Tuesday July 17, 2007

Two Does with a Kid

We are so fortunate to be here in such a special place. I look so often out my kitchen window to see herds of antelope. I love to see the little ones race in circles around and around the mothers. It must be dizzying to try to keep track of their babies as they run full tilt and leap and play with each other. Sometimes one will take off running at a breakneck pace through the whole herd and beyond while all the others just have their heads down grazing totally ignoring the speeding kid.

Another night of not much sleep. By three I was up for good, watching Farah Fawcett in The Burning Bed, then Sunrise Earth. I folded all the laundry and got it put away, started another load and got Joe pancakes for breakfast. I'll have a strawberry banana smoothie in a while.

Its another lovely morning but black in the West. Salt Lake weather report says monsoon moisture is coming up from the southwest now. Got breezy and dark in the afternoon, but back to wonderful by evening. I can see my flowers blooming in bright colors out on the wagon. I'll get a photo of them today to show you now, that they are going pretty well despite all their hardship. I need to call the Barn Door about those paintings for the new bank, since I haven't ever heard from them and don't know if I need to have three big pieces ready by the end of August or not. If they tried to call, it was probably when the phone was out. I just hope I can do the fast slap dash thing and have them turn out to be masterpieces…..any chance?

I was ambivalent about going to the painting group and decided I would stay home and work here. Being gone all day Thursday will be enough. Anymore it hardly seems worth all the time and effort to go much of anyplace, and then trying to catch up the next day.

This afternoon I started a large painting with aspens in summer. By night I have it pretty far along. I've taken pictures in stages. They always get real ugly before they get better. But it looks like it might turn out pretty good.

Speedsters

Monday July 16 2007

Yearling with Purple Earrings.

We had a nice day. Another slow morning for me. Joe picked up bales from yesterday and didn't mow today. The ground must need to dry out a little more in the next patch. The other ranchers have not started haying here next to us yet. I had a good visit on the phone with both Charm and Kay who had been to a great workshop over in Cody. They painted on the North Fork of the Shoshone. Spectacular scenery there. One of our men artist friends had come back from Alaska with a brain tumor and may have had surgery already for it. Get well soon Greg and we are all thinking of you.

This morning Raven knocked on the door and when I went to let her in she was soaking wet with black putrid mud. Sparky hadn't been in it. They had been out in the field with Joe and guess she decided to go swimming in the bog. So first thing I gave them both a bath, outside and with the hose. Got them and the horses brushed and groomed, and sprayed the horses for flies. I tried the fly spray on Raven too, since she is "so delicate and feminine" and the flies really bite her. Then they all got a treat for being good, alfalfa cubes for Nube and Bobbi and Al's Grilled Burgers for the pups.

The small painting group is getting together at Nancy's tomorrow. I may or may not go. I called the man who installed my satellite internet system, and told him the hughes.net support person said my Ethernet cable needed to be replaced. He talked to me for a while about the problem I am having with the connection, and said he had another cable for me. Hopefully it will solve the problem. Now just to get into town to get it. Maybe tomorrow, or more likely Thursday, which is our SCAG writer's group meeting.

I changed the sheets today and took the flannel sheets and one blanket off the bed. I took all the pads off and put the new egg crate foam on. It came UPS last week from Bed Bath and Beyond. Changing the king sized sheets is a real workout any more.

Beverly called this evening and said she and Clay would be up to visit from August 12 for a week. That will be wonderful to see them again. We may be able to take a little sightseeing trip.

By afternoon it had clouded up again and we had some thunder and a few soft rain showers. It cooled off so nice. Today I got the WAOW membership level structure document tweaked again, and went through it for consistence and added another small rule from the last month's board meeting vote, plus other used info from comments some of them made to refine it. As soon as I get a connection I'll send it off to the board.

I saw three of the cats after dinner, and one I thought was Tigger looked like she had lost about half her tail. I will sure be watching for her again to figure that one out. Either its another strange cat, or Tigger's had some kind of wild adventure. Sure hope she doesn't get an infection.

Cloudscape - The House From Culvert on Muddy Creek

Sunday July 15, 2007

Parade

Up and down all night. Finally had Sleepytime tea and a toasted English muffin at 3 a.m. and watched two very interesting hours on Navaho weaving artists and Pueblo pottery artists. Gave up to sleep some time after that. I swear I am not doing any more of these dumb projects I don't really want to do or be bothered with. It was not a good idea at all. I get too stressed, no matter how well I think I MIGHT deal with it or think I should do something. The best thing was how much I enjoyed being with Sally and getting to know her. She is a very nice person and a lot of fun to be with.

