It Smells Like Spring

One of the challenges I've noticed about living this far from the big town is how difficult it is to get and keep fresh produce in the fridge.  We try to feed the rugrats a fruit or veggie at every meal. Three growing boys can empty a fruit drawer in a hurry.  I try to only make a trip to town no more than once a week and even stretch it to two weeks whenever I can.  I buy 90% of my groceries at Sam's Club.  The cases of everything and giant carts really suit our lifestyle. But the produce that's available there doesn't always fit the bill and of course these months of winter we are without any of our home grown garden treats.

Some of last summer's home grown veggies.

Thankfully, a friend told me about Bountiful Baskets a while back.  It's a produce buying co-operative that is run by volunteers.  You make a contribution and they put it into a pool and buy as much yummy produce as the money allows.  The effort is made for freshness, in season and for a fun variety. The coolest part for me is that we never know what we're gonna get! It's like veggie Christmas!  I can say the $15.00 for the box is an amazing value. This time we got potatoes, cherry tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, pineapple, green bell peppers, leeks, mushrooms, apples, oranges, bananas, broccoli and probably something I'm forgetting.

Every other Saturday morning our group of farmer's wives, school teachers, cowboys and kids all gather at the Geraldine Fire Hall to organize, disperse and pick up our bountiful baskets.  Today when I arrived, not many folks had beat the truck driver.  So my big boy and I pitched in to unload the semi and organize the baskets. He and the other kids were a great help and had fun too.  I think we will now make it a regular thing to have him go with me to volunteer.

Some of today's Bountiful Basket.
 

When we got home my mom was ready to help sort, wash and put up our loot.  The kitchen was suddenly bursting with fresh, green things.  Mom said it smelled like Spring.

The website for Bountiful Baskets is www.bountifulbasktets.org .  Maybe they have a site in your town!

'Til Next Time,
B

Snowy Sunday

What does a Prairie Momma do on a day that's cold, windy and snowy enough that one doesn't want to play outside? She makes jam!  What does she do if she doesn't have any brand new jar lids in the house and the store is 30 miles away?  She makes freezer jam!

This morning I noticed that there are only two more jars of my home made Flathead Cherry Jelly in the pantry.  Now that I have learned to make jelly I am a jelly snob.  I occasionally think about buying some at the store.  I pick up the jar, read the ingredients and shake my head when I get to the  "high fructose corn syrup" part. Back on the shelf it goes. 

My big boy took this photo for his Momma.

I plan on becoming the Jelly Queen.  It's actually pretty easy once you get over the whole, huge boiling kettle, steaming hot jars and lids, big ol' fruit mess thing. So even though I am still far from being a domestic goddess, I'm now one step closer! The best part is I can spend cold, snowy days doing something productive and dare I say, fun.  A little side bonus is the cost, or lack of.  Each jar of today's jam cost about $1.37 to make.  The jam in the store is what I consider outrageously expensive.  So if you want to save money and doing something interesting, give it a try! Of course I know some of you are old hands at jelly making and might be having a giggle at my expense. That's ok!  If it weren't for other momma's knowing these things, us younger gals wouldn't have anyone to learn from.

So there it is.... my exciting Sunday afternoon in Geraldine. 

'Til next time,

B

Uncle George & AM Radio

A view from my past....

Today I drove the old blue van to Fort Benton.  I was in need of some things from the hardware store.  Mainly one of those chain, security locks for my door.  Not because we have any sort of crime here in Geraldine, because we don't.  But because my rugrats have become very adept at getting all the doors open and escaping outside. They wanna go "ooouuut!"  Sometimes I actually can't keep my eye on both of them at the same time, so I needed a lock! 

When I drive one of our older vehicles that doesn't have XM Radio, I always have it tuned to KMON AM 560 radio.  It's a country station that has been on the air in Great Falls for at least 40 years, maybe longer. They still play all the really good music from the 70's and 80's plus the current stuff. You can count on the weather twice an hour and the Ag Report at Noon.

