Thursday August 7 2008

Blooming Lily

Joe had to go to the dentist early this morning. He's been having a toothache. The appointment was at 7:30 so he left really early. He has to go back another time for cleaning. Need to call for an appointment for my lost filling too. Guess I'm forgetting because it's not hurting. I got up about 7:30 and got the sheets on the beds before Bonnie got here to clean and then got my shower. She's finishing up the last bedroom and the bathroom today, and next will start on my studio - saving the worst for last. I don't know what to do about moving all the heavy files and furniture in here - or not! Who will ever know if we didn't clean behind the files? A few years back I tried to buy wheels for them, but after I got them discovered that they wouldn't fit. The files are just an odd size. I've moved them with the dolly before but its a job.

Gloria sent me copies of her journal for the days we were in Yellowstone, so July 25 and 26 are finished on the blog now. I still want to look for the photos of Yellowstone Falls, maybe they just filed themselves in some obscure place. That was our best photo day of the trip.

Sandra called this morning. She and Sue are coming over for a visit and to see the art show this afternoon. Dave's mom Sue lives in Michigan and comes to visit every summer. She's a very nice lady.

Yippee - Mixed Media is having a painting retreat at Round Hill Ranch again. We love going there. We'll spend Thursday through Sunday beginning August 21. It will probably be too early for fall colors, but also not as cold, so we can go out and drive around the country to places for plein air painting over there.

It's kind of windy today. Still very pleasant temperature-wise. Might have a chance of thunder storms. The New Fork Lake fire has grown to about 14,000 acres now. Mainly it's being allowed to burn all the dead and decadent trees and the firefighters are just keeping it from burning private ground - nearly 400 firefighters there.

This morning a small helicopter flew over our place. It usually means checking on a fire, hauling an injured person out of the mountains, counting wildlife, or something with the oilfields. The mowers at Riche's next door went "home" yesterday to begin haying on the next place. The Jensens are also finished here and will go to their home place next. It's looking like a good hay crop for everyone. Otherwise..... nothing else new.

Wednesday August 6 2008

All Three Machines Working

.

Our Field All Mowed

Baler and Tractor that Picks Up Bales

Pulling Trailer That Hauls the Bales


Raking

Mowed

Doc Jerry and Marilyn came last night and finished up raking baling and hauling off the bales to their nearby stacks. I'm curious how many tons they got. The hay looked good, thicker and taller than it has for many years. Joe said it is the best its been for years. Of course, the high end near the gate couldn't be mowed. There hasn't been enough water to irrigate it there, so we've sacrificed it to irrigate the lower end. It grows the best crop anyway. So now the job is finished. I bet with their nice equipment that they didn't even spend 24 hours here. Joe used to take two weeks with his one-man job.

Edis taking some plants home

Edis and I went out after breakfast and dug her up some of the orphan plants for the yard at their new house. Her car is really small, a tiny Honda which gets about 30 mpg, so she didn't have a lot of room to take much. She showed me photos yesterday of the house, and they really have a nice place. The yard is already nicely landscaped, but the is room for a few more kind of plants. She took some iris - two kinds, sedum, cranesbills, and raspberries. We found 3 baby heirloom columbine, so hope those go for her.

Bonnie arrived to do more cleaning about 8:30. I hadn't been up for long. She brought us really tasty tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini from her greenhouse. We had some of them for lunch. Bonnie got the last two bedrooms nearly done. The yellow one she will finish up tomorrow and start on the studio. She says there are a few places she wants to go back to and then she should be finished. I asked Edis if she could see Bonnie's wings.

So Edis, Barbara and Lucy started home a little before 11. They have an 8 hour drive without any stops, so it will be a long day for them. Barbara made them a picnic lunch to take while we worked in the yard.

Thank you for coming to visit, Edis. And Thank You for all the help you gave while you were here. And especially Thank You for the two CDs of your music and work at the NPR radio station.

After they left I went back out and got the rest of the dead canes out of the raspberry bushes. We had commented that something has been eating the leaves off a lot of raspberries, and I found a lot of very large grasshoppers out there. We may need to call the weed and pest control and tell them - remember when we had the grasshopper plague some years back. I've been noticing that when I walk there are a lot of grasshoppers again.

Its nice again today, although very breezy, which makes it not too hot. Just very pleasant. Mostly cloudy.

