Hey Stasia--Look at This!

For such a time as this....

Pumpkin Pi 2

I am up late tonight baking a pie. It is my second pie in two days. Last night I made a practice pie. Tonight I am baking the real thing.
I'm not sure how I let myself get guilted into baking a pie. I was pretty clear when I moved here that I don't cook much and I cook pies never. However I have moved to a church that esteems pies somewhere between Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
So I had everything I needed to make a cherry pie. I got the recipe online. With pictures. I pitted the cherries, mixed up a gluten free pie crust from scratch, measured and stirred and rolled and poured and baked. THREE HOURS LATER (!) I had a cherry pie that would serve 6 people on a diet and my kitchen looked like something had exploded in it. The blood red cherry juice stains spattered about were such a nice touch. I was going to get my camera so we could contrast the pictures of the pie baking process on line and the reality in my kitchen, but it was down by the computer and I was too exhausted to go up and down the stairs more than absolutely necessary. Suffice it to say that there is no way I could have a food blog. One of the elders stopped by while the pie was in the oven and I was complaining, er, lamenting that I had no desire to ever bake a pie and he said "Oh, we will change that." Oh, really? The pie looked pretty good, but I was so disheartened by the whole experience that I told the STP we would have to move.
The STP (who has no inclination to move) took the pie to the food booth and claimed tonight that it was wonderful pie and that there were way worse pies than mine and I so fell for it that tonight I am baking a gluten free pumpkin pie. (The pumpkin did not need pitted. In fact, it came out of a can.) So maybe the reason I am here is to learn how to bake pies. (Okay, Lord, but that still doesn't explain why I'm working at the bank.)
The reason that it is so late is that I had to go to the hog wrestling at the fair this evening. Maybe next year I will enter a pie in the fair.
Luke 1:37

Bare Feet--Bear Feat

My favorite game warden brought a bear home this morning. And he called the STP and I to come take a look. (I'm thinking that trapping and processing a bear for relocation is to a game warden like finding a positive malarial smear is to a lab tech. Not your ordinary day.) So I took a few pictures to share with you. Because not everyone has a friend with a bear trap.

Something you should know about bear traps--they smell. They smell bad. They smell bad because they have to attract bears who eat garbage from dumpsters. Rotten fruit and such things high in sugar content. (The STP suggested I clean out the crisper drawer. I have a cantalope there that is just about bear bait.) After they catch the bear, they tranquilize him, tag his ear, pull a tooth, and take a rectal temp.

The bear hadn't woken up yet when I saw him. I'm thinking that when he woke up he did not know what hit him. But he will hopefully have learned his lesson: Dumpsters--bad.

One last note: the bear's back feet are much less threatening than his front ones.

From The List

Category: Places to Go
Item crossed off: Medicine wheel

Back to the mountain this weekend to see the Medicine Wheel. An arrangement of rocks on top of the mountain. Arranged like a wagon wheel. Big circle with spokes. Unknown origin. Claimed to be of spiritual significance.

People leave 'offerings' here. Tied to the fence mostly. Saw a young woman while we were there pull out her hair and tie it to the rope. I didn't feel led to pull out my hair or tie anything to the rope. On the way back down the mountain we speculated about the origin of the wheel. I thought it might actually be the work of bored (or creative) Indian children. Some of my favorite children have been known to arrange rocks in circles. The Boog thought it was more likely some sort of work detail assigned by Indian mothers. "Make yourselves useful and move those rocks away from the campsite."
What was neat was to be as high as the clouds. We didn't even have to look up. We could see them moving and forming and we were so close to them. And I was thinking about how God can make things out of arrangements of tiny drops of water. Constantly changing shapes and colors. And hang them in the sky above our heads. And I was moved to worship. Our God is an awesome God. And just when I think I am totally in awe, He mixes in a little sunset and wind and pulls the clouds right down to the ground.
(Just for fun He added some lightning, but of course I didn't get a picture of that.)

Victoria's Outfitters?

Found a source for my new fly fishing outfit. I'm just not sure I can use my Cabela points if I order from the Victoria Secret catalog. And I guess I'll need to get some more mosquito repellent.

Landing on a Jet Plane

Things pilots should not be allowed to say:
We are beginning our final descent...

Nevertheless, I am safely home and unpacked.

Leaving On a Jet Plane

On my way this morning, back home. But if home is where your heart is, then I'm leaving home as well. Printed my own boarding passes. Traveling the last leg without Rose Tenenheirer. Pray for me.

The Poser

This morning the BGITW was accused by her mother of being 'a puddle of discontent.' This by the same woman who perfected her pouting face in the mirror. As my own mother was fond of saying, "What goes around comes around."
(She also used to say, "I hope your face sticks that way."
And, "A bird will come and poop on your lip.")

