Okay, I confess. I am not YOUNG anymore and sometimes I do miss the good 'ol days. OMG - I've become my grandmother. HA So come along for the ride and hope you enjoy our little bit of heaven in Wyoming.
Moved to Wyoming from Iowa when I was 12. Married to my college sweetheart and best friend, Tony. Two boys both grown with wonderful wives and two darling granddaughters and one wonderful grandson. Now retired and living on our small place in Wyoming. Life just gets better!
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'.
Coming home from a wedding Sunday we were treated to a very rare sight in our parts -- Wild Turkeys! A whole flock of them, probably 25 or 30? right next to our driveway. I looked on the internet and I think they were Merriam Wild Turkeys and hopefully they will stick around. They were beautiful birds but sadly, I did not have my camera with me. So no pictures of 'our' turkeys. But this is what they looked like.
Hubby says he can hear them gobbling up in the trees just across from our fence line so we think they are breeding up there and maybe, hopefully, will raise some lil' turkeys for us to watch this summer!
The Turkey Love Hill in the Background -
This Picture was taken several summers ago and is Hubby bringing in our Morgan mares.
The wildlife in Wyoming is what makes it worth living here. Certainly isn't the weather sometimes. Today the wind gusted to 65 mph!!! I think the turkeys are hunkered in. I know we are. We were without power for over two hours tonight.
The good news is Spring must be here. The other morning as I left for work I had one of these on the front porch.
The Bluebirds show up in the spring but don't seem to stay. We see them a few times and then they are gone. The blue always startles me when I first see them as so many Wyoming birds are brown to blend in with the landscape.
No sign of Mr. Coon. He must have been as scared of me as I was of him in that chicken coop! Maybe I need to put down the pistol and pick up the camera in case I see those turkeys again.
Do you know the song "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer on her way home from our house Christmas Eve??" Well they found poor Grandma dead as a doornail after the wreck between the two houses.
Well I was ALMOST a victim like poor Grandma. I went out to feed my chickens after work the other evening, reached in and grabbed my feeder and THIS GREETED me and ran out and across my Foot....
I was lucky it didn't run up my arm and attack me! Wild racoons can be very vicious. And are known to carry rabies. Mine was a young one - maybe last summer's baby - and all it wanted was Away From Me! Probably a good thing it found it's hole because I was looking for ANYTHING to whack it with; which may not have ended up in my favor. And where were the dogs? - with hubby feeding. I was on my own.
And then I noticed the poor ravaged half-eaten body of one of my two remaining buff Orphington hens.
Oh poor henny ... she is up at the great egg crate in the sky now! She is the light tan one in the picture.
So now when I feed I will be packin' as in .22 pistol. Mr. Coon, you are in my sights and that ain't good for longevity! Trust me. I will get YOU! Oh and I did pay attention to the very small hole you squeezed through getting out of my chicken run. It doesn't exist anymore.
Yurs Trly,
Grandma Annie Oakley Sears aka Dead Eye
When #2 Son lived in the Rugby House; he became the possessor of a fine adornment. "THE NOSE"
Let me describe "The Nose" to you. It was a set of Groucho Marx Glasses only instead of a 'nose' it had a most life-like reproduction of a male appendage -- you get the picture. A Dick nose.
So just imagine it. Now the Rugby House college kids had a Fine time with the Nose and were discreet with it Until (oh there's always an until isn't there when it comes to young men and a limitless supply of beer!) one of them in their drunken stupor wore the darn thing over to the Local Gas Mart on a munchies run.
Local Gas Mart Momma had problem with the Rugby House and was a tad crabby about them. Seems she thought the Rugby friends (mostly ladies) ought to park their cars somewhere other than her Huge Expansive parking lot when visiting (ie partying) said Rugby House. She had complained to local Cop Shop on several occasions and required they move their vehicles over to the mini postage stamp parking space available at the Rugby House. The boys took it in stride as their temperments were blunted at the time usually by the effects of copious amounts of beer. In other words they laughed if off. For my part I thought she should have been more forbearing as they were all living off the junk food in her establishment.
Well the NOSE got the best of Local Gas Mart Momma and no sooner had the bearer (or wearer in this case) gotten home with his bag of munchies and The Local Barney Fife showed up on the doorstep demanding THE NOSE. The boys professed to not know anything about it but Barney persevered until the boys sadly complied and watched THE NOSE depart.
And Where did #2 Son obtain this wonderful set of glasses to begin with? FROM HIS FATHER!!!!!
I bet the Boys at the Cop Shop had a Grand Time with Those Glasses. In fact I saw one of them yesterday and he looked like the guy above.........with a small difference in the area of the nose. I'm sorry Mr. Marx, you probably deserved a better legacy than The Nose but sometimes in Life you get what you get.
Well I've mentioned the Rugby House a couple of times and thought I would tell you about the Sport of Rugby. #2 Son had dreamed of playing Football in College; not something that I really wanted to see happen and it did not. Therefore, he was about to embark on a few summers of Rugby for his sport of choice which was a good excuse to drink beer and lead a decadent life-style while in college.
Tips for Mothers: First of all if you cannot stand to see your #2 Son knocked senseless repeatedly, do not go to the games. Other than that, and the lifestyle that went with Rugby (which includes copious amounts of beer, lots of women, and more beer), I did enjoy the games. Frankly it made more sense to me than American Football. For one thing it was not a mish-mash of physical tackles, first downs, guys with chains, guys with flags, and all that stuff,. Nope, the moves in every rugby game were pretty much the same and consisted of:
1)Time Out.
#2 Son discovers drinking copious amounts of beer does not add up to Good Stamina.
(#2 is on the left clutching his knees and gasping )
2. the PILE- UP.
The Dog Pile--there's ball under there somewhere.And maybe #2 Son......
3. Discussion with Your Teammates...or AT THEM.
#2 Son doing what he always was good at -- Heated Discussions!
(He's a Lawyer now - go figure, huh?)
4) The Scrum.
A Scrum with the ball in the Center on the ground. Somehow they
figure out whose team gets the ball from this, but I'll
be jiggered if I can tell you HOW.
5) Pushing The Team - to get the ball moving forward towards a goal.
Yoo-Eeee-Ohhhh. PUSH THAT LOAD, PUSH THAT LOAD!
I enjoyed watching the games as the summer went by. We didn't go to them all but did manage to attend all the Home games at Nowhere.
AND THEN (oh you knew there was going to be an AND THEN didn't you?) someone made their first rugby goal. They all gathered around at the end of the game, (looked kinda like the Scrum) started chanting and stomping like aborginals on the African plains, AND THEN.....
A totally buck-naked rugby player dashed out from the "Zulu Dance" and ran pell mell around the goal posts which was about the length of a fifty-yard dash and headed back to the circle of the Zulu Dance and it's screening abilities in order to become presentable in polite society again.
My jaw was somewhere around my knees. After the Team congratulatory line .....
Apparently Modesty and Rugby Player does not go together.
I said to #2 Son, 'WHAT in the Sam-Hill was the deal with the naked guy?'
'Oh,' he replied. 'When you are a new player and make your first goal, you have to do the Zulu Dance, which is stripping in the center of the dance circle and making on lap around the goal post.'
"WAIT," I screamed. "Did you not tell me you made your first goal last week in the South of Somewhere Game?"
"Yeah," he replied with sly grin.
SON, Here's an epistle for you. Your Mother does NOT EVER want to see the Yoo-Hoo she used to diaper bouncing around a grassy field in front of one hundred people. NOT EVER. Got it?
