Family Mellmann

Each year during the week of July 4th, Livingston Montana is home to the Livingston Roundup; the oldest rodeo in Montana.  Started in 1924, this year marks the rodeo's 100th anniversary.  Always a festive event, this year was particularly well attended.  Tickets sold out early and when they added an extra day of rodeo events, those tickets sold out quickly too. Each night, when the day's rodeo activities have concluded, there is a brief fireworks display.  The big display will take place on July 4th, but these nightly light shows are a lovely way to end the evening.

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 ther...

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.  🤪🥸