Halloween?

Is it really almost Halloween? What have I been doing? I know someone has complained that I haven"t posted lately.  Don't have an excuse.  I did have to harvest my tomatoes and spent some time freezing them as they ripened in a box in the closet...below is just a small sampling of the harvest.  I make sauce from them mostly, pizza etc.  We also got a storage shed which was ordered in July..(finally), and I took a trip south of the border (WY) last week with my buddy.  We got stranded for 2 1/2 hours behind a 3 semi-truck accident going down on Friday and snowstorm on Sunday coming home in Laramie.  But we went to a quilt show, a Maggie Magee craft show and The French Nest outdoor market in Ft. Collins.  In addition, 3 of my quilt buddies from Cheyenne met us in Ft. Collins and we also had lunch with them, we stayed with a friend (Thank you Ruth) and had great food!!!

I have been working on a double wedding ring quilt and spend most afternoons paper-piecing small pieces of fabric (I never throw anything away), to the arcs below.  I think I will need about 116 and I am close to having 80 finished. For me it is therapy.  I have already used the fabric in the plastic bin and have resorted to my stash for more now...but as a (use what you have) quilter, it gives me great satisfaction that I didn't throw these small pieces away. 

In my sewing room, I have the buggy above, a relic from much earlier times and have not had the heart to let go of it.  I also have a baby blanket, crocheted by one of my grandmothers I think, that was mine, in the buggy.  For some reason Coalette has taken it upon herself to take her afternoon naps in the buggy, as Roger sleeps at my feet while I sew.  Can it get any better? We don't get trick or treaters out here, so I guess I didn't realize it had been sneaking up on me.

Wyoming weather and such

 Having been absent from this blog for a few weeks, I am back at the keyboard.  Sometimes it seems like you just need a break and with this situation with our government (let that many mothers govern and the situation would never have happened), among another ongoing thing, my blood pressure has been boiling. However, it is under control and life goes on.  A week ago the snow on my little balcony off my sewing room had 12 1/2 inches on it and a couple of days ago, we trekked to the Bennett Peak area to search for chokecherry seeds and check on our Geocasche and the leaves on the trees were just still in glorious colors.  The weather is fickle. It was a solitary drive and the furkids got to go, but it was really pretty.

 A few weeks ago I promised the picture of more rolling pins recycled and it is perfect for hanging my apron.  I use aprons!!!  Another piece of history which is fading is the apron.  Well, maybe not completely fading as I see a new interest with those younger generation crafters who quilt and try to revive some of the lost skills. After all, who tats any more?  That is a craft forgotten for most.  Lots of young people are crocheting and knitting though and that is a good thing.  Good for the soul!!

Last year, on one of my trips to Denver with my buddies, we spent the day at the Brass Armadillo and we were seeking a cookbook for my friend here to convert into a clock and I was looking for Christmas themed old handkerchiefs.  A booth there was literally loaded with handkerchiefs!!  Not only was it loaded, it had so many Christmas hankies that I couldn't decided which ones to purchase.  In a magazine I had seen a Christmas tree skirt completely made of these and quilted.  Recycled and quilted...just up my alley.  I have it nearly completed and will no doubt embellish it. I am also working on a wedding ring quilt with over 100 pieced segments of 11 small pieces each. How many is that? In addition, there will be many background pieces to stitch to these.  I have 25 finished so this will occupy a good share of my winter snow days won't it?  In addition, if the weather permits, my buddies and I are planning another jaunt sometime soon as it has been forever since I have done this it seems.  These are my two old friends (over 40 years) and as Dolly and Kenny sing----"you can't make old friends". 

I do love the seasons and don't mind the snow as long as I don't have to go out in it.  I grew up with long snowy winters and like my mother, do not like cold weather.  It is like chicken gizzards, you can not develop a like for some things, although she loved gizzards and liver, I still cannot handle either of those.  But I do share her dislike for cold weather and the wind.  Oh my gosh we have had wind.
Anyway, my dad who dearly loved my mother, took her to New Mexico for her last few years and I think she was happy there. So we started with cold weather and have ended with warm weather.  In a few weeks we will have Thanksgiving...I am looking forward to that and Christmas.  Thank goodness we have lots of holidays during the winter and our larder is always full, the coffee pot is on and the sewing bobbins are full!!!