Tuesday August 5 2008

Lucy, Edis' Three-Legged Dog

about 13 years old now.

Barbara and Edis at the Art Show

Stacking the Firewood from the Old Gate
Barbara even carried some on her walker to help.

Walking in the Field

THE BEAR !!!

He's just at the bend in the road -

YES ! I KNOW !!
Remember the photos of the huge herd of deer??

Same thing.

Blogging is a little behind, but that's o.k. Edis, her mother Barbara, and her three-legged dog Lucy arrived here yesterday afternoon about 5 p.m. We soon had a fine dinner prepared. Edis had brought fresh talapia which we broiled with rice pilaf and roasted vegetables. We visited all the while and got caught up.

This morning breakfast was kind of disjointed which is normal any more, but we all got fed. Edis went outside with me and we did a few chores that have been laying around needing attention. We got the garden wagon out and moved some of the flower pots to the porches so it looks pretty About half of the flower pots stayed on the old wagon where they are blooming despite being ignored and not watered enough. I promise to take better care of them from now on.

We moved some more yard rocks to the "dry river bed" Debbie made over in the north corner of the yard. I reminisced that over the many years I had picked up all those rocks from various places and hauled them home to make rock borders on all the flower beds. The front flower bed is also being mostly phased out so the yard can just be mowed and not need much maintenance or weeding any more.

Next we loaded the poles that Joe had sawed with the chain saw up the same day he took the dead tree out. These poles were from the gate that Joe (accidentally) knocked down with his truck perhaps 5 years ago. They have been laying in the yard every since, so I'm very glad to get them hauled away to the fire wood pile. I had been procrastinating doing all these chores and there we had it all done in less than an hour.

After the "work" we checked out the art show in the barn. This was the first time Edis has seen the show in the barn and she and Barbara both seemed to enjoy it. Lunch was egg drop soup and the leftover talapia made into fish salad that Edis garnished up to look "pretty".

After lunch we, Edis, Barbara and I and the dogs, took a drive up to Big Sandy Openings and checked out the campground and the lodge. Traffic was nil, except for many gravel trucks. The county is graveling all the roads south of here and boy are they nice now compared to the old days. We assume the county was given the leftover gravel from the pit near the river where the state had been hauling all the gravel from for the roadwork on Hwy 191. The forest road ot the openings is still dirt, but even that is smoother than past years.

Just before Dutch Joe meadow we couldn't believe Edis spotted a young bear in the road ahead, and possibly it was a grizzly from the looks of its color and the way it walked. I've posted my photograph of the bear. Before we could get any closer to it, it took off running through the trees and we only got just a small glimpse of it and then it was gone.

There were bunches of hikers cars parked up at the trail head this time, but hardly anyone was camped there or anywhere else along the way. It sure was a pretty drive, there were a few sprinkles on the way home, but although cloudy still no rain.

We got back home by five, fixed artichokes, fettuccine and breaded eggplant for dinner. After that I have just crashed, feeling very tired. So now bedtime is approaching. Edis took a walk this morning with the dogs, and is out walking with them again tonight. Last night they all walked and nearly at bedtime jumped into the black muddy creek and had to be sprayed off. They were out for some time drying off. So she took a different route tonight. She said it started to drizzle a little on the way back. Now Sparky adores Edis for taking walks.

About dinner time Doc, Marilyn and Jerry came back to finish up the haying and in no time it was all raked, baled and loaded onto a trailer and hauled away. I'll do a few of those pictures later. Edis saw them and said hi on her walk.

August 4 REPORT LETTER FROM GLORIA

Bev and I met at the Salt Lake airport and picked up our rental car. We wanted a Dodge Caliber, but were informed that although they are advertised on the internet and Bob reserved one for us, they "don't have them there." So, we settled on a Toyota Corolla, which we could upgrade for $100 more a day to a larger vehicle. We said, no we'll stick to the Corolla - cheaper rate, better gas mileage, being frugal we two were. So, ready to sign the contract and the clerk said she upgraded us to a larger vehicle at no charge! We tried to get the Corolla because of the better gas mileage, but we were told, sorry, we don't have any available. But, she tried to get us to pay $100 more to get the car she ended up giving us at no extra charge. Amazing. We got a brand new Ford Focus SUV with 176 miles on it. It did handle nicely and did comparably well with the gas mileage to what we would have gotten on the Corolla.

