breathing through a clogged straw....

sunrise on my street!

I’ve been living the last few days at its basest level…sleep, eat, take pills, converse with Rob for a few minutes and repeat, it seems. Just when you think you’ve got the whole sickness thing down, you get thrown a loop to see how unfunctional you can really become. I don’t know what I picked up back east on my trip but it is a doozy, let me tell ya.

It all started about Monday afternoon, when I was doing laundry and I bent over to put more clothes in the dryer and it felt like my head and the rest of my body didn’t want to come back up with me when I went to stand back up. You know, that weird dizziness that heralds an alarm that something just isn’t right.  That was shortly followed by the beginnings of a headache that has now turned into a continuous dull roar that analgesics aren’t touching.  Then the lovely body aches started, along with the chills.  The last thing to manifest has been this lovely inability to breathe or rather the feeling that I am breathing through an ever narrowing straw. Now, just a trip to get a cup of tea or to go to the bathroom seems like something I should require a field trip permission slip for.

I went to see my doctor on Wednesday, mostly because Rob insisted. I have a feeling this is some kind of virus and we all know that there’s really nothing to be done with them except wait them out. She gave me one of those z-packs of antibiotics, checked everything and told me that if I continue to get worse after the pack is done, I need to get back to her.  My O2 sats were low but not critical then, but I can tell you right now those darn pills have done nothing, just as I suspected they wouldn’t.

As to the cause of all this, there are many things it could be.  I was back east, in a heavily wooded area where my Mom lives and I got bit by about a zillion mosquitoes.  That’s bad enough, as I have almost an allergic reaction to the bites, they turn into huge sores, even when I don’t scratch them.  These guys seemed to almost like the bug spray I was constantly putting on, too, it didn’t faze them! This year is supposed to the worst ever for West Nile Virus, so I’m very worried about that as a possibility. Also, my mom informed me about halfway through our visit that there had been a deer mouse infestation in the motorhome we were staying in so there’s always a possibility of Hantavirus from the dust they left behind. And, of course, there’s all the strange hotels we stayed in on the way there and back that could have been harboring who knows what.

Some people say I overreact to all these things, but this is how I’ve kept myself as healthy and alive as I have for so many years. I’m a little OCD when it comes to staying away from germs, but it has served me well and I don’t care what people think, as long as I’m alive to keep having them harass me about my idiosyncrasies, it’s all good.

So, I guess I’ll be calling the doc back today, since it is Friday and we all know that if things are going to get worse, they will over the weekend, good ole Murphy’s Law. I don’t think there’s much she can do at this point, except maybe give me some sort of inhaler. We’ve still got days and weeks before some of the tests we’ve done come back.

Rob has been an absolute doll, cooking for me, keeping the house as clean as he is capable of, with all the work he has to do and calling me from his job every few hours to check on me during the day. Thistle, young as she is, has also been just a perfect little puppy, mostly staying with me, sleeping on my lap and really being a good girl. It’s like she knows I don’t feel well and so she’s on her best behavior. The only thing she’s gotten into is a few of Rob’s socks that he left laying around upstairs.  She’s been bringing those down to me sporadically, I think in an attempt to manifest Rob out of one. She never chews them, just carries them around, the little turd.

Well, I’ve complained enough and I really hate writing on my laptop, which I’m forced to use right now as the office seems just a little too far to travel to, even though it’s only about 20 feet from my chair. It’s Friday, and I do plan to go down to the Moose and visit with my friends for a bit tonight, come hell or high water.  I’m going to go insane if I have to sit here much longer by myself.  I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, get out and enjoy the fresh air for me.

The Yingling Circus returns......

Everyone digging into fresh steamed crabs!

I feel like I’ve been traveling for months right about now! We finally made it home from our east coast trip yesterday and I felt like I was still driving in my sleep last night. Every time we go back, I swear the traffic is exponentially worse. It was certainly worth it, however, to see family again.

We all gathered at my Mom’s house in Westminster, Md to give her a memorable 75^th birthday and to give my Aunt Becca a memorable 60^th, as well, and I think we accomplished our goal. My cousins, Camille and Libbie were the first to arrive, beating me by a day, arriving from Ohio.  Libbie could only stay until Monday morning but it was so awesome to see her.  We were talking and I don’t think we’ve actually laid eyes on each other since we were teenagers. She hasn’t changed a bit, still a beauty and a great conversationalist, as well.  Camille and I have always been joined at the hip, even though, we too, haven’t had a lot of face time over the years. 

