Tuesday July 10 2007

Cattle at Kramer Place

Lots happened today. And a lot of time was taken on phone calls, it just kept ringing. Talked to la bunch of people Sandy at the Phone Co twice, also my neighbor Sandra, Called Best Buy about the TV, Beverly, Debbie, Sheral, Judi, tried to call Charm and didn’t get her, telemarketing call for Direct TV – they want us back – I said no thanks. The rest of the time was housework, cooking and using the weed eater and watering my flower pots and shrubs. Had to vacuum and do a few things for company tomorrow. Seems like I’m even more behind than usual. Joe finished baling what he had raked and started his haystack down at the stackyard. I made stew and rolls for dinner. For relaxation I worked on my photos a little tonight, mostly the ones with the horses at the Kramer Place. I keep learning new things in the photo program. I waited too long to write today and now am really ready for bed, so might do more on this tomorrow.

Angus Cattle and Lupine

Monday July 9 2007

In the Canyon - Cottonwoods on Muddy Creek

Betty I think you will get a kick out of this……Remember I said my ears were ringing and just wouldn’t quit, its louder than I’ve ever had before. Well……….I was out by the open basement, where Joe has the pump hooked up to take the water out of the there. And I heard it! The pest controller Joe has down there to repel rodents. He has it turned all the way up I suppose because he can’t hear it down lower, and it emits a constant high pitched oscillating tone. …..Just as if your ears were ringing. And it goes on and on and on, day and night, ringing in your ears. It comes in every room through the heating ducts which begin …….down in the basement…..next to the pest repeller. I’ve asked him to turn it down next time he’s down there.

Joe’s out haying today, raked that hay that got wet, then baling, so it must be dry enough now. The rain probably just washed the dust off of it. Another very nice, but smoky morning. This smoke could be from the big fire that’s burning in central Utah perhaps, although that’s pretty far away. Or more likely another one near Reno. We don’t hear anything now except what is on the news. I had gotten where I enjoyed going to pinedaleonline to read the local news and if there are any alerts they would be on there.

I hope today they will be working on getting our phone fixed. It’s been out almost a week now. Dick came back over today and said he called the 800 number to report our phone being out and also talked to Sandy in Pinedale. He said he gave Sandy a bad time. Guess he got right on their case and told them we were an elderly couple that might need to call an ambulance, and we shouldn’t be here without a phone. Apparently lightning hit the tower on Mt. Airy in Pinedale so it didn’t happen on our end like we thought. They are working on it and the phone might be back on about noon. Thanks Dick. Sorry Sandy!!

I’m going back out to work in the yard until it gets too warm. I don’t know why I’m so surprised, but I am surprised at how much I can get accomplished without any internet. Maybe I should leave it broken, or perhaps have enough self control to only do a few hours a day and that’s it. I hate to think of the emails sitting there waiting for me though. It reinforces my decision not to be on the WAOW board again next term because that really takes a lot of time.

The first place I called was Joe’s heart doctor in Idaho, as about the time the phone went out the nurse was trying to call him with any changes or instructions. The doctor wants him to try a different dose on the medicine he’s taking just to see if it might help his dizziness. Then I copied his blood pressure reading records he’s been keeping and got that ready to mail to the doctor rather than read them all over the phone. After dinner I took the dogs and rode the ATV out to the mailbox to mail the letter to the Dr. and get our mail. Saw several bunches of doe antelope with their babies again.

Sheral called this evening and we finally got to visit, they have really been on the go. This weekend is the Green River Rendezvous and Sally and I have a booth reserved to sell her jewelry and my prints. I will only go one day, probably Saturday. I would like to go to some of the Rendezvous events too, so will see about that. Sally called tonight and we made a plan for our table together at the street fair. She will set up Thursday afternoon and sell her jewelry for the four days. I’m only going for one day.

What really made my day was that Esther Marie Versch had missed my blog and emails and called me, luckily a couple of hours after the phone was fixed. We had the nicest visit. I haven’t talked to her for years, but we have been emailing since both of us got computers. We have known each other as members in WAOW since the early days, and went to a lot of shows together. Lots of wonderful memories from a wonderful friend.

Wednesday we are having two couples to dinner. I’m thinking of making Melita’s bunillos and lasagna with salad and probably a chess pie. Two of the friends are diabetic so I’m going to try the pie with Splenda, and it should work fine. I think I did that once before. Or I could make strawberry ice cream with Splenda.

