House from Richie Road
Columbine and Blue Flax in GardenBeautiful morning. Got very smoky last night, with the odor of burning wood, but fairly clear now. After I go through another siege calling about the TV, I'll be working outside today. Yesterday I got two of the books I ordered, Teach Yourself Visually Photoshop Elements 4 and Photoshop Elements 4 for Dummies. They both look good. I'm putting all the Planet Earth programs onto the Tivo. I guess there are quite a few episodes.
Horse Creek Fire From The Ranch at SunsetWe've got this flock of crows that have decided they like our place and have taken up roosting in the trees in back at night. They are so noisy, I don't want them around. This has never happened before and I don't know what the deal is.
Wind has come up hard again this afternoon. Good to keep the bugs off if you're out. Charm called and Jo up in Bondurant says its so smoky up there that she wondered if we wanted to postpone the Mixed Media meeting at her house until another time. So we decided not to go. Bummer.
I've spent several hours on the phone today, and more phone calls the last 3 days, with service people trying to get someone to come and fix or replace the TV. All I've gotten so far is the run around from one place to another. They even had me talking to Sears - what a waste of time! (I bought it at Best Buy but they said some companies contract with Sears to repair appliances.) Much more of it and I'm going to get pretty mad. They are all saying that its too far to come, but they have all our money etc. etc. One thing I'm enjoying while it lasts.....no fox news or sports blasting all day. Joe's playing his CDs on the Bose radio/CD player so that's pretty nice, or he gets bored enough that he goes outside and finds something else to do.
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The writer's group I belong to, Sublette County Artists Guild, is having a drive to sell more copies of the last book we published. It is a reproduction of two of the favorite old books of history, poetry and photographs that the Guild has done. The original Carvings on the Aspens is long out of print, and quite valuable when you can get one. The members are being asked to sell five books each this summer in order to reduce the inventory. They make wonderful gifts. They cost $26 plus S&H. If you would like one please let me know and I'll see that you get it. (Help me sell more of them than Judi.....she's sold about 20 of them!!)
Sparky and Raven Swim
Lupine
Very nice day, warm - Joe says hot. He worked on some of his haying equipment and got the baler ready to go. I did a lot of miscellaneous catching up jobs. My company I was expecting is going to postpone their visit, and will come over a little later in the summer. Bummer. Saturday is the Mixed Media painting meeting, we go up to Jo's on Jack Creek at Bondurant. I think I'll take my pastels. And the bug spray. Charm is going to drive and I'll meet her in Pinedale. Since the car will be in there all day, I'll try to leave it somewhere to get the oil changed. If not Saturday it could be done Monday. Charm and I are going in for lunch and a meeting for the new fine arts and conference center. Beverly's trip to Prescott is also cancelled. She says Bummer. Cousin Donna's basement flooded while they were away to camp. Sounds like she will have a mess to clean up.
I hardly slept last night, and have been doing so well with it lately. Have been awake since about 3 and (2 and 1 and 12:30 etc. must not have slept much because it was nearly midnight when I went to bed.) I kept reading Only Count the Sunny Hours in between dozing. So I finally got up before 4:30. I'm suspecting a bottle of peach ice tea I drank on the way home yesterday. If I remember right that has happened before with that. It must be saturated with caffeine. I got some letters written that I'd put off doing.
Did get the TV repair process started and that was several phone calls. Best Buy says no one wants to come this far - Riverton is closest and they don't want to come - you know that Geek Squad?? Anyway he said in two to three business days (middle of next week?) someone will call and set up and appointment for the repair or replacement - and when might that happen. Sounds like this might linger quite some time before Joe gets his TV back. He comes in the studio and sits in here to watch some things. Its been very peaceful and quiet, and now he's playing his music CDs. This isn't a bad thing! I even felt in the right mood to finish another small study painting. Maybe when it dries I'll put some horses in it. I have several things to take to Ruth to frame.
A rock or something hit my windshield/car yesterday. It sounded like a gun going off. When I let everyone out and went to the car wash I looked the whole car over and couldn't find but the tiniest scratch on the driver's side windshield. Very small for such a loud sound.
It's very pleasant right now, if the bugs don't carry us away. The dogs and I are went out on the ATV for a ride to the mailbox, there is a little mail that should go in the morning. They came back all wet, muddy and tired. I must have seen a hundred antelope, and one baby up close which we unintentionally cut off from the grownups - it was pretty frightened, several bunches of sage chickens, killdeer doing their broken wing act, sage sparrows - which are there but usually so hard to spot, the cattle - Angus and Herefords, ground squirrels.
Although it wasn't smoky here today, the plume of smoke to the west was more visible and seemed bigger. Sun was red going down.
Recycle 
The Mesmerizing Spatulas 
Tree Doodle - My Contribution 
Smoke Overshadowing
Home
Peace
Spectacular - Taken by Alene who Lives Over ThereLifted this photo off the http://www.pinedaleonline.com/ site where there are more photos and story. Horse Creek Fire at 3000 acres Tuesday night The Horse Creek Fire grew by 1800 acres since noon yesterday as winds spread the blaze to the south and southeast, with thick smoke billowing high into the air all dayTuesday.
We had a nice day, calm here until about sunset and the wind is really kicking up now. It was about 80 degrees, nice.
This morning worked on and emailed a WAOW board message with my mentoring vs quality discussion - each of us on the board is supposed to be sharing our thoughts. Got some of the iris bulbs dug up because some people will take them tomorrow. That's part of the project for moving the flowers out of the back yard, so a good thing for them to have nice homes. Also made up the SCAG (writer's group) schedule and roster to pass out at our meeting tomorrow, I had spaced that out, should have done it days ago. Then wrote out the agenda for the business meeting. Made a hamburger potato onion casserole and zucchini for dinner tonight so there will be something leftover for tomorrow's dinner. Got the flower pots watered, because they won't get any tomorrow.
