Chance & Sterling get their first airplane ride...

On a lovely Saturday morning (10/4), our friend from Camp 8 days (Steve Vold) dropped out of the sky, taxied up the hayfield, and took the boys for a little ride. It made me miss Kendall Shaules (the grandfather of the Kendall Shaules that lives down the creek now) very much as he used to land up on the air strip above Mom's house and take us all for rides. I VIVIDLY remember the time he gave me and Gwyn a ride, and I threw up in his stetson, which was unfortunately for him the only thing I could find!

When it was handy to have a horse...

There was no way the ropers were going to get the horsetrailer full of horses or probably even the horsetrailer empty down the county road and to our house, so after two days of NRRRS roping finals 10/11&12, they parked the vehicles at the cafe and road home. L to R: Dick on Jack, friend Luis (with a package of eggs) on Perkin, Scott (with a gallon of milk) on Fancy, and Staci & Sterling on Cow Gent.

It's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas...

Friday night October 10 the snow began to build up, and Sterling, Blake, & Chance took advantage of it! By Saturday mid-morning, there was serious amounts, and we lost the tops out of most of our old trees.
The 11th & 12th was the Ranch Roping Finals at Metra -- when the roads got impassable, Staci sent Scott & a friend with a snow machine out to get her saddle. They left their vehicles at the club.

Big birthday for two of our favorites...

Aaron's big 4-0 but it's not polite to give a lady's age. You can tell, however, that Everett wonders how anyone could get THAT old! Love you -- all three of you!

Where did the time go?

On the cusp of independence, Brianne laughs for Landa's lens. What glorious hair, and how I love Brianne Emily.

Moving heifer pairs from Broken Leg to 13...

Clint & Hank
Clint Clint and Gwyn

Linda n Mikey and Blake n Joe on a beautiful day...

Helping Clint move heifer pairs from Broken Leg to 13... God blessed us all with the gift of each other in this life, and I, for one, appreciate it with every breath I draw...

Late summer sunset

You can't keep a good editor down!

After a 10-year stint as Agri-News editor (from 2/1995 to 9/2005), I took a three-year sabbatical, and almost to the day returned! It's GREAT!

Mike & Deb's #6 grandkid before #1 grandkid is 3!

Aunt Christy admires her new nephew Chase Clark! A very proud papa...
Welcome, welcome, newest Hammond baby...

Little Miss Avery...

Gathering out of Sheep Springs to pre-condition...

Clint and his faithful 5-H sidekicks Hank & Morgan...

God's country...

Blessed we are to live here...

Corinne & Little Mister Serious!

Miss Carter...

Here she's inserting "the pokey things" into a slice of watermelon!
Having a little technical difficulty!
Here she is on skates, but I must say that she has yet to master the technique!

Iowa or bust!

All of Ted Hammond's representatives except of course the photographer (me). L to R: Nancy, Lynne's grandson, Gwyn & Blake, Lynne's son Guy, Lynne, Lynne & Betty's brother Kenny, Guy's wife, & Betty Same group except photographers switched so I'm on the far left of this one.
Here's the congenial group that drove to Malta (in two cars) and rode to Minneapolis together on the train, and rented a van to drive 130 miles south to Clear Lake, Iowa. This is at the lodge on/at Clear Lake.
And the sisters.

The family union trip was, overall, great. The train trips from Malta to Minneapolis and back were fun... with a few caveats. The cousins (Lynne & Betty) and sisters (me, Gwyn, & Nanny) were fine. Blake was GREAT. The relatives were okay. The weather in Iowa was GORGEOUS. The location of the reunion was GORGEOUS – at a nice lodge on the edge of Clear Lake for which the town of Clear Lake, Iowa, is appropriately named. We visited two small rural graveyards in which many relatives were buried, including my dad’s dad’s mother and her parents. We also got to visit the old farmstead where my dad’s dad was raised until the family moved to the Glendive/Wibaux/Circle area when he was about 7 and shortly after the death of his mother. All the original buildings were gone, but I liked standing where they had stood and looking at the country that they had looked at… walking in their footsteps so to speak.

