Cleanin up the shop, Tractor 101, Driving tour

Canvas walls don't hold up well to freezing wind. That was the lesson of Wednesday night. The wind was just howling and blowing the trailer walls onto us. Poor Dave woke up at 2am and barely slept after. So added to Thursday's agenda: staple down the canvas under the camper to strengthen the walls. That oughtta do it.

The overhang is money but doesn't keep out the northwind

The sky was once again uncooperative for field work so instead we used the time to clean up the garage/shed into a new workspace for the veggie cleaning and packing. We moved and organized the lumber, pulled out the tractor and all the mud it left behind, tossed what we could and swept lots of dust. We regretted not taking a before picture because it was transformed into a lovely real working business space, complete with wash stations, shelving and a carpet to stand on during long veggie rinse/packing days.

As we were plugging along, a nearby ranch came up the road on a cattle drive. Laurie said the neighborly thing to do is to block your driveway where there's no fence line to keep the cattle from getting separated. So we stood in the driveway as the herd passed by.

Wilsall traffic jam

The real adventure came when Laurie gave us the keys to the tractor! It was Tractor 101. It's a manual transmission so it takes a little getting used to the shifting. Dave mastered it in no time; I still need more practice. Laurie said to take it out to practice whenever we have time.

We were expecting Sara, the new full-season WWOOFer, to arrive at noon so we took an early break. Over lunch with Laurie, we could see her chickens out the front window and she said, "Why did the chicken cross the road?!" Sure enough, they inexplicable left the farm and waddled across the road.  Certainly never expected that phrase to be applicable in real life.

Escapees

Sara arrived and after a few quick hello's and a short tour, we got right to work prepping garden 3 for tilling and planting. We started to make some progress and then, of course, the weather turned. So we went back into the workspace for cover and used the time to plant cucumber and squash seeds in flats. We finished in no time with the addition of a new set of hands and tried to get back to garden 3 but to no avail. The wind was vicious.

Moving manure to garden 3

Around 3 we called it a day. Dave set off to staple the trailer walls so we don't freeze again and I did physical therapy with Boo. Wouldn't ya know it: the sun came back out and it was beautiful.  Too little, too late.

A few hours later, Billy invited us on a tour of the area as the sun was setting. Sara, Laurie, Billy, Dave and I and the dog Jane hopped in his truck for a ride to the Crazy Mountains to finally get an up-close view. We don't have any good pictures but now that we know how to get there, we'll have some soon. We headed south to the only other town in the Sheilds River Valley, Clyde Park, and then back north to see Muddy Creek Ranch where Billy works.

On the tour, we got schooled in the Art of The Wave.  We learned that everybody waves to each other when you pass by (so we did alot of waving); the two fingers up off the steering wheel will suffice as a wave or the arm straight out (reminiscent of the heil hitler wave) is popular with the old guys; if you don't wave, they'll say next time they run into you, "I waved at you the other day, you must notta' seen me"; and if you wave too enthusiastically, they think you're crazy.

When we got home, Laurie made a too-die-for arugula pesto salmon pasta dish for dinner and we put Sara on the hot seat to hear all about her.

We wrapped up dinner in time to catch the Daily Show. It's on at 9pm here! No more waiting up til midnight to watch it. Then Billy metioned casually that he played on John Stewart's show the same night he had Ted Nugent. He and Laurie have both been in bands that toured all over the country with record deals. Amazing!



"If this isn't nice, I don't know what is" -Vonnegut