More weather

Hopefully the saying is true: "In like a lion, out like a lamb".   This weekend has been cold, windy and snowy.  All weekend. And lots of each.  Tammy planned a Tastefully Simple tasting party for her team on Sunday and she had to postpone it until next weekend due to the weather.  So we have a refrigerator full of food.

Sunday morning Daisy was bored and really wanted to go outside.  Numerous times in the morning she indicated she wanted to go outside hoping each time the weather would be better.  Tammy or I would open the door and Daisy would see what the weather was like and then turn around... disappointed.  Lots of meowing in the morning until Daisy gave up and settled down for an afternoon nap.

You can't burn this cardboard... it is mine!

The cattle's fur must really protect them as the snow on the cattle is not melting.

Temperatures always around zero F requires the stock tank heater to be used.   The small open area is because I hadn't used the heater earlier overnight.

All weekend I have shoveled and re-shoveled pathways to all the buildings and the corral.  I shoveled part of the driveway since Tammy goes to work tomorrow.  It is still snowing and the forecast has non-stop snow for the next couple days before we return to normal temperatures and the snow changes to rain.

Party in the Yaak

Last Friday Tammy had a Tastefully Simple party in the Yaak area.  A long way from home.   The day was gorgeous and in the morning I had found a guy with an excavator to push my pipe in the ground a few weeks from now, so I decided to join Tammy on the road trip.

We took a route I had driven only once before with my dad back in 1996.  It goes north to Eureka, Montana, then goes west to cross Lake Koocanusa and then on a small narrow road through the Kootenai national forest before coming reaching private lands and houses.  This is a remote area.

 
We took a different route back.   Tammy didn't like the remote road we had driven on earlier, especially as the road was not straight.  We constantly were turning this way and that between Lake Koocanusa and theYaak.  And of course there had been no cell phone service once we moved away from Eureka.

So we headed down to Highway 2 even though this route back to Kalispell is longer.  I marked the route in red below.  The blue line was a shorter route but we were told there was road construction on the blue highway that had long delays.

There was more traffic on this road, and it was straighter - or at least as straight as roads through the mountains can be.  And more opportunities for cell phone service which made Tammy happy.  The downside was that there was more deer on this road, of which I mentioned when I posted earlier about the deer that jumped over the highway's guard rail and into Tammy's minivan.

Here are photos of our drive to the house in the Yaak.

The first two photos were taken on Highway 93 on our way to Eureka.  Snow on the mountains already.

 Lake Koocanusua.  Looking south.

Lake Koocanusua.  Looking north towards Canada.

Bridge over Lake Koocanusa.

More north looking Lake Koocanusa views.

Most of the Rocky Mountains in Northern Montana have crumbly rock not suitable for rock climbing.  Some of the mountains near Lake Kocanusua are not crumbly and apparently are good for rock climbing.


This is the road between Lake Koocanusa and the Yaak area.  A long enough straight section where I could take a photo.

View from the road.

Fair in Eureka

Tammy is going to be selling her Tastefully Simple products at the Lincoln County Fair in Eureka this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  She has a spot outside on the fairgrounds as all the inside the building spots were filled. Thursday she and I drove the 60+ miles to Eureka to set up her tent and tables.

Tammy's tent

View from the fairgrounds.

Before heading home we stopped at the Powderhorn Cafe in downtown Eureka.  It is a very small place.  The cook (owner?) was friendly but one heck of a relaxed dude.  Maybe a little stoned?  Who knows.


I had a regular size:

The Big Timber 

Pastrami, Roast Beef, sauteed mushroom, red and green peppers, onions on a Fresh baked bagette, garlic herb mayo.

Tammy had a regular sized:

Sidewinder Grinder
Ham and swiss cheese, onions, lettuce, tomato with our herb mayo.

Both our sandwiches were very good.

We were the only customers at 6 pm on a Thursday.  About the time we left the owner took down his open sign though he said he was still open to the locals who knocked on his door to get some food.

July Women's Expo

 A rock and gem show was in the grandstand building at the Flathead Fairgrounds and a gun show was suppose to be held in the expo building.  With the activities going on Tammy decided to hold another one of her Women's Expo today at another building at the fairgrounds.

