Pressing On, My New Favorite Blog

My new, favorite blog is Pressing On. The funny thing is, it is written by a 17 year old girl that Josiah met through the Curles' Girls. They get together to play (music, not Legos or airsoft) when we are in San Diego. Lyssa is a talented musician, an engaging writer and wise way beyond her years. I am encouraged by her insight. You will be too. Check it out and subscribe... and be blessed by a young woman dedicated to Christ, using her gifts to direct the rest of us to Him and His truths.

The Dunham Fun Bus

And a bus it is!! We have had car issues all winter.....the Expedition is still doing great, but the truck (AKA The Black Beast) is not. It is a no-wheel-drive that has no business on the road anytime even resembling winter . And we haven't even discussed cosmetic issues - the poor guy has been through a lot and is missing all his teeth! See??


He is a great beater ranch truck, though, and unfortunatley, gets the best gas mileage of any vehicle we have. Brad has had to drive the Expedition while working this winter and so I have had to go out in the truck a number of times. I have been stuck twice and even had to call USAA to pull me out. I was not even a block away from home that time (if we had blocks out here by us). I was taking the neighbor's driveway because ours is way too steep and there was NO WAY I was getting up on account of the ice. I had visions of trying to drive up the driveway and sliding back down - backwards - into a big logging truck...not pretty. Even our neighbor's drive was too snowy for The Beast and about halfway up, he stopped going and the tires started spinning. I tried to go backward and landed my behind in a snow drift. The guy that came to pull me out had a good laugh at my predicament. HE would never have gotten in that situation ( I am pretty sure he's right - McGyver would never have ended up that way either) and he probably figured I was blond underneath all this dark hair. It's okay, I can laugh at myself...it didn't help that my then 14 year old son was laughing too.


And the Suburban has looked like this since the weather got bad. It needs a front end something-or-other and won't get that until the weather gets nice. Even then, the engine needs an overhaul. It will be a while until McGyver gets to that project.

So, as you can see, the situation was bleak....a wife that can't drive worth a darn in the snow, one non-working car and another that couldn't drive in the snow even if the wifey could. Brad has been sort of looking for a diesel truck so that we could haul a trailer of bison. However, a truck won't fit us all, so we would still have to drive two vehicles to CA when we deliver. Brad went in to talk to the diesel guy in town about engines/trucks, etc. The guy asked if we'd ever thought about a diesel Excursion. We had, but they are hard to come by and expensive. It just so happened that he was selling his personal vehicle that had been meticulously maintained. It has low mileage and the price was good. So, we are now the owners of one 2002, Ford diesel bison hauling Excursion with a 7.3L engine (somehow that was a good thing). The thing is indeed a bus and, compared to the Expedition, it has so much room we don't know what to do with ourselves....I am sure that real quickly, the kids will figure out how to drag everything they own into it when we go out. That is just their way.

Freecycle Strikes Again

We posted on Freecycle a couple of weeks ago for an espresso maker (again - the last one just died) and I immediately received an email from Father Rudy at a local catholic church saying that he had one we could have. In our email communique, he also said that he had a nice guitar and wondered if we wanted that too!!!!!! Us, a guitar??? Heck yeah!! We got over there to get the items, and not only was the espresso machine a Krups Il Primo - looks brand new - but the super
nice guitar was in a case, with a stand, and included an instructional DVD set - 25 DVDs with the books and extra bonus practice DVDs. What a huge blessing. The DVD set is awesome. All the boys are using it in their school day. I love Freecycle. Isn't the Lord amazing to do things like that in our lives? And God bless Father Rudy!

Bridge Jumping

Here in Montana, you do crazy things and they are legal....like bridge jumping. Well, I am not actually certain that it IS legal, but I am fairly hopeful.....considering our pastor was with us - it wouldn't look good for the pastor to go to jail for such things, eh? Josiah left church the other Sunday with a couple of older young men to go bridge jumping. I thought they were going to jump the Bigfork Bridge (which I jumped myself appx. 18 years ago - yikes. About 40 feet into super cold, fast moving water - not the smartest thing I'd ever done. BUT, I did wear a life jacket), but they ended up jumping the Swan - about 15 feet max (I'd say 10 more likely). They returned to a friends' house where we were having a party. Then, we all went back together so they could do it again on the way home. Had it not been 9:30pm and cold I probably would have jumped myself! We laughed hard at them all freezing their patooties off - the water here isn't even warm in August in the daytime.

Are you Swagbuck-ing yet?

If not, you should be - you can earn free stuff by doing nothing more than you already do on the internet each day. It took me a while to sign up for Swagbucks, mostly becuase I just didn't understand what it was or how it worked. I didn't see how I could just search on the internet and earn prizes by doing it. But that is exactly what you do. You can take a super quick tour to see what Swagbucks is all about. Just go to the Swagbucks website and click Take a Tour on the top right hand side of the page. After you create your free account, then download the Swagbucks toolbar (on the home page, go to the toolbars menu) and every time you go to the internet, do it through the Swagbucks search engine (instead of Google or whatever you use). By doing that, you can earn Swagbucks which you can then redeem for all sorts of prizes and gift cards. It really is that simple. So far, I have earned enough points for $35 of Amazon gift cards. So, what are you waiting for??? I LOVE SWAGBUCKS!!

