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.

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!!!