Merry Past Christmas - Thank goodness!

Ah, finally the Season of Shopaholics is OVER.  I HATE to shop.  Hate it, hate it, hate it.  I don't even like to go grocery shopping.  It's all a necesary evil.  The new fangled internet shopping has saved my butt a few times the most recent Christmas Season.  Love ya, Amazon.  Ya never screw my orders up and usually the shipping is FREE!

My granddaughter on the left, and me on the right at approximately the same ages.  My folks used the photo of me on their christmas cards in 1953.

I hate being patient and waiting in line at Wally World for a bag of dog food during the Shopaholic Marathon. I sometimes wish Christmas would just go back to being the religious holiday it should be.  They start putting out the Christmas items BEFORE Halloween now for crimey sakes.  Give me a break....

Why Wyoming is the Least Populated State in the US

Ever take water coming out of the tap for granted?  Last week we sure did NOT.

Minus 15 degrees the thermometer read December 9th morning.  Yeppers, that's 15 degrees BELOW ZERO - Maybe you've wondered why Wyoming has only 500,000 people living here.  It's because all the weak ones have winter killed.

Ah the pleasures of minus zero weather, Day One my car battery died ($134.00 for a new heavy duty one; I can now start a bulldozer with my car!!), and the shower froze up in the master bath, okay not a problem, use the bath #2 tub.

 Day Two, the sink in the 2nd bath is leaking -- oh goody, need to replace that ($34.95) when we have time.  Shut off sink. 

Day three, sink in master bath Freezes UP.  Oh this is getting serious - use Kitchen sink.....

By Day four we are down to kitchen sink and back bathtub but we survived!!!  Ah the joys of living in a lousy mobile home outside of civilization!!!  Temps above zero this week and even the forties by the end of the week! Life goes on.

EVIL Dogs! Will Trade for a Cat.

Came home from Christmas shopping only to discover the schnoodle, Jericho aka as Shitmire Macguire, had opened the refrigerator door, drug out the turkey and it was scattered (or rather it's remains) all over the house!!  Assisted no doubt by the aged schnauzer.  Jericho is not commenting on his destructive evil deed on advice of his attorney.  Only remaining decision is whether this is a capital crime or one involving corporal punishment.  Will trade for a CAT!!! (the highest insult available!)

Thanksgiving is Over! WHEW!

What is with Thanksgiving and the cooking dilemnas???  Have one of the six pies in BOTH hands, done to perfection and as I am taking it out of the oven, the cheap tin pie plate literally collaspes in two like a errant taco and the whole blooming pie is now all over the bottom of my HOT oven!!! ARGHHH!!!  Well end of using disposable tin pie plates!!  ARE YOU LISTENING TIN PIE PLATE MAKERS!!  I am not using your cheap thin pie plates anymore.  Back to my nice sturdy Pyrex ones. And out the door with the convenience.  Then to top it off, after cleaning the OVEN in the middle of this, my meringue on the sour cream raisin pies separated because the oven wasn't hot enough.....sheesh!

Had a wonderful Turkey Day with the relatives though.  I must say, I apologize to the in-laws for calling them hillbillies.  Just because their mother was born on Possum Trot and went to school at Hawg Waller is no reason to think that possibly they are descended from Ozark Hillbillies...........................

Went with the darling granddaughter and her mummy & daddy to see the CHOO-CHOO trains at the Central Wyoming Railroader's open house.  22 Trains on their set-ups in various scales. What Fun!  Thank you guys for opening up and allowing us to share your hobby!

Thanksgiving and other Family Fiascoes

Enter Young Bride into this Tale -- Married six months, never fixed a bloomin' turkey in her life.  HOW hard can that be???  Thaw it out, pop it in the oven right?  Feed entire family of in-laws (all former hillbillies so there are LOTS of them!).  Six a.m. thanksgiving morning -- wake up to having a half-thawed wet cold turkey thrown into bed with me.  New Hubby grinning like a demonic banshee yelling "GET UP AND COOK WOMAN!!"  Thinks he is real amusing.  A regular Soupy Sales that one.

(Left - New Hubby and I rode away from the church on Dog & Pepper, both were Thoroughbred Morgan crosses.  Six months Before Perfect Turkey Day)

Okay, fast forward five and half hours to Young Bride with In-Law Mother and Sister assisting in kitchen.  Young Bride takes out first Turkey, browned to PERFECTION.  And starts to take out STUFFING, done to PERFECTION EXCEPT FOR ---- the giblet, neck plastic bags in the middle of Said Stuffing!!  Ooops.  So much for Perfection Theory.

