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.