Happy Thanksgiving!

Our gorgeous frosted world, created by the fog of our weather inversion, looks more like Christmas than Thanksgiving. It inspired us to mail our first Christmas package that has the furthest to go ... southern Forida. Today we baked squash and green beans as our portion of the family Thanksgiving get-together. We are starting to saute onions, garlic and homegrown oregano in olive oil to add to our homegrown green beans. The result is delicious and less calories than the more traditional green beans with mushroom soup and french fried onions. We made both styles for today and will see which one folks like the best. We fix the squash almost like you would candied yams. Louis will eat yams or squash only if they have a little butter, brown sugar and marshmallows to sweeten the dish. Hope you all are enjoying your favorite foods & families. God is so good! May He receive all of our thanks for such memory-making times as this.

Simple yet delicious

Sometimes I find a recipie that is both delicious and extremely simple to make. While I was volunteer nursing at Camp Utmost, the cook was Chef Bill Colson. Bill usually is the chef for a restaurant in Shelby, Montana, I believe. After tasting his cole slaw at two meals, I sought him out in the kitchen to see if he would share his recipie. He did and here it is...

COLE SLAW DRESSING
Chef Bill Colson (Camp Utmost 2004)

Chop up 1 large head of cabbage & 1/3 small white onion.

Blend: 1 cup sugar
¼ cup oil
¼ cup vinegar
salt to taste
1 1/3 cup salad dressing or mayo.

Combine with the cabbage and onion and refrigerate.

Sometimes I add some shredded carrot to this recipie.

Enjoy. - Cary

Storms are a part of life and growth

Our first snowstorm arrived yesterday but is melting away fairly quickly this morning. We loved watching the big snowflakes, but had to moderate our driving to the lack of visibility and slick pavement. Another storm of sorts has arrived in our household. Have any of you had to take away a car from a teenager? Fireworks! No, warfare results! Our daughter's grades had fallen dramatically and she was not always obeying the family curfew, so the boundaries got tightened to her dismay. Now the relative shalom/peace of our home has been exchanged for a familiar battleground of wills, tempers, negotiations... It's back to taxiing our daughter to school because she won't budge out of bed to get to the bus in time. It's teaching through consequences that you don't always get your own way in this world, even if you are doing "OK" in the biggies like staying away from alcohol and drugs and illicit sex. More is expected in the areas of responsibility and authorities - to include parents - are to be respected and obeyed. Sound familiar to you? It's become a decade's theme for us. Thankfully, we have the best Father around to turn to for encouragement and wisdom. He assures us that it is worth it to hang in there and teach the proper values.

October Hikes in the Bitterroot/Selway

The drop off at the top of Bear Creek Canyon Overlook was a little scary.
Bear Creek Canyon Overlook is a long but fairly easy hike with a gorgeous view from the top.

While Louis hunted and brought home four deer for our year's meat supply, I had the fun of weekly Wednesday hikes in the Bitterroot Mountains and Selway Wilderness. The best way to share these with you is by a sampling of my photos taken during some of those hikes.

More hiking photos

Would you like to join me on a hike like these in the Spring?

Golden tamaracks and aspens are common in the Bitterroots...as are cathedral-like cliffs... so typical of our hike up Chaffin Creek in the Trapper Peak area.


Glen Lake was a more difficult hike into the Selway Wilderness, but the scenery was great!! The hillsides were covered with bear grass and huckleberry bushes dressed in their Autumn russet leaves.
Because of the high elevation, on some of the hikes we had a touch of winter via snow on the pine branches on either side of the trail.

Glorious September

I have just returned from a wonderful 1 1/2 hour hike up Sweathouse Creek Canyon that ended at Sweathouse Creek Falls. It is in the mid- 60 degrees on a bright clear day. Our leaves are just beginning to turn to golds and russets and brilliant reds on the bushes and trees. The intermediately difficult hike wound up the narrow canyon beside the creek on the left and steep canyon sides on the right. An old wooden flume could be seen in some places along the canyon wall and rock slides. Fallen timber was everywhere, sometimes across the trail. Laura and I knew the black bears are hungry this time of year. Hungry enough for a mother and two cubs to even venture on the university campus this week. So we decided early on to make this hike a prayer-hike. We talked and openly prayed our praise and petitions all the way to the falls and then all the way back. At the top of the falls, we ate our sack lunch and gazed at the glorious Fall splendor around us. No, we didn't see any bears ... only some grouse, a squirrel and chipmunk. This is the way to enjoy September! This is such a hug from the LORD!!

