Quilt

 Just a quick post....been busy with Christmas activities.  I posted quite some time ago that I was working with my neighbor on a quilt...actually we are both doing this quilt in similar but different colors. (a race to the finish and I intend to win) an Two squares here, the one above is one of several and below is the border patchwork. It isn't really a fair race, but hey, take all the advantages you can!

I actually have the quilt top finished now, but haven't started the back in order to get it ready to quilt. So last evening, we decided what the next project will be. I had more pictures to post, but realized they were sideways and needed to right them.  When we went for the trees, we had a video to post to some friends and relatives...it came in to them upside down.  I am finding out that getting old is a great excuse for lots of mishaps!!!!  Stay warm.

Oh...Christmas tree

Yesterday, a 5 hour power failure seemed to be a perfect excuse to make our now annual trek for "the tree".  This is our 3rd Christmas here where we could actually cut our own tree and know how fresh it was.  The day was gorgeous, but the power company was testing the new power station near us which will hopefully allow us rural residents to have power without any outages.  Really, we have not had many of those anyway.  But 5 1/2-6 hrs without power in a totally electric home at 45 degrees is not something we were anticipating.  So as always, we packed our lunch, ropes, saws and thermos of hot stuff and headed to the hills.  This spot was not far from out home...about 15 miles or so, but as we approached the forest, the snow got really deep and we were not able to get very far into the woods.
Tree permits are $10.00 and the Mr. and I found our tree not far from where the truck was parked in no time at all.  The other tree, the top picture, was the neighbor's.  They actually were on the road that had not been plowed so the snow was not as deep as off the road.  We have fairly new homes here with large open living spaces, but as you can see, my buddy wants a really big tree and she had to walk quite a distance up hill to the top of the hill. The mister's new hip is still and always will be a little stiff and we are not spring chicks any more so our tree in the bottom picture is still a nice size. The first thing I did in my search was fall backwards into the snow and I couldn't get up.  The snow had a lot of moisture in it and was wet and heavy. I laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants.  Eventually we got the "perfect tree" cut down and dragged to the truck.  However, the tree in the top picture,-- another story.  It was so heavy!!! The Mr. and I did not go for our search and instead, opted to sit in the truck, sip on hot coffee and eat trail mix...after all we had our tree.  Eventually, as the second tree came into view and we could see the struggle to pull it down the hill, I decided to go help.
Bonnie fell down at least once and again, we laughed 'til we cried. We may eventually buy trees at the local grocery store, but for now we look forward to these memory making jaunts for the annual tree and picnic in the warm truck.  And the fresh pine smell in the house----worth every adventure!!!

Turkey Day

 I really have not had much to "blog" about so that is the only excuse I have.  As you can see, winter has arrived and with that, I have begun my winter hibernation. I have always lived where there were snowy winters and like my mother, I am not and have never been fond of the snow and cold.  I do not ski, or snowmobile, or snowshoe and depend on my treadmill for winter exercise. I always told the Mr. that when I retired, I needed to be where it is warmer.  However, his feet are firmly planted here, so that is why I hibernate.  The cold is also not very good for the arthritic conditions that we get as we age and with an old ankle injury, I just try to stay out of the cold and away from the icy conditions.

Luckily for me, I have lots of interests that keep me occupied in the winter.  I am trying to get some quilts finished and have begun my marathon reading thanks to our great little libraries, and with the holidays fast approaching, I can spend some time baking goodies.  There is also the wildlife in abundance as these photos show the mama and her babies pawing through the snow to get to the grass on the leach field.  Above, they are having a salad of the remnants of my flower bed.  This year I will not be cooking Thanksgiving for the first time in years as our neighbor and friend is doing it but I will be contributing pies and rolls and other goodies so, here is wishing you all a great Turkey Day and if I am absent for a while, I will be back when more is happening in my world.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Pretty fall colors

