The Ol' West

I really don't know the history of this old skeleton of a cabin, but we pass by it on our trek to North Spring Creek Lake. Years ago, when we first went up and the kiddos were babes, it seems to me that it was in a less dilapidated state. Also we could drive up to the lake although the road was pretty tricky, even in the old 4 wheel drive. There has to be a story and below you can see that even this late in our season, there are still wild flowers blooming.
IF WALLS COULD TALK!!! Below is an old horseshoe sculpture of sorts. This belongs to a friend who lost her husband a couple of years ago. He was a sheep rancher and I think it may be a brand?? I forgot to ask. I had a visit with her earlier this summer when we were invited to a picnic/barbecue near Encampment. Knowing that I dabble in acrylics, she asked if I might be able to paint a sheep wagon and some sheep. I am always up for a challenge and it is a "small canvas of sorts", so I will embark upon that hopefully in a few days and will post the results...stay tuned.
We live in a neighborhood with the best residents!! One such character came by last evening with a squash of some sort, which I didn't recognize, and a zucchini (whatever else we cannot grow here, we do grow zucchini). Everyone shares and cares. Chocolate zucchini bread is the fate of that one. Maybe I will post my recipe when I find it. It is yummy! I guess I will have to distribute my "tomaters "won't I? They are doing so well. Have a great and safe holiday weekend.

Camping etc.

When Erica was here we purchased the rose above...It is Joseph's Coat and has roses from white to dark red. It is spectacular and I am so please with it. The real trick will be to keep the bloomin' bush alive.

Now these mushrooms are from one of our marvelous adventures from the weekend camping trip. We take as many trips to the forest as we can during the short season and always take a few side trips. Living near or practically on the Continental Divide, we are only 30 minutes from some of the most beautiful country in the US. This jaunt was a short walk, about a mile or so up to North Spring Lake. Camping with good friends, we go to this lake frequently. These fungi were so large, and they were growing in the old road. Crazy!!! Evenings brought the marshmallows out and this time we had an old-fashioned popcorn popper. Nothing like a little burnt marshmallow dipped in popcorn....a small popcorn ball!!! Fall is in the air and our camping trips will soon come to a halt. Do you ever grow too old for s'mores. Nah, I don't think so. Besides isn't chocolate supposed to be good for you?

In the Dog House now

Look at these dog houses. Wouldn't skinny bitch and beagle butt just love to lounge around in these? We were almost more impressed with these than the homes themselves. Always having a theme, this year it was the sea side. Of course being many miles from an ocean, these homes were perched on a small lake. One home was designed and decorated to reflect the pirate theme. One, was built to resemble a lighthouse and decorated likewise. They are, no doubt, very cool. But I still like the dog houses. We plan to head out to our beautiful forest for a camping trip if I can muster up the energy to go clean out the camp trailer. If you are interested in looking at any information on the actual homes check it out.

Little ol' lady from Pasadena (not)

Ok, it's not Pasadena, but isn't she cute? This is Lucy (Teal Lucille). The Mr. and I spent nearly 3 days puttin' this all together...mostly the Mr. but believe me, it was a test of our marriage. Really, this stuff is worse than hanging wallpaper. It is super sticky and the instructions indicated that you couldn't let it fall back on itself or you'd be orderin' a new piece and it's purdy pricey!!! But those people of my generation can relate to it and I have been told by more than one, I need a surfboard on top. Worse than that, my good friend Paul, told me I needed an IRONING board, not a surf board. (wouldn't that be cool) We had a lot of snow last winter to I guess a snowboard would be in order wouldn't it.

My good buddy, Barb, and I made our annual trek to Colorado to spend a few days with our friend Pat, and get our fix...our shopping, dessert, yard sale and Parade of Homes fix. We left on Wed early and came home Sun afternoon. For years, we have toured the Parade of Homes in Denver and surrounding areas. This year it was in Aurora and the homes, always impressive, range in price from 1.6 to 2.8 million or there about. We had a great time, but I took pictures of the Dog houses...yep, the dog houses. Will post those pictures tomorrow. We were busy from beginning to end and would have like to see more people, but we always get sidetracked.

I am off to visit some blogs and appreciate the comments. Surfs up!!!

Vintage Apron and Chokecherries

I was able to snag this vintage apron at one of those great yard sales where you buy cheap stuff to take home and put with all the other stuff you buy at yard sales, to keep the stuff you already have company until you have way too much stuff and decide to have a yard sale to get rid of all that stuff. But hey, it was only 25 cents!!! THE APRON BOOK by EllynAnne Geisel has graced a special place in my kitchen since it found it's way into my home. I love the photos and the book reminds me of those days from yesteryear...yes..I do remember yesteryear when all moms and grandmas wore aprons. This example is practically a complete coverup apron, sort of like the hospital gowns with that slit down the entire back. But having worn those a time or two, I can assure you that this affords more coverage and it has a great long tie in the back that can be tied into a bow. From what I can determine, it appears to be made from flour sack fabric and our mom used to make all of our summer clothes from those pretty flour sacks. I have a small collection of these aprons, but they have to be special and cheap before I break down and add it to my "stuff".

Today, August 14th, is my brother's birthday and he is a year younger than he thought which means he is really getting older because he can't remember how old he is. Happy Birthday!! From the time he was a baby, I remember our family packing up the ol' family car with a picnic lunch and paper bags to head out to the mountains. We always went up the Poudre canyon in northern Colorado to pick chokecherries on my brother's birthday. Mom would labor over the hot stove and put that wonderful chokecherry jelly in jars for the toast and peanut butter sandwiches. Yummy!! So today being August 14th, the Mr. and I packed a lunch, loaded up skinny bitch and beagle butt and headed out to find the chokecherry patch. We are fortunate to have an abundance of those around here in the forest and spent a wonderful day gatherin' berries for our toast on those snowy mornings this winter.

