The First weeks

 (or standing outside next to the internet tree)

You may be wondering why it took so long for me to start this blog. Our move in date was May 26 but I didn't start this blog till July 10^{th !} Well some things take a little longer in Montana and internet service is one of them. I guess I should have expected it, living outside of town (20 miles) makes phone and internet services a bit difficult. At the house we have one bar of service but only if we stand next to a tree, so we were excited to make the appointments for phone and TV. The appointment for the TV service was 2 weeks out but the first internet appointment was over a month away. We could handle it, it was beautiful and hundreds of moving boxes needed to be unpacked. 

The View From the Deck

We began the unpacking process and made numerous trips to Lowes and Costco to grab supplies. My wife Erin was enjoying most of everything but she was still trying to get used to the quiet and the thought that I had moved her out into the middle of a forest.

Boxes and Boxes

Eating all of our meals on the front deck was now commonplace for us, a pleasant change from the busy and noisy city of Petaluma. Beautiful views abounded, and as soon as we put up a bird feeder we started seeing birds that were all new to us.

 Evening Grosebeaks,

Evening Grosebeak

Downy Woodpecker

Bald Eagles overhead

Calliope Hummingbirds, Woodpeckers even Bald Eagles would soar by. But every once in a while we would catch ourselves trying to send a photo or look up some information on our phones and it would be a half hour of standing next to our tree!




One night while eating dinner it got a little quiet even the birds stopped singing, out of the corner of my eye I see a movement. A young Black Bear sauntered under us and into the driveway. As he heard us gasp he jogged down the driveway, across the street and into the bushes. So great to see one from my own deck, yes I guess I did move Erin into the forest!!

The Black Bear in the Driveway

The bad news is that with all the nature around she had yet to see a squirrel. Now to be honest one of the stipulations on my house search was it had to have a squirrel? (the other two stipulations were no neighbors she could see, or stairs in the house. I was kind of 0 for 3 so far) Everybody said there were squirrels but so far none. I had seen one when I was here last fall but I was getting worried.

We were slowly meeting a few neighbors and the delivery guys began to be our best friends. A quick delivery from UPS or Fed EX sometimes turned into a half hour chatting session. My trips to the dump (which is free in Montana!!) sometimes took an hour as I would find somebody who would want to talk fishing or winter driving or whatever. Store trips took on an unusual vibe as we would always walk out saying…”those were the nicest people ever at store X” or “That was the best experience I've ever had in that store” 

Our bed frame delivery guy who is proficient in chainsaw carving and all sorts of woodworking, agreed to help us with other projects and then take me fishing to some of his secret spots! Now the funny thing is he looks like Grizzly Adams and talks a little like a mountain man but ends up he has an economics degree from the University of Montana and is as smart as anybody I have been around both in Montana or the Bay Area! Oh yeah and our beds and lamps he helped make are pretty cool too!!

Bear Lamp

Pine Bed with Moose Lamp

Now back to the TV and internet fiasco’s. First the TV guy comes out looks around and then tromps off into the woods with what looked like a sextant. About 20 minutes later he comes back and says…well the only way I can help you is if you cut down 5 trees. I moved here for the trees so that isn't going to happen! Nice guy and he recommended another service that could help. We make the appointment for the next week. TV service soon followed, but as soon as it rains, a thunderstorm happens or I’m guessing it snows, we lose service. (Yes a DVD player is on order.) 

The internet guy called soon after and said he would be out the next day. Yahoo!! Well not so fast, he got busy and would have to reschedule for the next week!! OMG this is getting ridiculous, job research, banking, Photoshop, and everything you usually just Google had to be done when we were in a small turn out a mile away, the only  place we had good service. Mapquest, which we needed, was only working when we got out onto the main Highway

View on the way to the store in Bigfork

so we had no idea how long it would take to go anywhere or what direction to head.  Finally the internet guys were coming, they worked for hours and said the good news is that we have internet, the bad is they couldn’t get it from the wall to the computer! A few hours later they gave up. We were at the end of the rope when Erin got the number of the boss and he said he could send a guy to fix it.  The next day a super nice guy arrived and said he wouldn’t leave till it was working. A few hours later we were connected and a few days later I started the blog, just 2 months after we moved in. (Granted we only have 10 mgs on a good day and we hear there aren't many good days.)

Oh and for the direly important squirrels, about a week after the bear sighting I was working in the garage when a squirrel appeared out of nowhere and scolded me good. I figured it was hungry so I put a handful of peanuts out for it. Then I quietly tip toed upstairs and proudly showed off the rare Montana Red Squirrel to Erin. She was happy and was amazed how well that little squirrel had trained me in just one scolding session. We saw the squirrel a few more times and then nothing for about a week. Then we realized it was a female squirrel as she brought back her baby squirrels to rampage all over the deck, terrorize our cats and eat all of the bird’s food!

Finally a Squirrel

The squirrel has an audience

Even though they wake us up at 4:30 in the morning we still love them.

Next time…My first fishing trips, what is with the world being light from 4 am till 10:30 pm!! And our first trip over going to the sun rd and Glacier National Park!