Averting Disaster and Seeing Grandma

Last Thursday, April 19, Jean and I tried to move some furniture from Grandma's house to the semi trailer that we have parked on the property.  If Grandma's house ever sells, we'll need to have it ready for the next occupants.

While we were moving some furniture from my Blazer to the semi trailer, the wind slammed the door of the semi trailer into my Blazer's back quarter window on the driver's side.  Silly me, I should have made sure the door was latched properly.  Anyway, that was the end of that window.  I picked up the glass and covered the open spot with some plastic and duck tape until I could have it fixed.

Then not much later, Jean and I were moving a file cabinet from the basement of the house to the main floor.  It slipped and fell down the stairs.  Jean was at the bottom of the file cabinet.  I've never seen her move so fast!  She got out of its way and only suffered a stubbed toe.  I was quite relieved; I was scared that she was going to get hurt.  We ended up damaging the stairs more than ourselves, fortunately.

With that, we called it quits for the night.  I got an appointment the next day to get the window replaced.  Today I went to Livingston to get it taken care of.  I'm very happy that it was fixed, and that it looks like a good job.

After getting it fixed, I saw Grandma at Livingston Health and Rehabilitation.  It was about lunch time.  It was good to see that her eyes were open.  I understand that she keeps them closed a majority of the time now.  I showed her some pictures of Betty while I was there.  She doesn't really understand that her sister's gone.  It was funny that she didn't even remember some of the photos I showed her.  I still think it's great that she's able to identify people in photos.  She pointed out to me some that I had mislabeled!

I'm hoping that my continued efforts at the house have no bad repercussions!

Hike on Sepulcher Mountain's Ridge

I'm still feeling pretty worn out with all the things that need to get done this spring.  I try to make sure that I have some time just for myself so that I don't get burned out more than I already am.

After work on April 21 I decided to hike up the ridge that connects to Sepulcher Mountain.  I can see this ridge from my back window at home, and I've never bothered to hike up it until now.

Sepulcher Mountain's ridge.  Electric Peak is behind it.

I drove from my house to Gardiner and then took Old Yellowstone Trail as close to the base of the ridge at the far right in the picture above as I could possibly get.  I had to hike through sagebrush for a good portion of the lower part of the hike.  While I was in the flat area in front of the ridge, I found an old pronghorn's shed horn.

I like the scent of sage brush, but it's a pain in the neck because it harbors deer ticks.  They're sneaky little arachnids because you don't have to even touch a sagebrush for them to get on you.  I'm not kidding--they actually leap on to you from the sagebrush.  The sagebrush out here is pretty tall, so ticks get a pretty good opportunity to make a flying leap onto you.  When I got home, I took a bath and made sure that I didn't pick up any hitchhikers.

Anyway, it was a pretty steep climb up that ridge.  You can even see how steep it is from this picture.  It's no exaggeration to say that I had to walk up a slope of 30-45°.

Before I got too far, I came across a small herd of bighorn sheep.  They didn't really like my presence, so they decided to beat it.

Bighorn sheep retreat from me.

About halfway up the slope, I came across a cliff area.  I had to especially be careful here because it was very steep and the volcanic rock was very crumbly.  I don't normally hike by myself, so I especially didn't want to get hurt with no one else there.

There are a lot of neat outcroppings on the ridge.  I decided to "name" three of them after trolls in The Hobbit:

Bert

Tom

Bill Huggins

Once I was at the top of the ridge, I was able to see Gardiner pretty clearly.  Also, in this next picture you'll be able to see where Mike and I hiked around the Rescue Creek Trail:

Gardiner, Montana

Grandma's and Betty's old houses were easy to spot.  Grandma's house is green and Betty's old house is yellow:

Grandma's and Betty's Houses

I hiked for another half a mile before turning around.  From my end point, I could clearly see Malcom Forbe's old cabin, now owned by Royal Teton Ranch.  Scott and I have a lot of fond memories at that mountain cabin while our dad was its caretaker.

Malcom Forbe's Old Cabin

Looking up toward Sepulcher Mountain from my end point.  Sepulcher Mountain is at the left; Electric Peak is at the right.

I wanted to get back home in a reasonable amount of time, so I hoofed it back down the ridge.  It was certainly a lot faster getting down than up.  In total, I hiked three miles.  I spent about two and a half hours hiking out there.  I think some of the best things on that ridge were the rock outcroppings.  It's a very volcanic ridge, and the rocks really portray that.  At the bottom of the ridge are smooth pieces of travertine.  This part of the country has some very interesting geology.

Hiking Along Rescue Creek Trail

Friday, March 30, Mike and I hiked on and around the Rescue Creek Trail.  I was tired from all the arrangements that I made for Betty’s Memorial Service and wanted to do something different and get out of the house.  It wasn’t the best day in the world to hike, but we managed alright.  I’m glad I brought my rain gear!

I had company come to the house that morning.  Jean and I had breakfast with Carl and Diana before they headed off to Colorado.  I left the house a little late for the hike, but we still had plenty of time that day to get a lot accomplished.

We took the Rescue Creek Trail from the road through the flat area.  At the end of it was a hill where a bachelor herd of bighorn sheep was resting.  They didn’t really care about us and typically ignored us or just watched us.

