Wednesday June 20 2007

Red Poppy Green Bug

Haiku Verse

by Lynn Thomas

Like a flock of red
birds in a gusty breeze fly
scarlet poppy petals

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.

Tuesday June 19 2007

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.

Monday June 18 2007

Tom, Joanne and Joe

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!

Sunday June 17 2007

Daddy and Me - Big Bear 1940

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads!!

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.

Saturday June 16 2007

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.

Friday June 15 2007

Dogs Swim on a Summer 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.

Thursday June 14 2007

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.