Still no internet.....

We still do not have internet, I had hopes that maybe by today we would have been able to have it hooked up, but to no avail. I called the installation man and of course his response was "I was going to call you today" (yeah right) So anyway he is supposed to come tomorrow around 4pm. We'll see. I'm not really holding my breath.

John's work has been slow this week and last week as well. It seems that sawdust is lighter in the spring/summer time (which only makes sense, I guess) because it is drier and holding less moisture. So that means that you can get more weight on one truck and in turn you are losing a whole truck load of dust out of many of the plants each day. Not to mention that the drivers are able to run more efficiently as they do not have the winter driving conditions to contend with. So hopefully things will pick up soon.

Not too much going on here....luckily with people being on vacation, I am in the middle of working a 13 day stretch with only 1 day off, that overtime will make up for the slow time at John's work. Next Saturday will be the first farmer's market(that I will be participating in)....still not too sure what I will be selling...guess I'll just have to wing it....who knows!!

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day from Montana! We don't really have too much planned for today....cleaning and unpacking. For some strange reason, I can't seem to get myself too excited about unpacking. So not too much has gotten done. Every time I start...it seems as though I am at a loss as to where I should put things and then get frustrated and then give up! Any way....we were supposed to have internet by yesterday, but that did not happen (so I am posting from work again). I was expecting the installer to come, hang the dish and then that would be it...wrong! John has to get a pipe.....it HAS to be a specific diameter and then dig a hole and cement it into the ground. So I would suspect that the soonest that we will be able to get the pipe will be on Tuesday and I don't expect to have internet until next weekend at the very soonest! With no TV and now now internet, I guess that will force me to do the unpacking that needs to be done or to get A LOT of soap made!!

Drivers License/Warm weather/No internet

We are finally done with the apartment!! YEAH! The carpet cleaner came on Friday and we were SUPPOSED to do the final walk-thru yesterday, BUT 1/2 hour before the appointment they called to cancel(while I was sitting in the car waiting for them to show up). Meanwhile, I made the trip into town especially for that purpose! Anyway, I guess Wedsnesday we will be officially done with it.

We also went yesterday to do a change of address on our drivers license. When we walked in, the lady informed us that there were two ways we could do that. One was free...so us being in frugal mode, opted for that. No kidding.....they tape a piece of paper on the back of your license with your new address written (in pen) on it! She did enter it into the computer, but still!!

With the very warm weather this past weekend(we had 90 on Sunday), they are calling for flooding due to all the spring melt/runoff. There is a boat launch/ small park not too far from our house......so I guess the entertainment is lacking here in Montana, because when we drove by there were a ton of people sitting there with lawn chairs, watching the flood waters go by!

One final note, we will be without internet starting on Wednesday until Saturday. We have been giving the Verizon wireless internet card a trial run (they give you 30 day before you are locked into the contract). Well, we have come to find that it is just not very reliable for us. Sometimes you can get connected, but then you can't do anything on any site on the internet, then sometimes it is soooooo sloooow....almost worse than dial up. So we are breaking down and spending the $$$ for the equipment we need to get WildBlue. It is satellite. From what I have heard, it is not as fast as DSL, but at least it will be more reliable. Anyway, they are coming Saturday morning to install that.

Oh, almost forgot, John did work on the main site over the weekend, (he still has more stuff he wants to do, but) there are new pictures of our house/property up. Mostly of the outside, but thought you might want to give them a look. Well, that's all for now....got more unpacking to do.

You have been summoned.....

To jury duty!! In Brookville, PA?!?! I just walked down and got our mail for today and it seems like it must run in the family.....mom had jury duty on Monday. So I guess it's my turn! The strange part is that we were both juror #42! I think I might have a good excuse for getting out of this one though.

On another note, thankfully we finally sold the Subaru today. Some guy drove like 450 miles from Billings, MT and bought it this morning! Not quite sure why....but as long as he was paying, I wasn't going to question him too much! We still have it sitting here in the driveway....he is paying ($300) to have it towed back to Billings. With all the repairs that it needs....I don't really think that it is worth it.....but like I said....he was paying!

Landline.....

We have decided to get a landline afterall...due in part that John tried to call me the other night like 7 times on my cell phone and for some reason none of his calls went thru nor did his multiple text messages. Needless to say he was a little bit upset that he could not reach me...he thought something might have happened! So tomorrow morning our phone line should be connected our so be sure to check our main page for that information.....that is John's baby so it will probably be added until this weekend.

**IMPORTANT UPDATE**

Please recheck our new contact information...due to a typo the original information provided on our contact page is wrong....it is now correct on the main website. It should be 232 Kootenai Creek Rd NOT 323 Kootenai Creek Rd. Sorry for any inconvience.

Our Backyard Friends.

