Maria’s view of Log Cabin Living

After living in a warm climate for most of my life, I now live in a log cabin in a remote location in Montana.  If someone had told me ten years ago that I’d be living in a log cabin, I’d have told them they were nuts!   It turns out that I love this cold weather and the chance to view deer, Bald Eagles, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, horses, and more!  I will give you a look into everyday life here in our small town of 200 people and around the Beartooth Mountains. 

Our small town has a tiny general store with one gas pump, a tiny post office, and then there’s Carter’s Camp…a place where you can belly up to the bar, or you can get a room for the night.  That’s our whole downtown area!  Oh yes, and there is a ranch nearby where the wife of the rancher has a little building where she runs a hair salon.  I have an appointment today at 2:00 for a trim.  This time, no so short!

About 10 minutes away is the Stillwater Mine, a platinum and palladium mine near the base of a mountain.  They run what appears to be a very clean operation there, and they’ve been there for years.   It’s funny to me that right outside of the mine’s yard, the bighorn sheep are grazing in their wintering area.   We took a ride last week on the road up behind the mine…it goes up the mountain and soon turns into a one-lane road with steep drop-offs.  I didn’t dare look down!  I kept my eyes straight ahead near those drop-offs.  At the top, there is a camping area with restrooms, but no one camps there in Winter, so there wasn’t a soul around.   On the drive back down, I was no longer on the drop-off side of the car.   A week prior to that, we had tried to go up the mountain, but a mine worker stopped us and said we couldn’t go up, because they were blasting that day.   Interesting..

We spend our days working on new cards for our website.  Then there’s plenty of web site editing to be done, also.   That’s my gig.  We have regular customers who order 12 or so cards at a time.  One is a church in Nebraska…they like to have sympathy cards on hand, in case a church member passes away.  Another is a financial company in Chicago…they keep 50 of our cards on hand and send them to new customers with a note of thanks.