So ... We're off. Beverly pointed out spots of interest on the way, and I'm sure glad she knew where she was going, because we were a long way from nowhere. We arrived at Lynn's as scheduled and it was sure good to see her. She and Joe have a very nice home. We relaxed for the evening and chose our bedrooms. Bev's was blue and mine was yellow.

The next day we removed a flower bed for Lynn that was giving her fits when it needed to be weeded. It was pretty windy that day, nice temperature (during the entire trip the weather was great), but the bugs were flying. They have grown to love me, so I used the bug spray and so did Beverly. We had lunch out in the yard before starting the gardening. Nice sandwiches and chips. Lynn's 2 dogs joined in on the lunch, but not the work.

After we had all the flowers removed we loaded the plants into the back of Joe's old Las Vegas pickup truck and drove them to a spot down by the gate of their property and dumped them. We then drove to the creek and shoveled dirt into the back of the truck to take back to the yard to level out the garden area and then Bev and I shoveled it again into the wheelbarrow and dumped it. We were 3 filthy females at the end of that day!

Sunday we helped with some housework. Lynn made a family favorite, chess pie. We drove to The Place for dinner for Father's Day for Joe and Beverly's treat to him. We got rained on going and coming. Everyone had ribeye steak which was enjoyed by all that ate it. I had a really good baked potato and salad. The best baked potato I've had in a long time.

The next morning we were off early to Jackson and Lynn had a doctors appointment where she got some good news about the chemo she is on now, which is a lot more aggressive than the last treatment she was having. She dropped Bev and I off in town and we walked the square, doing a little window shopping.

Lynn picked us up and we went to get Virginia for lunch - Beverly's aunt. We went to the Snow King restaurant, which is located near the ski lift. It was very nice and we almost had the place to ourselves. After lunch we drove to Jenny Lake and took a boat ride across the lake. Lynn had never been there before. Bev and I hiked up to some falls while Lynn and Virginia stayed below and visited. What a lot of people there were. It was a very nice day and we stopped on the way and saw a little old church that has been there for decades and is still a functioning church. We had a nice dinner and got ready for Tuesday.

Lynn took Bev and I with her to her mixed media group. All the women were very friendly and it was a nice day. While the painters were at work we took a hike with the dogs. We tried to hike to a mountain lake, but didn't find it. I thought we had gone far enough to be there, or at least see it, and Beverly thought we needed to go farther. It was good to get out and tramp through the woods again. Haven't done that in a long time.

Wednesday was another relaxing day. I went for a walk in the morning to the gate and the dogs left the house with me and were soon taking their own walk in their own direction. In the afternoon Lynn did some weeding in her berry patch and I ran the gas powered weed eater and cleared an area near one of the outbuildings.

I talked to Bob in the evening and found that he intended to go to California and see about buying a motorcycle (which I'm glad he decided to not buy) and he planned to visit with old friends. I think it was a good thing for him to go and have some R&R. I did my packing for our trip so I wouldn't be scrambling tomorrow.

Yellowstone, here we come! We were up early and packed some things from home for lunches so we could picnic along the way.Lynn and Bev were nice enough to backtrack over a lot of country they have seen before to show it to me. We saw Mesa Falls in Idaho, near the Wyoming border - and just let me say - all of the spots we stopped at and drove by were outstanding. Beautiful, natural wonders that I was very fortunate to see. My tour guides had never been to Mesa Falls, so that was a treat for them also. We picnicked for lunch that day with things we brought from Lynn's and a stop at the store in Pinedale.

After Mesa Falls we drove on to West Yellowstone and spent our first night there. What a night! We had a nice dinner at Bulllwinkles, of all places, and walked around the town and did a little shopping. When we returned to the motel Lynn was fortunate enough to zonk out pretty well, while Bev and I stayed up listening to the track team run their sprints in the hallway above our room and the key to start the race must have been the slamming of doors. Around 11:00 I called the front desk and told them what was going on and asked them to see if they could quiet things down. Now, we were on the 2nd floor and this was happening on the 3rd floor. However, the desk clerk stated that, "she couldn't hear anything!" But, around 11:30 things did quiet down.