Fast forward eleven Thanksgivings.  #2 Son is scheduled for Tonsilectomy Monday before Thanksgiving.  Hubby working Thanksgiving.  In-Law says, Thanksgiving Saturday at your house.  Okel dokel.  Thanksgiving Saturday after holiday.  Gotcha.

Saturday BEFORE Thanksgiving, house is knee deep in laundry, suitcases, etc trying to get ready for hospital with #2 Son on Monday. Doorbell rings, porch FULL of hillbilly In-Laws with token food for Thanksgiving!!! Yikes!  In Law MEANT Saturday BEFORE!!!  YIKES.  Put Turkey Ham from freezer and whatever-else I can dig up in Microwave.  Have something near to Food for meal in Laundry Heaps.  Survived....barely!!  And Every Blooming Thanksgiving AFTER someone always mentions, Remember When ....... Argh!!(*&$#*)

Blessed be the Daughter In Laws

I'm such a lucky woman.  My mother wanted a granddaughter so badly.  Everytime either I or my sister-in-law was pregnant, Mom bought the cutest little baby girl dress EVER.  And every bloomin' time, four in total, we had grandsons!!

So no daughters in our household, just two lil' boys who were minature "Hubbys".  And both grew up, survived their young foolish years and married two of most wonderful women on the face of the Earth.

Hubby, Me & No. 1 Son in 1981.

No. 1 Son's wife is Perfect Daughter In Law #1 - and she loves horses.  We have a lot in common and she is just the perfect fit in our family.

No. 2 Son's wife is Perfect Daughter In Law #2 and I nominate her for Best Mother On Earth award.  I hope someday our darling little granddaughter realizes what a wonderful mother she has.  But you know, you never appreciate your own mother till You Are One!

No. 2 Son on his horse, Freckles at age 4.  Wish we still had this old pony for our granddaughter.

The girls have made our family complete.  They are the daughters I never had. They are the cement that holds our family together.  The mortar that keeps the ties strongs.

So girls, please know this.  I will always treat both of you with respect and love.  Because I know it will be YOU and not those boys will wipe the drool from mouth, make sure I take my meds and see I am taken care of in my old age.  Girls are like that!

Affectionately,  Your Mother In Law

Rub A Dub - Here's to the Scrub

Oh it's Friday the 13th -- and what am I doing?  Laundry, the every present, ever growing mound of laundry.  At least there is not so much as there were when the boys were home.  Most of my laundry is just plain dirt - horse dirt with a little cow dirt (and both can include some 'poopy' things).  But can you imagine the laundry of a gal married to a vet??? YUCK, now there would be some really gross work clothes!

It's cold today in Wyoming and you can feel ol' Man Winter crawling in.  Not too far away from this - which by the way was taken on October 11th, 2008.  It was our first snow of the winter.  This year we had the same scenery on October 9th.  But we have 46 tons of hay for the winter and a pellet stove we just installed.  So Cmon' Ol' Man Winter, bring it on!!!

Civil War, The Rebel Yell

When my husband was little, his father used to do a call he said was the 'nigger yell'.  (No offense intended please, it was what these Missourians called it).  We have always suspected it was really the Rebel Yell since members of the family had fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.   We had been told the Rebel yell was outlawed in the south following it's defeat.  And that it's true sound had been lost to history as no recording existed of it.

I subscribe to another Blog called "Old Picture of the Day" which is wonderful.  Last week was Civil War Week and one of the photos showed old soldiers of the Union and Confederacy shaking hands over a Stone Wall in Gettysburg at the very last reunion.  Someone commented that a video existed of this event and was in the Kens Burn Documentary on the Civil War and this footage contained the rebel yell.   A google search revealed the footage existed on you tube here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzOAbekZoOc

Yep, just as we suspected.  The Nigger Yell was really the Rebel Yell.  Ain't history fun sometimes!

Our son, Andrew, rode in the parade for the Salt Creek Centennial in our hometown on his horse Freckles (best Kid's horse EVER) dressed as a Cavalry Soldier.  Andy was six years old at the time and had been riding this horse for three years by himself (no foolin').  Hard to believe he is grown up and an attorney now with the cutest little daughter you could ever wish for.

