Goings On and Something We Call Winter Camping

Summer's sun and warm weather are so fleeting in the Northern Rockies that we all play hard outside while it lasts. There will be many months of cold and darkness to come when we'll dive back into indoor house projects. 

Meantime, we have begun the major task of reworking our backyard.  I must have subconsciously avoided taking pictures of it when it was filled with sagebrush and other native....weeds.  But one skid-steer and several hours later, we had this empty canvas:

And thanks to YouTube and the Mountain Man's ability to handle power tools:

We have cedar raised beds for vegetables next summer! Next we'll surround the beds with river cobble and lay out a flower bed between the boxes and the house as a screen.  

In other news:

This is my hand-me-down town cruiser and I love it.  Almost makes me look forward to going to work.  Almost. 

This was the table I set for the Coq au Vin dinner party a couple of weeks ago.  Judging by the number of guests who called to complain of their hangovers the next morning, I think it was a success:

Finally, we are headed to Bozeman and then Yellowstone this weekend for one last Wildland Trekking Company trip for the season.  I am tagging along, and it is going to be cold.  It's been a few years since I was in the Yellowstone backcountry, though, so it should be an adventure!

Photo courtesy of jeremyhays

Photo courtesy of forddesign