But then the gun show decided to move their event to next weekend.  Also the Valley was chock full of activities this weekend.  Several vendors at Tammy's expo were from Great Falls and came up for the weekend.  They said they had trouble finding hotel rooms last night as everything was booked.

The people must have been elsewhere today as attendance at Tammy's expo and the rock and gem show was light.  A lot of work, little reward.

Columbia Falls women's expo

Tammy held her Columbia Falls women's expo on Saturday April 14.  The weather conspired against it which is odd to say as the weather was so nice.  The weather forecast was the same as it has been all week: cloudy and cool with a decent chance of rain.  Saturday dawned and it was clear and sunny, no wind with warm temperatures.  It was good weather for getting outside stuff done instead of attending a small women's expo.  The attendance was less than we hoped for, even factoring in that the expo was held in the small town of Columbia Falls. Then about the time the expo was over at 4 pm the clouds arrived on a strong cool wind.  Too late.  Today - Sunday - the weather is back to overcast, damp and cool.  Figures.  Even factoring in the nice weather Tammy is going to think long and hard before scheduling another expo in Columbia Falls.

I should have taken more photos but I was busy part of the day attending my credit union's annual meeting where I fell asleep when the lights were turned down for the PowerPoint presentation of their financial numbers. In my defense I hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before as I was up late helping with making the expo signs.  I also stopped by a small auction held nearby at Columbia Falls.  Mostly guys were at the auction as the stuff being auctioned was mostly tools and "guy stuff".

So I forgot to take a photo of the expo location (inside a former bank), Tammy's new "Women's Expo" banner I hung outside the building, or any of the four large signs I placed at the ends of the street and in front of the expo location.

Tammy ended up with about 14 vendors at her expo.  It seems as if a half dozen vendors canceled at the last minute for various reasons other than the weather.

I did get a photo of Tammy's display.

Creston auction

Saturday Tammy and I attended the annual Creston auction.  Tammy had a table at the arts and craft building across the street from the auction in order to sell her Tastefully Simple products.

The building is not very big and the vendors were crowded in the room. The vendors went around the walls and there was a row in the middle of the room for vendors. Tammy was in the middle row and not pleased about it. The middle row had an aisle on each side of spot and you had to choose which way to face.

Tammy and other vendors felt it was cold in the room. I got Tammy's blanket and gloves for her to stay warm in the morning.  Here she is giving me the finger for taking her picture.

A steady number of people at the auction noticed there was an arts and crafts show also going on and came to check it out.  Not a lot of people seemed to be buying stuff though.  Tammy sold some stuff and got leads on people interested in having a party or buying stuff later.  She also advertized her upcoming expo and upcoming antique and flea market show later this month.

The forecast had lots of rain for Saturday but we didn't get any.  In fact the sun came out mid-morning and stayed around much of the day.  It was quite nice.  So I don't know if it was because of the bad economy or whether the weather forecast scared some people off, but the number of items brought to be auctioned was the lowest amount I've seen in over ten years.  I think the amount of items was about 2/3 of the typical amount of items.

There was also a rummage sale in the school building next to the auction site.  Here is what it looked like.

A bidding number cost $5.  They claimed it was to pay for the security at the auction.  I don't buy a bidding number unless I think I will really get something. So I didn't have a bidding number when the auction started.   One of the first items auctioned by one auctioneer was a bundle of fence rails.  Abut 50 rails in the bundle.  The winning bid was $55.  What a deal!   There was five more bundles of rails scattered about the grounds and I decided to wait to see what those bundles sold for.  They went from anywhere from $130 to $170 a bundle.  This was more in line with what I expected.

I saw two other items of interest.  A four foot HW-brand gate and an older Trek ten-speed bicycle in great condition.  The odds were against me getting a good deal on the gate, but you never know.  More certain was the bicycle.  Bicycles tend not to sell for much at auctions.  And mountain bicycles sell better than road bicycles.  Earlier, the mountain bicycles didn't sell for much.  At one point three mountain bicycles sold for $2.50 total.   Later, mountain bicycles sold between $20 and $40. So I was confident I would get this road bicycle.

