Saturday

Today was a travel day. We slept in this morning (until past 9) and then got on the road.
We made a lunch stop in Billings, MT. and had lunch with a college buddy of mine, Brian Kraft and his new wife of about 9 months. Brian is a gifted counselor, I’m excited to see him healing and possibly headed back into the ministry after his previous wife left him several years ago and he was forced to step out of the ministry.
The rest of the day was spent driving across Montana (it’s a bigger state than most people realize). We dropped South and came up the Bitterroot Valley, where I grew up, from the South. It’s an incredibly gorgeous drive. We drove past the location of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, a small herd of Rocky Mountain Sheep, the place where I learned to ski, and many more just fun sights.
In between fighting with each other, I think the boys enjoyed it, but it was a long day for them. We won’t do any days that long the rest of the trip.
Tonight, we’re camping on the banks of the Bitterroot River on the South side of Hamilton. Hamilton is where I claim as my home town and I haven’t been here in several years. It’s changed a lot.
Tomorrow, we’ll got to church at my home church, fix the bent hitch and then head for the Columbia River Gorge.

Last Day with the Grandparents

Today was one of those memorable days for the boys. They experience so much, that they said that it felt like a whole bunch of days in one.
We started out with a pancake breakfast at our favorite campground of the summer – Mystery Mountain Resort, with Kiley’s folks. We then took a short hike across the campground where they excitedly showed their grandparents the “Mystery Cabin”.
After we packed up, we headed over to the big Maze that our family had done a few weeks ago (it seems like only a few days ago –wow this has flown by). The boys begged to take their grandparents through it. Brendon split us up into teams, he and Ian went with their grandpa (PaPa) and Kiley, Karen (Kiley’s mom whom the boys call MoMo) and I went as a second team. The boys wanted to race. We could hear both boys laughing so hard it almost made MY sides ache as they made PaPa run with them. Tom (PaPa) later said that it was one of his favorite memories of the summer with the boys.
Who won? That’s debatable…let’s just say that I held the door at the finish of the maze open for the boys and PaPa to finish first. ☺
From there, it was a quick lunch and we said goodbye to Kiley’s folks and we headed West. It was a sad moment for all of us as we basically have spent the first five weeks of our Sabbatical with them between time in Yellowstone and our time at the ranch. Not many people can say that they enjoy spending that much time with their extended family, but we have such incredible family on both sides, that these times are precious and, believe it or not, very relaxing.
We made a long drive of it and stopped in Hardin, MT just in time for the boys and I to go swimming in the campground pool before it closed for the night. It was hot and sticky so the pool felt awesome.

Goodbye to the Ranch

We said goodbye to the Cobb Ranch for the summer early this morning and headed towards Hot Springs, SD.
It was eerily silent in the truck as the boys road with Kiley’s folks, who went with us for this last little trip. Today is their 42nd Wedding Anniversary and they wanted to spend it with us. At least that’s what they said, we know that they were more interested in spending it with their grandsons. ☺
Once in Hot Springs, we stopped at the Wooly Mammoth Dig site. All of us thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Ian is enamored with anything dinosaur these days, so to see thousands of Mammoth bones actually being dug up while we watched was almost more than he could handle. Brendon, although somewhat less patient, is a budding history buff, so he got caught up in it as well.
Once our time at the dig was done, Tom decided we needed a picnic lunch. He picked the food…it was what he called “PaPa food” for lunch. We had pop (that’s the real word for Soda), cheetos, cheese puffs, chips, and about every other kind of junk food he could find at the store. He found a little picnic spot by a water fall where we gorged ourselves on the most unhealthy meal all summer. ☺
From there, we went on to Rapid City and set up the trailer at our summer’s favorite campground again (we went back for one night today for the start of the trip home). The moment the trailer was set up, there was a flash of lighting, a roll of thunder and someone turned on the fire hose. We sat in the trailer for the next hour as water poured, and I mean POURED down so loud we could hardly hear ourselves. We laughed the time away playing a game of SWAP.
From there, we took Tom and Karen out for their anniversary to Red Lobster, one of their favorite restaurants. We shopped for a couple birthday presents for extended family and then headed back to roast s’mores over the campfire. With my new method of starting a fire with a road flare the rain didn’t matter.
We found at Cost Plus World Market, a spreadable Chocolate Caramel. Spread that stuff on a graham cracker, add roasted Marshmallow and you have one incredible fat producing evening snack…

Eating Possum, Neutering Cats and Funerals

It's been an interesting week. I'm further reminded why I never quite fit
any molds. Fact is, I come from odd stock. They're really nice, entertaining
people; just odd, but I digress...

