Fairy Slipper Hike

Wednesday, the Hallelujah Hikers returned to Sweathouse Creek Falls. We saw more Fairy Slippers on this one hike than we have in all of our other hikes put together.

Sweathouse Creek was full with the Spring run-off of melting snow from the mountain tops.

We hiked between rocky cliffs on either side of the trail...sometimes walking in "the burn" from almost 2 years ago which now yields an abundance of mushrooms... sometimes ambling through lush meadows of Arnica, Lupine & Indian Paintbrush just starting to bloom.

The vegetation was mixed at the Falls itself... some sepia tones from the burn & some normal forest coloration. We admired the scenery & ate our packed lunches on a rocky ledge at the top of the falls.

This view of the canyon at the foot of snow-covered peaks was shot from Sweathouse Creek Road as we drove to the trailhead. It captured the serene feeling of this hike. As soon as we returned home, the sky clouded up & it began to rain. Thank you, Lord!

Hissy Fits

Misha, Esther's boyfriend for the past year, gave her a 6-week-old tiger kitten for her 20th birthday. They named her "Shadik", (BellaRussian for "Marble"). Esther's 11-12 year old cat, Rachel, has not welcomed the kitty into her territory. She usually sits in some high position above Shadik & alternates between growling & hissing whenever Shadik ventures too close. We have allowed some of this interchange, hoping it would change. After awhile, though, we usually separate the two. Rachel gets to roam the upstairs & Shadik is confined to the basement.

At times, when Esther has pushed the limits to "get her own way", I realize I am capable of hissy fits. I am ashamed to admit it. Yet, it's true. When I realize what is happening, sometimes I separate myself for awhile so we can both cool down & develop some perspective. This past week, I spontaneously decided to drive to the Missoula theater showing "Narnia II" to escape such an episode. I enjoyed the movie & did cool down. Because Hollywood never quite comes up to my imagination, I always leave movies, based on books I have enjoyed, a little disappointed. "Narnia II" is still worth seeing, since Aslan/the Messiah is uplifted. Now, if I can only learn to uplift my Messiah through my responses to my daughter's occasional badgering.

2008 Spring Hikes

The Hallelujah Hikers have taken 5 Spring hikes so far... Our mountains received 150% of the normal snowpack this past winter, so we have had to cross snow drifts across the trail on most of our hikes. The snowmelt at times creates rivulets of our trail but has brought out an abundance of wildflowers.

Bright Arnica was everywhere on our last hike up Canyon Creek.

Glacier lilies have been on at least 3 of the hikes.

This vista is from the summit of Mount Jumbo, looking over East Missoula & beyond. We followed an old fenceline up a ravine the last twenty minutes to the summit. Mount Jumbo is now owned by Missoula & placed in conservancy.

Shooting Stars are some of the earliest wildflowers to bloom in our area. They were around on most of the hikes. Below was a view looking from the Grant Creek area towards the Rattlesnake area north of Missoula. Our hikes continue to turn into praise & prayer sessions! We have so much for which to thank our Creator!

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Happy Mother's Day!

"Happy Mother's Day, Mom!" Esther greeted me bright & early this morning. Now though, she has gone to dinner with her boyfriend's parents for the first time. Today, Misha will formally introduce her to his Russian parents. The Russian community here in Missoula is somewhat closed to "outsiders", so this introduction & dinner invitation is a "BIG THING!" It means essentially that Misha is serious about their relationship.

My Mother's Day gift is being able to communicate on-line again. Our 3 year-old computer died just after Passover...so we were without on-line capabilities for awhile. Louis thankfully located a new computer through DirecTV channels for less than repairing the power source & mother-board on the one we had. We have just gotten our new computer unpacked & working. We haven't located all our old files yet, although the "Computer Guys" supposedly were able to transfer most of them from our old computer.

Happy Pesach! All Eyes on the MidEast

Busy, busy...

