YELLOWSTONE (river that is)

I love the drive to Miles City, part of it goes by the Yellowstone River. I always wish I had the camera, and this time I actually did. This is by Hathaway..... that's southeastern Montana. The railroad goes right along the river for miles and miles. It's pretty in the spring. Right now the river is pretty high. Yahoo!!

Mother's Day

While Aisling was home this weekend, we celebrated Mother's Day, Aisling's Birthday and Jordan's Graduation! This is the beautiful clock Aisling and Laurence gave me.

Aisling Celebrates Her 20th (a week early)!

Aisling was home for the weekend so she could attend Jordan's high school graduation. While she was here she celebrated her birthday. Cute outfit!!!
The ever traditional books. Never a birthday or Christmas without them!!

Yeah Jordan!!

This weekend was a busy one. Monday, Memorial Day, we traveled to Miles City, MT to attend our grandson, Jordan's, graduation. What fun day for all! Especially Jordan! Done with high school!! He' not sure what he's going to do this fall, but I'm sure he'll figure it out. He's got some nice options out there.
Jordan and his mom Shirl. She has been such a good mom!! I'm so impressed with her (and Darrel of course!). Jordan with his Grandpa, (Laurence).
The Proud Parents, Shirl and DarrelJordan, Darrel and DavidRaymond, Granddaughter Hailey, Shirl

Keeping Up with the Dicksons.... (Not Possible!!)

I've been watching with interest as my cousins Roy and Karen have built, planted (and probably by now harvested!), their square foot garden. I was really interested because we wanted to try doing one this year as well. So, here is our beginning attempts.

First we built our frame. In our case it is 4ft X 7 ft. It's 7 feet long because that is the length of the scrap lumber we had here at the house. 4 feet wide because 2 feet is all the further we can reach:) We built the grid and placed it on top. Underneath are a couple of layers of cardboard and then some weed barrier. We are putting it in our regular garden. We filled it with our soil mixture. 1/3 coarse vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 compost.

Then Laurence watered it in good. The wind was blowing so we wanted to get it watered in quickly so we didn't lose too much of our light weight materials.

Here it is, about 1/2 planted. If you look closely in the lower right you will see a square foot of onions. Hopefully someday we'll have 28 squares that are up.....
I did cover it for the first week or so with black plastic so the soil would warm faster. Then to top it off, Wednesday we got about 3" of snow.... Mother Nature is just a barrel of laughs!!

To show just what a sense of humor Mother Nature has, we are forecast to get about 30° tonight. So, to make life more fun, I moved all my bedding plants into the living room. What a day!

Yes, we do live here as well!!

This is my herb garden. I've been working hard on it this week. Mainly what you could see before was grass and morning glory (the weed, not the flower!!). Boy am I envious of Viv getting a pickup load of shredded bark for just dollars. I'm not telling how much each bag of this cost me!! Let's just say I'm glad Laurence loves me!!

FAMILY

Last week was a sad week for Shirl, Teesha and Bill. On Friday April 24th, their mother Sue died. We were blessed to be able to spend a little bit of time with them as they mourned their loss. This is the first time that we have all been together. Aisling, Bill, Desi (Bill's girlfriend), Mike (Teesha's husband), Shirl, Darrel (Shirl's husband)Laurence, Sidney
We were missing Jordan and Rheanna.

They had a reception for family and friends at the Hitching Rack in Lander.Teesha, Bill, Aisling, ShirlHow nice for Laurence to be able to have a picture with the kids!!

Shirl, Bill, Aisling, Laurence, Teesha
Shirl, Laurence and Teesha Laurence with his son-in-laws Darrel and Mike. Shirl and her dad
Mike, Teesha and RheannaAisling, Laurence and Rheanna Shirl and Darrel (I'm so glad they found each other, they are so good together!)

Turning the Hearts of the Children to the Father's

While we were in Lander we took the opportunity to go to the cemetary and pay our respects to Laurence's family. This is where Laurence's mother Ellen Pitt is buried.

My apologies that this is nearly impossible to see. This is in the Veteran's portion of the cemetary. This is Laurence's dad. Lawrence Pitt. He enlisted in the army as Raymond L. Pitt, because he went by Raymond although that is no part of his name. As a result, his headstone reads Raymond L. Pitt. The family however, knew him as Uncle Bud. Good luck to those coming behind trying to straighten out this genealogy!! (to borrow from Carmen, giggle) This is the headstone of his grandparents. Bessie Ellsworth and Laurence Pitt.
On the way home, we stopped in Lovell and went to the cemetary there. This is my father's headstone. The reverse side of the headstone has the names of all six kids listed on it. (Luckily for us there are no death dates!:)