Tuesday July 24 2007

Wild Roses

Phlox

Bumble Bee on Delphinium

HAPPY PIONEER DAY

Fate of the flower garden is unsure. I've phased out almost half of the size it used to be, and hopefully before fall will have all the plants out of there - tree roots are taking it over and things aren't growing well at all. Then the back with the trees will just go entirely to lawn. I have a spot I've been working on in the front to put the plants. Joe is raising the flowers this year – he's the one doing the watering now.

Today Joe got me up before sunrise to drive the tractor and pick up the last of the bales on the skid. He didn't have enough to use the bale wagon. I drive the tractor so little any more that I forget everything in between times. The skid is a flat on the ground "sled" that is pulled along next to the rows, and then Joe stands on it and pulls the bales on with a hay hook, one at a time as I slowly drive past each bale. It's not an easy job. We had about a load and a half so it didn't take long. The only thing is he put most of it in the barn and I was waiting to do the Art Show in the Barn until he got some of the hay in there OUT! I'm pretty disappointed. But I understand why he wants to have it in there too. It will make it a lot easier on him later.

I don't know why, but I can't seem to get the outside of the big kitchen window cleaned off, and I'm not being that fussy either. I'll do it again for the fourth time in a little bit. It's so quiet and peaceful this morning; another perfect start to a new day. They are having the small painting group at Kay's and it looks like I'm not going since I'm not making any preparations to get ready for it.

Sandra came this morning to begin hauling her hay. Joe helped her load her horse trailer up. She and I visited the horses and the art show. Sandra is sending her grandkids to a summer camp each day up at the White Pine Ski Lodge. They ride horses and mountain bike and other summer camp things. It sounds like a great thing and they are very lucky kids. There is a method to her madness however – she says they just wear her out so she's sending them to camp. Sandra said they had a downpour at their house last night for about half an hour. Their house is only about 8 miles from us. We got nothing here, although the smell of rain was in the air so strong all evening. I stood outside breathing deeply for a while it smelled so good. In the afternoon Dave came to get the first load of his and Debbie's hay. Awfully hot to be working like that.

For some reason I don't understand I've taken a great leap in winning Spider games. My past games have been 22 percent. It may be that I'm getting better at untangling the suites. Now I'm winning more than I'm loosing. I'm sure its still the way the cards are stacked, but it is fun to win anyway.

In the afternoon some black clouds came up with a breeze and it cooled off for a while. Joe got his haying equipment put away into the shed. About 4 p.m. I rode the ATV out to the mailbox and checked on all the antelope. We had not gotten Friday's or Monday's mail yet. The dogs swam in the mud bog and had to be hosed off when we got home. When they got on the ATV to ride, Sparky in front of me and Raven behind, they got me totally muddy with the stinking stuff. I needed to be hosed off too. The deer flies were out in force and I have new bites. It was a nice small outing. The neighbors in the fields next to us are going full tilt getting their hay up. I made German potato salad for dinner, but it was too hot to feel like eating. I can never remember a summer with so many days this blazing hot. Maybe it will be cooler outside if I go out to water the flower pots.

Monday July 23 2007

The Hay That's for Sale

Joe is out picking up bales and making the stack up here near the yard for people who are buying hay. Ours is up in the big stack yard by the gate. He's got another load on the ground, then he will finish up and be done.

There couldn't be a more gorgeous morning anywhere. It bodes ill of being hot hot hot again however. We will see what the day brings. It was soooooooo stifling last night - the last two nights - and hardly a breath of air coming through the house until after midnight, when it got more bearable. After I laid sweltering for a while I got up and took a cool shower and that helped. I guess I should break down and bring in the fan. I will have to do major moving big stuff in the garage if I do. I keep thinking as soon as I go through the struggle to get it, the weather will change to being more normal.

Called hughes.net technical support and they are going to send me a new receiver/modem. It will be here within 3 to 5 business days. So by the end of the week I should be back online. That will make it about a month that I have not been able to go on the internet. Maybe in the meantime I should go back to the senior center and start to go through the emails that are waiting? As I sat on hold at the beginning of the tech support call they had a message that sounds like the system for a whole satellite G16-15K is down. Not sure if it includes me or not - I didn't ask. But it sounded very serious. How do you fix a satellite? It said the engineers are working on it. I hope they have it fixed by the time I get back on.

Very windy this afternoon. Need the windows open, but then it blows everything all over. All my stuff has something heavy sitting on it. It's also blown all the dead gnat bodies off the desk, etc. so that's one good thing. Oh, those little black gnats are awful this time of year, and can come right in through the screens.