I heard awful news yesterday. Karen, a woman who lives in town, an acquaintance, was riding horseback when the horse spooked and jumped over a buck fence with her and fell down. It was a gentle horse and she doesn't know what might have caused it to do this. She has a broken back and two broken wrists. I think the horse is o.k. The fence was all loose and the saddle billets broke and the saddle came off. She lay on the ground and screamed for help for an hour before her husband heard her and called 911. She had surgery and a rod was inserted in her spine. They said the EMTs were wonderful. And that if she had moved she would have pinched her spinal column and been paralyzed. What a thing to happen to someone. A friend thought the horse might have been bitten by a hornet, and I know they are awful so that's a logical reason. Horses hate hornets.

Have not had a good morning and am not going to do anything until I feel better. Except I have gotten Joe's meals and cleaned that up. He worked on his equipment in the morning and then after lunch started to rake, so what he cut yesterday was dry enough and then got it baled.

Joe's niece Joslyn's husband Howie and their boys Jacque and Rives, won first places at the #8 team roping at the rodeo over the weekend. Congratulations to them, lots of hard work and practice to accomplish that.

There was a call from a lady in town on my answering machine. She wants to know if I give art lessons. That is probably also something I would rather not do, but maybe I'll invite her to join Mixed Media or tell her about the class at Rendezvous Pointe on Wednesdays. This morning it was warm, and had been warm all night, so this is the first day I've put shorts on. Boy, are my legs white.

This afternoon I called hughes.net to try to get the internet connection back. This was the first time I had time to do it since I got the cordless phone charged up. I had already made up my mind I'd be talking to someone in India, and that we would both have to work together to find out what is wrong. Yes that is exactly what happened and I did have difficulty understanding "Nick". He could understand me better than I could him, and was courteous and helpful. After I did the things he told me to, he said the white cable to the LAN light/connection was bad. I'm always in awe of what they can figure out. That would be an easy fix and I sure hope that is what it is and that I can buy a new one somewhere. Maybe Dave who installed the system will have one, I hope. I can call him in the morning.

Although there are leftovers, I know Joe doesn't want them, so I am making chicken fried steak and creamed peas and potatoes for dinner.

Today I called Lois and visited with her a little. She had been taken to the clinic in the ambulance a few weeks ago during the time I had no phone and then she said she had two more bad spells, but is doing o.k. now. All her tests came back good. I saw Melita yesterday for the first time in months. She said there would be a small painting group get together at Kay's on Tuesday.

Today I'll probably also drive the SUV over to the barn and unload the prints and racks into there - it was raining and I was too tired to do it last night - and also water the flowers.

Saturday July 14 2007

Street Vendors – Sally and Lynn –

Sally's Husband Pete in the blue t-shirt, taken by Judi.

Got up and going a little earlier than usual, but still not anywhere as ambitious as I need to be. Got Joe's breakfast and he went out to start his work. Found a metal box I could use for a change/ money box and dumped all the change out of Joe's change bowl into it to take. Called Sally to see how her days at the booth had been going, and see if she had any good advice for me. The best thing she told me was to drive the car in front of the booth to unload everything. Still in my pjs, got the SUV out of the garage and loaded the print racks and a couple of boxes. Got into the shower, hair washed and ready to leave. Nice morning for a drive, but because as usual, I'm later than I said I would be, I felt like I must drive too fast. First stopped at the closest bank (we have more than one now) to get some $5 and $10 bills for change, which by the way I never needed.