Wisdom or cowardice?

With an older teen in and out of the house, I'm slowly but surely learning how to react wisely when someone close to me wants to pick a fight or manipulate with anger:

- Detach emotionally, (physically leave if need be).

- Pray about the situation.

- Draw closer to the Lord.

Louis's cataract surgery was successful. In three weeks, at his postop. appointment, we will see if he'll need new glasses. Rosh Ha Shanah, the Jewish New Year or Feast of Trumpets, is only about a week away. Even as we are watching the news of the areas hit by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, our eyes are also on Israel, God's timepiece.

I'm feeling sheepish...

After church and a quick lunch, we drove to Hamilton with the horsetrailer yesterday. It was time to wrangle our six adult sheep. Wrangling includes positioning the horsetrailer next to my parents' pasture fence, setting up some horsepanels on both sides of the trailer to make a broad "run" into the open trailer filled with some scrumptious alfalfa hay, then chasing the sheep around the pasture a bit until they follow our directions out of sheer exhaustion. Thirty minutes was all the wrangling took this year as the sheep had grown lazy and tired out quickly. We also had kept the lambs separated the last couple of months...allowing the ewes some down time and then the chance to breed again with the ram. We wrangled the lambs into our trailer this morning to take them to the co-op. truck pick-up point. There they were weighed in, (an average 93 pounds each), and loaded into the truck for the drive to market. Another lambing season come full circle.

The willfulness of each sheep and lamb is evident during wrangling. Yet, so is the flock instinct. It takes only one reluctant sheep/ lamb to keep the others from entering the chute/run and therefore the trailer. It also takes only one leading sheep/lamb to start the flock back in the right direction. Yeshua so frequently compared humans to sheep. Here is another similarity. I can influence others toward His way or my own. Without thinking the rest tend to follow. I may be one of those unthinking followers much of the time, too. Oh, I'm feeling so sheepish again.

Seeing clearly and "that's Greek to me"...

Back when Louis and I were in San Jose this summer, we met a young woman who I believe called herself a "theophostic". Have any of you heard of this? She gazed intently at Louis and I as we were eating lunch together and then started speaking to us about our desires, our family, our finances, etc. Each comment was right on. Some of it was so personal & uncanny that it left you speachless. She commented on so many things that no one but God could have known about us...and she had just been introduced to us by our mutual friend who invited us all to lunch. Our mutual friend did not know us that well either and could not have fed her the information. Well, God allowed her to see into our heart of hearts and speak encouragement to us.
Louis has been scheduling and getting insurance authorization for another cataract surgery for this coming Tuesday. His first eye had a cataract removed back in June of 2003. He was at least twenty years younger than any other patient in the waiting room back then. His clear blue eyes were one of the physical features that attracted me to him. They evidently are more susceptible to cataracts than brown or hazel eyes. Now the other eye's cataract has obscurred his vision enough to require the surgery soon. I wonder if he will notice the mold that is just beginning to show up on the shower tile or the not so spotless floors once his operation is done. I love to read and have been known to cut corners in housework to be able to get back to a book I have started. Then there is my enjoyment of learning Hebrew, which requires study time. This year our class will continue translating in Genesis, but also start into Greek. I have been trying to memorize the Greek alphabet today. Louis says he learned it back in college. I never did. I was not a sorority girl. I have good focus, but it can be a fairly narrow focus at times, blocking out everything else. That helped me in my studies, but didn't enable me to absorb all the college culture around me. I always believed that was a good thing. Now I'm not so sure. My mind does not memorize with the rapidity it did in my twenties. Yet, to be able to glean nuggets of truth from the Word in the original languages is worth the time and effort. I hope that learning Greek, along with the Hebrew, will be like removing cataracts from the eyes of my understanding of Scripture. Of course, that carries the weight of added responsiblity before the Lord.

