Family Mellmann

And another milestone is in the books.  Katherine celebrated her 21st birthday this year. We enjoyed hibachi for dinner as we have pretty much every October since she was old enough to have a vote, and she chose Apple Crisp for dessert which I dutifully packed with 21 flaming candles.  After this we'll have to switch to two candles per year lest we upset the Fire Marshal. It was a lovely meal, many good laughs, a few presents, and a realization that we don't have anymore "kids"...they're all adults now.   

Sunrise on Plenty Coups Road revealed fresh snow on the Beartooth mountains.  And yet, here at the house it was sunny and (almost) warm.  And then in the evening, as it cools off outside, we can be cozy in the living room with a fire.  It took a long time to get here, but we are definitely enjoying it now.  

Now that we live here full time (no more visiting while work is being done) we get to experience the many moods of the mountains throughout the days and throughout the weather changes.  On this overcast afternoon we watched the clouds dance around the mountains leaving behind fresh snow.  With the big windows, it's like having one of those photo frames where the pictures constantly change.  

 Saturday morning we enjoyed a full rainbow and a hint of a double rainbow.  By the afternoon, it was just clouds but somehow the clouds just look more spectacular over the mountains.   While the weather was giving us a show outside, Jörg was hanging out in the crawl space helping the geothermal system release air bubbles.  Upstairs, our builder came by to install the mounting bars for holding my knives and some other kitchen tools.  Now I can find whatever knife I need AND have paper towel close by in case I cut myself!  (only kidding...the worst cut I've had so far was from a cardboard box, not my knives)   And this morning, winter made a brief appearance in our neighborhood.  Fortunately, it didn't stick around because I don't get my snow tires until Wednesday!  Note to self; schedule snow tires in September next year.  

Progress continues here in Absarokee.  The changes are much less dramatic than they were when contractors were buzzing in and out all week but we're settling in and figuring things out. The tiler came to do the last bit of tiling; a "backsplash" in the kitchen and pantry.  She finished the grouting on Friday. The plumber had come back a couple weeks ago to put in a (guest) bathroom fixture piece that had been sent incorrectly (the one they sent didn't go with what we had).  With that last step complete, I was able to get in and scrub the guest bathrooms and get them set up. I have reached the phase of unpacking where I need to start organizing stuff that needs to be stored (seasonal decorations, canning supplies, memorabilia, etc.).  The first step was to build some shelves.  Fortunately, we brought many shelf units from the basement in Vermont so I have been assembling those.  I have several more but five are done so far. As I was driving out of the subdiv...

I thought I would introduce you to two of our neighbors.  These horses spend the summer in the field next to us.  As we were driving to breakfast one morning, they were standing there near the road as if to greet us.  

August was a bit of a whirlwind.  The last days of July saw a hard push toward getting us ready to move into the house.  It was nip-and-tuck (everything last minute) all the way, but we vacated our Livingston apartment and landed in our new Absarokee home one day before family arrived from Germany for a visit.  We moved the last of our belongings into the house on Sunday and didn't even have hot water yet.  On Monday, we received our company AND hot water.  The house went from a construction site to full of life literally over night. Our company went right to work helping us move furniture out onto the patio and assemble what needed assembling.  We played games on the porch, grilled burgers, and after a few days of testing out the house, we loaded up the cars and toured Yellowstone, Beartooth Highway and Chief Joseph Pass, and made a stop at the old ghost town of Bannock. On the last day, before our family left to go back to Germany, we were visited by a li...