This year I had the opportunity to travel to Montana to help out with a project.  This old mining office has gone through quite a few renovations and uses.  It originally started out as a mining office. Later a post office shared the space.  When the mine went dormant so did this building.  In fact most of the building in this small Montana town quietly went away.  However this building remained.  In later years someone bought it, added the little lean to partition and used it for a wood shop.  Again it closed it's doors and waited for another owner.  This time the next owner saw the potential of the building and preserved many of the original components such as the safe with 4 foot brick walls surrounding it, the original wood floors were brought back to life as well as the wood work around the windows and doors.  It became a destination for quilters around the state and from beyond.  This is the location of the Washoe Quilt Shop ran by my Aunt..  My Grandmother was in the shop daily sewing and working on her quilts.  My other Aunt and my Mother would take turns coming to help out at the shop as well.  After more than 10 years, my Aunt decided to retire and this building is going through another change.  We will see what it becomes next.  I spent a week with my mother, aunts, uncle, cousins working on the building.  We scraped and primed our way around the outside of the building; using a genie, and climbing up and down scaffolding and ladders.  I remember as a kid my grandmother always had a project or two going with different houses.  She once bought a house that had ceiling that were painted bright tangerine orange with lime green beams.  The ceilings were 18 plus feet and she erected scaffolding so she and my mother could zip strip the color off and then stain it bringing it back to it's original beauty.  Each of my aunts and my mother have had projects of one thing or another going, never sitting still. This project wasn't any different as everyone got involved.  I saw a cousin whom I haven't seen for almost twenty years.  I couldn't believe it was that long and we live in the same state.  During the week I was there a momma grizzly and her two cubs were wandering the gullies munching on huckleberries getting ready for the winter.  We were advised not to walk alone in the evenings and one morning awoke to a mess the bears made with the garbage as well as going through a picket fence to get to the bird feeders. I didn't ever get to see those bears.  Slept right through all the mayhem they created.