Friday June 5 2009

Hank's Weather Vane - He likes mules.

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Hank's Big Elk Antlers, found in the Wind Rivers

This ditch is near the Irish Canyon turnoff. The ditch comes right down this rocky bluff and cascades in many courses through the rocks and boulders like a waterfall. It's such a pretty spot, and the cows like it there too. The water is used for irrigation and water for the cattle in the pastures. I've taken lots of pictures of this through the different seasons and years. This is on a rainy day. We pass it each time we go to town.

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Another overcast day. no wind at the moment. We're off this afternoon to the foot doctor at Rendezvous Pointe. He comes for the seniors and medicare pays for it. Joe keeps trying to cut his toenails before he goes to get his toenails cut. Hopefully he will listen to what the doctor tells him to do. No sense of me trying to tell him anything. I'm afraid to help him cut his nails since he's on coumadin. I'm afraid I'll cut him, which is what happens when he does his own.

This is a neat place to go to see what's happening in our mountain community of Bondurant. When you get there, there are lots of photos links and information - photo essays. The guy who runs the web camera makes it interesting, even has stories. Anyway, pretty picture on today of the cattle ranch and mountains. http://www.pinedaleonline.com/webcam/bondurantwebcam.php

I always liked this silly "poem". Do you think this might have been the first texting?

MR DUCKS.

MR NOT DUCKS.

OSARCDEDBD WANGS.

LIBMR DUCKS!

MR FARMERS!

MR NOT!

OSARCMMT POCKETS?

LIBMR FARMERS!

MR SNAKES!

MR NOT!

OSMRCMBDIS.

LIBMR SNAKES!

MR MICE!

MR NOT!

OSARCMEDBD FEET?

LIBMR MICE!

CMPUPPIES?

MR NOT PUPPIES!

OSMR!! CMPN?

LIB!MR PUPPIES!

Thursday June 4 2009

Cow and calf Moose at Round Hill

12x20 Pastel

by Lynn Thomas

Still need to tweak it a little

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Long Billed Curlew in our Field

They nest here. Sometimes it sounds like

you are at the ocean with all the water birds voices.

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Got going this morning and drove back in to town. Joe has a haircut appointment at 11 and has to get his protime at the clinic. Also at 11 is the car repair to get the brake fluid sucked out and replaced. Probably we will have lunch in there too. Don't need groceries yet. If anything interesting happens, I'll be back to write again later.

LATER: We left about 9 ish for Pinedale. Took Joe up to the clinic for his test, and I went down and mailed my belated birthday cards and UPSed the extra smartcard back to Dish. The birthday cards have been written for several days and had not gotten to the post office. Then Joe went into Ace to shop for two faucets, one for the utility room sink and one for the kitchen sink. He came out empty handed because he couldn't tell the size between the holes in the sink from the print on the box.

I took him over for his haircut appointment and I went to get the car repair done. After he got the haircut he was to walk over and have coffee at Ridley's and I'd pick him up there. I stopped at the oil change place where they had ordered the cap for the master cylinder fluid. Don't faint, I nearly did - $40. Its a 2" wide piece of plastic. I said "Whatever" and paid for it. (Joe said I might have got it for a couple of bucks at the car parts place. I suppose the most of the price was overnighting it.)

Down to Wolf's where I got the impression that they did a good job with removing and replacing the fluid. It took a little over an hour. $99 - which was $30 less than their quote.

Back to pick up Joe, and had to look for him, but found him buying the two faucets. Guess he had found some help to know what he was getting for sure. And they said if it isn't right he can bring it back.

We went up to the house to get yet a few more small things. Everything is fine there. And then we had lunch at the Trendy's burger place, with plenty left over for lunch for the dogs too.

On the way home I FINALLY took a small painting to each Butch and Bill for keeping us plowed out so well winter before last. A year and a half!! And then did the same for Jerry who also helped with that job.. Joe visited with him and Doc for a while. Was glad to get it crossed off my to do list, and had a long discussion with myself about procrastination.

So ..... The clock on the microwave was blinking indicating that the power had been off. And my internet wouldn't connect although all the lights on the tower were lit. I tried unplugging the power from the back of the tower, but must not have left it unplugged long enough. So after a while I decided to get down under the desk and really get it unplugged. I still hadn't put the USB connection from the external hard drive into the computer so did that too. Howver, I had to get down on the floor and lay under the desk to do it. It was like being a contortionist to get in position to get the cords in and then I got a cramp in my hand. I do not get down and lay on the floor very easily any more. But I could lay my head on the guitar case stored under there and manipulate the cords. I decided to leave it unplugged at least five minutes and just stayed there because I was afraid to let go of the cord and its little box. There is such a horrific mess of tangled cords and electrical stuff in big wads down there I would have never found the right ones again, so I just laid there.