Wednesday is our SCAG meeting over in Marbleton. Five of us are riding to the meeting together in my car, so I cleaned out the inside of the car. It hasn't been done since last year, so you can imagine the dog hair and dirt, and smeary windows. I sprayed some Lysol in there so maybe it won't stink!! We will meet at Rendezvous Pointe at 11 a.m. One thing, we will get a good look at the fire from Marbleton.
It will be a long day since I want to use the trip to shop and do some other errands on my list. Will run the SUV through the car wash, need an oil change but that probably won't happen. Will take the recycling stuff, and drop off four boxes of books to the museum. Get some wire for Joe for the well. I hope I have time to go up to the nursery and look for a few more flowers.
Saturday is our Mixed Meeting about 2/3 of the way to Jackson, where a member has a second home near Bondurant. We will paint and have lunch up there. Charm is going to drive that day. Kay and Cyndi are coming over Friday, or maybe Thursday, from Riverton for the weekend. Need to be prepared for that.
Now I have to email a lady about the plans for the Conference Center, she left a message on my phone sometime today and I just saw it. She wants to have a meeting Monday or Tuesday. Didn't make the last meeting, so I better go to this one. I may not be able to email or blog much until next week. So don't worry if you don't hear from me for a while.
Purple Rocket in the Garden
There are over 240 fire personnel working the Horse Creek fire, burning on the Big Piney Ranger District of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. After seeming to be more in control yesterday it grew to 1200 acres Monday. By late afternoon it was very smoky here. There are photos on www.pinedaleonline.com if you want to look.
Today was windy and fairly cool and needed a jacket this evening. The photos above show the smoke, but also how much the hay has grown. Its not looking too bad. This morning soaked my feet for a pedicure while I did the email. The pedicure Shelly gave me sure got me spoiled in a hurry to want to go back to her instead of doing it myself. Maybe next time. I will probably spend the money instead on that garden cart. Have been painting this afternoon.
The moths, which I'm sure came from tent caterpillars - I had a bunch of them on my shrubs. they were ordinary brown ones. I'm surprised they were only swarming that one night, and not since. I've never see that before.
A bit of trivia since I don't have much news: Dates in rather peculiar juxtaposition this Monday include Custer's Last Stand at Little Big Horn; National Forgiveness Day; and Leon Day, which tells us that Leon spelled backward is Noel, we are just six months away from Christmas, and we should shop early this year. I will try forgiveness, but probably won't shop until the last minute.
Antelope Doe with Five Fawns
A Great Photo by Judi Myers
Judi sent me this photo they took going from their house to town. Its very unusual to see this unless she was babysitting. Judi said any other antelope were far off. Three fawns happens, maybe I've seen four, never five. So this is very rare. I hope she has enough milk for them. She's doing a good job so far. I thought you'd enjoy seeing it too. They are wonderful. And thanks for sharing, Judi.
A pair of cranes with their baby were out in the field this morning. I always love to see that they are raising little ones successfully. Its a dangerous time for them until they can fly.
Too many clouds, did not see the International Space Station last night. But there was quite a sunset again through the smoke from the forest fire. Next thing of interest in the sky is on the 30th - Venus and Saturn are supposed to be next to each other. Its sure easy to pick Saturn out right now.
Another clear and warm day. The pinedaleonline said records for high temperatures are being broken here, but for some reason its not seeming too warm. It must just be early to be this warm.
I've really been going right to sleep and sleeping more soundly and longer for a while now. And laying down earlier at night. Its about time. I've worked hard on getting myself unstressed.
After lunch Tom called Joe and asked how many more bales of hay he needed, and that he would come over and get the old mower. And then next Aubrey called and asked what we were doing and that he and Pat were coming over. So we had company and a nice visit with everyone this afternoon. Aubrey told about his garden he left in Georgia - it sounds like he's growing some of everything. I told him it was not a garden but a small farm. They brought us a can of their wonderful green beans from their garden. We've had them before and they are delicious. They got a miniature daschaund since we saw them last. It is about a year old they said. They have a second home here and come in the summer and fall. Aubrey likes to hunt and fish too. We got to talking about all the odd and strange men who live out in the mountains in tipis and camps and ancient tiny campers. We talked about wells, and horses, and grandkids. After a couple of hours Tom and Joanne drove off with the mower in the back of his truck. That was great to get another thing gone out of the shed. Joe had taken it out of the back of the shed yesterday, so they just had to unload the hay and load the mower. And Aubrey and Pat went home to let the weiner dog out of his kennel. We promised to get together again soon.
DriftsThis was an old painting that I recently scanned. The reference photo was from a trip to Cody and through Yellowstone Park one May coming back from Sheridan and the WAA convention years ago. Since everyone is whining about how hot they are right now, thought this would be a Good Painting for a Summer Day.
So far very nice here. Its supposed to be 86 today but probably will not get to that. We have less smoke this morning, hopefully they are getting the forest fire under control. But last night was another spectacular sunset through the smoke. Joslyn said: "Lisa called Howard and I in Casper…she could see the fire from Piney. Jacques went and checked it out…did put the horses in, to move them if he had to…and I’m sure didn’t get much sleep last nite. Told Howard it kicked up again this afternoon. Jac said very smoky at the ranch." Is that scary or what! I thought it would be back further in the forest, but can see it would be very close to them. Their ranch is very near Horse Creek and Cottonwood Creek, west of Daniel toward the mounains. Today pinedaleonline says at the last report the burn has grown to 700 acres but no buildings are in danger, so I breathed a sigh of relief at that, but the wind is also supposed to blow today.
I was always worried what I would do with 50 horses at the lodge if we had to get out because of a fire, but would have just got horseback and driven the bunch in a direction away from the fire hopefully. We only had a couple of nearby fires during the time I was there. One above the lake that they parachuted to - and other times helicopters would land in the yard.
