Annnnnd We're Back!

... back online that is.  We went about 8 days sans internet here and it wasn't that bad.  I've gone longer when traveling, but when traveling it's lots more fun to be disconnected than when unpacking and trying to learn your way around your new state/town/lifestyle.  Anyway, just a few quick photos for the folks back home (and elsewhere).

The view from the bottom of the stairs after emptying the contents of the big U-haul truck into the living/dining room. A very special thanks to high school classmate, Bart VanderZanden, for having a son who is a freshman at University of Montana in Missoula!  Luke and 2 buddies come out and really busted their humps to get that truck unloaded in under 2 hours on Sunday evening.

This was a week ago, so it's much different in there with furniture roughly estimating how rooms look.  There are still boxes about, but many have been unpacked and many have been moved to the rooms befitting their contents.  We'll be working on fixtures as we go, too.

The smoke in the sky from the fires sure made for some pretty sunrises.  One of my new mottoes is: If one must be up with r the sunrise, one may as well see it from the hot tub.

The smoke cleared after we'd been in the house just a few days at the same time the temperature dropped.  It's definitely autumn here in the Bitterroot Valley (do I sound like a native when I saw that?), but that means temperatures more like winter in the Willamette Valley.  At least the sky is blue and the sunbeams are warm.

Here's the west side of the house as viewed from near the fence with the National Forest on the other side.

During the week away from the internet I've had a few ideas for posts, but those will have to wait until later this week (and next?).  Today I got smacked in the face with our new washing machine (the side not shown in the photo, even though the photo was take a few days ago) and am just not feeling myself.  I'm patched up and my glasses are most likely going to be put back into shape pretty easily by a trained professional, but I do look like a victim of some kind of violence.  The washing machine is still outside the back door; we're going to rent a hand truck tomorrow to get it in place and doing its job.  I sneaked a peak at the control panel and am still pretty excited about having it around despite its aggressive introduction.