Merry Christmas and thanks for visiting my blog. Jeff and I were blessed with another happy and healthy year. Hope you were too!

We started the year with a surprise. Bailey Beverly Harriott was born on December 29. A little sooner than expected. Nick and Alice are adoring parents and Bailey is definitely adorable. Jeff is ready to buy a condo in Kirkland so we can visit Bailey at will.

I spent the winter hunkered indoors with several photography classes, until assignments forced me outside with my camera. I’m learning so much about composition, design, and post processing. It’s been the best hobby for me. Using my right brain for creativity and left brain for technical details and editing. Jeff has spoiled me with gifts of fabulous photography equipment. I’ve been refining my website (another right/left brain hobby) and posting more of my photography efforts. Jeff and I are also on Instagram. My husband has become quite the social media fanatic. I chuckle to think of the years of his rolling his eyes at my Facebook posts.

Maui in winter never disappoints. A much-needed respite from the cold and gloom of Montana winters. On this trip I decided to overcome my anxiety over snorkeling. The last time I snorkeled I had a panic attack and thought I was going to die. I rented some gear from our pool shack and headed out to the beach. Yay for me. I was enjoying the relaxed floating sensation and viewing the colorful flora and fauna below me. I noticed some cash money floating around the coral and wondered what idiot lost their $$. It was me! I had stuffed the cash I brought to the pool shack into the bra of my swimsuit when they only took credit cards. Expensive set of fins!

**We were devasted by the Lahaina fire. Our resort is housing and feeding displaced people. Our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones, homes, and livelihoods.**

We took the Airstream to Oregon in the spring to attend my nephew Owen’s wedding to Adrian. It was a family reunion for me. The first time all four of my siblings were together since our mother’s funeral in 2005. It was a beautiful trip visiting with Tom, Sheila and Mike, and Janice and new husband Jim. We had all our dogs with us and it was a bit of bedlam. But the wedding was absolutely magical. Such an amazing couple.

My Heart Horse Anniston (aka Booger Boy) has had health challenges for a decade with allergies and immune system issues. Over the past year he started producing so much snot that he couldn’t breathe. The vet stuck a camera up his nose and located two large polyps that could not safely be removed with the technology available here. So we planned a trip to the vet school at Washington State University. I can drive the horse trailer over mountain passes for seven hours? Right? Well, I definitely wanted to avoid ice and snow so we scheduled for May. Guess what season happens right after Winter in Montana? You got it! Road construction. So I maneuvered my way up and down and around mountains playing whack-a-mole with highway cones. In the pouring rain.

I flipped on the GPS after I turned south at Coeur D’Alene. Whew. Getting close to Pullman. When Siri told me to turn right onto a county road I questioned her judgment but made the turn. Four miles of washboard gravel. No place to turn around, even if I knew how to turn around. My poor Annie Boy was a mess. He hates trailer travel. He hops right in because I ask him to and he’s a good boy. But he was dripping sweat with an elevated heart rate when we arrived at the vet school.

OK. We made it. The plan was to stay two nights. The laser procedure would happen the next day and we would drive home the next. [Cue the ominous music]

I met the vet the next day and he told me they really needed a CT scan to truly see what Anniston had going on inside his head. So that would add an extra day to the visit. No problem, I extended my hotel reservation.

After the CT scan they brought me into the office for a sitdown with the entire vet team. Uh oh. This can’t be good. Turns out Anniston had a whole lot of stuff going on inside his head. Plum full of bad things that shouldn’t be there. Then they eased me into a description of the surgery required. WHAT?! They would saw out a chunk of bone the size of my hand from the left side of his face, flip it over, and hoover out all the bad juju in his sinus. WHAT?!

“OK,” I said. “I didn’t bring enough underpants for this.” [True Story]

What was planned as a two day stay in Pullman ended up two weeks. Trauma galore. The vet surgeon had a family emergency and a sub performed the surgery. The resident vet student assigned the case lacked compassionate communication skills. The vet student rotated in to handle Anniston’s case didn’t really know much about horses. Etc. I drove home on the weekend to do laundry and cry on Jeff’s shoulder but I got a call from WSU. Anniston wasn’t doing well and in danger of colicking. So I turned right around and made the drive back.