We've been busy. Yesterday, Awanas & the Women's Neighborhood Bible Study finished for this school year. Passover Seder preparation has begun. After work last evening, Louis stayed up until 3:00 a.m., trimming legs of lamb so he could begin koshering the meat for our up-coming seder. I am matzah-balled out from making & freezing all that we will need for the seder; then cooking two more pots of matzah-ball chicken soup. One pot is being eaten by Esther & her apartment mate, Melissa, as they recuperate from the flu. The other was relished at the luncheon following our last I Peter Bible Study.

I accompanied my Mom to St. Patrick Hospital for a cardiac cath a few days ago. Her treadmill stress test results showed S_T depression which is an indication of cardiac ischemia. PTL! Her coronary arteries were quite clean & her diagnosis is gastric reflux with Prilosec as the treatment. Her S_T segment depression was a false positive?! ... So the cardiologist said. Her skipped heart beats which keep her awake at night, were deemed insignificant. She was instructed to ignore them. Easier said than done when her heart "flip-flops" in her chest most of the night.

Missions Conference at Lolo Community Church flew by. The previous week, we hosted a very New York-Jewish speaker in our home. He was chilled to the bone by our fluctuating spring weather & could hardly believe that we were 25 miles from the nearest Starbucks! We made up for that by treating him to a delicious dinner at Cafe Firenza, a delightful Italian restaurant only 3 miles away. The week before that, I spoke at Lolo Community's monthly women's meeting about "goodness" - the "fruit of the spirit" for March. God gave me new insights to share during my research for this talk. I may yet post some of those insights in the near future.

Genny, now 13 + years old, is declining quickly. She has trouble standing up or walking up & down stairs. She refuses regular dog food that she used to skarf. She still eats bits of "human food" & drinks some water. We are uncertain whether her frequent panting means she is just hot or in pain. We can feel a mass in her abdomen & she has a tumor behind her left ear. We are treasuring these last days & weeks with her. She is the middle golden in the above picture, taken about 4 years ago.

Early Spring at the Wildlife Refuge & Kootenai Creek in March

You've seen Kootenai Creek in both late Spring & the Fall on my blog. The Hallelujah Hikers decided to start our hiking in "early Spring". We slip - slid along the trail loaded with packed snow & ice. No flowers or wildlife were in sight, although the trails of the deer down to the creek for water were visible at various locations. Limbs & snowdrifts stretched over the creek boasted icicles. After 90 minutes we were chilled through. We drove to the lower meadows of the Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge to search for signs of spring & found some: Buttercups, Canadian Geese, a variety of other ducks & a Blue Loon who serenaded us with his mating call.

This Friday - A day of 2 gallows.

Yesterday was spent baking several batches of Hamantaschen cookies for Purim. ( See past blogs at this time of year for the recipie of these three-cornered hat cookies.) As five of us from Beth Tephila rolled out the sour cream dough with its orange zest flavoring, we discussed the unusual convergence of Good Friday & Purim this year. We know that Good Friday is a time to remember the crucifixion of our Messiah Jesus. Purim commemorates the rescue of the Jewish people from Haman's murderous plot as recorded in the book of Esther. Rarely do these days converge on the exact same date but because of the differences between the Jewish calendar (lunar) & the Roman calendar (solar), it happens this year. David Brickner, current leader of "Jews for Jesus", compared & contrasted these two days as recorded in Scripture. Here is my summary of his article:
. Both events took place in the Middle East, one in Persia & the other in Israel.
. Both were preceded by a hero's triumphant procession through the streets
of the city.
. Both gallows were made of wood. We know that Haman's gallows stood 75
feet tall. We know that the Roman gallows, or cross, was made of 2 pieces
of wood, the top piece weighing about 100 pounds.
. Death on a Persian gallows resulted from a broken neck or strangulation,
(some sources speak of impaling instead). Death on a Roman gallows resulted
from suffocation or the trauma of blood loss.
. In both cases, the gallows were built to execute innocent Jews. In the Purim
narrative, Haman plotted against Mordecai because of his (Haman's) wounded
pride. In the Gospel accounts, certain Jewish leaders plotted against Jesus
because He exposed their hypocrisy, among other things.
. In both instances, those who plotted the death of the innocents sought to make
weak rulers complicit in their plot: the Persian King Ahashueras & the Roman
Governor Pilate.
. Executing Mordecai was part of Haman's plot to destroy the Jewish people.
Executing Jesus was part of the devil's plot to destroy humanity.
. Haman's plot was thwarted when he & his sons were hanged on the gallows in
place of Mordecai. The devil's plot was thwarted when the planned execution
took place; Jesus hung on the cross in the place of sinners.
. On Purim, God worked behind the scenes; there is no mention of His name in
the book of Esther. On Good Friday, God's work was evident through signs &
wonders so that even a Roman centurion recognized Jesus as the Son of God.
. On Purim, the Jewish people were saved from destruction so the Messiah's
line remained intact. On Good Friday, God brought salvation to the whole
world via His Messiah, to all who would receive it.