Deceitful Hearts

A couple of my recent posts received spam that shocked me. I even thought, "What am I doing adding another avenue for the enemy to enter into my life?" Yet, I so enjoy the encouraging comments of some of you and like to process my thoughts through this writing format when I have the time. Then Sherry and Carol Ann gave me the steps to clean up my blog. I took those steps and feel better. Thanks, Sherry and Carol Ann! The unwanted comments have been removed permanently.
This process reminded me of James 3 where James talks about the use of our tongues and how our tongues reveal the deceitfulness of our hearts. I bless the Lord with my tongue and awhile later use it to run down someone else or to gossip, etc. This should be as shocking to me as seeing those filthy comments on my blog. Sadly, I sometimes don't even notice that the same spring in my heart gave forth both fresh and bitter water. That should not be!!! I'm asking the Lord to sensitize me to what comes out of my heart and mouth, so I can run to Him with each problem area and ask Him to remove it permanently. Hopefully those around me will greatly benefit by this.
A dear friend of mine, Janie, was recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. I've spent hours with her, listening to her confusion and hurt. Her life has been full of many health & emotional challenges...this is the worst. I've tried not to be a comforter like those Job had. I want to just be there and walk through this trial with her. Like Jeremiah in Jeremiah 15:18, Janie was asking God why He seemed to be so deceptive? This verse from the Complete Jewish Bible (translated by Stern) : "Why is my pain unending, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be for me like a deceptive wadi, which is only sometimes filled with water?" To understand this verse, you need to understand that a "wadi" is a narrow canyon or valley in Israel. Often these are full of vegetation, but dry places that could tempt you to camp there overnight or longer. That is very risky! If the rains come, these wadis are susceptible to flash flooding that could carry you away and perhaps take your life. Janie feels like Jeremiah did - that life was proceeding at its normal pace, when she all at once was hit by one of those flash floods which swept her into a chaotic, life-threatening flood stream. Her faith is being severely tested. A lot of folks in New Orleans and Mississippi are being challenged similarly these days after Katrina's devastation affected their lives. No matter what the storm & its affects in our lives, it sure adds hope to know God will walk through it all with us. He even sends others of His own to be at our sides and show that they too care.

The Smell of Fall

Louis is stacking hay bales for this coming winter. He created a new place with horse panels next to where the horses usually feed. In the meantime, I harvested the apples from our small apple trees before the bees and wasps ate too many of them and started making applesauce. It's been smoky the last couple of weeks due to forest fires around this part of Montana and over the Bitterroot Mountains in Idaho. I can smell a slight hint of burning wood. Add to that the smell of the ripening apples and the hay. My thoughts turn to September harvests, the start of Esther's school year and all that the beginning of a school year brings in schedule changes. Since I loved school, I loved this time of year from an early age. The tinge of crispness in the air somehow makes me feel more alive. This week-end, Labor Day Week-end, we will spend partly at Camp Utmost's Family Camp...whenever we are not doing something for Beth Tephila. I'll probably have more to write after that week-end. Esther partially dislocated her right shoulder in volleyball on her first day of school. Thankfully, she is fairly stoic with pain, especially if it was connected with her beloved sports. She is an athlete - not a student. Hopefully she can still enjoy the fun of camp when she is not working at SubWay this week-end.

The 14,000 day generation - Be Aware of this Jewish tradition!

Jewish tradition holds that Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the seventh month on the Jewish calendar, celebrates the anniversary of the creation of the world, a day when God takes stock of all of His Creation. Translated, Rosh HaShanah means "head of the year." Jews believe that God's judgment on this day determines the course of the coming year. That day also begins the "ten days of awe" (time of repentance) which ends on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).

I have just become aware that several Jewish writers describe a biblical pattern of three 14,000 day (38.8 Jewish years) generations, the latest of which ends exactly on Rosh HaShanah, October 4, 2005. Whether or not anything will actually happen on that day is unknown, but it is good to be aware of it. Here is some of what they present:

There were exactly 14,000 days that the Israelites wandered in the desert after receiving the Law and before they entered the Promised Land. This was due to their unbelief and rebellion.

There were exactly 14,000 days from the day Jesus entered Jerusalem until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. This was the rebellious generation that rejected their Messiah.

There will be exactly 14,000 days from the capture of Jerusalem in 1967 to Rosh HaShanah (Feast of Trumpets), October 4, 2005. This is the generation that rebelliously turned the Temple Mount over to the Muslims after God gave it back to them in the Six Day War. Look at the problems this has caused. I find this connection with the 2005 Feast of Trumpets both intriguing and compelling.

Thus, if the dating is correct, the three most important generations in all history are 14,000 days in length, which is 2,000 Jewish weeks (14,000 divided by 7 = 2,000).