It was a nice bicycle.  It was an old bicycle as the shifting levers were the old friction style shifters and not index shifting.  The bicycle was a touring bicycle with a triple chain-ring and low gearing.  The brakes were cantilever brakes.  There was a bicycle pump with the bicycle and two water bottle cages mounted on the frame.  A mirror was attached to the left end of the handlebar.

The gate and bicycle were in the last row of items to sell.  The craft show was over at 3 pm and Tammy and I got the display packed up and loaded into her minivan before the auctioneers got to the items I wanted.

A second auctioneer started to work on the last row and for a while it looked like the gate and bicycle would be sold at the same time and I had to bounce back and forth between the auctioneers to see how close they were to the gate and bicycle.  The gate sold first.  Four other people wanted the gate and when the bidding was done the gate sold for $55.  Jeez!  You could buy a new gate for that price.

Then it was a short wait for the bicycle.  Just before the bicycle was auctioned the backup auctioneer had one of the handlers bring over the bicycle to him so he could lift it.  The bicycle was light.

When the bidding began at $10 my competition was the backup auctioneer.  Once I bid $75 he dropped out at the next bid of $85.  I thought I had the bicycle when another person bid $85. Who is this guy?!  He looked to be a 50-something overweight guy.  He certainly didn't look like he was going to ride the bicycle.  He also looked like he may have money.     I bid $95.  He bid $105.  I dropped out at $115.  The bicycle was nice but I wasn't going to pay over $100 for a bicycle I didn't have a chance to test ride.  While the frame size was large enough for me, until I rode the bicycle I wouldn't know if the other frame specifications were right for me.

I was bummed!   I was certain I would get the bicycle and even spent $5 on a bidding ticket.  I was in a cranky mood for a long time afterwards.

In a typical year there would be items to be auctioned all the way to where I was standing to take the following photo.

The sheriff's posse was also on hand for security which looked to be waste as  having law enforcement on horseback certainly wasn't necessary.

Here is a 1:27 video of an auction in progress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUG6aZY_6BI&feature=youtu.be

Spinach artichoke chicken

Tammy has a Tastefully Simple mix for making a spinach artichoke dip.  Tonight she used the mix instead as a seasoning mix on chicken she cooked in her crock-pot.

Yum.

Spring Fling expo

Today Tammy held her first big expo here in Kalispell.   She rented the Country Kitchen building at the fairgrounds to hold an expo for local home based direct selling businesses.

The County Kitchen building is the smallest of the the four main buildings one can rent at the fairgrounds.

We came up with a layout to hold 38 vendors and she found enough vendors to fill all the spaces.  A few weeks ago we even set up a few tables as a practice to ensure that my layout on paper would work and still have enough room for everyone.

Friday afternoon Tammy and I went to the building and set up all the tables and chairs and got everything ready.  Tammy set up her table for Tastefully Simple so she would be ready this morning to help everyone else.

A half dozen vendors were already waiting at the building Saturday morning when Tammy and I arrived at 8 am.

We ended up with 35 vendors as three vendors had family emergencies at the last minute and were unable to attend.

Everyone was set up and ready by 10 am. The start was slow but it then picked up and the attendance was fairly steady until we closed at 4 pm.   Some vendors started to pack up and leave at 20 minutes to 4 pm which annoyed Tammy.  She wanted everyone to be there for the last minute shoppers.  Overall I think the vendors did well.

Also at the fairgrounds the state wrestling tournament was being held all day over at the Trade Center building.

The fairgrounds has a poor layout of roads and buildings and generally it is confusing to find buildings.  Toss in the wrestling tournament at the Trade Center and all the crazy parking and it was difficult for people (and even for a few of our vendors) to find our building in the middle of the fairgrounds.  We had people at our building looking for the tournament and we had people at the tournament looking for our event.

Yup. We are located way down near the end of this road.

