The BIG Picture

Snow on the Big Horn Mountains in the distance from near our place. 

 All Photos were taken May 19 2017.

One of the things I notice when I travel back East, is once I cross the Missouri River and cross into timber/treed country, I miss my wide open skies from Wyoming.  It's almost a claustrophobic feeling like I need to peel back all that greenery and SEE what the land looks like.  I LIKE Kansas and Nebraska.

I also dislike driving to town for anything!  Intensely dislike it.  I think I burned myself out driving a 120 mile round trip commute for too many years.   After a snow on May 18th of this year, instead of driving the 120 miles, I opted for a quick trip of 76 miles round trip to a small rural grocery store.  (We had a later snow around the 24th also this year)

I took pictures of the drive and I'm sure you will see why I miss my 'vistas' when I'm in other states.

Pine Ridge from just after the Powder River crossing near Sussex.

This is Chalk Buttes near Sussex, Wyoming.

On the other side of the buttes the flat plain continues for quite some distance.  That was the location of one of the roundups in the open range days.  I sure would have like to have seen it then with over 100 roundup wagons and cowboys and who knows how many cows!!

In the distance is the North Pumpkin Buttes with snow on them.  Interestingly, Pumpkin Buttes were formed by water and wind eroding the soil around them, with the Buttes being protected by a rock cap.  I wonder how many millions of years that took!

The South Butte of Pumpkin Buttes with snow on it also.  

Road to home leading up to Pine Ridge.  Still snow on them at 3 pm in the afternoon!

Close up the snow on Pine Ridge.  Home is on the extreme left behind the ridge.

And that was my trip home from the grocery store on that snowy May Day.  It was a cold spring this year!  Snow till the end of May almost.  Now it's sunny, warm, and the grass is tall and green.

I took all the photos on my little LG Phone (not a smart one apparently) and discovered to my horror that you cannot download them with a USB cable.  It won't recognize the folder structures so I had to order a mini storage card, insert it into my phone, and then transfer all my photos to the mass storage card.  Then they would download.  Well wasn't that easy? NOT.  But I got er done!

You Know its Spring in Wyoming when the snow is up past your knees!

Boy oh boy has it been snowy this spring.

I took this one the beginning of April 

And the one below today, April 25th.   This is the old leaky stock tank I use for container gardening.  Won't be doing any of that for a while!  We seem to have a few warm days and then rain or snow for a few days, which means a good grass year hopefully.  Much better than drought although I think I prefer for the moisture to not be white!

We've had some nice warm sunny days to be sure.   Even a few in the 70's but the nights remain cold so the grass hasn't really taken off yet, although it is green and the cows have NO interest in the round bales of hay anymore.

So what do I do on these snowy days?   Knit of course.   Socks right now.     I ordered the Mary Maxim surprise sock yarn box and was very pleased.  Enough yarn for 3 pairs!

I made these for my oldest son and daughter-in-law.   All the yarns were smart wool (washable but not machine dry!) in fingering weight.  These were the first I've made in fingering weight and the yarn is like knitting with string.  You just knit and knit and knit, and you've got an inch done!  Ha.

This is the final pair from my surprise box.  Obviously, with the pink, they will be a ladies pair of socks.   I am doing a two at a time, cuff down, on circular needles.   I have two balls of yarn in the 'yarn' bowl behind them in the picture.   The trick is to keep turning them fro and then back to not tangle up the 2 balls.  It's relatively simple and I LOVE my addi circular needles.  Size 2 and 40" long. The two at a time is nice so far and then I won't have a sock with an unknitted mate!  I like to knit socks but I also like sweaters and mittens.  Hats are okay but not my favourite.

This is our new Schnoodle, Lucy.   We got her from a rescue in Torrington and love her to pieces.  She is very well mannered and so loving.   Baxter, (below) has introduced her to rabbit running and wrestling, his two favourite activities.   A Schnoodle is a miniature schnauzer/miniature poodle cross.

Baxter is OBSESSED with rabbits and a total character.   He keeps us AMUSED. He lives to hunt those rabbits.   Yesterday before it snowed and it was still pretty warm, the dogs went with Tony to feed the bull in the corral.   Baxter spied a rabbit across the pond and as soon as he spied it, he took OFF, Leapt into the air and came down into the pond with a huge splash and took off swimming to the other side.   Climbed out of the water and took after that rabbit.   Hubby said he looked like the retrievers in the dog food commercials the way he took to that water.   Lucy, however, decided prudence was more in order and ran AROUND the pond keeping herself dry.  Sadly, for Baxter, and happily for the rabbit, they did not catch him.  But it sure wasn't for a lack of Trying!

Took a trip to Belfry, Montana and picked up four head of new cows   Our herdlet is getting aged so these are young replacements.   The trip was beautiful and the people we bought them from were so very nice.  I had packed a lunch/snacks for us but Hubby kept buying jerky sticks when we would stop for gas or bathroom breaks.  He came to regret his choice of snack food that evening........................

