Little White Church

As I talked about last week, the little white church on top of the hill by my house turned 100 years old this year. It was actually chartered on July 27, 1913. My father in law is the treasurer for the Church's Cemetery Association, and he had the ORIGINAL ledger that they started bookkeeping in out on the table one day because someone was buying burial plots in the cemetery. I got to looking through the old book, and realize it was turning 100 years old. 

We got a couple people together that was the unofficial planning committee, and spread the word far and wide to all of the families that we could reach that either attended the church, their families attended, or anyone who had relatives buried in the cemetery.

While the church services stopped about 30 years ago due to lack of attendance, the church still holds a special place in people's hearts. During the service, we sang several songs along with the very out-of-tune piano, people shared stories of their memories or the memories of their families, and the last preacher who taught at the church did the prayers. One of the other preachers came back to do the sermon as well.

 People piling out of the church after the service. All in all, I think there were about 60-70 people that attended. Some of them drove over 1,000 miles to come to this, and said they would not have missed it for the world.

 We also held a potluck afterwards for everyone. We served sloppy joes, and had everyone else bring side salads or a dessert. I think we had about 20 different salads or sides to choose from. And yes, we used kiddie pools filled with ice to keep the salads cold! 

You best redneckognize!

 

I'm not quite sure we had enough desserts.... One other thing I will mention that I think is absolutely awesome, is that of these 30-some side dishes and desserts that came, NONE of them were bought from a store or deli. Every single one of them was homemade. I think one person brought a couple bags of chips, but that was it.

And while we were up at the church, I took a picture of the view looking down to our home and yard. I love love love this view.

Come back tomorrow for some GREAT pictures I took last week! They won't disappoint!

Mid-Week Update

This is going to be more of a weekend/week so far update...

Last weekend the annual Frontier Days rodeo took place in our little town of Culbertson. They have a rodeo and street dance on Friday night, then a rodeo and barn dance on Saturday night. We decided to go to the rodeo on Friday, and it was a beautiful night!

One thing that is unique about our rodeo grounds, is that it has bleachers around the outsides of the arena, but they have a terrace on one side of the arena, which is where everyone backs their pickup in and watches the rodeo. Friggin' redneck party if I ever saw one!

Saturday, my sweet husband decided to take me on a date night! Living on the farm, there are a lot of late nights working and busy weekends, and it's been too long since our last date night. I couldn't even tell you when we went on a date last...sad :( But we had a great time!

We drove to Williston, North Dakota and ate at a Chinese Habachi grill, which is one of our favorite places there. Afterwards we drove through the car wash (sounds lame, but the good ones are few and far between around here!), and then headed to the teeny tiny movie theater to see Fast and Furious 6. It was AMAZING! CRAZY twist at the end! After that we got milkshakes and drove through the car lots and tractor lots. Don't ask me why, but that's something we always do on our date nights. It's just kind of "our thing" I guess!

Sunday we went to church and hung out with Patrick's family for Father's Day.

This week has been good so far...we got to have another "date night" in the form of us sitting together in the swather while cutting hay for a little while the other night.

I also scored a sweet find! I was dropping stuff off at our local salvation army. They weren't open so I was putting stuff in the drop box. Well, I stumbled upon something that I thought was pretty awesome, so I took it!

It was a card box with about 30 greeting cards in it! That's worth quite a bit of money in cards! I decided that it should be mine, so I took it :)

How has your week been so far! Happy Hump Day!

3 Men, Cow Costumes, A VW Bug, and the Harlem Milkshake

What does one do when bored in a small town? Well, you order cow costumes that will no doubt be too short for 3 grown men over 6 foot tall.

Then you put together a playlist that includes "Single Ladies," "Swagger Jagger" (like from the California milk commercials), and the Harlem Shake.

Really, there are no words, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

My brother on the left, Patrick in the middle, cousin Nathan on the right.

Practicing their dance moves in the car before they headed to town.

Can you sense the excitement?!?!

So, Nathan is like 6'4", and when he put his arms over the sides of the car, both hands were hanging off of both sides. His "wingspan" is wider than the whole bug!

 

So basically we rode around town following them, taking random videos as they stopped at the grocery store, gas stations, and in front of some of the bars where people were congregating. They had several people follow them and ask for pictures. They even went into a convenience store and bought milk. The clerk was laughing hysterically! All in all they had a great time...and were totally sober! Hahahahaha.

