A Moment of Reflection....

Haven’t posted in months.  

Why?  I don’t think I’ve had anything new or interesting to say.

My life seems pretty normal- at least to me.  I live way up high in the mountains of Montana, in a valley called the Cinnabar basin, and watch elk and now horses out my back window. 

I have frequent discussions with my house regarding what is the acceptable level of cleanliness that does not cause me distress.  

I’ve realized I talk to myself waay too much (conversations with the house not included), and trying to keep silent when alone is a challenge. (Thank goodness for our dogs; at least they offer a legitimate reason for vocalizing!).   

We had snow in June, and 2 weeks later temps in the 90’s.  

My big daily fashion decision is which pair of jeans and T-shirt I should wear.

 

Not exactly normal for most folks, I agree.  

Friends and family call and ask me what is new; my response is usually “Not much.”  I’m mostly content living my day-to-day, watching the many moods of the mountains.

Once upon a time, I was determined to make Big changes in the/my world.  Whatever I was going to do, I felt compelled to do it in a big way.  I had to be the best damn student/daughter/wife/designer/ creative director/mother/writer/ realtor in the land.   

Obviously, these were not realistic goals.  While pretty good at a number of them, there were just not enough hours in my day to Change the World. 

I’ve made my peace that the world will do just fine, thank-you-very-much, with my input or without it.  Looking back, I keep thinking ‘whew! how exhausting.’  All that energy put into attempted extra-achieving. 

Perhaps if I’d let my Inner bitch come out and play more often, I woulda had more energy at the end of the day.  You have to admit there is something freeing about flipping forward your first thoughts and actions without worrying how others will feel.  Getting older does give me a more relaxed perspective…

May your days of reflection bring a calmness to your soul…. And if that doesn’t work, bring out that Inner bitch!

Braggin' Rights #2

Ok, in an earlier post I let loose on how wonderful our talented daughters are, and how I was so proud of them.

This time the kudos and hurrahs have to go to gentle husband Dan and his woodworking talent.

Dan has long dreamed of (and completed) various wood projects, and he's in his element now on the Ranch with many practical things to build (cabinet doors, wood storage shelves, etc. etc.)  He has the time to create and build, and he's putting his many woodworking tools gathered over the years to good use.

Kudos to him for arriving at a point in Life where there is more 'doing' and less 'dreaming'!  

Before Montana, Dan was traveling so much with work that he had little time to create.

From our past lifetimes, here's our solid cherry bed headboard that Dan built and we moved with to Montana:

Here's the deck he single-handedly built on our home in Ohio:

You get the feel.... good man, good building skills.  And now the time to let his creative juices flow!

While hiking around on the hills, fields, and mountains on the Ranch, Dan came across a derelict antique wood stove left behind many years ago. 

(This is actually a pretty common phenomenon in Montana- the hills are valleys are littered with carcases of old trucks, cars, tractors, farm implements, homesteads, and so on.  Since it's high, dry country, the remains don't fall apart easily.)  Dan salvaged the oven door and a couple of the hot plates on top and developed an idea.

The one bedroom guest house on the Ranch needed a new bed nightstand.  It's a log cabin with western decor, and Dan decided to create a wooden ranch stove look-alike as a nightstand.

He used reclaimed wood from the Ranch, did some building, carving, and construction (along with Don, Dan's co-worker), and this is the end result:

The coffee pot has now been converted to a lamp!  Here are more detailed photos:

What a neat, original idea!   I love that man....... :)

"Just What Do You DO All Day?"

Napkins.

Today I did napkins.

People are curious and have asked what I'm doing as part of a 'caretaker couple'.  In simple terms: housework.  But it's housework on a large scale.

Today I cleaned out a large fireplace and detail cleaned a bathroom.  Then I took the entire store of napkins (I'm guessing about 400+) and spot treated, laundered, ironed, folded, and reorganized by color.

Other days I've changed sheets on 6 or more beds, cleaned bathrooms, swept and washed floors, and laundered bedding, towels and linens.  The ranch has a very large main lodge, 3 guest houses, a pool house, an exercise loft in the barn, and a saloon.  All are decorated in rustic western art and decor, and there are many, many edges and surfaces to dust and keep clean.

The summer season will be my busy time.  When there are family members and guests in residence, there will be much laundry, daily sprucing and cleaning, and I'll be involved in dinner prep, serving and cleanup.  During the winter will be annual cleaning projects and maintenance chores.

Dan is the gardener and chief fixer-upper.  His work is much more physical; creating new gardens, cutting down trees and bushes, digging out stumps, transplanting, planting new plants, weeding, mowing, etc.  Winter work will be plowing snow and repairing wobbly chairs, tables, etc.

There is variety and a never-end to things that need to be done.  We get to do this in a place that has stunning mountains and trees, horses grazng in the pasture, and wildlife.  Today I saw about 35 elk on the mountain across the valley, and 7 elk about 100 yards away.  A week ago I saw a yearling black bear 100 yards away (fortunately) going the opposite direction. We can hear elk bugling and coyote howling in the night. Our drive to 'work' takes about 1 minute and Dan and I come back home each day for lunch.

I'm happy.  :)