Camping, not Glamping.

This is not our camper.  It is our friends camper, and the only one that made it up the mountain on this day.  

This is our camper.  And this is as far as it got.  Jim's truck has bad cams.  Cams are important and expensive.

So we went up the mountain for the evening so we could spend some time with our friends out in the wilderness.  They have granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances in their version of the wilderness.  We have really cute decor from the 80s and a heater that doesn't work in ours.  We have fun anyway...we are way more redneck than most of our friends.

oh, look what made it up the mountain...love my jeep.

Shaw and his friend Andrew

This is where memories are made.

Longmire Days & Story Days Parade

Pow Wow at Longmire Days.  I love that mural on the wall behind them.  This is at Crazy Woman Square

The tv show 'Longmire' is kind of a big deal around here.  It is set in the fictional town of Durant, Wy.  Which is actually Buffalo, right down the road from us.  Of course we had to go.  After all, the author of the books, Craig Johnson, has the same garbage man as me.  We are practically besties!  Buffalo actually changed it's name for the weekend.

I believe it was the hottest day of the summer as we waited in line for autographs

Aubrey yelling at me to hurry up.

Shaw at campaign headquarters

Eye Candy!  Your'e Welcome.

Story Days is another big deal around here.  There's a parade, music, food, kids rodeo, parties, street dances...

 Story School made a float on a really big trailer.  In our yard.  It was so much fun.  We had a big cookout the night before the parade.  The kids and moms worked really hard on their float.

Aubrey & friends

I thought it was great that the kids got to participate and help make decisions.

Our friends, Zack & Jo Ann were the Grand Marshalls.  They are so precious.

That is their grandson, Nate, riding with them.  He is precious too.

Horses, flags & floats.  Love it.

All Work and No Play

Is not how we do things around here.  We did work hard that weekend, and even after that.  There were some things actually accomplished, others are still in progress.

Aubrey worked really hard getting the yard cleaned up for Shaw’s birthday party.  I haven’t seen her do that much physical labor in a long time.

Jim worked on Shaw’s birthday present, a really cool tree house in the giant tree (where sometimes drunk and angry birds reside).

My new friend, Patty (who has Fergi, the cocker spaniel) divided some plants that my other friend, Deb (from the coffee shop) had given her with me so I worked hard to find a place for them to live.  Or not, as it turned out for some of them.  

We really do work better with adult supervision.


If you turn your head sideways you can see the Robin's nest right above our bedroom window.

 Jim's idea of working on the house usually involves burning stuff.  You really have to keep an eye on those giant burning logs...

 Bandit is just happy to roll in the grass that is not dead yet.

Here are some lillies I planted next to the gate to nowhere and the fence that keeps nothing out (or in).







Aubrey worked really hard uncovering this piece of wall in the back yard.

The rocks that were covering it are now in a hole under the giant tree.     I call it 'the ruin' but no one else knows what I'm talking about.  I planted some of the flowers from Patty & Deb in front of it.  They looked pretty good till the deer ate them.

 Shaw's treehouse has made a lot of progress since this picture was taken...it is really cool & he and his friends have a blast playing in it.  His 6th birthday party was the next weekend.  Aubrey did a good job getting everything ready.  The kids had a blast playing in the water, busting water balloons and squirting their screaming moms.  That well water is pretty cold.  Molly, our friend Rikki's yellow lab joined in on the fun.

Water Balloon Pinatas!

Skylander Cake

Birthday Boy!

We don't know why she does this.

 It's been a great summer!

We are going to get a lot done this weekend.

Well, maybe.  There's a big yard sale I'd love to go to, and Dayton Days are this weekend too, but we've got to remain focused on the tasks at hand.  And there are many.  One of them is watching the birds get drunk on Chokecherries. 

Chokecherry tree in our yard.

  It's kind of like a cat with catnip.  I tried to get some pictures of their antics, but they were not so wasted as I thought and managed to fly off to the willow tree and fuss at me for breaking up the party.

Crazy- big 9-trunk willow tree full of Angry Birds

Too bad you can't hear them fussing at me from the big tree.

