What we did this weekend....SPENT MONEY!!

Ok, so it's no secret that I hate John's Subaru. I hate to drive it, it's ugly and it smells bad! We have not had the best of luck with it either. On it's last trip to the garage we found out that it would take over $1000 to fix it....then hold our breath for the next thing to go wrong, but with 297,000 miles, what can you expect? So we decided to upgrade instead of putting the money into fixing it. So we went car shopping after I got off of work on Saturday. We spent all day in Missoula test driving car after car after car. And this is what we came home with this:










This will be my car, since it is not exactly the best on gas. It is a 1997 chevy blazer. Dark green. It has 4 wheel drive for our winters. We LOVED our Jimmy we had, so we decided to get this blazer. We test drove a Durango, but for right now it was a little more than we wanted to spend. We had our mechanic check it out today and he told us that there was nothing major wrong with it (nothing that had to be fixed right now) just within the next year it is going to need brakes and a few other things. We did know walking away from the dealers that some of the belts were bad and the AC needed recharged (but who needs that when they live in Montana, anyway! Ha ,Ha). So he fixed those two things. Right now we are not sure exactly what we are going to do with the Subaru. We have it on craigslist...but not too sure anyone will want it with all those things that need to be done. I told John that I would drive it back and forth to work until we are moved into the new house, but since I work graves, I don't want to get stranded in the dark, especially since we really don't know anyone here! Well, that's all that's new here. We expect to start moving this weekend. We talked to Sue(landlord) and she said that the carpet cleaning is scheduled for tomorrow. Can't wait!!

What do Montana and Pennsylvania have in common?

Hi, posting from work again...no kids!! We did have 2 for about a day, but now they're gone. In our local paper yesterday there was a over a 100 page booklet called "Rediscover Montana". It is a summer guide telling you what's going on around the state. Anyway, I came across an article...there is a natural wonder that occurs in only two places in the United States. One is between Butte and Whitehall (that's east of here) on Bureau of Land Mangement property and the other place is in a park in eastern Pennsylvania. Any guesses? Jim?

Ringing Rocks Park located in Upper Black Eddy(Bucks county) and this BLM property are the only two places in the United States where you can find this geologic wonder. If you bang on the rocks...they ring!! According to the article these rocks were formed when molten rock cooled and they have a high iron component. These rocks are about the size of small cars and are strewn around in mounds and piles. What is even more remarkable is that when these rocks are removed from the area, they don't chime!

Just a little fun fact I thought I would share with you all.

Bored at work...

Right now I am posting(and the last post as well) from work! We have no kids and have had none for almost an entire week. Which is really weird seeing as how we had 8 about two weeks ago(we hold a max of 6-we had them sleeping on the floors! on mats of course). Most of them came in overnight Saturday, so it was just a temporary situtaion until they could be transported to another facility. So everything is beyond clean and there is nothing to do but sit and stare at the four walls. You can watch TV, but my partner is playing his XBox right now. So I have nothing else better to do than play around on the computer. Tough job, huh? So I thought I would do some posting. Dave-I bet you never have to worry about never having any kids in your facility.

We have now nicknamed Daisy our "Howling Houdini". Back in the beginning when she first started having to bring her to work and leave her in the car, it was warm out one day so I left the windows cracked. I thought that they were up far enough that she could not escape....but I was wrong. I was inside and saw her outside the door on our camera...so I had to go and put her back in the van. To remedy that we thought we would use one of those red wire leads and a harness to keep her in the back seat and still be able to keep the windows down when it was hot. She managed to escape from her harness. So we purchased a collapsable soft sided crate (which I guess was dumb on our part). But needless to say we no longer have a soft sided pet crate. It has collapsed...never to be assembled again! So we thought we would fix her this time, we found a regular plastic pet crate at a garage sale.....so we bought it. She has now managed to escape from there. I have no idea how she is doing it this time. I think we might need to double check to the door to make sure it is latching tightly/properly. May cannot come fast enough....she can stay at her new home and howl all she wants! Well that's about all for now....

