Friday June 1 2007

Llamas and Alpacas

Moved the Llamas from yesterday to today. I hope to get some better pictures of them sometime this summer. There are several places raising them. One of my friends got a couple of llamas to carry her camping things when she goes backpacking - but then it's not backpacking any more, is it. The llamas get right in the back of her van and kneel down to ride there. She got a new baby llama not long ago. It's all white and very beautiful. I guess when they are three they can begin to pack.

This morning first thing we trimmed Nube's back feet. I think she has a little tummy ache this morning, but things are moving fine so I will watch her closer for a few days. Certainly don't want her to founder too. Its a worry.

Our telephone has been out of order for several days and periodically its been giving us trouble for quite a while. Usually if we wait on the phone when its down, it just sort of comes on again, but this time it didn't so emailed a few friends, one who works for the phone company to report our phone being out. Lo and Behold.......a phone company repairman came driving in about noon. He said he didn't have any report about our phone, but that the entire IMM through-the-air phone system had crashed several days ago. They are waiting for parts. He looked kind of harried, and had driven out here to get the number off our equipment. I asked him if there was any problem with our equipment and he definitely said not. At noon we didn't know how long it would take to get repaired. But by 5 p.m. when I checked, it was alive again, and had a good dial tone. Charm was very good to keep getting back with me with info that she had called in, and she also called the parts place for Joe to see if his brake drum was in. Now we can call Vegas and see how one of our friends there is doing. Beverly wrote last night and said she was in the hospital, and it turned out to be bleeding ulcers.

It's mostly cloudy and was in the mid 60s today. The wind is still supposed to blow up to 10-15 mph every day the forecast mentions wind and every day sunny and getting warmer. It just has not been nice - so warmer is good. Slight chance of thunderstorms by Wednesday (that day only). Every day will either be partly sunny or partly cloudy. I wish I knew the difference. We can do without the wind too.

Today I will be painting and hope I don't have to do too much brake line bleeding, etc. At least this guy doesn't have so many pins and flags and patches on his shirt. It shouldn't be so time consuming on that. I finished my on line voting for new members applying to WAOW, and afraid I managed to goof part of it up. Learning more all the time.

Thursday March 31 2007

Kaidi

Today I left for town about 10 a.m. The dogs went with me and they had their first walk after getting to town. Next stop was the Pinedale cemetery. Last Sunday Joe had gone to Pinedale and picked up a bouquet we had ordered to put on his Brother Jim's grave. Well he walked around about an hour and couldn't find the grave, so he came home and brought the bouquet with him. Neither one of us could figure it out, because he's never had trouble before. I told him if he would like me to I would put the flowers on the grave today. Would you believe I couldn't find it either. I had only been there at the funeral, and it was winter with snow on the ground, but knew it was north of the buildings and under two huge pine trees. The whole thing isn't that big for gosh sakes.

Finally I gave up for the time being and went to lunch at the senior center. On the menu was chili and cornbread. I sat with Judi, Cindy Carlson and her daughter Jennifer and Courtney Skinner. We had a fun time visiting. The Skinners ran a dude outfit and kid's survival camp from Burnt Lake, so there were lots of stories about that and Mt. Everest and The 10th Mountain Division and history and Indian trails and legendary caves. After lunch I asked Judi if she wanted to go help me find the grave. We read the graves map AGAIN and Jud, not influenced by the ingrained idea that it HAD to be under two huge trees, walked right to it. Guess What! They cut both the trees down. In fact they cut 120 beetle infested trees down, and now the grave is in the middle of a very large open space. After putting the bouquet at the grave, Judi and I visited some more, and then Don the man who takes care of the cemetery (and is also the coroner) came and we talked to him. He said he saw Joe on Sunday walking around. I think we'll find it next time.

Next went down to Falers for a little bit of groceries and Sheral and Dick were there eating their lunch, so I sat with them. They are having a real serious problem with their water system, and he has a hole dug about 8' in the ground and as big as a room in order to fix some valve. We had a pretty nice visit until I needed to get going to make sure I got to my haircut in time. Also going through the aisles I saw Melita and Dona Rae. Melita hasn't been back too long from 6 weeks in Switzerland where she's from. We all exchanged our illness and Dr. related "stuff" and got caught up on that.