 With all of the crafty people and artisans displaying their talents, I always am up for a new challenge when I see what can be created with little or no expense.  We have so many leather scraps from the Mr.'s hobby that I decided to try my talents.  At our small library, there is a box in the entry way for people to leave discarded magazines and are free for the taking.  I leave mine there, but I also scrounge for things I have not seen.  In a batch of old magazines from the 90's I found a few to take and peruse.  There was an article about making fall pins from leather and the leaf patterns were included.  So these are about 1" to 1 1/2" across and all that is left is to add the pin backs.  I got help from the Mr. to determine which tools I needed to cut the patterns into the wet leather and shape them and when they were dry, I painted them with acrylic and sprayed a sealer.  Voila!  No cost and now I am thinking of making a leather cuff.  I saw them for as much as $65.00 in shops not long ago. And now another gorgeous sunrise taken from my back door this weekend.  Love the fall colors.

"Every man is the architect of his own virtues" ~ Sallust

Stretched out for a nap

 Hunting has been a little slow this summer for this cat and like all cats, she can sleep anywhere and any time.  I caught her above stretched out on the bed, across a "grabber" that the Mr. uses.  I love my cat!!  I have been sewing a quilt, in a race with my neighbor to see who can finish first.  This is really not a fair race as I have many quilts under my belt, and she is still somewhat a beginner, although a skilled one, but it has been motivation for both of us to finish.  Her mom participates in a large craft fair this fall in Sheridan and we are embarking on another craft project, hoping to test it out for her mom.  Below are some of the items we will be using.  Stay tuned!

Orange

 This is the "Blood Moon Rising" in the east last month and this is the carrot that grew in my garden.  This is the ORANGE. We put everything to bed this weekend....the watering system, the garden, the yard.  Orange pumpkins are popping up everywhere. Actually, although it is fall, we got our first snow yesterday.  According to the weatherman, it is supposed to be warm this week, even summer-like. May have to drag out the hoses.

I was gone this past week and have spent time putting up veggies like the carrots so the blog is still suffering with neglect.  However with winter approaching and our fall fading from orange white, I will be spending more time indoors.  So, I went to Sheridan last week with my neighbor and that drive of nearly 5 hours was beautiful and our destination was even more so.  At the foot of the Big Horn mountains and 12 miles out of town, the tree-lined road was sprinkled with ranches and signs of an earlier era. The deer grazed in pastures in large herds and the wild turkeys roamed in flocks in numbers I had never seen before.  We have a small flock near here, but these had to be shooed away from the front steps of our hostess. The remains of the ranch land, most of which had been sold earlier, had been in this family for years.  Janet, who was the mother of my friend and the only resident left on this parcel, greeted us on Monday afternoon and we stayed until Thursday.  We walked down the graveled road, along side trees still laden with yellow leaves, and crossed Big Goose Creek to find more ranch homes nestled at the base of the mountains.  Spectacular country.  While there, we went to a quilt show, traveled to the small mountain town of Story to a quilt shop that was amazing, drilled holes in some glass blocks for Janet, had blackberry apple pie baked by a neighbor bachelor (at 9 o'clock at night) and went for long lazy walks.  I do have pictures on my phone, but haven't taken time to download.  Will do!  