Like the guy in the Indiana Jones movie said, "Choose Wisely."

Spring in Wyoming, Mud and Snow!

This past winter was rough, not the roughest I've seen but we had slightly over 100 inches of snow.

The lane to the Highway from the house.

It was a good thing Hubby had our John Deere Skidsteer but by the end of the winter that nice wide plowed lane was down to one skidsteer width.  YOU did NOT want to get high-centered (stuck) in it as you couldn't open your doors to escape the vehicle!!!

Snow + Spring in Wyoming = MUD, SERIOUS MUD

And we've had it although I did not take any photos.   SERIOUS MUD + Warm Spring Weather = GRASS

And we are waiting for that warm weather.  We have 'some' green grass but it's really not coming in yet as it's been too cold.  Freezing most nights yet.  We had purchased extra hay last fall and it was a good thing we did. The past few years we've been done feeding usually by the third week of March.  This year we are STILL feeding but are down to about 2 1/2 tons left.  That's only one more week of feed.  Good thing we bought 12 tons more than the year before!

C'mon Grass!  We are Ready. July 2012

Only one more cow left to calve from our 'herdlet'.  We got one fully belted bull calf that is the prettiest thing.  I will have to take a picture of him before he gets much bigger.

The 2013 Calves

Tomorrow we are getting ready to leave for two weeks for a trip to Missouri and Arkansas.  We are going to attend the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Jenkins Ferry.  Hubby's gr gr grandfather fought for the Confederacy at Jenkins Ferry and we also going to Minden, Louisana, to trace the route/steps that Julia Johnson walked to and from to get her husband, Thomas Logan Johnson, from Camp Magruder at the end of the Civil War.  He became deathly ill at the camp and was unable to get home on his own.  You can read their story in more detail HERE and HERE.

I intend to take my laptop and hopefully find time to post some photos and information about the trip as it occurs.   I haven't had much personal computer time since January as I've been so busy with work.  I am hoping to get caught up and have more time by summer.  Sure hope that's not a Pipe Dream!

Hit a pretty good snow squall on the way to work this morning!  So still not raining but snowing......

Which brings me to the question -- Do Eskimos ever complain about the weather?

I Think Fall Was

September 24th this year in Wyoming.  I missed it.

First Snow - September 26th and it was a doozy.

Then in Early October we've had one snow of about 18" (Atlas) which drove east of us and devastated the poor Ranchers in South Dakota.  Our livestock got cold but we poured some hay into all of them and they weathered it okay.

The Beginning of Atlas

Then we've had 2 more snows for about 8" total.....all of which has melted into MUD.

BUT

And WINTER isn't even here yet -- this is suppose to be FALL, where did it go?

Oh, and remember I was going to get laid off and retire?? Like not drive to work from Sixty Miles North of Nowhere and looking forward to it?  Not happening.   The gal who was going to do my job in California quit.  So they are stuck with me and I am stuck with driving.

Maybe I need to get a rig like this and pack my roads like they used to for the sleighs (I do have one).

HEIGH HO, HEIGH HO OFF TO WORK WE GO!

Well I think this should take the drudgery out of a morning commute!!!!  

I have found some interesting information on one of my ancestors and will try to get a post together about him.  Very interesting stuff sometimes!

Drive Safe this Winter....If its bad, I ain't gonna go is my mantra.

Was this ANY WAY to start 2012?

Photo is actually January 2008 - but its pretty similar now except MORE snow.  We started 2012 out with a snowstorm and howling winds which equals huge drifts.  Now that isn't so bad, that's typical of Wyoming in January.

What wasn't usual (well maybe more than he would like to admit) is that Hubby was walking BACK from the gate because his truck was stuck.  In the ditch, in the snow, up to the bed on the rear wheels.  But get this: he wasn't STUCK.  Nope, his definition of 'stuck' is you don't survive the incident.  Like in you DIE.

He'd been turning around in the plow/feed truck to after clearing some good sized drifts and backed into the 'well' alongside the road we have to catch the snow so the drift isn't so deep on the road and well he got (say it softly) 'stuck' temporarily detained.  My first clue was all the geldings standing the road looking at the fiasco like they were wondering, "What's he gonna do? We ain't been fed yet."

So first thing I asked him, what are you stuck?  Him: No.  Me: Looks like you ain't moving.  Him: Not yet.  Me:  Do I need to pull you out?  Him: Would be nice, saves me from walking back again.  Me: First you gotta say you are stuck.  Him: Nope.  Me: Yep.  Him: Okay I'm stuck.

Feed Us.  Feed Us!

So being gracious I pulled him.  And he rescinded his stuck temporarily detained statement.

