Straddling the New Year

Well we carried out our wacko plan. More precisely, I helped the children carry out their wacko plan. We rang in the New Year twice.

For anyone who hasn't read the blog since the very beginning, we live very close to the North Dakota line. As it turns out, we live more than very close, we live ON the North Dakota line. While Dad was here he looked up the property description at the county office, and found that the rear of our property directly abuts our neighboring state.

Also for anyone who hasn't read the blog since the very beginning, the children were planning to walk across the line into 2010. Are you kidding? Almost midnight and how many bazillion degrees below zero? In all honesty, during the summertime I didn't see the flaw in walking, either. But sleepy, warm, snuggled in bed at 10:30 pm, the faults were glaring.

So we drove over to the gas pumps, just across the line, and sat there. Devon didn't come, being tired and oh yes, frostbitten (doing superbly, by the way - can't even tell it happened), Jack wasn't insane, so it was just Damon, Tiggy, and me. We sat there for several minutes, till our clock read several minutes after 11 MST, just to be sure, wished each other a happy new year, and drove back into 2009.

The little gravel road that marks our rear property line has the state line running right down the middle of it. So, if you can believe it, we were driving along in both 2009 AND 2010!!! I was in the old year, and the kids were in the new. The car was just confused.

An hour later, the children rang in the new year...again. I snored softly.

Happy New Year!

Until the next adventure,
Noni Beth

Helpful Hints from the Northland

Give the sheriff plenty of time to get there.

Subzero Light Show

First, an update on Earboy: the affected area continues to heal, redder than the surrounding tissue but with excellent capillary refill. Pip pip may keep both his ears...this time.

Christmas lights are a staple of the holiday season across this whole grand country of ours. Still, it should come as no surprise that this area has its own little twist on this favorite mode of decoration. Of course, there are many traditional displays, too, but as you scroll down keep your eyes peeled for...well, just about anything.

A couple weeks ago, we went to a park in Williston, that had been converted into a drive-thru light display. Many of the displays were linked to music being broadcast from wee little FM channels, right there in the park.

At $5 a car, it was one of the few paid attractions I've seen in this area in any season. Some of the museums charge admission, but you wouldn't believe how many places are just plain free.

Plentywood had some very competitive light-putter-uppers, including one on the main street that had their own lights coordinated with their radio broadcast, just like at the Williston show, only it was a house. The kids made sure we remembered to put the radio on 88.9 FM every time we drove past. Maybe by next year I can post a video of that one.

One family went all-out, decorating every square inch of their whole property, front, back, and sideways.

And this one here, ok I have to admit to a bit of a camera glitch. If it had really looked like this, it would have been overkill

by any standards. "And right here in our own Plentywood, we have a man-made display of the famed Aurora borealis!"

As for the last two pictures, they could definitely go under the heading, "Only in Montana."

Whether you're an enthusiastic recycler - even more than Tina and me put together, or just wanted to hitch a reindeer up to an old horse-drawn road grader for kicks, Montana is the place for you.

Until the next adventure,
Noni Beth

Helpful Hints from the Northland

Contact the Snowplow Guy right away.

He has to put all that snow somewhere, and where better than in front of every unoccupied house in town? Once a new resident is there, he promises to put those huge piles of snow somewhere else. Where, I'm not exactly sure.

Yellow Birthday

Tiggy turned 11, and we had a happenin' birthday party. It was yellow. Macaroni, corn, garlic bread, lemonade, and probably some other yellow things I've forgotten by now.


We ate the cake, lemon of course, elegantly decorated by the birthday girl, then she and I took a walk down to get the mail after dark. Woo-hoo! Party animals!

On the way home, we stopped off in the front ditch so she could show me the snow cave they'd been digging. I was definitely impressed, and even more so when they continued to dig it out after subsequent storms covered it over. Over and over and over again.

It's still down there somewhere.

Waiting.

Helpful Hints from the Northland

Don't leave your soda cans in the car.