Next morning we were up bright and early to an unimpressive continental breakfast served by the hotel. Off we went into Yellowstone. My age and I've never been there before. The devastation from the 1988 fires is still quite evident, but because so much of the forest was burned it opened up the landscape so the mountains and surrounding terrain could be enjoyed and the view wasn't blocked by the forest of trees. We saw a lot of wonderful things that day, steam vents and hot springs and many water falls. We saw buffalo, elk, moose, deer during the trip - some quite close. The planned trip took us on a big loop to the north and then back south and out the south entrance. Our second night was in Gardiner, Montana at the north entrance. We had Italian for dinner that night and we all had slight tummy aches, we thought from the food being so rich or to much acid from the sauces.

The driving on the third day of the trip provided places quite different from the first day in the park. Still so many waterfalls and sulfur hot springs. We were heading to Yellowstone Lake and stopped on the Yellowstone River for another picnic lunch. This time we at lunch on a log by the river and had Subway sandwiches we got before we left town in the morning. What a pretty setting. We drove on to Yellowstone Lake. It's huge. We stopped at the Yellowstone Hotel and it had wonderful etched glass partitions and doors depicting animals and scenes from nature.

Exiting the south entrance to Yellowstone our driving took us on into Teton National Park where we saw Jakson Lake and the Jackson Lake Lodge where we had some refreshment at their old time soda/cafeteria counter. We headed toward home and in Pinedale Lynn showed us some of the medical and care facilities in the area and the towns aquatic center which looked quite swanky. If I remember right, there are 2 olympic size pools and 2 ordinary (HA!) pools with sports courts and a rock climbing wall available. It is really grand.

We arrived at Lynn's about 9, unloaded the car, let lots of mosquitos in Lynn's house which I did my best to annihilate! The only good mosquito is a dead mosquito!

Sunday we did some laundry and housecleaning and Lynn packed us a picnic lunch and we went to Big Sandy Lodge and picnicked on the river with the puppy dogs. Very peaceful. Little fish jumping in the river, a nice breeze. The bugs weren't to bad. The dogs liked getting in the river, but it was pretty cold. We did some exploring and looking at the enormous balanced rocks that are so interesting. They are propped in position with smaller rocks holding them from underneath so they stay in position. Lynn has observed these over the years and noticed they mostly all are situated on an elevated area overlooking a valley or meadow. Quite interesting to see these and speculate what they might have been used for. They all seem to be facing the same direction and many are positioned so that the flat of the boulder is on top.

This evening we looked at old photos and tried to figure out who everyone was. We think we did pretty well, even though we did have to use a magnifying glass for some of the pictures. Lynn is still working on her book and the pictures we were looking at were from our cousin, Maryann. Lynn wants to use some of them in her book. As we were looking at them, most of them from when our dad's family was younger, we noticed that many pictures were from Yellowstone and were pictures of the same landmarks we had just visited and were taken from the same photo spots where we had just stood. How amazing is that? I said, gee, we could have just looked at this album, saved a lot of money, and seen everything we just saw by looking at the photo album. But, in person, is really the best way, of course.

I did most of my packing because Beverly and I are leaving in the morning to return home.We said good-byes and left Lynn's about 8:15. Me being me, I wanted to make sure we arrived back in Salt Lake in plenty of time to return the rental car and be at the airport ahead of time. How's about 2 1/2 hours ahead of time and already at the gate - waiting. Beverly kept saying we didn't need to leave so early. She had a longer wait than I did - leaving about 2 1/2 hours after I did. I was home before she even departed Salt Lake. Sorry Bev!

Bob picked me up at 6 and it was sure good to see him. We went out for a chinese dinner and visited for a couple of hours and got home about 8:30.Tried to consolidate this so it wouldn't be to lengthy but it doesn't look like I succeeded.I had to go to work the next day, Tuesday, so I didn't even fully unpack until Wednesday evening.

Thursday I had a doctors appointment for my 6 month pap test (Gloria also had a cancer scare with endrometrial cancer) and then I went to work for a few hours and got a call from Glory while I was at work that she and 4 of the girls were coming for the weekend. Of course the house was a mess and I had planned to clean it, which is what Bob and I did Friday morning. We started Friday morning about 6:30 were finished by 8:00. What a difference a clean house makes.

