Chickens on Strike

There is a red glow coming from the chicken house.

It has been the coldest December we have had in quite a few years, so the flock has been locked in the chicken house with a heat lamp on.

They seem to be on strike. I've only been getting a single egg every once in a awhile.

They don't like to be locked up & want to be out chasing bugs & eating alfalfa.

I've been having to buy eggs at the store. Boy what a difference. Our eggs have big orange yolks.

I bought the cage free, brown. omega 3 eggs. All natural, farm fresh.

Look at them.

They are pasty white with no flavor.

Yuck!

Baby it's Cold outside!

Penny Say's "Let me in, I don't like it outside when it's cold."

The other day a friend told me that every thing breaks when it is cold. She was referring to milking equipment, as she was raised on a dairy in Wisconsin.

It was 21 below this morning & things are breaking. My ice skates blade came loose. The handle on my crock pots lid broke off & when I went to put pictures in my computer I had to down load the software from my camera before it would work.

The gremlins must come out in the cold!

Bossy Machine

Dawn & I went to a Christmas craft fair last week, where I spotted this awesome handmade card. The lady who crafted it said she had an embossing machine. I'm not sure what an embossing machine is, or where to purchase one, but when telling my husband that I wanted an embossing machine he replied, "You already are a bossy machine."

Do any of you know about embossing machines & where to get them?

Friend's

You can't buy true affection. It just doesn't work. you have to genuinely care about other people before they care for you.

Here are a few helpful hints.

1. Accept people for who they are.

2. Make them feel good about themselves.

3. Show interest in them & what they do.

4. Be kind to animals & little children.

5. Have respect for yourself & others.

6. Be positive.

7. Go with the flow, everything can't always be your way.

"Though no one can go back and make a brand-new start,

anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending."

Beutiful Music

We attended the Middle School Christmas Concert last night.

The band & choir are very good. Dawn is in the 8th grade choir. They sang four songs, ending with one of my favorites "Winter Wonderland"

For the grand finally the 8th grade band played a good old fashioned sing along.

I was listening to the radio this morning. They where chatting about a phenomenon called "ear worms". When you hear a song that keeps running thru your mind all day. They said that your mind wants to finish it, so it just continues playing.

Here is a good example of one of those snappy little tunes.

It came off of Shari Lewis's "Lamb Chop"

This is the song that never ends.

It goes on & on my friends.

Some people started singing it,

not knowing what it was.

And the continued singing it forever just because.

This is the song that never ends.

What songs do you hear playing in your mind?

Christmas Goodie's

I found these Christmas goodie's at the thrift store Wendsday.

I feel like I'm late.

I haven't done any decorating or sent any Christmas cards yet.

I better get busy!

Fourteen years Old!

Our little baby girl turned 14 years old last week.

We came home from a trip to North Dakota that day, so it wasn't a traditional birthday with a cake & sleep over. But the night before we stayed in a hotel that was attached to a mall.

Dawn loves to shop, so that was perfect for her birthday.

She got a cool pair of boarder shoes, books & things.

Happy Birthday Dawn!

Happy Thanksgiving!

" Over the hills & thru the woods,

To Grandmothers house we go.

The horse knows the way,

To carry the sleigh,

Thru the cold & drifting snow."

We just came back from North Dakota, So plan on spending Thanksgiving day

just relaxing at home.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Neighbor

Here is on of my neighbors.
She probably thinks I am very unfriendly.
I drive past her almost every day.
Some day I shall invite her over for a cup of tea.

Breast Cancer Birds

I read an article in "Angels on Earth" about Jennifer & immediately went to her website to check out her art & order some cards.

"After the initial shock of discovering she had cancer, Jenifer decided to turn this very negative time in her life into a very positive time and help others cope with cancer in anyway she could. Just a few years earlier, with no formal training in art but a true love of birds, Jennifer had begun painting birds as a hobby and to give as gifts, using water colors and her own detailed technique."

"Jennifer did not create the five Breast Cancer Birds to be art masterpieces, but from the heart, to be given as gifts to the ones who helped her so much through this trying but enlightening time in her life."