I did get some flowers planted in pots.  I've waited long enough that most everything is on clearance.  So I got some nice petunias for .50 apiece and set out to do some landscaping.

Poopalina, the flying pig approves of the improvments

Maybe porchscaping is a better term for it.  

I actually got the broom out to clean off the back deck, but there was a Bald Eagle making circles in the sky and I needed to watch that for a while.  Then some bunnies hopped into the yard from next door.  So they needed my attention too.  Then some kind of prehistoric giant bug landed on my shoulder and it was time to come in the house.

Tomorrow is another day, Saturday actually, and Jim will be home to supervise activities.  I'm sure something will get done.

Spring

Springtime comes softly to Tennessee.  Bulbs start to nose their way above ground in February or March.  The yellow of the Forsythia blooms brighten up the winter brown and gray.  Then the Daffodils appear.  Azaleas, Tulips, Dogwoods and Pear trees follow suit.  The days grow longer and warmer.  Suddenly you realize winter’s over, time for new beginnings.

This Azalea is over 20 years old.  It's small because I cut it back every year after blooming.

Flowers in our  yard in Story.

Not so in Wyoming.  The morning snow vanishes by afternoon.  It seems that the snow melting and the grass greening happen simultaneously.  The quiet mornings are filled with a symphony of bird songs accompanied  by the rushing of the creeks.  Daffodils sprung up and bloomed within hours, the Tulips not far behind.  Everywhere on the mountain are flowers and butterflies, birds & bugs.  You can almost hear the trees leafing out as the calves, foals and fawns make their debuts.  The very land it’s self is rejoicing for Springtime.  Hurry, Spring is here, time for new beginnings.

I'm Back

I have not written in my blog for some time.  Jim’s cancer treatments started in January of 2012.  As of now he is cancer free, and we are very grateful for that.  Work on the house came to a halt  and though I wrote in my  journal during this time I wanted to keep this blog about the work on the house and our experiences here in Wyoming.

We’re going to be working on the house & the other buildings and the yard again, and having some adventures that do not involve trips to Billings for treatments or follow-ups. 

Here we go.  

Deer Whisperers

Since moving to Wyoming I've become accustomed to seeing lots of wildlife, especially deer, around our property. Some of our neighbors are able to feed the deer corn from their hands, and that's pretty cool. But since we don't have much dry corn lying around I never thought about doing it myself. I'd roll them an apple from the tree, but that's about it. Bandit's lucky if I remember to dump some dog chow in his bowl every other day or so.

Jim has developed a method to get really close to the deer and almost has them eating out of his hand. Unfortunately he is feeding them his expensive organic carrots. They will almost take one from his hand. He makes sweet mumbling noises at them and earnestly whispers promises not to shoot them till they are much bigger. And as he is a believable person, they believe him and gingerly edge closer to the tasty crinkle cut organic carrot slice dangling before them. This method takes a lot of patience and time, but it's working.

Shaw, on the other hand, has a completely different approach to dealing with wildlife. Being 4, he's not too patient, and really wants results.

On a recent visit to Jim's office there were 6 mule deer does grazing beside the sidewalk at the parking lot. Aubrey & Shaw were with me, and Shaw was happy to see the “mulies”, announcing that they were so shaggy & cute. Aubrey asked us if we wanted to see something cool. Well of course we did. So she opened the car door and slammed it really hard in an effort to startle the deer and make them run. One of them looked up and gave her the stink eye, but the other 5 kept on grazing. We laughed about it, and began to get out of the car for real. I had a sudden inspiration and told Shaw if he caught one of those mule deer he could keep it. That was all it took, he was out of the car in a flash with a rebel yell that would have made Stonewall Jackson proud. Those poor mulies were really surprised this time. They didn't exactly run away, they sort of did this straight-legged bouncing trot that just made Shaw run even harder and holler even louder. He set his sights on the littlest one and made a bee line towards her. I guess he'd run about a hundred yards before I stopped laughing long enough to call him back. Poor Aubrey, she couldn't talk for about 10 minutes. I thought we'd all need oxygen before it was over.

giving Aubrey the stink eye...

Oh, and don't worry about Bandit, his middle name is “Butterball”.