Up in Smoke!

We thought we would miss the annual summer fires in the area, and apparently spoke too soon! Last week a very large fire (now at over 15,000 acres) took off about 20 miles south of Livingston. Being the fire freaks taht we realized we are, we drove out to see it on SUnday when it was only 500 acres. So, the pics you see are VERY SMALL clouds... They look alot like a nuclear mushroom cloud. Really cool to see. Now it is not as much fun b/c what used to be blue skies is now all gray and there is tons of ash in the air and the air quality - very poor. We are all walking around like zombie with headaches, hard to breath, blah blah blah. The little old ladies wear masks all over town... Tried to get a picture of that, but realized i was being rude.

On the positive. Peter finally had 2 whole days off in a row and we went to Dillon to see Amy and Eric and their new house. I leave next week for a fun week long girls river trip on the snake river in Idaho. Will be a blast! Micca is flying up from OK to do the trip... I really can't imagine a better way to spend a week. I will post the G-rated pictures when we return.

It is a countdown to the wedding and we are getting so excited... Many great friends and family coming. We are doing some small details and planning, but mainly just counting the days till the party!

Peter and I got a new truck. We are selling the Civic (boo hoo- had her since college). I love that old car, but we have outgrown it with the 3 dogs. I was constantly living in dog hair / mud. We bought a 96' Tacoma from a friend and I love it!

We have some great friends living with us right now as they are building their yurt. The one pic is of Billy sleeping in the yard one night. We really did give them a room to stay in... he just thought it would be fun to sleep outside.

Dad, Clark and Doug came to visit a few weeks ago. We had a great time! Fishing, sightseeing, golf, dinner out, etc. 4 Cottongims in one small town- spells trouble!

The garden

My garden this year is a bit "different." I decided to not plant my seeds / starts in rows, but to scatter it and make it a bit more random. If everything had come in I think it would have been really pretty, but I had a number of things not sprout at all this year. So, it is a bit patchy in spots. But, the things that did take are coming in nicely and I am still having fun with it. My squash are growing the best and I am hoping ot have some tomatoes soon. My lettuce varieties are great and are ready to be harvested, as are my onions and of course.. BASIL. We snatch a bit of that most days. It is a really hot and dry summer, so I am so proud of the little veggies... hanging in there. I feel awful watering too much, so we made an agreement that I would give them just enough water if they will be really strong and conserve as much water as possible. So far, we are both holding up our ends of the bargain!