We have been walking our property the last few days. As you probably know, we are living on 10 acres. The lot is long and skinny. The closest neighbors we have are to the left of us (if you are looking at the front of our house). The house sits toward the front of the 10 acres. So the most of the land is our back yard. Well we have made some new friends on our walks. They live on the property that borders the back end of our 10 acres.

Squirrel Shed

I finally got around to taking pictures of the squirrel shed that I had told you about previously. I was getting a little worried because I had not seen any since we had moved in on Saturday, but yesterday lo and behold....I did catch a glimpse of one as Daisy chased it under or into the shed. And today when I opened the door I heard one scurry behind the cabinets. Here are pics of his stash from the winter. The other (brown cabinet) was just as filled as the white one, but we tipped it to empty it out. The picture with Daisy in the corner....you can see why it is so easy for them to get inside....see the huge gaping space on the edge of the roof! Here is a pic of pinecones that didn't exactly fit through the space....I guess he finally gave up and just munced on them as they stood!

Mystery Plants....

Ok gardeners out there....as you may or may not know, instead of getting our gazillion boxes unpacked, we have been working on the outside of the house. We have a river stone raised planter that runs the entire front of our house. It looks as though it has not been worked in quite a while. So while working, we encountered two inhabitants that have sprouted....obviously from days gone by. Well, we have no idea what they might be. The first is obviously some sort of bulb type of flowering plant....that we both can agree on. John said that he thinks they look like something my grandma had planted on the back of her garage.....the only thing I can think of is gladiolas....but I don't think they look quite right...Any ideas??

The next plant, we can't agree whether it is a weed or not. I say it has got to go, but John being the true gardener has other ideas. So for right now it is intermingled with our plants.

Also while we were finishing up with the planting this morning, we thought we needed some more plants, so we ran down the road to the grocery store...they have a small greenhouse set up in their parking lot. While we were there, we of course came home with more than we had planned to....we got two tomato plants (only two b/c we're not 100% sure that they will do too well as our property is mostly shaded). And we also walked away with some onions. We'll just have to wait and see.....I'm not holding my breath, though! Gary (my co-worker) seems to think that we are not going to have anything left....he says the deer are going to come and have themselves a feast!!

Moving In....

Well, we got most of our stuff into the UHaul and did it in one trip. We started loading at about 10:30 on Saturday morning and then I pooped out at about 4pm (I had worked Friday night) and then went to bed.....John joined me for the nap and we both got up at about 10pm. I was going to take a sick day Saturday night if we did not have any kids....but for the first time in their history....we had three kids....ALL GIRLS!!! Anyway....John stayed up and finished packing. He got done at about 3:30am and the original plan was that I would get off work at 7am and we would head up together.....well he could not wait. So Daisy and John headed up to Stevensville and started unloading at 4am! We were completely unloaded by about 11am. Not too bad. Now the hard part at the apartment....all the little stuff...the kind of stuff you just all jumble into the same box, all the odds and ends.



Daisy has claimed her spot in the house. She has chosen our bedroom closed to be her bed. In the picture here, you can at least see her face. It is really funny when all you can see sticking out is her back end!



We have updated the main site with our new contact information and we have also posted some pictures of the empty house. Will post some of the outside(maybe this weekend) and also some once we get everything situated.

Being the crazy people we are...this morning in the cold rain we were out planting flowers instead of unpacking inside. No joke it was warmer outside than it was inside!! John even mentioned maybe getting a small load of wood to build a fire in the morning to take off the chill! So you know it is cold!!

Well gotta run. I have to get John's lunch together and I have to be to work today at 3.

Happy May Day.

Well, I was expecting to have the entire month to pack....John said that he thought it would be a good idea if we got the U Haul THIS weekend instead of over Memorial Day. He told me this on Tuesday.....I had nothing packed. I have gotten some things packed, but not much. One good thing was that we knew in mid/end of February that we were going to need to move.....so some/most of the stuff never got unpacked from the original move out here. I reserved a 17' UHaul for Sat-Mon. They called today and told me that they would not be able to get me that size truck. So needless to say I was a little miffed.....but then she went on to tell me that they would be giving us a 26' truck for the same price(why couldn't that happen when we moved out here in January?) Maybe some of my windows would have made it! John requested Monday off and I may take Saturday off if we don't have any kids.

What exactly is that you ask? Yes it is a purple moose. Well, it is soap. Lavender goats milk to be exact. I was trying to come up with a name for the soaps. I kinda liked "Simply Soap" ...but I don't have just soap....and it isn't exactly simple. So we thought and thought and thought. I wanted something with more of a "regional" feel to it. So......The Muddy Moose Bath Boutique was born! I came across this adorable soap mold on ebay and just had to have it. I thought it went perfectly! Unfortunately I have only one. So the first Farmer's Market of the year is this Saturday...but due to the move I am going to miss it.....actually I plan to sit the next one out as well. Moving is more important....for John and Daisy's sake! Well I better get back to packing.