Family Mellmann

Livingston Peak, which Joerg and Patrick have hiked twice over the years, was on fire (figuratively speaking) this evening.

As I sat on the porch watching TV, knitting on my latest project, and taking in the view, the neighbors walked by.  They didn't stop to chat but they slowed down enough for me to take their picture.  

It's Laundry Day for Katherine (nobody's favorite day).  So while her bedding is in the wash, she came out to the living room to relax.  Maybe I should make her wash bedding everyday so we can see her more.

For those who know that I've been knitting on this project, I finally finished!  This project has been a bit of an...ordeal...as knitting projects go.  I started with a pattern that had a bit of a chevron design but a couple of the pattern rows were extremely fiddly and I couldn't get the design to line up correctly (I was clearly doing something wrong in the pattern) so I switched to a basket weave pattern - something free I found on a sample stitch website.  It turns out, sometimes you really do get what you pay for; when the basket weave pattern would repeat, it would reverse my right and wrong sides.  I think there was an extra line in the pattern, but I couldn't figure out which row to eliminate. I finally pulled a repeating pattern from a vest project that I did several years ago.  It is a simple pattern with a nice pattern effect...and I know that the pattern works! I started this wrap, 70 inches long when I finished, in Grand Rapids during my winter there.  It has c

I enjoy knitting on the patio overlooking the valley and the mountains.  It's a comfortable place to watch TV and whittle away the evening hours.  Last night, I saw a "glow" behind the mountains and watched as the moon rose up into the night sky.

The apartment we are renting during the construction of our home sits atop a hill in Livingston Montana.  From the top of this hill we look out over the town, the railroad yard, and across to the Absaroka Mountains with Livingston Peak as the centerpiece. I have set up a little area on the patio where we can enjoy the morning and wind up the day in the evening.  It's nothing fancy but I have added some flowers and a rocky chair. From this spot, we can watch the weather roll in, spot rainbows, and listen to the trains roll through as they pick up extra engines to help them over the pass to Bozeman or drop those extra engines as they continue east toward Billings. I made a small desk for myself so I can sit outside to work.  If I need a big monitor for my computer, I still work inside at my desk, but this small work area is great for doing web research, emailing, and writing letters...with a breeze and a view. :)

Earth moving on our house project has begun.  The excavator encountered a lot of large stone (welcome to the ROCKY Mountains) at the beginning, but reports that the digging as been better than expected.  He carefully separates the different kinds of soil into mounds (top soil, good soil, rocky soil, etc.) for use later in different parts of the job. Now that we're in the early phases of earth moving, it was a good time to meet with the geothermal installer to discuss the best placement of tubes and trenches.  

When I returned from running some errands today, I spotted this rare creature.  Known locally as the Longhaired Fence Painter, this critter is a member of the extremely rare Working Teen family.  🤪🥸

My car is now officially a Montana resident.

Katherine and I arrived in Montana for good at the end of May.  It has taken us a few weeks, but we are getting settled in.  We have unpacked and repacked stuff and made several trips to our storage unit.  I have rearranged a couple of things in the kitchen to make room for our own kitchen tools and food.  The cars are registered in Montana now and yesterday I went in for my Montana driver's license - which will come in the mail eventually. During my last trip to the grocery store, I picked up some color for the apartment.  While I don't have a garden here, I still enjoy flowers.  And what a view - flowers AND the mountains.  

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