My cousin Rick and his wife, Shawne, picked up Becca at the airport on Monday, kept her to themselves for a day and brought her to the festivities on Tuesday.  We figure it’s been at least twenty years since Rick and I have seen each other, as well. I spent a good deal of the time he was around, trying to convince him and Shawne to come out here to Buffalo for a visit.

The last to arrive was my Uncle Kip, from Georgia.  He had to miss some of the fun as he runs a newspaper and couldn’t leave town until it had been put to print. He’s looking as handsome and debonair as ever.

L to R :  Rick, Mom, Me, Becca, Camille, Kip

We had a great time all week, running all over, eating everything in sight, shopping our fool heads off and catching up on the family goings ons. I am lucky to have such an intelligent bunch of folks I’m related to, the conversations were fun and we laughed our fool heads off!

I did manage to sneak in a fabulous sushi lunch with Mom and Camille and on Thursday evening, Rick and Shawne brought some live crabs over and we steamed those suckers up for an old fashioned crab feast.  I am proud to say that I haven’t lost my crab picking skills and while everyone else was busy talking, I was busy picking and eating all the crab I could stuff in my poor little western mouth.

Sisters Debby and Kathy and Rob's Mom Eva, with Rob

While I was doing all this visiting with my relatives, Rob spent almost all of his time just down the road at his sister’s house, visiting with his Mom and sisters. He kept Miss Thistle with him for the most part, as well.  Thistle had a blast visiting with her grandmas, being spoiled rotten, of course. At Mom’s house, she had 6 Tibetan Spaniels to play with.  They were all so cute together, the Tibbies are all only about 8 pounds apiece, but that didn’t stop them from enjoying the 70 pound Golden!

Mom's gaggle of Tibbies that played with Thistle

While we were there, we also had a chance to stop in at our old American Legion where we used to be officers and saw a lot of our old friends.  One of my girlfriends, Stephanie, had called everyone for us and told them to come down and we were overwhelmed at the turnout. Even “Uncle Fester” who is getting up there in years and now walking with a walker, showed up to say hi.  My bestest friend back east, Paula, was there, as well.  She brought her daughter, Cassie, who is now 3 years old and quite a little lady.  To keep her entertained, I danced with her half the night and she’s quite a good little rock and roller!

All in all, it was a fantastic visit, although I must admit I’m glad to be back out of the humidity. I had forgotten how freaking hot and humid it is back there! We dropped Camille off at her sister’s in Columbus on our way home, so I even got a little extra time with her.

So, we’re back and back to the grind.  My little ATV was in the shop getting turn signals put on while we were gone so I have to go pick that up this morning.  There’s already a little nip in the air in the evening here, signaling that summer is almost over in Wyoming.  We got home to a fully loaded veggie garden and went right to work picking the fruits of our labor.  The corn is ready, great timing actually.  We called Bob and Beth and gave them a 5 gallon bucket of corn yesterday afternoon, along with just about everything else we have growing. Bob brings Rob firewood off the mountain and in return, we give him veggies, but most importantly, the corn.

I had hired my girlfriend, Rebecca’s, son, Colby, to water the gardens and flowers and lawn while we were gone.  He’s eleven and quite a little businessman. This was his first garden to take care of and he did an excellent job. He came running down the hill as we were unpacking the truck, eager to get paid “real money” and find out if he’d done a good job.  He wouldn’t even accept the cash until we had walked the whole garden and he’d pointed out everything he’d done….so cute. He was tickled pink when I gave him a bonus for doing such a good job. He’s already looking for other things to do around our house for more spending cash.

We did have one tragedy while we were away. We had a couple that was here visiting from Maryland, who were planning on retiring here next year. They had already bought a lot and were working on it. Well, right after we left, Bill and Cindy were out at their lot doing some work and Bill started not feeling well.  Cindy took him in to the hospital and his kidneys were shutting down. They ended up life-flighting him to Casper and his aorta burst and he died. Such a horrible thing to have happen!  Luckily, Karen Henry, from the Blue Gables, was able to go with Cindy to Casper, so she wasn’t alone through all that. Bill did say that he didn’t want to go back to Maryland, but I don’t think this was what he had in mind. Such a funny, warm man, we’re really going to miss him. I’ll be calling Cindy in a few days. I have no idea if she is still going to continue with their plans now that Bill’s gone….poor dear.

