You Can Mark The Calendar

Our former home located about a half mile from our present location sat in the open on a hillside. Every spring we had a huge influx of lazuli bunting birds. You could almost mark the calendar by their arrival–May 13. Some years a day before, some years a day after. I looked out at the bird feeders today and there sat a lazuli bunting–right on time. This house sits in a grove of aspen trees and I think the buntings don’t like it as much as our previous location. We will see half a dozen buntings over the summer but not anything like what we had when living in the open.

We are self isolating again or at least that’s what the hospital in Billings calls it when you have been tested for Covid and also scheduled for surgery. We were in Billings Monday for the Cowboy’s pre-surgical appointment and to have the Covid test. The Cowboy was NOT impressed with that large applicator stick up the nose business. He is all set for his surgery on Monday.

Our weather has been so dreary. Rain, rain and a cold east wind. On Mother’s Day and the days following we’ve had over an inch of rain.

Did you see the news–Yellowstone Park isn’t even open and a tourist sneaked in and fell into a thermal feature. Good grief! Today the Park announced it will open in a limited way on May 18th. Montana and Idaho still have quarantine rules in effect–anyone coming into the state must self quarantine for 14 days. So, Yellowstone Park is only opening their east and south gates. Visitors are allowed to drive only the south loop. Nothing in the park is open–no restaurants, no camping, no lodging–driving only. The largest portion of Yellowstone is in Wyoming with very small sections creeping into Montana and Idaho.

Today was meal prep day for me–I vacuumed sealed a lot of the stuff we bought on Monday while in Billings. Friends have raved about Pioneer Woman Tomato Soup With Sherry and I’ve never made it–today was the day. It’s what’s for supper. Lunch was shrimp, corn on the cob and coleslaw.

Yesterday I had a catastrophe! I went downstairs to make some masks for shipping to friends. My beloved Pfaff Tiptronic was dead–the light would come on but the machine would not. So, I made masks using my Singer Featherweight–not fun! My Pfaff is 20 years old and it even has the “stop with needle up or down” function. The Featherweight is almost as old as me–manufactured in 1957 and its features are very limited! As parts are not available for the Tiptronic, the Cowboy decided to just take it apart and see if there was an obvious problem. An hour or so later he had it going again with a little creative engineering. I am so glad I have such a handy husband.

Oh, and I also made a batch of homemade strawberry ice cream–when this is all over we most likely will be dieting! The Pioneer Woman soup was fabulous–at least I thought so!