One of these writers by the name of Garrett says, "Recently I've actually heard Jewish rabbis discussing this same time-frame...that they are under 38 years of punishment for handing the Temple Mount back to the Muslims after capturing it in 1967....Because this is being discussed in rabbinic circles, and because there is a Biblical parallel which I was led to through research and prayer, I'm starting to think that whatever is going to happen on 4 October 2005 may be a solely "Jewish" event and have nothing to do with the Church. However, if this is the beginning of Daniel's prophecy concerning the final 7 years of the "70 weeks," that would mean the "times of the Gentiles" is over and all attention will again be on Israel. It wouldn't make sense to have the Church remain with Israel taking the world spotlight - but we will have to wait and see."

It is also interesting that on the Jewish calendar, October 4, 2005 actually begins on the evening of October 3 and there is supposed to be a solar eclipse on October 3, 2005. The Muslim Ramadan begins on October 4, 2005, the same day as Rosh HaShanah. Ramadan is probably the most widespread anti-Christ observance on earth. The Jewish writers are not saying for sure that the rapture will be on October 4, 2005. But wouldn't it be nice? If not, what? Anything? It will be interesting to watch.

Ooops. One little thought. The Feast of Trumpets is a two-day feast. That is because the feast happens on the new moon, which is 29.5 days after the last one, meaning it might occur on the 29th or 30th day, nobody knows for sure. Thus, this feast is referred to by the idiom, "Of the day or hour no man knows." Sound familiar? If the rapture ever happens on the Feast of Trumpets, it will be true that no one really knew the day or hour!

The Feast of Trumpets begins with a series of over 90 trumpet blasts. The last, climactic blast is the "Teki'at Shofar", a long blast, signalling victory or good news. This last blast is referred to as "the last trump," many believe to be the trumpet referred to by Paul in describing the rapture in I Corinthians 15:52 and I Thessalonians 4:16.

Most of the above info. was sent to me by a dear friend in Alaska. The person who sent it to her, Pastor David N. Decker of Jerusalem, checked and there truly will be an annular eclipse of the sun on Oct. 3rd, mainly across central Africa, that will also be partly visible in Israel. He also checked and Rosh HaShanah starts at sundown on Oct. 3rd, which is 14,000 days after June 6, 1967. Rabbis say that in the Old Testament, 14,000 days marks a full Divine Judgement cycle. Ramadan 2005 actually begins on October 5th. If there is going to be any POSITIVE action, or shaking that day...I would expect it to be in Jerusalem, hopefully around the Temple Mount...

Alon, our room-mate at the hotel, has learned the lifestyle of the ultraorthodox Jews in order to reach them and tell them of their Messiah. He showed Louis how to don the tefillin as well as the prayer shawl...It took about 20 minutes for Louis to get it all correct. Our second date on the open afternoon of the conference, was to tour the famous Winchester mystery house. It covered several acres!! This famous house was owned by a Winchester heiress, who had bad nightmares and sought the help of a psychic back in the 1890s. The psychic told her to continue building on her house day and night as long as she lived and she would be free of the ghosts of the people killed by the Winchester rifle. She took the advise and built on her house for over 40 years...sometimes having stairways contructed with steps leading up to the ceiling or doors that opened on walls, etc. There were gorgeous stainglass windows, ornate wood inlays in the ceilings and floors, many fireplaces, atriums, you name it... along with the strangest stairs or windows or cabinets that were built to just keep building. Our photos of the fairly dark inside didn't come out, but a couple that we took out the windows did. You may have seen a TV Special that was made about this mystery house. Well, this is the end of the trip photos that I plan to share with you. This grouping was eliminated by my glitchy computer and another grouping was published a second time. I noticed it when I reviewed the blog yesterday. Hopefully it will publish "ok" today. Thanks for bearing with me.

Back to our hike and the early morning views of the Columbia River Gorge. You can see the slug, but can you find the two chipmunks in the other two photos of the trail? After our refreshing hike, Louis and I had a scrumptious breakfast of fresh salmon omelet and biscuits with blackberry jam in the Multnomah Lodge. You can see the lodge peeking through the trees on the photo of the pavement at the base of the falls. There we met Chris, a Purdue, Indiana English Professor, who was finishing on that very day, a four week bike trek of the Lewis and Clark Trail. He started at Great Falls, Montana and biked over 1000 miles to Portland. He said his companions rode on ahead after the first week or so, since he was taking his time biking and reading several books about the Lewis and Clark journey, as he went. Well, I hope this brief showing of some of our trip photos was less frustrating for you than me as I fought the disconnect problem, but enjoyed sharing a bit of our trip nonetheless.