 

I remember hearing  "On the Road Again" and "The Gambler" all the time, back when I was a little red headed, pig tailed little girl riding in my mom's old, olive green Ford car.  Some years later, KMON AM 560 was playing on the radio of my '78 Ford truck every time I drove to town from my Uncle George's ranch at Dupuyer, Montana.  By then I was a crazy teenage girl with hair down to my waist, wearing boots and Wranglers as though my life depended on it.  I was my great uncle's "hired man" and KMON was faithfully tuned in just before noon dinner each day.  We'd be heading back to the house from feeding the cows and he'd tune in to hear Paul Harvey's "Rest of the Story" as we bounced along in those old farm trucks.  Uncle George is with Jesus now.  But I will never forget his wisdom or his sermons for me as I worked along side him, listening to the radio....

Dupuyer, MT

The More Things Change

I had flash backs again today.  I always have them when I go to K-Mart in Great Falls.  Don't worry, they aren't bad flash backs.  I see myself as a little girl, about 4 years old.  There I am with my little red pig tails, asking my mom if I can ride the horsey merry-go-round that sits in front of the K-Mart store on the west side of Great Falls.  Mom always said no. Probably because I was too big for such a kiddie ride, but my horse obsessed little self did not care!

We lived in a little town 25 miles south of Great Falls until I was 12. (Hello to my Cascade peeps!) We usually went to Great Falls on Sundays for church and occasionally got to go to a store for something special.  We sure didn't shop much then, it was a treat! I think I shopped more today than my mom could have in a whole year back then.  My rugrats turn two in a few days.  Double trouble and double the fun.  Getting a few special birthday gifts for each boy added up to traipsing all over town this afternoon. 

It occurred to me today, while I was at K-Mart staring at the little horsey merry-go-round that is STILL in front of that store 30 years later, that Great Falls has barely changed at all since I was a child.  There's a few new places.  Wal-Mart and Sam's Club have moved in of course.  There is also a "new" shopping center on the south side where there used to be a huge horse pasture. Old Navy, Furniture Row, Home Depot and the like. But for the most part Great Falls looks exactly like it always has.  The little shopping mall has barely changed at all.  No major remodel, no huge additions.  The same businesses, many of them locally owned and operated, still grace 10th Ave South. Each trip to town is a day of deja vu for me.

When I was living in Seattle, things would change so rapidly it was sometimes hard to remember what street you were on!  Always a new subdivided neighborhood appearing on a hill or a new mini mart on the corner. A business you liked to frequent would be there one week and gone the next.  Grocery stores were constantly remodeling in order to stay "new and fresh".  It was a frantically growing, buzzing place.

Now I'm home.  Where everything is the same as it always has been.  I can count on the city of Great Falls to economically trudge along.  Like the tortoise.  Quietly and dependably providing the services needed by us out-of-towners, farmers and ranchers.  After living literally all over the United States and experiencing more change than many people do in a lifetime, I'm so glad that the more things change, the more they stay the same....

'Til next time,
B

A Cup of Sugar

At five minutes before six tonight I saw a note that sent a wave of panic through me.  I was looking at Payson's stack of schoolwork from his backpack. There it was.... a little note that said, "Don't forget to bring cupcakes to school tomorrow!"  Somehow I had missed the memo from last week.  I quickly scoured the pantry and realized I did have a cake mix but I only had three cupcake wrappers.  The clock now read 5:57. I dashed down the block to the tiny store we have here, hoping they'd still be open and hoping they'd have cupcake wrappers. Knowing they close at 6:00, my chances were slim on both counts.  I pulled up and saw the clerk driving away to her house, store all closed up.

Next, I stopped by my grandfolks.  Grandpa sometimes bakes a cake.  Ya never know, maybe they'd have cupcake wrappers.  Nope.  No such luck.  Then I thought of my friend Miriam. She is always baking something yummy from something she grew in her garden.  She is the queen of homemade bread and jams. I knew she'd have cupcake wrappers!  I popped in to find her making dinner in her charming, colorful kitchen.  I apologized for disturbing her and laughed and hugged me. 

I told Miriam of my serious, potential mommy fail and she rescued me!  She had just enough cupcake wrappers in her cupboard.  A few years ago it was all too common to borrow, "a cup of sugar" from our neighbors.  When was the last time you borrowed anything from a neighbor?  It seems much more common to run to Wal-Mart.  Here in Geraldine it still happens quite often.  Miriam said when she is out of something she goes to our other friend Kari's house.  We are happy that we finally have a little store that has some basics on hand.  But the hours are short and supplies are limited.  The next store is in Fort Benton, 26 miles away.  It makes a lot more sense to ask a neighbor than to spend and hour driving for a cup of sugar or cupcake wrappers.

