Things I appreciate about Montana:

• Thrift store treasures. Used-item shops abound here, as do the treasures inside them. We discovered one in Hardin that we had never ventured into, Fort Custer's General Store, where Sarah & I found this perfect chair for our room. It was like walking through a grandparent's house in there, full of neat stuff (and a closet full of true-vintage dresses that I could not resist!)

Our delightful yellow chair!

• Hand-made craft haven. It seems that around here there are so many bazaars or fairs or what have you that offer local crafters and artisans a chance to sell their unique hand-made items. If the same opportunities are as available back home, they're far overshadowed by commercialized giants. How fun and genuine it was to go down to St. Dennis's Church Hall to do some Christmas shopping last night. (At home it often seems we might go to a craft fair to peruse for fun, but then the bulk of our wallet falls into the hands of the Target corporation. As much as I do love Target... there's nothing unique, locally-supportive, or sustainable about buying from them or any other big name.)

• Horses walking down busy little residential-area streets... casual. Never gets old.

• The 27 different varieties (or more, seriously) of license plates. This fascination started day 1, but I literally seem to see a new one every week.

A sample of Montana's license plate art

• And finally, post offices that also follow reservation-time... so I can run to the mailbox at lunch, 15 minutes past posted pick up, and still make it out in the daily mail. Cheers!