A brown LA haze!!!!!
We’ve had a GREAT two weeks in Missoula, Montana – we love this town surrounded by tree covered mountains. Unfortunately, this time around the air was smoky from the fires further west in Idaho and Washington. For a couple hour each afternoon, the wind would blow enough for the blue sky to show but otherwise it was hazy. Oh yeah, and HOT until the last couple of days but we still enjoyed ourselves 😊.
If you need to get rid of a body, I know a guy!!!!
We spent most afternoons with our friends, out in the back by the creek, feeding the pigs (I LOVE doing this for some reason – they’re so funny!), drinking cocktails, eating dinner and visiting. The hubs did a little floating and fishing.
This place was rockin’!!!!!
I took him to visit Rocking Rudy’s – one of my favorite shops – it has EVERYTHING (Ed. Note – this is true!!!)– and we hit the Farmer’s Market twice. The vegetables are different from what I’m used to – no corn, purple hull peas, okra or peaches ☹ but some good tomatoes and yummy pastries. (Ed. Note – Also, Flathead cherries and huckleberries!!! Made some delicious huckleberry scones with those!!! And flavored some Cajun Mountain whiskey with them too!!!!) (YUM YUM!!)
I finished the Cartridge Hat with Earthstar yarn on the drive from Glacier and went by Joseph’s Coat to pick up yarn for another hat. 
This yarn was Studio Donegal from Ireland. It is a chunky weight yarn, a nice grayish tan color that worked up quickly in a 3 x 1 rib pattern. 
A coat of many colors!!!!!
Joseph’s Coat is a fairly small shop that has been around since the 1970’s and is now owned by Janet. She was a delight to chat with. One of the highlights was when I went back a second time to get more yarn for another hat – I was on a roll! I sat down at her table to help with winding the skein using the swift and ball winder and as she was making room on the table, she moved aside some wool fluff and mentioned that she had been demonstrating some spinning earlier in the day. I commented that I’d always wanted to learn to spin but just hadn’t had the chance yet. When we finished winding my yarn, she sat down at her spinning wheel, an Ashcraft Joy (which folds up into its own backpack – I feel sure it would fit in our fifth-wheel…) (Ed. Note – It’s by weight not by volume!!!!!) and began spinning. After a minute or so, she got up and said have a seat and walked me through spinning on her wheel! I can definitely see this in my future! (Ed. Note – you’re gonna have to give up a bunch of shoes to put that weight in the rig!!)
Back to the yarn I wound, it is by Cestari, a family-owned wool sheep farm and commercial textile mill offering wool and cotton blended yarns. This yarn is another chunky weight yarn, kettle-dyed in various shades of brown, called Thistle. The pattern for it is Man Hat by Haven Leavitt, a knit 1 purl 1 row followed by a knit row. I realized that now I had knit four hats in the last two weeks, one was definitely for me but decided to leave the other 3 with our friends. It gets cold here, so if they can’t use them I felt sure they knew someone who could 😊.
You do not want to get in a knife fight with this one!!!
Another highlight of our trip was meeting Jen, a saddle maker. She is our friends’ neighbor who boards horses and has a shop. She had some knitting that she was hoping to get some seaming advice on (which I wasn’t very helpful but totally loved seeing what she was working on!) so we went to visit.
She gave the hubs and I a tour of her saddle shop and explained what the different hand tools do to prepare the leather hide for sewing and cutting. That day she was working on two different custom saw scabbards that would hang from a horse’s saddle for those who go into the back country. She uses brown craft paper to cut out her custom designs which include anything from horse halters to saddle bags – if it has to do with a horse and involves leather, she can do it! Right now, you can view her work on Sun River Saddlery but her new site is Young Creek Saddlery.
Now that is a serious needle!!!
We watched her sew the front, back and inside piece of the saw scabbard using the industrial sewing machine with a 200 gauge needle. She uses a tool to press a groove into the leather to follow while stitching the leather and welting together. This keeps the stitching flush to the leather. It was very precise work and fascinating to watch! Afterwards, she showed us tools that would cut out a section for a D ring, another tool to smooth the edges and tools that would cut curves and holes where needed. To get rid of “mistakes” or extra lines or scratches in the leather, she wet the leather slightly and rubbed the bottom of a glass jar over the scratch – it just disappeared. She was kind enough to let me take some pictures. I told her I never thought about saddle making being someone’s job – I suppose I assumed it was done in a factory of some kind.
Probably the prettiest course we have played to date!!!
The hubs and I spent another day disc golfing or folfing (see picture to the left) as it seems to be known as around here at the Pattee Canyon Disc Golf Course in Lolo National Forest. The 18 hole course is only a couple of miles from the University of Montana up on top of one of the mountains. It is a fairly easy course with baskets that can been seen from most of the tees. It is a beautiful walk through the pines on a nice cool and breezy day and we had a great time!
Flathead Cherries are delish!!!!
Finally, we took a day and drove back up the east side of Flathead Lake. We came down the west side from Glacier National Park because it takes less time and is mostly four-laned. We prefer four-lane roads when pulling our home. This side of the lake was breathtaking! It is a two lane road running alongside the lake with numerous cherry orchards all the way up the lake. I have never seen a fruit producing cherry tree before and realized I had no idea what to expect! (Ed. Note – Why would George Washington cut one of these down?!?!?!?) We stopped and picked a few – the trees are fairly low growing and the cherries grow in bunches. They had big, dark red Flathead cherries (I believe Bing cherries) (Ed. Note – I think they may be Van or Skeena but definitely not Bing), small bright red-orange pie cherries (VERY tart) and the red/orange/yellow Rainier cherries. It was a brand new experience for both of us!
One of the amazing things about coming to Missoula is being around people who’s lives are so different than mine has been. They work so hard and so physical – taking care of horses, pigs, chickens and their families while working their other full time jobs. It’s very impressive and reminds me what a city girl I am – I appreciate the chance to be a tiny part of it for a couple of weeks.
Good read and great pix.