A wonderful thing this time of year is that the most beautiful mysterious fragrance absolutely fills the air. Joe's dad told me years ago it was the clover blooming. I've never quite figured it out that clover begins blooming some time before you get the smell. And there doesn't seem to be anything else possible that would do that. The clover blossoms must have to get to a certain stage. What ever it is, I love it.

Building the Stack – Getting Lined Up Straight

Tipping the Load Upright

Sunday July 22, 2007

"Forget the Flowers"……..Nope it didn't snow! Another hot one, but more breezy and some mostly cloudy – hope that doesn't mean more lightning and fires.

Icicles …..Last night Betty and I had our weekend visit on the phone, and she said to send some winter/snow/cold photos, so I picked out a few. Hope they make you feel cold for a few seconds.

Last night at 7 p.m. it was still 89 degrees, very unusual. It didn't cool off in the house until early morning.

I really really would like something like a brownie sundae all gooey with chocolate fudge.


A root beer float would be wonderful too.

Yesterday Sandy and I had a nice day painting together. She got here about 10 a.m. and left about 5:30. I really enjoyed her and the visit. Lunch turned out good too. Sandy finished a couple of paintings she had started and I finally finished redoing the face on Susie's sled painting. For better or worse that's the way its staying now. I'll take it back to her next time I go that way. I also worked some more on my large aspen painting and its coming along pretty well. Now the real work begins.

One of Joe's old friends from LLL at Livermore called yesterday, that was a surprise. Then the phone cut them off – this is one of the things it has been doing. The phone co. says our system is getting outdated and its hard to find new parts. Today I got the oven cleaned and glad that is done. Then washed the windows outside, and that's certainly an improvement. Joe is raking and baling his last patch of hay today and he will be done. <P> Called the Sony technical support this morning and after two days of it sitting there with a snowy screen got the "new" TV to give us a picture. It was fairly easy with someone giving the directions on how to set it up. It is definitely not as nice as the one we had that went bad. The color, sharpness and noise of the picture are not nearly the same quality. This is a reconditioned one, and this is not going to work – i.e. we're not going to be happy with the inferior picture. So in the morning I'll call their customer support and tell them to send us a brand new one or come and get this and give us our money back. The support person was Grace in Manilla. She was very helpful and at least I could understand her. She said it was 1:30 a.m. there. Note: so far it is over three weeks since the TV first went bad. I'm really tired of all this broken stuff.

This evening I'll try to get the internet connection back with hughes.net again. Will let you know how that goes.

Saturday July 21 2007

First was a nearly uniform purple wash over the entire canvas. You can see some of it in the top left corner. Second Layer is the Under Painting, beginning to develop the foreground.

Third stage wiped some trunks back out.

Fourth, starting to go back first with white then forming the trunks.

Fifth Decided I didn't like those criss crossing in the center, so changed their position. Will also change one or the other of the "X's" right of top center. Began to develop more detals. Total time so far maybe 2 hours or so. Left it to dry Thursday and Friday.

Sixth stage, working on grass and tree trunks. . Now the work begins. Thinking it may need a deer?

Got up early, straightened up the studio, then showered and washed my hair. Joe went right out to pick up bales early and is making a stack near the yard for Sandra. Last night I took the utility room rugs out to the car to go to the second hand store, since Joe said they were getting too old, in not quite those words. And this morning first thing got the big one out from under the table and mopped the floors. The rugs would probably be fine if I cleaned them, but that seems to be lower on the list of priorities. So this is an opportunity to get new ones, and a change will be nice. They are nylon braided country style, and have just worn like iron. I sprayed oven cleaner in the oven, and will wipe that out later. Then got Joe's breakfast when he came in.

Last night Nube knocked down a wire hog panel Joe has across between the shed and the corral so the horses can't come into the yard. She pulled it over and evidence showed that she must have then walked on it and got her hooves caught in the holes. I would have liked to have seen what happened, but didn't. It's very lucky she didn't get hurt. The panel was bent about 90 degrees so there had to be a struggle. I got it back up and put her where she belonged. Lucky she didn't get in the hayfield because that would have been a lot harder to catch her. Then Joe and I had a little discussion about the way he's got so much ticky tacky wire and things strung up in places to keep the horses out. I might have the go ahead to have someone come and do a few things to make it better. I would really like to make the yard a lot nicer in several places, and the yard fence is getting to where it needs to be replaced again. I thought when we built it, it would last the rest of our lives, and it could just keep deteriorating, but a new one with a little different configuration would be nice too.

