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…..