Anyway, time to get my butt in gear! Got a lot of soggy east coast humidity to get outta my laundry and get the house back in shape.  The next few days is going to be all about canning green beans, I think!  Have a fantastic day and week.  Be kind and loving  and know I’m thinking about you!

the Yingling Circus rides again!

Full moon out at Mtn Plains Heritage Park

Okay, things are in crazy mode around the Yingling household as we prepare to take off to see the family back east day after tomorrow! I have all kinds of boxes and stuff lined up by the front door, ready to be loaded in the back of Rob’s truck so that we can get this show on the road. At least we are going in the middle of summer this time so I don’t have to worry about the different climates between here and there, it will all just be hot, hot, hot between Buffalo and Westminster. I still feel like we are taking our entire wardrobes. Rob is actually worse than me when it comes to clothes.  Well, that… and he has to take a cowboy hat and a pair of boots for just about every occasion! I tend to not take enough and he tends to take too much.

It will take us 2 ½ days to get there and we always make excellent tracks across the nation. On Friday, we’ll leave around 5 a.m. and make it all the way to Waterloo, Iowa. We’ve got a great route mapped out we take every time that keeps us from hitting any big cities except Indianapolis the entire way there. We go all the way across South Dakota (and it’s a BIG state) on I-90 and then part of Minnesota and then drop down I-35 into Iowa to catch I-80, then we finally catch up with I-70 around Indianapolis and that leads us practically to my parents.  The second night we’ll stay in Wheeling, West Virginia and then it’s just a morning’s drive into western Maryland to get to the folks.

Rob and I are great travelling companions, we always manage to have a blast.  He’s got a zillion cd’s all ready to go for our musical accompaniment and I’ve got bags of munchies to keep his tummy entertained. Thistle has the entire back seat of the truck to herself, complete with bones, toys and her little cooler she likes to drink out of while on trips.  She’s already become quite the seasoned traveler.

So, today, my assignment is to go wash the truck and vacuum out all the dog hair (well, we are at least going to START hairless), get the ice for the cooler and bring all the bags down for packing the truck. I also have to make one more stop at Big Horn Meat to get some more Happy Sticks to take back because I made the mistake of buying three packs of those for the trip last week and we already ate them.  Happy Sticks are big, juicy spiced Buffalo meat sticks they make here in town and they are awesome. I should have known not to get them ahead of time. I’ll have to hide them so Rob doesn’t eat them on the trip. He has a bit of a jerky/sausage fetish, I used to but I’m a vegetarian now. I have to wait until tomorrow to get the dry ice for the elk and lukanka that we are taking along, though, just to make sure it will keep things frozen throughout the trip.

Was talking to Mom yesterday and she has arranged it so that I’ll be able to see my grandmother, Dee-Honey (that’s what Rob and I call her as she always calls and says “Hi, it’s Dee, honey) who is actually my step-dad’s Mom, the first evening we get there on Sunday.  The family dynamics are a little unusual.  You see, my mom married Steve, my step-dad, when I was 17.  At the time, Mom was 37 and Steve was 27. So, Steve is really not even old enough to be my dad, he’s only 4 years older than hubby, Rob! That means Dee really isn’t old enough to be my grandmother, either, because Steve is her oldest son. Did you get all that? Mom and Steve met in law school while both attending U of Maryland back in the 70’s. Steve has been more of a dad, though, than my birth father ever was.  I just love him to pieces. He put up with a pretty angry teenager when they first got married and I’m still trying to make up for it with him 35 years later.

Mom, Becca, Me and Camille

Anyway, I’m getting really jazzed.  My aunt Becca, who is only a few years older and my cousin, Camille, who is 4 months younger than me (although she’s actually my Mom’s cousin) will be the first to arrive after we get there.  I have a feeling us women won’t get a lot of sleep that first night as we always have to stay up and yak forever. The rest of the family will trickle in after that. The only thing I hate about these visits is that Rob and I don’t get to spend very much time together.  His two sisters and Mom also live in Westminster and he’ll be spending most of his time out at his sister’s, where his Mom lives, while we’re there.  Last time we were there, I only got to see the sisters for about 15 minutes when I was picking him up. 