Tammy and I are working on having better signs.  We had gotten a couple of old sandwich board signs from Michelle. Last night I painted over the old words.  I had to bring the signs into the house overnight so they would dry by the morning.  I had no time to paint words on the sign this morning so I took a large magic marker and wrote the word EXPO on the signs.  Not perfect - but it will do until we come up with permanent wordage.

Here is the entrance to the fairgrounds.  The entrance is by the trade center (the building on the right side).

The layout at the start.

More views from different corners of the room.

One of the vendors (Tridagam) sold board games.  Lots of board games. While Tammy's expo was a "women's" expo, it was called that because most products were more interesting to women than men.  Yet, Tridagam did well and sold a number of games.  Women like playing board games too.

Tammy's new display layout.  I built a few small boxes, and with a few boards I had in my scrap wood pile, I came up with a two level display.  Tammy bought another table cloth to provide more color.  She seems happier with her new display layout now, though when I was trying to design and built it she wasn't interested in it.

All in all it was a successful expo and everyone seemed please with the outcome.

Browning party

Thursday Tammy had a Tastefully Simple party north of Browning, Montana.   A woman Tammy had met last December at the expo in Browning decided to have a party with a few of her friends.

The location was east of the mountains and a long way to drive but Tammy was game. Or actually, I was game as I was the one who drove.  Besides it would be nice to get out of the Valley and the overcast skies and see some blue sky for a change.

It had snowed in the morning and the weather had turned to rain by the time we left.  I had concerns the rain would turn to snow by the time we crossed Marias Pass but it was rain all the way to the pass.  After we reached the pass the rain stopped and we drove into blue skies as the clouds would go no further east than the mountains.

With the blue skies we also got wind.  The wind blew hard.  I could feel it pushing the vehicle as I drove.

I had thought the party was being held at a house on the north side of Browning.  North side was right.  Only it was 28 miles north of Browning.

There isn't much east of the mountains and we drove out into less than even that.

After over twenty miles on a paved highway we turned off onto a county gravel road. It was another four to five miles on this road to the house.    Even with binoculars I doubt one could see any houses.  Even the power line poles looked out of place and few and far between.

Before we got to the house we came to a gash of a large valley that one didn't see until they came up on it. The house - and ranch - was down in this Valley.  Anything to reduce the wind.   The following photo doesn't capture the width and depth of this valley.  At the top of the hill, as one started to go down, it caught a person's breath as one initially didn't see the road beyond the initial drop.  Then one could see where the road went down the hill.  *whew!*  The woman holding the party said their Fed Ex driver often won't drive down the hill to get to their house, especially if there was any snow or even a thought of snow.

Along the gravel road were good fences.  Instead of boards or wire, the fence was made up of long thin flexible pipe threaded through the wood and steel fence posts.  I think the pipe is from well drilling.  Earlier along the gravel road it looked like a group of yearling buffaloes were around a hay stack.   I asked one of the owners if they also had buffalo as the fence looked sturdy enough for these animals.  Nope.  Just horses and cattle.  How many cattle?  They planned to calve 800 hundred head.

I don't remember driving over potholes on the gravel road but once we arrived at the party I noticed that Tammy's side of the vehicle was really dirty - even the windows - while my side of the vehicle was only slightly dirty.


After two and a half hours for the party it was time to drive home.  The drive back and forth was two hours each way.

The sun was setting as we left.

It was dark by the time we were back into the mountain crossing.  The clouds were dissipating.   The rain had quit and the roads were drying except for the snow melt.  We went into and out of fog over and over as we twisted, curved and wound our way through the mountains.  At one point we came upon a very large mule deer standing in the road.  Even in the minivan the deer's body looked to be window height.  I was able to quickly slow down and the deer trotted back off the road as I slowed.  Just another thing to keep a person awake and alert.  No cruise control driving or zoning off as one drove here.

On our drive back home we saw very few vehicles on our sixty or so mile journey through the mountains.


The next photo was taken west of Marias Pass on our journey to the party.

The following photo is of Elk Mountain.  I had climbed it this past August:  http://tallpineshiker.blogspot.com/2011/08/elk-mountain-in-glacier-park.html

At Marias Pass.

Plenty of snow at Marias Pass.