Smoke Jumpers Above Mud Lake
in the early 80's
You can just see the far shore of the lake on the bottom left. And that's Warbonnet Peak. I have several photos of the parachutes, some with two or three at a time, but this one was the best to give a feeling of place and what's happening. This was probably the time that we fed about 80 hungry Forest Service firefighters for 3 days, breakfast lunch and dinner. Making them each 2 sandwiches with fruit and cookies and a candy bar first thing in the morning was the worst and all those sacks! The second worst thing was we didn't have enough plates and had to keep washing dishes in between shifts. One of them told me I was the best cook between there and the Continental Divide. What a compliment!!.... I was kind of starry eyed until I realized I was the ONLY cook between there and the Continental Divide.
Joe got his baler and mower out of the shed this morning, so guess he's ready to go to haying at a moment's notice, but has to wait for the irrigation water to be turned off first. He and Tom may be making some kind of deal between them for one of the old mowers Joe has.
Finally found all of the files Judi has given me through the years about history and her inverviews and maps and trips and got them together into one big pile instead of stuffed in lots of obscure places. If I ever want to take a trip into the neverland there is a map for that. Judi makes the neatest maps of their treks and explorations with illustrations and miles to gates or forks in the road, over hills and dales. I need to put it all into a file box so I can find them.
I've been trying to get things a little more organized and have to get the Barn Show going. I've sure been procrastinating about everything, especially "spring" cleaning. Need to really do some deep cleaning and do not want to. This morning I renewed the domain name for my website which is due soon - lynnthomasart.com - at godaddy so will have it again for another 3 years. Irritating .....they are trying to get me to take other domain names which I certainly don't need.
4 p.m. 80 degrees in the shade, got my glass of ice tea. Joe mowed the back yard. My flower potting job is finished, unless I can find some more plants to replace all the ones that froze. Next am going on to getting the yard civilized looking. Will get the weedeater out soon and fire it up and have started digging some beds in front to begin the big plant transfer project. I'm thinking about ordering one of those flatbed garden wagons to haul the loads of stuff around with, rocks and boxes of paintings and flower pots and 50 pound bags of dog food etc. Its getting hard to carry loads back and forth in this yard.
Metal Mesh Garden Cart was $150 for $90. What do you think?
Sunset Thursday Through A Plume of Smoke
The Horse Creek fire, burning in the Wyoming Range west of Daniel, went from 30 acres around 2:30 PM to 560 acres by 8:00 PM Thursday afternoon. Fire crews from the U.S. Forest Service, a Type III helicopter, and 9 wildland fire engines from Sublette County are currently on the blaze. More crews and equipment have been ordered and are on the way. There are pictures and a story on http://www.pinedaleonline.com/. Its about 65 or 70 miles WNW of here. Not sure if there have been others, but this is probably the first fire this spring. Its very dry. It got pretty smoky here this afternoon.
I painted a small study of trees yesterday afternoon and think its worth framing. Will tweak it a little more. Boy the moths are thick right now. After dark hundreds are just banging on the screen. Rather disgusting actually.
Blackie Welch
The photo today is of an old friend who has since passed on. He loved camping and being in the outdoors. Joe and Blackie really got along good. Edna Earle was a special friend too. Such nice folks. She lives in Texas now and that's where the painting is. That's Edna Earle sitting on his shoulder waiting at camp for him to come back from fishing! This is one of the images I used for submitting to the Governors' Portrait Project. So thought it might be good to put on the blog today.
This is the first day of summer, and its really the most lovely day. Windows are wide open. Cicadas are humming (unless that's my ears ringing) and the meadowlark is singing its heart out. A grasshopper sparrow is also adding his music. The curlews soar past every now and then, with their beautiful soft whistle. I love to see them with a huge long bill and their cinnamon color.
This morning I worked on the email for a while as usual. Gloria wrote about her trip to visit kids and grand kids in Twin Falls and Debbie wrote about their trip to Curtis' family reunion in Kansas, so I really enjoyed sitting with my tea and reading about their trips. Seems like they really did a lot of fun and interesting things in a few days. Wish I had gone over to Twin Falls to be with Gloria there, sounds like a nice visit.
Don't know how interested you are in the things I should be doing but am not, - this is the second day of the SCAG writer's contest for kids, this time in Big Piney. I'm not going. Its better left to someone who knows what they are doing.
A lot of Gloria's family will be getting together again this weekend - this time in Prescott AZ. Gloria is going. Sounds like Beverly will go to visit her cousin, Gloria's daughter Donna, who lives there and has planned the weekend. They are getting better acquainted again after all these years and that's wonderful. They were together a lot when they were kids, and then life happened. And quite a few of the rest of the family and friends may also go for the weekend, except for me. I'm not going. It's even further than Twin Falls. Beverly is leaving on the trip tomorrow morning.
This afternoon I ordered two medium sized print racks online from Dick Blick to use when I have the booth to sell my prints at Rendezvous time. They will be a great help to have for the Art Show in the Barn too. Of course I took that opportunity to order some more art supplies. I really like this online shopping experience, sitting here in my chair and spending money.
Whoop-de-doo!! Made the deadline for the Governors' Portrait Project. I guess I proved I'm still an artist and not a computer professional though. Still I think the presentation looked pretty nice. And I think the images are on the CD. I never count my chickens before they are hatched, but will continued to think positive and see what happens. Wish me luck!!
So about 11:30 took the envelope out to the mailbox. It will be postmarked today, the deadline. It's beyond my comprehension why I didn't get it done earlier. At the UPS box there were two ground squirrels and Sparky and Raven each got one. Raven nabbed hers right away. Sparky's gave him quite a chase. Sparky must have gotten bit by his, he yipped, spit it out, and then went right back to the fray, but today there are two less varmints on Big Sandy to Elkhorn Road. They swam on the way back in the creek and again in the ditch and are tuckered out flat in the yard sleeping now.
Isn't the crimson poppy spectacular! They grow like weeds here, and have too many in their bed. Its amazing how all those huge petals unfold out of that small pod.
