Day Seven

We woke up at Mrs. Ohs' (if you are wondering who Mrs. Ohs is, I explain a bit more in this post) ranch, where I never cease to be awed by the view from her back door.

That last mountain on the right is Hollow Top, and back when we were dating and didn't have children that we drug along with belts, we (along with some friends and Mrs. Ohs son--David--as our guide) climbed it. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I'll never forget when we reached snow for the first time, and Alex and I mistakenly took it as the summit. We started exclaiming our joy and the fact that we didn't know if we could have made it another step, when David laughingly informed us that we were just about halfway up. Allie, do you remember the devastation?!

Anywho, Mrs. Ohs leases her land out now to a farmer who grows wheat across her 1000-something acres. I'd never seen unripened wheat before, since it's not a big cash crop down in the South. I'd also never payed close attention to these little babies.

They irrigate the crops with run-off water from the mountains, but they move themselves extremely slowly and precisely over the same path--day and night. Precisely enough that they run right over teeny lil' bridges that span gullies throughout the farm. I'm going to stop talking about machinery now, but it was mind-boggling. Guess people aren't farming with watering hoses like I thought :)

Mrs. Ohs kept both girls while Jeremiah and I took a run together. I am sad I can't run with my camera, because some of my favorite views of the whole trip were on that run. Little red barns nearly swallowed by rolling green wheat fields with mountains soaring in the background. I also had a mighty nice view of a hunky guy who was always several yards ahead of me. It was after that run that I told him, "Not that I doubted it before, but now I know for certain, I'm ready to go anywhere as long as I'm with you." This trip has been so very good for us.

While we were sweaty anyway, we went and picked out a spot and set up camp.

Quite a better view than an RV two feet away, huh :)

Then, we headed into Bozeman and met Mrs. Ohs' daughter LeAnn, with her two cute kids Naudia and Colton, an older gentleman that she cares for, and Jim and Dianne Good--Jeremiah's pastor and his wife from when he lived there. Y'all get all that? And we all stormed the Museum of the Rockies, where we saw a DaVinci exhibit (Did you know he invented one of almost everything we still use today? :))

This was his design for an armored tank.

Pace got to see some more dinosaurs (that would be the largest T-Rex head ever uncovered):

And then we went to another part of the museum--this old house, and y'all, I am in love:

Dianne Good works there as a part-time job, so she gave us lots of sneak peeks

And I am sort of jealous that she gets to wear these outfits and operate this fabulous kitchen just like they did in the old days--with no running water or electricity.

This was the lady of the house's nightgown, laid out on the bed:

And I spent a lot of time lingering over all the sweet baby clothes, like this jacket:

And loving the ancient feel of the oddities:

If I could garden, I would want them to look precisely as these did. Beautiful and functional and untamed, all at once.

A rainstorm brought an abrupt ending to our time together, and we worried our camp-out was about to be squashed again.


Fortunately though, it was fast and furious, and while we did cook our dinner at the house instead, we still had dessert around the fire.

I love s'mores.

And grown-up time talking in the open air, after the girls are all zipped up in the tent.