Saturday July 11 2009

On Saturday morning went in to Pinedale and to Rick's office to have a few "lessons" on questions I had about the computer. Mainly there isn't much wrong with the computer. He wants me to sort out the photographs and delete the duplicates because there is WAAAYYY too much in there, storage wise. This is what has been overwhelming me for several years now, because each time I "saved", it would make another copy, not just add the new things onto the external hard drive. He showed me how to avoid making those copies. He also showed me how to best save The Book, although the way I've been doing it is basically o.k. So at this point not much has been accomplished actually. When I get the photo problem organized better, he will try to get rid the the error messages that pop up for what seems like no good reason.

There were a lot of people in town for Rendezvous and the parade. In fact a few days ago James had called and said Friday? that there were 800 people at the museum. That is a lot for a town this size - the population of Pinedale the town might be 1500 or so. Had lunch at Arrowhead, a Lean Cuisine TV dinner warmed in the microwave. Had the dogs with me. Watered all the plants and everything is still alive. Don't know yet if the two new cottonwood trees are going to live or not though. Got groceries, washed the car (the car wash wasn't open last Wednesday).

Drove on home getting back about 3:30, put groceries away, and was in the mood to make a big pot of spagetti sauce, so started that and it had time to simmer for about 2 hours before dinner. I love spagetti, but Joe doesn't like it so much. I got about 4 quarts of sauce in bottles for the freezer and that will make an easy meal every so often.

I just left the computer sit - not hooking it up - and spent time wondering if I wanted to just toss the whole thing into the garbage barrel. Discouraged. This job of sorting out the photos is so overwhelming, and my question of whether there is an easy way to organize them was "no". They all have to be looked at and compared one by one by one if I want to make sure I don't delete something I want to keep, and only delete duplicates. The reason is every time it copied, it was give the picture (file) a new name. I have already deleted some old text files I know I don't want anymore. So that will be an ongoing thing for some time.

Note from Judi

Saturday Morning 8:44AM
I just talked to Lynn and, as you know, her computer is being repaired, so no blog from her. She said I could put a note here. Everything is fine at the Thomas Ranch. Lynn said she has been feeling OK most of the time, but mornings are a little rough. Once she gets going, she is better.

Today she is meeting the computer man - Mr. Leedom - at 10am to learn some computer tricks. What a day to go to town. Rendezvous!

Judi Myers

Friday July 10 2009

Group of Antelope in the field.

Very Pretty Angus Heifer with yellow earrings.

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This is the story of a disaster that happened while I was in Pinedale. Tuesday we painted at Charm's and I finished my painting of "Bob", a many on a horse. It's taken me several years to finish it for one reason and another - mainly not sticking to painting in the oils. I was soooo happy to have it done. The frame for it was at the Arrowhead house, where I stayed on Tuesday night. I fitted the painting into the frame, and then realized that the clips and wires I needed were at the ranch. So figured I could either take the painting to the ranch, or out to the framers and have her put the hardware on the frame. I leaned the painting near the door - purpose of that was not to forget it, telling myself: "Better not leave that there". Even told myself to move it a couple of times.

So come time to leave and the dogs got excited about going and getting into the car. Sparky, beside himself as usual, knocked the painting over where it tilted across the doorway. Then I screamed "Stop!!!!!!" which scared them both. Raven jumped right into the middle of the painting to get to the back door. The bottom quarter is ripped apart from the top with four big toenail holes right in the middle. I Just said "OH NOOOOO!! I did not even say "Bad dogs". They knew I was not happy with what they had done, whatever that was. They were VERY quiet for the next several hours, ears down, eyes wide. Nothing I could do. Nothing possible to be done. Just a heart sinking moment. Well, got everything loaded in the car including the broken painting and did the things in town we needed to do and drove on home.

It's with a heavy heart every time I look at it. But I started thinking that I have repaired small punctures or tears in the past and tried to figure how this could be possibly fixed. After discarding a couple other ideas, I decided to try to glue the canvas onto a board backing. The tear except for the toenail marks is pretty straight (photo later). When Ruth got back from her weekend going to a wedding, I called her and she also thinks we can fix it and she will help me do it. She is one of the artists who likes to glue the canvas onto a backing (in this case gatorboard) to paint on that (as opposed to using canvas on stretchers). We will try to fix it at Round Hill. and see if it will work. Ruth and I are both optimistic and I appreciate her help. She know more about everything than anybody else.

Quiet morning. On Friday afternoon I used the weed eater some more, on the other side of the garage. Tall thick grass grows between the garage and the machinery shed (where the cats eat). It was slow going. So even though a smaller area, it took a while to get that down to manageable height. It feels good to be able to do some work like this, and actually accomplish something. Its not as hard as some other things, like digging or weeding. Or washing windows.

Made polish sausage and potato salad for dinner with sliced tomatos.

Thursday July 9 2009

Temple and East Temple in one photo, about half zoomed in.

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It's now next Monday, so have to go back in the memory banks, not sure what I will find..... if anything. Lots of times I can go back into my sent email and tell what was going on, but the computer was in the shop for a couple of days, so there are no emails to check.

This was probably the day that I cleaned and waxed the kitchen and utility room floors. The difficult part is trying to keep the dogs and JOE from walking across them before they are dry. Did some laundry. After lunch since I was feeling pretty good, I went out and used the weed eater on the patch of ground next to the big garage and where the firewood is stacked. It took a while but wasn't hard. The hardest part of that is winding the string onto the spool and getting it back on the weed eater. It makes sense to me to have the grass and weeds cut down around the buildings in case there is a fire after the fields get dry. The wild rose bushes in the yard are beginning to bloom.

