Floating Mountain

Heart Mountain floated above the horizon Saturday morning. I was headed to Cody in my elf suit to sing for Newcomers Club. In the afternoon we changed to the red sequined costume and sang in Powell.

Elves at the museum

Boot Scootin' Cowgirls of the West

Getting set up.

The show takes place in old-time Cody Wyoming. I did the backdrops, one is a scene in the Irma Hotel bar the other a street scene. The theme wraps around "the new math teacher" as she moves to Cody, finds a beau, nearly loses him and finally lives happily ever after. The music was up-beat and fun. the humor was a bit corny and fun also. We received many positive remarks afterward.

I wrote a song for the show, Women of Wyoming. Howard had me direct it.

Real reality, really

We have been watching a very entertaining reality show.

Meerkat Manor

The Whiskers Family is back! The drama continues for Flower and the rest of her Meerkat family in the second season of Meerkat Manor. From family quarrels to love affairs to backstabbing worthy of a Shakespearean tale, these fuzzy reality-TV stars pack a huge dramatic punch.

Cool Fire

The last of August cooled off here; one week was very chilly and a bit rainy. We thought it a perfect time to do one of the projects we had been planning, a fire pit. We set aside a Monday evening to dig and build it. Well that Monday it was 93 degrees, we built anyway. That evening we were finished and lit our fire. We sat on our patio and enjoyed our campfire listening to the gentle hum of the neighbor’s air conditioner.

Car Trip

Someone once lived here just north of the small community of Deaver Wyoming. The car and small house have aged to nearly the same color, and the fence has given way to dozens of harsh winters. We have passed this many times on our way to Billings but I only recently noticed it. Saturday on our way home we had time to take pictures.

We also had time to stop at the Quick Stop in Rockvale for a chocolate huckleberry shake. Another old rusty car sits there, but it is a metal sculpture.

Friends, Family and elk

The Rocky Mountain Round-up is in August every year and Sweet Adelines from all over region 8 gather at Estes Park Colorado. This year's featured speaker was Lori Lyford. She presented great lessons on breathing and vocal production.

Seven of us attended from Yellowstone Harmony. We stay in World Mark condos next to the river. We had elk in our backyard morning and evening.

The highlight of the weekend for me was Saturday dinner when Blake and Kim, Adam, Griffin, and Cody and Tina joined us.

The Cherry Project

A family from Powell has a cherry orchard in Montana near the Flathead lake. Every year they send a trailer load of cherries to Powell. They arrive in Powell the day after they were picked; fresh, plump, and juicy. This year I ordered two 30 pound boxes.

I set up a work area in the laundry room. The fruit went from the counter to the sink, through the pitter and on to drying trays.

The cherry stoner, was borrowed from a neighbor. It is sweet. Without a doubt, the best I have ever used. Clean cherries go in the hopper, one rolls into a depression. With a push of the plunger, a cutter goes through the cherry pushing the pit into the box. when the plunger resets, the cherry is brought up and knocked off the cutter and drops into a waiting container. I want one of these!! I was able to do a 30lb. box in about an hour. That is all that will fit in the dehydrator. The pitter went home and the second box had to be pitted with a small metal pitter I have had for a long time. That device forces the pit out the other side of the cherry. It squirts juice everywhere and stains your hands deep purple. It also takes several hours that I spread the job over about 3 days.

The dehydrator runs for a couple days and the result is dried cherries, or chaisens. We ended up with a full gallon bag. we probably ate and shared 5 to 7 pounds of the fresh cherries while we were processing them.

And Then There Were Two

Blazes, birds and books

I have a few things to share and they are loosely connected, very loosely.
Tonight there was a beautiful deep red sunset. We get the most dramatic sunsets when there are fires in the Park, that would be Yellowstone National Park. The fire burning there now is known as the Owl fire and it is located in the Northwest section of the park.

A couple nights ago we sat on our back patio and watched an owl perched on the wires. When the owl is on the wire, the other birds chirp like crazy and even swoop down over him to drive him away. He sits unruffled by the commotion until he is ready to leave. Then he falls forward off the wire and opens his wings and glides away. Johnny could probably make a profound spiritual connection, but I just love to sit and watch the owl.

Okay, I said there was a very loose connection; our Harry Potter book came this weekend. Fortunately, we just picked up the new C.J. Box book at the library, so both of us have an interesting read. Harry Potter has a strong connection to owls, but C.J. box's new book takes us back to Yellowstone, It is set in the Park and titled Free Fire.

there, how is that for a nice tidy little packet of unrelated thoughts woven together.

I have been writing and painting and singing

Last night was Yellowstone Harmony's opportunity to perform in the Cody band shell. Every Friday, the community sponsors a 2 hour Concert in the Park.
I had the privilege of writing the script and painting scenery. We followed a "tour" theme, so I painted a bus. I found a picture of a fabulous old bus and turned it into "our" bus.

After we sang in the park we went to the Cody Rec Center where they were having the Cancer Walk. We sang there for 30 minutes.

We were singing "Shine Your Light" when they lit the luminaries

You load 16 tons......

In the last 4 days we have hauled used fire bricks and built a border around the pine trees in the backyard. Dave helped us load the brick from the Wyoming Lime Plant. the Lime Plant lines their kiln with firebrick and replaces all of it regularly dumping the old brick in a pile.

The bricks are varied in color and size. The color runs from gold to pink to rust red. they are keystone shaped and some are larger than others. The bricks have numbers molded into them probably indicating their size and where to put them in the kiln. They are quite heavy.

We picked through the brick pile to select unbroken, rather attractive bricks. We hauled them home and stacked them in the backyard.

