Hello again, dear readers!

Today I am writing from Montana: the treasure state!  Jef and I drove up to Sheridan, WY yesterday to get some work done at a Starbucks.  That evening the magnetic draw of the border became too strong, so we headed off for Montana! We slept at a rather bleak rest stop and now we're in Billings.  Billings isn't the most lovely city --driving in we saw a huge oil refinery on the outskirts.  The downtown area appears to have once been very quaint and lovely, but sadly seems like its on a decline now as the city expands in other areas.  Nevertheless, we've found a nice little coffee shop with a shady outdoor patio, and that is where I'm writing now.

We spent the past 3 (glorious) nights at a KOA campground.  These are private campgrounds that offer wifi, showers, an outdoor cooking area (known as the "Kampers Kitchen"--where we spent a great deal of time), and a swimming pool, which we, stupidly, never used.  We spent almost all of our time there working--first photographing clothes, then making listings.  We got a lot of work done, but there is still so much to do!

The highlight of our three day stint came on Friday when we took a walk to a nearby gas station to get some drinks.  Jef went inside while I waited outside with Olive.  There was a lovely gurgling brook next to the station and I followed it back behind the building where I found, much to my surprise, a pony!!  He was just standing there, eating grass behind the gas station! Olive was tremendously excited,  I had to exercise great strength to keep her from bounding over to the poor creature.  When Jef came back out, I had him hold Olive back while I went to greet the pony.  He sure was a little guy, his back probably came to my thigh. I saw that he was tethered, so we think his owner must have left him there for a reason--perhaps to take care of the tall grasses back there.  I got to stroke his forehead and he obliged so we let Olive come closer to have a sniff, which, happily, he didn't seem to mind.  We went back the next day with our camera but unfortunately he was gone.  (There was a large pasture full of horses a few yards back and we think the pony belonged to that same rancher).


We spent yesterday doing work in Sheridan and in the late afternoon we took Olive to a little dog park. I snapped a couple of pictures around town so you all could see what I mean about this place--such adorable little houses!

Look at those trees! Lovely.

A wild, beautiful garden we saw behind somebody's house. 

 So many of the Wyoming landscapes remind me of those beautiful, haunting Andrew Wyeth paintings

Unfortunately, the camera just cannot do justice to these beautiful vistas.  In reality, the mountains in the background were so much more colorful and brilliant! 

Our last Wyoming sunset. 

In other news: we've had a slight change of itinerary --it appears that we'll be going to work on a little organic farm here in Montana for a week or two before heading to Yellowstone.  We knew we had wanted to WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) at some point on this trip, but we weren't sure when.  We happened to stumble across this place, Chimerical Farm, a couple days ago and the people seem really nice.  Since they were so close to where we are, we decided it'd be a good way to hang out here for a bit, for free!  Here is the description of the farm from the wwoofing website:

Our farm is located in Miles City, MT, a town of 8,000 people. The land is on the edge of town about two blocks off the confluence of the Yellowstone and Tongue Rivers. We have two houses with 7 acres, pasture, an acre garden, large tree groves, a young fruit tree orchard and a couple drought withstanding ponds. We are also in the process of some additional buildings to suite farm guests. Chimerical Farms is home to chickens, ducks, turkeys, goats, and horses, and plan to buy more, we are building hoop houses, tilling with the tractor, planting, harvesting etc. Our goal is to plant as much variety as possible and stretch the limits of our climate using permaculture techniques and green houses.We hope to start a CSA this year and get our farm infrastructure laid out. Soil mending is a main priority as we hope to turn the earth into black gold dirt. All the goodies are on the property, but like most land things need to be mixed, turned, and moved around. We are trying to create the most biodiverse farm possible using intensive companion and interplanting systems. Our focus is providing local sustainable food to the surrounding communities. It seems in the future we may introduce a few more animals like pigs and sheep for various farm tasks and to help us eat up all the garden treats. We have 30 fruit trees and want to make ciders in the fall and develop a greater product line throughout the year. Length of stay is optional. We appreciate any help and will take great care of our farm guests! People eat very well here and we are allowed to take special time to prepare very exotic foods with our own products. Goat frozen yogurts, gelato, cheeses soft and firm, baked goods, charcuterie, salads, stocks, stews, and home brews are just some of the fundamentals arounds here. We usually dine with our volunteers, but people are welcome to make their own dishes if they have any particular wishes to accommodate. Hosting is possible here anytime of the year. Thanks for reading, we hope to hear form you! 

I broached the topic of making goats milk soap to Charles and he was really interested, so I'm crossing my fingers that I get to work on that project.  Also, animal lovers should be envious--they currently have SEVEN baby goats!! If you've never experienced the utter adorability of baby goats, you must watch this video now to understand:

Anyhow, more than likely they'll have us harvesting vegetables and fruit and maybe helping out with some building/restoration project.  

Well, I suppose that's about all for now.  I'll update you about the farm as soon as I can!

YEEHAW!

Greetings from WY

Greetings, all!


 I apologize that its taken us a while to update the blog. The places (re: campgrounds and rest stops) we've been staying at don't have wifi. Right now we're in Casper, Wyoming! But before I tell you about Casper, let me backtrack and catch you all up on the happenings of the past few days.

The three of us before we took off

We left Plano, TX on Thursday the 19th sometime in the afternoon. Our only goal for that day was to get out of Texas. We had decided a few weeks before that we wanted to go North to get out of the heat. So we drove all day and into the night, and finally, just before 2AM, we arrived on the very Northwestern tip of New Mexico. We pulled over at a rest stop and were positively giddy when we got out of the car—it was chilly! The air was so crisp and clean and when we looked up the sky was so clear we could see the Milky Way. We slept for a few hours in our car seats and then were on the road the next morning before 7:30.

