Weekend Roundup!

We had a busy and varied weekend this past weekend, so I thought I'd give you all a brief roundup of the activities!

This was a Bozeman weekend for us, as the Bobcats were at home for football against Portland State. Jeff and I attended the game with friends and family, as usual. Carol snapped this awesome picture of a bunch of us before the game:

Jeremy & Jacynta, Josh & Katie, Jeff and Me
Photo Credit goes to Carol.

The Cats won the game, the weather was great, and we had a nice time. It's always good to spend time with our Bozeman friends and family. We're also really enjoying seeing Katie, my sister-in-law, so frequently as she's nearing the term of her pregnancy. Now, we're just a few weeks away from her due-date! So excited to welcome our nephew to the world very soon!!!

There's just one more regular-season home game left for the Cats, against Idaho State next weekend. After playing Idaho State at home, the Cats will travel to Missoula for the annual Cat/Griz rivalry game.  If the Cats win at least one of the next two games, they should at least be on the bubble for the post-season. If they win both, they should be a lock for the playoffs. We shall see! Neither of their remaining two games will be easy, so we're hoping they can stay sharp and play tough and that we'll see them in the post-season. Go Bobcats!

Saturday morning before the game, I wanted to get some fitness in. Whenever we travel, I always try to be on the lookout for 5Ks and races that I can participate in. This weekend, the Big Sky Wind Drinkers Running Club held a Turkey Trot predictor race. The idea is that you try to predict the time you'll finish the run in--and you can't bring a watch or phone or anything to pace yourself. They had three distances to choose from: 1.3 miles, 2.7 miles, or 4.4 miles. Odd distances, again, to try to make it tougher to guess your time.  To top it off, the courses were hilly, which makes it even tougher to predict times. The three closest people to their predicted time in each distance would win TURKEYS to use for Thanksgiving dinner!

There were about 20 people there, total. Only four people signed up for the 4.4 mile distance, which is the one I did. I was the only female at that distance, and had the slowest predicted time by about ten minutes. I thought about changing to one of the shorter races, just so that people wouldn't have to wait on me to finish, but then stuck to my guns. Since I new the course would be pretty hilly, I predicted a time of 42 minutes. I would have been pretty close, but I had to take a pit-stop during the run to go to the bathroom (who organizes a fun run with no potty access pre-race?!), which probably accounted for the extra time. I finished in 44 minutes. I was the absolute last person to finish at any distance, but I didn't feel bad about my time. In fact, I felt really strong throughout the run, even with some really mondo hills. The guy who guessed his time in the 4.4 mile bracket was within 6 seconds, so it was unlikely I would have been any closer to my time than he was to his, anyway.

All the participants of the Turkey Trot Fun Run, with Bozeman's beautiful Bridger Mountains in the background.

But guess what?! My Adam family tradition of winning door prizes at fun runs and races struck again and I won a turkey anyway, thanks to the random drawing of names of all participants! This is seriously a thing in my family-- we win door prizes. It's uncanny, but cool. One time, between my brother and I, we won over $100 in cash and prizes from another small-town fun run, just to name another example. So, even though I didn't guess my time, I still won a turkey for Thanksgiving! Awesome!!!

Winner, winner!

The best part of the event was simply how encouraging and friendly everyone there was. Even as I held up the show by finishing much later than everyone else, they were lined up at the finish line cheering me on. They were all very welcoming, even though I wasn't a member of their running club. That's what running and racing is all about. A couple of them told me-- "You'll be back!" and they're probably right!

Sunday, the day after the run and the Bobcat game, Jeff and I got up early for the 5 hour drive home. We were intending to be back on the Hi-Line in time for a baby shower I was supposed to go to that afternoon. However, Mother Nature had different plans. The weather system we weren't expecting until overnight on Sunday arrived early-- by mid-day. So, we had to beg out on the baby shower fun and get home to tend to our livestock.

We made it home by mid-afternoon, changed into warm layers, then headed over to Tom and Carol's place, where the herd and corrals are. I felt bad about ditching our friends who still braved weather and crumby roads to go to the baby shower, but this was the right thing to do. The cows had been bunkered into the side of a coulee bank down by the creek, but when they heard us drive into the yard they came running in to the corrals. It was quite a sight to see them charging in at full-tilt from the creek. They were definitely happy to see me and Jeff!

Here's a whole bunch of our cows, waiting to be served some straw to bed in and snack on.

We laid down some straw bedding for them to stay warm as the temperature dipped and the snow drove sideways, and swung some gates so they could get in to the corrals to access running water (AKA- water that wouldn't freeze in sub-zero temperatures). We also fed the bulls a bale of hay. I helped by swinging gates, keeping cows where they were supposed to be, and driving tractor a bit. The cows were very glad to see us, and for the straw. They don't eat straw like they do hay, but they'll munch on it a bit. It's mostly to keep warm and dry. Today, Monday, Jeff went back over and fed them some hay bales.  Truthfully, our cows are pretty spoiled and don't forage much after snow falls-- they're used to being fed hay bales in bad weather. What can I say? We love our animals!

Even though it was snowy and cold, Abby and Harvey were happy to run around in the snow and play outside!

 Abby was so excited to see us that she jumped up on me when I tried to take her photo. She was in her element running around and playing in the snow. She was so happy!

Harvey was having fun, too, but he made it pretty obvious when he was ready to climb back into the tractor or pickup. We left our house in a pretty big hurry, so we forgot to grab his special cold-weather coat. Really, in 15 degrees, wind, and snowfall, I can't blame him for not loving the outdoors. He still got some play-time in though-- he wrestled with Abby, sprinted around in the snow, and chased a few cottontails.

Winter weather has hit Montana. I'm glad for the long fall of warm temperatures and nice days, but now I'm also really looking forward to skiing and snowshoeing. Winter means bundling up all the time, being prepared for icky driving conditions, more livestock chores, but it can also be a wonderful time if one is prepared. I'm excited to get into some winter running and winter recreation!

What were you up to this weekend?

Super Bowl Butter

What did you do for the Super Bowl this year?

In the past, I have been about as anti-super bowl as it could get. I was actually not a fan of football at all until I met my husband, and always hated all the excessive pageantry and rigamarole that went along with the big game. I still do dislike that aspect of the game. Now that I actually appreciate and enjoy watching a football game, I just wish all the hype could go away and let the two best teams in the league play ball. 

All that having been said, I decided not to attend any Super Bowl gatherings this year. I didn't care much about either of the two teams in the game, and also didn't care much about most of the players. When Carol asked if I wanted to join her in making and canning some homemade apple butter, I said yes! A couple different sets of visitors from Washington this past fall brought troves of delicious, fresh apples with them and we are all still working our way through the many bushels.

The process was really pretty easy, although a little time consuming.  Throughout the afternoon and evening we had a few minor setbacks with appliances, but got it figured out in the end. We had no power outages, nor did we have Beyonce in the kitchen performing a half-time extravaganza (although that might have been fun!), and there was no purple confetti streaming down when we were ultimately victorious over the boiling-water-bath canning method, but it was still fun.  Can't wait to dig in to the apple butter and give it a try!

Maybe next year we will try orange marmalade or lemon curd. :)

Taking the food mill for it's final spin- it unfortunately went kaput during the apple butter adventure.

In the end, 1 pint jar and 4 half-pints of delicious apple butter!