Still Fall

I just realized that I have not blogged for a long time.  Guess I am spending too much time enjoying life and not missing the computer much.  It is still fall here and I do not even have any new pics to post.  Lots going on this fall though.  Since we got new Iphones, we have been using them for snaps and I have not downloaded any pictures!!!  Gotta get busy! Life has been happening though.  The mister has recovered finally from the hip replacement, and he played in a pool tournament this past weekend.  That is a sign that summer is over.  We have taken many day trips to the forest and the trees have been spectacular this past couple of weeks. I also went south of the border to Colorado with a buddy here for 4 days and we had gorgeous weather, but we also hit a wonderful yard sale in LaPorte, did all of the flea markets on south College, did the French Nest on Saturday when we met a friend from Brighton, and did the Brass Armadillo in Denver on Sunday and met with her son for lunch in Cheyenne on Monday before coming home over the Range.  We came back with some great finds.  I am off to sew with my quilt group this morning and plan to go to Sheridan with a friend for a few days next week.  But now it is time to get the garden finished.  With the early frost a few weeks ago, I had to bring my tomatoes in and they are getting ripe, a few each day.  The carrots still need to be pulled and will do that this week.  My catmint was so large that I had 4 loads in a wheel barrow of stems, or branches?, to haul out to the prairie and had to use a tree branch snipper to cut it all.  I watched the small herd of antelope stop to sniff and eat some of it.  Hope it didn't make them too loopy.  In the pasture next to our property, we have a very large herd of cattle grazing, a small herd of goats and a herd of 8 antelope...all grazing together and as I sit out on the back porch to watch all of this taking place it is no wonder that I don't get to this computer more often.  As fall is in the air, winter follows and I will be forced to be indoors more so I may get back to the blog.

Fall on the horizon

 Fall is on the way!!!  Yes it is!  But a couple of weeks ago we took another marvelous adventure with friends, packed a peanut butter sandwich and headed out to take in some of our high desert beauty.  Look at what we found!  Among the wild flowers and miles and miles of nothing...no vehicles, no homes, no people -  these ancient stones.  So many are perfectly round, some embedded in others.  What ever caused these?

 Here are some of the other formations, all are sandstone, weathered from the wind and at some point, probably water, however this is now a desert with only a few antelope and lots of gas wells.

So on another note, I still have a couple of stepping stones for people to get finished and hope to get that done this week. But I needed more mortar and it apparently only comes in 80 lb bags.  Really? 80 pounds? For a couple of old people, 80 lbs is HEAVY.  Not to mention the fact that we bought a new mattress and foundation so we took the old one upstairs and brought that older one downstairs.  More HEAVY!

Thank goodness for my quilting group.  Really it is a sewing group I guess.  We sew quilt tops...and don't do much actual quilting. I don't think I could handle another winter (which comes after FALL and sometimes skips FALL), without the support of these gals.  As I age, the arthritis kicks butt during the winter months and I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, but winter is long here.  So if the roads are not closed on Mondays, I will survive winter.  My buddy and I are starting a big quilt project and I will start to post these...but we have to get the vegetable garden and the watering system ready as it is supposed to be 28 degrees tomorrow.  FALL? give me a break.  We are skipping fall this year I fear.

More retreat projects

 Taken in the garage, this is probably not the best way to address this project, but we found glass blocks, drilled holes in the back side (Whichever you determine is the back), inserted a small string of Christmas lights and tied a bow on top!  That makes a great night light and can be changed for the holiday or decor you prefer!! And below, three of the banners....the last of 4 banners we started last year.  We did spring, summer and fall previously and now have winter done.

 This is the other project we did. We always like painting projects and this year we did 3 with the angels, banners and wine glasses. These are to be topped with a small metal encased candle and make a great addition to a table during the holidays.

So now we have already begun to collect ideas for next year.  This past Fri and Sat, I participated in a quilt retreat in the small town of Encampment at the historic Opera House.  There were over 30 gals who had signed up for several classes and demonstrations.  Let me say that this was the first for this type of activity and it was a terrific success! It was sponsored by their museum, one of which this community can be extremely proud! I also get to sew and quilt every week on Mondays in their library in Encampment.  Most of these gals come from hardy ranching families and with our great distance from any city, it is a way to socialize and get knowledge about our community.  In addition, we get to joke around and laugh a lot! (very important to laugh a lot) A quilting vendor came from Rock Springs..(150 mi.) and brought lots of fabric and notions and participated in teaching a class, a new technique for me and my understanding is that they want to come back as they sold so much fabric.  School begins soon and that is an indication that our summer is coming to an end.

"Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about." ~ Oscar Wilde

Retreat projects

 I just couldn't resist adding another Mt.Sheep picture as this curious lady above was watching us take pictures of the herd!!  And below, two of the garden angels that we constructed and painted for our yards.  These will either be placed on re-bar in flower beds or hung on a fence.  With aluminum flashing wings, steel wool scrubber hair on wooden pieces from my old bar stools and a tart pan for a hat, they are constructed from scrap 2 X 6's.  We had a great time giving them personalities.

 Another angel sits next to two more stepping stones.  These bunnies also came out terrific!  We did discover that springform cake pans work well for unmolding.  You can see that the angel below has copper wings and the glass block was another project I will post.

Blessed to have such good friends for close to 50 years, we have always gathered periodically for this and other kinds of times together!!

Summer Surprise

Surprise!  This cute baby mountain lamb was not a bit afraid of us as we were able to snap these pictures on Sunday on one of our "Marvelous Adventures".  The day trip was a wonderful break. We have been so busy this summer and have missed our camping trips and getaways.  A hip replacement, family visit, funeral out of town, reunions and last week our annual girl's craft and art retreat took up our summer so far.  But on a trek to find the Water Valley Ranch, a private ranch for corporate and family vacations, we encountered this herd of at least 26 mountain sheep.  What an awesome sight!  They even lay down in the road as we stood and took these pictures.  This is less than 15 miles from our home.

One of the projects we completed, these garden stepping stones made from stained glass pieces (painstakingly cut and ground to fit this winter by yours truly) were a total success.  We found large cake pans this winter at thrift stores and then placed the glass pieces on clear contact paper, sticky side up.  After smearing Vaseline all over the bottom and sides of the pans, we placed the paper down, again sticky side up with the glass firmly placed against the sticky paper.  We mixed and poured mortar over the glass, filling to the pan rim and then left it for 2 days.  Carefully unmolding like cakes, voila!  Stepping stones! We also had 4 other projects which I will continue to post, but the 3 gals stayed with us the entire week and we had a wonderful time!

"Life is a series of surprises, and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Summer daze

 Did I not tell you I was a little busy this summer? There definitely are NOT enough hours in the summer days and that puts me in a DAZE.  Simply put, I can't get everything done!  The Mr. is still recovering from his hip replacement and is not able to do a lot yet, but is doing great considering all.
So Hildy decided to take a lazy morning nap in Roger's bed which is much too small for her, but she looks pretty comfy in the dog days of summer doesn't she.  And my goodness, that black cat Coalette has become the best hunter!! Even though she is supposed to be an indoor cat, every morning, she goes out and brings back a critter of some sort...we are mainly talking about mice and other small vermin which destroy my plants, carry fleas and ticks and are just a nuisance.  Yesterday she had 3 different animals, but she seems to play with them sometimes and doesn't always harm them.  We have rescued a bird and a chipmunk as she has a very soft mouth and wants to bring her prey inside.  We have a family of chipmunks playing in my berm out front and watching them is a kick.

I am getting ready for our annual chick craft session and although this stone below is over 10 years old and very dirty, it is an example of one of the projects we will be doing, so I have been cutting, grinding and fitting patterns for these stepping stones...one for each of us!

 We have had such a great summer in spite of the surgery, and although we haven't been able to go camping, we did get out for a day to Bennett Peak campground here to check our Geocache and a picnic with friends.  I have also been able to get several plantings from the nursery here...6 different bushes for the blank spot in my back yard and am building a berm for more plantings.  What....? did I say I was not going to garden?  I lied.  Since the Mr. can't do much yet, I dug all of the holes and have planted some chokecherry plants too...hope they survive. 

The majestic eagle always watches my activities and sometimes there are even 3 in the tree.  We also have a herd of goats that have escaped quite often and seem a little curious about what I am doing.  I woke up a few days ago to see them on a neighbors porch. And I have watched the new baby antelope playing and kicking up their heels in the range land just east of us.  So if I am absent for a few days it is the summer Daze and I am probably reading a book and drinking iced tea and waiting for the snow to fly.

