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!

ouch, ouch, ouch....

Cattle drive on Sunday on Hwy 16

I gotta tell ya, some days it just doesn't feel like I have the effort to chew through the straps! Yesterday, while I was working on some web stuff for Rob, my entire lower right leg evidently fell asleep, without my noticing.  Picture me standing up and whirling around to run to answer my cell phone, which I had, of course, left in another room. Kersplat...down I went with the full force of my body, totally twisting the bejezus out of my ankle.  I swear I saw the entire galaxy of stars as it felt like I did the whole crumble in slow motion.  You know what I mean, it's like you have enough time to go through all the options of how you're going to end up, but in reality, the whole disaster was no doubt occurring in an instant.

Now, it wouldn't have been so very awful if all I did was fall and sprain my ankle, which I did, by the way. I had to hit the rolling file hanger we keep near the computers, as well. So, here I am, lying in a crumpled mess in the office and Thistle comes flying over to me and plops herself snug up against me. She's bound and determined to be as helpful and supportive as possible, this being the first time she's ever heard me moaning in pain, I guess.  She patiently waited while I lay there trying to figure out if I needed to try to crawl the rest of my way to the phone for help or just relax and wait for the waves of pain to subside. I opted for the latter,  after determining that there were no bones sticking out anywhere. So Thistle and I  had a nice little spooning for about 5 minutes, which is about how long it took for the excruciating part of my ankle pain to get down to a level where I felt I could sit up.  Upon sitting, I was rewarded with seeing three great big scrapes on my knees that I musta gotten as I fell on the cork floor.  That cork is not so yielding as I thought.

I wrapped up my ankle after determining that it was indeed just a sprain.  You know, I'm an expert on ankles, having broken and sprained them more times than I care to think about over the years. Once, in high school, I was coming around the side of the building of the school, in tennis shoes, and turned out both ankles somehow, breaking one and fracturing the other! Another time with Rob, I was expressing my exuberance as we were walking across a street and I jumped up to do a "whoopee" and came crashing down and breaking ankles right in the middle of the street.  Yes, I'm a klutz, but I'm a darn good one, I don't do things half way!

None of this deterred me from getting most of my stuff done for the day, though.  I had to stop in at the Moose to see who had not picked up their auction items and run by the bank to hit up our safe deposit box for papers we need for our retired military I.D. we are getting this week.  The ankle was letting me know it was injured, but it wasn't that bad.  Having had all kinds of problems with my ankles before, I've also gotten quite proficient at driving with my left foot, does that make me ambi-ped-dextrous?

Anyway, so I got through the day just fine and it wasn't until Rob and I were sitting around last evening that everything started really hurting again. For some reason, my right hip was very uncomfortable, but I kinda blew it off.  You know, as we age, things just hurt, so I paid it no particular mind.  When we went to bed last night, though, I had to stay off that hip, as it was a little painful.

Well, I woke up this morning to what felt like a heartbeat in my hip, folks!  I'm talking that thump, thump of pain and pressure that usually indicates something really wrong.  So I slowly walked/limped in front of my big mirror and lo and behold,  I have about a dessert plate size bruise right at the top of my thigh.  I think it will make some pretty colors real soon.  I'm having a little difficulty even sitting on that side of my body this morning.  Once Rob got up, he came and inspected the area and sees a huge area that is all swollen and like I said, turning a lovely shade of purple.Guess who won't be wearing shorts for the rest of this week? I don't think I did any real damage, though, it feels like it's just one of those really deep bruises and I don't have a lot of meat right there.

Just one of my cherry bushes, they are loaded this year!!

So, I'm going to take it easy today, for real.  I think this looks like a day to maybe pick all those Nanking cherries that are ready all over the yard and start planning my jelly making. At least, if I'm doing that, I'm standing pretty still so my ankle shouldn't pound too much and I won't be sitting on my hip.

Hope you are having a better day than me.  Life is funny sometimes, it can sure tell you when to slow down, right??

helping neighbors....

Peggy and Sherry at Peg's benefit

There is no better feeling in the world, as far as I’m concerned, as the one you get helping someone else.  I have learned over the years that the best way to make yourself feel better is to make someone else feel better.

