Ladies' Weekend at Chico Hot Springs!

Wow. Just Wow.

What a great weekend!

It has been a long time since I have felt so rejuvenated, refreshed, and inspired by just one weekend or one event. I am still flying on an emotional high from my weekend at the Montana Farmers Union Women's Conference this past weekend. Wow!

The conference was held at Chico Hot Springs in southern Montana. It was a very beautiful setting, ideal for a Women's Conference.

This is one of the many spectacular views looking toward the mountains from Chico.

We spent the weekend in a group of about sixty women from all across the state, and even some from out of state! There were all ages present, from young infants to a 90 year old woman. The women in the group represented pretty much every type of agriculture that Montana has to offer. The focus and theme of the event was Telling Your Story, and throughout the weekend, we all discovered what great stories we really do have to share! All the speakers taught us and encouraged us to be the best, most true versions of ourselves, and to be proud of who we are and share our stories with each other and the world. Especially as women involved in agriculture, this is so important.

I had so many takeaways from this conference that I know I'll need several blog posts and some time to process through all my thoughts and excitement. One of the biggest impacts this conference has had on me was simply the relationships that I kept, renewed, formed, and strengthened with some of the amazing women who were present. This state has some really, truly inspiring female residents and I now count myself among them!

Keep checking back this week for more info. I have so many things to share with all of you! I filled TWELVE PAGES of writing in my notebook from this conference! It was constant inspiration and "aha moments" all weekend long. To keep your interest piqued, here are just a few scribbles I wrote down:

"I am the face of agriculture." ~Lisa Schmidt

"Will I be liked or will I be effective?"  ~ Lisa Schmidt

"The most common way people give up power is by thinking they don't have any." ~Alice Walker

"Rural living and farm life need believers. Because our voice is so small, it needs to be powerful." ~ Lorrie Merrill

"You are selling more than just food; you are selling values." ~ Courtney Cowgill

"Lean in. Get down. Let your light shine. Life. Simply. Real. Stand firm in this moment." ~ Kim Owen and Kyla Uribe

"...the fine line between solitude and isolation." ~ Courtney Cowgill

"The smallest change will empower you." ~ Lorrie Merrill

Kim and Kyla of K.Rae Creations shared these cards (and so much more!) with us!

Those are just a few things that came out of the mouths of some of our speakers! I have so many ideas for blog posts and new goals to share that this will take several posts to get it all out! While at the conference, in addition to being completely inspired and blown away by all the amazing women attendees, I also had a chance to go for a run (it was just what I needed!!), practice my writing skills, center myself with some yoga, set new goals, get things started and gain momentum. You'll hear about ALL OF THIS and MORE! Over the next several blog posts. This conference just can NOT be contained in one single blog post!!! Stay tuned for more throughout the week!

Thankful Thursday Giveaway

Here we are again for Thankful Thursday! I hope everyone is having a great week!  I have a few things that I'm grateful for that I'd like to share with you today, plus a quote that I find inspiring, and a GIVEAWAY. Read on to discover what I'm thankful for and what I'm giving away!

If you read yesterday's post, then you know that me and Jeff have been spending quite a bit of time in the mountains playing in the snow. I love, love, love mountains and skiing and winter recreation. I didn't know how much I enjoy being in the mountains until I moved to Wyoming back in 2007. It was like I had found something I didn't know I was missing my whole life! Since moving to Wyo back about seven years ago, I have more or less stayed in close range (har har har!) to the mountains, which is something I am thankful for. It is exciting to drive West from our house, seeing the Rocky Mountain Front stretching from north to south along the length of the horizon, with it's promise of adventure and excitement tucked into the peaks and valleys.

But today's Thankful Thursday post is actually more about the feeling of coming down from the mountains and back to the prairie. It's the feeling of coming home. As much as I do love mountains and am so thankful to live within three hours of the Front, I also love the comforting, peaceful feeling of descending down from the mountains, back to the prairie that is now my home. Driving back East from the mountains, when the plains open up with their blanket of greeting, I know I'm going back to my place in the world.

One of the best things about living on the plains, especially in a rural area, is that you have complete, unadulterated skyline views. Views of vast skies and storylines of clouds and weather unfold before us every day. Out here, you can truly see why Montana has the nickname of Big Sky State. The day we drove back from our trip to Glacier, I took Harvey for a walk and the beauty of the sky over the plains unfolded...

Sweetgrass Hills and Goldstone Church in silhouette.

Beautiful sky colors as the sun sets.