Sandy Brewer is coming over to paint and visit today and will be here soon.

Friday July 20, 2007

Bobbi Keeping an Eye on Nube as she goes out to eat this evening.

Oh Boy, yesterday was another long and full day. Up by 6:30. Made Joe some biscuits, sausages and eggs for breakfast. Today was our SCAG meeting in Pinedale, so went out in my pjs and cut some flowers for our table arrangements and got them packed in a cooler with four vases. I had gotten the car out of the garage and had most everything loaded in last night - a painting for my contribution, the stuff to be recycled, purse and all my paperwork. Showered, dressed and was gone by about 9:30. Oh, I have to tell you that I took out my training earrings, and for the first time since I got my ears re-pierced I wore real earrings – the small gold hoops that Debbie got me for Christmas. I really like them. Just as I got down to the gate, Sandra was coming in to check on the hay she's getting from Joe. She had her two grandkids from Michigan with her and she also has a friend visiting. I told her Joe was up at the house to go on in and talk to him.

Sheral was going with me as my guest, and I would drive. Dick was going to bring Sheral down to the corner and meet me there. But he decided to go into town too so was almost to the gate when I got out there. Sheral got in and rode with me and we got to visit all the way to town and Dick followed us. We had this guy following us all day – the stalker. First thing we saw was a group of 6 or 7 horseback riders coming up the road. Dick stopped and asked them who they were, he's very friendly that way, so later we knew they were a neighbor Nick and perhaps some Amish young people who come out to work in Sublette Co. during haying season – maybe riding to the hayfield to work. Amish have been coming here in the summers to work for a long time. All the ranchers along the way are in various stages of their haying season and its fun to see how they are all doing.

In town….. I did a few errands before the meeting; deposit at the bank which they said would be credited to my account in 10 minutes. The bank has been remodeled and is beautiful inside with huge gorgeous western paintings on the walls. Over to the internet guy's office to get the Ethernet cable, but his wife was out of town this week with their son at a sports event, so he wouldn't be open until 1 p.m. – I had to go back later. Then I did the recycling and on to the meeting. Charm, Judi and I are hostesses for this meeting. We got there about 11 a.m. and started on the flower arrangements. I was glad I had a few minutes to use one of their computers and went online to pay my bills. Yep, there was the deposit I had just made. Judi and I served up the salads, there were 16 expected. Members started arriving about 11:45. Kay brought me a tiny silver frog from Nebraska, and it was so thoughtful of her to think of me when she saw him. We wondered if we kissed the frog if it would turn into a prince, but Kay said don't do it because I would get Joe.

The meal was roast turkey dinner with pumpkin pie and it was very tasty. Afterwards we had our business meeting, a writing exercise and everyone's writing contributions. I really enjoyed the meeting and seeing everyone. Loaded cooler etc. back into the car with Dick and Sheral's help, and they decided they would stay in town for dinner and a movie and maybe ride up to the Fremont Lake overlook to see what the fire had done. Dick had eaten lunch in the dining room and said he visited with an 86 years old woman truck driver who had trucked in all the huge beams that were in the ceiling/roof of the building and guess he had quite a conversation with her. I never heard of this person, so am curious. Dick went to the library for a while during our meeting. So then I went back to the internet/cell phone store and talked with Dave, the man who installed my hughes.net equipment. He is still puzzled about why my internet receiver/modem isn't working, and tested my cable and said it is good. I also brought a new one home to try out and it didn't work either. So it's back to the phone support again. And Dave is thinking the lightning or power surges we've been having might have done something to the computer and suggested I bring it in to town to the repairman. I think he's right. Joe has said several times that if our regular phone is going to be out of order so often we'd better get a cell phone. While I was there I asked Dave about getting a cell phone as our primary phone at the house, and he doesn't think we would get reception, and also gave me the news that my provider for my old cell phone is going to change things drastically in March, and my plan and phone may not work any more, at least in a lot of places around the country. So now what? No new cell phone and no old phone either. When I got home I called our mail lady Carol, but she wasn't home, she can call us on her cell phone from our mailbox and it sounds good. I will ask her what she uses.