Hmmmm, for clarification I give you He Said, She Said:

The Definition of Stuck

HIS - Hatchet Jack in Jeremiah Johnson, although of sound mind and broke legs, was definitely STUCK and most Frozen.

HERS - Anytime you are wallowing around in a snow bank putting these puppies on, you are STUCK.

HE WAS DEFINITELY STUCK on January 1, 2012.  I Rest my Case.

The Farmer's Almanac is Frozen to the Sidewalk.................

Well last week's Friday 'storm' was more like a Friday Iceberg...little snow and a lot of cold!  Which brings me to this little book......

Hubby claims it predicted that February 2011 in Wyoming would be fairly dry with less snow than usual and very cold.  Now I always thought the Almanac was a lot of unscientific hoo-ey???  But they sure called it right this year.  So maybe I will have to give it the un-hoo-ey award.  How about you? Do you use a Farmer's Almanac and is it accurate?

And what's around the corner for us beginning tomorrow -- a couple of inches of snow AND A Whole Lotta of Minus Zero Weather.

Well they say when the Sun Shines, Make Hay so I guess When the Cold Hits, Make..............................

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POPSICLES!

Absolutely no downward movement on that snow stick this week either --- toooooooooo cold.

Now I gotta find some craft sticks for these popsicles I'm gonna make this week......good thing I put some clear silicone on the holes in my snow boots.  Keep that cold out!

Slip Slidin' Away and Techno Disappointments

Well the Great Snow Stick Experiment continues but since I've been working the past couple of days, no new photos - it was way down past #22 after three days and now only has a few inches left in the snow but the big pile has sorda slipped down the hill so the stick is no longer at the peak anymore.

The beginning - 41" of snow

  In fact when I drove in tonight, there's only about 8" of snow around it's base.  I will have to reposition it.  We have been close to 50 degrees above for a few days so the snow that is left is very icy and very hard.  You have to be careful at our gate or you will slip on it and fall in the muck!  Yeah, rural folk are easily entertained and I intend to milk this for all it's worth on this blog  promise to keep you all updated on this fascinating project.  I have my camera set out for a photo on the way to work tomorrow.  If I am not rushing like a bat out of hell because I'm late not in too big a hurry I will stop and reposition the stick.

And minor tragedy struck over the weekend - my toilet brush broke.  I have been racking my brain to try to remember when I bought the darn thing.  I *Think* it was shortly after I was married in 1974.  So I guess the fact that wire holding it to the plastic handle finally rusted through can be understood.  Thirty-seven years is apparently the life of a 1970's toilet brush.

One thing that certainly improved over the past 37 years has been toilet bowl cleaners.  I know I used to have to get in there and really scrub and now I don't - or maybe I just don't CARE ANYMORE!!!  (I am a lot more relaxed about my housekeeping standards now that I am older--and wiser.  I have read obituaries in my local paper for YEARS and not one single time has one ever said, "She was a Rotten Housekeeper".  My point- maybe it DOESN'T MATTER!)

In high school we were required to read George Orwell's 1984 (remember that book?) which promised us all a life of leisure, luxury, little work, with a computer doing everything for us -- including monitoring our every move and taking over the world.  And that brings me to the techno disappointment.....

According to Wikipedia, the toilet brush was "invented in 1932 by William C. Schopp and later patented in 1933 by The Addis Brush Company."


So here we are - almost 100 years later and all we got was better cleaner?  We are using basically the same darn brush that William Schopp thought up when indoor plumbing was the new rage?  Nobody could come with a better system??  Good Grief, not Einstein, not Hawking???  NO ONE????


For that matter, where are the robots?  You know the really cool ones like the one that was pals with Billy Mum on "Lost in Space".  I want one to do my housework and scrub my darn toilet.


No, all we got was the Roomba that costs you an arm and both legs, and your cat can ride around on till it gets stuck in the clutter;  and the Volt car.  

That was the best technology could do since 1933????  HUH??????  I think I'm sorely disappointed.....no wait, I remember when I had NO TOILET just a few short weeks ago.....yeah, okay,  I will quit being cheap and buy a new brush and maybe one of these cute little aprons to clean in....VA VOOM!

from The French Fatrice

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...............

Can Hu-Mans HIGH-BEAR - NATE?

It was inevitable - one morning I was going to wake and see this.....

And This.....











But I really wanted THIS...

But I would have settled for EVEN THIS:

I wanted to pull the covers over my head and NOT drive sixty miles to work.  I knew the roads off The Ridge were going to S L I c K  and N A s T y.    But I had to cowgirl up and go.  I arrived at work late. The roads were nasty for 25 miles and I drove s l o w l y.

CAN HUMANS HIBERNATE?   See you all in the spring...........................

Sometimes Too Much of a Good Thing is

Well, just too much of a good thing!  We just had 6" of snow at North of Nowhere -- yes SNOW on May 12th.