Following Joe to the House

Sunday June 8 2007

Paintbrush at Dutch Joe

Dick came over later morning and visited for about an hour. He wouldn’t stay for lunch but we sat and had some ice tea. They also saw the smoke from their place yesterday, and called in the fire. Dick is retired from the Forest Service and always interested in how the forests and countryside are doing. They drove over last night to see just where the smoke was coming from and drove up into Irish Canyon. The fire wasn’t there, but over the ridge to the north in East Fork. He stopped and told the dog man there was a fire, and he and Sheral were impressed by his earthy appearance.

Joe tried to rake and it was still too wet from the rain. We all decided we’d rather have the rain for the country than the hay he had down. In the afternoon he tried it again and got some windrows, then started to bale.

Today I used the weed eater again and got a big part of the job finished. Besides it looking so much neater, I like to keep everything in the whole yard trimmed down in case of a fire. If there is no tall dry vegetation the fire may not spread to the buildings, or trimming may help things not to burn. Some of the brush around the place outside the yard is getting pretty big though.

I enjoyed sitting outside in a lawn chair, and watching the antelope come right up to the yard. We sure have a lot of them in our valley this year. It’s nice to see them.

Got flower pots up by the front door now. Turned over the soil in the Oriental poppy bed. They are continually too crowded to even bloom nicely, the tiger lilies too. Also dug some on the new flower bed in front while the ground was soft from the rain. Have tried to get that area filled in with grass all these years, and now am digging it out. It made me think how I’ve dug all over this yard for one thing or another, trying to get things to grow here, moving flower beds from place to place, and the big vegetable garden I had for many years. Started moving some of the rocks I have used as borders from the back to the front. I think I’ll get rid of the rhubarb plants. I seldom use rhubarb. The plants don’t get enough water where they are and it is always a mess there. The horse flies were bad from time to time, but in between they were fine. I got bit several times.

Tonight I fixed a filet mignon, baked potatoes, asparagus and salad.

Sunset After the Rain

Saturday June 7 2007

Two Does and Three Fawns In Our Field Yesterday

The infamous 7-7-07. Supposed to be lucky for romance. I wonder if it’s anything like Y2K.

This morning decided to answer a few of the old emails that have been sitting there, although mine will just have to sit in the out box. I guess by now you are wondering what has happened to us. Having no communication with the outside world is both peaceful and a little worrisome. So peaceful without the TV too. I hope the phone is fixed soon, but more so other people won’t be concerned about us. And if being without the computer goes on long enough I may even get some real housework done, like scrubbing walls and cabinets and the yardwork. I have been working on my painting. The large one with the herd of horses is coming along pretty well. I'm doing the usual thing of wondering whether it’s worth anything. I started another small one with fall aspens against some pine trees, willows and fall grass.

Today I went out while its cool and used the weed eater.

Joe mowed hay this morning and mowed the front lawn in the afternoon. I moved the hose around to all the plants and shrubs, using the water that is being pumped out of the basement. It got to about 85 for a while. The heat doesn't last too long though until it cools off and is nice again. If there is a breeze it’s very pleasant. It’s warm enough we can sleep with the windows open at night. We did have several perfect days, just nice and cool. I can bring the fan in from the garage if it gets too hot and stuffy in the house. The atmosphere is very hazy-smoky again today. I thought I noticed it a little yesterday. Our big fire is supposed to be out, so it must be another one, or coming in from somewhere else. My flowers in the pots have finally burst into bloom and are looking beautiful. Maybe it was worth all the work. Thunderclouds to the west in the afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon I got most of the back yard trimmed with the weed eater. It’s hard to get the string on this one, and seems to take forever. I hate running out of string. I just plain hate the string. About time to come in for dinner it started to sprinkle. It had been thundering and lightening most of the time I was out there. Jumped in the shower and washed the grit and grass out of my hair. As I was cooking dinner (Reuben sandwiches and crispy fries with salad) I looked out the kitchen window and it looked like smoke was coming up from Irish Canyon, just below where Sandra is camping, although it could have been farther away to the north. It must have started with the lightning. There was a plane flying back and forth over there too so they must know about it. I found out later they immediately had a helicopter or plane fly over the fire and drop water or retardant. It started to get stormier this evening. But still only a sprinkle of rain.

