Shay and Tyler at 'Amazing Toys'

                    Shay at Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center

                                                            Ouch!!!!

                            Windshield and pieces of the bike

The Harley after the deer encounter...looks better in the picture than it really is!

Most of October 2012

October ...The month started out with a change of weather. We woke up to snow on the 3^rd. It didn't stick but the high temp dropped by 40 degrees from 80 on the 1^st to 40 on the 3^rd. We went to the movie, Trouble With The Curve with Clint Eastwood. It was a good movie. Dixie won a drawing for some free Mary Kay so she had a facial on the 3^rd. Dixie took Doug for his Prostate biopsy on the 4^th as Fran was at the farm working. The results came back negative a week later – good news for now at least. Dixie realized her drivers license was due in January so she got that taken care of. Tyler and Shay stayed with us from the 4th-7^th while their parent went to an EMT conference in Helena. While they were here we went to a “Americans” hockey game. IT was a lot of fun and there was even a couple of fights. We also went to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and did a some shopping. We finally completed our crawl space project – the vapor barrier is all down once again. We completed another project we have been putting off – updating our wills. Dixie went to the What Women Want Expo on the 13^th. We have made several trips to the motorhome, packing items and refueling. The weather turned cold on the 20^th so we plugged it in so we can run the heat this next week before we leave. We are doing last minute things...Mike renewing his 'Carry License', Dixie getting a haircut, Christmas shopping, etc.

On the 19^th we picked Doug up at Front Range as he flew his plane in to hanger it for the winter. We went to lunch and then he headed to the farm on his motorcycle. He wanted to take it out there to load it in the 5^th wheel for our trip. Unfortunately, he had a bad accident about 50 miles into the trip. A deer jumped out of the ditch about 4 miles this side of Loma. He hit the deer going around 70 mph, split the deer in half and the bike went to the left and he went in the air! When landing (believed to have been on his right side where his arm/elbow hit his ribs – this was determined by the pain) he skidding down the pavement approx 300-400 feet and then rolled a few times where he scraped his left side – luckily the leathers took most of it. It just so happened that he had just met Steve and Annie Humphreys (unknown to either them or Doug). Steve saw the accident in his rear-view mirror. They turned around to help and found out it was Doug – what are the odds??? Another car heading towards GTF had called 911. A pickup that Doug had just passed also saw the accident. Between these two vehicles and Steve's they were able stop traffic. The EMT checked him out and Doug was feeling ok at the time so he declined the ambulance. Steve and Denita happened to be in Havre on their way to Great Falls, so Doug, Steve & Annie waited at the scene until they arrived with a trailer to haul the 'totaled' bike. He arrived in Great Falls with deer blood and parts on him and his leathers. He also had a nasty looking scrape on the crown of his head and some missing hair. Once he cleaned up Denita and I took him to the ER as he was having a hard time breathing and his groin area hurt a lot (figured he took a handlebar to the groin). Three hours and 3 CT scans later they determined that he had 2 fractured ribs....totally amazing that was the only real injury. He definitely had a guardian angel (Mom I think) riding with him that day! The head injury was just an abrasion that looked much better the next day. He is healing well now but was very sore for the first few days! The bike & the deer didn't fair as well as Doug.

The next day on the 20^th we all went to The Sting to celebrate the miracle the Lord gave Doug and also an early Birthday (Oct 25^th). 

Denita, Steve, Tyler and Shay left on Sunday. Doug and Fran stayed until Wed. and then headed home to pack up the 5^th wheel. We had planned to all leave on the 26^th and attend the Griz game on the 27^th in Missoula. Those plans were changed due to the accident and the fact that it snowed on the 22^nd and continues to do so off and on. The weather is below freezing (in the teens this week). We will try and head out on Sunday the 28^th if the weather permits!

 

Before

 

During

 

After

September 2012

September...Whew, we are winding down the summer. The weather has still been great although we are in need of rain. The crawl space it fairly dry, just some water standing under the kitchen area. Our project this month was to lay the plastic down as a vapor barrier. Anything in the crawl space is a job as you can't stand up down there! We managed to get over half of it done in one day before we ran out of plastic – the rest will be completed in Oct. We actually had another big project for this month. We wanted to take our old TV out of the motorhome and put in a LED flat screen...well, easier said than done. Doug and Fran went with us (since Doug will be the installer) to see what it would take to removed the old TV. We realized quickly that it would be no easy task. We started by Doug purchasing a special saw to removed the frame (only to find out a couple of days later on the internet that there were hidden screws that should have removed it—oops that was our fault -we should have searched the blog sites sooner)! Well on the 9^th, Doug and Mike and I went back over thinking we could finish the job – well we did but it was difficult to say the least. Once we finally were able to get the very large screws loose to drop down the metal frame, we found that the TV was accidentally screwed to that metal frame.. The TV ended up coming apart before we got it out. It weighed 80 pounds and is very bulky. It took the 3 of us to get it out and Doug ended up breaking it apart more just to get it out the front door – they don't build these things to replace or fix any appliance. That TV was not meant to be removed! We purchased a Samsung 32 inch TV and ordered a mount online. It took another two days later in the month for Doug to build the box, attach the mount and get it all to fit in the space – again not an easy task. When all was said in done, it turned out great and we even got the TV to work with DirecTV (must have hooked it up right). The jury is still out on the surround sound and DVD player – October's project!

We finally played a round of golf on the 18^th (first one for Dixie for the summer). Bill & Gloria were back in town for a few days so we visited with them over dinner at Dads. Also this month we gave blood, attended on of the last Voyager games, the movie '2016' & went to the dentist. Mike had a 'baby' tooth pulled that has been bothering him for sometime. He also went to the doctor for his annual and had a couple of tests.

On the 25^th we brought the motorhome to the house to start cleaning and filling it. We had a propane hose made so we can hook it up to our propane tank on the motorhome. This will come in handy for our grill and firepit. We are planning on heading out on Oct 26^th.