This is the "back of the sunset," or the colors reflecting on the East side of the sky.
Don't forget to turn around next time you are watching the sunset!

 Pictures truly don't do the sky and the clouds and the colors justice. 

One other thing that's on my mind today, pertaining to gratitude and Thankful Thursdays, is the following quote I came upon recently:

"I am in charge of how I choose to react to what life throws at me. I can't choose when my moments will happen. Gratitude is the most powerful force for healing. People are more inspired to live well by truth than fiction. Truth is fluid because we are fluid." - Lauren Fleshman, elite runner.

Lauren Fleshman is an elite runner that I follow on Instagram and other means of social media. She is super inspiring, hard working, and a great leader. I find a lot of tidbits in her blog that I transfer to my own running and coaching experience. Love her. I connected with that line "Gratitude is the most powerful force for healing," and thought it was especially pertinent in a Thankful Thursday post!

Lastly, today I'd like to announce an informal giveaway I'm doing here for my blog readers. I had a couple sheets of the stickers pictured below printed off and I'd like to share some of them with you!

To win, just share something you are thankful or grateful for, and why, and you'll be entered in the drawing for a sheet of stickers. You can leave your comment here on the blog, or email it to me, or in the comments section for this post on Facebook (I know some of you have a hard time leaving comments here on the blog, so I'm trying to accommodate you.) You have until next Thursday's Thankful Thursday post to leave your comment. I'll announce the winner in next week's post, and share some of the things you are all thankful for, too!  Most of my readership is someone I know personally, so if it happens that you win and I don't already have your address, we'll figure out a way to get that safely so I can send you the stickers. :)

Just to recap, here's some questions you could think about answering in order to be entered in the drawing:

1) What is something you are particularly thankful for, and why.

2) What is something you could be more positive about?

3) When has Gratitude helped you heal?

Thanks everyone for reading, whether you participate in the drawing or not! Have a great week!

Pasture Walk

So, it's Monday and I'm not at work! WAHOO! That's one of the great things about working in a school. It's winter break! No school until January 5! :)

I've still been busy though. Busy getting ready for Christmas and the arrival of my parents and brother later this week! This has meant holiday baking, prepping casseroles for the freezer to be taken out and eaten later, putting up the tree, wrapping presents, sending holiday cards... etc. Jeff and I have also been spending some time at Tom and Carol's since Katie and Josh are there with our nephew, Brandon! What a little cutie! Shame on me for not having an photos to share. 

This morning I took a little break from cleaning house and took Harvey for a long walk out into our pasture. It's a route I don't take very often. In the summer, this is for fear of running into a rattlesnake. In the winter, well, I don't know why I don't go this way more. It's a nice 40 minute walk to go from my house out to the top of the bluff and back. Here's some photos I took from our stroll:

This is how Harvey shows me he's ready for a walk.
Who could say no to that face?

We followed an old cow trail.  This is what most of the path looked like. 

Close to the top of the bluff.
Harvey is about the same color as the old sandstone rocks that peek out through the surface of the ground.

Rusty, tawny ground and a bright blue sky with clouds.
Classic Montana.

Another dog silhouette photo. 

And then we turned around, and this was the view! Spectacular!
That's our little farmyard, then the Sweetgrass Hills in the distance.

So, I love textures found in nature. This rock was covered in dried up lichens. Pretty great!

Who doesn't love the sound that ice makes when you crunch it underfoot!?

Headed back towards home.

Not even a drop in the bucket of the energy reserves of the Vizsla.
"Fine. I'll sit for a photo. But I will NOT look at the camera!"

Well, better get back at it. I think I hear the dryer stopped and there's probably more baking to be done! Nice to enjoy a walk while it's nice, though. 

Early Summer Roundup, Installment Five: Glacier Drive Through

My family came to visit over the Fourth of July and the following weekend and did I take a single family photo to prove they were here? No...

It was nice to have them for a few days.  We were here on the farm for the first part of their visit. Jeff missed out on a lot of the action because he was on the swather/baler making hay.  The rest of us were mostly pretty chill. Lots of sleeping in, long walks on the farm roads, and catching up. 

The second part of their visit, we drove over to Glacier.  Mom and Dad had never seen the park, but Ryan and I went a few years ago when he was visiting another time.  Due to unforeseen circumstances, we had less time in the park than we had originally planned on, so we were pretty much limited to the Parking Lot Tour of Going-to-the-Sun road.  It was still awesome, and neat to share the park with my family.  If nothing else, it was a teaser for a future visit when we will hopefully have more time to get off the main road and really get to know Glacier. 