Glory arrived with her girls, exhausted and in the midst of heat stroke about 3:30 in the afternoon. No air-conditioning in their van and Glory evidently forgot how hot the desert gets in the middle of the day in the middle of summer. They brought their things in and we headed for the pool so they could all cool off. We had tacos and tamale pie for dinner. She had planned to go to Donna's the next day for Scott's baptism, but without air she decided against doing that. I was traveled out, from going to Vegas, then Oakland and then Wyoming so Bob and I had decided not to go to the baptism. So, we had a nice day here and after a morning shopping trip to the big Walmart!, we had lunch and went to the movie here and saw Mamma Mia. What a fun movie! I have to get the CD/Soundtrack.

It was Chesnie's birthday. She turned 8. So after dinner we had cake and she opened presents. Glory was up early with the kids and on the road about 6:15 to see Donna and family. Summer, Glory's daughter, had to be back to work on Monday in Vegas, so they set off early. It was so good to see them, even though the visit was short. The kids are always fun to have here and very nice young ladies.So, that's my life for the last few weeks. I really enjoyed the Wyoming trip and spending time with Lynn and Joe and Beverly and the sweet dogs - Sparky and Raven. I think they liked me a little. I'll bet, though, that they like anyone that gives them some attention.

Monday August 4 2008

Harmony Crossing

painting by Lynn Thomas
(It looks a little funny because its very impasto
and the dotty looking stuff is shadows from the paint.
In "real life" its quite nice, and impressionistic.)

This morning is just lovely except for the smoky haze in the air. Got the flower pots watered and a few more dead canes out of the raspberries. My mind is a blank for writing anything - no news or nothing happening here. The ranchers are back at their haying next to us. I don't know why they stopped for so many days, Joe says the hay must have been too wet.

The coyotes have sure been singing around our place a lot lately. I always like to hear them, and so do the dogs. They sing along.

Have to call about the TV today and both of us need dentist appointments. I'm cleaning the oven this morning, which of course consists of pushing two buttons. Wish I'd thought to do it last night, since the heat will probably make it hot in the house. Tonight is scheduled a meeting about the Community and Fine Art Center, but Edis and her mom will be here for dinner. I would like to be there to give the artists input but it doesn't look like I will make this one either. Melita and Dawn are coming over to visit and check out the art show. It will be fun to see them for sure .

Go to http://www.pinedaleonline.com/ asap (before they take it off) to see another awesome photo of the New Fork fire with the Lozier's Box R ranch in the foreground. This is very scary. You can click on it there to make it bigger. If the link is gone off the front page, it's probably in the innards somewhere that you can check it out anyway. I tried to stick it on my blog but it turned out tiny/unclickable, so figured it would be better for you to go there to check out that picture. There have been a few other small fires that have also started from unattended campfires, one not far from Charm's house at Boulder Lake. They are up in the mountains on a pack trip right now. And did you see on Sally's blog where they went through a fire in Yellowstone on their motorcycle with it burning on both sides of the highway??

This is a "WOW". Never saw them before - making shadow puppets our of their whole bodies, not just their hands. Can't figure if they are dancers or gymnasts. Then there are a bunch more videos on them to watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n8gxEwLx0w

Sunday August 3 2008

Border Collie Portrait

15x20 Pencil Drawing by Lynn Thomas

This drawing was used on all the publicity for the

National Stock Dog Trials in Sheridan some years back.

It was in many shows in several states

and won a bunch of awards in graphics division.

Funny weather this morning. All night whenever I woke up I could smell the smoke and it was very hazy this morning. Then all of a sudden it seemed it clouded up and rained a little. Just as quickly it cleared off and got less hazy. We had a windy afternoon but a beautiful, calm and clear evening. Sally's blog "updates from AZ-WY" on my sidebar has some excellent new pictures of the fire - they drove up quite nearby yesterday evening.

Not much news to write about here. And don't even have a photo, but will put in some artwork. Zane is working the big project of scanning all the pre-digital slides of my artwork and has emailed several dozen to me.

This morning I waxed the kitchen, utility room and bathroom floors. Of course Joe had to walk across the kitchen before it was dry, and while I yelled at him he was saying he wasn't doing anything - except his shoes were stuck to the floor! It won't last long anyway with the dogs and us tracking across it.

We are both quite disappointed not to be going to Sandra's cabin this afternoon for the BBQ. Our old friend Jim is coming over this afternoon. We've been trying to get together on a time he could come for several weeks now and this is the best day for him, so we'll stay home and look forward to seeing him.