Saw the hawk's nest in the tree, and as it has for a while, it sure looks abandoned. Wish I knew if they got their young ones raised or not. If so, they must be out soaring somewhere. That reminds me I saw a totally black hawk several times in the last while. And don't tell me its probably a raven or a crow. It has flown by quite close a number of times, and may be a melanistic peregrine falcon. Falcons are becoming more common lately and reclaiming their place in the environment. They aren't nice to have near your bird feeder though.
Windows are open. Ice tea tastes especially good. All the housework and laundry is waiting for me to do. Got our lunch over with, potato salad and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. Now will get to work cleaning this place up, and maybe spend some of the afternoon out in the yard again. And later its time to pay the bills on line. Joe has gone out irrigating with the dogs.
Had a very nice surprise come in the mail Monday. Nancy sent me a very big very beautiful lightweight blue outdoor self watering pot. I'll shop for a nice plant for it, and then take a picture to show you. Thank you for your thoughtfulness dear friend Nancy. I love it and you too. At the same time Joe got his Father's Day gifts from the kids, real Vermont maple syrup and some blueberry and raspberry preserves. Thank you guys very much, he's already enjoying it every day, and asked for the homemade waffles this morning. I rarely have those kinds of things for breakfast, opting for whole grain cereal or my favorite avocado on toast, but did this morning just so I could try the syrup and it is light and delicious.
Skulls on Tree in Muddy Canyon The visit yesterday with the Barn Door ladies went well and I got images they wanted sorted and sized and emailed off to them in the afternoon. The contractor and another person have to approve us after they see the photos. They want large paintings. But I was surprised they want generic Wyoming landscapes, no wildlife or western, so take that subject matter out and doing the paintings should be quite easy.
Yesterday afternoon was spent getting portraits I've done scanned and properly sized for the governor's portrait project submission. So that pretty much filled my day, just working on those two things. Today I had planned to do the required cover letter, bios, list of info about each portrait and hopefully I can come up with enough reference letters from past things I have. This morning I began to work on getting the images onto a CD and my CD program kept saying it wouldn't work, and that there was no CD in the slot etc. so I gave up and didn't go any further doing cover letters and copies of stuff. But later tried again and figured out that it was actually putting stuff on the CD and still saying it wasn't, so now there's two sets on there. I got rather upset about the program actually. Its the first time I've tried using the CD writer on the new computer and it didn't work. (Dreading a call to the tech guy in India!) The submission needs to be postmarked tomorrow and I can make that. Maybe I'll be in the mood to finish it up in the morning and get it into the mail. I'll have until about noon. I had given up thinking it was a lost cause, but I should make the effort. I'm also a little upset that they are accepting artists from several other states too.
Today there were two meetings I didn't go to. The Sublette County Artist's Guild (writer's group) held the Caryn Bing Memorial Writing Contest for kids today, and the man who came to teach the kids about poetry did an adult workshop tonight. Although am prez and should have been present, didn't feel up to driving two hours to go to it. This afternoon there was a meeting for the new conference and arts center as well.
So instead of going to the meetings this afternoon I worked in the yard. It was time well spent. And except for the mosquitoes was a nice day to be out. Got all the wells around the shrubs cleaned out of weeds, and got them all watered. Not sure the crab apple tree is going to come back from the winter kill, but it has sprouted a frail looking limb. Also worked a little on the flower potting project. This may be the last time I do that, spend all that money and don't even get them planted before they are dead. Lost all the dahlias, most of the impatiens, and about half of the zinnias. None of them are hardy enough for a killing frost. Most of the petunias are going to be o.k. but all the flowers were frozen off of them.
Helped Joe a little after lunch, he's been working the last three days trying to get a probe into the well to keep track of how far down the water level is. He's worried something is going wrong with the well. I hope he can figure it out. Anyway he was drilling a hole in the base of the hand pump to put the probe through and the drill kept binding or kicking back, and when it did that I was supposed to kill the power at the main switch. So that took most of an hour.
Made breakfast for dinner - ham, hash browns, toast and eggs with avocados and strawberries. Worked on the emails after dinner.
Dinner last night was good, and sure enjoyed seeing Tom and Joanne. We had a good visit. They got here about 4:30. The time seemed to go quickly. I showed Joanne where the cats she gave me and their kitties eat and sleep. We think since the wagon has been moved in to the big shed from the garage, that I can cover over the top of the wagon and put some rugs in for them and they can have a nice warm winter house in the wagon. We looked at the artwork in the barn too, and I printed them out a photo of the Muddy Canyon Mare and Colt rock formation.
This morning Joe said the hose was frozen and it had gotten down to 27 degrees. I looked out at my flowers and they are all drooping badly. I will go out soon to check the damage and water them, if the hose is unfrozen by then.
Hurried and vacuumed. The ladies from The Barn Door, Wendy and Mary Lynn, arrived about 10:30 this morning. We looked at the artwork, and they explained that what they will be decorating is not a home but the big new bank in Pinedale and they want some artwork on the large side. Large landscapes in all seasons of Wyoming, rather than ranching or wildlife. I'm honored, excited and enthused to be considered for this project, along with Ruth and Bart, other artist friends. This afternoon I will email some photos of the things they especially liked for a meeting they are having soon with the contractor etc. Then will wait to hear if they like my work. If yes, then several large pieces will have to be done by the end of August.
On the 20th is the deadline for the submission for the Governors' Portrait Project as well, so today I was going to scan and put on CD some of the portraits I've done and send off the submission materials for that. This is the one that would total five paintings at $10,000 each if I were chosen. Both projects should be feasible timewise. I am confident I could commit to and accomplish this.
Wish me luck!
Daddy and Me - Big Bear 1940
Today the main event is that Tom and Joanne are coming to dinner so I'm working toward that. They should be here maybe about 4 p.m. or so. Will have rib steak, onion roasted potatoes, corn on the cob, salad, maybe bread of some kind, maybe not. All yummy, and not too much work. Joe asked for rhubarb pie, so I will make that from the rhubarb Dan brought from his garden from a recipe from one of my ranching neighbor ladies.
