Hello and welcome to Monthly Fuel, a newsletter for the day to day happenings, routines, inspirations, to - dos, good listens & reads that keep me going. Expect an update of what I’ve been up to, thinking on and an occasional vision board, accompanied by favorites from my monthly roll of film.
Published once a month.
The day to day
When fall rolls around, Ajax and I tend to cling to the last of the long days and sun by making a ‘last chance’ type effort to spend as much time in them as possible. We successfully got out of dodge most weekends by front loading our caretaker duties early in the week, after our full time gigs.
In September, we spent a weekend in the Pioneers (a mountain range southeast of Missoula), facilitated a through-hike for friends on the east side of the Missions and drove back home to Minnesota for a college teammate’s wedding. While home, we spent (a short) time with family, got Ajax on a horse at my mom and dad’s farm, and caught up with folks we hadn’t seen in years. I usually only make it home when everything is covered in snow so, seeing the turning maples and oaks of my childhood backyard was a nice change of pace.
On our return trip, we made a pit stop at the HartCross Ranch, just outside Medora, North Dakota to see a good family friend. I’ve written about why this place is so special to me here. Usually, we don’t have the time to even stop and say hi, but on this trip we made room in the itinerary to have a drink with sweet Connie and spend a night in the cabin.
The mountains got a dusting of snow the first weekend of October and as soon as the weather leans cold, just about all I cook is soup. I’d usually make a large batch on Sunday for the work week or Friday before we took off for the weekend, portioning it into mason jars for a quick reheat on the road.
A batch of this pumpkin chili accompanied Jake & a friend on an unsuccessful elk hunting trip early this month. This was the tip off to the 2025 hunting season, as we spent basically every weekend after that chasing pheasants up the Flathead. If one of us was a good enough shot, I’d make pheasant & rice stew & if we weren’t we’d resort to something like this kale, squash and white bean soup. (hands down our favorite soup of the season)
Towards the end of October we drove to Bellingham for a wedding/30th birthday/Halloween party - bet you’ve never been to one of those before. It was a riot and fun to see the place where a good friend is making home. We hit the Northern Cascades just as the larches started to turn golden against the early mountain snow. Twas a lovely fall trip.
Vision Board
Listen
I saw both Charles Wesley Godwin & Zach Top in Missoula in October and overplayed them, as I always do, prior to the show. Charles Wesley Godwin’s music is usually sprinkled throughout my playlists- How the Mighty Fall is my favorite album.
I also listen to plenty of Benjamin Tod in the fall. His Appalachian way of raw story telling feels authentic and moody and fits the season. He have Shooting Star on vinyl.
Read
Pretty sure I was (still) working my way through Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town intertwined with chapters from The Market Gardener - I’ll explain why below.
Find
I’m a boot girl- I have too many and simultaneously not enough. My favorite brand/style being a Red Wing moc toe- I’m partial to the Minnesota made boot - I’ve had 2 pair, both 6 inchers - one in black leather and one in veg tan. The black are hardly wearable after doing actual work in them, so I’ve been searching for a replacement. For some reason unbeknownst to me, Red Wing stopped making the 8 inch moc toes, so I’d scour Ebay and Depop more often then I’d like to admit just hoping a pair in my size would land there. One pair did this October and I paid a stupid-dumb amount for them, but now they’re mine and I suppose I can die happy.
Stay tuned for November’s newsletter.
By way of some sort of self motivated miracle, we’re back on track.
My dream pair of redwings are the black billy boots. I looked for a long time and eventually gave up lol.