I next went to the store and got a few groceries, and may not have to go back for a while. Also ordered one of Joe's prescriptions, and then forgot to go back for it. I guess it will be ready next time I go – which may be soon so I can take the computer in to be worked on. Sheral and Dick found out the movie that is showing is too violent, so they changed their minds about staying and Sheral rode home with me, and Dick went on ahead, and he met us at the corner where Sheral got back in with him. Picked up the mail, got home at almost 6 p.m. unloaded the groceries and threw a couple of pork chops on the grill, some potatoes in the microwave and cleaned some corn on the cob and got that going. By the time I got the groceries and car put away dinner was ready. Ned called Joe and I got to talk to Millie. She sounded frailer, but they had been to her granddaughter's graduation in California so she must be able to travel a little. They might come up here later this summer where they have a lot of relatives and we will get to see them. Joe and Ned were talking about Frank's funeral, but didn't know where it was, so Joe called Frank's brother Louie and he told us where to send flowers. So neither Joe nor Ned is going to the funeral. It's in Bountiful. After that I tried the internet cables and went into the properties where Dave told me to check. All the settings looked just like he showed me they should be at his shop, and even says it is connected. So sorry that the cable wasn't the easy fix I was hoping for. A few games of Spider and decided to download my photos and write up the day for the blog. By dark the wind came up really whistling and blew papers all over the studio, with more thunder. Sparky says he's not going out there.

Antelope By the Gate this Morning

They all crossed the road right in front of the vehicle. One mother stood in the middle of the road and stamped her feet at me until the little ones got under the fence and across the road into the field and then off they all went.

This morning the sun rose very red through smoke. But it was high and not especially hazy in the valley. It had sprinkled with a lot of lightening in the middle of the night. There was a message on my answering machine from yesterday to call a moving company in Jackson about getting the TV delivered, so I called her back and after we talked she said her guy could bring it today and I gave her directions. He got here about 2 p.m. and set the reconditioned TV we get on the stand and boxed up the "old" one and took it away. He was just a truck driver who delivers furniture and couldn't help hook the TV up. This may be some progress, but I am discouraged. I am so ready to take it all back to Best Buy in Idaho Falls and get my money back including for the service plans. We plugged it in and can only get a snowy screen, so I guess it needs to be reprogrammed for DishTV and HD. I called Dave and left a message beseeching him to give us an appointment for him to come and program it. Who knows when that might be. I know he's really busy.

After other housework, I spent an hour or so cleaning the kitchen stove top – its got a grill and a down draft vent that gets greasy, then the burner pans too. Judi called and we visited a little. And later Debbie called and we had a nice talk for most of an hour.

Today Joe ran over his sunglasses and baled them up into some bale he knows not where. He found a lens. He's supposed to wear them to protect his cataract surgery, but took them off to work on the baler and forgot about them, so they were lost on the ground. I thought it was pretty funny. But now he needs another pair. We had enchiladas and refried beans for dinner. Hot, a little muggy and still in the evening. Still smoky.

Thursday July 19 2007

My Flower Pots

The flowers are a testimony of their struggle to live. They have a tough go compared to the sheltered planters and barrels and baskets in town. Now if I can just keep them watered. The shallow pans dry out quickly. I want to get another bigger plant for Nancy’s blue pot. But it’s a start. The “boys” insist on posing so I had to send those pictures too.

I can’t remember all that went on yesterday, but did keep busy. The dang phone was dead again yesterday, most of the day before and part of today. They got it fixed on Thursday morning. Wednesday I worked more on my new painting, and the usual cooking cleaning laundry. It got very hot and still Wednesday afternoon. I waited until evening when it was cooler to water my pots and the shrubs in the front, and except for a few mosquitoes it was very nice out then.

I called the ladies at the Barn Door about the commission of three large paintings for the new bank, and was told that they were going to use some other artists. I suspected as much, but have two nice starts on large pieces for my own show. I assume by now I am not the one chosen for the Governor’s Portrait Project either, or probably would have heard. It probably went to someone from out of state as usual.

Today is Artists Guild meeting at Rendezvous Pointe in Pinedale. Charm, Judi and I are the hostesses. My friend and neighbor Sheral is going along with me as my guest so that will be fun going together. I will write about it tomorrow. I have made up the agenda and got my contribution ready to go, the pastel painting Cottonwoods on the Hoback.

Wednesday July 18 2007

Frank and Joe at Halfmoon Lake

Frank – Joe – Ned ….. Skyline Drive

Frank ‘04

Joe’s friend Frank passed away last night. I know he’s gone to Heaven. His funeral is in Bountiful at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Joe would have liked to go, but we will send some flowers.