Sherry and I managed to pull off Peggy’s benefit fantastically, if I do say so myself. We had a blast together doing it, too.  Thursday, we were flying all over Sheridan, getting the last minute stuff and I think there was a special bounce in our steps, knowing that we were actually doing something worthwhile.  Sure, we were tired as heck, we’ve been working on this for a month, but every time one of us would start complaining, we’d remind each other that we weren’t the ones who’ve been dealing with constant pain and extreme financial uncertainty for months and months and this would end for us in a day or two but not for Peg.

I really gotta hand it to Sherry.  She has a lot of her own difficulties to deal with, she lost her dad this year and had to convince her mom to move into town from the ranch she’d lived in for 60 years. That may not sound like a lot, but there’s so much involved in all that. She’s been through a whole lot lately but she was the one who came up with the whole idea of the benefit for Peggy. For the past month, she’s been working all night at the Senior Center and then getting up bright and early and going out and getting donations every day of the week.  Just like everyone else in this economy, she’s been struggling herself,  but she put it all aside to help her best friend, Peg. Sherry is one of those people that would give her last ounce of energy, if need be. She’s been by my side helping me through my nightmares for 14 years and I don’t know what I’d do without her. I think Peggy is pretty humbled and impressed with her right now, too!

We went down Friday during happy hour and set up all the silent auction items in the back room of the Moose.  Sherry had gotten some festive tablecloths and it really put the icing on the cake for the presentation of the items.  We ended up with about 50 items for the bidding, exceeding even our expectations! After we got all the stuff laid out all pretty and the bidding sheets lined up next to every item, the folks who were there partying for happy hour asked if it was okay if they could go ahead and start the bidding! Heck, yes!  Before we left, we already had some items that had $100 bids on them!  Talk about taking the pressure off! We also had several people there who pressed money into our hands for Peg because they weren’t going to be able to join in the festivities on Saturday!

Saturday, we got there about two hours before the benefit was to start and brought all our salads we made.  Sherry brought a fabulous tropical fruit salad with yogurt and two huge pans of brownies and cookies that she and her niece, Shelby had made.  I brought a pasta salad, several veggie trays and a big ole bowl of fresh watermelon.  Ladies started streaming in with other wonderful stuff and before we knew it, it was time for Sherry to go round up all the donated chicken.  She picked up chicken from DJ’s, Duffy’s Bluff and the Dash Inn and boy, did that make the Moose smell good!

Melody played her heart out for us!!

Melody Larsen (Donahue) was the star attraction, though.  Boy, can that woman sing and play an acoustic guitar!  She volunteered her time and made the benefit really special and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay her. She has an amazing voice and a great variety of music she plays. She also was our announcer for the 50/50 raffle and for the winners of the auction items, tirelessly staying until the end, even offering to help clean up, which we didn’t let her do. I imagine she had enough work to do the next day, clearing out her equipment! There’s a special place in Heaven set aside for that girl, let me tell ya!

The whole thing went just awesomely!  Lots of people showed up and we even had a few bidding wars on some of the items. Peggy and John came around 3 p.m. and everyone was just so happy to see Peggy out and about for once.  Peggy, of course, spent most of the day weeping on someone’s shoulder. I think she was a bit overwhelmed by the outpouring by her friends. Word of mouth had spread to her friends in Story and Sheridan so there was a huge crowd there all day. Everyone had their fill of food and we even had leftover chicken and salads to send home with Peg and John.

The 50/50 was a hit.  I was selling them for $1 a piece or an arm’s length for $10 and I don’t think there was a single soul that didn’t get an arm’s length. I was having fun with the measurement (only one wins, right?) and really giving everyone a lot of tickets. Terry Ahern ended up winning the other half of the pot but as she said, she donated it right back because she also bid on a lot of the auction items.

All in all, I think we raised over $3,000 for Peg on Saturday.  I’m still not sure of the exact total because there’s a few people who won items that had already left and I have to go retrieve that money today. We made sure that Peggy didn’t leave the bar empty handed, though, giving her the cash from the 50/50 and the cash donations from dinner before she left. She was really having a hard time accepting all this from everyone and asking us how she was going to “repay” us.  Silly girl….I told her to just say thank you and move on.  Things like this only happen once in a blue moon and we know she’d be right there for us if we needed her so….just say thank you, get your life straightened out financially and get to healing!