So now when everyone sees the bug driving around town, they're going to expect a bunch of cows to get out and start dancing!

The last stop they made was in front of the Vet's office, and we got one good video of them doing what we shall call, the Harlem Milkshake.

ENJOY!

Montana Bale Trail

I tell you what, these cow people in Montana know how to do some pretty amazing things...like make things out of hay bales. While Facebook stalking my husband, I saw that he posted a link a couple weeks ago of a thing called the Montana Bale Trail. Where farmers and ranchers make things out of bales of hay, and then the public votes on them.

Here are some of my favorites:

I got all of these pictures off of the Montana Bale Trail Website.

I mean, aren't these people cre-HAY-tive?!?! Sorry, couldn't resist!

To view the rest of this year's entries, please visit THE MONTANA BALE TRAIL VOTING page!

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In other news, I am now a trucker's wife...

My husband and I bought this semi truck and a grain hauling trailer to do just that-haul grain. He's going to do that as a job along with farming and selling machinery. It's something that is flexible enough for him, and will be a good investment for the future. I mean, who doesn't love being their own boss?? Once we get the whole setup together, I'll take some other pictures to share with you all.

Wish us luck in our new adventure! And have a happy Tuesday friends!

Life in a Small Town

I know sometime in the past I've posted about how life in a small town is different from a lot of places, but I thought I would do another one to refresh everyone's minds. I've had a couple things happen in the past couple of weeks that just remind me how small of a place it actually is. 

Are you ready for it?

This is our town of Culbertson. Yep, the whole thing in one picture. The new grain elevator is the tall building on the left, and it ends a little bit past the trees on the right side of the picture. All 1,000 people are right here in this picture. How many of you can get your whole town into one picture? I'm betting probably not a whole lot :)

There are things that I had to get used to when moving here, and some things just make me laugh...

1. I went to the credit union a couple weeks ago to get some cash. I walk in, the only customer, to the one person working. I give her my account number telling her I need a withdrawal. She gives me the money, without asking for my ID. I have it out and waiting for her but she says, "Oh I know who you are. I've seen you with Patrick before." Aaaand I had no clue who this woman was. She looked a little familiar, but wasn't ringing any bells. I get home and ask Patrick about her and it turns out I sat next to the woman at a high school basketball game once. This one took me a little by surprise if you can imagine.

2. Mail only gets delivered 3 times per week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And if you're on the other route, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.

3. I live 12 miles from the nearest town (Culbertson), 25 miles from Sidney, where I work, which has many other businesses.

4. Mail was once delivered to our PO Box with only our names and town on it. No address.

5. I am related to half of the new people that I meet...and they can usually tell me exactly how!

6. I am considered an "outsider." I once had a guy tell my husband (while I was standing right there) "I'm going to have to import one like you did, cause it seems I'm related to everybody else." NO, I'M NOT JOKING!
 
7. Driving 4 hours one way to Billings is considered a "day trip" to go to Costco.

8. Most bars are restaurants.

9. I have a land line. And no cell service. I turn off my cell phone every night.


I know there are a lot more things to share, but these are some pretty main ones. It seemed weird when I first moved here three and a half years ago, but now I just take them as normal!

Do you guys have any questions about my life here?? I'd be happy to answer them!

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And on another note, today is my parent's 31st anniversary!!! HOLY COW! I am so lucky to have such great role models for my marriage, and I am constantly learning from them. Happy Anniversary to my amazing parents!!

The Wagon Train

As promised! I told you guys last week about the covered wagons riding around our little town, and now I have a little better description--with pictures!

The event is put on every year by the Culbertson Saddle Club. The motto is "To keep the west alive for future generations" and this was the 46th year of the Wagon Train. They set a "night camp" which is like the home base. Everyone comes out Friday night and gets their camps set up. Saturday morning, breakfast is served from 6am-8am. After breakfast, everyone gets their teams and horses saddled up. Then then follow a 12 mile loop. Halfway through the loop, they stop for lunch. The traveling lunch truck drives to the lunch location, and when they're done serving lunch, they drive back to the night camp to get ready for dinner.

Dinner is served from 6:30-8pm. At night, they usually have live entertainment or a DJ playing country music. People dance, drink and have a good time!