As I drove around the block, Sally ran into the street to guide to to a parking spot almost in front of the table. Judi was there and had run down the alley to guide me that way, but apparently too late. So off and on got to visit with Judi. She was there with Rollie and her son Darin's family. I got to meet Bridger, her little red-haired grandson. Got settled at the table about 10 a.m. Sally's jewelry was so beautiful, and she was having good sales. On her first day Sally had the whole table full of jewelry. By the end of today she had sold most of her stuff. I didn't have much hope for a lot of sales, but did make several hundred dollars. I know I had everything priced too high. But there is the usual dilemma of - what is the image worth?, as well as getting back the investment in materials. There was quite a bit of people going by most of the day. Not too many of them seemed interested at all in art, but lots of ladies loved Sally's jewelry. <P> Pete brought us lunch from a Cajun food vendor, battered shrimp and French fries, it was totally wonderful. They are opening a restaurant in Pinedale at the old Burger Barn. The parade was supposed to start at 11:30. It was a little late getting going. I was VERY disappointed in the parade compared to what it had been in the old days. It used to be almost all horses and horse drawn wagons. It was 95% vehicles or ATVs driving down the street, even boats and RVs, a lot of them advertising something. A few truck drawn floats, some people not even in costume leading ponies (which were darling), no music or bands. Kay (the windshield doctor) drove a beautiful buggy or surrey with the fringe on top, hitched to her Norwegian Fiord team of horses. They were beautiful. At the end of the parade the Rendezvous cast with their mountain man and Indian costumes and mostly riding horses came along. I loved them and got a few pictures.

We sat there another couple of hours, and decided to quit. Sally said she had been nice as long as she could and used up all her fun tickets. I felt the same way; although I'd only been there about 5 hours total and she'd been there three days. I went to Falers, got groceries, and started home by 5.

It was 92 degrees as I left town. A short way down the highway it was damp from rain and quickly materialized into a cloudburst. I could see that Pat and Aubrey were finally getting rain. They had said on Wednesday they hadn't had any when we did. Boy did it pour down and the highway, ground and barrow pits were standing in water. The temperature dropped to 53 degrees. The wind was really blowing again and buffeted the car. It let up a little around Boulder, then got heavy again starting to hail, especially from Silver Creek to Richie's mailbox. By the time I got to the end of the pavement and onto the dirt it had let up and the dirt road was dry. Gusts were blowing dust across and swirling down the road. The storm began to catch up with me and it was raining by the time I got to the mailbox to pick up yesterday's mail. Turned around so I would be able to get the mail out just opening the door, ducking out really quick. Had to put the raincoat on at the gate. Got the groceries unloaded and car put away. Brought us friend chicken and fries for dinner and put that in the oven while I put all the perishable things away. Checked on the cats. Laid down to rest after dinner for a while, then – thought I'd forgotten to get my camera when we loaded up – found it in the car and downloaded the photos. And that was pretty much it for the night.

Parade

Friday The 13th of July 2007

Sheral and Dick at their Cabin –

They restored this turn of the century Zupence homestead dwelling cabin, changing it from an abandoned falling down log shed to a wonderful retreat. You should see the beautiful inside. Neighbor Jim Roscoe did the restoration and they had to move the cabin a little. The tree must have been as old as the house and it began to be a danger of falling so Dick cut it down. There are a number of other historic old buildings on their ranch.

This morning still no power. Joe got the wood range in the kitchen going and heated some water for washing and hot drinks. I made him bacon and pancakes for breakfast. The wind had died down in the early hours and it was pretty nice. No need to water any of the yard or flower pots as the rain showers had watered everything. Joe started picking up the rest of his bales and got them stacked in the stack yard. I drove over to Sheral and Dick’s about 9:30 to use their phone, since ours was out again – it needs power to work. It was clear, warm and nice as I drove over, and I saw bunches of both antelope and sage chickens. The buck antelope are already gathering up the does. It seems a little early for that.

At Sheral and Dick’s I called the power co. automated hot line and told them that our power was out. It said it should be back on by 11:30 and was due to a fire. This is the first interactive recorded message that I have really liked. And later I found a message on the answering machine that a power company employee had called to check if our power was back on o.k.!

Sheral and Dick told me about their trip in to the rodeo. They found out when they got in there the reason the power is out is that there was a big brush/forest fire on Pole Creek and it had affected their main power lines. They wouldn’t let the power company crew in the area to fix the line until they got the fire out this morning. Pinedale still had power, but a lot of the outback areas were without both power and phones. The fire burned clear to the overlook above Fremont Lake, down to the lake from the direction of the old dump, and all the trees on that mountain behind that area. The wind must have really made it take off and burn fast. Another version is that there were two fires very close to each other, so I’ll have to get that straightened out.

I was worried about Judi’s house off Pole Creek as they said they heard one woman say that the fire was within a quarter mile of her house and also some of the homes by Fremont Lake. So I also called Judi but didn’t get her. I heard later of a lady near the lake where the fire came within a hundred yards of her house. And then heard that my friend Barb just came home from an emergency appendectomy to a possible evacuation order, and she has bunches of birds, cats and dogs, along with her lovely home on Pine Creek.