Wyoming square

 With the Mr. recovering quite nicely, it's business back to normal ...got these pics a little out of order.  At left, the quilt pattern with a few of the glass pieces cut and ground to fit.  then the grinder showing one piece there to smooth and fit the edges.  Cutting is not always accurate and glass breaks unevenly at times. (lots of times)

 Then below it is foiled and ready for solder.

And here, the finished project which I hope to deliver today. I am hosting a craft retreat in about 3 weeks so I will be working on these projects now so that they instructions and materials will be ready and of course there is the food.  Stay tuned for that.

Downhill trek

I have been absent from this blog as the Mr. had hip replacement surgery last week.  We were in Casper for 4 1/2 days.  He is recovering, but it was not without a few blips in the road.  He is now able to do some physical therapy and has ditched the walker for the cane.  It should be all downhill now and hopefully all will be back to better than normal in about 8 weeks.  Thanks for all of the well wishes and calls and as we have family coming this week, I will get back on the computer in a few days hopefully.

Wyoming block

 This is just a quick post to show the progress so far of this glass block.  After I found a picture of the block in color I searched through my glass stash to find some colors inspired by the picture.  Above, after the glass is cut, the grinder is used to smooth the edges and make the glass exactly fit the pattern below.  This square will only be a 12 inch piece so it was easy to determine the size of the pieces as any fabric would be cut for the same square.  I do have all of the pieces cut and need to grind the rest of them, but because some are quite small, the fitting process is a little tricky.  Stay tuned.

New life and old life

 Our poor Hildy is pushing 13 now and she is suffering the effects of youth.  As a typical cow dog type, she is the smartest dog we have ever had the privilege of owning, or perhaps she owns us.  Arthritis in her front legs limit her activities.  She is no longer able to chase a ball or jump for a stick or frisbee and her patience is shorter than ever. However, she loves a back massage and with a nutritious diet and meds, we try to keep her as comfortable as possible.  Above, I caught her napping in Roger's bed.  He weighs about 32 lbs and she is over 55 lbs.  She managed to squeeze her body into his bed, sorta. These types of dogs are active and often live to be quite old, in fact, we know of one case where one was 21, but that is rare.  They bless us with their presence but unfortunately we say goodbye too soon. 

Again, we have beautiful sunsets and this is an example taken from my front porch.  With a few beautiful days now, the Mr. and I have been busy trying to get the yards in shape.  New plantings, mowing, watering and weeding have kept us ready for a good night's sleep.  I have also been able to quilt on Mondays with a great group of ladies in Encampment.  They and others there are planning a quilt retreat in August.  The date however is in conflict with several events in the region.  This means that I probably won't be able to participate, but I plan to contribute.  I recently discovered that each state has it's own quilt square. My contribution will be a Wyoming square in glass for perhaps a silent auction item.  Documentation will be here...stay tuned.

On another note, since I have been a little remiss about this blog..this is the time for the BABIES to be born...the antelope does are dropping babies.  The Mr. and I had the privilege to witness a mama cleaning the 2nd of a pair of twins this week.  Awesome!!  Their wobbly little legs won't allow them to stand at first and they struggle to figure out from which end of mama the milk is.  She was quite large as we watched that morning as she grazed and I knew she was in labor as she stood and then lay down and then stood up again trying to get comfortable. Amazing to watch her clean and nuzzle the pair.  The Bucks are staying in herds alone now, but a soon as the young are big enough, they will all gather again in herds to start the cycle again.  On that note..it is Father's Day this Sunday so be kind to your Buck.

