Hello everyone. I was busy wrapping a present for David's bank's annual Christmas dinner and gift exchange and didn't get to the library as early as I had hoped, so it will be a quick note tonight.

     After a very mild fall, we have settled into a cold spell. Thank you, Lord, for our woodstove.

     I talked to Maria on the phone today. She is loving being with her friends in Bozeman and spent most of her day doing her Christmas shopping. Tonight there will be a get together at the home of one of the Montana Bible College instructors. That will give her an opportunity to see even more of her friends and acquaintances, so she was looking forward to it.

     Since her car is in the shop, she has mine. She mentioned that she feels embarrassed driving a car with a Bowtech sticker in the window. Must be the redneck connotation. Heh, heh!

     We have a busy weekend coming up. We will attend the dinner tomorrow night. On Saturday,  we will drive to the town of Fairfield, an hour away, for an arts and crafts show. We'll take our Montana Christmas ornaments and pray for a profitable and enjoyable day.

     On Sunday, David and I will facilitate a  morning Sunday school class. We will show a video and follow up with some questions.

     When time allows I have been baking breads for holiday giving: challah braids, pumpernickle and Italian olive bread. Most people don't want too many sweets for the holidays, so breads are well received.

     Better get ready to open the library. Blessings to all of you.

                                                                                                   Denise (prairiemom)

     Just a quick greeting for my blogging friends from the frigid North Country.

     We have had such a temperate fall that cooler temps and a tiny bit of snow makes for a change. The woodstove is even more appealing on these cold days and nights. I'm thinking this winter I will do more cooking on the woodstove.

     Today I did some cleaning for an 80 year old friend as I do every other week. She is preparing for some Thanksgiving guests and wants her house to be in order. Although she has family in town, her husband has Alzheimer's disease, so she enjoys some conversation. She is very intelligent and has a great sense of humor, so spending time at her house is a pleasure.

     She lives near Jonny's school, making it easy for me to walk over and have lunch with him.

     I talked with Maria on the phone last night. She and her two assistant cooks had just finished their end of the semester "Christmas" banquet at Montana Wilderness School of the Bible. She said it went well and everyone had lots of fun. There were plenty of desserts left over and she froze them. I told her to please keep them up there because they would be a terrible temptation for her dad and me, not to mention her brother. She said that baklava was the favorite dessert and some of the others were: coconut bonbons and chocolate covered cherries. All were handmade. Oh my...

     We will drive to MWSB on Sunday to loan Maria a vehicle. Last weekend, she was driving and hit a rock, tearing a hole in her oil pan. When her engine ran out of oil, the vehicle stopped moving. She will need a new engine in order to use the car.

     We all had visions of dollar signs in our minds, but her insurance will likely pay all but $500 of her repair bill. When David called her to tell her the good news, she said, "Oh, Jesus loves me!"

     The library won't be open next Thursday, of course, so I will take this opportunity to wish you all a very blessed Thanksgiving.

                                                       Denise Chalfon (prairiemom)

      Sorry for a very quick entry, but I have to open the library soon.

     David went hunting last week and was thrilled to shoot a bull elk on Friday. He and a friend went back the next day with horses, quartered it and hauled the meat and antlers out. Thank you, Lord, for a freezer full of elk meat!

     David shot an elk 14 years ago and the antlers have been in our livingroom ever since. Now he is eager to add another set. Thinking I was very clever, I suggested that he make them into a chandalier. Oh, no. That would require cutting them apart. Then I suggested that he hang them in his office at work. Won't work. His employers don't like that sort of thing. So, if you come to our house, watch your head!

     Jonathan had fun doing Missoula Children's Theatre. It was quite impressive how the two young women who directed the play kept everything organized. This week he has a cold, so we are thankful for a lighter schedule.

     Maria is preparing for a banquet at Montana Wilderness School of the Bible on the 19th. The students will return home after that and won't return till after New Year's. Maria is planning a trip to Bozeman after Thanksgiving to see her friends at Montana Bible College. After that she will spend some time in Conrad and will also do some decorating and cleaning in her cabin at MWSB. She is looking forward to some down time. I told her when she is at our house, I won't complain if she stays in her pajamas all day and she just might!

     I hope you will all have a blessed week.

     Bek, it was wonderful to hear from you. I have missed you!  Maria's friend, Brach, who was injured in the accident two years ago, is doing well. His speech is still slow, but other than that he gets a clean bill of health. Praise God for miracles!!

