Wyoming's Wildflowers & News from Sixty Miles North of Nowhere

I took these earlier this spring on the little lot on the mountain but just now got them downloaded from my phone to share.

This is a common flower often seen in Wyoming - Yarrow.  The white has washed together so you really cannot see the flower except maybe in the upper left corner.

Not a particulary 'showy' flower and they don't seem to take over a meadow.  Just a few plants here and there.

Then we had a member of the balsamroot family but I am not sure which one.  Maybe hairy balsamroot?  They are a sunflower.

Then there was the delicate yellow Monkeyflower.  Seems like an odd name for such a pretty little flower doesn't it?

Then we had some sort of Columbine, you really cannot see the 'tails' in this photo.

And last and certainly not least, my favorite Wyoming flower -- Lupine.  Lupine blooms briefly but 'moves' up the mountain as the spring snows melt and the weather warms.  You can find whole meadows of lupine covering the entire meadow and the smell of lupine is to die for.  When I die, throw some lupine over me to smell in eternity and I'm good to go!

View to the east of our lot showing a bunch of lupine.

I guess I could call this next photo, how to dress up your outhouse naturally!  The lupine were all over behind it.

I took all these photos with a square of about 50 x 50 feet in five minutes.  Spring on the mountain!  It doesn't get much better than that in Wyoming.

And of course the humans did their favorite thing....

Built a fire in our firepit, ate, and RELAXED.

As pretty as Lupine is and as much as found in the mountains of Wyoming, what did they choose as Wyoming's state flower?  This---usually found wizened and barely clinging to life, found in the mountains and on the plains, basically statewide which may be why it was chosen.  The indian paintbrush --

and is rarely as colorful as this stock photo.  More than fifteen varieties of Indian paintbrushes can be found in the state.  This is the Wyoming Indian Paintbrush which is found statewide at all elevations.

Hopefully I got these flowers identified correctly from a lovely little book given to me by Chestine and Teri and which I have practically worn out.  It's called Wildflowers of Wyoming by Diantha and Jack States.  A very good identification book.   

Sad news here this morning.  I had eight guiena keets that hatched yesterday and this morning all are gone.  Something got them overnight, maybe the other guienas?   The Bull Snake?  A racoon?  I don't know.  But I do know I will try to build a bullet proof cage in the corner for her to set her next nest and then I can lock her in and everything else OUT.  She's never set in the coop before, always out in the prairie and none of those survived either.  Life is not easy if you are a guiena at Sixty Miles North of Nowhere apparently.

Other news -- I am going to be retired.  They are closing the office where I work and at my age, I really don't think anyone in their right mind would hire a grandma with a 60 mile commute.  In some ways I look forward to it and in others, especially the financial end of it, it makes me nervous.  But then I won't have all the car expenses and the take-in, convenience foods, etc.  I can also garden next year and do my canning which I love to do.  And Sewing......maybe I can actually REDUCE those mounds of fabrics.  I am only one shopping trip from having my sewing room featured on an episode of Hoarders..........   And of course, NANA can be on 24/7 call for babysitting those grandkiddos.  My FAVORITE thing to do. 

Last weekend we helped build this for them.

I herded the kiddos while everyone else 'constructed' and 'cuss-structed'!!   At one point they wanted a treat so I gave them each a chocolate covered ice cream cone their mother had for them.  Grandson #1 doesn't like ice cream (WHO ever heard of that) but loves chocolate.  So he ate all the chocolate off his ice cream and wanted another.  No I told him, you have to eat all of it at which he looked at me and said, "Nana you are silly!"  Yeah, I am, kid.  You got me figured out.

Well That Certainly Did NOT Take Long....

The weather co-operated and we made it to grandson's baptism in Small Town Wyoming. We did opt to drive the four wheel drive pick-up rather than the car under the theory better to realize we could have taken the car rather than sorry we had not taken the four wheel drive vehicle on bad roads!

The church is such a lovely church built in 1912 with imported stained glass windows.  I did not catch any of them in the background darn it.

AND the pinafore/dress I made for Granddaughter at Thanksgiving??  DIL reported it almost did not fit her in the waist - it's tight!!! Wow - the lil' pumpkin is growing like a WEED!  But the pinafore is fully adjustable so all I have to do is make a bigger dress every year.  I think she can get a good two years out of it that way.

The dress needs some adjustment here Nana! Don't get your undies in a knot over it!

This is a Girly Bonnet!  TAKE IT OFF! TAKE IT OFF!

I had extra material left over - enough to make a matching blanket for Grandson.

I really enjoyed the music they had for the Sunday services in this church.  They were ALL upbeat tempo and cheerful!  Wow - being raised in a German-American Lutheran community I never knew hymns could be like that.  I always thought they were all mournful slow dirges with weird notes NO ONE could sing and lyrics NO ONE could understand written by a Johann Mendelson Straussberger in 1789 or thereabouts!  I always get a BIG kick out of Garrison Keillor and his Lake Woebegon Lutherans.  That was MY childhood!

This year's two fillies are in the weaning pen and were decidedly UNIMPRESSED with the arrangement at first. As soon as the ice melts out of their pen, we will start working with them.  Hasn't happened yet but suppose to be 40 degrees tomorrow so soon they will sporting purple halters.

Brida the Buckskin and Hi Note the liver Chestnut - both Morgans of course!

I am ready for spring, to heck with ice and winter.  Bring On the MUD!