Sunday we went to morning church in Eli and then joined the church my
parents go to in Merriman Sunday evenings. My eldest cousin, Brett, had a
life-transforming conversion to Christ a couple of years ago and I still get
a strange, though good feeling watching him play fiddle for worship. He and
his wife, Diane, don't miss church and are very vocal about how Christ has
completely changed their lives. Watching a quiet, gritty cowboy like Brett
(he even has the black handlebar mustache) praise God with everything he is
is a beautiful sight.

Out here, everyone has to drive quite a distance to get to church so people
often bring food for church and Bible study so you can have a bite of
snack/supper afterwards. This week there was a wonderful chicken/cheese dip
with nachos and a BBQ sausage dish. I took some of both. It was obvious that
the sausage in the BBQ dish was some sort of venison, though my hunch came
from texture alone since it didn't have a tell tale gamey flavor. On the
ride home, my dad looked at mom and said something to the effect of, "I'm
not sure what the whole possum dish thing was about." POSSUM!!! Now I can
add possum to the list of odd foods I've encountered in my life. I must say,
I prefer possum to bear or moose...at least that particular recipe.

This week has been a rather hard one for my mom and grandmother in
particular. The end of last week my mom's cousin died very suddenly from
complications arising from a routine check-up. Joni was only 52 years old
and was the youngest of my mom's cousins. I didn't happen to throw in
anything appropriate for a funeral, though I probably should have since I've
gone to a funeral six out of the last eight trips I've made back home. Of
course my mom had tons of patterns and extra fabric she keeps on hand, so I
spent Monday afternoon making a black skirt to wear to the funeral on
Wednesday. It was easier and took less time to whip out a skirt than drive
into town and hope there was something decent for a decent price. You gotta
love living in the middle of nowhere.

My parents always have a bunch of cats hanging around. Of course, lots of
cats mean there are always MORE cats with each new litter. Right now my
folks' cat population is down to on tom and one female who are both from the
same litter. Since dad is kind of concerned about having dumb cats because
of inbreeding, he decided to get the tom cat neutered. My uncle Rich offered
to do it for free, but considering the fact he's about as much of a vet as I
am, dad figured it would be more humane to take "floofball" to an actual
vet. Ian, being the animal lover, opted to go with dad and console floofball
on the 45 minute trip to the vet and then back again. He told my mom he'd
never seen an actual animal doctor and really wanted to. It was an
educational day for Ian as the vet is of the retired variety and does his
vet work out of the back of his pickup truck. I think I now understand why
they usually keep animals for "observation" after they do stuff like that.
Floof looked like a dead cat for about four hours. It was starting to get
concerning. He's such a nice ol' cat and the thought of losing him over
something as stupid as a simple neutering job was not one mom and I were
liking. Finally, after about four to five hours, he started twitching his
ears to get the flies off and eventually woke up enough to close his eyes
and sleep like a normal cat. (He laid rigid with his eyes open that initial
4 to 5 hours. It was a little freaky.) This morning my dad found him
sleeping in the box with the two turtles the boys captured. I guess he was
lonely. He seems none the worse for his horrid experience, though the
kittens don't like him anymore. Poor floofball...

My New tools

While Kiley was at the funeral with her folks, Jason and I stayed home, watched the kids and built a new handrail for their front step.

We used my new Ryobi Power tools...very cool and so nice to not mess with cords.

It's a solid hand rail for Grandma Margaret to use. We put anchors down into the concrete and then mounted plates for the 4x4s. It'll be there for a long time...

Our Last Full Day at the Ranch

Tomorrow we go into town for Karen’s cousin’s funeral. Jason and I will hang with the kids while everyone else attends the funeral. Joni (Karen’s cousin) went in for a routine test last week, developed an infection and died within 24 hours after. They’re still trying to figure out what happened.

Today, though, was a fantastic last day at the Ranch. Kiley and I slept in until 8:30 (the boys don’t sleep in here, they get up early to play with their PaPa)…he normally feeds them Cheetos and Pop for breakfast…no wonder they like getting up and hanging with him.

The boys found a Turtle this morning during their outdoor adventures and have kept him, along with a baby Turtle they found, in a box all day. Ian also has a small collection of bugs in jars that he’s been gathering. I’m not sure where they’ll go in the trailer.

Once I was up, I worked out in the shop getting the camper and the truck ready for the long trek back to California. We changed the oil, checked all the stuff you need to check and greased all the joints. I also did some minor maintenance work on the trailer.

The real challenge was getting Kiley’s cedar chest (a gift from her Grandparents) full of family mementos in the already full back of the truck. I think it’s well protected and will make the journey. One of the cool finds was an antique firehouse water pail.