This morning the TV continued to crash, can't even get the Fox news it was giving Joe yesterday. I didn't think anything could be more annoying than the TV blaring on Fox all the time, but now he keeps trying to get the radio to play ..... and we have very little reception here so its squealing and static mostly, as well as turned up very loud. UPDATE ON THE TV: Cheyenne's dad read the blog and found out we were still having trouble so had him call me, and explain exactly how to get the picture back, pushing a certain sequence of the buttons, and BINGO ! Got the picture back and it's been fine all day. Hope I remember how to do that tomorrow.

MORE UPDATE: Our friend Jim did come to visit this afternoon, and it was so good to see him again. He says he's putting in a new solar and wind combined energy system, and will use the old diesel generator as a backup. Its a good decision because of the cost of diesel fuel. He talked about how many wind turbines there are in Wyoming now, and that they can provide enough energy for Pheonix, southern Nevada and Southern California. He is just one of the nicest people in the world and I don't like seeing him so seldom. He's a neighbor with only 2 other places between us, but about 40 miles away. We enjoyed the visit very much.

Joe wanted a vegetable omelet with hash browns for dinner, so we did that. And then later I just had to make another chess pie. My favorite.

Have been doing some online shopping the last few days, and seriously have checked out the camera I've been thinking of buying. I might just go for it. It is a Canon 8 megapixels and has a 12X zoom lens. Not as small in size as I would like, but there always have to be the tradeoffs. The tiny pocket sized ones usually don't have much more than a 3X lens, which is what I have now. I think I've about worn the old one out with the many thousands of photos it has taken. Called Betty and we had our weekend visit. And another high school friend Pat, who lives in Bend OR, also called and we had a great chat. They had an idyllic vacation by renting a 14,000 sq. ft. house up near Coeu d'Alene ID on the lake and inviting all their kids and their kids to come and stay. The house had every kind of thing - 7 bedrooms and baths, theatre, spa, gym, etc etc, and lots of sports, fishing, boating to do. Sounds like a dream.

I still haven't really gotten 7-25 and 26 written about the Yellowstone trip so am going to call my sister Gloria and have her read me her journal. But I downloaded the photos into the laptop on the trip, and can not find the best photos, those of Yellowstone Falls. So frustrating and hope they aren't lost. During quiet times I've been trying to organize all the many photo file copies "it" has backed up. May be best just to ignore it all and leave it sit there.

Tomorrow Edis, her mom and dog Lucy will arrive for a visit.

It was on this day in 1492 that Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain on his first voyage, the voyage that took him to the Americas. He set off with three ships (Santa María, Pinta, and Niña) and 90 men. In September, the crew restocked in the Canary Islands and on October 12th, they sighted land—an island in the Bahamas. Columbus kept a journal, and later that day he wrote an entry about the natives of the island: "They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever we say to them. I think they can very easily be made Christians, for they seem to have no religion."

Saturday August 2 2008

Jacob and the Elephant Bank

This feels like one of our warmest days. It's warm in the house, but have all the windows open with a breeze going through. The thermometer says 78, so the number's not too bad.

This afternoon Bonnie's son Cheyenne and his little boy Jacob came over to try and fix our TV. Bonnie kind of volunteered him the other day, so we gave him a call. He got Joe's TV going right away, just a matter of getting it on the right setting. I had tried the same thing over and over but it wouldn't work for me - I wasn't pushing input three times to make it stay on "satellite". However when Joe tried to change channels it just goes back to " cable". Rats! My TV in the studio is presenting a more difficult problem, so he went back home to get a new piece of cable and brought another TV to see if it worked on the setup - and it didn't. Cheyenne came to the conclusion that the receiver has gone bad. The day my TV went out there was lightning, so maybe that's the problem again. Joe says it looks like some varmint has been under the house, so it may have chewed something up too, but Cheyenne went under the house twice and says it looks o.k. under there. I have the information he gave us written down and Monday will have to call the Dish place in town. They have someone who comes from Idaho Falls to do the service call.

Jacob looked at several of my animal "knick knacks" and said he liked horses. I showed him the elephant bank and he liked that so I asked if he'd like to have it. We wrapped it up and put it in a bag for him to take home. He is sure a cutie.

The forest fire is over 3500 acres now burning into the Bridger Wilderness.

Tigger - the little cat with no tail.

This is the best and almost only picture I

ever got of her. Took it out the studio window and

it scared her away when she saw my face there.