Most of the photos I took are pretty much your standard tourist photos from the pull-outs along the road, but the scenery is so spectacular that even the least experienced hobby photographer like myself can take masterpiece shots.  Here's a few of the highlights-- enjoy!

Mama and baby mountain goat! Jeff took us to the Goat Lick overlook on Highway 2, which was very cool.

Lake McDonald

I think this was Jackson Glacier. I wonder how long this glacier will be around?

St. Mary Lake

A Day in the Life AND Early Summer Roundup, Installment Four: Seattle Proper!

A day in the life...

So good to be home for the whole weekend. Jeff and I both have been looking forward to the time when we'd no longer be traveling so much and this is the first full weekend of being home.  Not that we aren't busy, however.  Jeff has been spending most of his time mowing CRP that we will be putting into production.  And when he isn't mowing, he and I have been on ranch duties. 

Right now, our cows are running with Tom's at pasture.  They are in four groups and spread out among the different pastures we own and rent.  Late July is a restless time for the cattle, however. The bulls in particular are starting to get antsy.  By now, they have been with the cows for some time and have, ahem, well... one might say they have achieved their mission.  At least we hope they have.  Judging by the tendency of the bulls to get out lately, one could safely say that at least the good majority of the cows are bred.

Therein lies the problem.  The bulls get restless and decide to push on fences here and there and escape.  They go into the neighbors herd (where there are fewer bred cows...) or into the neighbor's wheat field (wheat tastes better than grass! Duh!)... or just into some other pasture (Hence the phrase, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence).  All this activity has lead to Jeff and I spending time mending fences and gates here and there.  As Jeff is on the mower as much as he can be, it has been my job over the past few days to drive around and check whether the cows are in or out at the various pastures. 

Mornings have also been spent watering the vegetable garden and flowers at Tom and Carol's house, and harvesting veggies.  Lettuce is on the down-side of its bell curve of ripeness, while cucumbers and green peas, and snow peas are on the upswing.  If anyone has any good cucumber or pea recipes, send them our way because we have a bumper crop for sure! Tonight I am making pasta with bacon and peas, and I think I am going to experiment with making pea spread either today or tomorrow. It will be like hummus, only green, and I think it'll freeze fine, too.  First step in making pea dip will be simply to figure out how to put together and use the food processor...

So that's what has been happening around here over the weekend.

Back to the Early Summer Roundup, here's the photos from our time in Seattle. 

Really, the only super-touristy thing we did was go to Pike's Place market.  Even though it was crowded with throngs of people, I still enjoyed it.  It was cool to see so much produce and seafood in one place. Although I did wonder how much of it was produced locally versus shipped in from warehouses or facilities from far away...

 

We met up with a very dear friend of mine from college, Ellen, whom I hadn't seen since I still lived in Iowa.  She and her husband and their young son were also in Seattle for a wedding (not the same wedding!) so we met at the market for breakfast.  They are organic farmers in Western Iowa.  They also have a CSA and Ellen is a huge advocate for local, sustainable food. I love her.  Here's one of their websites: Pin Oak Place.

I took this picture in the market because of the beef prices.  HOLY COW! No pun intended.  Glad I don't have to buy beef at the store... although I am sure there is a Pike's Place Market Markup.  Would anyone out there like to pay Bangs Beef that much for one of our steaks?!?! :) 

I bought some delicious Tequila Caramel from this stand. We were first attracted to this booth because of the name-- Woodring Orchards.  We have some close family friends from Townsend, MT with that last name... any relation!?

 

And now moving into the main reason we went to Seattle in the first place! For the wedding of my dear friend, Steven.  Steven and Jessica started dating back when I still lived in Ames... so maybe 2006? I had the great delight of meeting and getting to know Jessica before the two of them moved to Seattle.  Steven I have known since we were in seventh grade.  He's actually still to this date the friend I have had the longest who I still keep in touch with.  He's a pretty tremendous guy! Jessica is so wonderful as well.  Wish we all lived closer. :)

Steven is a very talented person in many different realms. One of his talents is glass blowing.  Steven and a friend made all these little glass penguin figurines and glass ornaments for the centerpieces at the wedding reception.  They were beautiful!

 Another person I was so fortunate to reconnect with at the wedding was another dear friend from high school, Leslie! I hadn't seen her since high school but was so delighted to find that we were still easy friends. Sometimes when you reconnect with someone you haven't seen in a while, either you or they have changed so much that you can't see why you were friends in the first place. Not so with Leslie.  I had a great time catching up with her!