Snowy Range and Facts of Life

 On Monday of this week, Memorial Day, we drove over the Snowy Range to see the snow.  The road is always closed during the winter, but the goal is to get it opened for the holiday.  It officially opened last Saturday and this was taken out of the car window.  Some of the plowed sides were over the roof of the cars.  The snow we had a couple of weeks ago left my birds and little bunny scrounging for food.  This little bunny may be a Pygmy which is a protected species. He has been here all winter and spent much of it under the pine tree.  He is much smaller than the cottontail or the jackrabbit and is pretty tame actually.

With the warm weather now we have the National Guard and volunteers sand bagging as the River has reached flood stage and there is water everywhere along the banks.  Some ranch land is flooded and it is strange to see so much green grass everywhere.

Now my Coalette, who has been a house cat until recently has become quite the mouser, which really surprises me.  She doesn't seem to stray far from the fenced yard as there is so much tall grass and sagebrush to explore.  In addition to bringing the rather large mole in a few weeks ago, she has had at least 3 kills since.   I found a dead mouse out by the storage shed and we discovered her licking her chops and a couple of bloody spots on the patio by the back steps and this morning we found her playing with a dead mouse.  Realizing that this is part of living out here in the range land, we have coyotes, cattle, eagles, hawks, weasels, bear, moose, antelope, deer, ticks, osprey, goats, prairie dogs, ground squirrels, all kinds of birds and other small creatures.  People keep barn cats to keep down rodents. So this morning, she was flipping this dead mouse up in the air, batting it around, tossing it across the patio and the Mr. finally took it away from her, but it was apparently a nursing female.  As a child, we had animals and had a granary so we had cats as mousers.  I remember my dad taking me out to the garage to show me a nest of baby mice.  I still remember the small wriggly pink things, new babies without their eyes open even.  He explained to me that they would not be allowed to live as they destroyed grain, multiplied by the dozens and carried lice and fleas.  As part of the reality of life, he told me he would have to drown them and as a child then, I understood it to be necessary.  When I saw that this was a nursing mother mouse, it brought back that memory.  I also know that my Coalette could be prey for the Bald Eagle which perches every day in the tree south of us. I am hoping that she will become wise enough to stay close to the house, but it is natural for her to hunt now and that is a fact of life.

Summer time

OK so I have been gone for a bit, but with our short summer and some other issues, I have had to prioritize things.  But perhaps I am getting caught up. My gardening buddy has been making some terrariums and even though these were very popular in the 70's and I made several, the bug bit me again as they are experiencing popularity now too.  She picked up some plants for me and although my photography always leads to improvement, this is what I did and I am pleased.  With a drapery finial of glass I have a gazing ball in the lower right and a birdhouse on the left from a peg an some paint and glue. 

 Now...the old rusty white stroller which I posted some time earlier is also experiencing a new life.  With a new coat of paint and some make-shift wheels from the craft store, painted and mounted on a dowel...it is much happier than it was before being rescued from an old mine by another friend.

 Here it sits happily with a Creeping Charlie given to me by my gardening buddy's mother.  Happy? No doubt.

Living out here on the prairie, you never now what or who will suddenly appear.  The Silver Spur ranch has this herd of goats pasturing next to our property and they crawl under the fence periodically for "greener" pastures?  Sagebrush and rabbit brush is about the only vegetation but eventually, they crawl back under the fence and go home I guess.  The road over the Snowy Range is now open and we drove over on Monday just to see how deep it was and for ice cream at Centennial too so I will post some pictures next time.

April showers bring May snows

 With this snow being the heaviest since the May 12th snow in 1814, the spring flowers are probably not going to survive.  Because the birds have arrived in throngs, the poor hummers are struggling to find nectar and above this little guy is at least able to feed even though the sugar water is thick, but not frozen because it has so much sugar.  Out front, the birds have sought shelter in the branches of the pine tree and we do keep the feeders full. But gardening?..That may be questionable.