All turned out reasonably well in the end. The surgery was only marginally successful. They were able to clean out MOST of a large granuloma surrounding a fungal infection. They pulled out a giant cyst from inside his sinus. What they did not do was remove the original polyps from his nasal passage! That meant another procedure to go back up his nose rather than through his skull to get those bastards. Turns out they were damn bastards. They just would not let go. The surgeon sawed and sawed on them in hopes they’d fall out sometime.

We finally got the “all clear” to go home. Anniston was breathing well, he was packed with meds, and his incision was healing well. The prognosis, however, is not great. Whatever maliciousness exists in his immune system will likely grow all the bad stuff back. We are hoping it will be a slow process and Anniston will have years of good quality of life. On the bright side I increased my confidence in trailer hauling exponentially. And, WSU is an ag school. The dairy store has the best huckleberry ice cream on the planet!

I made a trip to Wisconsin in June to visit my girls. Katerah is a fantastic mom to her two adorable boys. Elijah is 4 and Zayden is 1. Kayla and her partner Jack made the trip over to Oshkosh from Red Wing. Spent the weekend visiting and reminiscing. Miss those kids! Katerah is about to start nursing school and Kayla is finishing up her massage schooling. She and Jack just bought a house. Everyone is doing well. So proud of those young women.

My big trip this year was a photography workshop to Provence, France. It was a dream come true. I met some great new friends while driving around to quaint towns and miles and miles of lavender fields with views of the French Alps. We spent a day in the Camargue. It’s a boggy delta of the Rhone River. The horses of the Camargue are thought to be the oldest breed on the planet. They are born with color, gray out at about 4, and mature to pure white. Beautiful captures of horses on the move through the swamp. I was ecstatic. Lots of photos posted on my website. I also made a calendar of my favorite shots.

** Click on the Provence link to see a few of my faves **

Much as I hate to relive the trauma of my time spent at the vet school, I’ve registered for a photography workshop in the Palouse next summer. This is my Christmas present from Jeff. The Palouse is an area of eastern Washington and western Idaho where the glacial loess blew and shaped into amazing rolling hills. I didn’t bring my camera to Pullman with Anniston and regretted not having the opportunity to photograph the beauty of the Palouse. I’m looking forward to more huckleberry ice cream!

The Airstream did not see a lot of action this year but we did make a trip to Deception Pass on Whidbey Island for a visit with Jim and Colleen and Ian and Colleen’s parents. I can’t decide if my favorite thing about camping is making fire or eating s’mores. We had a lovely break from the 100 degree weather in Montana and reveled in salt water therapy.

Jeff is still toiling away at Consumer Direct Care Network. Getting closer to retirement but not quite there yet. When he isn’t dolling out IT wisdom he is dreaming up new projects at the Ranch that will justify purchasing new tools. (Don’t ask about the status of the pigeon abatement project.) He travels to Seattle regularly to supervise the Washington operations and travels to more interesting locales for company retreats. 2023 saw him in Tucson, Whitefish, and Park City.

The Big project this year was a Pavilion in the backyard with an outdoor kitchen and fireplace. There were some glitches in production that delayed its debut but I managed to christen the space with our October “Book Club” meeting the day before Winter descended. Jeff has his dream pizza oven from Italy. [Yes, it’s worth it.] I can lounge in front of a roaring fire with a good book while Jeff watches football with a cold beverage. Did I mention I like fire?

The fur family is doing well. Buster is still large and in charge and looking great for close to 30. Levi is happy to be left alone to do his favorite thing—eat. Chips is always looking for adventure and Anniston works hard at being handsome. Astro is aging gracefully and makes sure to keep Phoebe’s face and ears washed. She keeps an eye on our western boundary to make sure the evil black neighbor cat doesn’t cross the line. Phoebe is maturing into a lovely ball of well-behaved, intense energy. She loves agility and is FAST. Tanzy and Sapphire assume their treat positions in the tack room as soon as we enter the barn. All those fur balls have us carefully trained. We have dust bunnies and paw prints on the floor but we wouldn’t have it any other way.