Anyway, smoke came through the rodeo grounds so bad that they only ran the first half of the rodeo and told everyone to leave in case the fire came that direction. They ran the second half of the contestants the next day. There is only one road out of the rodeo grounds. Ashes were flying, it was that close. And on Saturday at my booth people were talking about it being too close for comfort.

While I was at Sheral’s I helped her make three of the beds for their company that is coming tonight. Dick threw his back out so it would have been uncomfortable for him help her, and I know how hard it is to change a bed when your back hurts. By the time I got home the power was back on. It was off just short of 24 hours.

Joslyn called to see if we were coming in to the rodeo because Howie and the boys were roping. They were there last night and she also told us more about the fire and smoke. She told me about the area it had covered and that we should ride up to the overlook on Fremont Lake to see the extent of the fire. She talked to Joe and he said if they roped again tomorrow he would go in to watch. That sure surprised me. He didn’t mow today though, so there is no hay down that he will need to work tomorrow. We were invited to go to the Roscoe’s anniversary BBQ bash down at their house, but didn’t go. They have a big band and lots of food with people coming from all over.

This afternoon I got the print racks put together. They are pretty nice and will work fine. Next got the print price list typed up and printed for Saturday. I made several signs and learned a new thing – custom watermark using photos of my artwork – they are faded behind the text and look pretty good actually. Got all those printed up and into clear plastic sleeves. Made a whole batch of invitations for the Art Show in the Barn to pass out. Then I sorted out the prints by sizes and sat and put a business card with the price on it for each one and taped that onto the back of each print. It all took most of the day until about 9 p.m., but this is the only work I’ve done so far for the project. Everything is all sitting in the utility room ready to be loaded into the SUV in the morning. Hope the weather will be good tomorrow, at least for a while.

The wind and clouds came up again and by the afternoon there were thunderstorms. The power blinked several times, but has stayed on. The wind blew like crazy, and Joe thought the siding was blowing off the house again, but it’s probably o.k. The wind was so hard he couldn’t open the back door to go out and look. We got some good rain and its lucky Joe didn’t mow and have hay down. By about 10 p.m. it all died down and the dogs would finally go out. They hadn’t been out since the thunder started.

Thursday July 12, 2007

The Neighbors

Dinner went pretty well but I had been busy all day long on Wednesday. So relaxing this morning, having a little quiet time. Last night I forgot to pay Sheral for the milk and fly spray she bought for me. I just space things out when anything else is going on. In the morning I got the new cordless phone hooked up with the new adapter, and it seems to be fine now. I had to take out the drawers and some of the slide file boxes in the cabinets to reach in the back and thread the wires through. Joe's out mowing another patch. Then he will rake and bale yesterday's cutting. He came in and wanted lunch early so he could get back to work. Sparky has been going out and running alongside the tractor every day. Raven likes to stay in the house because she hates the horseflies.

We are missing getting the online weather report I've been printing out for Joe for some time. Don't know if we might get some rain or not. It's quite hazy with smoke, and also quite a bit of clouds, a hazy bright day so far and not too hot.

Yesterday the UPS lady brought a book I ordered from Amazon.com. I thought I should read Walden by Thoreau although I have another book of it and have read that years ago.

Friday Afternoon: Got lunch over with. Joe went out to run the baler and pick up the bales with the bale wagon until it got too stormy to be out any longer. About one p.m. the power went out - one of those sudden emphatic cut offs and you know it's not coming back on for a while. Sheral called to make sure we, or I, didn't want to go in to the rodeo with them, and I said no. It was looking really stormy by then. Judy called me and said how crowded Pinedale was with people for Rendezvous weekend and packing the street looking at the booths. I was going to ride the ATV out to get the mail, but decided to wait. The wind must have been blowing 40 or 50 mph, and there was rain off and on most of the night. We couldn't visit long because the phone goes to battery when the power goes off. We pumped four buckets of water with the hand pump and carried them in the house so we could flush and wash up. Well by dinner time the power still hadn't come on. Lots of thunder and lightning. The choice was sandwiches, cereal or something cold. So I made us a version of a butter bean salad I like with things I had available….. the beans, some tomatoes, chunks of green pepper, a can of artichoke hearts, sliced onions, and marinated it all in some fat free Italian Dressing and seasonings. Had it with leftover green salad from last night and bunillos. It was fast and easy. I tried out my wind up radio to see if we could hear any news of what was going on, but nothing out of the ordinary, i.e. no terrorist attacks, no end of the world. I sat and read, and by the time I was getting ready to go to bed, still no electricity. I took some of those ice packs out of the freezer and put next to the most perishable things in the fridge. The freezer seemed to be doing o.k. so far. I lay down and continued to read Walden with my battery lantern. Every time I woke up in the night the wind was howling and still no power. It started to die down toward morning and when I let the dogs out about 3 a.m. I could see the stars.

