When a storm rolls in

This is a view I never tire of. This looks to the northeast and often when I look out this window I see weather changes in the clouds I never was aware of when I lived in the mountains. The intense black of the sky was imposing, looking like it was going to rain or snow with a furry! But then, the sun peaked through and illuminated the wheat field!

I appreciate trees. I went to Billings yesterday with a dear friend Tracey and saw lots and lots of Ponderosa Pines. I miss those stoic giants! I really laughed when Dustin told me that our house had trees! Oh I felt so disheartened when I saw, what I considered then, as scrub brush. But I do appreciate them now. The wind is howling today and they just stand there solid, most of them in the wind breaks, thankfully blocking some of the wind.

Knits n Randoms

Just found a sign that says

KEEP CALM ~ CARRY YARN

This is good advice. 

And this is what has become of some of my projects this month

Baby Sack

Hat for me, but my hubby modeled

With all this strenuous activities, one needs chocolate. So I made Scotcharoos which I'd never heard of until I married my husband. I had to make my own rice krispie cereal which I did by boiling rice as usual, but with some ginger ale. Then I spread it over a cookie sheet and baked it in the oven. Do NOT use sushi rice... it's too sticky and too chewy.

Then i discovered a wonderful kitchen! My favorite here is the antique stove!

A big new Toy

Last year Wibaux got 100 inches of snow. It started snowing in September and finally disappeared in March only to rain for two straight months. Basements flooded every night, every house had 3-5 sump pumps and could hardly keep up. They tell me this is not a normal situation, nor a welcomed one.

This year, they predicted 200 inches of snow. No one is sure where the knowledge came from as it is now the middle of January and no snow. To date, we've had 3 inches total all winter.

I think the reason we don't have any snow is because my father in law decided with the winter they had last year, he was going to buy a loader which is something he's always wanted. And he did. With a vengeance because this is what pulled up in the their yard a few weeks later.

Of course it arrived on a sunny day, but you can see them bundled up. It was 8 degrees outside with a howling wind that dropped the temp right around a balmy -20. Why does equipment ALWAYS get delivered on the coldest day of the year? It happens without fail that it's gelled up going down the road at 65 so naturally it doesn't start. They fiddled around for nearly 2 1/2 hours before Frosty showed up. That Terex either got tired of having ether poured to it, or knew Frosty meant business, for 20 minutes later we were in business. He won't smile at all, but this guy is excited!

Little towns, big distance

Big blue sky. This is a regular sight out here. I like the angle of the trail left by the airplane so arrogant of  what's going on below because it's 35,000 feet down. I imagine the occupants of the plane are busy reading world news, or the latest book and have no regard to what's happening on the ground. 

Miles of fence, billions of miles of wire, hundreds of thousands of acres that man doesn't see very often, and little towns of seemingly no consequence. 

But, it's a matter of perspective. Up that high, the world below looks like funny little ants aimless in their direction. And on the ground, the immenseness of the sky, the rise and valleys of the ground makes the ol world here seem huge and unconquerable. It doesn't seem possible to get anywhere when no matter where you are, the horizon meets the land with an endless amount of distance on either side.

Dustin woke me up one Friday morning informing me that I had to take him to Watford City. I got a lot of these photos on the way up and no photos of Watford. Why? Because I was in such shock as to what that town was like. I couldn't wait to get out of there. It was so scary, a tiny little town where the ants descended and made a sleepy little town, voted the Best Town in North Dakota a few years ago to a over run and under cared for metropolis. It's horrible and not a pretty sight with thousands of campers and trailers popping up like villages every other block and takes 30 minutes to get out onto a 2 lane road.

But this cute little town below is indeed a town. This is Trotters. All that is left is the school house and a church.

A week ago, I had a melt down. The kind that I cried and cried and cried for 12 hours, for absolutely no apparent reason and when that happens, the only therapy is to go home.

Except I couldn't go all the way home. So I went to a 2nd home up in Plentywood which is another cute town that I didn't get any photos of. I'm really bad at this! 

But I found refuge there, in the big country. We tore apart a basement and redecorated. I found my favorite chair in the world looking out to the rolling hills and farms beyond with a good cup of coffee and chatter for company. And found my equilibrium once again. I'm so thankful for 2nd parents and faithful, good, honest, friends. 

Here is part of our decor, a huge clock and 'wheat'.

There is a line I read somewhere that said, "There is nothing like a magnum of French champagne and a fountain to set you right again." I've not had the experience, but it is safe to say, there is nothing like French clothing and good company to set you right again. It truly works!

This is Regina, Saskatchewan. A cute little city, and fun shopping. I said this to a Canadian and she nearly died... clearly she only believes Winnipeg is the best!! And I'll have to take her word for it until I can compare the two! That photo is for you ASB!

One of the funniest sights I saw coming up to Plentywood was this. Antelope, next 7 exits. It is not a lie, nor are there any roundabouts, stop signs, or clover leafs. Nope, just straight road as you can see below... but there are indeed 7 exits. For 7 driveways, each 200 feet apart.