Windy Wyoming

 This blog title doesn't really represent these blog photos today, but my heavens to mergatroid, has it been windy!!!  So windy that I haven't really been able to go out and work to get my garden stuff in.  And I just looked at the thermometer and it is 33 degrees outside.  It wasn't supposed to get this cold and I didn't cover anything.  Having the cows back in the pasture though does give me some pleasure in that it reminds me of the stock from which I came.  Good ol' beef and farming country.  Those cold mornings when we went out to feed the calves from a bucket with a nipple attached and getting milk splashed over us wasn't really fun, but it surely taught us how we earned our beef on the table.  I love baby calves and their beautiful eyes. Hard to look into those sweet faces and long lashes and know they would be on the table come winter.  We have taken the hummer feeders down and put up the bird feeders above, so you can see how close these cattle are and it warms my soul to see and hear them.

 Some of the things I collect are mashers and rolling pins, but not just any mashers and rolling pins.  The ones I collect "speak" to me. These kitchen tools have been replaced by more modern appliances, but I know they will go by the wayside and again, it reminds me of my childhood.  I do remember watching my grandmother use a masher similar to the ones above. And a butter paddle? Although used in a simpler era, and becoming more scarce all of the time, these were essential in any pioneer kitchen. I have a food processor and even though it makes a wonderful scratch pie crust, I still like to use a rolling pin and I have many.  I remember using my "little" rolling pin and rolling crust with grandma.  She would give me the leftover pieces and I could sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on my carefully rolled pastry dough and bake it in her oven.  These little pins are really getting difficult to locate and I just received my latest pin treasure this week from my dear friend.  It is the green handled one on the far right and is in pristine condition.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

 These are some of the other pins from days gone by and I have taken a couple of them and used them for apron Hooks....will post later. Snow is on the mountains and our larder is mostly stocked so it is time for pies right?  My mom wasn't the greatest cook although she was good at opening cans and jars, but she made great pie crusts. I have tried dozens of so-called perfect pie crusts, and I have even resorted to buying frozen crusts, but I am still searching for a crust that would marvel my mother's.  And her warm ginger bread with cream on it...does anyone even make gingerbread?  I don't mean cookies.  I mean real dark brown gingerbread in a 9 X 13 cake pan. I don't recall ever making it.  But my mom could bake and maybe that is why unlike Rachel Ray, I would much more prefer to bake than cook. With winter around the corner, we need to store up some fat don't we?  My doctor would not agree I am sure, but that's what we did with the cattle...fatten 'em up for slaughter....so If the wind doesn't blow 100 mph today, I won't bake, I will go out and work off a few calories.  Then I shall bake.

Fall around the corner

 It has been quiet on the home front and above, the first of the garden, picked earlier this week, has now become nearly the last of the garden.  It was our first "real" frost last night and we covered what is left of the tomatoes.  I have put up for the winter much zucchini and will start the tomatoes that were picked last night.  About a dozen had been left to ripen on the vine and they are red and plump!!
More will survive this first frost covered, but with a bit of yellow showing in the far aspen, we are reminded that snowfall is not far behind now. There are still root crops in, parsnips and carrots and they will be fine for a while. Our quest for more camping will be cut short now too.  So like the cat Coalette below snuggled in my needlework bag, we will be seeking out the comfort of the heaters. The antelope are gathering their herds and the rancher put the cattle out next to our fence for winter pasture...all signs.

 I have probably posted this picture below, but I love how my furkids snuggle up to each other.  The cattle drive my little grey guy nuts. His dream in life is to be a "cowdog".  Not happening! The Mr. has suggested that he take him to the Silver Spur ranch and offer him up as such, but he isn't much bigger than the cat.

With the onslaught of cooler days, let the quilting and crafting and painting and reading begin!!  They are therapy for me and make the hours fly.

"Pleasure and action make the hours seem short." ~ William Shakespeare

Got a paddle?

 For all of those poor people in Colorado who are affected by the floods, our thoughts are with them.  It is being called a 500 year flood. Roads washed out, dams overflowing and evacuations in places no one would have imagined.  Up to 15 inches in some places and people are stranded, some without power, sewer, etc.  It appears that this may be clearing in areas, but not everywhere.  I remember in 1976 when over 100 people were killed in the Big Thompson Flood, but at least now communication and technology allow warnings so much earlier. Within the last two minutes, I 25 is closed since the Big Thompson is flooding. Above, an area near Bennett Peak, which as the crow flys is just a few miles from my back porch, but when we drove it last week, it took at least an hour to reach.  Across ranch land, through private and public lands, the journey was really pretty.  We did find lots of chokecherries, which surprised us and NO, I did not pick any.  We "Geocasche" some and did place a new casche and will watch to see if anyone finds it. I always marvel at Mother Nature and the beauty which surrounds us.

