Grandma and all her sisters were wonderful cooks, so when they all got together in one kitchen, you could be sure to have a real down home southern meal to die for. The one that I have on the mind, I can still taste every bite.  Black eyed pea’s, cornbread, greens, and fried chicken. I remember sitting around her little table with Uncle M.T. asking if I wanted a big slice of cornbread, and me committing an almost unforgivable sin; actually saying I didn’t like cornbread. (I think I even heard a gasp) He explained that If I didnt care for cornbread, then I must not have had Aunt Irene’s cornbread before in my life, and with that he put a nice sized piece on my plate.

I ate that chicken, oh so good, and even the greens and black eyed pea’s, but when it came to the cornbread, I just pushed it around for a bit. I caught him looking at me, and wisely popped a little bit in my mouth. Much to my delight, it was the best thing on the table, so moist and delicious, the top spread with butter. I had never tasted anything so good. I quickly finished and asked for another piece. I don’t remember if I apologized for offending my aunt Irene or not; but every time I stood in her house after that day, and was blessed with one of her home cooked meals, I asked her to make cornbread, so I think she probably forgave me.

So here I sit, thousands of miles from her home, and many years besides, with a craving for a meal that was bred into my DNA; fortunately I have a wonderful wife that would at the drop of a hat prepare it, just the way I wanted; and she would do my memory justice, no offense to aunt Irene intended; she is just a wonderful cook as well. But she is busy in the garden, working away, and maybe, just maybe, I can re create a masterpiece on my own, so I set out to do it.

Tonight, I pressure cooked the black eyed peas (you just cant get fresh ones up here, and I didn’t soak them); I put them over a bed of white rice (darn it, out of brown, I’m sure aunt Irene had mashed potatoes with gravy but with my diet, the gravy and chicken are forever banished) I did have fresh greens from the garden (thank you Nina for washing and cooking them) but most of all, I made my first cornbread ever. I don’t know if it can compare, but I found it delightfully satisfying both to my tongue, and my heart. It was a good memory.

These are a few of the pictures Chanda has taken as she worked in and around the garden this summer so far. I tried to get a few of everything, so there are quite a bit. (24) Some of them are in the garden working, some are of her plants, and some are while the girls worked on putting up the harvest. As you can see, the garden is going swimmingly, the girls have to pick about every other day, and we are eating fresh vegetables pretty much every night, with a lot more to put up. (yea!) I think it is Chanda’s finest garden ever. 

I included a couple of pictures of her Chickens that recently moved outside to a new pen, and a couple of the robin nest that a robin built in the winter squash garden. Chanda and the kids kept a vigil on that nest, and watched as the eggs hatched, and then as the babies grew. They flew away just this last week, and they are hoping maybe the mama will raise another brood.

There a couple of other pictures, I just liked that have nothing really to do with anything, but I thought maybe you would enjoy them too.

Well, I guess I’ll let you get to looking!

I took these on my DSI, and they were a few weeks ago, maybe two. Chanda just gave me her photo card, so I will update you with some more recent pictures soon, (probably)

Some things to note, The little rock step garden, Nikk made for his mama. She loves it. Natasha loves going into the garden every night while Chanda waters it, that’s her hunting slugs. Everything is growing so well, and we have harvested, bushels and bushels of greens. We only have about 10 more weeks to grow everything, as our first freeze usually comes in mid September, so we are very happy with how GOD has blessed our plants! It may not look like the plants are all that mature, but Chanda is out harvesting the leaves at least once a week, (sometimes more).

In the pictures it looks like I am in the passenger seat, I don’t know why. I guess the camera mirror imaged me or something. Weird.

The last picture is of Tasha playing on the kitchen floor. I liked her hair cut, and I thought it showed it off her boots really well.

We have been so busy, I haven’t had time to even think about posting. Sorry guys. I have been trying to get Nina and Chanda thinking about posting but haven’t had the luck yet.