Luckily a few days ago Beverly jogged my memory that three of my grand kids have imminent birthdays, and when I looked at home for cards I didn't have any appropriate to send. Also needed one for my sister. So I had to go in the gift shop for cards. Then got my shopping done. Didn't need much since we just spent a bundle at Wal-Mart a couple of days ago. Over to get my haircut and arrived just in time. I took a picture of my beautician Kaidi to show you. I love Kaidi.

After that went shopping at the auto parts stores for Joe's truck parts, and all I could get was more brake fluid. His emergency brake drum that was being relined in Salt Lake City got sent to Evanston so it wasn't there, a mistake of the freight truck. The clerk said he was sorry and I thought of the price of gas for another trip. Told him we lived an hour away. Nope, not his fault.

Then I took the dogs to the Lions Park where they have a nice nature trail loop, and sat on a bench by Pine Creek writing the birthday cards and checks for the grand kids. Got to the P.O. just before they closed for stamps and mailed the cards. Yes, at least two will be late, sorry, but that's the normal story of my life. Dogs got all wet swimming in the creek. Stopped for a cold drink for the drive home.

Several places around Pinedale raise llamas or alpacas and I've been wanting to stop and photograph those. The day wasn't especially pretty for it, but I got some pictures of them to show you and will do that tomorrow.

Walking on the Nature Trail by Pine Creek

Along the way home near the East Fork River were large patches of shooting stars in the fields. It is a thing of beauty to see them like that.

The pastels I ordered came today, so picked up our mail and got the package from the UPS box. The dogs were ready for another run when we got to our gate. Raven especially ran right down the ditch with water flying the entire way to the house. What a happy sight. They had to stay outside until they dried off. I quick stuck leftover casserole in the oven, and set the table, then got the groceries put away.

I had the nicest most relaxing day in quite a while.

I had forwarded an email with a power point of Keukenhof, near Amsterdam, the world's largest flower garden, and couldn't believe how many people who wrote back and said they had been there!! Now I really feel travel deprived.

Wednesday May 30 2007

Blue Moon

This evening we had a Blue Moon, the second full moon in the same month. See that kind of lavender layer between the hills and the moon? That's air pollution from the oil/gas fields. We never used to have such a thing. You could not see the moon until it got above that layer.

Yesterday after I posted the blog we also trimmed Bobbi's front feet. I catch and hold them while Joe trims. Joe will do both their backs soon. Bobbi's feet are better than they have been for years, and surely that is because we are keeping her in and feeding her hay so she doesn't founder. She is about 25 years old now, so no spring chicken but she looks good. She gets more exercise in the corral than she does out in the field because she's trotting around all the time trying to keep track of Nube. She hates to be locked in there alone. Nube's feet had grown out too much and she had a couple of ugly chips but they trimmed up good. I've got them brushed and groomed, and Bobbi is even being pretty good about letting me comb out her tail. I'm about half through with her tail. It is beautiful and nearly touches the ground. She loves to be brushed.

Being on the WAOW board, at this time we are voting on line to say yes or no to accepting new members into membership. This is my first experience with this procedure. Its very interesting. They make a series of web pages to view the submitted artwork with places to comment and vote. Its not easy to choose, but we are trying to bring good quality artists into the group. I've laid off the other WAOW work lately because of the S&R Commander portrait, but have to get back to the final draft on the membership section of the bylaws pretty soon. I wrote yesterday finally and told the nominating committee that I wouldn't take the nomination for president. The thing is I really would like to be president, but sure don't want to go through all the politics and it will just take too much out of my life at this point. I don't have the ambition for it any more. I told my friend Judy and got the biggest kick out of her answer....."I know how you love to do that sort of thing. Just tell them if they want you to be president, they have to change the position to dictator, and then you will be happy to take over. :-)" Ohhhhh dear, she knows me too well. It's true. Very lacking in diplomacy, I'm used to dealing with onery horses and spoiled dogs. I would likely have no board left if I were head pretzel. Then I'd have to do all the jobs myself.