     This is a busy, but delightful week for Jonathan. He is going to be in the Missoula Children's Theatre's production of Red Riding Hood during two shows on Saturday.

     The Missoula Children's Theatre sends teams of two drama specialists to towns in Montana to put on a play after 5 days of practice. Their plays are amazing. Children from kindergarten to high school are invited to participate. Fortunately the smaller children only have to make about half the practices, so it isn't too much for them.

     Everything is very upbeat and very well organized. What a great opportunity for our rural small town children.

     David left yesterday on a hunting trip and will return home on Saturday. He is staying in a cabin that belongs to a childhood friend. In the past he often hunted with other men and stayed in a tent with a woodstove. Now that he's 50, he is really enjoying the comfort of the cabin, but don't tell him I said so....

     He went to the mountains and bought a little over 4 cords of firewood on Monday. He cut it into stove lengths and we stacked it on Tuesday. He wouldn't let me stack the heaviest logs and I didn't argue with him. We share a log splitting system with another family. We own the hydraulic splitter and they own the tractor to power it, so it is a great partnership. Since they live in the country, they keep it on their property, which works well with our town's zoning regulations.

     I have been plugging away on my Montana Christmas ornaments. We have a show in the town of Fairfield on December 6, so I want to be well prepared. Eventually I want to advertise the ornaments on the internet. It seems like the place to sell almost everything with the least effort and expense.

     I had better get ready to open the library, so I hope you will all have a great week.

                                                                                          Denise (prairiemom)

     Wow, we have had some incredibly nice weather lately. Saturday was very windy, but by Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we had such nice conditions that I could keep the house doors open. Today was cooler and overcast, but I was still able to go on a bike ride.     

     David's vacation begins on Saturday. He may have to stay quite late at his office tomorrow night to prepare for his being gone,  but that's the way it goes. He will go with Jonathan and me to Great Falls on Saturday for our monthly shopping. I just got paid and plan to do some Christmas shopping for the children. I am looking for a French press for Maria. She buys some rather pricey coffee beans from an orphanage in Africa and finds that her coffee maker uses a lot of them.

     David will drive to an Indian reservation on Monday with a borrowed trailer and get about 5 cords of firewood in long lengths. Then he will cut it into stove lengths, split it with a hydraulic splitter and I will stack it by the garage. Then we will carry quite a bit of it into our basement and make a stack there.  Of all the chores we do, I find it to be the hardest. He and I wear lumbar support belts, but it is just plain hard work. But we sure do enjoy the warmth it provides all winter.

     Time flew and it is time to open the library doors. Bless you all and a special thanks to Kim Wolf for the warm welcome back.

                                                                             Denise Chalfon (prairiemom)

     Greetings everyone. I have missed you very much. I had a problem with my password and was unable to access my blog through the summer. I finally had the time to deal with it and am thankful for the gracious help I received from the Homestead Blogger staff.

     Well, what's new with us these days?

     We have had a lovely fall in northcentral Montana. Often we get a hard freeze in early September, but this year it was delayed till mid-October.

     The fall colors have been lovely. They peaked about 2 weeks ago, but much autumn beauty still remains.

     Our summer was much cooler than usual, so the garden didn't grow as much as it could have. Still, I was able to can over 100 jars of food to last over the winter. Praise the Lord.

     I bought a 20 pound box of peaches and one of pears from the Spokane area. They were wonderful to have, but transportation costs made them very expensive. I can the fruit in plain water with a little lemon juice, so it is great to have canned fruits that aren't loaded with sugar or syrup.

     Maria moved to Montana Wilderness School of the Bible in May and soon became the head cook. She and her two roommates have a very nice cabin up a hill from the kitchen. She absolutely loves it there. There are about 60 students from several states and from Canada.

     Jonathan and I visited her last weekend and she told me that she hopes to have 5 children when she marries. I am so pleased. I have raised her to value life and not to give into feminist attitudes.

     Jonathan is in the first grade in our local public school. I homeschooled him during the summer and he is doing very well. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I believe the time will come when David and I will choose to homeschool him full time.

     David and I bowhunted together twice and he went several more times by himself, unfortunately with no luck. Rifle season begins at the end of the month, and Maria wants us to come to MWSB and hunt with her. We could shoot a deer from her back door.

     This year I may try my hand at canning some deer meat. I'm told it is very tender and good tasting.

     I had better close for now and get ready to open the library for the evening. I have missed you all. Please stop by and say hello so we can get reacquainted.

                                                 Denise (prairiemom)