Okay, I’m probably boring you like crazy by now. I’ll catch you all up on the visit when I get back.  Keep your fingers crossed that my health decides to cooperate for the next couple of weeks.  My MS seems to be acting up and I’m taking my trusty cane along because my legs keep giving out on me at odd times. My darn tumors are also giving me fits, despite my being really good about my nutrition, I have a constant ache in my kidneys where they are pressing against some nerves right now. I was really hoping they’d have decreased in size by now, but they are taking their sweet time this go around. I may come back worse for wear because I told everyone not to worry about my dietary restrictions, they are just too hard for others to follow.  I’m taking along as many fresh fruits and veggies as I can to not be a pain in the butt for others but….

Okay, folks, see ya on the flip side!  Have a magnificent couple of weeks.  I’ll be posting on FB, but not on here.  Stay true, be nice and love others!!!

 Oh, just a side note...thank you all my readers all over the world!! Just looked at my stats and I hit over 20,000 reads from 16 countries!! A huge shout out to my friends in Israel and Australia, who are the bulk of the out of country readers!!

we survived....

Thistle with her cowboy rider waiting for parade to start

Fair and Rodeo week has been safely put to bed now for another year. What a lovely week it was! It is always the most fun but also the most exhausting week of the year, in my humble opinion.  There’s almost too much to do. I’m getting to that point in my life, at least, where I don’t have to participate in every little thing, so that really did make it quite pleasant, however.

There were two dances downtown in as many weeks. There was always, and I mean, always, something to go see down at the fairgrounds, whether it be watching the kids from 4-H show off their skills with their livestock in the rings or checking out the entries from the community in the open class exhibits.  I used to put entries in, winning gobs of ribbons every year for my jellies and canned vegetables but I quit after I finally won Best in Show a few years back. It was nice this year to see a lot of new, young names filling in the gaps.

The Parade on Saturday was a huge success! The theme was “Dancing with the Steers” and in true Buffalo fashion, was enormously funny, with really original floats that had people laughing like crazy. Since I was actually in the parade this year with Rob and Thistle, I’m not quite positive how many entries there were but I’m thinking it was way over 50.  We were number 34 in the line.  Of course, it is an election year, so there were a lot of politicians making the parade longer.  Senator John Barrasso even came and had breakfast with us at the pancake breakfast downtown before hopping into his own antique car to join the parade. And, man, you couldn’t have asked for better weather! When the parade started, it was a cool 62 degrees with a nice breeze blowing. Usually, it’s closer to 100, and everyone is baking!

We started out the parade with Thistle looking fabulous in her steer horns and saddled bucking cowboy on her back.  That didn’t last through the parade, though.  For one thing, we found out that she really likes to bark and growl at horses, of which there were many in the parade. She kept knocking her little rider off her back, twisting around in the back of the ATV to get a better barking spot for the horses as they trotted by while we were waiting for our turn to join in the parade line. Then, somehow, she knocked off one of her steer horns about halfway through the parade. I had been worried about the heavy sequined dress I was wearing being too hot, but that was taken care of by the unusually cool weather, so I was not stressing about Thistle losing a few items.  All of the little kids along the route waved like crazy to Thistle and she performed quite well once we were underway. Having the little ATV in the parade was really fun because I was able to drive in sort of a zig zag fashion to get up close to all the little kids lining the street.  The coolest thing was that we were lined up directly behind the high school marching band so we had fabulous music accompanying us the entire route.

Young contestant studying her competition

After the parade, we rushed home to change and headed back out to the fairgrounds for the rodeo. It was a great afternoon of watching calf scrambling, steer riding by the kids, pole bending, rescue racing, as well as the usual events you see at all rodeos.  It was looking like it might be one of those accident filled days, however.  First thing they do is have an “Empty Saddle” memorial for folks who have been a part of the fair and rodeo community and have passed away in the recent year.  They have a friend or relative come out on horseback, with a empty saddle horse in tow, and have a nice memorial speech about each person’s contributions to the community. As they were leaving the arena, one of the riders got bucked off her horse and the ambulance crew had to come out and escort her off the field.  Not ten minutes later, during the mutton busting, a little girl got stomped by a sheep. It was not looking good! Luckily, I think they got all the wrecks over early, though, and the rest of the rodeo went smoothly. I don’t know who was providing the stock, but there were some absolutely stunning horses out there, full of fire and brimstone, making for some exciting rides!

The "calf scramble", always hilarious!