In between will try to work a little more on the flower potting project. It doesn't seem to be getting done very fast. And interestingly, the temperatures are still down below 35 degrees every night. Today is chilly, overcast and downright windy. The hay is getting a little taller with the warmer days. Joe mowed the front yard this morning while it was still nice. He's out working in his shop.
Reduced my email box again this morning and called Charm to visit. I was SO SORRY to hear how sick they are. Hopefully you will be feeling better really soon. What a bummer! Betty also called this afternoon and we had a great visit. Its been 112 in Mesquite, too hot for June. Amigo seems to be feeling fine too, so that is good.
Joe's father's day gift from the family apparently came on Wednesday and wouldn't fit in the mailbox so our mail lady left it on the ground (and there are cows out there). Although he's usually good about going right out, Joe didn't go out and get the mail that day. So it was still sitting there when she came back on Friday and she couldn't get us on the phone since we were gone to town so she took it back to the PO and we have to pick it up from there, not sure when that will be. Now the PO ladies are worried about us, but it was just the way it happened. Some days we don't go out there and get the mail and that was one. I never even thought about it because that's one of his chores. That's the day I was finishing the portrait. I'll call and ask them to bring it back in the morning.
Bob
Gina and Lynn - taken by Sally this afternoon. I'll write about today tomorrow...... Sunday morning and I'm back. Yesterday got busy. Joe mowed the back yard early. He's been doing the yard watering, timing each move exactly. He seems happy to be doing that and so am I. He also cut up some, what he calls beaverboard, or particle board for me. When he cleaned out the garage, a couple of large pieces were something he wanted to get rid of and I said I could paint on that if he would cut them up into standard painting sizes. It cut up into about 60 pieces, mostly 8x10s to 16x20s, so guess I have to get busy using them now for sure. They will all have to be gessoed first.
Don't even remember everything from yesterday, but did clean house and got a few more flowers planted. That flower project is coming along slowly. Baked some cookies and took some banana bread out of the freezer. After lunch, Gina, her sister Sally and Bob came over to visit. It was great to see them. All three of them are working in the "oil patch" these days for some kind of water recycling business at the gas wells. They told me the name of it but I can't remember offhand. I really enjoyed meeting Sally. But I already knew I liked her. She lives in Arizona in the winter and comes back here in summer. We have first gotten acquainted over the Internet, reading each other's blogs. Then decided we'd go in together for a booth at Rendezvous. She and a friend will be selling their original jewelery and I'll be hawking my matted prints. Long Tall Bob was looking good as usual too. He and Joe visited. We had snacks and ice tea, hit the art show in the barn, gave the horses treats, and showed Sally where I stored all my "stuff". I thought I was taking pictures, but didn't have the card in my camera, so Sally sent me some of hers. Thank you very much Sally. I hope you don't mind that I've put them on the blog.
After they left I got my hair washed. Sheral and I had been visiting yesterday and they have company this weekend. They all came over about 4 p.m. and their friends are delightful. Dick and Glenn had been out on the ATVs the day before and got way back in on Muddy Ridge, and had a few hairy trails to negotiate, but seemed none the worse for wear. It made a good story. Sheral and Jan stayed home, I believe Sheral said they had a nap. But we did enjoy meeting them and we had a nice visit. Glen is a podiatrist and says he's almost retired. They live in Bountiful. One thing he talked about was a flood they had there when it got hot very quickly in the spring of 1983. One day was 100 degrees and it melted all the snow in the mountains causing a flood. Unbelievably they had 5' of water in their houses there. They also saw the paintings and we had more cookies and bread. I was a little late with Joe's dinner. I fixed us some chicken fried steak. It was a good day.
Busy day. Got a phone call this morning from the owner at the Barn Door, a home and decorating store in town. They want some of my paintings for a project they are doing - I am assuming decorating a person's new home. They are coming over Monday to look at the paintings in the barn - they want landscapes. Then Sheral and I visited about when we might be able to get together. Nothing is working out so far and we've wanted them to come to dinner for some time. They have company now. We will just continue to be flexible.
Left by 10 a.m. Oh yeahhh,,, the dogs got to go. Joe "snuck" them in the back of the pickup against orders. Then how can you tell them they have to stay home. But I stopped at the highway and got them in the front. I hate to think what would happen if they fell out of there. We had the stuff described earlier in the back of the truck for the museum. What a great feeling to get the garage cleaned out and have the stuff gone, and hopefully for a good cause. Got there just before 11:30 and Jay had come to help Joe lift the heavy washing machine out of the back of the pickup. I've found its really hard to try and second guess what a museum might find interesting and useful, so told Millie if they didn't want something just to trash it.
We were supposed to call to confirm our lunch date, but the cell phone was in my car, didn't take the number, so was lucky to find their house and talked to Kathy. Yes they were going so we met Joe's cousin, James and Kathy and their grandson Gavin at the Chinese restaurant and had a nice visit with them. Food was good too. Some of their family are flying into Jackson from Georgia this evening, I think she said for six weeks this summer. She was driving up to pick them up.
By then it was time for Joe's haircut. We got there just a little early and I asked if they could pierce my ears some time with the gift certificate my kids gave me, and Margie said she doesn't do it much any more. First she had to put color on a customer's hair but she would do it while the color was working - I do believe it was a guy - so I went and walked the dogs.
The town has moved the beginning of the walking/bike path that goes up the hill behind the beauty shop and has it all torn up, so we didn't walk on the path today. It looks like they are probably going to take that street another block east and probably it will be the access to some new businesses in what used to be a really nice hayfield. I was hoping they would keep it as a park or green belt, but its really filling in with development. Gave the dogs the leftover lunch and they were very well fed, they walked and then I went back and Margie was ready to pierce my ears. It didn't even take 10 minutes. She gave me gold hearts. This time I will have to keep earrings in all the time so the holes don't close up again. I'm not going to like doing the first 6 weeks you have to care for them, but it will be worth it and I will be glad to be able to wear my earrings again, and the new pair that Debbie got me for ...was it my birthday or Christmas.