 In an attempt to get out of this winter funk, I have assembled a few of the thrift store items we purchased last month to begin to plan some of our projects.  Pictured above are the wooden balls for our wooden garden angels and the cake pans for stepping stones and candles for the wine glass projects. As the Mr. and I worked at cleaning out the garage, I found enough wood for some of the projects but will have to get more.

I took this picture a few minutes ago from my sewing room balcony door window....when will it end?
With flooding, fires, tornadoes and blistering heat in other places, I should be thankful that we don't have worries about those things, but really?  Enough!!!

Rings

Just a quick post to show the two rings we had made for our 50th.  Gold right for 50?  I got a silver tea set for 25 and who uses silver tea sets? But I love it and it is an antique which makes me happier although not so happy to polish.  This picture doesn't do the rings real justice, but it has been difficult with resources we have (old camera and inexperienced photographers) to capture the brilliance of my stones which were given to the Mr. for his 30 years service with his company. The two elk which encircle his elk tooth are quite detailed and I cannot remember where my small tooth came from, but it was perfect for this setting.

20 degrees May 1st when I rose today..what's wrong with this crazy weather.  The interstate 80 was closed most of yesterday for winter conditions and although we haven't had to worry about tornadoes like so much of the nation, the wind has been horrible. 

Ancestors

NO, these are not OUR ancestors, but they do belong to relatives.  My husband has cousins he had not seen since 1958 when they came from the west coast to WY to visit his family.  The main recollection was that he or his brothers put grasshoppers in their beds.  Sounds about right as there were 4 boys at the time. These two sisters had traveled to a dog show in MO and were on their way home when they stopped and were able to spend a couple of days with us.  These gorgeous dogs are Angie, Summer and Bob (not in that order above...they all look so similar) and he is the one that was in the show.  But the really neat thing about this visit was the fact that these two gals were bringing so much ancestry information to the Mr.  His brother lives here also and he was able to come and visit with them.  The Mr. had 4 brothers and of their children, there is only one male to carry on the name at the present. In addition, of all of the previous generation's children, there may not be many.  It is so important to have this information documented and the search continues.  The old pictures and letters that have been discovered are fascinating.  We so enjoyed their visit and with 6 dogs and a cat in the house, we did just fine!!!

Still winter

I really should call this a critter blog.  This is how she sleeps in my chair....bottom end up!

Of course we are always having pretty sunrises and sunsets, but we had another horrible winter storm yesterday! Most of the highways and byways were closed due to multiple accidents and luckily we did not have anywhere we needed to go. It is 2 degrees as I type this morning. Everything is white and with a late Easter this year, it may very well be Winter still!  On Saturday evening we drove south about 10 miles to a neighboring little berg. There is no post office, no grocery stores, but a couple of bars which both serve food. There is wildlife of course, more than the entire population, so it is fitting that these two joints are named "The Bear Trap", and the "Mangy Moose". We had gone with friends here and I can definitely recommend the Chicken Fried Steak at the Moose.  However really for us girls the real destination was the Red Wagon, which is a consignment shop in an old farm supply building.  It previously was another shop run by a woman named Martha and appropriately called"Aunt Martha's".  Although the Wagon is new and just getting up and running, we frequent it as often as we can.  And by the way it is a few blocks away from the bars, and actually in another town.  Still with no grocery store it does have a post office. ANYWAY, as Ellen would say, my friend spotted a winged-back pink chair and promptly sat in it, declaring it very "comfy".  The problem was the PINK.  She is not fond of pink apparently. After some deliberation and encouragement from me and argument from her mister, she purchased said chair for a nice bargain price.  The problem was that this chair was not petite and we were in a Jeep..4 of us, so the seats could not be down.  After some grumbling and wrangling, I ended up in the middle "kiddie seat", with my head under the top back of the chair as it extended over the top between the head rests.  Can't picture that?  Well our "Marvelous Adventures" are always good for treasured memories and lots of laughs.  And after getting her chair home in her sewing room, she realized that she actually has quite a bit of Pink in her room.