This year, my FIL volunteered us to go serve breakfast...meaning we had to be out there at 5 am! I was a genius and pre-set my coffee to be done when I was just waking up :) We got dressed and headed out to the night camp to start cooking. We helped make a delish breakfast of biscuits and gravy!

Everyone is still moving a little slow..

Aaaaand Patrick isn't so impressed with my blog documenting at 5 am :)

Us and my in-laws...in our sweet aprons!

After our breakfast duties were over, that's when I really started getting good documentation of everything:

This was the nicest wagon on the trail ride this year.

They literally circle the wagons at night camp....

A beautiful team of white horses.

All of the teams getting lined up.

My FIL got to ride on a wagon and drive the team! Here's a little secret...he has a covered wagon! He used to have a team but they got too old. As soon as he came home, he decided that he's going to start looking for a team to buy so he can do this every year again. So next year, I might just have some pictures from a wagon!

It's Dr. Feelgood's Medicine Wagon

 Miniature horses for a miniature carriage! How cute!

Another beautiful team of horses.

Everybody heading out!

The Trail Ride has a program that goes with it, that also thanks the families whose land they cross and camp on (one of which is our family's this year), rules to live by on the trail, like "all riders must stay behind the lead wagon, no glass bottles on trail or in camp, and no firearms or fireworks," etc. They also have awards for Most Unique Unit, Judges Choice, and several others.

It was easy to be involved this year since night camp was only 1 mile from our house (hey, that's close!), and Patrick has already been "volun-told" that he was going to be head of the deep fryer next year! So more than likely...you'll see more of this next year.

Oh, and P.S. this post took me about an effing year to make since I uploaded the pictures from home. Gotta love long-range DSL.

Happy Tuesday! I think we should start every week on a Tuesday, don't you?

YAY Friday!

Does it seem like it took forever and a day to get here this week? Sheesh! Hand me a cocktail!

Today is Friday, so that means my weekly Flip On/Flip Off Friday with AMANDA!

 Now for the link up: We all have highs and lows of the week. This is a place to review your past week and give a FLIP ON to those great things and a virtual FLIP OFF to those not-so-great things! Make sure you grab the button to put on your post, and give both of our blogs credit if you decide to link up. Thank you for participating!


FLIP ON!!!!

...to the Wagon Train. Let me explain. Culbertson has a Saddle Club that promotes like, riding horses, rodeos and stuff. Every year a bunch of people gather up their horses, COVERED WAGONS, and ride around a 12 mile trail, somewhere around the town. Well this year, it just so happens to go onto some of our family's land! And they asked us to help cook breakfast one of the days! I cannot WAIT to experience this, and share pictures with you guys. I'll explain the rest next week!

...to my hubby who took me on a little adventure for our anniversary :) More on that next week too!

...for things working out, so that I get to see my niece at the end of September! YAY! Look at these big cheeses for the camera!

 
 ...and speaking of my niece, FLIP ON to hearing hear say "Auntie co co" for the first time. Talk about melt my heart!

...Flip On to me to slowly trying to talk myself into starting myfitnesspal again. I'm almost there, I swear.


FLIP OFF!!!

...to our power bill being eexxxxxpensive this month! Air conditioning and watering the yard KILLED me this month! Yikes! My lawn is gonna be a little more brown from here on out...

...To people who are adults, yet throw hissy fits and pout like a child. Grow up.

... to the massive spider bite on the back of my leg...this thing hurts! Hopefully it goes away in the next couple days.

...FLIP OFF to fires and smoky air :(

...to myself for misplacing both of our PO Box keys. UGH.


That's all my friends! For all of you who get Monday off, yahoO! Happy Weekend and Labor Day everyone!

Snickerdoodle Blondies

While I would love to be sharing all of my Tex-ASS fun on this Texas Tuesday linkup with my homegirl Amanda, I'm currently flying the friendly skies with Delta. Most likely sleeping...but no fear! I'll have it for next week when I'm back in the real world again!

I had another delicious recipe from Pinterest come into my kitchen a couple weeks ago. When we do these FFA Alumni fundraising dinners, the club buys the food, but the members bring desserts. I scoured my Pinterest board for a good dessert that would be easy for a picnic since we were serving a dinner at the county fair.

Here is a picture of our fairgrounds full of people enjoying the meal!

Waiting in line for steaks.

We raised about $2,300 (ish) in about 2 hours. ALL of the money goes to scholarships for kids graduating from the FFA Program at the end of the year! Yahoo!