And then, we head on to Baker. An old cow town that became a dirty oil field town years ago. It's starting to clean up a bit and become a self respecting little town as there are adorable shops and a fabulous coffee shop and little things that make you feel loved by a small town and yet cultured from a city. Go to Lawler's if you ever are through there. You can't miss it. It's the yellowest of yellow storefronts you can imagine :) You can see a portion of it just to the right of the photo of town.

I crack up at the dumbest stuff... but this stop n go storage.... yep, they were in such a go, they didn't stop to finish the rest of the phone number!

The Bike

See this?

Bike.

Yep.

Not just any bike, but the bike that has an attitude. With a Kapital A. I have one in our house because, well, it’s good furniture after all. It holds towels and sheets amazingly well because, alas, we don’t have a dryer, and I’ve found that freeze drying towels and sheets outside don’t work as well. Plus it’s cold and windy which breeds crabbiness in me with quick abandon.

The furniture, aka The Bike and I have something to prove and I hate every blessed minute of it.

You see, I got married. That's NOT crabby. That's very very good- the best!! It's just the Bike part.

But, like all  wifely-poo’s do to prove to their hubbily darlings that love originates through a man’s stomach, takes it upon herself to cook divinely French rich sauces over chicken or fish with a side of a beautiful herbed brown rice that makes me tuck in with knife and fork and he nibbles politely oohing and ahhing over how nice it looks. And, because a job for me is in excessive scarcity, I stay at home puttering and muttering while he goes to work and is rewarded back home with beef ribs cooked with fantastic homemade BBQ sauce drizzled over red skinned mashed potatoes made with, Cream. Oh yeah. What’s that old verse? “big heart never liked little cream pot?” Tis true, tis true. Then, consider the gorgeous salads and homemade eggnog and cookies and slow baked apples that take at minimum four hours to cook at 200 degrees. Going even so far as to make stews and soups and homemade fresh bread right out of the oven with a pat of butter and slaved over beautifully canned little soldiers of apricot or raspberry jam that I made just a month after we got married.

Oh yes, there is a call to all newly married women who are on the hunt for the most outstanding recipe to stop him in his tracks and again renew his undying love like the day he asked me to marry him. How pathetic that I still think this may gain me flowers...

When I brought home chicken wings from the store looking horribly freezer burnt and a disgusting yellow orange because I didn’t have time to cook that night, he pounced on them like a cat, with a bottle of ranch and ate the whole platter. I watched feeling positively green/grey over how gross it is while he grunted his approval between bites finally coming up for air at the last one, and noticing my expression felt his duty to offer me one.  I declined, no words needed. I noted that I never knew the way to a man’s heart was with chicken wings that only took 12 minutes, including opening the package, and then dumping them cooked onto a plate.

Needless to say, that happy little background is why I’ve gained 12 pounds (if I’m really honest, 14 lbs) in four months and why I’ve decided to take a hard look at the bike. I have ALWAYS eaten like that. Mom cooked that way, I cook that way and nary a pound was thought over.

UNTIL.

I turned 30.

And got married.

This whole turning 30 thing I laughed unworriedly over aunties and friends saying your body changes  and I’ll have change my ways. All  taken with a laugh and a shrug while slicing off another slab of cake, ignoring their pleas that gravity takes over, pounds begin where there never was, etc. Well, it happens and horror of ALL horrors, I start talking about it with others or with my hubbly because there’s no one to talk to and when he says the same thing, “you look fine,” I stoop to writing about it. I muster that I have no pride left. I’ve never dealt with this quite in this fashion.

So bike and I. We have a forcible conversation every time I try to touch it. For one it’s a fairly new one and actually tells you how you’re doing. I’ve decided I’m rather partial to my gram’s old bike which was so ancient, you decided how you FELT how you were doing and took an early exit.

But back to this bike, it tells you how far you’ve travelled, how much time you’ve been at it and how many calories burned. I look down after 5 minutes and explode with rage and wondering how on earth I’m actually sweating. I hate sweating over exercise. I’d much rather be outside gardening and sweating under sun and sky or chasing cows and sweating in the muck or sweating in a tractor over bumpy ground with no AC because on those times you don’t know you’re really working out. It’s ever so much better.

However, I refuse to go outside. It’s a wind thing. And I detest the wind more than anything I’ve ever encountered. Exercise, coupled with wind lambasting me in the face, hating every minute of it….Yeah. Not gonna happen. So, just bike and me.

I’ve sweated over this bike. I have got up to 14 miles in 35 minutes and not one thing is happening to my body. No change. I may detest the bike more than wind.  (not really) But seriously. Why no change? I’ve done this for a month now, and rotated workouts etc and so on like my trainer husband tells me to do. Is it possible to “plateau” on your first day?? I’ll have to ask him.

I’m off for a bike. And a ½ cup serving of cottage cheese for lunch, with a little side of tuna. Oh ye French sauces....!