Garden

For someone who is supposed to be retired, I seem to stay busier than ever. How in the world did I do everything when I was working a full time job, being mom, cook, housekeeper, gardener, pooper scooper-upper etc.? We have two sweet wonderful dogs, the border collie mix (alias skinny bitch) and the fat beagle (beagle butt). Believe me they keep the pooper scooper-upper person plenty busy!!!

Update on the rhubarb birdbath-- It does hold water after the caulk job. Yeah!! Now for the latest garden project. In the spring issue of Su Casa Magazine there was a photo of some old boots into which some "hens and chicks" were planted. This is my version. The shoe is a little wet from waterin' it, but after it was completed, I am happy with it. I haunted the yard sales and the flea markets for larger men's shoes without any luck, but I decided to sacrifice and old pair of my camping shoes. I filled the shoe with a mixture of potting soil, garden soil and sand. These are, after all, just succulents and survive nearly everywhere without much care. They make a great plant for a brown thumber.

Living in the small western community here, we are fortunate to have some wonderfully generous residents. Every summer, someone anonymously donates our 4th of July fireworks and a free concert, among countless other "perks" for the townspeople. (2000 residents in the winter and 4000 in the summer, give a few either way) Last night we were all treated to a Juice Newton concert. With lawn chairs in hand, nearly all of the 4000 summer residents trudged to the parking lot behind the historic hotel downtown and listened to 90 minute concert. What a great performance. Dogs with drool dripping, waiting for a lick of ice cream from their owner, little girls dancing with dad, ol' timers tapping feet to the music, and the fragrance of the hot dog stand across the street, imprints an image of simple pleasures in this little old mind of mine. Memories to cherish forever.

Birdbath Repair

OK we will see how this goes. The photo above shows clearly the larger crack on the underside of the casting through which the paint originally leaked. And the lower photo is where I used the outdoor type of caulking. Cross your fingers and I will let you know if it leaks.
To those of you who frequent Erica's blog, thank you for the encouragement. Carrie......age is a state of mind at this point in my life and my mind is much younger than my body. Call me Pat as Mrs. M reminds me so of those days I was school secretary. I could write a book!!! One day a sweet little girl came in from the playground and said "Mrs. Mulherin someone just said the F word." I asked her is she knew what the F word was and she said "yes, it's FART".

I will try to check on as many of your blogs as I can. One of my next projects is to assemble 3 or 4 clay flower pots of graduated sizes from large to small and paint like a lighthouse. On the top one, a solar light is placed. I have a group of 4 friends who craft and paint with me, in addition to the group of gals that I teach decorative painting. We have the lights, just need to get the pots. Living in rural Wyoming limits the ability to shop for a good many things, but it gives one the chance to take a road trip to the real cities. The nice people from DHL, UPS, and FedEx also find us with lots of goodies which can be ordered with a little piece of plastic. 75 lbs of clay arrived a couple of weeks ago and I intend to give my kiln a run for it's money. (hand-made tiles for my kitchen and bath I hope)

I truly believe that rules stifle creativity, so most of mine comes from the seat of my pants...no directions, just dive in. Erica gave me credit for being more creative, but I assure you all that both she, and her brother Michael, are multi-talented. So don't be afraid to color outside the lines. It really is OK!!!

Official Banner

I am up and running with an official banner thanks to Erica who encouraged me to paint the aspen alley we so love to visit in the fall. She then proceeded to include it in this blog and thank you, thank you, Erica. Living in the southern part of Wyoming, we have some of the most beautiful mountain country and in the fall the colors of the aspen are spectacular!!

We have been fortunate to have a few visitors and now, it is time to get back to the tasks of painting the trim on the house, etc. We hope to get a few camping trips in also before the snow falls.

My passions are many and my fear is that I won't live long enough to fulfill a fourth of the things I intend to try. So, after watching a program on a PBS station last week of a daughter and mother who took a trip across the country on "Old route 66" I heard "mom" say that age was insignificant unless you are a cheese. I think I will always consider that my inspiration for going forth with new adventures.

Rhubarb sculpture success!

Look at this wonderful birdbath!! In my previous post, I wrote about the process of actually casting this leaf, which incidentally leaks!! That will be another chapter for repair of the birdbath, but we are so excited at the detail. This morning we finished the staining process. This was simply done with acrylic paints--the type used for craft projects and a little water to dilute the tints. In fact, the brushes used were old paint brushes, the type used to paint walls. The colors were brushed and blended, both dry and wet. The veins were reinforced using a old plastic medicine syringe, compliments from the veterinarian for our sick puppies. We used a black-green paint, diluted it a little and squirted it down the vein depressions left from the Rhubarb leaf.


This next photo is a picture of a water hyacinth which was a pleasant surprise this morning. I have a pond in my backyard which is totally a cup of pea soup at the present. Despite our attempts to use a multitude of plants and even an unsuccessful dose of chemicals, it remains pea soup!! However, the fish are surviving and the plants are thriving. I have never had a blooming hyacinth and am thrilled to see it blossoming.

Erica and Jeffery are leaving tomorrow morning and we are wishing we could keep them captive for a few more days, but such is life. We floated the river yesterday and will elaborate more about that adventure later.