Bighorn rams watch us from above.

On the other side of that hill was another flat area that was obviously a creek drainage.  There were more than 30 pronghorn plus several bison in the area.  The bison didn’t like our presence, so they moved off shortly after we arrived.  Some of the pronghorn stayed and rested, ignoring Mike and I, but the majority went away from our location.

Bison graze at the edge of the drainage.

Pronghorn warily watch us as we hike.

While we were in this area, we had to put on our rain gear.  We only had a light rain, but it was enough that it started making mud and could have gotten us miserable without rain gear.

We wanted to scout out the area a bit so we hiked to the top of a butte that was near Yellowstone River.  The butte was mostly made of travertine, so I was glad that it was a cooler day; it would have been a prime location for rattlesnakes.  We were careful where we walked because there were fissures in the rocks where people could easily get stuck, or fall with a boulder if they walked in the wrong place.  From our vantage point we could clearly see where Rescue Creek Trail continued and where the Yellowstone River trail was.  We could also see the Bear Creek Bridge.

If you look closely, you might be able to see the Yellowstone River Trail.

A travertine boulder on the edge of the butte

Bear Creek Bridge

We decided to explore the origin of the creek drainage and had lunch at the base of the trees in that area.  It was quite a peaceful lunch.  After eating, we hiked along the hill where the bighorn sheep were earlier.  That hill had plenty of petrified wood, white in color.  As well there was also quartz and other kinds of rocks there.

The creek source of the drainage area

There were lots of interesting rocks here.

While we were on the hill, we saw the rams coming up toward us!  I thought that was pretty neat.  They didn’t mind our proximity at all, and walked past us, further up the hill.  From there, we hiked back along Rescue Creek Trail and explored close to the moraine by Yellowstone River. [The video below has language in it.]

In all we hiked about six miles.  I had a good time and got good and muddy.  It was a nice conclusion to the busy few weeks that I’ve had.

Betty's Memorial Service

I'm sorry It's been a week since Betty's memorial service and I haven't told you how it all went and put up pictures.  To be frank, I've been so busy lately that Betty's arrangements made everything more busy!  I just got plain tired and for example, yesterday I didn't do anything.  I still have so much stuff on my plate that I don't know how to get it all done in a timely manner, but I'll get through it somehow.

Betty's memorial.  Her ashes are in the coffee-pot-shaped planting pot.

So anyway, in case some of you aren't aware, Betty is my grandaunt, the sister of my Dad's Grandma.  She has quite a bit of family, interestingly enough.  Most of them live in the Denver area so I don't get to see them very often.  Betty had three grandchildren who are still alive: Carl, Carlene, and David.  Carl and Carlene are paternal twins, meaning that they aren't identical.  I've met Carlene on several occasions, but I don't remember meeting Carl or David, though if I had I would have only been a baby.  I've never met any of Betty's great- or great-great-grandkids.

I've talked to Carl on the phone more recently, and I wish I knew him and his wife much sooner.  They and I have become good friends as well as second cousins.  I first talked with Carl when Jean and I were trying to figure out what to do with his grandfather's purple heart award from being killed in action during WWII.  After speaking with Carl and Diana it was obvious that they would be the most appropriate people to give the purple heart to.

Some of Betty's memories and accomplishments

Ever since Betty's departure from this Earth, I had been trying to get a lot done.  I had to empty her room and make arrangements with Dahl Funeral Home, which has handled her final matters since 1991.  I was busy collecting photos from the house and getting music together for the memorial service.  I was so busy!

Linda, Betty's daughter-in-law, came up to Montana with David on Tuesday, March 27.  Later that evening Carl and Diana arrived.  Seeing David in Gardiner went well.  I found out that he has a worse allergic reaction to my cats than Carlene, so he couldn't even be in our house for 60 seconds.  Unfortunately his health has deteriorated a bit and he's still recovering from some things, so I think that made it worse.

Betty's family stayed at my hotel while they were in Montana.  That worked out for them all.  David had a room that was pet-free with his mom, and then Carl and Diana were able to have a first floor room for themselves.

Carl speaks at Betty's Memorial Service.

On Wednesday, we went to Bozeman to pick up Betty's ashes and do some errands especially regarding the memorial service.  Jean and I rode in Carl's and Diana's car and had a great conversation with them.  I really think they're great people.  During this trip, Diana's been able to see a lot of our wildlife.  Though they live in Colorado, they live more in a populated area.

Thursday, March 29 was Betty's memorial service at Gardiner Baptist Fellowship.  We didn't have very many people there--mostly Betty's and Grandma's families.  I was kind of surprised because so many people in Gardiner knew Betty and I talked with several.  In a small town, word gets around really fast!  But I was glad to see everyone who did attend.  The service was about 45 minutes long and Carl officiated, since he's also an ordained minister.  Afterward we had a reception in the basement.  I still have leftovers from that!

Betty's family had to leave on Friday, so I had breakfast with Carl, Diana, and Jean that morning before they had to go.

Betty's and Grandma's families who attended the memorial service

Everything went better than planned and now I have to catch up!