Blogger On - My Life as a Stripper

Greetings from the wild mountains of Montana! Wow, where to begin. Eagle and I arrived here on Wed morning -- way too early. The mountaineers live about an hour up a mountain right outside of Missoula in what is technically Frenchtown. On our drive up it rained, snowed, and hailed. No kidding. And this is a one car road, so at times we had to back up the suburban to let other cars and trucks go by. In the rain. On a road next to a cliff. Quite precarious indeed.

Once we got to the ranch, the weather was cleared up a bit and we could get a pretty good view of the land. 67 acres, over 20 horses, 6 ducks (in their newly created duck house), some chickens, and my favorite -- several Bantam roosters. Bantam roosters are like regular roosters execpt about 1/3 the size. Hysterical to watch doesnt even begin to describe it. He has some complexes so he crows pretty much on and off all day.


Well, as for the cabin we came to build, it turns out that it is a much more literal process than we thought. We are actually building the cabin from the ground up which means there are folks cutting down trees, bringing them to be stripped of all bark, then chainsawed the right length and then laid on top of each other. Today will be my fifth day as a stripper. Dear god. I dont know that I have done this hard of manual labor for this many days in a row, ever. What I do is get a log propped up against something, straddle it, and run a draw blade down the length of it. I do it over and over and over again until nothing but white wood is showing. I do this for about 8 hours a day. Its more than intense. Eagle has been mainly weilding a chainsaw which pretty much scares the crap out of me. However, its amazing to watch and be a part of building a real log cabin. The 'foreman' is named Curry, and lives most of his life in a teepee and a hooch (which is a longer square type teepee). He is remarkable, and a world champion tomahawk thrower. Apparently he can throw a tomahawk at a moving target and hit a playing card. Not only that he can cut the card at the angle you specify (just the top corner, etc.). This is a real mountain man. Muchacho mama would love him.

The ranch here, just to give you a sense of it, has no electricity (they run generators) and is one of the few ranches with a regular bathroom (although they also have an outhouse -- and a nice one at that.) Phones dont work up here, but they have a special cell phone that is strong enough. My phone laughs when I turn it on trying to get a signal.

The other folks that are up here are so much fun to be around. Regardless of all the work people are putting in, folks are in great spirits, joking and laughing. Our only problem with them is the amount they snore and how early they get up. Eagle and I joke that we cant wait to sleep in the quiet of the city.


Almost forgot, the mountaineers business here is horse breeding. And she does it by hand, which I guess is more of an assist. We have watched a couple of those take place. Its a fascinating process. And man are those horses big. Speaking of which, we have only gotten to see the Clydesdale a couple times. He is being trained right now so he isnt around much, but man, is that one big horse. I'll try to get a picture.

Well, I think thats all I have to blog about now. We are taking the morning off and watching some Battlestar Gallactica that someone had burned on their computer. Excellent. Its the first TV I have seen in 5 days, which just might be a record for me. We are also planning the wedding with the mountaineers mother. Eagle and I are crying alot. No surprise there.


We miss all of you and cant wait to see you again!