Then to get groceries. I was glad to see Ruth in the store and she was looking great. Such a wonderful friend. Had to wait in the line at the pharmacy for our prescriptions, and also in the line at the grocery checkout. I got right in to my checker, but then she went and helped a new checker figure out how to do food stamps. I was ready to get out of there.
Next we went and got dog food at the feed store, and took the dogs for another walk at the Nature Trail by Pine Creek. The swam and got a drink and seemed to really enjoy it because it was about 88? and they were saying they were pretty hot. They had to go into the back again for a while since they were soaking wet, and we next went to Joe's Pinedale doctor appointment, which went well. We didn't have to wait long there this time. He gave Joe info and instructions about the medication, what to do next.
We got home about 5:30 and I stuck a pizza that was on sale into the oven for dinner and got just about all the groceries put away. Will finish that in the morning probably. I'm going out for another hour or so this evening to work on the flower potting project and see how far I get with that. I just wanted to sit down and rest for a little bit so decided to write.
The Idaho Falls doctor called just about the time we got home, and gave instructions for Joe's medication. Joe has been recording his blood pressure twice a day and we called in Wednesday with those and he called back, so this was our second set of instructions today, both different, and we had to decide which one we're going to do - talk about confusing. Joe will continue doing the blood pressure readings and see how he feels on the new medicine and call back in a week.
I'm going to be ready for my pajamas tonight.
Dude Horses going from winter to summer pasture were being driven down Pine Street in Pinedale a while back. We don't see this as often as we used to, but I love to see both horses and cattle being driven through town or along the highway. This was a photo I liked a lot in the paper so scanned it, and thought you might like to see it too.
Today was a good day. I figured I better do something about the inbox for my email which had 65 things that needed to be answered, and even more came in throughout the day, so I spent most of the morning working on that and at present there are 14 of them left. First I voted on the WAOW board meeting agenda and that got me in the mood. It had all sure backed up like a log jam. I also got a lot of photos sent off to a Thomas relative in Georgia. She was interested in seeing some of the available paintings.
This morning I called the doctor in Idaho Falls with Joe's first week's recordings of his blood pressure twice a day. I made him some tables on the computer for that. Spoke with one of the nurses there. The doctor is supposed to call back and maybe adjust the medication he's taking. He never called back today. I suppose with going to town we are going to miss that call tomorrow.
After lunch it was time to get the flowers transferred into their pots. I thought I would get it all done, but am only about half way finished with it. I have to tell you the bad news of the day is that I saw the first mosquitoes. And also the first swallows of the year right here. I've seen them other places. I hope they stay because they eat a lot of mosquitoes through the season. Joe doesn't like them building their nests on the buildings, but I want them here. And they have a tough enough time without someone knocking their nests off. When we first moved to this house there was an awning on the living room window and swallows would build a nest there. You could look right in and watch the eggs hatch and the babies grow.
I'm reading an interesting small book, called "Only Count the Sunny Hours", Madame Isabelle's Diary. She ran a house of ill repute in Kemmerer WY and its pretty good.
Tomorrow will be a busy day. We have to go to Pinedale to the doctor appointment and Joe's haircut. When he goes in for that I'm going to ask them about getting my ears repierced so I can use my earrings. I'll shop for groceries. And we will take several things to the Museum of the Mountain Man, including the old cream separator and the wringer washer that's been here since the 40's. There's a suitcase of small old things that is interesting too. We have to take the truck as the big things won't fit in the SUV. But I've decided to take the boxes of books I have for them next time I go to town. I don't want them going in the back of the truck. Joe lifted the separator and washer into the back of the pickup with the bucket on the tractor.
The portrait is finished. Dan got here about 3 p.m. or so and picked it up. Their national convention is this weekend in American Falls Idaho. The painting will be presented to the commander. I worked on some of the details for another hour after Dan got here while he and Joe talked and drank coffee. I didn't go as far with the realistic details as I usually do, so the portrait is more painterly. I was pleased with that aspect of it. Above is a photo of the portrait. Dan stayed and visited until about 5:30. He brought some of the biggest, reddest rhubarb I've ever seen from their garden - Joe wants a rhubarb pie. We had a really nice spring day. Joe went to town this morning for his regular blood test and was back before lunch. Other than that only the basics got done. I will write more tomorrow.
Heirloom ColumbineYep, I checked, it is Tuesday. Beautiful day, some wind, maybe we're finally really getting spring. Should have the mosquitoes in about a week. There's not much to write about today, but everything's going fine. I'm painting.
The purple columbine is an old fashioned perennial, what they call an heirloom plant. It was given to me by neighbors Ann and Jim Roberts who used to live down on the corner. Hers got bigger there than mine ever do. They moved to Encampment and said I could have any of the plants. This is the only one I took and I'm glad I got it because the next people who bought the house weren't there much to take care of the yard. One day their boys were shooting guns and shot the propane tank and the place caught on fire. It burned down the garage and the house also caught on fire and burned through the roof. The yard and garden pretty much burned up, even some aspen trees by the road. The fire department came and put it out while the walls were still standing. The house was rebuilt, and a new garage. The aspens came up again, but I never saw the columbines come back.
Flycatcher 
Grackle and Western KingbirdWelllll.....came back an hour later and......I think I'll just leave the title calling this Friday. That's the kind of day it's been.
I'm not even going to take time to look up and identify which flycatcher this is, but it was quite small, if you want to look it up. They all look the same to me, and I'd probably come up with something like Cuban flycatcher. Kingbirds are one of my favorites because they are rather scarce right here - as if they pass through now and then.
A beautiful sunny morning, turned cloudy, 70 degrees by afternoon but a cool wind. My bedding flowers are still in the car and doing wonderfully there, like they are in a greenhouse, just blooming away. Maybe I should take a picture of them in there.