It is so muddy, that today when Hubby went to change the tire on his feed truck, his handyman jack sank clean under the mud!  He had to pull it out with a tractor!  Now that's muddy.....

I stayed home from work today as the roads this a.m. were not so good as you can imagine.  I spent ALL day sewing.  Hmmmmmmm, maybe I'll retire and do that every day :)  But it wouldn't pay me enough to support my fabric habit (all you quilters will understand this!).

Grass will be very good this year, tall and deep when it warms up which it is suppose to starting next week.  The last year it was this wet as 1995 and when I turned out my bum lambs I could not find them for a week in the tall grass!  I threatened to duct tape bicycle flags to their tails!  No lambs anymore but the calves will gain good.

Seriously? This is Global Warming In Action?

Dear Mr. Weatherman:
I really felt I have been patient with you this year as we suffered through winter.  Then Spring arrived and in spite of your dire predictions of Global Warming the past several years along with the impending drought and grasshoppers, I thought we had a serious shot at a nice green spring.

I've been very very patient the last few weeks especially after the 65 mph winds you sent the other day which blew everything on the North of Nowhere Farm that either wasn't nailed down or weighed less than 50 pounds over to the east fence line.   Then this morning, May 6th, we woke up to THIS:


Two inches of the white stuff and it was cold.  Have you not heard that people are calving and lambing?  That some of us were (notice the past tense) planning on putting out tomato plants or actually trying to grow something?

So what's up with this?  Is Global Warming over and we are now living in the Land of the Frozen?  Down to a two week growing season?  You just DID this very same thing on April 30th.  Could that not have been our last snow for the season?  When is the next one? July 4th?  Are we to snowmobile on Memorial Day?  Do you think I can take the Global Warming thing seriously after this?  You are a sadistic old curmudgeon, sir.

Really, this was uncalled for and most unkind.  I'm looking for my rope........

AT LAST! End of January!

January is an unhappy month.  It's never festive enough after the Christmas Season, it's never EVER WARM enough.  And in Wyoming it's never Un-Windy enough.  You've never experienced wind until it's 10 below zero and you have a nice stiff breeze of 20 miles per hour.  Takes the skin right off your face, I tell yah!

 

And this year, January has not been SNOWY enough.  We've had virtually no snow except for this light dusting earlier in the month.  It has us all wondering if we aren't about to go back into drought.  I sure hope not.  Ten years of it was enough.

Cmon' February - warmer and maybe just maybe some moisture?

Pantyhose and Other Atrocities

Have you ever wondered what ran through the brain of the person who invented pantyhose?  Well I sure have.  I hate pantyhose.  NEVER wear them if I can get out of it.  Like maybe once in a Blue Moon and since we just had one of those we all know how often that is, eh???  For one thing, getting the bloomin' things on are like wrestling with an alligator and once they are on, I feel like Men In Tights or Robin Hood or something -- maybe a sausage with a string tied in the middle.

The recent cold snap over Christmas reminded me of an incident many years ago.  We lived in Washakie County near Ten Sleep, Wyoming, and my husband had to go to Oklahoma for training for his job leaving me and my six year old son at home to feed about five head of horses.  While he was gone, the mercury dropped out of sight -- 24 below zero and stayed there the whole time Hubby was gone!  One day just as I was tugging on a set of Carhart coveralls to go and feed the horses, the phone rang.



(This was the era when they could still telemarket the world, and junk mail filled up your mailbox every day with book offers and pantyhose by the gross offers)  Upon answering it, I find out it's a telemarketer with a decided New York accent and boy, she has absolutely the greatest deal ever for me on panty hose and she is absolutely SURE I will take advantage of the offer.   I don't wear pantyhose, I told her.  She was nothing short of dumbfounded.

Every women I know wears them every day! she exclaimed.  Well I don't I said.  Never? She asked.  Well maybe if I'm going to a wedding or a funeral but probably not then if I can wear my pantsuit, I said.  Oh, she said, surely you can't pass this up and if you only try them, you will wear them every single day!

Look, Lady, I said.  It's 24 degrees below zero, I'm in the middle of my living room dressed like the Michelin man to go outside and feed our horses and maybe try to start a truck that hasn't turned over in five days, and to top it off the snow is butt deep on a tall Indian and I'm two miles from town.  Now just WHERE do you think I'm going to wear them TODAY?

She starting laughing and said I see your point and hung up.  I went out and froze my XXXX off feeding the bloomin' horses while I had the kid plunked in front of the television.  That was approximately 29 years ago and I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've had a pair of (*#$&! pantyhose on since then.

Happy 2010 to y'all!  May pantyhose never crawl into yer underwear drawer!  Or up your butt either!And may you only have to wear the darn things Once In A Blue Moon!!!

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!