Pop! Goes the Weasel

I just do not know what is about Wildlife and our Bedroom. And I'm not talking FUN like you might think.  I'm talking WILDLIFE Literally -- shortly after we moved out to our farm on the Edge of the Earth in Wyoming, we were awakened one Sunday morning by the Cat, Smudgie, walking into the Bathroom, a mad sound of scrambling, and the Cat literally SCREAMING!!!   Hubby jumps out of bed just in time for the cat to roar past him, essentially passing the problem over to Him.  He SLAMS shut the bathroom door.  WHAT WHAT??? I'm yelling, still in the bed.  There's a Flippin' WEASEL in our bathroom, Hubby says.  It stood up on it's hind legs and hissed at me.  Oh goodie, we actually have a pissed off weasel in the bathroom.  Not to nit-pick but accurate descriptions can be important under periods of extreme stress.

Mr. Weasel (from the US Forest Service website)

Well we mull over how a darn weasel could possibly get in our bathroom and decided it must have snuck up in the small space the plumbing comes in.  (AND WHERE were the border collies when this thing was sneaking up on us.  Obviously, we have some Slackers, here.)  After much discussion on how one removes a WWW (Wild Wyoming Weasel) from one's bathroom we came up with a plan.  Brooms in hand, back door open, Hubby would open the bathroom door, punt the weasel from his broom to me, in front of the back door and I would then sweep him out into the wild blue yonder aka the back yard.

About this time I had visions of me still in my lovely attire (ratty shorts and tshirt I sleep in) saying, "Well it's like this doctor. There I was, broom in hand and this weasel just runs up my leg, grabs ahold of my throat...."

Fortunately, I did not have to use that line.  When Hubby opened the bathroom door, Mr Weasel had left for green pastures without crazy cats or humans via the little door to the plumbing which was off it's little velcro tabs that hold it on.  Hubby slammed a five gallon bottle of water up against the little velcro door thusly ensuring it stays ON and four years later--it's still there.  But hey, we haven't had any more weasels in the bath!!!   The Cat is Much Happier.

Daylight Savings

This morning I go up at our regular time of 6 a.m.  Only it's NOT 6 a.m.  Because of Daylight Savings, it's 5 a.m.   Has "Daylight" Savings ever made sense to anybody?   I do not like the re-arrangement of my body clock twice a year.  Why can't we just pick a time and stay on it year around.  I vote to stay on Daylight Savings year around BTW.  Some places they never go on Daylight Savings so if the surrounding towns do; they are always out of synch!  So much in our modern society just does NOT make sense to me.
This is a full Moon on a Wintery Wyoming Day.  We are not far off from snow season in Wyoming.
I can only hope it gets very cold in January so it kills the Pine Beetles.  It may.  October 2009 was the coldest October since records were kept and broke the records of 1906!!
If you notice in my intro, I said I've become like my grandmother.  Well actually I had two great grandmothers.  One of my fondest memories is sitting on the couch in my Grandmother DeSotel's living room and we are watching the news of John Glenn's orbit around the earth in February, 1962 so I was ten years old.  The television was one of those old floor models with a round screen and of course, the required TV Lamp on top. With all seriousness, my grandmother turned to me and said, "IF GOD had wanted men on the moon, he would have put us up there!"  I've never forgotten it; it tickled me that Grandmother was so old-fashioned.
     Later that same year after I had turned eleven and my brother was eight we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa when my parents took a fall vacation away from us kids. (Was that allowed??) I remember one morning my brother's socks were not dry from being washed so Grandma put the socks in the oven and tried to dry them quickly before we had to leave for school.  I'll never forget the look of absolute HORROR on her face when she took those socks out to give to my brother to put on--the toes were black and smoking!!!  My grandfather really laughed and my Grandmother went ballastic! She was so upset she had toasted my brother's socks and the more she ranted and raved; the harder my grandfather laughed.  She stayed mad at him for the rest of the day.  Well of course, my brother had to wear those socks as that was all that was dry. He said they were pretty 'crunchy' to walk in.
Grandma and Grandpa; I did not have enough time with you and I still miss you.   Merideth

More Summer 2009 Photos

One of the things we did last summer was have several family picnics on Casper Mountain. Oh those were so fun and it's about the only time we get together to see exended family. We are thinking of setting a date for each month in 2010 like 2nd Sunday of each month.
Here's some photos of the last one in September which was rainy but we had fun anyway! So we set up the canopy outside the trailer door and it worked well.

