Silos KOA–Canyon Ferry, MT

High 94  Low 64

I want to do a post about what is becoming our Montana home. We really like this park and its especially nice that Jim and Rocky can be fishing in about 15 minutes.

We are located about 25 miles southeast of Helena and 8 miles north of Townsend. There is a small, expensive, grocery store in Townsend, a couple of restaurants, a gas station, and a really great bakery. We go up to Helena to do most of our shopping. That’s also where our vet is located and my sister and her husband live there.

This is our view as we leave the campground.

This is the view of the mountains in the rain.

The view as we approach our campground. You can see the lake at the end of the road.

The Salem Travel Trailer in the middle of the picture is our home.

This KOA has many seasonal campers and is definitely a fishing camp. But it always amazes me the number of overnighters that stop here. Helena doesn’t have many options especially if you want hookups.

There is one thing that really irritates me about this place. People do not respect your campsite space. You just would not believe the number of people who walk through our space. I’ve stopped several of them and asked them very politely not to. One woman told me that it was just too tempting. Another guy said he thought it was an empty site. I realize the truck and boat were gone but the door and windows were open, chairs and bbq are sitting out. Empty???

This is our site. Number 17.

I was concerned about the fireworks on the 4th. Our pups really do not like them and neither do Jim and I. But this was a wonderful place to be. There were some fireworks on the 4th but they were finished by midnight and didn’t go on for days before or after the 4th. Worked out really good for us.

Sunset from our front door.

Jim and Rocky are fishing almost every day. At the rate they’re catching, our freezer will soon be full of walleye.

Just a small sample of what he’s been catching.

We will be here until August 27 so I probably won’t be posting many blogs. When we leave here we head for Billings for a week and then we’ll be making our way east to Virginia. I’ll have lots to blog about then.

Skittlez Goes To The Vet

Helena, MT   High 59  Low 46

I’m posting this so I have a record of what and when it happened.

When we were in Sweet, ID Skittlez decided to jump off the sofa instead of using the steps we have for her. She yelped but then seemed to be okay. But the next morning she could hardly move and was shaking and shivering uncontrollably.

We knew immediately it was her back. We had some of Rocky’s pain medications and gave her a pain pill. We also immediately restricted any movement on her part. If she needed to go out, Jim carries her in and out.

Jan, I am really gray. I’m 14 now and almost completely deaf.

We give her Gabapentin in the morning and Metacam in the evening. After six days she started to feel better, however we kept her restricted and on pain meds. We got to Canyon Ferry on Wednesday and took her to our vet in Helena on Thursday. I wasn’t sure if the two medications we were giving her were what she really needed, but the vet said we were doing exactly the right thing. She refilled our prescriptions and we were good to go.

Skitz is doing much much better but still needs pain meds every 12 hours. They make her kind of sleepy so she spends most of the day sleeping which is also helping her heal.

She has always liked to be in more confined spaces, so she has made a cave for herself at the foot of the bed right in front of the heat vent.

Then there is Rocky. He’s still Jim’s Velcro dog and still drives me crazy with his whining if Jim is outside and he’s not. Since the weather is so beautiful, Jim puts him in his bed in the truck and this dog is so happy he’ll stay there for hours.

Our beagle, Ginger, was exactly the same way. She would lay in our Suburban all day long. Even if the vehicle never moved.

Ginger when she was a puppy. Her Mom and Dad and all her siblings were tricolored beagles, but Todd wanted the white one.

 

When we were at the vet’s, somebody brought in a pit bull puppy. So much energy. The vet counter is high enough I can just barely lay my arms on top, and this puppy jumped up on the counter from a standing jump. Wow. So Rocky decided he wanted to show us how good he could jump. He used the step stool as a springboard and ended up on the messy bed just like there was nothing to it.

Life is never dull with the pups around.

A Few More Family Pictures

Katie’s Mom and Dad – Nikki and Wade Carter (my nephew)

Katie and Duel

Nikki and Katie – mother and daughter

Nikki and her three daughters (Katie, Karly, and Karissa)

Somehow I missed getting a good picture of their brother Kody.

This is Randi and Chris Carter (my nephew) and their daughter Courtney.

Courtney is getting married August of 2019 so I’ll get to have more great family times. Looking forward to it. Courtney also has a brother, Zach. Next time I’ll work on getting pictures of the boys.