Speaking of the generosity of this fine town, the fires are pretty much put out that are closest to us. The Cato fire is still being fought but it’s mostly in the mop up stages, with a few flares still trying to wreak havoc out by Clearmont.  The Otter Creek fire on the other side of the mountain outside Tensleep is finally getting under control, too. Last week, everyone here was donating supplies for the firefighters and it got so that they had to tell us to stop, they were getting overwhelmed! The last few truck loads ended up going up to Montana and over to Tensleep to help those firefighters.  There was even enough donated vitamin water and other non-perishable supplies that our firefighters have a reserve that’s been placed at the firehall in the event that we have another catastrophe. Yep, we take care of our own around here! Remember, too, folks, there’s only about 4,500 of us here in Buffalo, but when there’s a crisis, you’d think we were 45,000. Unfortunately, there’s a new fire down by Wheatland, right near where my dog breeder lives that’s getting out of control, too. I hear they have mandatory evacuations going on as of last night.  Gosh, this is going to be a nightmare of a summer, I fear.

We are already under a total fire ban, as of today, both in Johnson County and up on State/ BLM land.  Folks, that means if you are a smoker, you are not to be even smoking outside your car or with the windows rolled down! Please be careful, too, if you pull off to watch wildlife on the side of the road.  The grass is so dry, the heat from your car can ignite a fire if it touches the undercarriage. As of last night, Ucross Foundation has cancelled the fireworks show, too. I hear the Big Horn Equestrian Center in Sheridan is going ahead with theirs, I hope that’s not a foolish decision. And, I’m telling you right now, if I’m driving around and I see someone lighting off fireworks, I WILL call the cops. We’re in such a dangerous situation right now and I don’t think someone’s need for pretty sparkly stuff is worth the risk. Wait til next year, when it’s hopefully not so dangerous. I know I don’t want to be the idiot responsible for burning down the mountain or the town over a few fireworks, do you?

Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week.  We all need to be extra nice to each other right now. The heat is taking it’s toll on the whole country, but that doesn’t mean we can’t greet each other with an encouraging smile…..

fire madness....

View of the Cato fire

I woke up to burning in my throat and my eyes watering something fierce.  Thistle and I stepped outside for our morning “constitutional” and the air is just horridly thick with smoke here in town.  As soon as I sat down to my computer, I logged onto the Weather Service out of Riverton and found out that the Cato fire, which is just 13 miles north of town toward Ucross, had exploded to over 20,000 acres overnight. The winds last night were just horrendous and I imagine the fires spread with their help.

This is mind-numbing, folks.  I have friends out there who have ranches and I pray they are okay. Yesterday, the last I heard from one family, they were digging trenches around their property to try to save it and the scanner was so busy with volunteer firefighters shouting what they were doing to try to contain things, it was almost too much to bear to listen. Right now the scanner is eerily quiet and I don’t know what that means. At least the winds seem to have died down for the moment and according to the forecast will not get crazy like they were for the past few days.

There’s also another fire south of Tensleep that is over 500 acres and word just came down of a fire near Cooke City, MT.  Lordy, this is shaping up to being a terrifying summer already. As far as I know, we have no rain in the forecast, either. It’s just so sad.

On to happier news, though.  Yesterday, Sherry and I got together and went to the new Clear Creek Cantina for lunch.  We were very pleasantly surprised that the food was pretty darn good.  The menu was hilarious, I wish I could remember all the cool names they had for stuff, but whoever came up with them has a great imagination.  We only ordered appetizers this first time, choosing the “Nemo Nachos” and some fried pickles for our first adventure there. The nachos were awesome, seafood nachos with a great cheese sauce I haven’t tasted since I left Texas. They have quite an extensive menu and even have things that my Mexican food hating husband might enjoy. The Cantina says that it serves Tex-Mex and I think they may be right!  I’ll report back when I’ve sampled more of the menu.  They also completely redid the inside of the place, sprucing it up nicely.  The only bad thing I can say so far is that they haven’t got their delivery down yet, they seemed a bit ruffled and slow on service. But, they just opened a few days ago, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Sherry and I are all set for the benefit for Peg, I do believe.  I got a few more donations yesterday, including a beautiful piece of stained glass art donated by my friend Debbie, that I might just have to bid on myself! Now, we just have to get everything down to the Moose and set up Friday evening and we’ll be all set for Saturday.  From the buzz around town, sounds like we’re going to have a decent turnout, fingers crossed! I have to go pick up two more donations today and I think I’ll be pretty much done.

