Family Mellmann

The snow is melting quickly now that the temperatures have hit the 50s (and low 60s today).  Yesterday I went to Absarokee to work on staining the posts and beams for the porches.  This is a continuation of work I did with Dad a few weeks ago but this delivery of beams was more than double that first batch.  I worked all day and didn't quite get to the halfway mark. I did, however, get a few pictures. And today, I went back to keep going but this time I brought help! This will be my project room. The office Setting up the beams for staining. Three beams from the last batch get a second coat then it's on to the new stuff. 20 beams A little snack break in the back of my car. By 5:15 I was out of energy and space.  These last three beams were too close together to prepare them for stain. Since I didn't finish on Thursday, I returned today and brought reinforcement.   Not a bad place to work...if you must work. :)

Today, we enjoyed a short visit with Patrick.  In his flight duties as First Officer for Sky West, his route brought him to Montana with an overnight layover in Bozeman.  Bozeman (a bit more than 30 minutes from Livingston)!  How could we let him get this close and NOT go spend some time with him? A few of us went early to pick him up from the airport and then we spent some time chatting and catching up.  After work, Jörg brought Katherine and they joined us for a lovely dinner before we returned Patrick to his hotel and headed back to Livingston.  What a fun day!

It turns out that if they can't see your face, they don't see you as a threat.  This mule deer was standing on the patio outside our living room window.  The deer pass through here regularly and sometimes use the patio rather than the steep slope just past the bushes, but this lady just stood at the window taking in the mountain view and then peering in our window.  She is about eighteen inches from the window, and my hand was pressed up against the inside of the window to minimize glare.  If there were no window between us, I could pet her.  She sees my hand but my body, which is hidden behind a small section of wall, and follows my hand movement with her head but doesn't leave. If they didn't massacre flowers and garden plants (in the summer), they would be fun to have around.  

After four days of near constant snow, this meme hit me in the funny bone so I thought I would share. But have no fear, the sun is out today for the first time in a few days.  And with it comes something I have never seen, a winter rainbow.  To the right of the sun (in my picture below) you see a wisp of a rainbow in front of the mountain.  If you've been reading this page for a little while you might recall many other rainbow pictures where the rainbow seems to start in this same location.  Anyway, despite the negative temperatures outside, it's shaping up to be a beautiful blue-sky day.  

 snow but so fluffy - no snowman It has been an exciting couple of weeks in Montana weather.  A "typical" Montana winter sees a few big snowfalls which are followed by a slight warm up and sunny days.  These sunny days melt away most of the snow and life goes back to normal; chilly and sunny.  I remember winter-time phone calls with my dad (he living in Montana while we were living in Vermont) where I would learn that it was warmer (winter warm, not go to the beach warm) and sunnier in Montana (and less snow) than it was in Vermont...despite only a one degree longitudinal difference between the two.  Clearly longitude isn't the only factor. 😛.  So, tons of snow isn't a common winter theme in Montana...normally.   I have heard on local news and from friends at church that they haven't seen snow like this in years...almost ten years as I understand it.  Even Jörg said it wasn't like this last winter (he arrived here one year ago and spent most...

On my way to the grocery store I stopped in town to watch the running of the...Angus.  A local rancher has grown his herd larger than his property can support so he moves them to leased land out in the countryside for the grazing and winter seasons and then drives them roughly 10 miles back to his property just outside of town for calving season.  The whole trip apparently takes about three hours but the run through town lasted about ten minutes and is way better entertainment than television. This Angus came right up to me before the rancher (on a horse just outside of the picture) made a call to get the group moving again. An escapee breaks from the run. I wonder if I'm too old to learn how to cowboy. Once they get through town they turn off and head for the ranch just outside of town.  

I stopped by the house on my way home from Billings.  The community was absolutely silent; no wind (thankfully), no bugs, and no traffic.  Not even the sound of hammers or construction music could be heard on this day.  What these pictures can't tell you is that the thermometer reading was rolling from -20 to -32°F.  The air was crisp and the best place to be was indoors. I did walk around the house in snow just above my knees (too bad my snow shoes are in storage!) to see if I could get inside.  I wanted to see how much drywall had been installed or how my stained beams looked.  Everything was locked up tight so all I had to show for my visit was snow-filled boots, a wet skirt, and these scenic pictures.  

This morning, the snow continued to fall and blow.  Visibility was reduced to almost zero at times. and with eight significant accidents on the interstate between Billings and Bozeman, the highway has been closed down.  School is canceled, many businesses are closed. By early afternoon, the sun was shining so Katherine and I decided to make use of the reprieve and make a run to the grocery store for a few things.  We brushed all the snow off the car and "swished" and "swooshed" our way down the hill and into town. In the thirty minutes we were gone, the sun was gone and the snow was back.  As I came up to the house and was maneuvering myself into position to back the car into its parking space, I got stuck in the high snow.  Fortunately, the snow chains were in my trunk and Jörg was in the house.  He came out and put the chains on and we were able to give our new snow chains a trial run.  The car is now parked in its spot and we are back in the house w...

The weather forecast declared snowfall (roughly 10 inches), wind, and frigid cold (-10 F) for this week.  What it didn't say was that we would get all of those things in one afternoon.  There are days when we don't need any other form of entertainment other than watching out the windows.    

The rest of the windows are now installed (we had to reorder a couple that were incorrect from the supplier).  Garage doors are in and the metal portion of roofing on the garage is done.  The first sheets of drywall have been installed, and the generator was delivered.  And this week the builder put me to work staining beams.  I took a little hired help to get things rolling; I call him Dad. After buffing out scuffs and scars, we put a first coat of stain on eight beams and a mantle piece and called it a day (almost ten hours from leaving Livingston to our return...not bad for an 80 year old).  Then on Saturday I went back to put a second coat on by myself.  The sunny 50 degree (Fahrenheit) day made it hard to stay inside staining.  A chair on the patio would have been more relaxing.  But I got the job done. I don't have a selfie stick so this is as good as it gets. :) Now that the missing window is in and the wrong window has been replaced, it's ...