Check out her website at

www.breastcancerbirds.org

Tales from Water Street

Long ago & far away, we lived in a magical old house on Water Street. It was in south eastern Alaska. In the island town of Ketchican.
We had no front yard, just a few steps leading down to the side walk, which took you down Water Street to a small market, where we would walk to pick up a loaf of bread or gallon of milk. There was always a wolf dog laying out side the store. You didn't dare get near this dog. He would growl if you got to close.
The back of the house had a huge picture window looking out on the ocean.
We had a parakeet named Davey, who sat by the window & helped us look for pirate ships.
One of the ships we kept an eye out for was "The Flying Dutchman" a notorious ghost ship. Legend has it, the captain made a deal with the devil & the vessel is doomed to sail the oceans forever.
Looking out the window and down to the rocky beach, one day we saw a terrifying sight.
My older sister Susan and cousin Jenny where crawling out on a rock to get a quarter. The tide was coming in and waves where pounding against the rock. They did get a good spanking for that adventure!
My cousin vernon and I had great times exploring the caves and searching for treasures in tide pools.
I had a pair of little, red, canvas tennis shoes. The kind that the rubber comes up over the toes. I thought I was to old for shoes like that, so one morning, before school, I hid them under my bed. Mom searched frantically for them while all along I knew just where they where. At the last minute realizing I had no other shoes to wear I crawled under my bed to get them.
Across the street and up the road a bit lived a very nice lady. She had long grey hair, kept in a braid. She had wooden steps leading up thru her yard to the house, with trees & bushes all around. She had birds and squirrels that she could feed by hand.
May first she invited all the neighborhood kids over to do a May day dance. She had a pole with ribbons attached to the top. We each took a ribbon and with her instructions weaved in and out around the pole to create a beautifully decorated May pole.

What are your childhood memories of special places you lived?

When I am old

When I am old,
I will live in a redwood cabin,
in the woods.
I will have a long grey braid,
trailing down my back.
I will have bird feeders,
all over my yard.
I will hike in the mountains &
fish in the streams.
I will pick berries &
grow beautiful flowers.
I will raise goats &
sell arts & crafts.

These are some of my dreams for the twilight years.
Tell me some of yours.

Thank you!

Thank you to all of our veterans. The brave men & woman who have gone thru hell to make America a safer place to live.

Thank you to my Grandpa Sannar, my Dad, my uncles Randy & Phil, my nephews Sam & Ryan who are currently serving & all the others who have so bravely

served our country!

Gales of November

The gales of November are blowing today!

Although we are far from the ocean. It reminds me of the Gordan Light foot song "The Edmond Fitzgerald"

Sometimes I imagine the prairie is the sea & the grass blowing in the wind as waves.

It's not hard to imagine you are on a boat, when you gaze up at the vast expanse of sky.

Ahoye mattie! Come allong with me.

We will sail the seven sea's!

Old Hallow's Eve

Old Hallows Eve was upon us & we started out on our great adventure.

Our first stop was "Perk County Coffee Co.

Where we filled up on drinks & snacks to keep us going.

Here are the young ghouls running the shop.

Down town we saw ghouls & goblins every where we looked!

What a fabulous Halloween Night!

Ghost Story

The year that I was 13 my family bought 40 acres of beautiful property in the northeast corner of Oregon.

It had everything a family would want, a creek, a pond, gorgeous views & plenty of trees & bushes for kids to play in. It even hosted it's own resident ghost.

Mom & Dad picked out the perfect spot for a pole shed, with living quarters, that would become our temporary home, while building a log house up on the hill. Early that fall, when the evenings began to turn crisp, we noticed some mysterious occurrences.

We had moved in before drilling a well, so had no running water. Consequently we had to carry water from the pond for our menagerie of animals.

One dusky evening, while at the pond we heard people calling "Karen, Karen" We quickly packed the water in that night. It continued to happen, so there was no lolly gagging at the pond in the evenings.

Sometimes the sent of a sweaty man hung in the air.

While we, "Noisy children" where in school & Mom was at home alone, she would often have things pulled from her hands & would see a little girl sitting on the ladder leading up to the loft.

Even though I heard the calls for "Karen" I never truly believed we really had a ghost until one day in the middle of the afternoon.

The bus dropped us off as usual at the end of the driveway.

I was the first one down the driveway & to my dismay, saw a little girl running around our yard. She had long blond hair & wore a long dress.

I went in the house expecting my Mom to be visiting with a lady friend & said "Mom who's here."

We had no visitors, only a ghostly apparition, by the name of "Karen"

We believe "Karen" was a little girl from the 18 hundreds, traveling with her family. She must have become lost on the property we later purchased. Her parents ghosts have been searching for her ever since.

Children have always felt safe & comfortable around my Mom, so I believe, Karen liked to play at our house while we where in school.

Do you have any ghost story's?

New Cleaning Service

I called the local cleaning service & look at the cute little man they sent out.

He worked very hard all day!