For The Birds

My best bird picture from the zoo.

My First Guest Blogging

I was invited (Okay, I invited myself...) to guest blog on the BGITW Mom's blog today. You can see it here.

Thursday In The Park

Sometimes the park can be a lonely place.
And then along comes a friend. The kind of friend who shares your sense of style.
You know. The one who gives you a push when you need it.
Who finds joy in same things you do.
The one who just listens when you need to talk.
The same friend who holds you tight when your life takes a downward spiral.
The one friend who will do anything you suggest. Without hesitation.That friend who knows exactly how to make you laugh.
It's a great day when that friend who thinks the world of you shows up in your world.

Baby Nick Goes Out

Baby Nick went to the park with us today. He wasn't a lot of fun, but he wasn't much trouble either.

Mirror, Mirror

Here is the best granddaughter in the world with her GB. We took this picture of ourselves. We are amazingly talented. Her Dad says she has 25% of my genes. "Look!" BGITW says. "Another Claire."
What a great idea. So I made two Claires. One for me to bring home to Wyoming and one to leave here. (I'm leaving the one on the left.)

Crazy

Today I held the baby. Most of the morning. That is the difference between your first grandchild and your second grandchild. With the first one I felt obligated to remind her mother that she could lay that baby down. That holding her all the time might spoil her and she might regret it later. With the second one there is no great need to give motherly advice. The first one has done fine and so now I can relax and just spoil this one every chance I get. And the top of his head smells wonderful.
The world's most beautiful granddaughter and I filled the pool and splashed today. I made a video to post here, but her mother already posted an identical one on her blog. So just go there and see it. It's crazy.

The Price of Sanity

Dodge City sends out one bill for water, sewer, garbage pick-up, and mosquito control. On this months' bill they announced that there will be a two dollar increase in the sanitation fee beginning on August first. The Goober read that and wondered aloud what that meant. He thought it might mean it would cost a little more to maintain your sanity in Dodge City starting next month. I don't think he's been paying his share.

Otra Dia, Otra Adventura

I keep checking your blogs, and you are not posting enough. Maybe because you are too busy having adventures. Or maybe you are just awed by the adventures I am having. If that is the case, I feel kind of bad about it. So bad, in fact, that I have booked a flight to NEW YORK CITY to see the cutest grandbabies in the world and two of my favorite daughters. I am traveling tomorrow, so if you never hear from me again you will understand that I am either in Denver or Chicago trying to get through the airport.
Rose Tenenhier will be my traveling companion.

Me In A Hat and Other Fishing Trivia

I have a fly in my Cabela's hat. The STP's matching hat blew off when he was on the ATV. Fortunately, the hat was the only casualty.

You can lie about your weight on your fishing license.

I said I weighed 160.

You have to live here at least a year to get a resident fishing license. Just to make sure you meant to move here.

I had to get a non-resident fishing license.

If you are wearing waders and you fall in the creek, they will fill up with water and make it hard to stand back up. I don't have waders.

There is this jelly-like stuff you can put on your flies to make them float better.

I borrowed some from our gracious host, because my outfit didn't come with any. I bought my own little bottle today. I'll share it with the STP.

I have a good recipe for grilled trout.

I'll share it with you.

No Worms Were Harmed

Gracious Host: Do you have a fly fishing outfit?

Me: Do you mean ...like something to wear fly fishing?

Of course he meant a rod, reel, line, leader, flies, etc.

I had half of an outfit, because I was sharing one outfit with the STP. (Fly fishing outfits cost more that regular fishing poles--to discourage fly fishing. So we only invested in one before we actually tried it.) The gracious host loaned me an outfit. (Which was a good thing, because the STP was not good at sharing.) And then he taught me how to attach the leader to my line with a nail knot. And how to attach my fly to the end of the leader with another kind of knot. This is the first fly I attached myself. Then I chose another fly to put inside my hat. "Why?", you ask. In case my first fly ended up stuck in a tree.
And then the gracious host gave me a few pointers and moved on down the stream to find a spot to put the STP. Because you don't want to stand too close to someone who is learning to fly fish. So I waded out (ankle deep) into the ice cold stream. And I made my fly fly back and forth. And then I cast my fly onto the water, and made him float and jump about on top of the water. But I did not fool any trout into eating the fly. Which I think is what I was supposed to do. But I liked making the fly fly. And I did not get him stuck in a tree. And then I looked around and I was all by myself. And the birds were singing. And the stream looked like this.

And even though the stream was not good for fly fishing and none of us caught anything at all, I liked fly fishing. And I would do it again. So now I am using my Cabela's Card to buy groceries--to earn enough points to get my own fly fishing outfit. And I am giving up HGTV to watch fishing shows. And I'm going to learn to tie my own flies. And make a little nail with a groove in it to make nail knots easier to tie for flyfisherwomen with progressive lenses.
Maybe some day I'll have my own line of fly fishing outfits.