The dessert I made is called Snickerdoodle Blondies!

• 2 2/3 cups AP flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup softened butter
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp white sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• a pinch turbinado sugar

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan. Combine flour baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and set aside.

2.) In a large bowl, beat together butter and brown sugar for 3-5 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, and beat until smooth.

3.) Stir in the flour mixture until well blended. Spread evenly in prepared pan. Combine the granulated sugar, cinnamon, and turbinado sugar in a little bowl. Evenly sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over the top of the batter.

4.) Bake 25-30 minutes or until surface springs back when gently pressed. Cool before cutting. Makes 20-24 bars.

 

 

SUPER EASY and REALLY GOOD!

Wolf Point Stampede 2012

As promised, my friends, video of the Wild Horse Race from the annual Wolf Point Stampede in Wolf Point, Montana. I cannot make this shit up.

There are teams of 3 people. Earlier in the evening, an auctioneer comes in and auctions off the teams to the highest bidder. There were six teams total, and I think about $7,000 dollars raised. If the team that you bought wins the wild horse race, you would win that $7,000.

The object of the race is to get the horse calmed down enough to get a saddle on him, get someone on him to ride, and then ride it on the inside of a white circle that you'll see in the arena. 

Several notes: This is UTTER CHAOS. Yes, that is me, uncontrollably laughing in the background. No, the horses don't get hurt-they really are wild horses that aren't used to being in corrals, have riding equipment on, or having people ride them. That's why they act so crazy. Towards the end of the video when the audience goes, "OH!"  and gets quiet, that's because the guy in the black shirt fell off the horse, not because any horse was injured.

Be prepared...just saying...

Culbertson Rodeo

As is the custom for summertime here, we like to attend rodeos. Our little town of Culbertson had their 50th Annual Frontier Days rodeo 2 weeks ago, and I snapped a couple of pictures of the festivities.

Ok, so I tried to get a picture of my full outfit. my sister dressed me...in black leggings and brown boots. I'm usually a "don't mix black and brown" sort of girl, so I felt a little out of my element. AND it was the first time I have worn leggings. P.S....I love them.

You can kind of see in the picture above, that we don't have grandstands...there are terraces where you back your pickup facing the arena. I love it, cause you get the comfort of your own vehicle! Here we are sitting on the tool box with my in-laws in the back of our pickup. 

My ridiculous sister.

The Wells Fargo stagecoach...no not really. They just have a stagecoach that pulls the American flag around the arena during the National Anthem.

More stagecoach.

Sister and husband. Look at her silly floppy hat!

I know it's a bad picture, but it was quite a long ways away. The best part of any rodeo is the bull riding! You can see this cowboy getting bucked into the air on this bull. I can't remember if he lasted the full 8 seconds or not. 

Rodeos are always a good time! This past weekend we went to another rodeo, so I'll try to get those picture posted sometime soon too.

Happy Monday!

Appreciate

The reason for this blog title, is because I think I have learned to appreciate what life is like without electricity.

We had nasty windstorms on Tuesday night, which did this:

Yikes! There were 80 mph winds that did quite some damage around here. They happened to take out a mile and a half of power line. I'm talking completely snapped the power poles off of the ground, taking the power lines with them. This was about 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, and I still don't have power to my home.

At first it wasn't so bad. We just drove around the farm checking fields for a bit, then did some weeding in the garden. We were all hungry when we came home and we had to be pretty creative. You see, when the power goes out, you never know how long it will last. It's a rule of thumb that you DO NOT open your fridge or freezers, so they can keep the food chilled. I made PB & J sandwiches for Patrick and I, and my sister ate cold chicken noodle soup out of the can.

I didn't really hit me how bad it sucked until yesterday morning, when I realized that I couldn't take a shower or use the bathroom. So what does one do when they cannot use the bathroom in their house? Go outside. Yep. I grew up camping  a lot, and we often had to find a tree or bush. What the heck else am I supposed to do?

Then it got worse...I realized we had only a half gallon of bottled water in the house, which had to get me, Patrick and my sister through washing my face, brushing teeth, and cleaning the "hot spots". Thankfully the dogs had enough water to get them through the day.

