The New Hot Water Heater is IN!!!!!

Monday night Charlie Lei and Dick finished installing
Gladys' new propane hot water heater. She is still
being wise about her power use. "It feels good to
have a bath again and not worry," says Gladys.

"I'm so glad that Charlie was able to do everything
that needed to be done. He and Dick got it all
figured out. Charlie was a big help."
Gladys is relieved to have the work all done.

New Hot Water Heater @ Gladys'

The wait continues for the installation of
the new propane hot water heater. Gladys is
now conserving power.

Ted and Dick went down to the basement and
dismantled the bottom burner in the
50 year old electric hotwater heater.
Dick's contact at TRECO tells him that their
current electrical consumption is down to
100 KW per day. All the baseboard heaters are
turned off. Gladys is turning off all the
lights as she leaves the room. Conservation
is alive and rampant at the Fletchers.

Charlie Lei is due to come and hook up the new
propane water heater next weekend. Charlie is
Gladys' grandson.

Gladys wants to get her power bill wittled
way down. Since it was $650 last month, which
exceeded her monthly Social Security income.

Dick wrote a letter to the Governor and also to the
Senators and Representatives from our area.
Dulcie will hand deliver them while she is in
Helena this week.

Dick is hoping to raise the public awareness
regarding the elderly, schools and the impact of power
increases in Southern Montana upon those on fixed
incomes. He is a Trustee for the school board at
Ashland Public in Ashland Montana.

Dick has also written letters to the editors of
local papers.

Mirage 2

Sam Lei looked at the mirage pictures.

"When I was a boy we lived up high, I
could see the Big Horns and sometime
we'd see those mirages. Do they know
what makes them?

Junior and Djordge Visit Gladys

Left to right: Junior, Gladys and Djordge

Gladys' pals, Junior Milhailovic and Djorde Vukmirovic, showed up with Ted this
morning. They are on their way to go shoot coyotes and prairie dogs. Junior had
some time off and needed to pick up alfalfa seed for his folks farm, so they decided
to head out our way.

Junior and his dad have been coming out to Ted and Peggy's hunting since 1984.
They will be back again this fall.


Dixie, Gladys' grand-daughter, is visiting too. So we are headed out to Ted and Peggy's to see her. Dixie will be here for a few days. Gladys is looking forwards to
playing cards with her and catching up on all the news from Billings.

Mirage

This photograph, taken by Dick Fletcher,
shows a row of cliffs on top of the hills
that run along the Tongue River Valley.
The cliffs are the mirage.

On February 4th, Ted and Dick were on their
way to town. Dick saw this mirage. Ted was busy
watching the road. When they stopped Dick took
this picture. Dick said that the mirage extended
all across the horizon, it went for miles.

The guys at the Elks Club in Sheridan
didn't believe Ted
when he told them about it.
Now Ted has the proof, he has the picture.

The view is up on the Divide, just after
Pine Butte School on the way to Sheridan.
Its looking over towards Colstrip.

Gladys said, "One day when Merle was on
his way to Arvada he saw a train just a
rolling along with smoke puffing out of
the smoke stack. The locomotive was running
along the top of the hills and he knew that
there were no tracks there."

HOME, HOME ON THE RANGE

"Whens Valentines Day?

Not til Saturday, do I have to wait
that long???" says Gladys.


Gladys burst into song this afternoon.

"Home, home on the range. Where the deer
and the antelope range.
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
and the skys are not cloudy all day." sings Gladys.

Its grey out Gladys window, the wind is blowing
and the chimes are ringing.

Gladys Has Dinner/Power Increases

When Dick arrived he had a bowl of soup and then
asked MJ what their power bill was. Ernie quickly opened
it and was surprised to see that it was much much higher
than the month before. The increase in power costs
has hit residents of Rosebud and Powder River
counties very hard. Dick had a lot to tell about
his struggle to get answers from TRECO and from
State, Federal and local agencies. TRECO has had
increases of aproximately 23 per cent in the last year.

Unfortunately the economy in this part of Montana
has not increased at the same rate. Especially for those on
Social Security, where the annual increase was
5.8 percent in November.

At the school board meeting the point of discussion
was the tremendous increase in the power costs for
the last months bill.