And then the phone rang. And I yelled at Joe to get it. It was Betty so he handed me the walk around phone and I laid there hanging on to the cords with one hand and the phone with the other, head on the guitar case, while we talked. We both laughed about the part that I was laying under the desk and couldn't get up. Figured by the time we were done talking that was long enough for the thing to reset. Plugged it in. And by the time I managed to scootch out and roll myself over and get up, the tower and internet worked again. At least I was entertained for a little while with the phone call.

Leftover tacos for dinner. No rain today yet by 9 p.m. even though the clouds have been threatening. There was lightning and rumbling thunder. I never saw it reach 70 but it may have. A nice day, and believe I've felt better today than I have for a long time.

Edis called me tonight and we had a nice visit. I was going to see her, hitching a ride along with Charm who left to see her family in Bozeman this morning, but didn't go anywhere again. Betty and Nancy were supposed to come here tomorrow and I was concerned about leaving if Joe might be sick longer. Edis is trying to come here in mid -July. Her old three legged dog Lucy isn't doing too bad right now, but is pretty sick with cancer in her jaw.

Wednesday May 3 2009

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR GLORIA

It's My Baby Sister Gloria's Birthday Today

Hope you had the most wonderful day ever.

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Who Needs The Tetons?

This is East Temple l. and Temple Peak r. This is one of my favorite areas in the mountains holding many wonderful memories of when we were running the lodge, taking horseback trips and fishing, packing, camping. Love the scenery in there. The first time I saw Deep Lake beneath East Temple it was unbelievable. Took several trips before I could encompass the majesty of it. Taken a couple of days ago.

Not much happening today. The usual, as usual. Made a list and was able to cross some of the things off today. Called about the sliding door window shade and turns out they had an estimate and tried to call for me to o.k. the price a month ago, didn't get me and never ordered them yet. So that is back on track now. Made a few other phone calls. Betty called this afternoon, just keeping in touch. Debbie called too and we talked for about an hour.

This morning doing email I sent out a very cute and amazing video clip of a Jack Russell terrier skateboarding. He was amazing. Anyway that got stuck in my outbox somehow and just kept sending it until some people had ten of them. A few wrote me right away. It wouldn't delete from of the outbox, until I figured to unhook the internet connection so it would stop sending and I could then delete. If you got a bunch of them, I'm very sorry. It must hang up maybe on an address or something, and then quit before everyone is sent to, and starts all over. I was on the verge of being frantic by the time I got it stopped. One thing I need to do is revamp my address lists after being gone from this computer for six months.

Joe felt good enough to go out and irrigate a little. Made tacos for dinner and we both enjoyed them. I think Joe was hungry after not eating very well for over a week now.

Have to admit I took it kind of easy today just puttering at one thing and another. Tomorrow and the next day we have to go back to town again, and this is the only day all week I won't have driven to town.

About 8:30 p.m. it started to rain again, sounds like a nice rain on the roof. It was mostly cloudy all day with some sun, some wind, some calm. Maybe around 9 p.m. the power went out with a jolt and came right back on, but apparently they had an outage out in the Cora and Ehman Lane area. Even knocked out the radio station. Pinedaleonline said they didn't know what caused it, but perhaps lightning? It sure jolted the computer and TV.

p.s. Be sure to look at Tuesday below, just posted.

June 2 2009

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAY

Hope You Had a wonderful Day

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This is our Grandson Clayton Joe.

Fishing on the Upper Green

He's a lot older now - 15!!

Tuesday June 2 2009

Rainy Day - Melita's Back Yard - New Fork River.

On a clear day you would see the Wind River Mtns.

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I showed you this in winter, now in Spring

Lois, Charm, Kay Painting

Melita making Dessert - homemade sour cream poundcake
with strawberries.


Nancy with the Cream of Asparagus Soup

Salad - sliced tomatos and BUFFALO MILK mozarella

cheese with balsamic vinigarette

Melita's homemade bread

Today got up at the last possible moment and got ready to go into town to Melita's for our small painting group and lunch at her house. Took the dogs along. I got a few pictures of us to post. I had my usual great time being there with the friends. It was much the same as our other get togethers. so I won't write a lot about it. We all worked on our paintings. Kay is illustrating another children's book, and I really liked her drawings for that.