Yesterday we had some trouble with our well acting like there's not water in there after watering the yard for about 30 minutes. And this is spring - the water table should be way up. There hasn't even been water in the sump this year. Whether it's the drought or something mechanical I don't think Joe knows yet. It hasn't been that long since we pulled both pumps and renewed everything.

This afternoon and yesterday Joe worked on the brake lines in the old stock truck. I sit and pump the pedal to get the pressure up while he bleeds the lines, and it took about an hour each day. The brakes have always been a problem in that truck.

This morning Joe went to town to get his blood test. He was back before lunch time. Tomorrow I will go to Pinedale and pick up more truck parts for Joe, and get a few groceries. In the morning I'll call and make a reservation at Rendezvous Pointe, the senior center, for lunch. Then I have a haircut appointment at 3 p.m.

It was about 25 degrees here this morning, but warmed up pretty quickly. Got to nearly 60, but we're still having a cool wind. You need a jacket.

Tuesday May 29 2007

Western Tanager

Judi Had this bird on her porch the other day.

It ran into her window and was stunned

but she got the cat and dog in and it soon recovered.

Isn't he beautiful.

Fog on Hills in Back at Dusk

Joe's been the busy one again today. Was out working before breakfast - well.... edit that to say he first had coffee and doughnuts - mowed the back yard, worked on his big truck and I think his mechanic job is finished, went out irrigating for a while, and then told me to catch Nube and he trimmed her front feet. She was a good girl, but its still hard on Joe any more. Its a tough job. He's going to do her backs tomorrow. Then it will be Bobbi's turn.

Glad those of you who commented liked the pictures of the cemetery. Just going up the hill and into the cemetery feels like you are in another country. Not that long ago, the cemetery was fairly desolate and uncared for so its a big change.

This morning had over 60 messages in my email, and surely more to come. So figured I'd better spend some time to pare them down.

The weather is cool and breezy, but a beautiful sunny day. So far nothing of interest to report today.

Memorial Day Monday May 28 2007

Memorial Day

Every Memorial Day we take flowers to the cemetery in Green River where Joe's family is buried. We left about 7 a.m. (I hate early) and drove the back way on the dirt road to Farson. It was very dark and overcast. There were several big camps before the river with 8 or 10 trailers, trucks, ATVs, just circled in the sagebrush, looking like small towns out there. It feels like we're being invaded. It would be easy to imagine that they look a lot like a group of covered wagons on the trail would have. It was a nice drive through the back country this morning. And we saw quite a few golden eagles, antelope, sage chickens, the cattle looking good, many cottontails, and more ground squirrels than I've ever seen before. I don't know what that's about but they were thick everywhere. It's time now for the antelope to be having their fawns. I haven't seen any yet though.

It was about an hour and 15 minutes to get to the highway going that way. By the time we got to the Farson area, the sun was mostly shining. The Big Sandy Reservoir looked almost full. Amazingly traffic was light, even on the freeway between Rock Springs and Green River. We picked up the flowers at Up, Up and Away by 9:20. They were very pretty. Joe went to school with Susan who has the flower shop and she always makes us nice bouquets. The cemetery was beautiful this year, they are taking good care of it. The lilac bushes were so loaded with blooms, maybe prettier than I've every seen them before. The VFW was getting ready for their ceremony - thank heaven for those guys. There was no one we knew at the cemetery, so Joe said let's go have breakfast at the Tomahawk Tavern, actually the restaurant in there is the Crazy Moose or something like that. The food is always pretty good. Luckily Apple and Becky came in looking for us after a walk at Expedition Island, so it was nice of them to try to find us. We usually see them when we go down. Joe and Apple have been friends all their lives. We had a good visit. There was a white box full of leftovers for the dogs. Joe always like to drive past the house they lived in when he was a kid, so we did that, and also saw all his friend's and relatives places nearby. He names them all and notices whether the houses are being taken care of or not.

Then went back to Rock Springs and to Home Depot where we got a door knob bumper guard for the bathroom wall, and some extra light bulbs for his new halogen light in the living room. I looked for bedding flowers for my pots and there were essentially none. Next we went to Walmart. I power shopped in there for almost two hours, for groceries and anything else I could find on my list. Bought a new cordless phone for the studio. The old one was messing up the regular phone, and I've been without it after unplugging it a couple of weeks ago, so guess its time for a new one. Walmart didn't have any flowers either. So much for thinking I would get my flower pots planted. Maybe when we go to Idaho Falls I will find some there.