 Jessica and Steven.  The happy couple! I wished we had more time to catch up with them, but that's the nature of weddings. You're surrounded by friends and family but it's so hard to have meaningful conversations with any of them.  Next time, friends!

The light is a little goofy in this photo, but here's me, Jessica, Steven, and Leslie.

 

The wedding reception was at Golden Gardens park, right on a public beach on the Sound. Looking across the water, you could see the Olympic Peninsula and the mountains. 

 The reception was held in what was formerly a bath house and is now an events venue. It was perfect. The weather was perfect. The people were perfect. Everything was perfect!

 
 We were really only in Seattle for about 48 hours, in total, so we didn't have a ton of time to see too many people, unfortunately. Sunday, we did take some time to relax at a baseball game. Happily, the Cubs, my long-time favorite team, were playing the Mariners in interleague play. We decided rather last minute to buy tickets at the gate and go to the game before heading out of town.

 

Approaching the stadium, with great Mount Rainier in the background.

Safeco Field is pretty new and a very nice stadium.

The view from our seats.

Alas, we look pretty confused as fans.  Jeff in his Braves shirt and I in a Mariners hat, and we both cheering for the Cubs.  We got a few funny looks from the people seated around us.  I bought the Mariners hat because I had neglected to bring a hat of my own to the game and it was pretty sunny.  I guess I'm a Mariners fan, now! Since they are AL and the Cubs are NL it's probably OK to be fans of both, right?

 

Stay tuned for the next episode of Early Summer Roundup, coming soon!

Weekend Getaway and A Surprise at Home

Last weekend we took a mini vacation to my former stomping grounds and place of residence, Jackson, WY.  It was a great weekend pilgrimage, action packed with winter activities, and quality time catching up with friends and family.  Katie and Josh joined us for the weekend, and we also spent some time with some of my close friends from when I lived in Jackson.  It was a great "Last Hurrah" of sorts before calving... Here's some photos from the trip, Enjoy! 

Cross-country skiing along the banks of the Snake River.

While skiing, we saw this cow and calf moose pair across the river.
We are not as close to the animals as this photo makes it look- I just have a pretty good zoom.

Beautiful sunny day! We took a scenic drive to get some good shots of the Tetons.



Katie, Josh, and Jeff while on our snowshoeing outing in Grand Teton National Park.



We ate a picnic lunch on a frozen lake at the base of the Tetons! Perfect!

Intermittant clouds covered the Grand, but we still got a great group shot!

Future Christmas Card photo???

Josh made that little snowman- Marvin is his name!

And then while we were gone...

THIS happened...

The first calf of the season was born!

So that little guy was born nine days ago from this evening- the first one. He was definitely a little early, and very small, but he is doing well! We haven't had any since, but Jeff is going to start staying at his folks' house beginning this evening and the night checks and rotations will begin.  I was here this afternoon helping Jeff with a few chores, and the little guy has gotten bigger, but he's still no prize-winner. He's not much bigger than Harvey, in fact. 

Walking through the herd this afternoon, Jeff thought there were a few who were getting pretty close, and there is a weather system moving in. Sometimes weather systems can cause the calves to drop... So, stay tuned for updates! 



Welcome to Winter in the Park

Montana is filled with so many beautiful places. Since I moved to the west I have been fortunate enough to live near several major National Parks including Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Glacier. It's so wonderful to enjoy these beautiful open spaces (AND the beautiful open spaces which aren't a designated National Park). Each of those parks are breathtaking any time of year, but I have found that winter is the unsung surprise. 

The parks are overrun with tourists in the summer months- tourists who sometimes seem to have no fear of wild animals or respect for the land they are lucky enough to be visiting. The subject of tourists in the parks is for another blog post at another time (don't get me started!).  In the winter, however, the primary visitors to the parks are locals. It's far less crowded, and the snow cover changes everything.  The landscape is just as striking if not moreso with a snow blanket, and the fauna activity is completely changed as well. Winter is a great time to visit the parks and truly experience the solitude of long, cold months, and to see another side of the park revealed.

Last weekend, Jeff and I had the great pleasure of a weekend of relaxation at a cabin in the southern tip of Glacier National Park.  We skied and snowshoed, ate delicious food, cought up on reading and movie-watching, and spent time in the hot tub. It was thoroughly wonderful.

Here's some of the best photos from our weekend adventure.  Enjoy!