Two more of the photos out the window, which show the formal gardens and more of the varied structures of the acres-large Winchester mansion. Our third date was a mile hike to the top of Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge just west of Portland. We started the cool, misty hike around 6:30 a.m. and saw no other hikers until we were back down on Benson Bridge at the top of the lower falls. We loved the views, like the one from the top of the falls...and watching the chipmunks along the trail bend over the grass stalks to eat the seeds on top for breakfast. All at once we noticed that we had other wildlife on the trail - slime-covered slugs! Louis lay down on the trail to capture one on this camera

Trip continued

Yes, there I am just before we boarded the "Tahoe Gal" for our scenic Lake Tahoe cruise date. The Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations' National Conference was held at the Double Tree Inn near the San Jose Airport. The grounds were beautiful and we had a comfortable room on the eighth floor, which looked over a large part of San Jose. After the first two nights, we shared the room and our breakfast of gefilte fish, matzeh, boiled eggs, banana nut bread, coffee and fruit with Alon Barak, the leader from Desert Palm Springs. He, in turn, paid for the room and a couple of our dinners. What a blessing! The leaders' wives at the UMJC conference toured the Japanese Friendship Gardens at Kelly Park in San Jose. I loved the bonsai, magnolia and the other plants not usually seen up north. The Crepe Myrtle was in bloom- a dark pink for some trees and a lighter pink for others. Koi fish and ducks were in most of the ponds. We enjoyed a delightful lunch which was placed in a bathroom caddy for each participant. There was Crystal Geyser mineral water, cashews, humus with pinenuts to be used as a dip with fresh miniature carrots, broccoli and peapods, a small croisant and 2 multi-grain crackers to eat with a couple of small cheeses. There were also larger baskets of delicious fruit and various brownies and other cookies. We were asked to get a coin out of our purse and look at the year on it. Then when it was our turn to speak, we were to say, "Who we were, where we were from, & what happened in our life in that year of our life." It was an interesting and fun way to get to know each other. ( I am still fighting my computer, which is disconnecting about every minute, so I'll continue this later.)

San Jose Trip

Do any of you recognize this Scandinavian mansion off Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe? Louis treated me to a 3 1/2 hour boat cruise on Lake Tahoe as our first date on our trip. Vikingsholm Castle, built in 1929, was the turn-around point of the cruise. Fannette Island, the site of the Vikingsholm teahouse, is Tahoe's only island and boasts several hundred-plus year old bonsai trees. Our Captain and Tour guide for the trip hung his open testimony on the "Tahoe Gal", a medium-size, Mississippi-type, paddle boat in style. Thankfully the inside restaurant was air-conditioned on this 106 degree day.

We're back to our toasty home.

Our San Jose trip was wonderful!!!! I will give the details when I get a refresher course from Sherry on how to include my digital photos on this blog. Esther kept our place from burning up in the hot, dry weather...but that old fox got our rooster and another hen. We have four hen survivors, one of which has that splinted leg. She hops around on her good leg and balances some with the splinted one. The wild birds left our netted cherry trees alone. The wasps and yellow jackets did not. They left us all the pits and a handful of ripe cherries that somehow they missed. The apricots haven't ripened yet. We are very tempted to pick them green so we, rather than the insects, get to enjoy the crop. The raspberries are ripening quickly in the 90 degree days. Some have actually made it to our freezer instead of our stomachs. We are starting to harvest a variety of lettuces, spinach, peas, green beans, beets, onions, yellow crooked-neck squash and zucchini with no competition from the critters. We love to share our produce, so if you read this and would like some, let us know.
Last week was a catch-up week and the week of Esther's teeth implant surgery. Other than some expected oozing of blood post-op, all has gone extremely well. Esther even started her new job at the Subway, with two tiny metal posts sticking through her gums in the place of her retainer's fake teeth. Permanent crowns will be attached to the posts when they begin to ossify into the bone and are therefore more stable. We are so blessed to have had a safe trip, ample harvest and a good recovery for Esther.