Now, Rob and I are in evacuation mode for the rest of the week. We’re leaving at the crack of dawn on Friday to go back to northern Maryland for my Mom’s 75^th birthday and my Aunt’s 60^th. I spent all day yesterday starting to round up stuff for the trip and this will continue all week. I’m taking back Moose Drool beer for a lady at the Yuengling beer outlet, who wants to trade for a case of Yuengling, gotta bring Fat Tire and a couple of other microbrews for my Dad, who brews his own beer back in MD and loves to try other beer.  I promised Mom that I would also bring elk meat and lukanka sausage for all our southern relatives to try for dinner one night and I’ll have to get some dry ice to transport that back. I also have assorted jellies and produce I’ve made or picked that will be going along. Whew!  It’s going to be great though, to see all my relatives again.  I was just down in Alabama seeing some of them but a few will be joining us that I haven’t seen in eons. 

My uncle Kip runs the newspaper down in Washington, GA and was unable to make the last trip but will be coming this time.  I haven’t seen him since his boys were little and they are college age now.  Same with my cousin, Rick, who actually lives in MD, haven’t seen him probably in over 22 years. I know that he hasn’t met Rob yet and that’s how long we’ve been together. So, it’s going to be a great time. Mom’s got all kinds of fun things planned and we were actually able to logistically fit everyone in her house without having to make anyone get a hotel room. She has a beautiful place, tucked on 5 wooded acres, just across from a nature conservancy in rural Carroll County.  Rob, Thistle and I will be staying in her rock star size motorhome that she uses for her dog show travels, probably along with one other relative, while everyone else will be in the house.  We had to do that because of Thistle.  Mom has Tibetan Spaniels that she breeds and shows and we’re a little concerned that they may be intimidated by the big galoof, Thistle, running around the house knocking over those little 7 pound dogs (Thistle is now around 70 lbs).

The trip will be awesome for Rob, as well, as his whole family just lives about 2 miles (as the crow flies) from my mom. He’ll probably be spending most of his time with his own mother and his sisters while I’m spending time with my family. We have set aside just one evening to visit with friends, wish it could be more, but family comes first on these trips.  So, I called and arranged for all our friends to come down to the Hampstead American Legion, where we used to be officers, that Wednesday night while we’re there so we can at least say “hi”.

Golly, I’m making myself tired just talking about the plans!  May need a vacation from this trip when we get back, ya think? I can guarantee, though, that I’ll be waddling back to Wyoming, stuffed with as much blue crab and other seafood as I can push in myself while I’m there! That’s one of the few things I miss back there.  My best friend back east, Paula, has a brother who’s a commercial fisherman on the Chesapeake Bay and I just know she’s gonna have some Rockfish (striped bass) for me to take home and maybe some nice picked crab meat.

Well, it’s the beginning of another week, folks! A chance to start anew and look forward with hope and resolve to making each and every day count.  Get out there and show everyone what you’re made of. Know that you got me as your cheerleader, I may not be there with you but my invisible hand has got your back, lifting you up.

Fair and Rodeo week has arrived!!!

Two teams battle it out!

Fair and Rodeo is definitely underway around here! You can always tell because there’s a crazier than usual mix of cowboys, cowgirls and bikers! Yes, I said bikers! That’s because Sturgis coincides with Johnson County’s festivities every year. Sometimes, Sturgis is on the tail end, but they intermingle at some point, always and we’re on one of the main routes to get there and we are a very biker friendly town.

Friday morning, the streets downtown were literally teeming with early morning bargain hunters, shopping for great deals. The Sports Lure had it’s usual massive sale, which I took full advantage of. They carry all the good brands…Columbia, Royal Robbin, North Face,Woolrich and a plethora of really nice western wear as well as everything you need to outfit yourself for a great hike up on the mountain.  All of the other stores, Sagewood, Reride, Artful Hands, Margo’s Pottery, Upscale Resale, the Prescription Shop, you name it….had fabulous sales going on as well! It’s also one big social get together where you usually see a lot of people who live out on the ranches that you haven’t seen since before all the lambing, calving and branding began back in the spring.

I pretty much spent all day running around shopping and visiting with friends I haven’t seen in a while.  Usually, it’s so hot, but this year, we were mercifully spared  the ridiculous heat and it was just perfect for hanging out on the main drag. I got a call about halfway through the morning that the wooden sides for my little ATV were ready and zipped up to Ultimate Outdoors and they put them on for me.  Boy, do they look great! Rob has now fastened our Wild Wyoming Images signs onto them so that we can advertise our photography as I zip around town.