Charm and I had a nice visit on the phone. We don't do that so often anymore now that we can email back and forth. But we should go back to calling more.
Whoopsie.....I managed to send out a personal email to my friend Jackie to the whole WAOW board group email this morning. Luckily it didn't say much that anyone couldn't know. The only good thing was that it went to the board and not the whole membership. It's an easy thing to do when you just click reply. Its time for the monthly board meeting again. This is our 6th, so halfway through our terms in office.
The painting has to be done by Wednesday afternoon, so hope I make it. Dan called this evening and I told him this will be my last year for doing the Search and Rescue commander portraits. No ambition for this deadline stuff any more. I guess I did them for 10 years. He said he wasn't going to be in charge of it for the S&R any more either.
SCAG our writer's group is having a writer's workshop on Tuesday night and I should go, but I probably won't drive in to Pinedale at night for it. That's bad of me, since I'm the president I should be there to support the group. We're supposed to make cookies for the refreshments. Not sure how I will manage to get cookies there either.
The Museum of the Mountain Man is going to take all the rest of our old things that Joe wants to get rid of, so will load the truck up and take them in there Friday. That will be a good day to shop for groceries. There are four medium boxes of books for them too. We also have an almost new cream separator from that era. When they moved here they had a cow while Joe's mother was alive, But she didn't live here long and they got rid of the cow. So the creamer has all the parts, even the book, in good shape. Its a tall heavy metal one that was bolted to the floor, with a hand crank. You can imagine that there would be a lot of small things kept around for so many years, but nothing of great value like heirloom antiques. The nephews and neices will get all the personal things of their grandparents later this summer.
We also have an electric motor wringer washer that was the washer here from the late 40's?, and it is what I used at this house for several years (10?) before I got an automatic washer and dryer about 1985. I'm sure they are more common than some things, but Millie said they would take it. It is in very good shape. I always used a wringer washer to do all the laundry at the lodge too, and for most of the time it was a gas engine one. Toward the end Joe strung an electric wire from the generator to the wash house and got me an electric motor one there too, which I think they still use. Talk about feeling pampered!
Joe's been reminding me every day to type up his doctor visit notes, so that's been finished now and printed out for him. We do that each time so later we know what was done and discussed.
We had a very nice day until the wind came up. Joe mowed the back yard this morning. Then later was doing something in the garage - remember he moved the big livestock truck in there. Well he ran into the side mirror with his head and it knocked him to the ground. The cut isn't bad. We washed it up and put some Mercurochrome on it. I guess he had a pretty good pain for a while but that got better. I had just been walked out there earlier myself and saw the mirrors sticking out and thought that was an accident waiting to happen, but expected it would be to me. And by the way, he's about finished cleaning up the garage and it looks really nice. Some more stuff to get rid of and then it will be great. He did get all the stuff he had in the middle of the floor neatly stored.
Don't think I mentioned that I bought quite a few books from a sort of estate sale/yard sale. Most of them are art books. Judi helped me get them because she's helping the daughter sort things out in the house. So today I weeded out enough books to get the new ones on the shelf. The books I removed will go to the Museum of the Mountain Man next time I go to town. I checked on amazon.com and abesbooks.com on some of my favorites and as usual came to the conclusion that books would make a much better investment than stocks. Some of them are quite valuable so it's probably a good idea to take those to the museum instead of leave them here. I wouldn't want the house to burn down with them in it. Gradually, as I can part with them, all the books will go there.
I did watch the Ruffian (horse) movie on ABC last night, and, although it was quite good, thought it was way too graphic when she broke her leg. They sure didn't need to do that. For that reason I don't recommend it to anyone. I watched the real horse race in the '70s and can remember that awful experience. They run those horses way too young for them to be developed.
This is a photo taken the morning it snowed, Not much of interest to report today. Last night the power was off from about 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Joe had already gone to bed. I don't know yet what caused it to bleep out. So got the candles out, and read in my book by battery reading light until I fell asleep. It had gone off momentarily earlier in the evening, but the weather was clearing up, so not likely a storm. When it stays off any length of time, I always get the feeling - what if we've been invaded? - what if it never comes on again? - is it the end of the world? - terrorists again? - What will we do if we don't have enough food to last until it comes back on?.....
Betty and I had our regular weekend phone visit this morning. Surely we got all the world's problems solved. But she's got pack rats nesting in her roof, and having a time getting rid of them. She trapped five young ones, and the cat got another one. She's had this problem off and on for years now. My sister in Green Valley AZ just wrote that they have a bunch of pack rats nesting in their yeard area too, and had to cut down a tree to get the nest out so more didn't come back.
We have a really lovely morning out and the grass is so revived with the moisture we had. The weather has been sunny and warmer. Event-wise it has been just about like yesterday. The studio looks better than it did yesterday.
I neglected to mention that Monday our Senator Craig Thomas died. He had leukemia and had given a valiant fight, even continuing to work during his illness and treatment. He was a good man for Wyoming, whichever party you belong to. We saw the flags flying at half mast when we went on our trip to Idaho.
The commission portrait is being worked on. I made chicken and dumplings for dinner. It's one of Joe's favorites. The movie about the horse Ruffian is on ABC tonight and I'm looking forward to watching that.
It has stayed overcast but no rain today. Mundane stuff. Worked on emails. Cleaned house. Got sheets changed and laundry done, paid the bills online. I decided to wait until this bad spell of weather gets better to plant the flowers so they don't get all torn up and too much water on them (wind/rain). Must clean the studio, piles and stacks of stuff are everywhere. I had a rare nap, just kind of zonked out and it felt good. Have about a week to finish the portrait and should be able to get that accomplished by then.
After breakfast Joe got that wagon out of the garage and into the shed by hooking it to the tractor. Then he went to Pinedale for his eye doctor checkup and had lunch there. He had his truck full of stuff for the dump, but still didn't take the old studio window that's been sitting in the yard for about a year now. It will sit there longer until he goes the next time.
