Wildlife Watch!!!

Ok, it's just more deer, but so charming and peaceful in the blue glow of the twilight on the snow.

The trick is getting a good look without the Beastie Grrrlz realizing what we're on about.

The Real Deal

Our first Real Snow* in Montana!  And the first time that the road was plowed by the neighbor the road committee hires to do such.

A couple of inches fell on Thursday and a few more on Friday giving us about 6 inches total. 

We have 2 birdbaths; the other is heated to 40 or so degrees with a special device on a loooooong extension cord left for us by the former owners.

A rare still moment for the dogs who respond to snow like it is dognip.

So much for my fancy new Montana license plats.

One of the small trees near the driveway.

These are WAY better than icicle lights.  Not sure what, if anything, we're supposed to do about icicles on the eaves.  There are no gutters for them to tear off, so...

Eric's first plowing of the driveway was a success!  There's a learning curve, but he's starting strong.

This is how the Beastie Grrrlz usually look in the snow.

There was no snowfall again until Sunday night and it didn't melt off or ice over like it probably would in Portland.  We woke up Monday to another inch or so and the forecast is for more this week.  I think that there is less build-up on the valley floor and in Missoula, but we'll see when we go out for some holiday errands either today or tomorrow.

*This was verified when we ran into our neighbor yesterday afternoon/evening while walking in the woods and he referred to this as "real snow."

License (Plate) and Registration, Please

We drove down to Hamilton, the Ravalli County seat, on Tuesday to register our vehicles.  Get this: it was kind of fun.  For reals.  What is essentially a trip to the DMV (although it's actually part of the DoJ here or something) was a pretty good time as bureaucratic endeavors go.

There are currently about 130 different license plates to choose from in Montana.  There are supposed to be about a dozen more coming out before the end of the year.  Really.

Now, this is not for drivers licenses, just vehicle registration, but get this: there's no take-a-number machine.  You just wait on a bench until they call next.  There were about 3 people ahead of us and we waited about 5 minutes.  I barely had time to take a photo of that poster before we were called in!  Also there in the line was a TV set up on one of those tall rolling carts like they had in schools (maybe they still do) running a loop of a bunch of animals that are available for adoption from the county Humane Society.  It's like they knew we were coming.

A fond farewell to our Oregon plates.  Someday, we'll hang them in the garage.
Seems like people always blur out license plates in photos, so I decided to do it.  Just in case.

Then when we approached the window the lady working there was friendly, helpful, funny, engaging and patient.  I was able to register Bert "permanently" because she's a senior citizen, but that also means that I didn't get to have a plate that supports a cause or team* that I like.

Eric went as basic as possible while waiting for the Bitter Root Humane Association plate to be issued.
I liked the bison skull on this version of the standard plate.

Eric's car is an unnamed young adult of undetermined gender, so he was trying to decide which of the pet welfare type organizations he wanted to support so asked her where Gallatin and some other place is.  She figured out what he was going for and told us that our local Humane Society was coming out with a plate soon and if he wanted he could get regular plate and then when the new ones come out, just pay the difference for those.

The plate E will get eventually.  Not the best looking, but better than a few of the pet groups and you can tell what it's about.

We learned that it costs the organizations $4000 to get a plate, so they must pay off even though there are SOOOO many to choose from.  One thing that must help is that vehicle registration is annual and every time your renew you pay a donation to the organization (of which gets 100%).  The donation is usually between $10 & $25.  There is a bi-annual registration, but I don't think that effects the donation or maybe you can only do biannual with basic plates.

*That's a joke, there.  I don't like any of your "teams" or your "sports"!  Bahahahahahaaaaaa!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Mavis!

Mavis has decked her head with boughs of holly, you guys!

Damn, girl!  You make $8 worth of cheapo faux floral thingies look goooooood.  Or at least cheery.

Aside from Mavis's contribution, the only other holiday decoration up so far is a new weather-resistant wreath on the fence where the spinal column wreath was in October and the birdseed wreath was not in November.  I have a few ideas from something less seasonal, but it will have to wait until after the holiday creating and traveling is complete.

I'm thinking (and hoping) it will look cheerier when there's some snow around. At least now when we give directions we can say, "go straight at the Glama Wreath."

Another cheapo project: $2.99 wreath form (bought with the Michael's 25% off your whole purchase coupon), four $1 lengths of blue/silver tinsel garland, dollar store plastic, glitter encrusted ornament, and a 79 cent sequin "ribbon" floral pick (also 25% off).  Sure it's not the prettiest or the best designed, but it should hold up for the winter and still show up with snow.  And when the parts get ruined, it won't hurt my feelings much that I'm going to have to take it apart and make another wreath... oh, I'll use that form again all right.

$4 Fridge Makeover: How I spent Thanksgiving Weekend

This is the fridge that came with the house.  Well, it's one of them, there's another, larger, un-stickered one in the mudroom (also white).  I didn't hate the stickers.  I liked the sentimental idea of a family chronicling their travels and interests over the years in the room that is the "heart of the home" for so many.  I think they ate most of their daily meals at a round table in the kitchen and it just seems super homey.  And there was some sadness in removing them, like removing part of the history of the house.

