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.

Stripping

 So I have been away from the blog for a couple of weeks and although it is spring, it has been snowing nearly every day.  I have been sewing 'cause I cannot get outside to plant, or do any yard work!!! Where is the nice weather? I am not stripping folks, although I have another case of shingles and I truly do feel like stripping.  (Yes I have had the shingles vaccination, but it doesn't always work.)  If you all recall, I bought an old sewing machine with a cabinet which is in need of some TLC.  It has been neglected for years.  Not wanting to damage it, I have been wanting to try just a refinisher.  At a yard sale last week, I bought a small table for $3 to experiment with the refinisher.  I used some years and years ago and was so impressed with it but haven't used any since and I don't want to strip my cabinet for fear of damaging it.  With a little refinisher on some steele wool and less than 60 seconds, you can see the results!!!  It even filled in the scratches.!!

Here is my stripper...well, she is just airing everything out I think..and yes, I do wipe down my counter tops. She has been going out mornings with the dogs and it is still dark at 6:00 a.m. here.

One day this week I let her in, turned around and discovered she was approaching me with something in her mouth!!! I screamed at the Mr. (he was still in bed).  I did not recognize the critter she was proudly carrying and when I screamed, she dropped it under the dining room table.  He got up, grabbed a glove and told me to keep an eye on the trophy.  Whatever it was did not move at all very fast.  He scooped it up and threw it out on the cement patio.  It was furry, gray and about 5-6 inches long with a short skinny tail.  I had to google it and it was a MOLE.  Apparently the pelts are really nice, but although edible, the flesh is not very tasty!!!