Well on to the news 

The Garden has come in better than ever. The rest last year must have been just what it needed, because Chanda has been out working in it every day, and can’t hardly keep up with the harvest.  The swiss chard is better than we hoped, and is very prolific. We have also had a bumper crop of turnip greens, and radishes. We pulled all the radishes and plan to plant them again in the fall, we also pulled the bok choy, as it kept wanting to flower. I guess it has gotten too hot for it. We are going to try and plant it again in the fall and see how it does then.

The tomatoes, are blooming, and we have some fruit on them, and the peas are growing tall as are the green beans. The cucumbers and zuchini and squashes, seemed to be just resting for a while, but now that the heat has hit, we have noticed them taking off. Hopefully they will have produce soon. So far, we have had no lack of fresh vegetables, and the freezer is starting to fill up again. 

The berries and cherries are starting to turn colors, and we can’t wait to taste fresh berries again! We didn’t harvest any last year, so it has been a good long time since we enjoyed them fresh. I was however rooting around in the freezer and I noticed we still have a few bags we stored from the year before. Boy are they so tasty, on hot days like today…ummm.

I was going to upload some pictures, but I guess it has been a while since I uploaded them to the computer, and I don’t have any.. sorry, I guess It’s something else i have to do.

Back to News, Chanda got a new hatch of baby chicks, and we have been enjoying their chirping night and day while they grow big enough to move outside. Chanda has been wanting to get a new mix of chickens, and everything worked out for her to get everything she wanted this spring, so she has been raising them up. Nothing makes her happier than holding baby chickens, She looks like a little girl, with a big old smile. The boys have been busy making a couple of new hen houses, so she can keep the breeds seperate, and they are all about ready to move out into their new homes.

I am pretty sure, I have some picutures of them from the day they came home.

Well other than that, The rabbits seem to be having babies on a daily basis…….The baby goats we kept are doing fine and growing, I have been working on clearing some land for another pen for them, it’s slow going as I only can work on it on Sundays. The humming birds have set up their home here, and Chanda has been snapping away on her camera. She has seen over 30 at the feeder at night time. it is a sight to see. 

So there you are, that’s what’s been going on in a nutshell. I’ll try and get an update going sooner, and have more pictures, as I know that is what everyone wants more of. Hope you all are having as wonderful of a summer as ours up here in Montana!

Just popping in to let you all know what is up! For those of you who happened by the site last week, you realize we were bombarded with a spam attack! I think we finally have it under control! I appologize for all the garbage that was dumped in the website, I find it hard to believe that anyone thinks doing that to someone elses website might generate buisness for them….unbelievable.

So anyway, we have a new filter, so I don’t think it is necessary to have to approve coments anymore, if the spammers get through we will just re adjust.

So back to pressing issues. The Chandamac website is offically down. (what a frustrating week this has been) If you type chandamac.com in your web browser, you will be taken here for the time being. We are trying to decide, should we start it over and get it back up? or should we just try and get more pages on this site for pictures and things? What do you think? Give us your input.

We do have some good news, Nikk and I got the truck up and running again! Yea! The brakes work. Guess an idiot can pull it off. No one wanted to try and drive it, so I drove it to Helena alone and back. Nothing fell off, and I stopped most everytime I needed too, so I guess all those extra pieces weren’t all that important.

Chanda and I have been getting the Camper ready for another Summer of driving around Montana, and I actually took it to helena on my last trip. ( I figured the extra weight would really test those brakes going down the icy mountains) We are really anxious to get back into the camper. Life in Hotels is not fun, moving your stuff in and out every day, plus, with all the flu epidemics going around, It feels really good to not have to wonder how clean the room is.

Chanda and the kids have been working really hard on the garden, and are ready to start planting! We are going to start with a early crop of radishes, so if we get another freeze and snow, no harm done. She has started all the other plants in the house and they are getting really big. The tomatoes are getting blooms, so it better warm up soon, or we will be picking fruit from them before they make it out to the garden.