 Gypsy Wagon....Which was to be a sheep wagon!!...I love this little birdhouse and next year, when our little water feature is completed, I plan to have a little village near the water source.  Some people have garden railroads, but I will have a garden town and although I am not sure that the birds will actually inhabit my rentals, it will be fun to landscape with small plants and rocks.   The wheels are handles for outside faucets.

The castle is now complete and will be accessed by a bridge over a moat I hope.  With an old funnel and lamp parts and a hose nozzle, the roof is completed on all 4 sections.  

Just heard that the entire town of Lyons is being evacuated...3 deaths reported so far.

Overland Trail

 Yesterday with lunch packed and 4 wheel in gear, along with about 25 other people, we trekked along the original Overland trail.  Because the land is now privately owned, we received permission to do this from the owner and it was a Saratoga Museum sponsored event. The site above and monument above is a gift from Mary Ellen Davis and family in memory of her husband,  a frontier banker.  Three local historians presented programs on the graves, history of the Overland trail,  and the Indian attacks.

 Now fenced in, previously these six graves have been here since the 1860's.  The Mr. floated this North Platte river many years ago and visited these graves then where now one of the stones had been vandalized and eventually has disappeared. It read "Killed by Indians". 

We hiked down a stone stairway.  It really was not a stairway, but a narrow cut between two rock walls, with very slippery loose stone and soil.  As always on the high desert, we were warned to watch for rattlesnakes or "buzzworms".  At the bottom near the river banks, the evidence of the many travelers from the east to the west is still evident.  One of the earliest dates we saw was 1866.  This area was near the Emigrant's Crossing where the Bennett's ferry allowed the pioneers and the military to cross at $5.00 a wagon. We received a map and drawing of the ferry and apparently there was another near what is now Pick Bridge.  I won't attempt to detail the information, but it was a trip and lesson in history I won't forget. 

Afterward, we drove a short distance to Patton (Klein, Cline)'s (?) Property to have lunch on his property.  This was a rustic cabin and we lunched on his front porch in the shade and were graciously allowed to used his "facility".  This was when Chris (Chili) Rollison who is an archaeologist, native of the area and expert on Indian history here, spoke and detailed the different tribes occupying the area then.  I know that my father's family came west and settled in Colorado.  The Overland trail came through Julesburg Colorado and I am thinking that they probably did not venture farther north than that if they came by that route.  I had always been told that my grandmother was the first "white" child born in Erie Co.  After this trek, I am not sure that I would have survived as a pioneer traveler knowing some of the hardships they must have encountered.  Some of the old wagon ruts were still very much visible.  It took nearly and hour from the highway to reach this area of the river by 4-wheel drive and was a mere 8.5 miles.  I live just walking distance from the North Platte and always marvel at nature's beauty.  Thanks to those mighty pioneers who ventured west to persue their dreams!!!

A little of this 'n that

 Several years ago, I taught a painting class here in Saratoga and a man here made several different birdhouses for the class. This was a sheep wagon and I never could decide how to finish it.  We plan to build a stream and small water landscape area in our back yard, as we have almost always had a water feature.  I have been researching a little and intend to build more birdhouses for the backyard. That is where the castle will reside and I want some various examples of birdhouses there also. Soooo...I came upon some Gypsy Wagons which are so very ornate and beautiful!!!  I am an embellisher and these seemed perfect for this little birdhouse.  Above in the beginning stage, I will have it finished in another post and the castle is getting it's top pieces attached.  The hardware store provides a myriad of adornments and the wheels are going to be the round brightly painted handles on outdoor faucets. (technical name will be addressed).

 Looking at my collection of potential blog photos, I found this one of Coalette....she always helps me blog although her typing ability sucks and misspelled words get deleted.

This also is an earlier photo, but this past two weeks, the sunsets have been beyond description and so this is just an example of what we get to see most evenings.  The antelope have begun to herd up and although the trees haven't yet started to turn, small signs of fall are appearing.  We are taking a trek this weekend as museum members over the "Overland Trail".  An important part of History, especially so close to us, this area has long been on our list of "to do's".  Will update after the weekend.

"Choice, not chance determines destiny." ~ Anonymous