Kiley spent much of the day doing the laundry. Fortunately, it’s dry and windy, so she can hang lots of it outside to dry faster than even the dryer could dry it.

Ian went into Martin with Kiley’s dad to have a friend “fix” one of the cats. Ian insists he’s going to be a vet when he grows up, so he went along to comfort the cat during the trip. Of course, PaPa had to take him out to eat…they had corn dogs, French fries and….Mountain Dew! I asked why he gave him Mt. Dew and he said, “Well, ‘cause he wanted it of course…” I guess that’s the privilege of being a grandparent.

After Tom got back, he drove Brendon and I up the river. We dove in with our inner tubes and floated down river, past the house and to a spot that the boys have called the “Sand pit.” Tom and Ian met us there (Ian didn’t want to float). The deer and horse flies were thick…I imagine our legs will be full of bites tonight, but we had a great time floating. The river has a shallow sandy bottom, much like a southern California beach on the sand is even nicer. It’s pretty cool.

Once we were out, we walked up, still wet, a little canyon where the rains had washed it clean of grass, bushes and trees. It’s basically just a huge sand box. Tom took a nap in the shade of the face of the cliff while the boys and I played in the sand.

Then, I had the privilege, once we were back at the house, of pulling out the compressor and blowing all the sand off of them. That’s the nice thing about it here, they never get muddy, it’s always sand. Just dry them off and blow them off.

Now, we’re finishing up the day with homemade ice cream. Woohoo!

Family Psalms and Promises

I had a discussion this morning with Kiley's mom. She has an incredible prayer life. One of the gifts she gives to each family member is a Psalm for their life. I have written them down for our family throughout the years, but thought I'd write them here:

Kiley - Psalm 121
Me - Psalm 62
Brendon - Psalm 4
Ian - Psalm 125

Psalms and Promises

One of the cool things about spending time at the Cobb Ranch is that every year the Holy Spirit gives me a Psalm of Promise that feeds my heart for the coming year. Just yesterday, He gave me Psalm 103 for the coming year. Some real good stuff in there.

How young can they start driving?

One of the highlights of the day was coming back to the ranch from town. Once we turned off the highway, Brendon, yes Brendon, climbed into the driver’s seat with PaPa still working the pedals, and drove for about 4 miles. Then, they pulled over and Ian took over for the last four miles.

Brendon drives every year while we’re here and is getting good. We figure he’ll be ready for the pedals next year…believe it or not. Oh the joy of being in the country. ☺

I should have written about a few nights ago as well. Kiley and I were following Tom and Karen as we came back from town. We wondered why they stopped as they pulled off the highway…then the car started swerving a little. We soon realized that one of the boys was driving. It was fun to follow behind and watch the car weave off the road out into the pasture and then veer back onto the road again.

Possum and Thunderstorms

As I type this, I’m sitting in the camper, which is set up inside the huge shop out at the ranch listening to a thunderstorm beat away at the metal roof. I love thunderstorms!

We just got home from evening church in Merriman. Dave Morrisey pastors a circuit of churches throughout Western Nebraska and South Dakota. He knows the people and the culture well and does a great job of pasturing. I found out tonight that he was born in my hometown of Hamilton, MT. His aunt was my piano teacher, Marge Leonardi, and the couple who discipled he and his wife are good friends with my folks (Ron and Bev Hood). It’s a small world.

After church was a small potluck. I had some of the great tasting BBQ sausages. After a good helping, I heard someone say, “Isn’t that possum good?!” Guess my pallet is expanding…

Sunday Celebrations

Tom spoke on the “Five Mistakes Most Christians make” this morning. It was a good message that got me thinking about several things. Here’s the basic outline:

1. They don’t know who their enemy is (John 10:10-12)
“It’s the devil’s ploy to get Christians to concentrate their fire on the wrong target”
2. They don’t know what their mission is (1 Tim. 1:5)
“You like someone (or something) because of what you may gain, but you love someone (or something) because of what you may give.”
3. They don’t know what to hope for (Heb. 1:3)
“Hope, for a Christian, shouldn’t be based upon whatever their heart desires. It should be based upon whatever God has promised to him/her personally.”
4. They don’t know what faith is (Heb. 11:6)
“Faith isn’t trust and trust isn’t faith.”
Trust is based upon your perception of God’s character – faith is based upon God’s
promises.”
“Trust gives the believer the ability to remain inactive (when he needs to do so) – faith
motivate the believer to take action based on God’s promises (when he needs to do so.)”
5. They don’t know what prayer is (Mark 11:34, Luke 11:8)
"Many Christians need to stop asking and start receiving.”