Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sunday May 31 2009
Today's pictures are all taken by Judi yesterday when we went to the Williams Place and the river. Thanks very much for lending them to me Judi.
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Judi found these pieces of a China plate that had been unearthed in cleared land by the gravel pit. This was the best treasure we found all day. It also could have come from almost anyone of the several places down there but the Macks had a homestead just about in this place. They had a stage stop, and also caught and broke wild horses off the desert. I've never found any trace of where those buildings sat, even a nail. Vic said there is nothing left there.
Me - having crawled under the locked gate. Uffta.
This is the remains of a lady's shoe. We stopped at the old dump where Joe's dad took a lot of old stuff when they moved here. Buried in there are a really old wringer washer, a handle crank oak telephone and lots of everyday stuff. I thought the shoe might be his mother's, ..... or who knows whose it was or where it came from. The dump had eroded out in the years since I'd stopped there and quite a bit of rusty cans and other stuff is strewn around. Going through the old homestead dumps is quite a common and entertaining recreation for some people. My favorite finds have been a few old blue glass bottles. Last night I got wide awake for a while and read emails and finished up reconciling the online statements. I also used the "up" time to do a fresh manicure. Jackie sent another installment of her journal pages and I really enjoyed reading that instead of any book. Her little old pug is having some seizures and has been taking him to the vet. It reminded me of when my Barney got seizures so bad. So I sent her the story I wrote about Barney years back. It took the computer a little time to find and dislodge it from the innards of the files. Aren't computers amazing?
Won't go to church today. Just plan to keep slowly working on the house cleaning and eventually it will get done. Most of the floors are wood. I want to use the wood floor cleaner finish on all the wood floors today. It doesn't take too long though. I have a nice big flat mop that spreads the finish, mops up dirt and covers the areas quickly. You spray on the cleaner and mop away. Some years back now we had a floor person come from Jackson and refinish the wood floors. He put on a protective finish and I never have to wax the floors anymore. Boy that used to be a huge job spreading paste wax on hands and knees and then buffing. So glad not to have to do that anymore. The refinishing was worth every penny. Joe and I had to move to a motel in town for three days while they worked here. Its supposed to be redone every 3 to 5 years, but we haven't had them come back. We had to move all the furniture totally out and then back in.
I haven't watched any TV since we came back out to the ranch. Well, it's only a week so far, but doing pretty good not having to rely on TV to sleep like I have for so long.
Betty and I have talked again, and her nice house cat Caitlin is very sick. I don't know how many times I've woke up the last several nights worrying about Caitlin. She quite suddenly got some kind of severe allergy. Betty is pretty distraught about her. I hope the vet can find something to help her. Betty might not be able to come to visit here right now if Caitlin doesn't get better soon. We will just stay flexible.
The coyotes were really singing and yipping while I was writing this. Also the frogs are singing now. I love to hear the frogs at night. Its a very comforting sound to me. They are tiny little things here, about an inch long, usually dark greenish.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Saturday May 30 2009
A quiet day. It was another lovely morning, but clouding up, cool and breezy this afternoon. Did the same thing yesterday and yesterday evening we had a small shower and another rainbow too. There has been thunder almost every day.
We were going to have Bonnie and Craig over for dinner, but now she's not feeling so well. I hope it's nothing serious and she's better soon. Yesterday I'd made a broccoli rice casserole for our dinner today to save time, and now we don't need it so I told her I'd drive over with half of it for them along with some oatmeal cookies and we'll have the other half. We'll do dinner together here on a better day, and Nancy and Ken might join us.
Am moving slow for getting things done, but got the living room and studio cleaned today. Gradually the house is getting in back shape. Dishwasher is still broken. Didn't get a call back with the number for the repairman. Joe's still slowly working on the utility room sink plumbing. He's feeling a little better today. Maybe he's had some kind of 24 hour bug.
Later I'll call Dish network to get the smartcard installed. The UPS man brought it yesterday, and we got yet another one in the mail, so they will have to tell me which one they want me to use. Later I'll pay the bills I have and do the checking account balance online. Some of our bills have been sent back when the forwarding address expired. Still have to mail the family those birthday cards. They are having the big bbq and birthday party today. I called both the kids and also had a few other phone visits.
(See below for yesterday's outing.There's enough photos there for yesterday and today both.)