Now there is something very frightening in this photo. It's called Pine beetle and it's hitting the forests in the West hard due to global warming. It doesn't get cold enough in the winter to kill the beetles (requires it to get to 22 below zero). They are predicting in the next 5 years 90% of the pine trees on Casper Mountain will get killed by the pine beetle. I find that very very disturbing and wonder what the future holds for us. Also Colorado is now experiencing Aspen die off (the gorgeous yellow trees in the photo) and they do not know what is killing it. That worries me also that maybe we will lose ALL the trees. They do have an insecticide program for pine beetles but it's very expensive and all the forest cannot be treated. But we will treat the trees on our small lot but it won't help the wonderful vistas we now have.

I can only hope that some day our granddaughter will get to enjoy Wyoming and her mountains the way we have. So much of it and the way of life is disappearing. One of the things I used to love when I was a kid was going up to cow camp for the summer. Now a lot of ranching families do not do that anymore. I'll post more on it on the next posts.

Merideth

My Summer

Well it's been a long time since I posted -- I thought I would share some of my pictures of summer 2009 since it is now SNOWING (*E*($#&)A#4! In October, oh I'm not ready for winter.
We took this when we went up to winterize our trailer on Casper Mountain. It's from the valley floor between Casper Mountain & Muddy Mountain.
This was taken the end of September, the aspen are still yellow but look -- snow already!! I fear it's going to be a long winter.

I have a photo editor program that will 'stitch' my photos together so this is a panaroma I did of Muddy Mountain that same day.
And I will end with this beautiful shot taken on the top of Muddy Mountain by one of our friends from California. This was taken at the end of August and is my husband Tony with one of our Morgans, Melody. Wow - look at the view from up there!

I guess that will have to hold me till next summer! Sigh.

Hope you enjoy.

Merideth
And I promise to post more often!

OF MICE AND MEN

Because we live in rural Wyoming, we have a lot of 'critters' including snakes and mice. As a mouse control deterrent ten years we got a Siamese mix cat, Smudgie. Smudgie has done fairly well catching a number of mice over the years but she has a really irritating habit of playing with a mouse for a long time before killing it.

BOB with a Mouse in his mouth

It worked okay until the last few years as the cat has aged. Now sometimes she 'loses' her prey and cannot catch it again. Which is very irritating.

Two nights ago at 2 a.m. I was jerked out of a sound sleep by the spectacle of my husband of 35 years screaming at the top of his lungs BLIPPETY BEEP BLIP YOU SMUDGIE and whaling on the bed with the handle end of a large screwdriver. A lessor woman might have thought the man was totally insane and trying to kill her. I immediately realized Smudgie had brought a mouse to bed and let it loose and it was running somewhere under the covers.

Now really, don't you think he should have warned me before assailing the bed beside me?? I don't know what protocol is here but a gentle Honey, get out of bed. There's a mouse would have been nice. Instead I get a screaming maniac in boxer shorts assaulting the matress.

It's going to take a while to get THAT image out of my head. Long story short -- he finally whacked the mouse, threw it out the back door and we all went back to sleep. )(&*$#)&@# YOU SMUDGIE indeed. That's Once.

And for whatever it's worth; the day I find a snake in my cupboards or even in the house is the day I become a City Girl.

How I got this Old

Well I'm in that post-war baby boom generation. You know the one -- the generation who is going to cause the downfall of Social Security and Medicare just like we overwhelmed the school system first in grade school and later on in college. We got blamed for it all -- even Vietnam now I think. Well pardon us -- its not our fault our parents messed around like minks when dear old dad came home from the Big TWO War. We were born and we survived.

Although there are days I can feel the road map that took me down this path on my body. Sometimes I look in the mirror and think who the hell is that old fat lady with thinning hair?

Pretty typical life I suppose - married after an associates degree in college, two kids both boys, worked part-time all my life. What's probably not typical of most baby boomers is I live in rural Wyoming, have a passion for Morgan horses, and like to write.

With demise of a newsletter I put together twice a year for ten years, I decided maybe bitching on a blog would satisfy my craving for writing. As my mother-in-law used to say, a good ol' Stitch N Bitch session.

So sit back and I hope you will enjoy. I'll go down some of the side paths that has earned me some grey hairs and comment on stuff that really irritates me.