This month has been a bit relaxed. My main project this month was to complete the DVD of Grandma's memorial service and send it out. It took about a week to get all the stuff done, and I'm proud of the finished product. On the back cover of the DVD I put a poem I believe Grandma wrote in the 1940s.
A Westerner’s Prayer
Oh Lord, I love these ranges wide that I have known since
birth.
The forests deep, their solitude, I cherish most on earth.
The forests deep, their solitude, I cherish most on earth.
The scraggly sage, the cactus plant, the stately evergreen,
The desert lands, the high divides, their beauty I have
seen.
Oh Lord, just let me live my simple life as I’ve begun,
Make me honest, clean and free, a partner of the wind and
sun.
Let me always have my campfire by a rushing mountain stream,
And at night, hear lonely coyotes howling, as I sit and
dream.
Please give me work, come rain or shine, that’s open to the
sky,
Give me a horse to love, and ride the trails until I die.
‘Neath Western skies lay me to rest when I have done my
task;
And o’er my grave place Western soil, Oh Lord, that’s all I
ask.
—Amen
By May Bolt
One of the main questions I get asked about the changes that have happened after Grandma passed away last month is, "What is going to happen to the property?" At the moment, no one really knows. The family has to make a decision on what to do. There are several choices on the table at the moment. Regardless, I'm glad for the time that I've been able to have in Gardiner and with Grandma, and will treasure those times.
I went to a few parties this month hosted by people who go to the same church to which I go. On Feb. 3 I went to a Superbowl party hosted by Kenny and Brittany in Bozeman. They are Ravens fans, but honestly I don't have any favorite team. I don't pay that much attention to football in general, but it was good to do something fun with others in the middle of winter. Also, I went to a fajita party at John's, Devan's, and Charles' place in Bozeman on Feb. 10. It was a good time to visit with people I didn't know that well and learn the game of PUNO (UNO with some house rules). I went to their place again on Feb. 14 for a singles' party, which turned out to be all guys that night, though girls were invited too. I was actually surprised that on Valentine's Day they wanted to watch The Princess Bride. Since it was all guys, I was expecting an action or adventure movie.
I helped a Bulgarian friend last Monday with some of his car problems. On the previous day he had a car accident on the icy highway between Gardiner and Livingston. We went to Livingston in the morning to get quotes for the insurance claim and take care of that business. He hadn't dealt with our American system before, so he was a little unsure. Plus, English is his second language, so not everyone understands him and vice versa. I guess I've been working with enough foreign people these past few years that I come to expect what they do and don't understand and can work with their accents pretty well. In any case, we got most of it figured out that day and he's scheduled for his repairs next week.
At the moment I'm working on a second photo album of Grandpa's that we found about a year ago. I scanned the pictures almost immediately, but until now I hadn't caught up on my other pictures to worry about this album. (I have about 32,000 photos on my hard drive so it takes awhile to go through them so that they're captioned and keyword tagged and such.) Here's one of the pictures I recently completed:
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| This picture is of when Walter, Lyford, Alta, and Addie visited Mammoth, Yellowstone Park around 1930. They lived in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. Walter and Alta were Grandpa's parents. Addie was his sister. |