Rain = No Work

It is 8:20 a.m. right now. I am sitting at home and listening to the rain outside. If it's raining then we have trouble working outside so we usually take the day off or wait a little while and see if the rain will pass... This is the first time it as actually rained during a work day however - it has rained during the weekend or overnight, but not during the day.

Since it has been a week since I blogged I have a lot to say. The most exciting news is what is happening at work. Maybe not what is happening, but the new toy we have! Over the weekend the boss went out and bought a new Bobcat Steer Loader like the one in the picture. So Tuesday afternoon we went to his house and got to play with the Bobcat and learn how to drive it. It's nothing like driving my dad's old tractor - I actually like it better than the Bobcat - but it is a nice little machine to have around the worksite when we have to move rocks and things. It saves a lot of time and my back!

On Saturday, Laura and I joined some of the Chemistry students for some camping. We went to Seeley Lake, which is about an hour Northwest of Missoula. We had a great time and enjoyed being outside and camping! On our way back to Missoula we took a detour past a ghost town called Garnet. The town, or lack there of, is at 6,000 feet elevation and it was a good 10 miles off the highway on single lane, winding mountain roads! The town has been maintained by the BLM so tourist and such can see the town. I really enjoyed the visit, even though it rained on us nearly the entire time we were there. We waited out the heavy rain inside the old jail - which was located a little outside of town and back in the trees. My favorite part of the visit was the old hotel - known as the Well's Hotel. The hotel building was three floors and very elaborate for the time - it rivaled the buildings of Helena. Even though the hotel was run down I could really get a feel for how nice the building was at one time and what it would have been like to be in the Great Hall of the building during a social function. Here are some of the pictures from Garnet.

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Here are the buildings the miners lived in.

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A room inside the Well's Hotel___________________________________________________________________
The third floor of the Well's Hotel.__________________________________________________________________

Inside the general storeBirds eye view of Garnet. The Well's Hotel is the large building on the right & the general store is the building to the left of the hotel.

Hard to believe that over 1,000 people once lived here, but at one time the entire area was covered in buildings and homes which were full of people. Hopefully I can find time to go back and see some more things - the rain sped things up and I didn't get to see everything as closely as I would have liked.

In the time I have been blogging I recieved a phone call from work and we are going to try to start at 10:00 but it doesn't look like the rain is going to stop by then. I will cut the blog short so I can get a few things done before then, but I will mention one last thing. Laura and I will be traveling to Nebraska on Saturday morning and will be there for a week before returning to Missoula. As always I will be taking pictures and posting them to my blog - if I get some free time I might blog from Nebraska! Until again

-=Nolan=-