This afternoon, we have our second “Cash Mob” happening down at the Treasure Chest downtown from 4-6.  The last one was such a success and I’m hoping this one is, too. The Treasure Chest is an antique store and I’m sure I can find something to purchase there this evening to help them along.

Well, I have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot of time indoors in the A/C today, trying to stay out of this smoke.  My thoughts will be with my neighbors out on the prairie and with those firefighters who are risking their lives in this horrible heat to save our precious land and livestock. Please keep everyone out West in your thoughts.  There are fires burning everywhere, it seems.

Mother Nature can be mean....

My gazanias are so pretty already!

Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could take tropical storm Debby, grab it by the tail and drag it over to the fires in the West.  That sure would solve a lot of problems, wouldn’t it? So many people are having difficulties caused by different kinds of weather right now, you really wish there was some sort of magical solution sometime. It breaks my heart to turn on the news in the evening and see the folks down in Colorado and now, even in my own state, being ravaged by fire. Having cable TV, Denver is my “local” news, and I’ve had a front row seat to all the loss.

All the technology we have now and we still can’t save ourselves from Mother Nature. You know she’s gonna win in the end, don’t you? The best we can do is be prepared for whatever particular natural disaster each of our areas is prone to, but being human, we rarely think that far ahead.  It always reminds me that we are the only species on the planet that doesn’t seem to know the rules of Nature’s games.

It got up over 100 degrees here in Buffalo yesterday, and that’s very worrisome for this time of year.  Rob and I were up on the mountain this weekend and the snowpack is already looking pretty pitiful and the forest floor is getting really dry.  I sure hope this isn’t the year the Big Horns gets trimmed with fire. While we haven’t had the absolute devastation of pine beetle infestation that Colorado has had, we have been hit pretty hard, too.  There’s whole areas of dead trees everywhere, just waiting for a careless camper or a lightening strike to start off a major fire. That makes those prayers for rain a double edged sword, since they are frequently joined by cracks of lightening that could potentially start the very problem we are trying to alleviate with the rain.

I spent pretty much all day indoors yesterday. I’m one of those people that doesn’t really sweat, weird, I know.  It’s been a problem all my life. Oh sure, I get the little beads around my lips and a few drops on my forehead, but for the most part I just get really overheated and red in the face. I can’t get cooled down without submerging myself in cold water.  Heat makes me positively ill, sick to my stomach, even.  I went to a therapist a few years ago who had me using a FAR Infrared sauna to try to teach my body to sweat. I even bought a portable one to continue the treatments myself.  But, evidently, I just don’t have that capability to sweat very much and that’s dangerous when it gets this hot. So, I stay inside a lot when it gets near 100, unless I’m out where I can dunk myself in water, like the swimming pool or the lake.

Thistle didn’t seem to mind too much yesterday, though.  We had a grand time playing inside the house.  We have several “games”, which of course, I don’t quite understand the rules for, but she does…the one we were playing yesterday required me to chase her back and forth in my dressing room.  I’m so glad we built that dressing room when we put in the addition!  Jason, the contractor, laughed at me when I asked him to finish it in, saying I was going to have a very odd “closet”,  it’s 28 feet long and about 8-10 feet wide.  But, it’s great for running up and down with the dog! Not to mention we were able to take all the dressers and such out of our bedroom and put them in there.  Thistle thinks it’s her play run and every morning, when I’m getting dressed, we have a wild time in there. She can get quite a head of steam going, running back and forth in there.

