Summertime flying by!

Today finds me short on words and long on photos. More to come soon! Hope you are all well and that your summers are stretching out as long as possible.


A new way to dop off your mail













I was in Montana for a few days during wildfire season. Here is a fire burning just over this mountain.














Here's a picture in Missoula of what looks like a huge cloud coming over the mountains. It's not actually a cloud put an enormous plume of smoke from a fire that just broke out. Within the next 24 hours this settled over the city leaving it like a warzone. It was hard to see more then a block in any direction the smoke was so thick.













No trip to Missoula would be complete without stopping by the Farmer's Market.













And of course, bars which serve trail mix in plastic marguerita cups. You were right Ben, that's some sweet trail mix.












And a few of the many lovely cruiser bikes that come out to play in the summertime of Missoula.






































Back at the ranch we keep ourselves occupied.











And welcome a new person into the world. Morgan was born to our friend's Jesse and Kat.













And here are some of my most favorite people (our nieces and nephews from NY) who are bigger and bigger everytime I see them.












And when the fires weren't raging in Montana there was swimming to be had!

Scott bends the Casio and interviews on 7/31

As this is my first posting I have to give some proper thanks to my better half for maintaining this blog all by herself. This week I have some exciting news so I decided it was time to finally contribute a posting on our blog.

I got a letter telling me I passed my aptitude test, despite running out of time and having to guess on the last few questions! Now I am scheduled for the next step which is an interview with the governing board. That will happen on July 31st, but I will have to wait 2-4 weeks after that to see where I rank.

In other news I finally finished a long-term circuit bending project. Check out the finished product:

The Casio SK-1 keyboard can do some AMAZING stuff when you add a few modifications. 23 various switches, dials and contacts are mounted in the light box and connect to the keyboard's circiut board through the cable. Here's what the inside of the light box looks like.

All of these switches and dials operate the keyboard in various ways. Different settings and combinations will make the keyboard create abstract sounds that it was never intended to make. Now I just have to learn how to play this frankenstein machine!

So far it has been a lot of fun and I'm glad I have the free time to work on things like this. It has been a blessing in disguise to not be employed right now, so I'm trying to make the best of it.

Our friends just had a baby girl so I'm going to cut this short and go see her.

Times of Transition

Our friend Katherine gave birth to a baby girl (Morgan) today at 12:30pm. Photos soon to come!

These high temperatures are a killer! We have been waiting until early evening to venture out on our bicycles. Last night we tried a southern cooking restaurant. The menu included friend catfish, collard greens and cornbread. Pretty fantastic. And a bike ride home to work it off:)

This has been such an interesting phase of transition for us. We have to work daily to remind ourselves to enjoy it and all the abundant possibilities before us. Scott passed the equivalency exam and has now been scheduled for an interview (ie: the last step) with the electrician's union. He is quite exicted and we both have our fingers crossed for him.

Today was another day of volunteering at the library. The kids were wonderful today and very excited to tell me what their favorite books have been this summer. One little girl told me that she liked my tattoo. The tattoo was finished a few days ago by a beautiful tattoo artist here who worked for massage trade. It's awfully nice now to have a skill with which to barter. Scott took this photo of me with my guitar and our blue wall:)


Things continue to roll gently forward here. We have a few escapes to the coast planned, including a dog friendly bungalow we are renting for our two year anniversary. It will be lovely to sit on the pacific ocean and read some cheesy fiction novel that doesn't hurt my brain. Ahhhhh, vacation. However short it is.