So I got dressed and put my hair into a hot mess of a bun on top of my head. And that's how I went to work. Classy. I called the power company yesterday afternoon and they said it could be another TWO DAYS before they restored power. NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

My poor sister had a bunch of online classes she needed to do homework for, so she actually had to drive into my office and use the internet here all day. Then we decided we needed to go to the grocery store to get some food. We tried to make it fun and got hot dogs to roast over the fire, smores stuff, chips, and then figured we would boil water on the grill and make cup of soups. Well...we ended up just driving into town and eating out. As soon as we got to the bar/restaurant, we all ran to the bathrooms to wash our faces and hands. It was HEAVEN.

Got home and spent more time in the garden. The freezers usually only last 36 hours before they start defrosting, so we hooked up our freezer full of meat and refrigerator to the gas powered generator we have for the farm and got them cold again. We used it, grandpa used it before us, and my in-laws were using it this morning! Thankfully it's in the back of a pickup and we can drive it easily from home to home.

And my last predicament...how the HECK do we take a shower? Patrick went to check on our elderly neighbor to make sure she was ok with all of the power out. He pulls up to her house, sees the TV running and the vacuum going. WTF?! Turns out she has a propane powered generator built into her house!!! We were able to take showers there this morning before work, and it was AMAZING. And I even got to blow-dry my hair.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY, my friends, is that you should thank your lucky stars for electricity!!!!! Keep your fingers crossed for me that the power is back on when I get home-I have lots of laundry to do!!!

My New Toy

If you've been reading here the last couple of weeks (or even remotely skimming), you will have read how I was taking a class so I could get my concealed weapons permit. Well folks, the day is here! I picked it up and this puppy is ALL MINE!

I had to block out all the stuff on there like, ya know...my address, DOB and signature. 

And no, I didn't smile in my picture. I felt like I needed to look mean in the picture, and I think I accomplished that! So, since I got my permit, guess what comes next?!?!?

THIS bad-assness is what comes next:

It's a Ruger SR9 9mm. It is a one-piece glass reinforced nylon, with an ambidextrous magazine latch, a trigger guard, a manual safety switch, a loaded chamber indicator, a striker status indicator, and an adjustable rear sight. It also came with an extra magazine (the thing that holds the bullets).

 Basically, I FREAKING LOVE IT.

I already went out and shot this bad boy, and it doesn't have too much kickback. It shoots beautifully, and I can't wait to go out and shoot it more! The salesperson tried to sell me a cute little pink gun. Ummm, gimme a break. This B is not shooting anything like that.

So why did I choose this gun? I've shot a couple other handguns...and wasn't in love with them. I shot a .22 handgun and it was just too little for me. I shot a .357 (the one in my header pic) and that definitely packed a punch. I also wanted a semi-automatic and not a revolver. I'm sure most of you have no clue what I'm talking about....

Anyways....I picked this gun because it felt good in my hands. I felt comfortable holding it and it just felt right.

A lot of people have asked...will I actually carry this thing every day? You betcha. On my person? Not every day, because I can't bring it into my office. But it's in my car every day, and as soon as I get a holster, it's going on my hip. Am I going to carry it in my purse? Nope. Too many other things in there with it, and I don't want the safety to accidentally get knocked into the off position, and the gun go off and shoot me in the shoulder or something. 

I am a BIG advocate of gun rights (as if you couldn't tell already), and am thinking about joining the NRA. Yep. I am also a big advocate of knowing the laws for carrying guns, how they differ from state to state, and which buildings you cannot bring them into (post office, schools, banks, credit unions, etc). I'll be brushing up on all of that as well. In most states there is a waiting period of 3 days to buy a firearm. That is in case of a domestic violence dispute, one spouse can't go buy a gun and take it home to shoot the other. Since I have my concealed weapons permit, I have no waiting period. I went in last Tuesday to buy this gun, and walked out of the store with it about half hour later. Awesome!

I am not a fan of people that don't know how to use their guns. I was talking to someone who has a friend who said, "I pack my gun everywhere now. To my kids' school, the post, office, running errands to the bank, everywhere." My friend was like, ummm...you can go to prison for that cause it's illegal. FYI. I'm not a fan of stupid gun owners that don't know what they're doing.. Most of the time, those are the people that don't know how to use them anyways.

So, to play devil's advocate a little bit....how do you all feel about guns??? Are you absolutely against them, do you love them like me, or do you have no problem with them, as long as you don't have to shoot one? I'm just curious to see what all of you think :)