Big Sky Country

As you may remember, I was up In Stevensville, Montana, visiting my dearest Patrice. It was a week filled with the life of the true Old West. As the cherry on the top, Patrice is one of the best cooks I have ever been lucky enough to get fed by.

I landed in Missoula without incident. We then went to dinner at Big Sky Brewery. I had Asian chicken lettuce wraps, and a flight of locally brewed beers.

 These are four once glasses. I liked the Huckleberry the best. It is second from the left.

There, Patrice opened her gifts. The tightly wrapped boxes actually got through the TSA.

She got four gifts:
- Montana State quarters
- A compact for February birthdays from Estee Lauder that was my mom's
- A silk Asian billfold with a picture  of us at Christmas, taken in the early 80s
- A freshwater pearl necklace with semi-precious stones twisted in it.

Then we went to her ranch in Stevensville, about an hour away.

 It is a 52 acre ranch, nestled on Rabbit Run. There is a half mile dirt road leading out to the county road.

 Here is a view from farther away, across the two alfalfa fields.

Here are two views from the deck looking out. In the alfalfa field picture, I was standing between the two tall evergreens between the umbrellas.

On Saturday, we got up and went exploring. The last time that I was up there, huge firestorms were happening, and I couldn't see anything. First, we drove about 30 minutes down to Hamilton, the county seat of Ravalli county, Montana.  There was a farmer's market there.

As you can see, it was overcast and fairly cool up there. It was jeans or yoga pants for me. We wandered around and bought a couple little things for upcoming meals.

Then we went down to Darby to go to the Junior Rodeo.

They called all the action from the Crow's Nest.

We watched three events. We saw barrell racing, bucking bronco riding, and bull riding. The contestants were from all over the upper Western United States, and Alberta, Canada. They ranged from 6 to 16 years old. Most of the winners were older. The top two finishers in each event go to the National Championships.

The top two pix are barrell racing, and the bottom one is bull riding. One of the little competitors, Octavious, from Calgary, 8 years old, took quite a spill and laid on the ground for a while. His bull kicked him. If he could get up and ride again, it would be allowed. He got up, stumbled off the field, came back in a few minutes, and had a great ride. The crowd was cheering for him. So was I.

For dinner that night, Patrice made bacon wrapped scallops, mashed carrots and cauliflower, and a huge salad.

On Sunday, we went for a hike in the morning to Lake Como.

The water level is very low right now. But it did rain three of the five days I was there, and they predict a heavy snowfall this year, so it should fill back up again.

Then we came home and hiked the ranch. Here is a view of the Sapphire Mountains.

This is Patrice and her husband Ron, leading the way.

I was behind with Koda, their Chocolate Lab puppy. He is eight months old and weighs 80 pounds. He fell madly in love with me.

You have to take a gun with you when you hike, because there are bear, coyote, and wolves there. Here is some evidence - a deer skeleton.

In the afternoon, we had a party. I didn't take any pictures, because that would have been an invasion of the guest's prvacy. For dinner, we had freshly caught trout, salad, corn on the cob, and potatoes.

On Monday, we drove the other way, to a town called Lolo. It was about 20 miles away. Then we turned up another highway into the forest, for about 30 miles. We ended up at Lolo Hot Springs. It has a hot pool and a cold pool. It smells slightly sulfurous. I didn't take any pictures, because people were in various stages of nudity. It was enjoyable.

Then we drove another eight miles up a gravel road to the Lumberjack Outpost for a drink and a snack.

 It is know to the locals as The Jack.

Here's Patrice, going in the front door, underneath the moose antlers. By the way, on the way up to Lolo Hot Springs, you have to keep an eye out for moose who are crossing the road.

They had a full bar and a lot of beer pulls. I ordered a martini, and the sweet elderly bartender had a tough time figuring out how to make it. One of the other patrons shouted out the recipe.

There are antlers and taxidermed heads galore in there. Also, for some reason, people sign a dollar bill and nail it to the beams.

The chairs are made of hollowed out logs, and they hang from the huge ceiling beams by thick chains. They swing a little.

Here are two of the paintings above the bar. We also had tempura fried green beans and sweet potato wedges.

For dinner that night, we had bucatini with an alfredo sauce with spinach, mushrooms, and onions in it, and another huge salad. Patrice and Ron also usually have ice cream with home baked pie later. She made rhubarb this time.

On Tuesday, we drove back up to Missoula. Patrice had several errands to run, and this way, I got to see the town as we drove around. It has grown quite a bit since the last time I was here. One of the stops was a wine making shop. Stay tuned.

When we got home, it began to rain.

When the rain stopped, the alfalfa field was full of deer, munching away.

Then we went out to the garden, and harvested a ton of grapes.

Shortly after, the sky cleared a bit, and this was the beautiful view.

So then, we set about to make wine. Here is the harvest.

Concord grapes for red wine. You leave the skins and the seeds on, for the tannin.

White grapes for white wine. These have to be skinned and seeded.

Here is Patrice with some of the grapes. We picked three bowls this size, of each type.

A lady bug hopped a ride on the Concords. I gave her a ride back to the garden when she was tired.

And here is our set up, purchased earlier that day in Missoula. We used grapes, yeast, sugar, a gallon jug for each, and a bubbler for each.

The round juicer leaves the skins on.

The Champion juicer squirts out only the juice.

And here they are, fermenting away. They will be ready in a week or two.

For dinner that night, we barbequed sirloins that Patrice had been marinating for two days. We also had mashed Purple Queen potatoes, and broiled zucchini strips and a salad.

Yesterday, unfortunately, I had to come home to Doc, Elli, Vinni and Kenni. I kid, I kid, I missed them all. I will leave you with some beautiful pictures of Seattle, Whidby Island, and Puget Sound from the Alaska Airlines Bombardier 400 window.

Glad to be home, and see you all soon!!!!