Still Friday May 29

Judi standing next to the well
Homestead Well. Dug by hand and rocked from the top down as they dug. Well was 2/10 of a mile from the house and the water was hauled by the children to the house on a cart. Livestock was probably taken to the well for water - ? Imagine doing the laundry and all household needs that way.
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When I first saw this place 30 or more years ago the walls were still halfway standing, with more evidence of what else had been there. This is not a a very big house for so large a family
Friday, May 29, 2009
Friday May 29 2008
Forgot to mention - because it had just barely begun when I was writing last night and I was hoping it would just automatically correct itself ..... RIGHT! FAT CHANCE!!!! - The dishwasher is apparently broken now. It's making a noise like a very loud garbage disposer full of broken glass. I turned it off for a while and then rearranged stuff and turned it back on - not fixed. We only have a few things left that haven't crashed but I'm sure they will. Is this the 80-20 theory? My first thought is how can I make Joe think it is his fault - you know - blame him for it first. Bonnie had sent this after I ranted about telling him it was nice he always had someone else to blame when something (everything) goes wrong: "I just finished reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini. After reading your blog from Saturday I was reminded of a line from it. "Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always." HA! I love this one, Bonnie - Thanks! LOL. Well, I have a chance to do several things today and need to see how that's going to work out. Will let you know what trouble we can stir up, later. It's a beautiful day for anything we might try.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thursday May 28 2009
Judi Massaging my Wrinkly Pinkly Feet
Sandhill Cranes near the RanchYesterday I finally got the floors in the kitchen, utility room and bathroom finished and got a coat or two of finish on them. They look much better. In the process of that and using the utility room sink, discovered that we had another water leak. Joe worked on it a little yesterday afternoon. He thought he had it fixed and everything tightened up, but then there was another puddle, and since it was late by then we left a pan underneath to catch any drips. He worked on it again this morning. The pan is still there so I'm not sure if he's finished there or not.
Oh my, what a great day. This was our Mixed Media painting group meeting day, so went in to Rendezvous Pointe for that. Dropped off the recycling first. Sure enjoyed seeing everyone. Three of our ladies had very recently gotten back from being gone all winter. We all just talked and laughed for about six hours straight. I felt like I couldn't talk fast enough. Maybe too much caffeine. We had a good crowd of the members attending too. We have a new member. One of Kay's young students, a boy named Thomas. He was doing a really nice painting of a buffalo. He's about 12 or 13 and a really nice young man.
Judi surprised me by bringing her lotions and potions and asked permission to give me a foot massage. Like I'd say "NO". She even had a hot water soak. It was wonderful. Thank you so much Judi. It was a special gift and you are so thoughtful to do it. She gave one to Nancy too, but I guess I was in such bliss that I forgot to photograph Nancy getting one.
I worked on my moose pastel and just about have it finished. It can be photographed to show you soon. Lunch was Swiss steak and pretty tasty.
Lois had dug another plant out of her garden for the new house - a gooseberry bush, so we went up to the new house after the meeting and planted it. I watered all the trees and plants. All the others she gave me are looking good, even the aspen trees are budding, but the had some deer nibblings on them already. Everybodies shrubs and trees need to be caged to keep the deer from destroying everything.
Next went to buy a few groceries, not to waste the trip to town. The drive home in the evening light was nice. It had rained between Silver Creek and the end of the pavement, but didn't seem to have any moisture here today. Things are getting greener every day. Spring is such a pretty season. Picked up some baked chicken and scalloped potatoes for our dinner, which made that fairly painless.
Then talked to Bonnie and after that to Betty. Betty and Nancy (high school girlfriends) will be here for a week starting the 6th. Betty's cat is sick, probably an allergy she thinks, and she is worried about her. So here I am still all wound up with visiting hard and fast today and need to get calmed down to sleep.
Oh, need to tell you more about yesterday. About the beginning of the week the girls said that they were having a party at Debbie's. Our family has a lot of birthdays at the end of May and first of June. So they all get together to celebrate. AND ..... the new great grandson would be there too. I was so disappointed that there would be another get together that Id miss, but just figured that's life - what else is new.
