasionally, and this post is especially for Nan and Sally. (Well, there are actually a LOT of grandmas who look at the Chronicles, but Nan and Sally are THE grandmas...and are so proud of these little girls!) I hope you like them.

*All images copyright Mary Pluhar

Hobgoblins

Isn't that the best word?
And so underutilized anymore...

You're just going to have to take my word for it: that's Angus, behind the mask.  And a little Japanese girl who felt very, very elegant in her kimono...

Maggie looked in the costume catalog, thumbed right past all the conventional girls' costumes, and said "I like THAT one, Mom."  I do, too, sweetie!

 Three good friends...Kailah, Maggie and MaKenzie.

Aren't they beautiful?

I think we got everyone, here...oh, except the purple people eater.  Drats.

There are only five students in the school, but when neighbors, friends and little brothers and sisters come, it's quite the group.

I love this!

They were laughing at the target on the rodeo clown...

He's a good sport.

Singing creepy songs!

Oh! Here is our youngest hobgoblin, Hannah...only, maybe, 5 weeks old.

You'll see more of her, later.

Yes, I DID get to smooch her!  And smell her little baby-ness.  Gosh, babies smell good...

Old farts, visiting about the weather, I'm sure.

(I wrote that especially for Gus, who reads the Chronicles, I think.  He's not wearing his TCU cap, but he swore he would next party!  Good...love those Texas teams!)

 We carved pumpkins!

After eating the good food, which I cannot believe I didn't take a picture of.  Very uncharacteristic...

The beauty of a small school...we can take on projects like this.

So nice to have picnic tables outside. 

Jasper, starting our pumpkin...

(Mags supervising)

This was her job....

mucking out the slimy, gloppy, blechy guts of the pumpkin....

Ewwwwww!

It wouldn't shake off!

And Maggie's design...

THIS picture makes me laugh! Do you see the middle pumpkin, with the fangs?  I think it's great that there's still squash guts hanging behind them. 

This big, black hat made me smile, everytime I saw it...

Hanging donut game...this is Angus' moment to shine!

Last year, while we were all downstairs going through the haunted house, he had snuck back up the stairs and put a hurting on the hanging donuts, to the disgust of one of the moms.

This year, he politely waited, but there was none of the "don't use your hands" nonsense; the whole point is to get the donut and rules be darned!

Miss Alli is better at the game, but it takes her longer to get her donut!

Playing downstairs in the school...

Check out the rug! And the 1000's of LEGOs!

Good times...

Oh, Miss Gracie, I could just kiss those cheeks for days!

I believe her proud grandparents could, too.

Baby Hannah, again, and her pretty mama, Suzie, who I was SO happy to see! 

Party's over!

Pumpkin Soup!

It's true.  I wrestled the recipe away from Anne...had to BRIBE her with caramel rolls and Kafe Utza coffee, but I got it. 

You're welcome.

I know!  Pumpkin soup does not sound like it would be good.  Or even remotely edible, really.  But it's amazing!  I challenge you to try it, then let me know what you thought.

Here you go:

1. In a slow cooker, combine 6 cups peeled pumpkin (cubed 2 inch), 3 leeks finely chopped (white part only, onions can be subbed, carefully), 4 cups chicken stock, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper (who measures THAT?  A good goudge.  That's what I'd say.).  Cover and cook on Low for 8-10 hours, or on High for 4-6 hours, until pumpkin is tender.

2. Strain the vegetables, reserving the stock.  In a blender or food processor, puree vegetables with 1 cup  stock until smooth.

3. If serving hot, return soup to slow cooker and add: zest and juice of 1 lime, pinch of cayenne pepper (I swear the recipe says "pinch"!  Use your good judgement here.), 1 cup whipping cream and cook on High for 20 minutes until well heated. 

4. When ready to serve, garnish with chopped fresh cilantro. (Anne says the dried will work, but she brought fresh to bookclub, and I can vouch for that...mmmmm!)

This can also be served cold, but I can't imagine why anyone would. 
If you can, try to get homemade rolls from Thelma G. to serve with this. Soft, yeasty white rolls with brown tops, buttered. 

Did you swoon?
I did. 

This recipe theoretically serves 6-8 persons.
Or a fair sized bookclub gathering.

Enjoy!

It's fall!

The Barnacles...in a rare moment of camaraderie.

 We seldom eat at the picnic table.  It's mostly a fort, step-up to the deck, or place to dye Easter eggs.

 Tomatoes and calendula!

Aren't these the Crayola colors of autumn?

Angus helped pick all those tomatoes.  Even though he looks at them as weapons and not food, he was pretty good and when we got done, he was so proud!

He's very discriminating, however.  If a tomato had a tiny speck of dirt, he'd proclaim it "ucky" and set it to the side.  We had to negotiate a couple.

 I've tried in vain for 9 years to grow nasturtiums.  The little envelope says, "Thrive on neglect! Good for children and beginning gardeners!"  Bah, humbug...

Every year, they'd put up about 4 little leaves, look around and die.  Or wait for some sort of pest to chew them to the ground. And die.

This year, I put them in the vegetable boxes, told them I didn't care a whit whether they lived or died, and walked away.

 (Of course, I also walked away from the carrots and spinach, too and I DO care about them.)

They bloomed!

Now that THAT garden conquest has been made, I'm going on to bigger things...

like gladiolas.

Will the garden drama ever end?

Cosmos....another plant that should be easy and thrive, but that never seem to reach maturity before the hard frost hits.

This year....voila!

Also neglected for months...

Marigolds.

People either love 'em or hate 'em.  There's no ambivilance with marigolds.

I love 'em.

They are the gaudy grandma of the garden...the one who wears a muumuu to a wedding and doesn't care at all what people say.  They're dependable, sturdy and have a distinctive scent that's not entirely unpleasant....and they're bright. 

They'd be at BINGO night in their dayglo orange visors.

These babies self-seeded in one of my raised beds, with gusto, and I'm so glad they did!

Makes me smile...