Friday night, they closed the main street down to traffic and had a great band playing called Ruckus.  Rob and I were a little too tired to go down for that, as we had to be up Saturday at the crack of dawn for the Art in the Park, where we had a booth.  That was just fine, though, as our house is right on the hill above downtown and we could hear the music just fine from our living room. I heard there were tons of people dancing and everyone had a really good time.

I'm back here getting "misted"...ahhhhh

Saturday morning, we got up bright and early and set up our booth in Prosinski Park, along with a bunch of other vendors.  Saturday’s weather was much warmer, and I’m being very gracious in my assessment here….it was freaking hot! They also set up a bouncy house for the kids to play on and something I’d never seen before.  They had a big Velcro wall for the kids to play on, complete with Velcro suits for the kids to put on so they’d stick to it. Man, that was hilarious!  The star attraction of the day, however, was the firehose water barrel competition.  It’s really simple, two teams have firehoses and there’s a big barrel on a wire above their heads…the object of the game is to push the barrel to the opponent’s end with the water before the timer sounds. Since it was so hot, I kept standing in places where I could get a little of the mist while I was taking photos. They also had stick horse barrel races, which were a hoot.

The velcro wall!

We topped off Saturday by going down to the Moose afterward for Rob to get a nice ribeye French dip sandwich, along with a bunch of our friends and some nice cooling cocktails.  We had only been there a few minutes when the motorcycles started coming into the parking lot. I think there must have been 50-60 bikers coming in.  They were from several organizations and had just returned from a 230 mile “Bug Run”.  It was fun to watch Jason try to keep up with making all those French dips for everyone! He did a great job, though and I don’t think any bikers left hungry.

So, yesterday, I had time to finish up writing the wedding ceremony for the couple I’ll be marrying on Friday.  I really enjoy doing that.  So, far, everyone I’ve done this for have been friends of mine, so it’s made it extra easy to personalize.  I try my best to make each ceremony unique, especially since everyone around here knows everyone else. I don’t want to start sounding repetitive, right?  Anyway, Bobby and Carla have been so busy, they’ve been unable to be in on the planning of the vows, so it will be a nice surprise for even them.  I am even now making a copy of the vows for each couple so they’ll have that to keep with them.

We also worked a bunch on our “float” for the parade. I can’t tell you too much about it, as it’s got to be a surprise for next weekend but it’s going to be pretty funny.  The theme is “Dancing with the Steers” a take off on Dancing with the Stars and we’ve got Thistle as our main attraction as well as the ATV. The folks at Ace Hardware were giving us puzzled looks when we arrived at the counter with our implements of mass distraction that we needed to complete the float. Don’t worry, we’ve got folks that are going to take pictures for us next weekend of our entry.

Oh and almost forget…the absolute highlight of my day yesterday!  Rob and I were returning from Ace yesterday afternoon and our neighbors, the Crows, were all standing out in front of their house as we came up the hill in the ATV.  They are the folks who bought my Freestyle and they have four kids.  The youngest, Ashley, is only 3 and she’s just cuter than a bug, a little blonde, blue-eyed princess.  Anyway, she’s standing there with her big bike helmet on and I had promised her that I would, at some point, take her for a ride in my ATV. So I told her that since she had on a helmet, to go ask Mommy if it was okay to go for a spin.  She goes running at top speed into the house, screaming for Rebekka at the top of her lungs to go riding with Miss Lisa.

Sure enough, it’s okay, so we strap her tiny little body into the passenger seat and away we go for a spin around the neighborhood. I wish I could have filmed the looks on her face when we were driving around! She was in pure heaven!  Her face was beaming and she kept lifting her arms in the air like she was on a roller coaster or something! Mind you, I never went over 20 mph and we just went around the block.  The block right there, though, has a magnificent view of the town below us and I suppose, to a three year old, in an open vehicle, looks pretty awesome.  We got back to their house and I don’t think Ashley wiped the grin off her face for quite a while. Ah, to be that age again, when everything is a fabulous adventure!

Well, folks….let’s all be a little more like Ashley today.  Look at the world with fresh eyes and see the wonder in the little things.  Sit down at some point today and pretend you are 3 again and everything is new and exciting.  Drink that beverage like it’s the first time you’ve ever tasted it. We should all do that more often.  Roll Life around on your tongue and taste the sweetness!!!

mighty winds blow in....