I wanted to get pictures of the garden for you, but everyone has been so busy, no one has gotten any yet. Hopefully we will have them up soon.

Well, I guess if I don’t move along soon, it won’t be a quick update will it. Don’t forget to let us know your opinion on the chandamac.com question. Hope you all have a great week, and I hope to see you back soon!

Dave

I believed it was going to be pretty easy and quick, but alas, I am wrong. (kind of a theme isn’t it)

Pretty soon, when you go to Chandamac.com; it will redirect you to this page. This will happen until I get this server uploaded with the webpage. It may take some time, because we might just use the time to do a complete overhaul to the site. No problem though, you will still be getting updates here, so feel free to keep visiting. It is just the other things, like pictures, ect.

We have never been too happy with the Frontpage program, and every couple of months, all the buttons stop working, and pictures start turning into other ones when you try to make them bigger. We don’t know why, but the only way we can fix it, is to delete the site, and start from scratch. It was annoying the first time, but after last months update problems, we are just ready to throw it away and start with another program.

Nina has been trying a couple of new ones, to see which one she likes best. I have instructed the web host to transfer our name, and she is going to rebuild it one more time. We are however in the middle of our planting season, so she has very little time right now to work on such a large task, so please bear with us during the transition.

Remember, you can still type use the Chandamac.com address, it will just bring you here till we are done. When we do finish, I will be sure to let you know here too.

reading back over my recent posts, it would appear that I was correct in my belief that if I put my truck up on blocks, and began working on my brakes, it would of course snow.

but, if I were truly smart, wouldn’t I then not follow that path?

apparently, regardless of what my mother would tell me, I am a complete idiot.

I bought all the brake parts on Thursday, and anxious to start (and get done) I put the truck on blocks Friday, and got the wheels off. This way, Sunday, Nikk and I could get right to it, and who knows, maybe even get the camper on the truck and take it this week! (what fun!)

As the sun went down we stood looking at the truck, and I said, ” I don’t know, maybe we should put the tires back on and just finger tighten the bolts, just in case it falls off the jack stands.” (moment of genius) Nikk agreed, as we weren’t real comfortable about seeing the front end so high and we did. Thank GOD.

It rained all day Saturday, and the ground under the jack stands got soaked thru. and by Sunday, the tires were sitting back on the ground. So Sunday Morning, we lifted the truck again, took the jack stands out, reinforced the ground under them, re-lifted the truck, and put it back on the stands.

We timidly examined all the parts, making sure we could remove, and re assemble them as much as we could before removing them. After we built up our false sense of security a little, we decided to go for it and pulled the caliper on the left side. ( no real issues.) 

Next came the fun part. trying to remove the nut holding on the rotor… (impossible) This involved soaking it with a product guaranteed to ease up frozen parts, (it doesn’t) several trips to kalispell to buy specialized tools, (which didn’t work) and ultimately driving Nikk and I to conclude, that, ” you know, those rotors don’t look all that bad to me, what do you think?” ( Nikk thought they looked as good as the new ones, except for the rust and grooves)

By this time, the sun, had again won the battle, and began to sink over the mountains. So as we came in covered in mud, muck, grease, and brake fluid, Chanda said, ” I think we better take the car this week, it looks like there will be snow everywhere we are going, and the studs are better on it; how did the brakes go, you all done?”

Snow?????? Yeah, that is where I stopped hearing her.

So a quick read of the Montana weather report, and Hazardous weather warnings, and I find out, we are looking at a statewide blizzard warning coming in Monday, and lasting 48 hours. I loved the part that said, don’t be fooled by the apparent slackening in the snowfall monday night, Do not venture out onto roadways as it will be followed by severe blizzard conditions resulting in 15 inches of snow in the valley’s 20 inches in the mountains with heavy winds 20 to 30 miles per hour. This storm will impact both humans and livestock, expect long periods of power outages, and bring livestock inside, or loose them. (that was hilarious)

My eye started twitching… I have a couple of problems with this whole thing. 

