A trip to Phillipsburg MT

Lynn and I had not been out for a “day trip” for a  long time and decided that we needed to go visit Phillipsburg MT the next time our days off matched. Loading the dogs in the car and heading out early on the morning of August 4^th we headed south. With a brief stop at Harbor Freight in Missoula, we were at Phillipsburg in time for an early lunch before doing a walk around town.

            There are a lot of interesting shops selling rocks of many types, candy, and just touristy stuff. The museum was a fun side trip and had a lot of historic items related to the local mines and a bit of logging history. A few of the displays were a bit off, but still interesting. And the cost was only the admittance fee and one book… has to be a record for us, only one book. J

            The problem is, that one book was on ghost towns in Montana. It seems that one of those was only a few miles from Phillipsburg… Granite Mountain was just up from there on the mountain. Not a problem, other than we were in Lynn’s car, not the pickup. Oh well, never let that stop us before, and it didn’t this time either!

            Nearing the top we started seeing a lot of granite boulders along the road… almost like HOME… Around the next corner was this head rig for the old mine site. At least I think it was a head rig, I didn’t get close enough to be sure and besides, there were no trespassing signs on the gate to this area. 

 

            At the top is a small parking area and a part of an old building was showing through the trees. Since there were a couple other cars nearby and people walking around, we parked in the shade and left the dogs in the car before going exploring. The bank vault was the first thing we spotted.

            After that was this old building, or what’s left of it anyway. Since we were above and behind it we didn’t know at the time that it was the Union Hall for the miners in the area. It was just a cool building and had a lot of different textures, patterns and design elements in it that made for good photos. 

            Above and behind the Union Hall were a lot of stone foundations that used to be the locations for various houses and other buildings that I have not taken the time to research. They varied from one layer of rock to many layers and all were overgrown with trees that would give me an estimate of when the mine was abandoned. (I know, it’s easier to just read the info someone else has already researched, but I didn’t have that option at the time…). 

            The one cabin that is mostly intact was the home of the last resident of the mine, Mae Werning. She last lived in the cabin in 1969, or that is what is implied on the sign that states it was her cabin and she died in 1969 at the age of 75. 

            There were a Lot of other foundations around but most of those were just that, foundations with nothing else left of them. Interesting, but not very much to someone that is not into historic archaeology and they can only tell you a tiny bit about the people that built there. 

            Moving on to where the main milling site was we decided to take the dogs with us this time but on leash. Anyone that has ever owned a Springer Spaniel will understand how they are NOT helpful to doing photography or slow snooping around at historic places. 

 

            Rather than bore everyone with more details I will post a few more photos and send you to my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockrabbit/ if you still have more questions, reply below and I’ll answer them as soon as I can. (It will also tell me that Someone is reading this blog!) (Note, the building is screaming too!)

Bad Drivers! New Towers.

            Since work has required me to drive 3 hours each way from home I have been dealing with a lot more traffic lately. Have to say, I wish the traffic laws were both enforced more and that the fines for breaking those laws had more impact. When they blatantly disobey the laws, you know that the fines are meaningless.

            I think that in order to get people to follow the rules we need to make it hurt a bit more. Take the fine for speeding from a couple hundred to at least $1,000 for the first offense and dbl for each additional offense. When someone like me that always obeys the speed laws, does not drive down the “bike lane” to make right turns at lights, etc… see’s all the idiots doing things against the law and getting away with it, I have to really start to wonder why we even have them on the books.

            It seems to me that this idea would solve a couple of issues. It would cut down on the bad drivers on the roads and it would be a way to fund the police departments in this time of increasing costs.

            OK, enough rant for today… just tired of stupid drivers that get away with breaking the law way too often!

            On a different note, here are a couple photos of the power line pole bases they are putting in on the job I’m working on near Conrad MT. Very interesting process and lots of people required to make it all happen. Project is about 1/2 way from Canada to Great Falls and the projected finish date has moved from Aug. 1^st to Oct. 1^st.  

I just like the clouds in this shot and it makes it look like the pole and the crane are not vertical to the ground. The sections on the ground will be pressed together like a fishing pole before being lifted into place on top of the base. 

This is the view to the north showing the bases of poles going in across the fields. A few crews down the line and they will put the tops 3 pieces in place. 

Here is the base of the pole about to be in place. the frame work on the ground is to hold the pole level and lined up until the other crews get there to put in either cement or gravel. The pole is about 4' in dia at the base and the hole is 6' in dia by 21 feet deep!

The busy take on more!

            Well it has been a whirlwind of activity the last couple of months. With Lynn and I both working on starting up new businesses we were busy to start with. Add into that, that I just started a new job with Ethno Science working on the Montana Alberta Tie-Line (MATL-pronounced Matal) Project and we have had to kick things into overdrive.