Joe did drive over to Big Piney to go to the dentist today, so he is definitely feeling better.

I had to be down to the car place at 2 for the oil change so headed on down there. They took my car right in. As I was waiting, the mechanic came to the door and said Mxxx you better come and look at this. I thought - I know that's my car and something isn't right. So got up and went to the door. Three of them were bent over the engine of my car. The guy came over and said the cover to my brake fluid container - the master cylinder was mentioned - had been left off, or not screwed on tight and vibrated off, it was not anywhere down beneath the motor. So dirt had gotten into the brake fluid. This is not good.

Well who knows how long it's been like that!! Maybe I'm lucky to still have brakes. But it probably happened the last time it was looked at during the last oil change. There. (Or possibly when I took it in to another place during the winter to have that problem of it being hard to start, fixed. - they shouldn't have been concerned with the brake fluid though. ) It's probably just easier to forget trying to figure that out and not worry about it at this point.

Mxxx said I'd better take it to a place that had the machine to do it and have them flush out the brake fluid and refill it. I asked who in Pinedale could do that. And they said probably no one, that I'd have to go to Jackson or Rock Springs to a dealer. I asked if Wolf Motors (in Pinedale) could do it and he said he didn't think so. I told them I thought the cap had been left off there, but apparently in February the place changed owners and this guy had nothing to do with it. He would order me a new cover and I said o.k. paid them and left, mad as that wet hen. And discouraged.

I went up to the house to get a few things Joe and I wanted from there, thinking all the time. Mainly "I don't need or want one other thing going wrong". And the thought to check with Wolf Motors kept coming into my mind, so I closed the house back up and just drove over there to talk to the service department. They are a Dodge dealership, not Chevy, but they've worked on my car before. She said yes they could do it and I have an appointment to have it done on Thursday. $129.00 and at least don't have to drive 100 miles to get it fixed.

The new little plants at the house are still doing fine. This rain is sure good for them. And there's lots of "vegetation" coming up in the bare spots in the yard. Could be grass, weeds, wildflowers, who knows, but if it would come in solid enough to cover the mud, that might be all we need in the back yard. But it would have to be mowed. Maybe even watered.

Well, without being able to look at my datebook, I thought Joe and I had our foot doctor appointments on Thursday and together with the brake fluid "thing" it could be done in one trip. Then later Judi reminded me that the foot doctor comes on Friday - she made the appointments for us. So now I must decide whether to make trips to town two days in a row, or call Wolf in the morning and see if they can do it on Friday instead. The latter sounds best.

I panicked when I got home, thought I lost my camera. But found it after dinner – in the glove box. – where I put it. But not until I envisioned one of the car place employees stealing it and the whole scenario of how I would accuse them of it. And then calling Melita and asking if I’d left it there or dropped it on her road when I let the dogs out to run a little, causing her to walk way out there to look. Or that I’d kicked it out when I went up to the house and then ran over it, or it fell out at Wolf Motors and rolled under the car where I couldn't see it and someone found a nice new camera, etc, etc.

Wasn't The Kid nice to admit that she also let her car go way beyond the time for the oil to be changed? I’m soooooo glad I’m not the only one who can try to ruin a nice car by not changing the oil for 1300 miles.

Melita got the number for me and when I got home I called Mike the appliance repairman at Sweetwater Appliance in Lander. He is coming over on Monday. Thank goodness. I hate doing dishes. Only ironing is worse than that. He said what I described didn't sound good at all.

Betty called this afternoon and we talked for a while. It's not likely she and Nancy will be coming this week to visit for a week, but will for sure later. She doesn't know all the information she needs to about her kitty yet and won't be able to leave for a while.

There was rain most of the day again, mostly light showers and temperature just below 50-ish. I have been loving this rain. The clouds were covering the mountains. It may be snowing up there again. And they say we're supposed to get snow on Saturday. I've noticed we usually have the last snowstorm around the first of June most years. Of course it can snow or frost any month of the year here. Bonnie had her flower pots planted the other day when I was there and they sure looked pretty. Hope they don't get frosted.

Tuesday June 2 2009

HEY HANK AND DEB!!

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Look !!! I got a canary .... And his wife !!!

