The worst of summer, the worst air from fires, and I’m out getting firewood.  It’s called making hay while that sun is shining.  I got info on some available firewood from some clearing that was done just outside of town, so I rushed right out there and met some wonderful folks who hate to see good wood go to waste, so now I’m panic mode to get it – come fall whatever’s left will get burned!  They have twenty acres and here’s part of the view from their house in the first pic.  Today when I went out those mountains were not visible through the smoke that is getting worse by the day.  Just awful.

The second picture is an apple tree, all that remains to indicate there used to be a cabin, someone’s home, there along this dry creek.   The current owner’s don’t know how long it’s been gone.  The third pic is my reluctant helpers.  Sara never likes being tied up but three bears visit that apple tree every day and, though I doubt they’d come around while we’re there, no point taking chances!

Saturday I went out to attack the first pile.  It’s really a treat to have neatly stacked wood in workable sizes that you can drive right up to.  (The main house is on the other side of the trees over the top of my truck.)  There is wood to last me years in big slash piles but they gave me this easy pile to start on and I’ve made two trips to bring home what I’ve cut so far, now nicely stacking up in my driveway for when it will be the perfect time to have firewood on hand!

Had a nice drive home today, glad to be here even though it was almost 100 degrees!  Made a brief stop in Great Falls – Lewis and Clark would weep at the industry along the Missouri River.  I didn’t take a picture of the “Great Falls,” they’ve been dammed.  Didn’t see any more big white pelicans.

“Everett would never forget his first survey of the West.  The mountains that had looked like a line of rickrack in the distance grew to savage teeth and then to towering wonders that pulled the train into their purple depths.”   The Sparrow’s Choice

Everett and Calandra had a better view as they approached the Rocky Mountain front than I did today.  It was smoky and barely visible.  There’s another big fire in Glacier and the whole northern end of the front that I should have been able to see, with its dramatic cliffs and jagged peaks, was curtained off.

I saw more rolled hay bales in the last two days than in the whole rest of my life.  I could have taken pictures all day it was so scenic but kept driving.  Until I got back to the Blackfoot River.  I stopped and had the last of my watermelon watching a fly fisherman just up the river – a postcard of Montana, well, except for the Tupperware of watermelon 🙂

Okay, survived the defensive driving class.  Did I enjoy it?  Not so much.  A good challenge and beneficial, no question, but fun?  Nah.  There were twelve in the group, divided between four instructors.  My group started out in the “monster,” one of those cars with the small wheels on the back that castor around simulating black ice.  We all did many spins getting the hang of it, all that open land spinning wildly, got a little whoozy!  Then on to high-speed curves and running off and on the road, on purpose, in a regular sedan.  Then we did skids on wet pavement followed by evasive steering.  I hit cones with the school bus doing evasive steering – darn!!!  After a lunch break and some graphic videos, we repeated the procedures in a more realistic fashion, slower and with improved control.  This time, though, we used a second school bus and also an ambulance!

I met some nice folks and enjoyed the scenery.  The driving school is on an old WWII training base for B-17 bombers.  The big hangar is still there – very cool!

The surrounding farms were being harvested of wheat with antelope grazing in the fields.  Thankfully, a nice cloud cover moved in, blessed us with a ten-minute rain that cooled it down and cleared it up.  Instead of the predicted 96 it stayed in the lower 80s!  Will head out bright and early tomorrow and check in when I get home!

Time for me to take the defensive driving class for my school bus job, and the class is in Lewistown – way out in central Montana.  Driving a school van (with A/C and CD player!) I hit the Lewis and Clark trail in Missoula this morning.  Heading east on Highway 200, I drove through Bonner, the location of one of the West’s biggest Superfund sites.  The pair of explorers would be as appalled as the rest of us over the disaster at the confluence of the Blackfoot and Clark Fork rivers, the result of old mine waste that came from upstream.  The dam is gone now and things are improving, at least visually.  (The Blackfoot was made famous by A River Runs Through It, though at the time of movie production it was too polluted to use for filming.)

I followed the river east, the air yellow with summer heat and haze.  After crossing the divide the land and geology actually reminded me of areas in Northeast Arizona.

It was 96 in Great Falls so I thought maybe I was in Arizona!!!  I saw a white pelican – will try to get a picture of one on the way back!

Actually no vacation for me.  I worked, and worked hard.  And, as a surprise, I learned something!  Sitting in the faculty lounge for lunch I scrounge for reading material – there’s a bookshelf full of interesting titles, mostly about art.  One book I pulled out was on famous paintings.  Mind you this is a kindergarten and first grade school.  This book had little arrows pointing out features of famous paintings – like the Mona Lisa.  I never thought much about her, and the fact that she has no eye brows.  I never noticed.  Apparently it was vogue in her time to pluck them all.  And did you know she’s wearing a veil?  I sure didn’t!  Okay, so first graders are ahead of me in art, who cares 😉
To give an idea of some of the bizarre things I did this summer (two weeks of this left) I’ve included two pictures.  One of the school –

I washed every exterior window on that building, including ones on the roof looking into the cafeteria, and most of the interior ones.  There aren’t as many on the south side of the school but enough.  One of the other hard workers removed all the hand and foot holds off this climbing wall in the cafeteria/gym.

I put them back.  Use your imagine, I was told.  Have fun with it!  I tried, I really did.  I also tried recruiting some kids to help and couldn’t even convince them it was fun.  I failed as Tom Sawyer 😦

For the summer, in addition to the occasional bus trip, trolley drive, and new bookkeeping job, I’m cleaning at one of our schools, the kindergarten and first grade school.  It is not a glamorous job and I wouldn’t recommend it.