Rob and the garden before it got big

I wish you’d been a fly on the wall last night when the big windstorm blew in! Rob was pretty hilarious! Talk about rage against the machine, he was cursing the heavens and Mother Nature something fierce.  You see, our corn has gotten over 8 feet tall now and we have to be very protective of it.  We’ve got tarps surrounding the fences on two sides to keep the wind from damaging it too much.  This year, we were very diligent and got the tarps up early, in anticipation of wind, which usually ends up with us having to tie each individual corn stalk to the next after it’s been blown into a mess on the ground.  We thought we were really clever this year. So, last night, we got one of those storms that started bending trees almost sideways. Rob started running from one window to the next, checking to see if things were holding and spouting all kinds of things that I won’t repeat here.  It was quite a scene to behold!

I’m happy to say, though, this morning, I got up and went out to look and the corn is intact and we got a decent amount of rain out of the whole ordeal. To top it off, I got an evening’s entertainment, courtesy of my ultimately pessimistic husband, to carry me through.  I don’t mean to belittle his fears, but there’s not a whole lot to be done when Mother Nature decides to do something, right?  Ya just gotta laugh.  But, the garden is his baby and he puts so much works into it.  He has the added pressure with the corn, too, because he has promised a bunch of it to a friend of ours, in trade, for firewood.  The firewood is already sitting out back and our friend is just waiting for his corn when it comes in. Rob acts like he has a made a promise to a bookie that will cut off his legs, though. Oh, and the rest of the garden is doing just fine, as well. We have so many healthy tomato plants and various squash plants that we may actually have to get a booth at the farmer’s market when it all is ready to harvest! Even our carrots are growing like they are on steroids this year.

This morning, it’s still overcast and there’s a pretty healthy wind but nothing like last night. Thistle is sitting out back with her head into the wind, soaking in all the smells.  She looks like one of the sphinxes in Egypt out there right now.  I bet she can smell dogs from all over with that wind!  The only damage I can see from my office window is that the wind did a little bending on our massive hollyhocks out front, but that can be remedied easily with a few stakes to prop them back up.

We’ll be very busy for the rest of the week getting ready for Crazy days here in town. That marks the beginning of our Fair and Rodeo here in Buffalo. On Friday, the stores here in town have massive sidewalk sales and we have a big dance in Prosinski Park.  Then, on Saturday, we have Art in the Park, where we’ll have a booth with our photography, along with lots of other vendors and they have all kinds of cool contests….water barrel races, bed races, stick horse barrel racing…it’s a hoot. The water barrel race is the star attraction, they bring out the fire hoses and put barrels up on ropes and the contestants fight with the hoses to push the barrels toward their opponents.  It’s a great fun, wet, time!

Well, I hear the mighty wind fighter has awakened so I better get my rear in gear.  I hope you find humor in the little things in your life, as well.  Life’s just too short to be a grump. Get out there and make someone smile today, even if it’s at your own expense.

crazy days of summer.....

Mormon Row in Tetons

Gosh, it’s been so long since I’ve written, I think I may have forgotten how! Darn summertime, eh? It’s been jammed packed full of interesting things and sitting still hasn’t been high on my priority list. But, Thistle and I are back to getting up at the crack of dawn again so I figured I better make good use of the time since Rob doesn’t appreciate me making too much noise at 5 a.m.

There’s been some pretty big changes in the household, lately.  Rob and I went to do a commercial photo shoot a few weeks ago over in Gillette at Destination X and I fell in love with a side by side ATV.  After much discussion, we decided to sell my big seven passenger vehicle and get one for me to use as a little “town car”. It really worked out well all around. I have a neighbor up the street who had told me about a year ago that if I ever wanted to give up my Freestyle, she wanted it, as she has 4 kids and knows what a great car it’s been(and what a little old lady driver I am).  For both of us, it was about the easiest vehicle purchases we’ve ever done so it must have been written in the stars!  They went to the bank here in town and practically got the loan on their signature.  That’s the way things work here when they know you well.  For us, it was easy peasy because we only had to scrape together the money for the taxes and tags after selling my car and were able to buy my side by side outright!

We’ve even gotten an entry with it in the annual fair and rodeo parade coming up in two weeks. This year’s theme for the parade is “Dancing with the Steers” (a play on Dancing with the Stars) and Thistle will be the star attraction.  I’m not going to tell you what all we’re doing so it will be a surprise for those of you who will be watching the parade, but it will be really funny, I guarantee!