Farewell to Celeb

Celeb, our 5-6 year old spotted Tennessee Walker, has been permanently put to sleep at the Blue Mountain Vet. Hospital. (See Jan. 21st entry for his photo.) His last three months have been filled with suffering since he cut his right rear pastern down into the joint. Three vet. hospital stays, with as many IV antibiotics, were meant to help & heal. No matter how much he ate, Celebrity grew thinner as the days of recovery stretched into weeks. His ribs & hip bones became more pronounced under his sagging skin. He started putting weight back onto the injured leg, only to begin lifting the left rear leg. We examined the left leg for cuts & found none. We assumed that he had overworked the muscles of that leg while the right leg recouped & was just giving them a rest. Recently he learned to walk with just 3 legs... one was his newly healed leg. It was a pathetic sight. Celeb would strain all of his neck & chest muscles as he hobbled around the small area by the feeding troughs or over to the water trough. Louis trailered him back to the vet hospital on the way to work yesterday after we found a blood stain trail on the snow where he had haltingly limped to get water. Celeb was bleeding from the bottom of his left hoof. He was to be examined & x-rayed by the vet after her morning rounds.

During the I Peter neighborhood Bible Study, I received the diagnosis via my cell phone. I excused myself & walked into the next room to listen to the vet. Celeb had developed severe laminitis in the left rear leg. His hoof had separated & the bone was working its way through the hoof. He had only more suffering ahead & no respite in sight. We were offered only one option.

This was Louis's dream horse, birthed in our own pasture. Louis spent hours imprinting Celeb immediately after birth, so he would be easier to train later. Celebrity followed Louis like a dog at mealtimes or whenever Louis was in the field. He will be missed. I am left with some guilt as well as sorrow. I had been praying that God would convince Louis to sell one or more of our horses because they were putting such a strain on our finances. I had argued with Louis to at least sell Celeb's mother - an older bay mare with ringbone. I got nowhere. Now I am left wondering if this was God's answer to my prayers?

Signs of Spring

Calving started a couple weeks ago in the Bitterroot Valley. Our lambing started yesterday. I began the evening chores early since I have nursery duty at AWANAS on Wednesday evenings. After feeding the three horses, I headed toward the back of our garage/barn. I heard a faint newborn lamb " baa" or did I imagine it? As I walked closer to the sheep feeders with my armload of fresh alfalfa hay, I noticed one of the ewes bending over her just-dropped lamb. She had licked enough of the placental filmy layers off his head that her lamb was feebly attempting to cry, while shaking his head. I dropped the hay into the feeders to keep the other sheep busy & ran to the house for water & towels. As I helped the ewe dry off the lamb, I could see she was straining with more uterine contractions. Yes! I was going to observe the miracle of new birth at least twice tonight! Another lamb's head was already protruding when I checked, so I was able to help ease the twin out into the slightly chilly world. The ewe had picked a great place between the barn & feeders. It was out of the wind, in trodden hay & away from the other sheep. I helped clean up both lambs. The next move was aiding them in finding those two all important nipples so they could drink the life-giving colostrum & milk. Then I stayed around observing the nurturing licking & hearing the tiny "baa" grunts of the ewe - waiting to see if there would be triplets. This ewe has had them before. I left for AWANAS after waiting an hour & deciding another lamb was probably not on its way.