He's BAAACCCKKKKK!

It looks like he is signing autographs

Finally, last night, Brad got home! After THIRTY-FIVE DAYS in Minot, ND, he is home. It was long and cold (in the negative 50's sometimes with the windchill) and they were working outside for much of the trip. He even missed Christmas (spent it in a hotel room - miserable. At least Shaun was with him then and for most of the trip). After hymn sing last night at church, a big group went with us to the train station to meet him.....it was a great surprise. He is oh-so-glad to be here and we are so happy to have him back.

Stuck in the Snow

We got a great snowfall today and it is about time. A friend from church that lives in the neighborhood called this morning to see if we wanted to get together for dinner. Her husband wasn't going to be home until late, so we figured we'd get together for the evening. It started to really get snowing in the late afternoon, and as I drove over to her house, I figured that this might not be a good idea....it was snowing hard and the visibility was low. Their driveway is long and steep and I, being a former California girl, didn't even think that I ought not venture up, so I did.....almost at the top I started sliding down backwards. It was terrifying. I couldn't stop the car and the back slid into the ditch next to their driveway. I missed the two wooden beams in the ground, the telephone "thing", and the mailbox, but I was totally stuck. We tried for an hour and couldn't get me out. Had McGyver been there, he would've had me out in a minute - no, actually, we never would've been in that predicament, because my husband would've been hooting and hollering while sliding down that driveway as he got us to a perfect stop. Since McGyver was gone, and Angela's hubby was gone too, she called her dad. He came over and, like a champ, got me right out - over the rest of the ditch and out the back. Mike Wagner is my stand-in hero. I NEVER could have done it. Parts of my car would be missing. When Angela's hubby got home, he drove the kids and I home (I was terrified to drive at that point and the roads were awful), and then he hiked back home!!! What a guy. I am so thankful that there are wonderful people to take care of me in my hubby's absence!!

The Violin

We just got the most amazing pre-Christmas gift. It arrived from Brad's cousin, Donald, and his wife Mamie. Donald and Mamie live in Athens, Georgia and are both professional musicians (among other things - talented people!). Mamie plays in the Athens symphony and also plays in various bands in the area. She has also recorded with R.E.M. Donald has had a popular blues band in Athens for years. They are both outstanding musicians and we had the pleasure of spending time with them at a family reunion last August. Mamie had a violin that she wasn't using and so they had it fixed up and surprised us by sending it this week. It is beautiful - it is an acoustic/electric with a fifth string. We are all so excited. What a blessing! Thanks, Donald and Mamie - we love you - and the violin too! One person, in particular, is really excited to play.

Our first bison round up on the ranch

Last night we experienced our first bison round up. Paul finished the new fencing, with help from a few friends and the Dunham males, and it was time to get the animals to the new area. With 2 - 4 wheelers and 2 pickup trucks, we set out to do the job. Paul was on one 4 wheeler with a bucket of "cake" to lure them our direction. It all started out well, and they came down the hill and went through the first gate without a hitch. HOWEVER, once into the first gate, they decided that they were not going to be herded into where we wanted them. We would continually round them up, herd them into a group, and get them going and then a few would turn and run the other way (at times directly at us - ever been real close to bison??? They are BIG and just a little crazy!) and the rest would follow. Karen (Nelson) and Paul were on the 4 wheelers and were racing around like crazy trying to keep them all in the right place. The trucks were really supposed to just create barriers, but we ended up doing our share of rounding up too. At one point one of the bulls turned and charged Karen. Then another time, they all stampeded her way and she ran into a rock and went 35 to 0 instantly. Something liquid starting shooting up from the 4 wheeler, so they loaded that one into the truck. Karen is experienced at rounding up - she used to have a 5000 acre cattle ranch and loved branding and riding round up. She prefers the 4 wheelers over horses to rounding up bison because the animals are a little more leary of chasing a vehicle than a horse. She was hurting a little this morning from slamming into the front of the four wheeler, but no broken ribs!!

We finally got half the herd into the gate and the other half turned and bolted. Try as we might, we could not get hte rest of them through that gate. So, after chasing them around for two hours, we called it quits and they'll have to move another day.

Bison are incredible animals. They are large and woolly looking and very intimidating. It is exciting being so close to them. Did you know that they are one of the two healthiest meats you can eat (ostrich being the other - ick) and that bison contains less fat than chicken?? I was surprised to hear that. It tastes just like beef to us, but leaner.

We had a great time playing cowboy. The kids and I rode around in the back of the truck hanging onto the ladder racks. The drive across the ranch was beautiful and by the time we got done, the sun was just setting in the distance. Beyond the peaks of Glacier National we had a glorious red/orange/yellow display of God's handiwork. This country is probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen. We stopped to enjoy the beauty of the view before heading back. As we came through the last gate and headed for the house, we drove right through the "Hollywood Herd" and Arnold. They hung out right at the road with us as we went by. Life doesn't get much better. We are so thankful that the Lord has us here right now. We hope that this is the area that He has for us.