Weeds in my Garden

Nearly every morning I spend 3 or more hours on my knees. I know you think that implies I'm a real prayer warrier. Oh, how I wish that were true. I am learning to pray more for Louis and Esther, using Stormie's "The Power of a Praying Wife" & "The Power of a Praying Parent" as my guide...however, I am often praying and weeding in my garden or strawberry bed concurrently. Some days I am just weeding and thinking how my life is also chocked full of weeds and grass with extra deep roots. I use a dandelion digger to help me unearth those deep roots in the garden. I also like to weed when I have watered the area earlier, so the pulling comes easier. Watering my life with the Word and then confessing the sins the Holy Spirit points out certainly prevents me from becoming too jungle-like.
Now I will get more than a week's weeding break as we drive to San Jose. The cherries on our cherry trees should be ripe for picking and our raspberries will be coming on, as well, when we return. Louis and I spent much of an afternoon covering our two Bing cherry trees with netting so the Robins and Finches in our yard could only snatch the outer ripe cherries as they land or fly-by. Hopefully the rest will remain until a little over a week from now. The wasps, as usual, have shown up to eat their fill of the strawberry patch and fruit on our trees. They even eat a good portion of our apples, if we don't find their hives and spray them. This year we are checking regularly under the eaves, etc. as our cherry trees and apricot tree promise some great fruit. The enemy is likened in at least one of the Lord's parables to birds that come to nest and pick fruit. We are reminded of that parable each summer... especially as the dry, 90 degree weather speeds along the growth and ripening. Louis bought a pellet gun to practice on those pesky birds and to sting the fox that has taken such a liking to our chickens. We have two traps set for the fox, but so far have only managed to snag the leg of one of the remaining five laying hens!! Louis constructed a splint of popsicle sticks and 2x2 gauze pad and tape for that poor hen. Her desperate squawking when her leg was caught in the trap brought us all running, thinking the fox had returned and gotten another meal. The other bandits in the strawberry bed are our squirrels. Thankfully we always have enough strawberries for them, the birds, the wasps and us. Our electric fencing seems to keep the deer away. They visit our neighbors, so we still get to watch these graceful creatures without having to shoo them away from our harvests. The sheep and horses always come to beg for the grass and weeds I throw over the fencing to them. I am more motivated to keep at my task since I can weed, pray, and feed our animals all at the same time.

Tempus Fugit when you're having fun

A month has flown by since my last post. Esther & I have been back home with Louis for most of that time. We are continuing family counseling and enjoying the blessings that flow from work on our relationships. I am especially loving the "dates" that Louis and I are starting to have. Can you believe this man I married 33 years ago is selling his plasma to Biolife to have the $ to take me out on dates?!! In another 8 or 9 days we are planning to drive to San Jose, California for the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations National Conference, LORD willing. The Beth Tephila Board members decided that I should accompany Louis this year. PTL! It costs no more in transportation or for the hotel room. In fact, the LORD surprised us with a free hotel room through a friend! That will now give us the $ to eat while in the San Jose area...ie. get items from nearby grocery stores and make our own meals most of the time. I will take our digital camera along, so we can fill you in on the trip once we are back home. Esther will house- sit and take care of the animals. We are paying for her car insurance and gas $ in exchange - to her great delight. This last month has included a Beth Tephila Retreat at our home, several family and friends get-togethers over the 4th of July week-end, celebrating our 33rd wedding anniversary and Louis's --birthday by seeing the latest Star Wars movie and dining out at "Shadows Keep", numerous hours of weeding the garden and strawberry beds, dog-sitting for two different friends, and so much more. Esther continues to seek a full-time job and was just interviewed yesterday for a position at Bob Wards. In the meantime, she works part-time at the Day Care center. This is a bit rambling. I'll attribute it to the over 90 degree heat outside.
The cooler, rainy June has turned into a hot and drier July. Our pasture is just now finally turning brown. The six adult sheep are now over at Mom and Dad's pasture, while we continue to feed and prepare the remaining three lambs for market the last of July. A red fox has been boldly visiting our chickenhouse during the middle of the day. We are down to 5 laying hens and our rooster, as a result. Louis has contacted the federal trapper, who will eventually get here when he clears up a couple of wolf and bear problems. Time to give one of our extra dogs a bath and grooming before she returns to her owner tomorrow. Jan, Genny's owner, has been learning Braille in Bozeman. Her one good eye has diminishing eyesight. She hasn't been able to drive a car for about a year now. We are so thankful we can help her and that Genny is such a needed part of her daily routine now. See you around.