Robins, Stellar Bluejays & Meadowlarks are showing up on the lawn & at the bird feeders. Today was a glorious, sunny 50+ degree day. So I caught the lambs with my camera after their nap in the warm hay. They are walking steadily & finding Mama's milk without trouble now.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to you & yours!

Three guesses... now the answer

These additional photos provide the answer. We kosher all of our venison. That means we soak it in a large stock pot full of water. The weight of the water pushes out the blood, ( & most of the wild taste), from the meat & we drain off the water a couple of times a day for 2-3 days & replace it with clear water. In the winter, the counter on our porch becomes out extended refrigerator for large items. During our recent cold snap, the meat we had soaking froze, but the ice froze in this interesting way. It looked almost like some weird jellyfish sending its tentacles out to eat some of the meat. I learned a new word that fits this - cnidarian (jellyfish-like) - from Sherry's free rice vocab. game...by-the-way, there are new words now & I have gone as far as 53 in the total score.


Can you guess what this is? I was fascinated by it when I found it this past week. We are having a more typical Montana winter this year. I just spent over 2 hours shoveling out around the house & in front of our garages. It was great exercise since the snow was so heavy.

Birth/Dedication Day!

Dad turned 82 yesterday. He will always remember this birthday, since he was involved in the dedication ceremony & prayer for his newest great grandson, Levi James Conner. Levi is a little over four weeks old now. He came into the world so alert, although his mom had experienced a difficult delivery due to pre-eclampsia. This is my sister's youngest son's first-born.

The whole family gathered to celebrate the dedication & birthday on a very icy day. As I carried the bluebird house & bluebird feeder, (Dad's gift), down the front cement steps of our home, my feet flew out & I landed on ice against that last step. The resulting deep bruise was worth not breaking the glass in the feeder. Oh, I so often show how much I count on God's continual protection!

Surprising start to 2008

2008 started in ways we would not have guessed. Here's a quick summary:

. Wally, whom I mentioned in the last post, welcomed in 2008 with us, but soon was well enough to return to his own home.

. Celeb ( Short for "Celebrity") mysteriously cut his rear right pastern clear down into the joint just before Christmas. He too has been on IV meds. but at the Vet Hospital for his infection. He has been home & back to the Vet Hospital 3 times now. The above photo was taken of him when he was 2 or 3 years old. He's about 5 now.

. I developed right sciatica, ( in empathy for Celeb?), was sent to Physical Therapy by my VA physician & am trying pilates exercises for the first time. I feel a bit out of my element, like that cat getting out of the water. Actually, I am also doing some swimming & other forms of exercise to reduce the 10 lbs. I gained slowly over the last few months.

. I finally interviewed with the MD at First Way Pregnancy Support Center re. the part-time RN position last Thursday afternoon. As at least one other RN still needs to be interviewed before a decision is reached, I don't know yet if I will be hired.

. I Peter has taken hours of my attention, as our Women's Neighborhood Bible Study is now studying that book until the first part of April.

Happy New Year!

This was sent by a dear friend to us, but it is appropriate for us to remember all through 2008! It is also appropriate, since I noticed how frail my parents are becoming when I helped them over the ice in the parking lot & up the steps into the church on Christmas Eve. for the candlelight service. Earlier, Dad tried to turn the wrong direction on our car ride to the church. When darkness falls, his sense of direction becomes confused.

Since Saturday afternoon, a dear friend & member of Beth Tephila - in his 80's like my folks - has been with us after his hospital discharge. Wally was hospitalized for a week for the flu & pneumonia. He lives alone now, as his wife lives in a nursing home up the hill from our house. So he is with us for awhile until he recovers. We help him to remember to take his variety of meds throughout the day. We push fluids & encourage him to eat, since he has no appetite. We take his temp. and have increased our thermostat setting from 65 to 72 for the house. Yesterday we also lit a fire in our fireplace. Wally became comfortable when Louis & I began to sweat at 80 degrees.