When I came out of the store Joe said it had sprinkled for about 10 minutes. He had walked the dogs while I shopped so we were good to go. We bought gas at Walmart and it was $3.15 a gallon, that's about 25 cents less than in Pinedale. Heading north out of town there was a storm black clear to the ground. You couldn't see 1/4 of a mile, nothing. It was awesome and rather frightening from a distance, but not bad when we got there. The worst of it had passed by then. Rain came down hard at first, then gradually let up, and it rained for about 20 miles, then the road was wet about to Farson - another 20 miles. From then on it hadn't rained a drop including here at home. (Although later Charm said they had a rather rainy day up at Boulder Lake.) The traffic was horrific going home, with streams of trucks/trailers/semis/cars coming out of Sublette County. At first while the road was wet the traffic just kicked up water and you couldn't see any vehicles that were coming, but no one seemed too inclined to pass anyway. The wind was really gusting across the road all the way back.

I asked Joe if he wanted late lunch/early dinner at the Country Burger place and he said no "we" didn't need lunch, so we didn't. I'm sure he was counting on an ice cream cone at Farson, but it was closed, so I told him he didn't need ice cream anyway. Disappointment hung in the air.

We got home about 4:30, got everything unlocked, groceries unloaded, horse fed and watered, and most of the groceries put away. Dinner was leftovers heated in the microwave. It sure feels good to sit and relax. There's a pretty lavender sunset tonight on the clouds to the east. The rest of the sky, with an almost full moon, was clear. It's surprisingly cold again. I still need to go out and feed the cats and then its jammy time.

Sunday May 27 2007

Boulter Family Visits the Old Homestead

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Sunday morning. An anniversary of sorts - I've been writing the blog for about three months now, and have certainly enjoyed the experience.

Joe wanted to leave early for the cemetery in Pinedale to put flowers on his brother Jim's grave, so he cooked his own breakfast and is on his way. The dogs are sitting in the yard howling. Raven is learning how to sing instead of just bark.

The Boulter family will be here about noon or one o'clock. John Boulter didn't call until yesterday, so I didn't do anything ahead for refreshments. But will make some cookies this morning and have lemonade. I'll have to do some housecleaning too. He said there are about 20 of them. Doesn't look like the visit will be rained out. I might write a little more later to tell you about the experience after they have been here.

I'm back, it's 2:30, and the Boulter family left a little while ago. They did get here about noon, and there were 25 of them - lots of little kids. Basically I think there were four (maybe five?) brothers and their families. Their grand and great grandparents homesteaded here, and the family was visiting their roots. They looked around while I tried as best I could to describe where the original buildings were, and where the old one-room school was down by the gate. The kids of course were more interested in the horses and fed them bits of hand pulled grass and then I gave them small alfalfa cubes to give Bobbi and Nube. They marveled at the old well pump, the original outhouse and wagon, and the layout of the original ranch fields and buildings. They all visited the Art Show in the Barn, since it was up. We had cookies and lemonade. It was a lot of fun having them here. Joe laid under the truck the whole time.

Yesterday I looked up information to make our hotel reservation in Idaho Falls next week, ordered Joe's prescriptions from the VA, got more paperwork done, bills paid and made the deposit on a "booth space" for the Green River Rendezvous Street Art and Craft Fair. I have quite a lot of my matted and shrink wrapped prints to sell. Sally Hayward is going to share the space with me. She has jewelery she wants to sell. Sally is my friend Gina's sister and they live in Arizona in the winter and also have a house in Pinedale. Isn't the Internet great! That is how we have met, so in a few weeks we will meet in person. I know I like her already though. We may have been introduced once before. I had been procrastinating and may not have actually gotten the booth if Sally hadn't said she was interested too, as sitting on the street selling my wares isn't one of my favorite things. I got started with updating the print price list, divided the total prints into the total cost and came up with the cost each. Now have to figure out what each of the sizes will cost - my mathematically challenged left brain wants nothing to do with it, however it's necessary to make a little profit.