Then for some reason Tuesday night I started thinking , Hey I could go to that if I got on the plane and flew down. Wednesday kept thinking about it and finally got on the Internet to see if there were flights and how much it would cost. Of course then I was all excited about doing it - Joe wasn't. I emailed them to see what they thought and they said do it. There is a flight about noon out of Rock Springs with a change in Salt Lake and getting to Vegas about 3:30. BUT altogether with the two hour drive to R.S. the whole trip would take about 10 hours including getting there an hour early prior to take off etc. etc. I could get in the car and drive all the way and be there in about that time, and it sure wouldn't cost $325. Judi even said today that she'd drive me to the airport. Because if I did that I could come back home with Betty when she comes to visit. But I finally decided to just wait a little while and go later if I have a chance. I could go back with Betty. So it's been a "flighty" time. I decided this afternoon not to go.
Someone said today that the airport in Jackson is closed for runway repairs for some time. They are busing all the people over to Idaho Falls. That was why I didn't find a flight out of there. I never knew a fairly large airport could just close up that way.
When you dream in color, it's a pigment of your imagination
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Wednesday May 27 2009
The trouble with writing early is that nothing has happened yet. The sky was robin's egg blue without a cloud this morning. Soon there were cumulous clouds peaking over the edge of the hills. Now two thirds of the sky is covered, and if it were "the early days" a forecast might be to have some rain likely later today.
Have been sleeping pretty good lately, but last night I didn't. So not feeling very ambitious. Joe was up early as usual and rode out on the ATV to check his water. He said yesterday it isn't doing well at all. About halfway down the ditch it quits going out into the field except for a few feet. Of course he hasn't even irrigated the top half for years, since all this drought began. It is a shame to see a beautiful hayfield to go into decline -all the hard work of the past becoming unfruitful.
Here it is almost the first of June. Our usual bunches of antelope just aren't around here this spring. There have been only a couple and none in sight for days now. It's almost time for them to be having their kids. I see some when we go by Sandra's but I'm going to ask her if she thinks there are as many over there as usual. Have also seen or heard only a few cranes. None seen on our field.
Judi gave us this today - Ecc 3:12 There is nothing better than to be happy & enjoy the fruits of your labor, for these are gifts from God. Ecc 5:20
Speaking of the Green craze and in general to become less materialistic: Carrie Fisher put it simply. "Until recently our societal slogan of consumption has been this: instant gratification takes too long".
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Tuesday May 26 2009
Sunset After the Rain
Left Side Full Double
Right Side Full DoubleGradually getting the house here back in order and cleaned. Did three big loads of laundry today, don't know where it all came from in just the few days we've been here, but for one thing there were a lot of cleaning rags! Joe's niece Joslyn came to visit today and brought her friend Laura with her. We all had a pretty good visit. I enjoyed getting acquainted better with Laura. We had met years ago. They talked about going up to Boulder Lake on the way back to town, but a rainstorm set in again. I'm curious whether they went or not. Leftovers for dinner.
Our family has a lot of birthdays at the end of May and first of June. They are all getting together this weekend at Debbie's for a celebration dinner and new baby Colton will be there. My sister was there with a lot of family last weekend. They had a good time. Beverly and Brent had a long weekend at Laguna Beach for their anniversary. It sounded so nice with a hotel over the ocean, laying on the beach and all that.
Joe's watching the NBA playoffs. The game tonight got pretty exciting, with overtime.
Bonnie called and we're making plans to get some days out and around for some adventures soon.
I saw both the cats today, and they both looks great, well fed and happy. I was glad to see them.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Monday May 25 2009



There were rain showers yesterday afternoon, and it was very cloudy again. But in the night it cleared off and the stars were just amazingly brilliant. The rain must be clearing the air. Waking up this morning, it was all clouded over again though, and stayed mostly cloudy all day.
We left about 9 a.m. to go pick up our bouquet of flowers for Joe's brother Jim's grave and then drove up to the Pinedale Cemetery where Joe put the bouquet on his grave. There were several families with literally cars full of flowers. Some had come from other states. We were early for the services that were held there for the veterans, but saw all the graves decorated with many flowers and flags placed on all the veterans graves. When we went by again there were lots of cars parked and a good crowd of people there. Joe has always wanted to go to Green River on memorial day where the rest of his family is buried, but we've been having Susan the flower shop lady put boquets on their graves for us since I got sick. He doesn't want to sit in the car that long any more either.
Then we went up to the house and got a good sized carload of more stuff to take out to the ranch. Brought back the majority of my art supplies, some more clothes and other miscellaneous things. Joe got the big surge protector for the TV. We went to Ridley's next for groceries, ..... filthy place BTW and always be sure to check your receipt for "mistakes". Joe pushed the basket for me. He's vaguely interested in learning how to grocery shop and find things in the aisles. The price of vegetables surprised him, and we talked about cost of some of the other items too.