It FID DIT! erhhh Did Fit!

Oh Man I was worried the Baptism Outfit I was working so hard on would not fit the new Little Wee Guy so we traveled 300 miles from North of Nowhere and tried it on him!  IT FIT!  Whew.  I can breathe now as he is being baptized next weekend.


I did some creative 'sizing' on this one.   I knew his current weight and length thanks to his Mother and then I modified the pattern to a long sleeve.  But not knowing how long his arms were, I googled the sleeve length for a baby of his weight and the pants length for the same -- and got results!!  Who knew you could get THAT information from the internet.  Well you can.

 

The finished suit.  The little bowtie tends to push the wings of the collar up so I think we will probably take that off.  But it looks cute doesn't it?

 

A matching bonnet.  I doubt he will spend much time in it, but when we tried it on we discovered (to my absolute horror and embarassment) that I had sewn a straight pin inside the lining. Yikes, poor Grandson almost has a new meaning for MEAN Grandma!  I brought the bonnet home and opened up the lining and removed it.  Bad Grandma!

 Grandson with his mother.  He's a stout little boy.  Since I never had a daughter, my granddaughter always felt 'frail' to me.  Like I was going to 'break' her.  Well this little guy feels normal, just like his Daddy always felt in my arms - like a little bear cub.

 Granddaughter needed to show us the new bike Santa Claus brought for her.  I am happy to say she is an excellent bike rider, although she needs a little alley oop/catch on occasion from her Daddy.

She and Grandpa had fun making snow balls and throwing them at Grandma and the camera!!  Fortunately they all landed just a tad short!

I got a real kick out of Granddaughter.  Her mother told her to go get her glasses and mittens so she went into her room and took out 'just' the right pair of sunglasses and then looked over about 3 pairs of mittens till she picked the color-coordinated pink striped ones.   My gosh, do little girls become fashion conscious  that young???  It was cute watching her decide.

It was a fun weekend, thanks to my daughter-in-law and son for the great time; and since I have enough material left over, I do believe I will make a matching quilt to the suit, and line it with blue flannel.  Putting a kid dressed in satin into a satin quilt would be like putting a greased pig into a greased tube I believe.  Tooo slippery.  They would shoot out of there like a rocket and across the floor...............

You Know You've Had Fun

When your mother gets your ready for bed and tells you in the bathtub, "Munchin, you've got lollipop and sunscreen stuck in your Hair!"  (Thanks to #2 Son for sharing this with me! This was after they spent the day putting in the garden.)


North of Nowhere is experiencing a WET and COLD spring, certainly one of the coldest we've had!

We've gone from this on May 12th to this only eight days later..........

The temperature has been very cool, however.  We've never got much above 60 degrees yet which is keeping the grass growth down.  So cool, in fact, we bought more pellets for the pellet stove as we are still using heat!  However, the predictions are for 85 degrees on Thursday.

 

Odie, our Cremello Morgan stallion.

And HOW muddy has it been at North of Nowhere.  Well if you are a White Horse, you are not very clean, at all........

But we have Canadian Geese who successfully hatched their young in all that snow and now are waddling around with their goslings, I saw the Sand Hill Crane pass through briefly two days ago, and my hens are threatening to start setting.  Yep, in spite of it's best efforts, I do believe we will have Summer in Wyoming!

The Fine Art of 'Circling' when You are Two

Yesterday we had a family dinner and our #2 son and family came up from Way Down South of Nowhere.  We got to enjoy #1 Granddaughter along with the rest of the family.  She certainly kept us all entertained.

 Granddaughter is a bubbly little two year old and she had a grand time being the center of the attraction at our family spring picnic.  She introduced us after lunch to the fine art of 'circles' wherein you twirl until you become dizzy, fall down, and laugh yourself silly.  She had us all grinning.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten my camera at home and really found myself wishing I had not!  (Note to self: do not forget it again!)

Blowing Bubbles at Easter - another favorite activity!

Then #1 Uncle Son began chasing her and they both had a grand time of monster chasing, falling down, catching each other.  Finally Daddy joined in and we all learned that it takes a great amount of squealing with delight to outwit two big 'monsters'.  I bet she slept good last night.

I can see Grandma will need to make her one of those 'twirly skirts' this summer.

As I watched my granddaughter delight in her attention from dad and Uncle it struck me what a better world this place would be if every child had the loving parents my granddaughter has!  It saddens me to think of the life the poor little Caley's and Hailey's who are in the news daily must have led before they died.  May we somehow figure out how to wipe child abuse from the lives of our children!  And to all grandparents out there: I hope you get to enjoy a day of 'circles'.

Making Memories

It's been bitter bitter cold with wind chills of minus 20 below...or greater!!! So I've had time to sew on projects and thought I would share what I made this last summer for my granddaughter.

Since I had two sons, and no daughters, I realized the wedding dress my mother and I had made for me, was not ever going to be used again.  So taking a DEEP breath, I cut it up and made a Christening gown for my granddaughter's christening in June.

It turned out wonderful and I put in a label stating that it was made specifically for her, the date of the Christening, and that it came from the wedding dress her grandmother and great grandmother had made.  I have scraps left (I cannot believe a baby's dress took THAT much material!!) to use for a second grandchild but I hope it's a boy because there's only Romper material left!!!

 

I hope someday my granddaughter will christen my great grandchildren in her christening gown -- and MY wedding dress.  As they said in "Dances With Wolves"  --- GOOD TRADE.