Our monster closet & Thistle's play run area

Thistle is in the throes of heat and we’re stuck finding imaginative things to do around the house. I can’t take the chance of taking her for a walk and having a stray male dog find her inviting right now. I’ve got another 2-3 weeks before this is over and I can take her to the vet to get spayed. So, we’re spending our time playing in the backyard and inside for now. She’s a little upset that we haven’t gone anywhere, although we did take her up on the mountain with us this past weekend and got a nice walk in up there.  If I have time, I may try to do that today.  It will surely be cooler up there, anyway. I just have to be sure to go where there are no chances of running into other dogs, right?

Well, I’ve droned on long enough, I guess.  I hope that wherever you are, the weather is cooperating and you aren’t burning or drowning!  We’ll all make it through whatever Mother Nature has to dish out and we’ll be stronger for it. Just keep your wits about you and remember that others are having difficulties, too.  Be compassionate with your fellow earthlings! Love & Light!

monday, again???

Rob and Mr Moose

Morning, Folks! Dang it, when the calendar says summer, we sure get to summer, don’t we? Rob and I just spent half the weekend out in the garden getting the last of the darn weeds out of the veggie garden and it was HOT!  The weatherman had said it was going to get up to 100 yesterday and thankfully it only got up to 98, according to my thermometer.  That was quite warm enough, thank you!

We had a wonderful weekend, though.  We decided to go up into the mountains on Saturday morning to try to get a few pictures before the spring wildflowers disappeared and were rewarded with a few glimpses of a couple of really nice bull moose. We were really quite surprised that we even spotted them because the mountain is already getting overcrowded (in our opinion) with campers and four wheelers.  One of the moose we found was no more than 200 yards from a rather large contingent of campers and I don’t think they even knew the big guy was there.  In Rob’s usual fashion, he patiently zigged and zagged his way to the moose until he was nice and close to take some pretty awesome pictures.  Mr. Moose seemed to be very intent on eating a rather juicy crop of willows and was a lovely subject for the morning.

I couldn’t believe how warm it was up there, too. Usually, it’s at least 20 degrees cooler up on the mountain, but this weekend it didn’t really feel all that cool up there. I don’t think the wildflowers are going to do much this year with all the crazy weather we have had.  Sure, there’s flowers up there, but not the gorgeous blossoming we’ve had in past years.

After photographing moose for a bit, we came back down into town for the Living History Days celebration down at the Gatchell Museum.  That’s always a lot of fun.  They have all kinds of 1800’s everyday life things set up, like a blacksmith and ladies with their spinning wheels and such.  The real reason Rob likes to go is that the Basque Club sells lukainka sausage at the festival. After he ate several of them, we headed back to the house though, because the heat was just getting darn right oppressive. I felt sorry for the folks that were there dressed in wool outfits and those heavy, long prairie dresses!

On Sunday, we arose early to try to beat the heat and get the last of those darn weeds out of the garden. I’m happy to report that we are now weed free for the moment!  All we have left to do is put down the last of the fabric in the garden to prevent weeds from returning and we can sit back and wait for the fruits of our labor to arrive.  So far, the only harvest we’ve got is radishes and kale but I have a feeling things will start producing quickly with this heat.  I have a whole cornucopia of salad stuff growing on my deck and we’ve been having nice fresh salad fixing for weeks now, yum! I planted butter lettuce in one of my pots back in the spring and I’m so glad I did, it’s just awesome.  Of course, I always have arugula going year round, either indoors or out, since no one in Wyoming seems to know what the heck that’s used for and puts it in little tiny containers to sell in the stores.  I eat the heck outta that stuff, putting it in salads, on my sammies, you name it, I just adore arugula.

Sherry and I are all ready for Peg’s benefit, which is this coming Saturday now!  We’ve been all over town, gotten lots of great donations and will be spending this week getting everything catalogued and ready for the silent auction.  I sure hope we get a nice turnout for her so we can help her with her living expenses. She’s off to Billings again today to see if she can have that final drain removed.  I sure hope she’s feeling well enough to come to the benefit herself. I think it would do her good to see how many people care about her. I have been overwhelmed and so happy myself at the generosity of the folks around here in donating items. I hear that she’s even been getting money donations in the mail from folks that won’t be able to make the benefit on Saturday.  Makes me proud to live here, I tell you!

Well, get out there and show Monday what you are made of! Have a fabulous week and make someone smile!