Living in the Montana Rockies

I’ve heard it said that God laughs when you tell him your plans, but its hard for me to find any humor in dashed hopes...

After several days of shoveling snow (forcing myself to continue because my vinyl-walled storage shelter was slanting and in danger of collapsing under the weight), I was in serious pain in my upper back, between my shoulder blades. Robert insisted I see his chiropractor. I was examined and x-rayed, and the diagnosis is scoliosis, arthritis forming spurs on two vertebrae, pinched nerves and blood vessels causing my arms and hands to hurt and go numb (my left arm has for years), the spine in my neck is straight when it should be curved, and in one spot, the vertebrae keep getting out of line, which causes pain across my left shoulder and down my arm. Age happens. Both of us have now been told no more heavy lifting. I cannot shovel snow or anything else any more. And no playing my fiddle for the time being. I have always known something was wrong...my left arm gets sore and goes numb and my fingers swell up; I can neither sit nor stand for any length of time, and I have to stop fiddling and shake out my arm until I can feel my fingers. Now I know why, but that’s little comfort. Robert will not be able to plow everyone out any more, either. The last time he did, he spent four days in bed, in pain and not able to move around. It is difficult for us to accept that we have limitations. The bummer about my physical disability is that the treatments cause as much pain as the problems cause, only in different places, and in addition, it gives me a headache. We won’t be able to build our own house after all.

However, my doctor said that horse back riding is the best therapy there is for a spine! So Robert took me to the Bozeman Saddle Outlet—over 500 saddles in stock! And we found a beautiful old saddle, intricately tooled, and we bought a bridle, bit, reins, breast strap and a used saddle pad to match the slightly red-toned dark brown leather of the saddle. I also have new fleece lined deerskin riding gloves and my old leather cowboy riding boots. I built myself a saddle rack using an old 2' high wooden step ladder onto which I attached a black 5 gallon bucket with baling wire, with a strip of carpet attached with screws on top to keep the saddle from sliding off. I have spent the last few days with leather conditioner/preservative rubbing the saddle until the leather has become flexible like new. I am cleaning every bit of the tooling with a cloth and Murphy Oil soap and a toothpick, then putting on the conditioner. It’s nice to have something to do, since the ground outside is covered in ice, and I have already fallen once, so I do not want to even think about going riding until it’s safe.

On the way home from the doctor, Robert pulled in to a mobile home dealer and asked if there are any used homes? The one they had has the same floor plan that I drew out as we were planning the house we wanted to build! It’s very old, 1967, but in reasonably good condition. And Robert said we can still cut down some of his trees and have them milled for siding and decks, and we can add insulation and vapor wrap all the way around the outside under the wood siding. So, for a total cost of $7,500, delivered and set up, we have a 20' x 52', three bedroom, 2 bathroom house with a laundry room and a huge kitchen, dining room and living room. It has large windows in all the right places! It is still at the dealership. We need to wait until spring for the ground to thaw enough (it is frozen 2 ½ feet down) for Robert to expand the homesite with a backhoe and put in concrete strips to set the house on. I hope that this is not one of those winters that lasts through May.

We have been having record high temperatures across Montana. It snowed another couple of inches last night, after a pouring rain. Rain is really unusual here at this time of year. The ground is slushy and the road, covered in ice and now slush, is really scary to drive on. My car won’t go at all; the Jimmy, with 4WD, slides sideways and we go all over the road. Fortunately, there’s rarely another vehicle on the road, because we use both sides! While I have my foot on the imaginary brake from the passenger seat, Robert keeps saying, "Relax! I’ve been driving this for ten years. That’s why the Jimmy has a winch. If we go off the road, I just hop out and attach the winch to a tree and pull myself out and drive on!" I do not want to go anywhere; sliding sideways in the jimmy on the slick road is not my idea of fun! I told my doctor yesterday that I think my high blood pressure is from the drive to town.

We have two neighbors with three horses about a half mile up Pole Gulch. Yesterday I saw them riding by, so I went and told them I’m all set to ride the two horses that run free. They invited me to come up any Sunday or Monday and go riding with them on one of their horses! I asked them about the ice on the road, and they told me that they keep their horses unshod in the winter and let them feel their way along, and they do just fine on the ice. Wow! Cool!!

Zac and Ann dropped by to visit. I thanked them for the ½ chocolate cake and the load of logs that Zac dropped off as a thank you to Robert for plowing their road. And we’ve had to tell them he can’t do it any more. They live on the side of a rugged mountain-more stone than woods-at the end of Pole Gulch. The end of the road is steep, and Zac couldn’t get his vehicles home in the deep snow before it was plowed. They are in the shadow of huge mountains, and get no sun in the winter. They said that their pipe from the spring froze, and they only have 200 gallons of water at the house. They must dis-assemble the pipeline and thaw out each section, then hope for a warm day to refill their storage tank. Robert said he’s had to thaw pipes before, and where they’re buried, he had to chip the frozen ground to get to them. I can’t even get a chip loose, the ground is so hard! Our new water line to our new house will be buried under the frost line so we won’t have to worry about it freezing.

Just another day in Paradise!

Kathleen:-)