            The job is only 3 hours from home so it’s not too bad, I’ll be able to come home on my days off, but I’m also not able to be out in the shop turning more items either. L Involving mostly survey and monitoring in the power line corridor, there is some shovel testing involved. The total length of the line is 214 miles, but we are only working on the 133 miles that is in Montana, ending at Great Falls. This is the farthest I have even been east of the Rockies in Montana. So far it’s not as bad as I thought, but I am having some issues with just which way is North when the clouds move in and I can’t see any of the mountains in the distance.

 

            On the other hand, I have time while sitting in the motel room in the evening to finish up some pending paperwork for the Montana Arts Program, an article I’m doing for Rural Montana, and my thesis.

            Keep checking back for updates and always refer to my Flickr site for photo updates. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockrabbit/

 

Course is starting soon

            Lynn and I both received grants to repay us for part of the MAP program we are enrolled in through the local college. While we won’t see any of that until the course is complete in ten months, it is nice to know the local business group thinks we have our ducks in a row enough to warrant their giving us that money. They gave us 80% payback minus the cost of one book. I guess they figured we could share a book. Something we have tried in the past with mixed results. Seems that the other person has the book when you need it almost Every time. We will pay the money for that, just to get rid of that hassle. J

            Our first class is this Friday evening and all day Saturday. Should be a fun time and I’ll know more once we have attended and seen the books. I’m sure that after the class we will have “required” things we must complete that will take most or all of our free time until the next meeting in a month. We have been out in the shop most evenings already trying to build up our inventory and figure there will be that and other work that needs to be done, like making up business letterheads, or ???.

            Part of the process is to be on how to price our work, something I know we have both struggled with in the past. When the wood I’m getting is not purchased directly and I have to figure out the value through the cost of the fuel to get the wood and the wear and tear on my pickup and chainsaw, it is even harder to get to that price.

            Keep checking back to this blog and don’t forget to watch our Flickr pages and Facebook pages for postings of new items are they are finished and photographed. My Flickr page is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockrabbit and Lynn’s is http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynnette_galloway

            Stop by and let us know what you think of our new stuff as it gets posted.

Busy takes on new meaning!

            The saying, “If you want something done, get a busy person to do it” seems to be holding special meaning for Lynn and I this year. For quite awhile now we have been discussing pushing her art work a bit harder to see if it would generate some income. Along with that I have started selling some of my wood turnings.

            Wanting to take that a step farther we have now signed up for a 10 month course on marketing. Put on by the Montana Artepreneur Program (MAP) it is 10 hours of class time a month along with 35 business goals that we need to meet. Some of those are pretty easy; make up business cards, invoice-receipt-order blanks with our letterhead, etc… There is also a requirement to log a minimum of 120 hours of “studio” time. So, now we HAVE to spend time in the shop making stuff, Darn!

            We have our first meeting tonight at 5:00 to make a grant application to help defray the costs of the class. Along with those costs will be the cost of building up an inventory to use in making our portfolio and display booth. (We are to have “professional” photos taken, think I can handle that?)

            I think this is going to be a very rewarding class and one that will enable us both to start making some income from our hobbies. I’ll keep everyone up to date as we take classes and meet with the leaders of the program.

Curling and thesis.

            I had a chance to try curling over the weekend. I have to say, it is an interesting game/ sport, a sort of cross between shuffle board, bowling and pool. Like any sport, there were people there using “club” equipment and others using custom shoes and “brooms” to improve their scores.

            While I don’t think this is something I’m ever going to get into enough to be competitive, I am thinking about signing up to be a “sub” for all teams so that they don’t have to forfeit a game is one of their players has to miss a game for some reason. One of the main issues for me is that the “early” game starts as 9:30 PM and the late game at 11:30. Way past my normal bedtime! They have to do the games at those times due to the ice rink being used for figure skating and hockey from early morning on through the day. Another factor is the cost, to join the team costs $75 and joining the club costs $40 for a total of $105! Yikes... I could shoot a lot of trap for that amount! For $40 though I can sign up to be a sub and not have to pay anymore. Still thinking on that one and might wait to see if they call on me to sub again first.

            Still no luck on the job search, there are few archaeology jobs at all this time of year and none in the state of MT it seems. Even regular jobs seem to be hard to find here as well, unless I had training as a nurse or IT guy. (I don’t). I’ll have to keep checking and hope that there is something that comes up soon.

            On a good note, I have started working on my thesis again, with Lynn’s help and motivation; I hope to have it completed for review again in a week or two! Check back often to see if I can keep that up!