It's so hard to decide which mediocre restaurant to eat in any more, so we went to the little drive in and got hamburgers and fries with milkshakes. Got a corn dog for the boys to share plus they managed to get plenty of french fries. Well between the two of us that led to one of the milk shakes getting tipped and partially spilled. On home after that, car unloaded, groceries put away and items from the other house mostly put away too. Then I cleaned out the front seat of the car. Didn't want Bonnie to know we'd made such a mess of her beautiful car cleaning job. The milk shake had gone mainly into the cup holder fortunately, so I yanked that out and cleaned it. That's the first time I really knew it would come out, and there's a nice little hidey hole under it.
This morning it was nice to see the rivers and streams brim full and water racing downstream. The llamas were playing and there was a pretty moose laying close to Pine Creek just out of town. Things are greening up, and the cottonwoods are more leafed out than not. We're having another afternoon rain shower. I'm going to make a meat loaf dinner tonight. Went to bed after getting the kitchen cleaned up. Finished my book and got out Mark Twain. The other day I ordered some Peter Mathieson books and they should be coming soon. He usually writes wonderful prose.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
A GREAT PONY STORY
This one is especially for horse and animal lovers and deserves an entry all of its own. Came from the "Old Photo of the Day" guy.
http://old-photos.blogspot.com/2008/02/boy-and-his-pony.html
Another one I've been going to put on for a few days. Not my photos - I've only seen the bare beginnings of buttercups so far. We are always behind everyone else. But this gives you an idea that spring is finally coming here.
http://www.pinedalewyoming.com/news/2009/05/DesertWildflowers.htm
Sunday May 24 2009
White Crowned Sparrow Outside the Studio
This morning when I woke up it was raining, and perhaps had rained off and on all night. The dogs wanted out at midnight and it had rained but wasn't at that moment. Maybe 3 a.m. or so they wanted out again and had to dry them off. It was a nice rain, no deluge but will be helpful. Some puddles in the lane and am grateful we don't have mud here like Pinedale. Haven't accomplished much yet this morning. Stayed in bed until after 10 and did get a good rest. So didn't go to church and am missing it. The book I'm reading is my friend Helena's Winter In The Bunkhouse. Enjoying it for the second time.
Yesterday made the decision to take most of the day off, and that's not saying nothing was done, just not floor cleaning. After Joe got the faucet fixed, the double kitchen sinks needed cleaning and at that point realization descended that the drains were about 99% stopped up. "FOREVER MORE -Is there nothing that won't just work the way it's supposed to!!" So got the plunger out and it took several times but it seems it's running fine now. Several teakettles of boiling water down the drain help when that happens.
Four Dish Network tech calls yesterday afternoon about the TV. You know how long you sit with those calls. I can't figure out why I just can't say "Turn the programing back on just the way we had it 6 months ago." No not possible apparently. And no brochure here to check for pricing and content. Yesterday was told this receiver also needs a new smartcard, which won't be here for two weeks, and in the meantime I know from past experience that there will be error messages on the screen every few hours. Joe doesn't deal with that well when he can't see good enough to know what to do about it. Also I hooked up all the cords to the TV set. Well there are still two of them left I don't know what to do with. One of the tech support said not to worry if we didn't have the second TV we don't need them - Not sure about that. So made two more calls today and made sure we have the programing we want so Joe can watch his sports and favorite channels in HD. None of the local stations were on and should be. RATS!
So .. . Looked up DISH TV programing on the Internet this morning and printed out some of the packaging lists. A call to Dish programming got that part straightened out, and another call to tech support and found the smartcard will be here in a day or two and then the programming can be all turned on. It is being sent UPS. There went over an hour of the day. That's a total of six calls now Yes..... I Know!!. When the smartcard comes she asked me to call them again. In the meantime we got a good part of the stations turned on so Joe is watching the French Open. Perhaps his eyes are shut at the moment. He's hoping for a basketball game, but don't see it on the guide. Maybe its on tonight.