We're going to have to change our diet a little to a more heart healthy one. I've been trying that for a long time for low cholesterol with quite a bit of resistance, so I think Joe is ready to try to go without bad fats and salt, etc. He has done very well giving up desserts. He really skimps on the fruit, veggies and whole grain things filling up mainly on breads and wants everything fried, but we'll try it again. Dr. Blank especially said no salt. I introduced him to a couple of salt free seasonings and he willingly tried those tonight.
Today we woke up to wind, between 4 and 6 inches of heavy wet snow and still coming down. It wasn't warm enough for it to stick for long, so no telling how much had fallen. Both the TV dish and my computer internet dish needed to be swept off before they would have any reception. Something must have zapped the receiver while we were gone so I had to unplug it which resets it. Until I figured that out, I downloaded my photo card and picked out a few pictures for the blog. When I downloaded my email I had 160 to go through. Arg! By this afternoon the snow has mostly melted off but the hills still have a good dusting. I bet a lot fell in the mountains. This is the best moisture we've had this spring and will be so good for the country. We need this. It's stayed overcast all day and started raining again this afternoon. It sure cleaned the car off.
Joe had a haircut appointment before noon, but decided it would be best not to drive into town through the storm so had me cancel it and got him another one in about a week. He's worked a little in the garage getting things put away and the snow machines moved. I hope I go out there and find a really neat place. When he came in he's taken his blood pressure with his new b.p. cuff about a dozen times so far. The Dr. said to take and record it a couple of times a day and call him with the results in a week. This will show him how to keep adjusting the medication to keep Joe's heart from being so irregular and hopefully help his dizziness. We're supposed to go back and see him again in six months.
Both of us and both of the dogs are having a pretty easy day. Tomorrow Joe has a followup visit with the eye doctor for his cataract surgery, so he will have to drive in for that one. And he will take all the stuff he cleaned out of the garage to the dump that he wants to get rid of.
I was disappointed that despite sleeping better lately, I didn't sleep well at the hotel and we had a very long day ahead of us until we got home. And as usual Joe was up at the crack of dawn wanting to go eat. Neither one of us had any interest in going to the hotel restaurant, even for coffee. Walked the dogs in the rain along the canal. After our showers, we drove across Broadway just by the bridge to Smitty's for breakfast, another good meal with great doggie leftovers.
We weren't far from a new Walmart so there was time to go there and check to see if they had the bedding flowers I wanted for my pots. Happily they had lots and I got those and some potting soil. I splurged on a pot of perennials - were they verbena? I'll check. They had the most exuberant old farmer guy as a greeter/cart person there - we got a kick out of him. He was drying off all the handles on the carts for everyone and had me drive to the door and loaded all the plants for me.
After the flowers were loaded into the back of the SUV we went back and checked out of the hotel, where I asked the clerk to let me talk to the manager. We had a "firm discussion", and they gave me the room for half price. I just cannot imagine them asking the price they did, which they admitted was the same rate for all the rooms old or new. And they also didn't have breakfast with it, which most places do any more. Their apologies meant nothing. I told them it was not a nice thing to do to anyone. We will never stay there again.
We decided just to go find the doctor's office. To get more familiar with the town, I wanted to try to go there on Sunnyside which was the closest main street to that area, but found it was blocked off for repairs and had turn around to go back to 17th St.
The Idaho Heart Institute is about a block from the hospital where I was a month ago, and was easy to find. We were just in time for me to walk the dogs in a large vacant lot behind the building (getting feet and pant legs soaked), then for Joe to fill out his paperwork, and be called in for his echo cardiogram. I went in too to take notes, which there wasn't much to take, but got to watch the test being done. It took about 40 minutes. Of course Jacob the technician wouldn't tell Joe a thing about how it turned out. It was one of the same tests I had when I went to the hospital last month.
There was plenty of time to go down to Garcia's a few blocks away, so we had a nice Mexican lunch. Then back to his appointment with heart specialist Dr. Blank at 1 p.m. The nurses got his "vitals". Then we had a long wait in the exam room before the doctor finally came in. Don't you wish they wouldn't do that! However the doctor spent most of an hour talking with Joe, and we had a very good discussion with him about Joe's heart and medication. I did get notes about that, in fact more info than I could get recorded I'm sure. Now I need to write that up on the computer. He told us to get an automatic blood pressure cuff and how to use it.
While we were so near the hospital I went in there to ask for copies of all the tests I had while I was there. Not sure how they do that, but it didn't even take five minutes to give me all my records, and they were free too. I went to accounting to see how much I owed them, and the balance is zero, so Medicare and my insurance have paid everything. That must be the only good thing about getting old. Still raining and windy we went to find a blood pressure cuff. The first pharmacy the doctor recommended that was close by had just sold their last one. So next place was Albertson's pharmacy where they did have one. They also had Joe's favorite cake doughnuts and milk for the journey home. We stopped for gas and filled up, leaving town about 4 p.m.
The temperature went up and down between about 46 at Idaho Falls and 36 by the time we got home. At about Palisades I told Joe it looked like smoke in one place in the forest and not mist on the hills, and yes, there was a quite large fire in one of the gorges. Not sure if someone's house was on fire, or they were deliberately burning something big. Don't think it would have been a forest fire with all that rain.
It rained steady until we got to Alpine Junction and the Hoback River. There it had rained earlier, and it seemed like we had driven out of the storm. But pretty soon started to sprinkle again and then was snowing before we got to The Rim, and had a good blizzard as we came over the top for a while. Cora and Pinedale were dry, and it was dry the rest of the way home. But we no sooner pulled into the yard and got our little bit of stuff unloaded than a regular blizzard began. We got the horse and cats fed It was about 8 p.m. so we made good time coming home. I crashed on the couch and Joe had cereal for dinner. We were all glad to be back snug in the house. I am so glad I didn't have to drive home yesterday in this kind of snow storm.
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