It's a nice morning, some clouds again, and a little cooler thank goodness. I got the kitchen mopped again early before it got hot and a couple of loads of laundry done. The cats are sure lying low lately. I haven't seen them for a while. Smoky came to me in the shed for some canned cat food a few days ago, She was dirty but o.k.
It's been four weeks today since I've been unable to publish the blog or get my email. Perhaps the new satellite receiver will come today. (No…It didn't.) <P> Today I worked some more on my new aspen painting and am happy with the way its going. I'll photograph this stage tomorrow.
Do you think it was because I washed the windows??
Wow …..Look what happened today!!! This afternoon it rained and it lasted at least three or four hours sometimes pouring down and other times showering softly. Lots of thunder and lightning. In the beginning it didn't seem it would last long as the clouds were high and light with a lot of thunderheads. It didn't sock us in until gradually the clouds sat down in the valley covering the hills. The power stayed on except for several flickers. It was wonderful to have this precious moisture. It made puddles, my measure of whether it's a good rain, but didn't take long to be swallowed into the thirsty earth. This could not mean the drought might be over, I doubt it. Hopefully we can wish it might be cooler from now on. Funny I had a fleeting thought this morning that the ranchers working in our neighboring fields shouldn't mow today, but dismissed it as wrong – why should that even enter my mind. But they probably all have mowed a bunch of hay that isn't going to be worth much.
This morning have read last Wednesday's weekly paper the Sublette Examiner (which came in the mail Friday and I went out and got yesterday), and it's full of stories about the fires, especially the one that came so near Pinedale. That is the same one that caused our power outage. It sounds very scary, and most if not all the people living up the hill along the Fremont Lake road were evacuated for at least overnight including the ones in the homes and the campgrounds. There are also three resorts up there. There is only the one road in and out of that area. If not for the excellent work of all the fire and sheriff personnel and volunteers, homes likely would have burned and they even said it could have come down into Pinedale proper. It was much worse than I heard. The fire they named the Pole Fire burned about 1500 acres and moved very quickly in the strong wind. It fortunately rained about an inch that night, probably the first rain like that all year. We got the blustery edges of it. There was another fire on the Upper Green at the same time, and those firefighters and helicopters and slurry bombers left the Salt Lick Fire and came over to the Pole Fire. No structures were lost.
For you guys who were interested in the skeletons, another story in the paper was titled "Skeletal Remains Update submitted by Forensic Anthropologist Russell Nelson", and has info about those Native American skeletons. I don't know if you can call it up on pinedaleonline or not. There is a two page article with lots of interesting info and it has a designated number 48SU6440 with the Smithsonian, I don't know if that can be looked up or not. ? They are dating them to Archaic or Late Prehistoric and the burial is important to their information about the early people who were very sparse in the Wyoming area. He is getting DNA tests to see how/if they are related, and sent bone samples to a dating lab which can date them within 50 years. Dr. Nelson is going to Mongolia for 2 months where he's studying early State formation and military horse use by the nomadic peoples (he names Attila and Genghis Khan). It does sound fascinating and he will write another article about the burials after he comes back. I would have loved to do that kind of work.
When it started to rain (as good an excuse as any) I got really hungry for cookies or brownies or something. We never have anything like that around any more. So I baked some chocolate chip cookies and we had them with a glass of milk. Yummy. Made tacos for dinner but I think the cookies had spoiled both our appetites.