Mexican Shepard's Pie

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 onion, finely chopped
garlic powder to taste
salt and pepper to taste
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
3/4 cup hot water
1 (11 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8.5 ounce) package corn muffin mix
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)
1 (2.25 ounce) can sliced black olives (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
Place the beef and onion in a skillet over medium heat. Cook until beef is evenly brown and onion is tender. Drain grease. Season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Mix in the tomatoes, and cook 5 minutes. Stir in the taco seasoning and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and continue cooking 5 minutes, until thickened. Transfer to the prepared baking dish, and top evenly with corn.
Prepare the corn muffin mix according to package directions. Spread evenly over the corn layer in the baking dish.
Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until puffed and golden. Garnish with olives and cheese.

Review: This recipe was so good that we made it two weekends in a row! The only changes we made...OMIT OLIVES! We added a can of black beans to the ground beef once it was almost done browning, to allow them (the beans) to become a little more tender and then I would definaltely recommend using two cornbread mixes. Oh, and we put the cheddar cheese on top of the meat before we topped it with corn and the cornbread. Try it...you'll like it!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow.....

It started snowing last evening around 7:30-8:00 and it snow really heavy until about 2am (I know this because I was working...well if you can call it that since we don't have any kids at the moment). So by this morning we had about 4 inches of snow and all the roads were really icy. A lot of the snow had melted by around noon, not all, but most. And right now I came upstairs to discover it snowing again! It is really heavy, not sure how much to expect this time.

Today is our cooking day. Since we both (especially John) have odd schedules we spend our Sunday cooking a couple of meals that will last us through the week. I have tried a lot of new recipes. Last weekend we made chicken tetrazzini and a mexican shepard's pie.....this was so good we made it again this weekend and doubled it! I will share the recipes soon. This weekend we are having a chicken florentine casserole. This has spinach and bacon with a cream sauce. We also made a beef noodle casserole. I was really reluctant to make this one because the combination of cream style corn with tomato soup and tomato sauce did not sound too appetizing to me, but John insisted. I am really glad he did, because surprisingly it tastes really good.

Well, I better run and help John clean up our messes from cooking all afternoon.

Spring in Montana....well sort of!

We have been busy getting things organized for our move. We haven't actually started packing yet, but we are getting anxious and I am sure Daisy will enjoy not having to stay in the car while I am at work. I/we decided that it would be a good idea to do our local Farmer's Market...so I/we have been getting ready for that as well. We have been making goats milk soap(from lye). I tracked down a local dairy goat lady to get the milk from. I have also been making solid lotion bar as well as bath bombs. I originally thought I/we would sell breads and other baked goods, with that (soaps etc) on the side, but now I'm not too sure.

Welcome to spring in the Bitterroot! Last Sunday and Monday, we had beautiful weather. It was even in the HIGH 70s. But I just saw on weather.com that there is a winter storm warning:

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MISSOULA HAS ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 9 PM SATURDAY TO 12 PM MDT SUNDAY.
NORTHERLY WINDS OF 15 TO 25 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS WILL COMBINE WITH HEAVY SNOW TO SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE VISIBILITIES DURING THE EVENING HOURS. AS TEMPERATURES FALL BELOW FREEZING DURING THE LATE NIGHT HOURS...2 TO 6 INCHES OF SNOWFALL ALONG WITH BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW ARE EXPECTED. THE HEAVIEST SNOWFALL AMOUNTS WILL FALL ACROSS THE BITTERROOT VALLEY SOUTH OF STEVENSVILLE WHERE 4 TO 6 INCHES ARE EXPECTED. THE MISSOULA AREA CAN EXPECT 2 TO 4 INCHES.

YES.....we will be getting the heaviest amounts of snow...up to 6 inches! Gotta love Montana!

Be sure to check out our new pictures on the main sight.....John posted pictures of how they dump his truck once he is full of shavings or dust...it is really quite something to see.