After I got dinner cleaned up I told Joe I was going to drive out beyond the hills where I might be able to get a signal on the cell phone and call Debbie to see how she’s doing because she had surgery yesterday morning. I checked the phone in the yard and danged if there wasn’t a little bit of signal, but I knew it wasn’t enough to hear well. Anyway the dogs and I wanted to take a ride. It started to rain at about the mail box, then got harder as we went along. By the time I went up the Wheeler Hill it began to pour down rain, and was bouncing about a foot up off the road. The splats on the windshield were about the size of my palm and visibility was almost nil. The sound was pretty deafening. I could hardly hear Garrison Keilor on the radio. Then it began to turn to hail and I could envision my car getting full of hail dents, but began to drive out of it. The further toward the pavement that I went it turned to plain rain. I pulled off on the road to the East fork Estates and made my phone calls with rain pouring down. Debbie says she is doing fine. Next Friday they are flying to Seattle and then Denver in the same trip to check out schools for Tayler. I called Jackie to tell her why I wasn’t sending WAOW work on the internet, but had to leave a message there. Called Sheral to tell her our phone was out. And then called Sandy to check on whether anything was being done to fix the phone. She said they would probably start on it Monday. By then it will be five days before they even work on it.

Started back home and it began to really come down again. A nice thing I noticed was that the chip seal on the road sure keeps it from getting muddy and slick even in a downpour although it does splash up and make the vehicle a dirty mess. Got to the gate and had to put on my raincoat, and definitely was glad to have it as I would have been drenched without it. Left the car at the back door and we all jumped under the porch and into the house. Later after the rain stopped and I put the car in the garage. There was a neat red sunset. I hope the rain was enough to put out the fire.

Doc’s got some of his Herefords in his pasture down the creek in back of us since I went by yesterday. I believe there’s enough grazing for them to stay in there about a week or so. It looked like maybe four angus had gotten left behind from yesterday’s roundup. There’s also one in the sagebrush with no way to get water and another one down by Jones next to the creek too.

Old Burtoncelj Place –

Taken yesterday and made into a Panorama

to show all the buildings from that view.

Friday July 6 2007

Moving Cows –

He may ride about 20+ miles today

and already put some miles on gathering out of the huge allotment.

Since I can’t go to the blog/internet and journal until I get my internet connection back, I’m writing each day in the Word Office program which has a program called Blog Post. Then you just click a button and it automatically goes to the blog so fast it’s hard to believe. Since I usually have to reformat a little when I’ve used the Word program, I like to work right in the blog better, but if I do this for a while I might like it fine. There actually is no clicking back and forth to edit and view like in the blog.

This is the second day without phone or internet. I will go over to the neighbor’s and see if I can begin to get it all straightened out – should have gone yesterday. I’m thinking of Debbie. So about 10 a.m. I took the dogs and thought this would be a good day to see the Henningers and use their phone. One of the ranchers was gathering the Angus off the allotment next to us and driving them horseback down our road. On the way I did some photography – cattle drive, antelope, scenery, horses and cattle at the Kramer Place and there was a beautiful mule at the Emerson School, an old one room log schoolhouse. Those with the horses at the Kramer Place - the old log house with big old cottonwoods - might make a nice painting. They also all walked over and drank from a pond and I got that with their reflections.

Sheral said they would probably be up Thursday, but their gate was still locked. So I went over to Sandra’s. Luckily she was home and I made all the phone calls – clinic for Joe’s PSA test results, Beverly to see how Debbie was doing, and to let them know everything here is o.k., Dave to ask about the internet receiver, Charm to ask if she would get Sandy at the phone company to report the phone and she had already figured that out and called Sandy. Thanks Charm. I had to call back several times to both the clinic and Dave so it took most of an hour. Dave told me how to check some of the wires and to go to internet properties and check in there. Otherwise I’m going to have to wait until we get the phone back working and call hughes.net. Hughes.net will have to send Dave a work order then he might need to replace the receiver. It’s still on warranty and I hope that works better than getting the TV fixed has.

Sandra and the dogs are going up to their trailer in Irish Canyon later today for the weekend. She invited me to come up. Next week she is flying to MI for her son’s wedding. On the way back home I met the cattle again and they had already gone about 6 or 7 miles. It’s going to be a very hot day today and I felt sorry for the guy and his horse and three Aussie dogs.

The hay and the countryside look better after having just a little rain.

Joe’s pumping the water out of the basement today. It’s a yearly task after the irrigation water goes off. He said there are only 6 or 8 inches in there and that’s as little as I ever have known to be in there. Usually its about 4 feet deep and you have to pump it out periodically, and when the irrigating water goes off it takes several days to get it pumped out.