Today we laid about half of them in a border around the trees.

Evening storm

A couple years ago I captured this storm developing near the mountian at sunset.

Low clouds

Blood Stained Cross

When the Blood stained the cross
Major gain, major loss.
Shook the earth
Veiled the sky
Son of God born to die

Heal my faith draw me near
Change my heart, Lord, let me hear
Of your love so pure
Your grace so free
All of the blessings meant for me

Come into my heart
Let me be your dwelling
Give me all the words
Let me do the telling
Let me see the cost of cruel Calvary
Let me know the love
Poured out for me

When the tomb Lost its prey
Opened wide resurrection day
The dark could not contain the Son
Light of God, Victory won

Heal my faith draw me near

Change my heart, Lord, let me hear

Of your love so pure

Your grace so free

All of the blessings meant for me

When the Blood stained the cross

Major gain, major loss.

Shook the earth Veiled the sky

Son of God born to die

Baaaaa

Driving around Sunday afternoon, we met Toni. she was building a snowlamb. She said he was looking up toward Heaven.

Warm days following deep snow

Almost as quickly as it piled up the snow melted and formed the mighty Division Street River and attracted the river runners.

Digging Out

We measured 16 inches of snow in our backyard. The bottom inch and a half was slush.

We cleared the driveway and sidewalk and now it is nearly dry.

We let the dog out of the kennel, but she didn't get very far and I had to carry her back.

20 inches!

I think the snow has quit falling. We couldn't see the mountain today, it snowed all day. The wind did not blow, that is unusual. I love it when the snow piles up on narrow surfaces.

It snowed heavily enough that by the time the driveway was cleared and the sidewalks were shoveled, there was another inch and a half to scoop off the driveway.

Heart Mountain and Snow drifts

This is the scene as I bust drifts on my way home for lunch today.

Some friends stayed with us last night, not wanting to drive home in the blizzard conditions.

Ahhh, Spring in northern Wyoming!!

Odds and Ends

Some things just strike me as odd. The irony of this scene was one of those things.

Our western skyline is dominated by Heart Mountain. Different weather conditions and sun position almost give it personality. Today the mountainside was burning for about an hour.
The formation is identified with a relocation center left over from WWII

Decapus

This blower is drying out the wall. Each hose leads to a hole drilled through the drywall. It was dubbed the decapus this morning.

Another wall a different blower.

Another room has a large dehumidifier. There are blowers without hoses in several rooms.

We asked about filling the baptistry and the guy running all the blowers said, "no way, we are trying our best to remove humidity from this building!"

We have 2 classrooms dry and set up for tomorrow and chairs back in the auditorium.

The Flood

Tuesday afternoon, the caller said there is water running out of your church building into the parking lot.
Lots of water. The pipe leading into the holding tank from the pump had been leaking, long enough to soak the entire auditorium and a few classrooms.
There aren't very many people available to move furniture in at 4:00 in the afternoon. Johnny, Tonya, and I moved the chairs to the back room, and cleared classrooms. Another family came and helped with the cradle roll room.
Johnny had called a cleaning service when he first saw the standing water and Glenn came to vacuum water out. He set fans and has been working on drying out the walls. The insurance adjustor looked at the damage today.

We canceled Wednesday night dinner and scheduled a work day for Saturday to put things back together.

Today was one of those rare days where neither of us had to be anywhere, turn anything in, complete anything or fix something. It was very relaxing.
We took our dog for a walk. In spite of her age she still likes to run.
We did a little cleaning and hauled our pile of newspapers and catalogs to recycling.
We closed out the evening with a concert,
http://drumbrothers.com/groups.htm#bros

We lost a little friend today. Lady, the one on the left, didn't wake up this morning. Missy and Lady are from the same litter, I am sure Missy will miss her too. We have had them for about 15 years.

I'm all thumbs, really, I have all these thumbs. Six of them, and they didn't fit!, bummer.

I made mittens in January, starting with the thumbs. Each thumb is 3 pieces sewn together then made waterproof with an iron on seam tape.
Shown here is an inside out thumb pulled over a mini ironing form. I am applying the tape with a small iron. That thumb is then sewn into the palm of a mitten, but not these, I sewed them with a seam that was 3/8 and they were supposed to be sewn with 3/16 inch. That made each thumb 3/4 inch too small when it was complete. Back to the cutting table.

This is the little fellow who got in the car tonight after singing practice.

I had put my tote bag and purse on the floor and he jumped right in. He didn't want to get back out. So naturally, the first thing I did was take photos!!

He was probablly looking for food, he was not at all afraid of me. He went from the front to the back seat of the car, but would not go out either door.

I tried to push him out with a pillow, He grabbed it, so I tried to coax him out with it, he didn't come.

He stepped on my tote bag and my pitch pipe went off and that scared him and he jumped out of the car. When my friends came out we were very careful not to let him back in, he was still close by.

The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle is a children's board book with a flashy last page. There are 8 tiny light bulbs embedded in the back cover that turn on and blink when that page is opened. The illustration on that page is of 8 fireflies with the lights in their abdomens.
The switch for the bulbs is a plastic strip connected to the 3rd to last page; it goes through the next to last page and slides under the last page to operate the lights. This switch quit sliding back into place and left the lights on when the book was closed running down the little batteries.
My friend at the library asked me to fix it.
I pulled the back cover off revealing that the slit in the page for the sliding strip was torn just a little. This gave just enough slack for the strip to bend backward and not turn off the lights. I cut thin strips of plastic tape and repaired the edges of the slit, glued the cover back on and the fireflies now light up when they are supposed to and sleep when the book is shut.