Out on a Limb Part Deux: September 2020

Since my last post, lots has happened--actually happened. I harvested the peaches off our tree. I got 7 bags to put in the freezer and each bag will make a pie or a cobbler. In addition, one bag of blended peaches for smoothies, two peach pies, and lots of yummy ones to eat.

I finished the last dress for Amber's niece and Marcus came and got the last of the baseboards painted. Now our flooring project is officially done and the grandfather clock is back home. I love the new look.

Additional sewing projects included pillowcases. I made one for Taylee for after her surgery and three for Kara's grandkids who all were baptized at the same time. Left to right: Lincoln, Rowan, and Jack.

Next came the BIG WIND. It started on Labor Day and lasted all night and into the next day. Trees fell everywhere and often onto houses or across power lines. There were power outages across the county for two plus days. We lost shingles off our house and our poplar trees dumped two pickup loads of twigs and branches on our neighbor's lawn that we cleaned up. School was cancelled for two days because of power outages. The road to Sandra's house where we dumped the loads of branches was blocked in three separate places by fallen trees. The cemetery had at least five huge pine trees fall. The top half of Sandra's big pine tree broke off and her ward members came and took down the rest of the tree. Clean up is still in progress everywhere.

The wind took the roof off of dad's lean to and collapsed one end.

Above is Sandra's neighbor to the east--he lost two trees out front and his roof is missing ALL its shingles and down to the plywood.

This house is near where we use to live on Hahn Road.

Sandra's pine tree broken in half.

Above is the tree that took out Sandra's power.

The day we cleaned up from the BIG WIND we also left on our golfing road trip to Montana. We drove first to Big Sky and golfed on the resort. They had snow the day before and that morning, so it was a little chilly. Beautiful scenery though. This church was near one of the greens:

The next day we drove to Flathead Lake. It is a beautiful lake and we walked out on a pier where we saw this osprey that kept an eye on us. We tried to see Kerr Dam, but it was closed because of COVID. We stayed at Ninepipes Lodge which we really liked (except Quinn complained because they didn't have the golf channel)--it had a little museum and gift shop next to it and a short walking trail to look at the small lake. I saw an otter swimming in the lake. The course we golfed was called Polson Bay and the views of the lake were gorgeous. After a stop to get a huckleberrry shake at Ninepipes, we were off to Helena.

I chose not to golf early the next morning at Bill Roberts Golf Course. Instead, I went to see the Helena Capitol Building. It was pretty well abandoned, so I got to walk around and take a lot of pictures. Once I had picked up the two golfers, Sandra and I went to see St. Helena Cathedral. We were lucky enough to run into a parishioner headed to noon mass who worked there as a tour guide, so he gave us some history and answered questions. We stuck around to hear the bell towers ring at noon. Our friendly guide told us the largest bell in the tower weighed 3,500 lbs. and 600 lbs. for the smallest. He also told us it was built with a 30 foot pulpit inside that one presiding priest decided to remove and replace with a much smaller one (he disagreed with that decision). After we explored the cathedral, we drove to Butte and ate at Dickeys then headed home.

Statue out front. There was construction on the front lawn so I couldn't get close.

Looking straight up into the rotunda.

Below are the pictures from St. Helena's Cathedral.

Arrived home and Chad and Peachy were already there. Chad came to drive potato truck for Matt in the harvest. We took Peachy to the gun range on Saturday where she fired a gun for the first time. She did pretty well for being a newbie. Almost got a bullseye. We all liked shooting the .22 AR 15. Quinn and I both shot the .38 pistol and I hit 6 out of 6 hitting the bullseye twice and Quinn got 0 out of 6. It made him so mad that is when he got out the AR 15 and went to the long distance range. We had everyone over for dinner Sunday before Peachy had to catch the shuttle home.

I also drove a load of kids to Sarah Jackson's gym to play for the twins birthday party. I think we had 20 children running wild and they had a blast. I then went to Audrey's house to chaperone a bunch of 12 year old girls for "movie night" while A&B did a night golf tournament. They were great girls and I don't think they ever actually watched a whole movie. The apples are ready and falling off the trees (with help from the BIG WIND), so I've made two batches of applesauce and dehydrated two batches so far. We have eaten a ton of them. I substituted for two days at Riverside Elementary this last week--first time this year. Yesterday after Quinn and Sandra finished their golf round, we drove to the cabin. I wanted to come because I saw pictures on the internet of the fall colors at Palisades. It was a beautiful drive, and when we got to the cabin and I opened the dining room shade, the owl was back on the beam. He didn't stay as long this time as last time. We have seen 11 deer, two rainbows, and lots of golfers go by.