Back under the desk…..I checked the wires and they seem to be all secure. Can’t do anything else until I get the phone back.

Mule Pastured at the Old Emerson School

Thursday July 5 2007

Raking Hay

Well sad news. Yesterday afternoon the lightning apparently knocked out both the phone AND my internet receiver. I never tried the phone until today. So I can’t call to report the receiver out, and I can’t email to my friend Sandy at the phone company to report the phone being out. My cell phone I keep in the car didn’t work the other day either. What next. Tomorrow if the phone isn’t repaired by then, I’ll have to drive 8 or 10 miles to the neighbors to use their phone. I’m afraid the kids will get worried if they don’t hear from me pretty soon and then I’ll be in trouble. And Debbie’s surgery is tomorrow so I sure want to know about that. Joe’s doctor in Idaho should be trying to call. I was hoping to hear from Best Buy today about the TV too. I don’t know what happens if the internet receiver is kaput, whether I will have to buy another one or if it will be guaranteed.

It was cool all day, with a nice breeze. There were a lot of dark clouds, some small sprinkles, and some thunder and lightning flashing. But nothing like yesterday.

Joe wanted his breakfast early so I made him waffles he and went to town this morning for his regular blood tests, and had a haircut. He was home just after noon. “Phut!!” I always wish he would eat lunch in town. He saw Aubrey and Pat in Falers and invited them to come to dinner next Wednesday so that will be nice. My order came from Dick Blick, the pastels, brushes and two print racks. I haven’t opened the box with the print racks yet but I like them already. With the email and internet out I got some painting done. And copied the mower book for Joe to give to Tom – for the mower he gave him a week or so ago. I gave him a notebook to put it in and Joe punched the holes for the three ring binder and put them in the notebook. Kind of a boring day, nothing happened, didn’t do anything interesting.

Wednesday July 4, 2007

Rainbow Butte

This morning I put on my USA t-shirt with the stars and stripes on the front to celebrate Independence Day. Made Joe pancakes and sausage for breakfast. He's sure on some strange kind of cholesterol blood pressure diet, but guess he can use the calories for certain. I ate my oatmeal. Spent time on WAOW work at the computer today and was able to send off the April/May/June WAOW Now Board Perspectives letter to Kendra and Jackie for review. There was a power surge and I was sure I lost the letter when the power went off. I was so discouraged, but when I got the computer back on it was mostly there in the file. I immediate looked up help for "auto save" and set that for every 5 minutes. Luckily it was set for every 15 minutes and I lucked out that most of the letter was saved. I'm glad I got the letter off because Jackie can send it to Mary Ann for the West Wind newsletter for me. I'll have to call her.

Debbie called and we got to talk for a while. Everything is fine with them. She's going to have a little surgery in a couple of days.

It was a gorgeous day until later in the afternoon. Then we began to see and hear fireworks from heaven. I gave Sparky a couple of doses of his thunder medicine for anxiety, but he worried – and panted - until the storm was over and stuck to my legs or sat in Joe's lap. Raven was also a little worried. Joe asked for German potato salad for dinner, and I made it early in case the power went off.

We got quite a fierce thunderstorm with hard wind, and a pretty good rain that didn't last for long. It dampened the ground. I was in the back bedroom watching the wind blow the trees. There was a terrific flash with a loud snap and sizzle or kind of a hiss - which was lightning striking so close there was no sound of thunder. The first thing I thought of was the two dishes on that side of the house, but when I looked they seemed to be alright. I was sure the other TV, my computer and everything else would be fried. The only thing that seems not to be working is my hughes.net internet connection. I may have to call them tomorrow to see if the equipment is o.k. or if there is something they can tell me to do to get it reconnected. Maybe it just lost my information. Joe thought perhaps the lightning struck the roof. When the rain stopped, I went out to check on the satellite dishes, the roof and the cats and horses, and everything seemed intact and safe. The lightning and thunder went on for quite a while.

When I was under the desk trying to do the reconnect thing with the internet equipment, I got up after unplugging- replugging and saw the sky was all colorful. There was a beautiful rainbow, and I got a couple of photos of it – and thought of the promise in the bible the Lord gave us about storms. Although it wasn't full the other end of it was a fourth away across the sky. I suppose I might have missed the best of it while I was sitting under the desk. It's been a very long time since we had a rainbow. It rained hard again for a while. So thankful for the moisture. Of course I worried about my flower pots in the wind, but I think they are o.k. too.

Seldom Seen Sam or is it Tom – The Father Cat "Traveler "