Snow

Woke up this morning to about 8 inches of snow!

Got my manual labor in for the day.  Had to sweep my way to the house.  Gma had a foot doctor appointment in Cody for 11:00am.  I called to cancel it and the receptionist thought that was a good idea.  Their snow was really deep and the roads were slick, black ice in some spots.  So we are rescheduled for Jan 28th.  Buses weren't running in Cody, Wapiti, or Basin.  I did see a bus go up river here about 9:00am.  Heard at the post office that Meeteetse has delayed start on snow days.  That way they don't have to cancel as it is really hard to make up the day.  They just start later.  They call people on the routes to let them know so people aren't out in the dark trying to figure out where to plow to get to the bus.  Sounds like a reasonable solution. 

I did go back out and shovel around my car.  It was only 13 degrees so didn't stay out long.  Later went back and swept off the car and shoveled around it again.  I measured 5 inches on the ramp, 7 on my car, and 8 on the ground.  Didn't have any trouble getting out to go to town as it was really light and fluffy snow. But I could see where the underside of the car scraped the snow.

The plows had gone by my town house so there was no way I could get in the driveway.  Then they had piled up snow in the middle of the street as well. I couldn't jump the middle and the driveway both.  Couldn't even do one of them. There was a tractor removing the middle pile down by the post office, but they hadn't gotten too far at that time.  Figured if I went back in the afternoon they might have it done in front of my house.  Even so, I still couldn't get in the driveway.   

Just before lunch I got a call from the city water works fellow and he wanted to do a water test at my house for asbestos.  Said it was ok, I'd meet him, but I couldn't get in because of the plowed snow.  I took Gma's shovel with me and met him.  Quickly started to shovel a path and he had a shovel in his truck so he shoveled my walk, a path in the driveway and up to the front door.  I swept the porch behind him.  While he was doing the test on the water I shoveled and swept the back porch.  I now have a nice path to my front door, but still can't get into the driveway.  However the plowers did scrape the curbs and I do have room to park there.  Will see if they got all the snow cleaned up out of the street tomorrow and maybe they will do the driveways too. 

Flying Cat Watch Fairy

I guess Libby's flying cat tooth fairy did have a flying cat watch fairy friend after all.  The lost watch has returned.  The next morning it showed up on the bathroom floor in the trailer in a spot where I had looked twice.  Didn't have to buy another one on Thursday. 

Today I played in my shop instead of the house.  I placed two of the metal shelves where I think I want them and put a couple of boxes on them.  The one I thought would hold the Christmas decorations wasn't wide enough.  It wasn't the one they were on originally in my Hdn basement.  That was the shelf that needed the top shelf put on, so I did that today and then washed it all off.  Did put all the decorations on it. 

Now I think I need to dust out the shop cupboards and I can put stuff in them.  There is just soooo much room to put stuff that I'm having trouble deciding what I should put where.  Decisions! Decisions! 

A New Year - 2014

Here it is!  Another year.  Wonder what kinds of adventures it will bring. 

So far I have gotten to finally spend the night in my new house.  Whoo - eee!!!  That was a very satisfying experience. I decided to sleep in the Queen bed room because it has a night stand for my alarm clock.  Otherwise I would have had to get out of bed to shut off the alarm.  Don't have any night stands in the Western Room yet. It was very comfy and cozy. Slept good.  I have used both showers, upstairs and down, now.  They work just fine. 

Took down my Christmas decorations in the new house yesterday and today.  Takes much longer to take down as everything has to go in its certain spot.  Finding all the spots takes time.  Had all the hanging things and scenes put away yesterday.  Today I took all the stuff off the tree and took the tree apart.  Somewhere in all that I checked my watch to see how I was doing time wise.  No watch!!!  Didn't remember taking it off for any reason.  So back through all the boxes I searched.  No luck.  Don't know where it fell off.  Maybe when I went to the post office and store this morning.  Don't know how long its been gone.  Couldn't find it in either house or the trailer.  I've put it on my grocery list for Walmart Thursday.  It was a Walmart watch anyway, so no biggie. 

Wonder if Libby's flying cat tooth fairy has a flying cat watch fairy friend. 

Since I spent so much time repacking the decorations in the attempt to find the watch I didn't carry the boxes back out to the garage.  Have decided I need to place the metal shelves where I want them in the shop and I can put all the boxes away there.  I have three shelves put together and just one shelf to put on the fourth one. Have to find the "right" spot for each shelf though before I load them up.  There are way too many possibilities for placement.  Big decisions.  I love it. 

Happy New Year, All.

Its a new Year

Guess its time to put something new on here.  Christmas was quite awhile ago.

We've just been up to our usual stuff.  Seniors on Mondays and Wednesdays.  Senior Rec bus to Cody on Thursdays.  Church on Sundays.  Celebrated my birthday with some friends who also have birthdays the day before me and the day after me.  Celebrated Dan and Juniors March birthdays with dinner at the Elk Horn.

Schumachers were here in Jan on their way back from South Dakota.  Limings were here in March after a Tae Kwon Do tournament in Powell. 

Lots of sickness going around the country.  We went to a couple of funerals.  Cafe has been closed off and on a lot so we've had to do quite a bit of our own cooking. 

