The Move To Strange Lands

My dad looked into this possibility for more than a year. After the tornado, he kinda had enough of big storms and was tired of living in coordination with the weather's plans. And so, when my mom made friends with the wife of a rancher in Idaho, that sparked the thought of moving in my dad's brain. Turns out, the family in contact with us owned a grass fed beef business, and they were low on ranch hands. My dad qualified.   ;-)
So the decision was made, and though I don't remember much during the packing process, I do remember Idaho clearly. When we got to May, Idaho in April of 2008, our lives were completely changed. We had to live in our fifth-wheel at a trailer park for I-don't-know-how-long. But we survived. The park owners were very nice, and became friends with my parents straight away. There was also a play area on the park grounds, and so that brightened up our stay. But eventually my dad's boss suggested that we move into the house on their property, and so we did. That was a fun time for me, because they had seven girls and no brothers, which meant there were no awkward occasions. We played together almost daily, in the afternoons following the homeschooling schedule. I remember my favorite game.
The two girls closest to my age of nine liked movies. The younger sister owned a camera, and so the older sister and I would move around their dolls and act out scenarios. We even made teepees and campsites like in our life.   :-)
My dad worked on the range, we lived on the ranch. Until, a year later, we felt it was time to expand our boundaries. Fortunately, we found an old house at the end of the road across from the ranch. Unfortunately for me, though, that meant no more playdates.   :-\
We bought the house for a good price and moved in straight away. I liked it there. We had a huge garden, a front yard, a mountain view, and we were about five minutes away from my dad's work.

Life continued as usual. I remember one day my dad drove my sister and me to the ranch and we got permission to pick out a kitten for ourselves. I knew exactly what I wanted. A "boy calico kitty". I did find one, but alas, he ran off before I could catch him. My sister, meanwhile, was looking at a little heap of black fur in a cardboard box. She laughed, and it caught my attention. There was a little black kitten laying on top of his sister, napping. We both immediately fell in love and Sazy took the male, I took the female. She was small and weak, they were both fully black, and mine had pale green eyes. Sazy's had amber. I named my kitten Misty and her brother was named Moonshine.

Take into consideration that my sister was six at the time, and she took his name to mean "Shiny Moon".   ;-)

There are a lot of pieces to the Idaho puzzle. This post will contain the timeline of three living situations and the things that occurred during them.
Later in the same year as our kittens found their home, we visited the animal shelter for my brother's birthday and rescued a puppy.   :-)   He was one year at the time, a part German Shepherd, part Blue Heeler mix. I am so thankful that the name he was given at the shelter was in English. The lady that signed him over to us called him by a German name, and in my mind I was freaking out a bit. But when he didn't respond to it, she tried his other name. Trooper. That one stuck. And so, we gained a little Trooper around the premises.   :-)  He didn't grow much from when we first got him. Maybe in muscles. But not much in size. He was the perfect run-around-and-play-with dog, because he couldn't knock anyone over.   :-)

Until the next housing events take place, this post is through. I would also like to formally apologize for the delay in the story. My device was experiencing some technical difficulties for several days.   :-\  That being said, later!
Love,
Mountain Gal

Life After Disaster

After the tornado, my life was a bit...shall we say, "Challenging". My family of five moved in with my Mom's parents and we lived there for about 8 months.
After assessing the damage done by the storm, our new house was built on a ridge overlooking a big holler that divided our land from our neighbor's. Every once in awhile we'd get cattle from the neighbor's land wandering on over to our side, but all in all, we had our own space, and it was pretty private.
My dad started construction immediately, as he is the type to enjoy privacy and space. He decided he wanted our house done right, and although the plans for it were larger than our previous home, he built our two story, two bedroom log house with his own hands. He had help from my brother, and he also borrowed several machines from said neighbor.
Not much else is to be said, except to say that my dad worked for hours daily on our new house, until we needed a vacation from everyday things. That was my first visit to New Mexico.   :-)
I don't remember much from that trip, except that there was a store with suncatchers, horse bridles, saddles, and other artistic and animal gadgets hanging around. I liked that store. There was so much to look at and see for a four year old.   :-)
On the way back, I remember going to an amusement park in Colorado. It was called The North Pole. There was a whole shop with old and fragile porcelain dolls, a tall slide painted like a candy cane, a carousel, a mini roller coaster, and a "Santa" sleigh for picture taking. I even got my cheek painted. My painting of choice was a pair of ballet slippers.   ;-)

Life resumed as before when we got home. Eventually and finally, our house was finished, and we moved in in the beginning of 2004. I love our house still, although it has since been sold and added onto. We did own it for six years, though, and it had seen many a wear and tear while we lived there. It was a good home.
My baby brother, the final child, was born in 2005. I always thought he was lucky not to have been in the tornado. Although, he was involved in a lot of tornado warnings. The radio or TV would go off with a blare and we would all grab a blanket and dash behind Dad to the underground storm shelter.
It was a claustrophobic nightmare, first of all. No one in our family would fit in there if we tried now. We are just too big. It basically was a concrete box just under the surface of the Earth, with two air tubes sticking up through the ceiling so we could breathe. Most times a warning would sound, we would have to be prepared for an all night stay, and so my dad built wooden shelves against the wall behind the ladder. There we stocked imperishable foods such as granola bars, canned beans, canned soups, and little jars of nuts.
Every time we got into the storm shelter, the thought that when we came up our house would be wrecked was in my mind. Thankfully it never happened. But it still scared the cowfuzz out of me.

Little fact about me: I say that word a lot, it is a word we say instead of cursing around here, and most people think I'm insane. Sorry if you do, it's just how I am.   :-)
And that's how I'll leave you.

Later!
Mountain Gal

Lindsey Stirling

I am going to take a break before continuing my tornado story. It's not that it's sad; it's just that I honestly don't know how to put my experiences and memories into words. I need something to refresh my mind. What makes me happy? What helps me to relax?
Lindsey Stirling.
She is an amazing violinist that travels the world making music videos and playing for others. But that's not all she does. She has made it a Lindsey Stirling signature to dance and play at the same time. She calls it plancing, and she's become quite popular, if I'm not mistaken.
I got introduced to Lindsey's music by my friend last year and now I love it. All of it. But then, I've always been a sucker for violin.   :-)
I actually have wanted a violin for years, since I was like, ten. My mom said that if I learn to play my keyboard, she will help me get a violin. I honestly love music and musical instruments, but it will be kind of hard to teach myself keyboard. I have the books and everything, but I think reading sheet music is only learned with practice.
And anyway, I do have Irish ancestry. That's why I like the violin so much.   ;-)

My favorite piece by Lindsey Stirling is probably Roundtable Rival. I just like the combination. As I have mentioned, I was a cowgirl in Idaho.   ;-)

Lindsey also did a Lord Of The Rings medley on her YouTube channel. I love that one, because I love The Lord Of The Rings.    :-)

If you go check her out, let me know. I absolutely love her music and would love to get someone else hooked on it!   :-)

♥,
Mountain Gal