There have been some interesting happenings though, unexpected and good for much needed humor, given the circumstances.  I probably spend half my time cleaning and the other half moving furniture, cabinets, desks, chairs, easels, book cases, filing cabinets, and even a plastic fireplace so the carpets can be cleaned.

In the process I’ve rescued  triceratops from a market awning, had a runaway teddy heading for the cafeteria, corralled out of control glue sticks, cleaned up a major train wreck in a hallway and woke up a sleeping bear.

I have moved untold numbers of little plastic chairs and sleeping mats.
I wonder what class in college teachers learn that primary colors are such a necessity to child education?

That I don’t dream in red, yellow and blue is a miracle, though I did dream one night of missed erasers and sequins in a corner after vacuuming.

School has totally changed since I went.  No more blackboards and chalk.  There are white boards and smart boards and computers in every room.  There are rocking chairs and bean bag chairs and toy kitchens.  There are stacks of toys and games, puzzles and Legos.  One room has a red-eared turtle named Michael Angelo, who begs for food if one gets too close.  The one familiar and comforting thing is the alphabet – still strung around the top of the boards in the front of the classroom, each letter with a matching picture.  A is still for apple and Z is still for zebra – phew!

I will not end the summer any smarter for the three months in school, but I will be in better shape.   Silver linings are sometimes scarce but always there.  🙂

A soggy field trip to Kerr Dam, southwest of town on the Flathead River.  Three buses went and, lucky for me and my group, we stopped at the dam first while the other two went down to the power station.   See one of the other buses down there?!

There are over 200 steps down to view the dam, but the climb is worth the effort.

They are filling the lake now (the lake is allowed to drop over the winter, partly to leave room for runoff but also to keep docks from being damaged by ice) so very little water is coming through the gates.   Runoff should have the lake at “full pool” by June 15 this year and then the gates will be opened to keep the lake at summer level.  I had never been to the lookout so was glad for the chance.

Then we took our turn down at the power plant.  I’ve been to the park area there to run the dogs along the trails that lead down to the river but never had a tour.  An impressive operation, the dam was completed in the 1930s.  The second picture is a bearing that connects a turbine to a generator; there are three of these.  It is moving VERY fast.
This was one field trip I was happy to tag along and be a student!

A ranch visit and a farm visit, all in one day!  The kids must sleep well after these field trips!  This one included apple pressing, tree house climbing, horseback riding and learning everything they could want to know about local agriculture.  Even I checked out this tree house, the coolest one I’ve ever seen.  I want one!

Then patient teachers and parents took kids for rides around the barn, again and again, on three very patient horses, who I had a nice chat with before they were saddled up and put to work.  Another gorgeous place to wait with my book and my camera.

Then on to a very big farm.  This farm in on my bus route, so I was glad to learn something about what goes on here.   I sent pictures of grain bins a few weeks ago and those are on the same property.

We learned that cattle forage grown here consists of peas, wheat and barley.  They ship 115 million pounds of potatoes a year – yikes – that’s a lot of potatoes!  And they turn on their big irrigating systems with their cell phones – high-tech farming!

During my lunch and reading time, enjoying the view from my bus, I was kept company by this big fella, a chukar, an introduced game bird.  It’s the first one I’ve seen!  He’s pretty smart, there’s spilled grain all over the place!

“This is my favorite spot,” Everett said.  “Pretty good fishing in that hole over there.”  He pointed to a deep pool in the shade of the big cottonwoods.  Blue damselflies flitted about the reeds in the shade there, adding bright points of color to the washed-out afternoon.  The Sparrow’s Choice
I sure get to go pretty places 🙂  I was joined this time by two other buses for a busy day at the fish hatchery on the Jocko River!  The river was moving fairly fast but there were also ponds, still and quiet.

Because of my need to go exploring, I missed all the info on the facility, which provides rainbow trout stock.  I’ve never seen such big rainbows, and there were tanks of babies in all sizes too.

In my coming and going I saw fish being sketched, heard a lecture on what legends are, fish being fed, and happy kids eating lunch.

No fish were caught.  The only thing we actually brought home were memories of a warm day with friends learning more about how the world works!

“They have a heritage to share with the other students and those of us who know nothing about their true culture; it gives them a sense of pride.  We set up a little fire inside the tipi and do a little cooking, some storytelling.”  The Sparrow’s Choice

Last week was river honoring for the Salish and Kootenai tribes.  There is a lovely spot along the Flathead River set up for sharing and educating local school kids each May.  There was a tipi for each of, I believe, ten “stations” where students could learn fish and water bug identification, about local trees, Native American stick games, about power provided by our local dam, and touch animal hides and bones brought by the Forest Service.

There was a raptor rescue organization, the station I visited the most.

An elder from the tribe sat at his big powwow drum and when he played and sang the kids moved on to the next station.  The only thing that damped the activity was rain the second day, but in between squalls the field was alive with happy children.

Not one to sit still, I had to explore.  The river is running fast these days with runoff.  I tromped up and down where the willows didn’t block my way and ate lunch in the shade of a juniper.

I’d heard about an old flume up in the hills and it was an easy search.  It and the scenery were worth the short hike.  This not an hour from my house, unbelievable to me.  I spent a couple of hours of up there and will likely hike up there again given the chance!