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Last Thursday we went to a place called Crystal Park. It's over by the
Big Hole Battlefield National Monument near a little, town called Wise
River. (oh, oh, Why did Wise River stop crowning a Queen during
Battlefield Days??? Nobody wanted to be MISS BIG HOLE! <snort> )
Crystal Park is National Forest Service land and there's water,
picnicking, potty's, etc, all the conveniences of home.
At this amazing place you can turn over a shovel full of sandy dirt and
find crystals and minerals of all kinds. Quartz and smokey quartz,
amethyst, sapphire, it's wonderful.
We took my friend Linda and her visiting nephew, Lane, who is a very
smart and studious and quiet boy, but if fun that day could be measured
by layers of dirt, he had more than any of us.
Dylan took his rock pick, but the digging was so easy he didn't need it
much, and the boys found bags full of crystals.
The terrain is surreal. People have been digging there for years and
it's not an open, barren pit but some steep and some flat land, and
forested. As you walk around there are pits and holes and mounds of
dirt. If you threw in a naked woman or a melting wristwatch it could be
a Dali painting. (or a crime scene!) Truly weird. There are chipmunks
every where and by golly you'd better have something for them because
they just charge right up to you and demand food, like little, fat
highway men.
The kids climbed around in pits and on boulders and Dylan identified
rocks and they dug and dug and played and picked wild flowers for us. It
thundered and threatened to storm the whole time we were there but it
didn't rain. We spent hours digging, sifting dirt, washing crystals and
playing.
Then last Friday and Saturday was Art in the Park, in Anaconda, where
talented folks get together to sell their wares. There's food and music
and dancing, but most importantly, pottery.<g> The boys liked the food
and dancing part the most. Who'd have thought a nine and ten year old
could eat and dance so much? I laughed so hard my stomach hurt for
days.
This week has been quiet and slow. Lane went home to eastern Montana,
we're dog sitting for our neighbors and Dylan is studying like mad for
his purple belt test. I had to move the kicking bag outside it rattled
the house so much.
We're watching a baby Yellow Warbler in our apple tree as he tries to
fly. We've been worrying over him through hail storms and high winds and
Gunther, the cat from down the street, but there he sits this morning,
ready to try again.
We finally identified our mystery stink bug, Perillus bioculatus, for
those who care. <g> But still researching a new jumping spider. And we
have big plans for the Drive-in Saturday night.

Deb L