The drawing for the Commander of the National Search and Rescue portrait is on the buckskin. I accomplished that yesterday and will let you know how it goes. Maybe we can do a series of photos on the blog as it progresses.

Interesting Turn of Events - This is the gallery where our WAOW show will be in next November.

Chicago police are searching for a couple who walked into a private gallery and stole a 17th-century Rembrandt etching from the wall. The etching, called Adam and Eve, shows Adam holding out an apple to Eve in the Garden of Eden while a serpent looks on. The couple, described as middle-aged, spent about five minutes in the Hilligoss Gallery Sunday afternoon before disappearing. After they had left the gallery, the etching by Rembrandt van Rijn was discovered to be missing. Gallery owner Tom Hilligoss estimates the value of the etching at $60,000 US. He was selling the etching on consignment as part of an estate sale. The thieves, who had been seen before in the gallery, may have targeted the etching after finding a buyer, he said. "They went straight for it," Hilligoss said of the thieves, who were not caught on security cameras. With files from the Associated Press

Saturday May 26 2007

Tom's Hay

Yesterday afternoon we left about 4 p.m. to go Pinedale and get more truck parts. It was about when we got there we realized we both had forgotten to bring any checkbook or money! But I had "the card". We were a little early so went to the Stockman's - Joe had a cup of coffee and I had some welcome ice tea. Then over to Tom and Joanne's in Bargerville. They have a nice log house there and a pretty good hayfield. Joe ran out and needed a little extra hay for Bobbi. We got there just about 6 p.m. after Tom got home from work. He's the saddle maker in town. Tom and Joe hefted a tall load into the pickup. Tom's hay is really nice. How come I didn't think to take pictures of them loading or with the truck piled sky high I don't know.

Joanne and I stood and talked about cats and horses and other important things. She is the one who gave me my two sister cats maybe four years ago now. They invited us to stay to dinner and Joanne had made the best chili out of local beef and bundt cake for dessert. I don't know if she had planned to ask us ahead or not, but we sure weren't expecting to get such a nice dinner. I was really glad not to have to go home late and fix anything. We had a good chance to visit. They are coming to our house for dinner in a few weeks. They had been invited all last fall and we never did set a date, so before we left we said it would be the 17th.

Joe said if any hay fell off I'd have to pick it up. I had been doing the driving, with the two dogs laying on my shifting arm. I told Joe no more of the two big dogs riding with us both in the front seat of the truck. It's too dangerous. I don't like them in the bed of the pickup either in case they fell out. So they may have to stay at home next time. They have had to stay home alone maybe twice in their lives.

We started home and the road in to their place is bumpy so had to take it slow, but when I turned onto the highway there was not a vehicle in sight to worry about all the way to Boulder. Angels had gone ahead and cleared the way. The evening was really pretty for a slower than normal drive through the ranch country. We stopped at the top of the hill at Irish Canyon and Joe tightened up the ropes. Then slowly again onto our dirt roads. There was a young moose right in the road as we drove along Muddy Creek. He was very gangly but gracefully jumped over the fence and crossed the creek. Picked up our mail out of the mailbox. A nice t-shirt I had ordered had come. I managed to avoid most all the bumps and potholes in our road. We got to the yard with the load intact about 9 p.m.

The drive brought back memories of all the many times I had loaded up the old Chevy pickup with hay by myself and drove it up to the lodge for hunting camp every fall. For many years I hauled most all the hay for the hunting horses, but was lots younger and stronger then too. And never lost a bale either. So this driving on nearly level roads was pretty easy. In later years when we had more help, the wranglers hauled a lot of the hay then.

This morning Joe was out at the crack of dawn unloading the hay into the barn. By the time I got up and got out there, he was about done, but I did get a few snapshots. The dogs are his helpers.

This has been a lazy day. Made Joe some buttermilk pancakes. Betty called this morning and we had our Saturday visit. Sounds like things are going fine at her place. She's been getting lots of improvements done in her yard. It's still partly cloudy, cool and breezy but warmer than it has been for a while. I've got a zucchini, mushroom, hot Italian sausage casserole made and baking in a slow oven for dinner. Will make some rice pilaf with it.