calling all calls

Mikel definitely loves a good project! When we first moved in, our garage was filled with STUFF. Boxes that needed to be unpacked, tubs of treasures, and everything else. 

We have since unpacked the boxes and organized the space so Mikel could use it. He built a work space in the back and has been making calls in his spare time.

don't mind the two-toned door,  it's a statement piece 

 Here are some of his projects.

As Mikel mentioned when I showed him the pictures, yes I could have moved them away from all his fly tying stuff but that seemed like a lot of work so I worked with what I was given!

some of the works in progress

 He is waiting on a drill press so he can finish them off but they look pretty great!

lots of different kinds of wood 

different shapes and sizes

 These are a couple of the finished products. Mikel said he doesn't even really like the couple I chose but I still think they look good!

being sick stinks!

The title pretty much sums it up: being sick stinks!

This weekend we had a wonderful three day weekend with Monday off for President's day. I was so excited to have a long weekend and we started it off by going to basketball games against Montana Tech on Friday night. It was the last regular season home games for our men's and women's basketball teams and senior night for both groups. It's fun to be in a town where going to the weekend basketball games is the thing to do in town and it's even better when both teams beat Tech!

After the games and the long week of work, I was pretty tired so we rented a movie and watched it with a friend at home. Saturday I woke up not feeling well and that continued through the weekend. Every day, the sickness seemed to change it up on me but I still felt icky all weekend. 

Luckily, I was sick over the weekend so I didn't really miss any work or get too behind but unfortunately, we didn't get to do much fun over the weekend because I was pretty wiped.

Mikel only has two more weeks of his block left to teach which is awesome. He's really enjoying it and it seems to be going really well! When his block is over, we will get a long weekend and then I am back to teaching for four weeks. The block scheduling has been a really nice balance with us taking turns teaching and, because we share some office space and computers, it would be much tougher for us to teach at the same time.

only in Dillon

Only in Dillon...

I have mentioned it before but we only have a real newspaper come out once a week (on Wednesdays). On the other hand, we have the Dillonite Daily which comes out everyday Monday-Friday. 

It's a couple pages long and you never know what you're going to get. The other day, we saw this Police Stop at 1:00 AM:

Not everyone gets jokes in their newspaper I guess!

weekend adventure

After we checked out Nevada City and Virginia City, Mikel and I decided to take a different route home. The road went past Ruby Reservoir and on dirt roads back to Dillon.

On our drive we past this beautiful cabin that's for sale and, as we drove by, I saw some big animal things in the front yard. I'm a pretty good eye-spy to see the animals but actually knowing what they are in not my specialty (yet). Mikel turned around so we could check it out. 

It turned out to be seven big horn sheep! So cool!

If I was quicker on the trigger I would have got this one hopping the fence. Instead he was on his way down which was still pretty cool!

just jumped the fence

Mikel and I sat and watched the big horn sheep for awhile and they were so cool!

Right after the cool cabin and wildlife viewing, we came up on Ruby Reservoir. It was all frozen over and there were tons of people out ice fishing!

ice houses on the reservoir 

the view on the ride home. beautiful Montana 

a ranch property along the way

antelope off the side of the road

a wolf track along the drive, right outside of Dillon

Right before we got to town we saw these big chunks of ice on the fence and realized something was leaking. It's a sad day for someone but it made for a cool picture...

the water shot right down the middle of the crevice

If there was actually substantial snow on the ground like there usually is in February, this wouldn't have looked so out of place but it jumped right out with the brown grass and warm weather!

weekend drive

This weekend Mikel and I decided to go on a drive on Saturday. The weather was beautiful and we wanted to take full advantage of the block break!

We headed towards Virginia City which is about an hour away from Dillon. It's an old ghost town that has about 130 residents and is a tourist attraction with lots of little shops, bed and breakfasts, and restaurants during the summer. The city also hosts the Brewery Follies which we've heard is absolutely hilarious so hopefully we can check that out this summer. 

Right before Virginia City is Nevada City which is also an old mining town with some cool old buildings and lots of history.

(Notice all the beautiful blue skies in the middle of winter. One of many reasons Montana is better than Michigan!) 

We can't wait to go back this summer when everything is open and check it out!

a Christmas miracle

Recently I haven't been so good at deleting pictures from the memory card once they have been downloaded to the computer. This is annoying because I end of with about 27 copies of them on my computer rather than the single copy that would likely suffice. The one bonus to this little mistake is that I get to double, triple, and quadruple check that the gems are shared for all of eternity on this blog.

This is precisely how I realized that, somehow, these pictures have been hiding all this time. That, my friends, is this Christmas miracle. Just a couple pictures from our trip to Riverside at Christmas time that I never got to share

Matt and Natalie trying out their baby carrier hiking backpack

Mikel in his new jacket

who knows...

the parentals all dressed up and ready to go to a wedding

ice house

When Mikel tells me he's going ice fishing I picture him shivering on a huge lake and sitting on his little bucket just fishing out of a small hole in the ice. I feel so bad for him and think he deserves a wonderful, warm home cooked meal when he gets back because he has been out braving the elements.

This, my friends, is apparently not the case. Mikel came home the other day with some pictures of our friend Rog's ice house that is out on Clark Canyon Reservoir (where the ice fishing derby was held). He said it was like 70 degrees in this thing!!

This ice house is really nice apparently and i can tell by the lighting, heater, tv, radio, and wall decor. Now, all of the electronics only work when the generator is on but really, do you feel bad for him?!?

the inside of the ice house

a view of the ice house from the car

Mikel was quick to explain that this is not how ice fishing always is. Sometimes he does sit on a bucket in the middle of an open lake but sometimes, he's watching the game, having a drink, and sweating from the heater.

It's a tough life, but somebody's gotta do it!