It took about an hour to remove the stickers using a couple razor blades, then another 20-30 minutes to get the adhesive residue, sticker bits and associated dirt off.  I also removed the Whirlpool plaque and the handles.

Our other appliances are black and the white just stands out so much against the cabinets and we don't want to buy a new fridge right now, especially another one small enough to fit the cabinetry.  So, what to do?  Thought about painting it until I saw the wood grain contact paper in the bins with the clean contact paper that I used for faux etching the cabinet glass!  Faux bois fridge?  Now, that would be both fun and funny!

After scraping, washing and drying, I drew a plumb line to match my seams.  One roll would not be wide enough to cover the whole front, let alone wrap around the side of the doors.

So the line is not actually plumb, it's square to the fridge's top which is not level.  I figure if we ever bother to level it and if by some miracle the contact paper is still worth keeping, I'll want the grain to be plumb then.

Then I cut the contact paper into pieces long enough to cover the door from top to bottom and also wrap around the top and bottom edges.  The faux plumb line is placed so the width of the paper will reach it as well as wrap around the side of the fridge doors.  Then I applied the contact paper matching a factory edge to the plumb line and smoothing with a tool used for applying one-time, self-adhesive stencils and probably used for vinyl decals.  After the first was on, I matched another factory edge of a cut piece of contact paper to the existing piece and just kept doing this until the doors were covered (4 pieces, 3 rolls of Dollar Tree contact paper).

There is just something about the dorm/hotel fridge vibe that tickled me.  However, I didn't like the remaining white so I also removed the grill at the bottom and the hinge cover at the top.

I mulled over what to do with the handles, grill and hinge cover.  Paint, but what color?  We decided on black to play on the idea of iron.  I then disassembled those pieces as much as possible and scrubbed them really well, then let them dry over night.

You can see here that I also did the top & sides... at least where they show.  Ahem.  I had one more roll and some scraps from covering the doors, so I used those to keep the white from standing out so much.  I didn't do anything to the door gasket, so it's white, but meh.  It's a tongue-in-cheek fridge rehab, for crying out loud!

Annnnnnnnd done.  Probably.  I've toyed with the idea of applying faux or dummy iron-looking strap hinges for an old-timey, country look, but haven't been hit by satisfying inspiration as to how to accomplish that.  Plus, I'm kind of diggin' on the fact that I only spent $4 on this project!  I already had the spray paint (the Fred Meyer house brand in "semi-flat" black) and all the tools and cleaning supplies, so all it took was four $1 rolls of contact paper (yes, it was Contact brand and everything).  When I painted the various parts, I also painted the Whirlpool plaque, but I haven't reinstalled it.  I kind of want something funny there, but I haven't found just the right thing yet.

OK, that white strip between the doors bugs me a little bit, but the truth is that neither Eric or I actually see it unless we are opening the doors, because it's below our standing line-of-sight.  And yes, those are bloody hands on the front door in the background, still there from Halloween.  Those silicone window clings are a hassle to take down and put away so I'm procrastinating.  Besides, red is such a cheery xmas color!

What's next? We're narrowing down on a back splash solution, so we're getting close replacing the wallpaper with something that suits us better.  YEY!   

And finally a gratuitous dog-photo-bomb!

UPDATE: $4 DIY vs. $85 Store Bought: You be the judge.

It's Mavis!

It's surprisingly rare to come upon a branch of any size with any needles of consequence on it laying on the ground around here.  Nonetheless, Mavis has been pined.

She seems like a good visual representation of the change of seasons or the cycle of life or something eternal and meaningful with her orange and green needles arranged asymmetrically. [nod knowingly and reflectively here]

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.*

While setting the table this seemed like such a big and elaborate spread!  I think you'd have to see our normal 1 or 2 dish meals to appreciate the bounty shown here.  Plus we layered our service like fancy times.

Two 17-hour round trips in 2 months seemed a little much, so we decided we'd spend Thanksgiving here in the woods and Christmas back in Portland.  In order to make it not just another Thursday (which right now is just like any other Monday or Saturday or any day), we are making a special dinner.  Just not that special dinner.

Eric made this beer-cheese soup (with turkey kielbasa).

I made these Hasslebeck Sweet Potatoes (thanks to Dale for posting the recipe on Facebook)

Flavored with maple syrup, cinnamon, applesauce, apples, dried cranberries and pecans.

 
... and beer bread from my mom's recipe.

We used Guinness this time around.

We threw together this yummy green salad with dried cranberries, candied walnuts and blue cheese.

A very friendly salad: served in a housewarming gift from our neighbors, the Baetens, and dressed with oil and vinegar served from the cruet set I was given by Cinda!

Of course, we paired the meal with Jubel Ale and what was left over from the above recipes. No one is thankful for wasted beer.  No one.


And for dessert, I made slow-cooker cinnamon almonds using this recipe from the Detrimental Beauty blog that I found via Pinterest.  I'm not sure we're going to even be able to look at those almonds we're so stuffed.  Oof.

HOLIDAY BONUS ACTIVITY: Bigfoot somewhere in this post!  Can you find him?

*This quote is attributed to Ben Franklin**, but apparently he didn't actually say it.
** Ben Franklin was not really a pilgrim, but he wore old-timey clothes and is a long-dead, American historical figure, so I think that's close enough of a connection for my Thanksgiving post, thank you very much.