You Can't Get There From Here

I have been trying to try fly fishing for over a year. It is a very difficult thing to learn because no one wants to teach you. It is the perfect sport for Wyoming. A solitary sport that you really don't want to share with anyone. Because then more people will do it and you will be less alone. So our host for our trip this week is an especially gracious man. Not only did he take us to the cabin on the mountain, he also took us fly fishing. This is the view from the front porch when his alarm went off. I was already awake, just waiting to get up. Like a kid on Christmas morning. You've got to get up, you've got to get up....we're going fly fishing.

The gracious host makes breakfast on the wood cooking stove. The bacon is already fried. These are the pancakes and hashbrowns. We also had scrambled eggs. (The time on his watch is 5:40am.)

After breakfast the gracious host gasses up the ATVs and we load up lunch and fishing stuff and water and bug spray and sunscreen and snacks.

And then we head out to the fly fishing spot. And no lie--we ride the ATVs for an hour. I think the gracious host might have wanted to blindfold us so we would not be able to find his flyfishing spot ever again. No need to fear. I have a suspicion that we really just drove the long way around to discourage future fly fishing trips. This is same route they take the ATVs over when they hunt elk on the mountain. I have no desire to hunt elk if it involves making this trip IN THE WINTER.

I took a lot of pictures along the way so that if I died there would be a record of how it happened. Because there are a lot of ways to die.

You could fall off the back or side of the ATV trying to shoot pictures of the amazing scenery.

You could run into a cow which doesn't get out of the way fast enough.

You could run into a tree.

Or get bogged down in mud.

Or drive off the top of a mountain.

Or when you are headed straight down the rocky other side you could have a heart attack watching your only son roll over with the ATV in front of you.

You could plunge through a rickety bridge... into the raging water below.Or just get lost in the tall grass (Which is unusually tall this year).

Because if you follow too closely you end up eating a lot of dust. And that's a nasty way to go...

Let Me Narrow It Down For You

Does that help?


















He's the one with the green shirt.
(Not the one with the brown bottom.)

Little Cabin in the Woods

The cabin we stayed at had a guest book. And inside the cover was the address of the cabin. And it was GPS coordinates. This is how you get there if you don't have a GPS. Drive to the middle of nowhere. Turn left and park your car. Get on an ATV. Drive half an hour meandering through high mountain pastures. Avoid hitting cattle. (If you are 13 years old, or have the brain of an adolescent male, you can try to hit fresh cow patties along the way. After all, life to you is one big video game and you may miss your electronics today). This is a picture of the Goob. See if you can find him. It is a little unfair, since his ATV was green. When you get to the place, stop your ATV. Get off and open the gate in the fence cleverly disguised to look like more fence. You will just have to know where the place is. Otherwise you will drive right by. Several times. (Remember to close the gate. Free range only extends so far)
Stay to the right of the DEAD END ROAD sign. The DEAD END part of this is not hard to imagine. That this is a road is the unbelieveable part. The cabin is located in a draw. I think in West Virginia it would be called a hollow. This is picture of the cabin. Notice the large antlers at the peak. This is primitive antler art. And this is the view from the front porch looking out. Steaks and baked potatoes on the grill. Flourless chocolate cake. Don't linger too long. Tomorrow we fly fish.

Goin' Fishin'

Headed to the mountain this afternoon for a day of fly fishing tomorrow. Bought my fishing license today. I watched "A River Runs Through It" so I know not to take a coffee can of worms. Other than that (and a can of Deep Woods Off) I'm pretty much unprepared. Wish me luck.

In The Garden

Let's start our tour of the grounds this week with the garden, shall we? I have a wonderful crop of baby lettuce.
I have a whole row of it. So I can just snatch a baby leaf whenever I walk by and enjoy it's freshness right then.
I have it conveniently located just outside the door in my little flower box.

I am also growing tomato plants almost as big as the house. I expect when the tomatoes start to ripen I will need to stake them.
Until then they are doing just fine in the little green pot just under the hose. Becasue they are close to the lettuce that way. Just right for harvesting a complete salad. I have two additional tomato plants in the ground outside the back fence. The Goob was parking his bike on top of them until I pointed out that they were there. He said he saw them, but he thought they were weeds. I see his point. They are not ready to have their picture shared yet. Let's just say they need some more nurturing.

Here is an adorable little ladybug waiting with me for the sunflowers to burst into bloom along the back fence.
Too bad they are still just knee high to a grasshopper.

Next year I will get the STP to build me raised beds with an irrigation system...