As if I hadn’t traveled enough miles on Wednesday for all those dentist appointments on Thursday I went back to Big Timber for an appointment. Our friend Jeane has a green thumb; her flower beds and yard always look so nice. After my pedicure I drove out to their house and had a garden tour. With all those flowering plants fresh in my mind, Jeane and I drove out to one of the local nurseries–Blakes–and bought a bunch of perennials and ground covers for our backyard flower bed project.
Now I just have to decide where to put everything. A landscaper friend once told me–more is better–meaning plant many and the plants will fill in–making for a lush flower bed. That’s my goal!
Friday we had guests–Pat and his daughter Julia–the Cowboy’s first and second cousins. They came for lunch and we practiced our physical distancing enjoying a fabulous meal out on the deck. I cooked a tri tip roast to perfection–it was sooooo good!
On April 9th I ordered a Clover bias tape maker via Amazon from a quilt shop in the United Kingdom. Due to all the mask making our local quilt shop and any other online supplier such as JoAnn’s was out of stock on any bias tape makers. I was promised delivery in two weeks but the package never arrived and the shop refunded my money. Imagine my surprise when this was delivered on Friday–I’ve contacted the UK quilt shop and paid for the item. And we just think mail delivery is slow in the US!!
The Cowboy needed generator brushes for his 1958 Ford tractor. Our local parts store–Stephens–usually has literally anything but didn’t have these brushes. Ebay to the rescue and we would say judging from the box these are original parts for this old tractor.
Saturday was Sweet Grass Fest in Big Timber–small town living at its best in spite of Covid. They spaced the vendors, expanded the parade route and limited tickets to the rodeo. Our Montana county does not and has not had a Covid case. Let’s hope that’s still the case after this weekend. Sarge and Sarah met us in Big Timber–the guys took off to look at the cars in the show and the ladies took off to stroll the vendors and a couple of the new shops which just opened in town. The crowds were sparse at 10am which was great and when the crowds increased we retreated to the park.
The Cowboy had one of these at one time in his life–his was a 1941 Lincoln Zepher.
And the Cowboy really liked this Overland–he can’t remember the year,maybe 1914–and yes it was pink.
We found a picnic table in the shade and enjoyed a great lunch! I brought both chicken and potato salad plus some sliced pineapple. Sarah brought watermelon and a gluten free dessert that was delicious–almond cake with sliced strawberries and whipped cream. We really needed a nap after all that food but the parade was starting–
It’s raining in Montana which is a good thing–it was getting rather dry and dry in a Montana summer leads to forest fires. Sunday afternoon after our fabulous Sunday lunch it was cool enough in our house to have a fire in the fireplace! And raining!
I had salmon, the Cowboy had beef–surprise, surprise!
Life is good!
Restoration Cowboy Style 
I read your blog to Mo and she said, “I’ll bet she is really glad she is not still in Arizona!” No cases of COVID and rain. Flowers and parades and friends with pretty table settings. What more could you ask for! Lovely, Janna. I also ordered a couple of Dowdle Folk Art Puzzles on May 28th. I guess it shouldn’t complain, it has only been a month, and they warned me it could be 6 weeks. I specifically ordered Made in the USA and shipped from the USA. My friend Maryruth ordered some puzzles from China. They took about 8 weeks.
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We are so glad to be in Montana. We ordered some batteries for a house phone from eBay and they never came–got a refund–the batteries came probably six weeks after we ordered them and that was US shipped.
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So pink, is his favorite color! Looked like a good time in town!
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It was a good time Geri–good to be out and about seeing friends and neighbors–everyone was very respectful of your space.
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Love small town parades. Hope everyone was distancing. No parades here especially since we are going backwards. We now have a mandatory mask wearing in NV…thank goodness. We are still staying away from people except a once a week grocery stop for me and an only if needed trip to our CVS or ACE. Stay safe!
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People were good about keeping their distance and when there became too many people we left. The increasing numbers are scary everywhere!
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Hoping your bias tape maker works well. I have often wondered about them. Also would love the recipe for how you do your tri tip roast. Apologies if you have posted it before.
I so admire all your hard work and interesting projects! Stay well. Hoping your slice of God’s country continues to stay virus free.
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Thanks for commenting Liz–I haven’t tried the bias tape maker–never had the use for one before I started making masks! I will post the tri-tip roast recipe.
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I was thinking about getting one for the same reason. At my age, I need to be cautious about buying any more gadgets, but if it works, great! Will look forward to the recipe.
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Maybe by know the bias tape makers are available?? And I know what you mean about the gadgets!
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We too live in a small town, though I must say, we are over-run with beach tourists from the hot valley. So your parade echoes the ones we used to have here…pre-virus. However, ours also hosts a zillion little soccer players and their coaches with mamas snapping pictures from the sidelines. I too had to order a bias tape maker which took a loooonnng time to arrive since our local (and only) fabric store was sold out of such things as well as a bunch of other related items.
Stay well up there.
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Time will tell if our little small town celebration gave our county any virus cases–we had lots of out of town visitors and out of town rodeo participants. All the celebrations and rodeos around us have been cancelled.
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Wonderful to hear you have no cases…and hope it stays that way!! LOVE small town parades…and thank pink car….!!
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Time will tell Nina as to whether having all those out of town people visiting our little county brings us cases–I so hope not–we are sitting in a bubble surrounded by counties with cases.
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without testing every single person in your county, you won’t know if there are asymptomatic people amoung your neighbors. Good luck in staying healthy. our county was good for a very long time, but we are next to the worst county in our state, so we have cases now. staying home as much as we can. Love your patio, looks so shady and cool. 90’s here all this week
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That’s true but we think we were careful as were our friends and neighbors–we stood farther apart than we ever have and no hugs.Time will tell.
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