Family Mellmann

While Patrick is flying high (roughly 35,000 feet), Katherine is also making some progress. She has had two job interviews and one job offer but is most excited about the most recent interview at a local grocery store that would offer some opportunities for variety and movement (multiple locations).  She should hear in the next day or two if she got the job she is really hoping for. In the meantime, she is on the kitchen cleanup rotation after our main meal.  With no dishwasher in the kitchen, we each get a turn...or two.  

With his formal training complete, Patrick is officially a First Officer for Sky West Airlines which is a regional carrier that flies under the banner of most (or many) of the legacy airlines.  His first tour of duty (they have a different term for this but I can't remember what it is...let's just call it a senior moment) is with a Training Captain (a captain with specific training and a lot of experience in this particular plane) on a sequence of flights that bounce him all over the west (California, Nevada, Arizona, Vancouver...to name a few). He flies one or two legs each day with a hotel stay in whatever town their day ends and will end up back at his base (in Los Angeles California) after about four days.  Then he can catch a jump seat back home to Phoenix for a few days before doing his second "tour of duty" with the Training Captain. Once these two tours with the Training Captain are complete, he will be released to general scheduling and will just be a regular...

With our trip to Iowa for a wedding "in the rear view" and the process if settling in here in Livingston mostly complete, it was time for me to make a run to Absarokee to meet up with the excavator.  Spring in this area of Montana comes with snow melt and rain which fills the rivers with muddy fast-moving water.  A couple of years ago, the Yellowstone River flooded badly and several of the rivers and creeks fed by the Yellowstone also flooded.  The Rosebud was one of those "creeks" that flooded.  Absarokee saw a bit of damage in that flood and a key road (to the mine) was washed out. This map of the Yellowstone River, which - according the this map - begins in Williston (how ironic) North Dakota, shows the smaller rivers that flow from it.  If you follow the Yellowstone west past Billings, you'll see a red circle where I wrote in "Rough location".  Absarokee is in that circle.   This morning, Rosebud Creek - which flows from Stillwater River which flow...

We were so busy enjoying the time with our Vermont friends and celebrating a wedding that I forgot to take pictures, but here are a few. The wedding takeaway (instead of rice, birdseed, or Jordan almonds) was a packet of wildflower seeds!  How cool.  I know a six acre piece of land in Absarokee where these seeds can take root. The wedding and reception took place on the top floor of a Des Moines building from which we could see all around the city.  We could watch the sun set out one direction and a salvage yard fire out another. But the real highlight was celebrating the wedding of Paul and Laura.  We have known Laura (and her family) for 25 years, so it was a real treat to be able to join our other Vermont friends for this fabulous occasion.  

  While the bride and groom and their families are off doing wedding things, the Vermont contingent - which we are still considered a part of - enjoyed a morning of walking around town here in Des Moines. We checked out the famous farmer’s market. We went to the botanical garden. And we walked everywhere…miles and miles. It has been a great deal of fun seeing our friends again in this uniquely “vacation” setting (we usually see each other at someone’s home for a holiday celebration) and it has been so fun to catch up on everyone, including a couple kids who were able to join us. The countdown is on; two hours to wedding time.

Patrick, who has a few days off before his first big flight, was able to join us for this weekend's wedding festivities in Des Moines Iowa. He arrived late on Friday evening and we get to catch up with all our old Vermont friends.  Check out our handsome son!

I promise not to make this a habit, but I just had to share these rainbow pictures.  We have visited Livingston several times over the years and nearly every single time we have been treated to at least one rainbow and often a double.  Since May 25th, we have had three storms roll through that resulted in some bit of color arched in the sky.  Here are a few pictures. May 25th - a striking double rainbow with a full arch visible May 29th - an intense color that my camera just can't capture June 3rd - another nice rainbow that followed a rocking good storm; not a lot of rain, but quite the thunder and lightning

At the Trinity Baptist School Christmas concert, there was a bit of a Mrs. Mellmann farewell.  It was announced that the school yearbook, which is dedicated to a teacher or staff person every year, was being dedicated to me. This morning - at 8:30AM Vermont time...which means 6:30AM Montana time! - was the final school assembly and the yearbook reveal.  I was invited to Zoom in to the event so that the students could say their goodbyes and make one final plea for me to return (nothing like a little stroke to the ego).  It was fun to see all those faces of my students.  They were animated and energetic, and all too happy to sit in front of the computer and wave at me. After the event, in an email exchange with an old friend and fellow teacher, I learned a little bit of back story.  When the School Administrator announced to the assembled students that I would be joining them by video call, the auditorium erupted in cheers (now, it is important to remember t...

Now that we are in Livingston and settled for the duration (roughly a year), I have started hunting for a local church to call "home" until we move to Absarokee - and begin this process all over. Today I attended Livingston Bible Church.  It is about two blocks from where we live and has a very friendly, if small, congregation.  Biblically sound, nothing crazy.  I attended a Sunday School class and the service. I met several very friendly people, some local and some in town for the high school graduation.  One young woman overheard me to talking about being from Vermont and asked what part of Vermont.  It turned out that she had attended college in Middlebury (where our rental properties are) and has an uncle who lives there.  What a small world.