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Him
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Her
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Everything is fine here. Was gone all day will write a new post "later". I'm just doing this entry while waiting for 29 emails to download, and will read those and then your blogs. After that think I'll call it a day. (click on the photos to see the birds better. Frustrating that the little buggers don't hold still. I had a great one of him close up, pushing the button ... and he flew. )

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"In order to win, we pay with energy and effort and discipline. If we lose, we pay in disappointment, discontent, and lack of fulfillment." (Maya Angelou)

Monday June 1 2009

East Fork Valley Evening

Buck Antelope in the Fall

Not such great photos today, and not anything new, but something to look at. I have a few in the camera taken today and just not ambitious enough to get them downloaded.

Last night laid down after dinner and had a nap for a couple of hours and then was up all night until after 4 a.m. Made good use of the time, paying bills etc, and did a thorough job on a pedicure. We both have to go to the foot doctor on Thursday and it felt kind of like cleaning house before the maid comes to get the toenails clipped etc. Awake at 6 and stayed awake. By 8 was calling the doctor's office to get a prescription for Joe without him having to go in to the clinic. They did send one over to the drug store, and got ready and went in to town to pick it up after doing the necessary chores here. Left about 10 or so. Took the dogs along for the ride.

First filled up with gas - it was nearly on empty. Then went and made an appointment for an oil change - 2 p.m. tomorrow. For some reason I looked at the little reminder they put on your windshield the other day. Here's a confession I hate to admit. I just can't believe that while I was sitting three blocks from the car care place all the whole winter, that I let the mileage get 1300 miles over the time for an oil change. I've never done that before. It had to be due many months ago because the car hasn't hardly gone anywhere. In fact someone else has driven me in their vehicle for every appointment. There's no way I drove 1300 miles last winter going 3 minutes to the store a couple times a week !! Bet it's been at least 3 months since I last bought gas. Maybe the oil change was even due before we ever moved to Pinedale???? Nothing to do about it now except go get it changed.

Next to the place I dread to go in to - Ridley's. Still finding there's lots of stuff we haven't got here, so got a cart full again. Stopped first to pick up Joe's prescription, and they asked me to come back in a few minutes, so went ahead and shopped. When I went back there was a line, and I waited about an hour to get to the window. I just couldn't believe it.

Checked out and saw Rollie and Judi in the parking lot, He does the shopping a lot of times, so Judi and I chatted. They had a nice exploring trip and hike yesterday (check her blog again). Then got a burger for me and a corn dog for "The Boys" at the little drive in and came on home.

It really was pouring rain from Boulder nearly to the East Fork, but had not rained at home. It was a downpour that couldn't run off the pavement fast enough. The force of the rain was thrashing and splashing water high off the ponds in the fields all along the way. We got some showers here a little later. Wish we would have gotten that good hard rain. Yesterday afternoon did get a nice rain that wet the ground good. The hayfield is looking better, Joe has mowed the yard front and back. The "lawn" is really filling in the bare spots more than ever, and the rain has got the grass looking great.

The tech support call to Dish Network still needed to be done in order to activate our new smartcard, so did that this afternoon. For once I sort of enjoyed talking to the man that helped me while we were waiting for the receiver to do it's thing - updating and such. Ended up still not having the right programing and have to pay $10 more to get it, hopefully now it's all set. It probably took most of an hour. I forgot to say we only have one TV instead of two here now, so that might save some money .... but will have to call back again!!

We had potato soup and garlic toast for dinner. I laid down and slept after getting the dishes done. Never heard back from the person I called about getting a phone number for a repairman for the dishwasher, so that's a top priority on the list.

And now am back up since 9 p.m. and all rested again. Maybe I'm going to have to start taking a nap in the afternoons. I saw my little Tigger cat out hunting in the field before dark and watched her out the window for a while. It took her about 15 minutes to go 20 yards - stalking, hopping, sneaking, circling around, sitting and watching, jumping, running, waiting, hiding in the tall grass. Out there being a cat. Hope she had a successful hunt.

The med doesn't seem to be helping Joe yet, and I just wonder if the pharmacy made a mistake and gave us a different version than prescribed, because its not working like the nurse said it would. Also not the same name as she told me - but then sometimes drugs are called something else. I'll call the nurse to check again in the morning. If it's not the right prescription, I can go back to the pharmacy again. Joe has a dentist appointment early tomorrow, but probably isn't going to be able to go.

So right back to town tomorrow. Melita is going to have the small painting group at her house and I'll get the oil changed. If I don't blog, I'll catch up on Wednesday.