Bobbi Watching Joe Park the MF

Wednesday July 11 2007

Nube Eating Her Dinner –

She Doesn’t Go Too Far From Bobbi

Who Is Waiting for Her to Come Back to The Corral.

Notice the smoky haze

Got up early, and got Joe some breakfast. He soon went out to mow. It was a clear and warm day. First thing I brushed the dogs, and Sparky is really shedding. Added another big wad of hair to that I’m saving to make the dog hair sweater. I called Ruth and found out how much each size of mats cost on the prints that she did for me, so I can make up the price list for selling the prints on Saturday. Then worked on the yard with the weed eater for an hour or two again and clipped some more dead stems out of the raspberry bushes.

I kept getting phone calls. One was from some head of a Republican committee, politician congressman who wanted to give me a certificate of merit. I think they ask you to come to dinner with the President in Washington DC. I just hung up. This is the second or third time they have called. Laura, Dr. Blank’s nurse, called and gave us more information about Joe’s blood pressure, heart test, how best to use the blood pressure cuff for good readings. He’s been taking his blood pressure every day and I’m surprised and pretty happy how darn good it is. I haven’t tried taking mine yet. I almost don’t want to know. Did you know it should sit on a table about heart level when you use it? He had been sitting in his recliner with it in his lap. And that Dr. Blank thinks his dizziness that is bothering him so bad is not from his heart – that means it’s probably from his earlier stroke or something else. He has been dizzy ever since then and it’s just getting worse.

I called Best Buy twice and asked about the appointment to get the TV repaired or replaced. Had to leave a message for the service department but no one called back. After lunch a woman from Sony called and said a freight truck would bring a replacement reconditioned TV. The warranty will continue as if it were from the time I bought the broken one. She said it would be about 10 days or two weeks and that the driver would call from Boulder and then would come and set it in and take the old one away. At least something is going to happen with that.

Sheral thoughtfully called to see if I needed anything from town, so I had her get us some milk and fly spray for the horses. Their spray is almost gone, and I spray them every day. The horse flies really chew on them, so spraying helps. Worked in the yard until about 11:30 and then came in to shower, wash hair, and fix lunch, then began to do things for dinner. I started a batch of Bunillos, and the dough really turned out well, but I’m sure it is because it was plenty warm enough for them to raise nice and quick. The next day I realized I had skipped the step of brushing them with water and corn starch before they baked to make them crusty, but they were good anyway. Jackie called and we talked for most of an hour I would guess, mostly about WAOW things, and we did need to talk. It was good to hear from her. I’m very behind on my WAOW jobs, so have to get busy with that. Betty called and I had to tell her I’d have to visit another time.

Got the spaghetti sauce going, later made ranch dressing and salad, and a chess pie with Splenda. Sheral said the pie was good, but it sure didn’t turn out the way Chess Pie usually does. I didn’t like it that way at all and the texture was very odd. The pie is gone though. I will never make it that way again and probably will be hesitant to exchange sugar for Splenda in other baked things. Got the house cleaning done – vacuumed and finished mopping etc. – just before Aubrey and Pat drove into the yard. Then Sheral and Dick got here. Dick brought very good seedless watermelon all cut up to go with dinner. It was best to serve the meal buffet style, since the table is pretty small. We had a nice time visiting, I really enjoyed it. We are invited to go to the Rendezvous Rodeo tomorrow night, but I doubt that we will do that. Joe falls asleep so early that it would be hard for him to go. Now I’m wondering if I should go anyway and let him stay home.

There was another very red sun when it set, and smoke in the sky. I’m ready for bed tonight and already thinking about all to be done tomorrow. I have a huge batch of sticky notes all over my desk top with everything on them to remind me, and another letter size two sided list of things to be done, and that’s not even my main list. Arg.