Me and Thistle in the side by side

We also managed to take a nice, long weekend trip over to the Tetons a couple of weeks ago. We went over to get some good shots of the mountains in summer bloom, or so we were hoping.  The darn summer has been so hot and dry, though, there were hardly any flowers left. The mountains were a little hard to see, as well, as the smoke from the Fontenelle fire is still obscuring the view quite a bit.  We still managed to get some great shots, I don’t think you can get too many bad shots of the Tetons, no matter the weather.  When we first arrived over there, it was in the 90’s and we’d only been there about 2 hours when a big rainstorm blew in and dumped a bunch of wind and rain on us very quickly.  So, we ran back for the truck to keep from getting soaked and sat and watched as the temperature went from 90 to 57 in a matter of about 10 minutes! It pretty much stayed that way, nice and cool, for the remainder of our weekend.  We stayed in Dubois, which is just over the Togwatee Pass from the Tetons and about $200 a night cheaper than staying in Jackson Hole. It’s a much smaller town, a lot like Buffalo, only about 900 people.  Boy, did we have a blast there! As we were checking into our motel, the owner there saw that we were from WY and right off the bat, gave us another $50 off our room rate, just for being locals! We had some fabulous cuisine while we were in Dubois and found the local bar hangout and made some great new friends. We’ve decided to go back in September for our 20^th wedding anniversary, we had so much darn fun.  Now that we have the ATV, we’ll probably trailer that over with us and really have fun!

Our garden has also been keeping us very busy! We’ve had an especially good crop of berries from our chokecherry bushes this year and for the last week, Rob and I have been picking berries until our hands are pretty much stained purple and I have been making jelly to beat the band. It’s sort of a race to see who gets to the berries first, us or the darn birds! As for the rest of the garden, we’ve already harvested our sugar snap peas (wonderful!) and are starting to get in some green beans and zucchini.  The corn went from knee high on the 4^th of July to almost 8 feet tall as of today! It has already begun to tassle, even!  By the time we get back from Maryland, I have a feeling I’m going to be a canning fool.

That’s what up next around here…We’ll be leaving on August 10^th to go back to Maryland to celebrate my Mom’s 75^th birthday as well as my Aunt Becca’s 60^th birthday.  Looks like just about the entire Burke contingency will be there to celebrate as well. They’ll be coming from Alabama and Georgia mostly, although, my cousin Rick, lives in Maryland.  I can’t believe that after not seeing some of my relatives for 20-30 years, I get to see some of them for the second time in one year! I must admit, though, MD in August is not the ideal time to be going, it’s going to be so hot and humid! Mom has one of those big tour bus RV motorhomes, though, with air conditioning, and that’s where Rob, Thistle and I will be staying throughout the festivities. We’re driving, of course, because we always have to bring back lots of Yuengling beer, Snyder’s pretzels and Utz potato chips! Rob is also looking forward to the trip because his Mom and sisters only live about 2 miles from my mom. We’ve also already let our old friends at the American Legion in Hampstead know we’re coming so we can get together with all of them one evening while we’re there.

My health is staying pretty steady.  My stomach is still giving me a fit and I can’t eat very much at one sitting, probably a good thing, but it’s frustrating at times. I get about halfway through whatever I’m eating and I start feeling really nauseous so I have to stop. Seems I buy a pair of pants that fit and two weeks later they are too big. I really need to get to the doc’s and find out where my labs stand but darn it, it’s summertime and I don’t want to get involved in all that stuff right now.

I have one more wedding to perform on August 3^rd before we leave.  This one’s going to be a nice, small one for some very dear friends and I’m really looking forward to it.  The last one I did for Larry and Bonnie up on the mountain was such a hoot! Bonnie arrived on a 4x4 and came down the aisle of fishing poles draped in wildflowers!  It was a beautiful ceremony and there was at least 100 people there!

Larry & Bonnie's Wedding!

Thistle is finally getting over her heat cycle, by the way.  Geez, if I’d known this was going to last a month, I don’t know that I would have let her go through this (or me, for that matter). It all started on June 25^th , I know because I wrote it down.  It does seem to be calming her down, though, now that we are seeing the other side of it.  She’ll be getting spayed towards the end of September.  It’s been fun (not) trying to keep her away from other dogs and she’s not been happy to have to stay in the yard for a month except for when we went to the Tetons. Hopefully, now I can get her re-enrolled in obedience classes soon.

Well, folks, get out there and have yourselves an incredible day! I’m going to hop in my little blue ATV in a little bit and go have some fun.  With this thing, even a trip to the grocery store is a blast!