Dusting

Sweeping

Mopping

I highly recommend "Noah Bean" cleaning services

Fabulouse Library

"The bookshop has a thousand books, all colors, hues and tinges And every cover is a door that turns on magic hinges."-Nancy B. Turner

The new Park County Library opened up October 4rth .

It is spacious, with twice as much room as the old Library.

I can imagine spending hours reading in the different nooks. Most of them have huge windows, over looking the grounds & in one there is even a fireplace.

It has a teen center, which is very hip.

A great children's department, that includes an activities room and outdoor play area.

There are gobs of computers, so you no longer have a 15 minute time limit.

There is even a cafe with an out door seating area.

Grizzly bears are the mascots of the new library. They have been painted by local artists.

The library is spectacular! If you are ever in the Cody area you must stop by & see it.

Lost & Found

My daughter dawn is ruining my husbands reputation as a manly man.

Being the very forgetful child she is, she has lost quite a few things this fall. First her precious cell phone, her swimming bag & the latest her pretty, little, green wallet, in which she had been carrying her dads expired drivers licence, hair clips & some Avon perfume samples.

Willie received a call from the police last night asking if he had lost his pretty, green wallet.

He replied "No, I don't think so."

They said that it had his drivers licence in it.

I went & picked it up this morning & imagine the people at the police station had quite a laugh.

Frost on the Pumkin

We are having our first winter storm of the season. It's a little early, but not unusual to have a snow storm in October. The snow is supposed to keep coming all weekend & then be up in the 50's Monday.

It seems like a great weekend to stay home, read by the fire, sew, bake & do crafty things, while sipping on hot apple cider.

Well, so many things to do. Got to go, toot-a-loo

Beef Stew

Doesn't this look like great ingredients for beef stew. It all came out of my garden this year. Root crops seemed to do the best for some reason.

Here is the recipe:

1 pkg. stew seasoning

2 lbs. beef stew meat

3 Tbsp. flour

2Tbsp. oil 3 cups water

5 cups cut up veggies

1. coat beef with flour. heat oil in skillet. Add beef; cook until browned on all sides.

2. put all ingredients in crock pot & let cook all day

This recipe works great with wild game to. The first year we where married we had an old elk in the freezer. That meat needed to simmer all day, so it would be tender enough to chew!

Cosmos

I've always liked Cosmos.

Here are some I planted this year.

"How would you like to own a universe? This will probably never happen but you can grow a plant which produces "showy flowers" in an "orderly arrangement of cosmic proportions". Cosmos is the flower you should grow. Spanish priest grew cosmos in their mission gardens in Mexico. The evenly placed petals led them to christen the flower "Cosmos," the Greek word for harmony or ordered universe.

Wedding Bliss

My nephew KP & his beautifull bride Taylor where married this weekend.

It's so strange that the little kids I used to tote around are growing up. It doesn't seem like that much time has gone by. Yes, that means I'm getting old.

I got a friend,Jan to go along with me. We loaded up my green Blazer & hit the road. over 700 miles to our destination, from Ralston, Wyoming to Echo, Oregon.

WE got to the Pendelton Woolen Mills just in time to take a tour & see how they make the beautiful blankets. We also bought big bags of remnants with plans of making our own creations.

We made it to my sister Susans Friday afternoon & got busy with wedding preparations.

We decorated with grapes & roses grown on the farm & they where married in the hay field over looking the vineyard. It was gorgeous!

Afterwards we feasted on prime rib & roasted pork. Delicious!

The party went on into the wee hours of the morning with a Bonn fire & music to dance the night away.

It was so nice to spend time with my family in Oregon & was hard to leave the next morning. I wish someone could move Wyoming closer to Oregon!

Sweet Corn

I harvested my patch of sweet corn this week.

Now it is all bagged up & in the freezer.

I love eating plump, juicy corn from the garden all winter long!

I Love Sunflowers!

It's proven, sunflowers make people happy. Their sunny yellow faces pointing to the sky bring on warm fuzzy feelings.

These are the sunflowers I planted in my garden this spring.

I remember the first ones I planted years ago. We had remodeled an old log cabin in Cody. it was the very first house we owned & I have very fond memories of my cute little cabin.

It had a large yard with tree's & bushes. I planted a row of sunflowers along the front fence.

We had a good Friend Lupe, who was always joking around. He said I was never going to get any seed's out of those sunflowers, so early one morning he snuck over and tied a small bag of sunflower seeds to one of the plants.

When I looked out that morning, I wondered what on earth that was dangling from my flowers!