So with Miriam's help I was able to produce two dozen, red velvet cupcakes with homemade cream cheese frosting.  Payson requested sprinkles and I actually had those in the pantry! The mommy fail was avoided thanks to my sweet neighbor.  Now I just need to remember to put cupcake wrappers on the list for the next trip to town....

'Til next time,

B

Rattlesnakes and Scars

A while back I wrote about an experience I had while I was out riding.  Rhett and I came up on a culvert that we had ridden across many times as a way to avoid a really boggy area. Rhett does not like mud! Never has, never will.  He will cowboy up and go through it when I really need him to, but only then!  Anyhow, we rode up on that little culvert and the thing came alive!  The ground vibrated and in .05 seconds I knew the sound of rattlesnakes. Lots of rattlesnakes.  Rhett knew it too and screeched to a halt. In another .05 seconds we were backing up just as fast as we could.  Twenty five feet later we stopped and both of us caught our breath.  Our hearts were pounding and we could not wait to get out of there!

I rode past that little culvert again this afternoon.  Each and every time we go by I hear those snakes in my mind.  I know they most likely have moved on to a deeper den for winter.  But neither Rhett or I want to take the chance.  I know some of my dear readers are laughing at me right now and that's just fine with me.  I'm not the only one with a snake issue.  My dear cousin Joellyn scared one up with her lawn mower last summer.  Now she doesn't go anywhere near that part of her back yard. Just in case.... Rattlesnakes have such an ability to freak us out!

It occurred to me today that my snake issues are like some of my other "scars".  Maybe something doesn't actually cause us physical damage, but it still leaves a scar. Something can frighten us so badly that we're never quite the same.  It makes it so we just can't quite ride across that culvert anymore.  It can be something that others deem silly or small.  Something that nobody else even notices.  Yet it stays with us and leaves a scar.

It's now a goal of mine to somehow get over the fear of that culvert.  Maybe I'll walk over it after throwing a bunch of rocks at it.  Just to be sure.  But I'm gonna do it! Of course, if I even think I hear a snake, or see a snake, forget it!  I'm outta there!  I'm not dumb enough to get myself snake bit for the cause of conquering a fear....

'Til next time,
B

The Cheeky Dog

 

This morning I took the puppies for a nice long walk around town.  It was quite cold and the snow was lightly falling but these pups are tough! They were enjoying our walk so much and I was too.  They now have the leash business figured out so it's very enjoyable for me as well.  I always walk Judge on the left and Jury on my right.  She's a bit more active/naughty and so by default she gets my stronger right arm to contend with.  She's also more alert than Judge.  He is happy to trudge along at my heels and doesn't question me.  Jury is sometimes sure I am leading her to danger.  Buses and cars are monsters, even if parked.  Fire hydrants are puppy eating demons!  But she is calming down and is beginning to trust me more.

Jury and her wooden snake.  She's practicing up for the real thing!

 

When we were nearly home we ran across a very cheeky Border Collie.  He was delighted to see someone else out so early and began running laps around us. Judge didn't like it at all but was dutifully following me even though he was worried.  Jury was flat out ticked off.  She was trying to behave but did not like that ornery dog!  When he made the mistake of dashing in towards us Jury spun and lunged at him and gave him her most ferocious, "I'm gonna tear you up!" barks.  She was so serious and scary that the Border Collie ran away! She was not gonna have anyone even think about invading our space.  As soon as he ran back into his yard, she calmed down and went along nicely. 

 

I was so surprised and I dare say, impressed by her behavior.  A little, not quite 10 week old pup and she was laying down the law with that naughty dog.  I can only imagine what is to come with her.  Which is the reason we are doing daily obedience lessons!  They are both so terribly smart that we know they will be very loyal guards.  But it is so very apparent that now is the time to install the "abort mission" command.  

"You talkin' to me?"

 

 

Each day with them has been quite interesting.  I hope you enjoyed our update.

 

'Til next time,

B