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September Sights & Scenes 2019	Back to Home Page

September was a very beautiful and active month for us. Come along with us on some of our adventures!

Fishing on Costich Lake

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... Time for some fishing in the canoe! Have dog, will travel.

Buddy thinks he is the fish finder.	On alert, ready for Dad to reel them in.

Dan, Tracie, and Lane out for an evening horseback ride.	Fish on!
Looking at our house and the sunset from the lake. I love it!


The fisherman and his dog.
Driggs Family Photo Shoot
	Our good friends the Driggs / Peterson family run the Quirk Cattle Company-101 Ranch. They were inducted into the Montana Cowboy Hall of fame this year, a huge honor! Check it out in "District 10" at this link: http://montanacowboyfame.org/2019-inductee-biographies.html And speaking of huge honors, they asked Eric and I to do their Hall of Fame photos for them. I did my best, and think Eric did a fantastic job of posing everyone.
Stella & Declan (front row) / Jeff & Amy, Leland & Faye (back row)

Their adorable puppy, Gus, stole our heart and the show! This barn is over 100 years old and is just beautiful.


Eric spent a lot of time with these two when he was young, they are wonderful folks.
	Stella is a force of nature. You always get an action shot when she is in the frame!





Flathead Quilt Show
I get to participate in two quilt shows in Montana each summer. This was the second, the Flathead Quilt Show. I'm in the Flathead Quilter's Guild, so I did some volunteering as well. These pictures are some of my favorites from the show. I hung quilts with Lea White, the lady who made this quilt. I loved everything she made!	This quilt received many awards and it deserved each of them. This lady, Nancy Richwine, was the teacher's aide to Larry, Dan, and Eric's early elementary classes in Creston, MT. For that reason alone she deserves an award! She is just the sweetest lady and a very talented quilter. The coloring on the center panel was done with colored pencils and embroidery.
	I love the heirloom look of this quilt.
Here I am with my entry into the show. I had great sales at the August quilt show in Eureka, so I only entered this one into the Flathead show.


This is a small quilt but magnificent in detail and embellishments.
	This one is magnificent in the amazing quilting. The style of quilting makes the negative (white) space the star of the show.

	Someone snapped this shot of me doing set up for the show.
I loved the colors of this quilt and promptly decided to make one in the same color scheme ASAP. (Finished mine - totally different pattern- in March 2020.)
Pet Mania
I think my pets are endlessly fascinating, so of course I must share photos of all the cute and amazing things they do. Scroll fast if you aren't into dogs & cats!
Buddy, having deep thoughts at the inlet of Costich Lake.


Buddy, after having found piles and piles of fresh goose poop.	He sure has a thing for goose poop. He had just been to the groomer the day before.


Feisty, stopping all work on a vintage quilt top I had been trying to quilt.	Buddy, looking out the truck window at some deer he'd like to chase.

My boys, taking their afternoon nap. It seems the light was a little too bright for Buddy.
	Lily, glowing in the morning sunlight. Her whiskers are amazing.


Lily being too lazy to stand up and use the scratching post.	Buddy, looking at turkeys. This was taken about 1 second before he fell out of the truck.
Random Scenes

Two views of a beautiful sunrise - minutes apart.


Luke's kids learning the age-old tradition of packing pipe	A view into Canada across Lake Koocanusa. This is taken from the lawn of the restaurant at Abayance Bay, a wonderful place to listen to live music and have a nice meal.

Our house in the golden evening light.
	A Bald Eagle on our fence, watching for rodents.

Very large and scary spider on our landscape fence.
	I have no idea what kind, but I steered clear of that whole area for weeks!


Football! Our nephew Colter is the left-most player in orange & black. Eureka spanked all opponents and took state in their division for 2019.	All-day church gathering at the Eash's house.

A deer beside some trees that Eric loves, makes a pretty sight.
	A funny sign in the bathroom of the town movie theater.

One morning I was doing my Bible reading at the kitchen table and this steer started staring at me. He kept it up for at least 15 minutes. It was a bit creepy.
	Aubrey, doing her thing at a cross country meet I attended with her crew.


Kalispell Celtic Festival with Jeb, Amy, and Aubrey.	Amy and I enjoyed the live music while these guys crashed for an afternoon nap.

Traffic jam on my way home one evening.
	Eric & Aubrey at one of Colter's football games. Don't know what's up with Eric's crazy eyes.


Eric was already hurting Mark by teaching him how to use Lacrosse balls for stretching tight muscles. Then Buddy had to get into the act to further torment poor Mark.	Visiting one of Braden's Jr. High football games. Braden is easy to find during the game, we just look for the biggest kid out there.


My favorite view. I love the mountains, but the end of the lake is just so pretty to me.	This pair of swans lived on the lake all summer. They mostly stayed at the north end, but on this day they came down to let us watch them for a while.


Now they are just posing for my camera.	Buddy, giving a subtle hint that he wants to go for a canoe ride.

Buddy found a treasure in the tall grass - a bone!
	Indulge me, I love that sweet little face.


Misty mountains one early morning	Looking into Canada from an overlook on our daily walk

Buddy, running wild and running fast. He loves getting to cut loose like that.
	When we spook some deer he goes up on his back feet and hops for a better view. Eric says he's doing his "grizzly bear thing" when he does that.

The view from the back side of our daily walk.
	When we can remember it, we bring apples on our walk to share with these horses and mule who wander the property. They belong to our neighbor but will take apples from anyone!


My man and his land.	Taking our daily walk with Dan & Tracie one lovely evening.

	Lane found a crawdad.
Lane jumped that high log - impressive! You can see Dan has an apple core, we pick apples at 3 different spots along the walk and munch as we go.

Coming to the end of our walk in the golden evening light.
	This year, we did a joint venture with brother Mark to raise 12 steers for grass-fed beef. When we first got them they were skinny and pitiful, but they sure plumped up for us.


Here's one in grass higher than his belly. They loved it!	Of course, they would rather get into our yard and eat that grass whenever possible. I would dump the grass cuttings for them and they'd run to nab them up.


Here they are on another field, living the high life.	Seven swans came to visit one day. One of them was banded. It was fun to report the sighting of the banded one, I learned that it was originally from Idaho.

Swans flying to the next spot.

Trail Cam Footage

If you didn't see our trail cam photos from August, you should really go check them out. That was amazing!	This month we moved the camera to a different apple tree, one that wasn't growing in a funny way and so was not climb-able by bears. All we got from this spot were elk and deer feasting on apples.


Then we moved the camera back to the slanted apple tree and got another bear shot right away.	However, we mostly got pictures of birds and squirrels. The apples were mostly gone by then.

	We briefly put the trail cam so it was pointed at the trail - Dan's dog Bear quickly showed us what he thought about this location!
Woodpeckers are lovely as long as they're far away from your house!



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