Hammond Family Reunion #4...

My dad's dad Ted Hammond was born in Belmond, Iowa. He mother died when he was about 6 or 7, and not too long after that, his father gathered up the young children as well as some of the older sons and went to eastern Montana--the Circle area. There Ted met a young school teacher Myrl Phillips who had come out from Minnesota to teach school. They married and had quite a number of children, including my father. This reunion was organized by some of Dad's cousins so that we could all see where we came from. There were two local cemeteries with numerous relatives including Ted Hammond's mother Marinda Curran Hammond, who died at the age of 46, I think it was. This photo is of two cousins of some sort, almost the same age but most certainly not the same size or color! This headstone belongs to Marinda Curran Hammond's grandmother, I believe.
I stood on the Hammond farmstead when I took this picture. The original buildings were gone, but I found it intersting to stand where they stood and look where they looked.

Gramma Aunty's busy little helper...

Carter always says, "Me holp," and who's to discourage a kid from helping with dishes? Not me! I was quite proud of myself from keeping her from getting hold of the spray nozzle, which she REALLY wanted. And she had big fun drinking sips of water out of the faucet with the spoons she was supposed to be rinsing! As you probably all know by now, I'm going back to work at Agri-News as an editor. I will certainly miss Carterkins! She has been a delight, not to mention just plain funny! She's a wonderfully bright girl, and I love her so.

Sterling scared the tee-total out of all of us...

Wednesday August 13th Sterling woke up complaining about a sore wrist, which nobody much paid any attention to at the time. By that afternoon however, Chance came to tell me that Sterling was laying on the lawn crying because his arm hurt. He had a BAD night, and his parents took him to walk-in care the next morning, where he basically was patted on the head and sent home. However, he had a ROTTEN night that night and yelped if anyone touched his arm so back in they went Friday morning. Different doctor, a lady, who after tests, etc., said he had a staph infection in his arm and admitted him to the hospital and hooked him up to IVs feeding him antibiotics. By Sunday morning he was worse, sitting on the edge of the hospital bed sobbing. Scott called me (I was on the train headed for home) and asked what he should do and I said, quit dinking around with walk-in care doctors and GET A SPECIALIST. So they did. Sterling had to have an operation as soon as they could work him into the line on Monday morning the 18th. About 1 yesterday afternoon, they did surgery—Christy was his nurse. much to the family's relief. Sterling had a 5” abscess running along his arm bone, which they removed, cleaned up, etc. The specialist told Scott & Staci that Sterling has a rare bone disease which he sees in Billings a couple times a year. The disease manifests itself in staph infections in the bone. When treated aggressively with antibiotics, the vast majority heal up and never experience any reoccurrence. A few have ongoing problems. Sterling was in the hospital for five days. He will be on anti-biotics for 6 weeks with weekly blood tests, and they won’t know if he’s out of the woods for six months. SCARY. As of today, the 25th, he feels great. He's still wearing a bandage but says his arm doesn't hurt at all. He is missing the first week of school just to be cautious.

Rock climbing north of Grampa Bill's house...

L to R: Chance, Ashley, Vashti, Sterling, Brandy, & Dustin The boys...
The girls...

Two pretty girls on the trampoline...

Riley Jo & Blakey...

Hands by Gramma-Aunty and Carter...

Yet one more sun setting over my line of trees...

Packing fun into the dwindling summer...

Chance's girlfriend Carly from school was invited, and Chance spent most of the time either doing attention-getting stunts or dunking her in the water! Look at all the little varmints. There are a couple strangers in the crowd because Susan's two older boys each brought a friend.
Dick's great-niece Brandy with Carter...

Blakey... A bunch of birthday kids, L to R: Jalyn (8), Chance (9), Dustin (7), & Sterling (8)

Not just sure what Carter was trying to accomplish...

Sterling... Dick's great-niece Brandy & Sterling
Dick's great-niece Ashley & Riley Jo