Olive soaks in the lovely sunrise before departing

Friday was filled with even more driving. We made it to Colorado before noon and by 4 o' clock or so, we were heading to Estes Park, a breathtaking city Northwest of Denver. Estes Park connects to Rocky Mountain National Park, our first camping destination. At the entrance gate to RMNP, the Ranger told us that 4 of the 5 campsites were filled up and that Timber Creek, the only remaining campground with vacancies, was 35 miles up the road. The drive we took to our campground was probably the most beautiful drive I've ever been on. We drove through mountains that still had snow on their peeks and were covered with thick evergreens. We climbed as high as 12,000 feet and stopped on a mountain peek from which we could see Wyoming.

Beginning our accent through the mountains 

The view from one of the scenic overlooks

One of the dozens of adorable chipmunks scampering around

That's snow up there!

 We were slightly disappointed by the campground when we arrived—it was a large clearing and all of the campsites were very close together. Later I was grateful for the close quarters when a ranger told us that we needed to report to her immediately if we saw any bears and that we should expect to see Elk wandering through the campsites and that we shouldn't try to approach them. We did end up seeing quite a few Elk, but thankfully no bears. The best part of seeing the Elk was Olive's reaction to them. She was noticeably curious. She sat and stared at them and gave a slight wag of the tail when they moved closer. 

The first elk sighting at our campsite

Olive contemplates the elk

 That evening we made dinner in a hurry. We could hear thunder in the distance and knew that a storm was rolling in. We made it in our tent just before the rain started. It was extremely cold that night—Jef guesses it was 50 degrees or less. None of us got much sleep that night—especially Olive, who seemed genuinely spooked by the movement of the tent walls in the wind. We tried to comfort her but it didn't seem to help much.  (Thankfully, she seems to have gotten used to the tent now)

Jef on I on the only short walk we were able to take Olive on while on the mountain.  A park ranger told us that there are lots of moose around and that they can't tell the difference between dogs and wolves, so if they see a dog they'll attack. Yikes!

A man and his dog.  Getting one last look before we headed down from the mountain.

 The next afternoon we got really excited about traveling again so we decided to head up to Wyoming, since it was so close.  We slept at a rest stop again that night , but this time we took everything out of the back of the suburban and wrapped it in a tarp next to the car so that we could lay down in the back. I actually slept better that night than I had any of the previous nights, perhaps because I was so exhausted.  
  
We set out bright and early the next morning and went to see the Oregon Trail ruts.  This  was an area of soft sandstone that thousands of wagons traveled over --the wagons had made a trail, a rut, about 3 feet deep in the rock. We also visited Register Hill, which was an area a couple of miles over where the pioneers had carved their names and the year (and sometimes messages to future travelers) into the sandstone.  Visitors often scratch their own names into the rock and even those were neat to look at--there were names from the 50s through today. 

The ruts created by thousands of wagons.   Climbing over this rocky terrain was safer and quicker than attempting to ford the nearby Platte River.

Jef rode Olive down the ruts --and look at how happy  she was to accommodate!

John Baugher 1789--the oldest name on the wall. According to the plaque,  scientific testing has proved it to be authentic

P. Tak 1861

The next two nights we camped at Glendo State Park.  There's not much to tell about these days because we just stayed at the campsite all day and did work taking pictures of clothing.

We did encounter some friendly cows on our way to the campsite 

Anywho, now we're in Casper, which is a gorgeous town.  The Southeastern part of Wyoming was desert like--very vast and brown with mountains in the far distance.  Now that we're moving West, the land is getting more colorful and lush.  Casper is similar to Boulder or Denver in that you can constantly see mountains in the distance and there are tons of tall fir trees--but you can also look to the East and see the flatlands, its kind of cool. We'll probably sleep at a rest stop tonight and then we're thinking of staying at a "fancy" campground that has wifi and showers.   Our next major destination is Yellowstone, but we want to get a good amount  of work done before we go there.

Anywho, sorry for the perhaps overly-detailed update.  I know ya'll have been wanting to hear from us, and I've been wanting to tell people about our adventure! I will try to update you all again as soon as I'm able.

Oh yes, and one other thing.  There were some skeptics (I won't name any names) who thought I was perhaps too prissy to handle a rugged excursion like this.  To them I say, "Ha!"  Just because there aren't showers at the campgrounds doesn't mean I'm not keeping clean!  Behold, the glory of the bucket o' water shower. 

Keeping clean in the country

 --A little aside:  I've contemplated the idea of doing a series of YouTube videos devoted to beauty tips and tricks when you're roughing it.  If I ever do make the videos, I shall call myself Canyon Diva...  

YEEHAW!

And the days are not full enough
And the nights are not full enough
And life slips by like a field mouse
Not shaking the grass.
-Ezra Pound

I first read and fell in love with this poem a few years ago in college. The picture that forms in my mind when I read this short poem is the same now as it was then--I glimpse a little mouse running in a field, it's tail quickly disappearing into the tall blades of brown grass. I was so struck by the metaphor that the poem became an instant favorite of mine-- I'm always drawn to sad romantic things like this. In college I imagined myself as that little mouse in the huge field and the poem, the stillness of the grass, felt so true to me. But now, a few years having passed, I find it harder to identify with that solitary mouse. My picture nowadays is so overrun with mice that when I imagine us running through the grass, I daresay we leave it flattened in our wake.

And while there will only be the three of us on this little trip, we will make every effort possible to shake the grass, rattle the roots, and kick up a mighty cloud of dust wherever we go (especially Olive).