Enjoy:

Remember this old hymn?

Many years ago, while watching a little TV on Sunday, I watched a church in Atlanta letting one of its senior pastors, who had been retired many years, speak...

He was 92 at that time & I wondered why the church even bothered to ask the old gentleman to preach at that age. After a warm welcome & introduction, he rose from his high back chair & walked slowly with great effort & a sliding gait to the podium... Without a note of any kind,he placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself & quietly began to speak...

"When I was asked to come here today & talk to you, your pastor asked me to tell you what was the greatest lesson learned in my 50 odd years of preaching... I thought about it for a few days & boiled it down to just one thing that made the difference in my life & sustained me through all my trials.The one thing that I could always rely on when tears & heartbreak & pain & fear & sorrow paralyzed me... The only thing that comforted was this verse:

Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong; we are weak but He is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves me... Yes, Jesus loves me...
Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so."

When he finished, the church was quiet. You could hear his footsteps as he shuffled back to his chair. I don't believe I will ever forget it.

Another pastor once stated, "I always noticed that it was the adults who chose the children's hymn 'Jesus Loves Me', (for the children of course), during a hymn sing, & it was the adults who sang the loudest because I could see they knew it the best."

Here is a new version just for us who have white hair,or no hair at all. For us over 40...

Senior version:

Jesus loves me, this I know, though my hair is white as snow.
Though my sight is growing dim, still He bids me trust in Him.

(CHORUS)

Though my steps are oh, so slow, with my hand in His I'll go.
On through life, let come what may, He'll be there to lead the way.

(CHORUS)

Though I am no longer young,I have much which He's begun.
Let me serve Christ with a smile; Go with others the extra mile.

(CHORUS)

When the nights are dark and long, in my heart He puts a song.
Telling me in words so clear, 'Have no fear, for I am near.'

(CHORUS)
When my work on earth is done, and life's victories are won.
He will take me home above; then I'll understand His love.

(CHORUS)
I love Jesus, does He know? Have I ever told Him so?
Jesus loves to hear me say,that I love Him every day.

My favorite Christmas greeting of 2007

The folks that manage the Lolo Community Church prayer chain sent out this Christmas e-mail to those of us on the prayer chain.

A remarkable phone call from a 12-yr old boy to Houston radio station KSBJ FM 89.3 . So profound, the station has it posted on their website. Click below to listen to it. It's short:

Showers of blessing

My nephew, Aaron & wife, Anna, have already prenamed their coming baby boy - Levi. Therefore, the baby shower this week-end had some unique "levi" aspects to it. The decorations included tiny levi pants & the cake was in the form of levis. Anna at 35 weeks is already fully effaced and starting to dilate, so she was essentially on bedrest even at the shower.
She's so petite that she seems half baby.

Thanksgiving - a time to mourn & rejoice with extended family

The two elderly folks on the left in the first photo are shirt-tail relatives through my sister's husband. At Thanksgiving we felt the emotional push pull of mourning with Ginny & Bob over the suicide of their son, Bernie, this Fall & the rejoicing of new life entering the family through Anna's baby due any day & Kylie's newborn daughter, Caimbrie. This is life in a fallen world. The promising new life & the sometimes tragic ending of those who struggle with Bi-polar disorder or something else that seems to wipe out hope. The Light of the World is the only answer in the season of Thanksgiving, Hanukkah or anytime of the year.

Santa Barbara in December

We left Montana with its foot of settling snow & frigid temperatures to enjoy balmy coastal California for four days and to help Louis's older brother, Bob, celebrate his 80th birthday. The middle photo is of the three brothers - Bob, Louis & Jerry - together for the first time in 35 years. The last two pictures show the view from our hotel room. The first two were taken outside a restaurant near Santa Barbara where Bob lives. Louis was able to talk to Bob about the Lord & plant some seed.