Of course the plow truck is down.. that is obvious, at least until Sunday because I have to work this week, (let’s be honest, it will probably be down until I have it towed to Midas, but I’m not there yet.)

The other is, I am planning to venture out on the roadway Tuesday morning, to drive to Billings and my job, which is only across the state, and 3 mountain passes. What the heck do I do? I better think about this. (is that really a smart thing?)

Well, we did get snow on Monday, about 5 inches where we live, I worked in Kalispell and they didn’t get near as much there, just a dusting. And by the time I got home that night, the weather had improved, a bit. So I decided to packed the car. ( the weather man always tends to over re-act)

Tuesday came, and you know, It didn’t look all that bad, Maybe they are over re-acting. Montana weather men do that a lot. So I headed off. By noon, I had hit some sort of snow storm near Seeley lake. By the time I got 13 miles out of Seeley lake, I was really having trouble seeing where the road was. (Why doesn’t the weather man ever tell us these storms are coming!)

I pushed on, because, you really can’t turn around when you can’t see the road. and as we got to the first pass, it really probably wasn’t safe to drive. I called the kids at the farm a couple of time for road reports, and they assured me, the passes were still open at this time, although Nolan reported that the roads were starting to close further north. (uh oh, better speed up)

We made it over Macdonald pass and into Helena, but man, was that pass bad, we followed a plow truck over. We stopped for a quick lunch, and sped toward Bozeman. A call to the kids, revealed they closed Macdonald pass now, and the road we were on, just behind us. (darn it, can’t this car do better than 70?)

We finally reached I-90, just as they closed the road to Helena, and were safe, if we could just get over the Bozeman pass, (and the wind on the plains wasn’t as bad as they predicted) Chanda remembered that they had installed some new highway closure barricades on the other side of the pass  as you hit the plains, and mentioned “let’s hope someone isn’t itching to use them” 

I-90 is usually the last road they close, because usually they try to keep the only interstate in the state open. Fortunately, as we reached Bozeman we noticed the snow relaxing, and the roads go to wet. We stopped for coffee at City brew and got over the pass as quick as we could.

The rest of the drive was pretty nice, No weather to speak of, and we even saw a peak or two of blue through the black clouds at times. By the time we reached Billings, we were even laughing with each other, and chanda had even stopped shaking and the color was beginning to come back into her face.

So the kids, say, not so much snow there either, it seems to be isolated between the passes, and this morning all the roads between the mountains are still closed. It starting to snow here, but it doesn’t look serious, and it looks like tomorrow, when we head back…..let see…… humm… the weather report is calling for a 70% chance of snow, and oh, they have a severe weather waning……. They are always over reacting with things like that….

Wasn’t it snowing last week? What happened? 
This week has been in the high 70’s since sunday….. I hate the heat. I stopped in at the local carhartt store to pick up some shorts because I was absolutely dying in the heat on the drive to billings today. It was 78 deg. 

It brought up all those maintenance issues I put off on the car last fall. Namely when the air conditioner belt broke in late september. Oh yea, I never got a new one….. “wilting”

Guess, that is going to be moved back on to the priority list.. pretty high, if Chanda has anything to say about it.

Ok, I know some of you out there are thinking, 78 deg, doesn’t sound too bad….. But for us it is unbearably hot. We keep our house at 58 deg, and are quite comfortable outside in the high 30’s and 40’s. So we are pretty hot now.

Nina tells us, snow may return later in the week, It’s hard to see that happening at this point, but you can always hope. I did take the plow off the truck this week, and have made plans to do the front brakes and flush the tranny on Sunday, so, it probably will snow, and with my luck, a whole heck of a lot. But not until, I get the wheels off, the tranny drained, and realize I have the wrong replacement parts..and NAPA has closed. Then the heavens will open……………..