Also have to get under the desk to hook up the external hard drive for my computer files and not looking forward to that either. If Joe didn't want some information printed that I have on there I would just procrastinate that one. Other than all that, this is a good day. The sun is starting to shine. Dandilions are beautiful and little birds are flitting in the yard.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Saturday May 23 2009
The body is slow getting started this morning. Sleep was very long in coming last night. Takes hours to wind down sometimes. So thought I'd give today's blog a beginning. It will probably be tweaked later.
A day with high clouds and weak sunshine. So glad for the air to be warmer. This is usually the time more or less that we used to arrive at the ranch from Vegas. Such memories, and the time we've been here (without moving back and forth) - twenty five years - gone in the blink of an eye.
Cleaned the keyboard a bit ago. It's always full of crumbs and dog hair. Come to think of it, I bet someone else was here using it during the winter. I'll at least finish cleaning the floor in the utility room, and go from there.
Joe just called me from Pinedale, and sounded happy that he found his "clicker". Even asked me if there was anything he could bring back from there for me. Wow. This is a first, and progress!!
LATER: Joe got back safely with the tv, o me of little faith! He also found the remote. No, I know not where. He did forget to bring with it the special surge protector. And is in the process of repairing the faucet.
Dark clouds came up with rumbling thunder, and we had a short rain shower. The temperature dropped from 65 to 50 in about an hour. How I wish when it does this it would just pour rain for three solid days. The best I can hope is that the leeward ? side of the house got its windows washed down. Wyoming is probably to blame for all the lakes and reservoirs on the Colorado and Green Rivers being nearly dry - from this ongoing drought.
Still proceding with my day slowly, but have a fresh manicure. I am so tired of these breaking, splitting and brittle nails. Another sign of old age. Sorry there's nothing more exciting and interesting going on. Think I'll just spend the afternoon making phone calls.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Friday May 22 2009
We have wonderful news this afternoon. Stephanie and Justin's baby was born today. His name is Colten Michael., 8# and 23 and 3/4 inches long. Stephanie was in labor about 16 hours and they decided they better take him cesarean. Everybody's doing fine now. Debbie called about 6 p.m. My little baby is a grandmother!! and now I have two great grandsons. Debbie is going to try to send me some pictures.
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Measuring the Window which needs to be replaced.
Before
After - Panorama - a little off kilter.Interesting that I can't even remember
what we took out of these cupboards 6 mo. ago.
I spent all day cleaning one thing or another. First cleaned the silverware and polished it up. There is an easy way to do it that I like a lot better than using the paste or cream stuff. Finished up reorganizing the cabinets begun yesterday, and now all the cleaning supplies are in the utility room cabinets, and only things pertaining to dish washing and kitchen cleaning are, or will be, under the sink. There was way too much stuff under there, but before we moved and emptied some of the cabinets, it was the only place to store that stuff. Worked on the pantry too.
The kitchen sink faucet hasn't been fixed yet and that is annoying because water keeps running onto the counter. Next all the counters and back splashes were cleaned, and everything on them. Made a cake that turned out good. Remember that old recipe for lemon cake you poke holes in with a fork and frost with the lemon glaze? This is kind of like that only orange flavor and the glaze is made with zested orange rind. I must have been on an "orange" kick, because I was going to make orange jello and that box had a recipe with mandarin oranges and vanilla yogurt stirred in and that one turned out very tasty too. Dinner was leftovers warmed up.
Pulled out the fridge, cleaned behind there, and got the appliance brush and pulled out a ton of lint/dust/dog hair from the coils underneath . Talk about your dust bunnies - this one was a dust dinosaur. I don't know how the poor fridge could even run, probably just gasping for breath. I bet our power bill will go waayyy down. Then I got out the hoover floor cleaner and wet cleaned the kitchen floor. Have the utility room floor left to do tomorrow. At least the kitchen feels clean enough to cook and serve food now.
Going to park it in his shop. I never got to do that.
Going out to irrigate with the dogs.
I added some of the blogs I like to read to my blog list. No body I know, just came across them, usually as "Blog of the Day" on the blogger home page and found them interesting. Or some other people have told me about. Then you can look at their blog lists and find even more. Most are good writers (envy) or photographers (or both at once). Or are leading very interesting lives someplace else, or show their good artwork.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
CHANGING OUR CONTACT INFORMATION
Post Office.
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Lynn or Joe Thomas
105 Richie Road
Boulder WY 82923
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307-537-5678
email: lmthomas@hughes.net
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The Pinedale information will no longer work,
especially please don't mail to Gen. Del. Pinedale.
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