Post #1- My Luxurious Accomodations

This is the view from the upstairs room I was sleeping in at "D"s house. I had the penthouse suite with another king size bed and views as far as the eye could see. This is looking west to Lake Koocanusa and the Percell Mountains in the Kootenai National Forest; home of the Yaak. This is where Rick Bass(one of my favorite writers) writes his wonderful books about his life, his dog Colter and the vanishing wilderness. In the days to come we will drive through the Yaak and experienced the isolated area first hand but at the time I took this picture the only things that I could see to the West was a dark range of mountains with a storm coming in our direction....one of the distant vistas of Big Sky country.
Below is the same window as above. I backed away so I could take a picture of "D"s beautiful window coverings. All her curtains are from beautiful quilts that she makes and uses for her windows and interior doors. They are unique and beautifully transparent with the light coming through them. They also insulate from the cold in winter.


(I'm having trouble with the uploading of my photos so bear with me.)

When the sun shines through these quilted curtains they look like stained glass.
Very lovely.






I made myself at home, throwing my shoes on the floor next to the bed and leaving my bags all over the place. They gave me a place to relax and unwind and that I did.
The first day at "D"s home I met her husband, the mountain man himself, and again they slept in their trailer so I could have the comforts of home upstairs.
The mountain man built this house and all the outbuildings by himself. He mills the logs that he harvested from the forest. He and "D" went to the rivers and brought back all the stones that built the foundation. The windows are recycled from other old homes. This house is a labor of love for both of them and still, when I arrived, they slept in their trailer so I could sleep inside the house. Is that not Montana hospitality?
This home is so beautiful. It's a natural and ecologically fitting home that doesn't make a scar on the environment like some of it's neighbors... who brought the "bigger is better" philosophy with them from some other place and even have gardeners to mow their lawns. Yep!

Honest story here..... when "D" and the mountain man arrived on their property a few years ago with their sheep wagon and all their worldly belonging in a truck, they were confronted by this neighbor( with the manicured lawn) and the first thing he asked them was if they were going to build a house or live like a "typical" Montanan. Wow! how's that for neighborly chit chat? Now I don't know what a typical Montana native is suppose to live like but that's just rude and the mountain man took offense. It was not pretty and they haven't talked to each other since. I would imagine that, now, when this "neighbor" sees this beautiful house that was built and the sheep wagon next to the most amazing barn/workshop ever.... and the lovely chicken house... that he is eating his words. But, we'll never know because the mountain man built a new road into their property and avoids the "neighbor" like the plague.
(Because I'm having trouble with the posting of photos I will do three posts today. I'm back to the old blogger photo upload and until I figure out what is wrong with the new one and why it won't let me upload photos from my files, I will have to limit my photos to three per post. I wish they wouldn't change what doesn't need fixing.)