Montana ~Alaska Trip Days 3 & 4

Wednesday morning we stopped for a short visit at the Brubaker residences in Laurel, Montana. Anthony gave us a tour of their herb greenhouses and his own cute house on skids. We were sorry to miss his parents who were traveling on business, but it was nice to meet his wife, Miranda, & sweet baby Ally, and see Kimra again.

The rest of the day was a long drive across Montana. The fields changed into mountains as we neared Missoula and turned north toward our overnight destination in St. Ignatius.

We were blessed with a short visit at Johnny and Heidi's Thursday morning. Riley spent the rest of the day there with their teenage boys, working a little, then swimming at the dam.

My girls also swam, in cousin Joanna's backyard pool, after they picked a bucket of apricots from Aunt Shirley's loaded fruit tree. It was a sunny, hot, dry 95 degree day. We washed several loads of laundry and stashed a sack of apricots in our rig for munching on down the road.

We had sweet fellowship with our western family, around the table, under the backyard shade tree, and on the front porch after sunset.

Bowmans Back on the Road ~ Alaska Trip Days 1 & 2

After a long wait on FAHRAH's RV alignment in Great Bend, we finally got on the road, making some time, driving west. We overnighted at a rest area between Colby, KS and the Colorado state line. These two early risers are waiting on everyone else to gather at the picnic table for a quick breakfast.

We had a long day passing through the vastness of wide open places. This is some of the scenery near Chugwater, WY.

We pulled over for salad supper at a "parking area", which was right next to a tall animal fence. FAHRAH distributed their multiple binoculars so we could view the grazing pronghorn antelope family Shannon spotted.

God displayed a beautiful sunset to our meandering caravan's view.

Gardening in July

The annuals are starting to pop out bright colors.

Zinnias, sunflowers, and marigolds.

Calendula came up again this year in several spots. I pulled some young plants that I thought were weeds before I realized what it was. I need to read again how to harvest the flowers for medicinal purposes.

A hybrid squash. I thought I'd planted spaghetti squash, but this one looks a bit different than normal.

Cucumber plants climbing up the tepee.

The corn patch. 

We ate like kings for over a week, every day feasting on sweet, buttery goodness. Until Cora lost her very first front tooth, then it became not so queenly for her to munch on an ear as she rather gnawed at it on the side of her mouth.

***garden goodness***

A Four Year Old Birthday

Meg picked out a Hollie Hobby cake form from the library.

Her sisters set and decorated the table for her birthday lunch.

What a stash of presents from grandparents and family!.

County Fair Projects

For her 2nd year in 4H, Caroline displayed a table setting. The fair theme was Faradise, so she went with a Hawaiian meal. It was her first time to try this and she is already planning next year's place setting!

She also submitted arts & crafts and drawing, sketching, paintings to be judged. She received champion in her age class for her acrylic owl painting!

Caroline's last project was market goat. She made a pet out of Frappy, leading and petting her.

Riley also had market goats; 

two to feed, water, move to new pasture, trim hooves, clip hair, and train to lead. 

His second project was photography. Unfortunately his many phone pictures had been filtered, so without the enhancements and with them blown up to 8x10 size, they turned out a little grainy. He still received a top blue on one picture!

Miss Annie baked amazing goodies to be judged, but I failed to snap any photos of her end product. She entered 3 kinds of cookies, cinnamon toast muffins, chocolate bread, chicken Alfredo, and an anniversary gift basket. Her chocolate rolls received a top blue and were second to the overall yeast bread champion who sold her mocha cinnamon rolls for $800 at the food auction!

Annie also planted flower seeds inside and in our garden to take to the fair. She made a couple of arrangements as well. She received blue ribbons on the large zinnia, sunflower, Indian wildflower, and her fresh flower bouquet.

Her pictures taken in Colorado, South Carolina, and at home turned out well too!

The three littles pedaled hard in the tractor pull, a first time for them all.