On Tuesday morning I had taken Sparky to Dr. Susie to see if she would listen to his heart. Neither she nor her assistant could hear anything wrong and he had no temperature (the traumatic part!). She suggested getting some B Complex for his nerves, so I bought that at our health food store. And some aloe gel and digestives for my stomach troubles that I've been experiencing.

It was 25 degrees this morning. Melita said their hose was frozen last Tuesday morning too . the day we went to the last painting group meeting. This is probably about the time of spring when everything in the garden freezes just after it gets to sprouting up good. We may have had a rain shower in the evening, can't remember what day that was. It is still nice weather, warm with a cooling breeze.

Wednesday July 8 2009

More Facts for Wednesday:

• The blogger word processor is giving me fits.
• List of things to do today.
• Sweep kitchen.
• Get the protime at the clinic.
• Go to Health Food Stores to get a few things for me and sparky.
• Recycle.
• Wash Car.
• Check on computer before going back to ranch.
• Go to Dales hardware store and pick up Joe's watch which is getting new batteries.
• Water the Plants at the house again. -
• Plant two cottonwood trees I pulled up at NFLake.
• There is a great large bank of yellow daisy like flowers out near the road. A nice surprise.
• Do grocery shopping.
• Take Amelias painting to the frame shop to have the painting fitted in and
• get a wire on it for hanging.
• Possibly take the painting to Amelia on the way home. She lives over at Big Piney.
• Drive back home.
• Put groceries and everything else away.
• Fix dinner, etc.
  

Tuesday July 7 2009

This color is not the dirt. A week or so ago all the hills were green bottom to top. This is grass or a plant which turns a magenta color when it matures and goes to seed, and covers mainly the south facing slopes. A slope facing north will be green. In these two pictures I think it's awesome because of the color reflected into the water.

Looking toward the outlet of Boulder Lake and the Wyoming Range to the West.

Mountains to the east of Boulder Lake

More purple grass.

JUST THE FACTS:

• Up by 6 a.m. to get ready for a long day.
• Showered and fixed some breakfast, taking egg sandwich and cup of hot tea to eat along the way.
• Gathered up paint supplies, recycling, and necessary things for overnight stay at Arrowhead house and loaded all into SUV. Took dogs.
• Put mail to go into the mailbox and received prescription (yea! only one pill left) and some bills.
• Drove to Dr. Susie's to get Sparky's heart checked and both she and her associate say his heart is o.k. She recommended getting some B complex for his hyperactivity, barking and panting.
• Beautiful Drive up to Charm's at Boulder Lake to paint with the friends, took a few photos of the lake on the way.
• Finished Amelia's painting finally - I won't say how long it's been in progress- and worked on a new piece of pack horses going over Jackass Pass.
• Charm let Sparky and Raven sit with me in the shade on her deck and they were happy puppies to be included.
• Charm prepared us a really nice lunch of Mexican Hot Dish, Mango Salsa, Sauteed Yellow and Green Zucchini, Garnished with Lettuce, oranges and strawberries. Wine or Raspberry Lemonade, and Lemon Bars.
• Stayed too long, just having too nice a time, and was late getting to Pinedale for an appointment with the computer man.
• Had to drive up to Arrowhead to get the software.
• He spent about an hour and a half getting a history and seeing what he needs to work on. I think I made him late going home for dinner.
• I was too late to get the protime at the clinic.
• Got a cheeseburger and fries for dinner.
• Received a phone call for Clyde, "Wrong number", "Oh, maybe you can help me. I'm a handicapped man ......", CLICK!
• Used the Dyson vacuum to clean out the inside of the car, which was getting pretty hairy and gravelly. Driving with the windows down created a disgusting eddy of dog hair circulating in the air. Have to keep spitting it out.
• Cleaned the windows inside and dusted the door panels and dashboard.
• Watered the plants in the yard.
• All the plants Lois gave me are doing well so far, even the two aspen trees.
• But guess what! It looks like the gophers ate all the tulip bulbs - there are holes where the bulbs were planted.
• Still have those cottonwood sprouts to plant, they are in rooting hormone water, but I don't know where to put them.
• Put Amelia's painting in a frame, but don't have any clip-its to fasten it in.
• Worked on one of the issues with the blog. I signed up to be a follower on Betty's new blog, and clicked on a few "accept" buttons I wished I hadn't after reading the fine print of the privacy statement (they can do a lot with your account that I DON'T agree with), so spent quite some time to finally get back out of there. Will try it again later, without the accept buttons.
• Paid a couple of bills online.
• Decided to blog on the laptop one more time for today's journal.
• And will do a little entry for tomorrow.
• After that won't be able to blog until I get the computer back.
• I decided not to take the laptop to the ranch - too much hassle with the disconnecting and all the cords etc.

Another Poem by Mary Oliver to Share

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WHITE FLOWERS
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Last night
in the fields
I lay down in the darkness
to think about death,
but instead I fell asleep,
as if in a vast and sloping room
filled with those white flowers
that open all summer,
sticky and untidy,
in the warm fields.
When I woke
the morning light was just slipping
in front of the stars,
and I was covered
with blossoms.
I don’t know
how it happened—
I don’t know
if my body went diving down
under the sugary vines
in some sleep-sharpened affinity
with the depths, or whether
that green energy
rose like a wave
and curled over me, claiming me
in its husky arms.
I pushed them away, but I didn’t rise.
Never in my life had I felt so plush,
or so slippery,
or so resplendently empty.
Never in my life
had I felt myself so near
that porous line
where my own body was done with
and the roots and the stems and the flowers
begin.
.
--Mary Oliver