Gma is looking at magazines to see where we can go this summer.  Then she got a cleaning itch, so we've gone through the bathroom cupboards and got rid of a bunch of old worn out towels and wash rags.  Called the vehicle fix it shop to see if they could use them for grease rags and they could.  Threw out a bunch of old dried up lotion and shampoo bottles.  They didn't have much in them anyway.  Probably why they dried up.  So we have a little more room in some cupboards and drawers. 

Been getting stuff for my own little mini baby shower for Alfred.  My status at coffee has gone up again as I now have three (3) Great Grandchildren.  I'm still behind though as most of my coffee buddies have 6 to 8 or more Greats.  I'm gaining.

Next week Pat, Jen and I go to sunny Southern California to see Alfred (and Charlie and Henry) and take lots of pics.  Hope to get in a bit of visit with the Paynes as well.  Think Ed might even get to come there for a day.  That will be good.  Not sure what all we will have time to do as far as sight seeing, but we'll do the best we can in the time we have. 

Christmas in Meeteetse

We had a great day today!

It snowed Christmas Eve, so we had a nice White Christmas today.  Had two inches on my car of light fluffy stuff.  Its easy to sweep off, very little effort.  We must have a Christmas Bunny as I saw his tracks from under the trailer ramp to the garage. 

We opened our packages after breakfast.  Then got ready to go to the Irma for Christmas Dinner with the Griffins.  They picked us up.  It's always sooo good and I ate way too much.  Can't exactly run around the block to wear it off, so we napped all afternoon instead.  Have lots of goodies to eat up now.

Joe Bain called us in the morning.  David Bain called later in the afternoon.  Then I called Robert.  Everyone had a white Christmas and all are doing well.

Hope all my family and friends had as good a day as Gma and I did.

On the road again

The end of June we went to Buford, WY just to see it before it gets all changed and modernized by the new owners.  Stopped at a few historical spots on the way.  Saw where there was an ice slough where emigrants could still chop ice for their coolers along the way on their Oregon, California, or wherever they were going treks.  Then we stopped at the paint mines near Rawlins where they mined hematite which was used for painting.  Saw the Lincoln Memorial which is now at a rest area on I-80 at the highest point on the Lincoln Highway.  Stopped at the Tree in the Rock which is also on I-80.  The tree was growing out of a rock out in the middle of nowhere, so the trainmen used to water it.  When the highway went in, they went around the tree.  Now it has a historical marker and quite a pull out area for viewing.  Also went into a campground where the Vedauwoo rock formation is located.  Lots of interesting old rocks there.  Didn't have time to really explore that area so will have to go back there for another trip sometime.  Stopped at Muddy Gap.  Also took some pics of the Split Rock down in that area somewhere.  It was an emigrant and Pony Express landmark.  Think there was a stage stop somewhere by it.

Went to Yellowstone on the Fourth of July.  Saw 4 big bull elk at different places and some cow elk on the lawn at Mammoth.  There were several buffalo in various spots, but none on the road, consequently no "Buffalo jambs".  In fact traffic on the roads was nice.  However, if you pulled off into any of the attraction spots it was congested.  Even saw an antelope.  Don't usually see them in the Park, they are lower down.

July 28th I went on a Dendrochronology tour to the Double D, up WoodRiver on the way to Kirwin.  Gma didn't go on that one.  I had never been into the Double D before, just went by it on the way to Kirwin, so it was fun to see just what all was in there. Jim Dunrud was with us so he explained a lot about what some of the cabins were.

Aug 7th Gma and I went to the Ayers Natural Bridge which is down near Douglas.  That is really a pretty spot.  Nice place for future picnics or something.  We had lunch in Glenrock.  Then stopped at a historical marker which explained how the town got its name.  There is a couple of big white sandstone rocks out in the glen.  Fremont went through there and camped, then emigrants camped there on their treks and wrote their names on the rock.  I didn't walk out to the rock as it was quite a way from the parking spot and Gma would have to sit in the car and wait for me.  Wasn't a whole lot of shade, but some, and it was hot (in the 90s).  Will have to do that one on another trip sometime.

Aug 14th we went to Red Lodge, over the Beartooths and back through Sunlight Basin.  Was quite smokey when we left, but we got out of it around Clark.  Montana was clear and it was nice all the way over the mountain.  Didn't get back into the smoke until near the Dead Indian pull out spot.  Thought maybe we'd drive up the North Fork a way to have our picnic lunch since we got back so early.  By the time we got to Cody the smoke was worse.  Could smell it in the air and visibility wasn't all that far.  So we decided to just go on home and eat our picnic in the house at the kitchen table.  No smoke, no wind, no ants, and it was cool, too.

3/4 Century

What an awesome party!  I thoroughly enjoyed it all. 

Some of my kids arrived on Thursday afternoon so they could be ready to got to Kirwin Friday morning.  That was a good idea and off went the guys bright and early around 9:00 am.  So the girls all climbed the hill.  I had time to briefly take in another birthday breakfast party at Lucille's for a friend.  Didn't have time to have breakfast with them, but I did take a few pics and wished her well.

Some of the kids went to Cody to do last minute shopping for the Saturday shindig.  Other people arrived that day, so we were all busy.  Friday evening those that were here and wanted to partake went to the Cowboy for supper.  That was fun.  Got in quite a bit of visiting and relatives meeting other relatives. The Museum sponsored a lady singer, Gypsy V, so some listened to her perform after dinner.  Later that evening we closed up the Cowboy.

Saturday morning Bonnie was set up for her book signing at the Visitor Center.  That went well and all of her books at Little Big Man were sold, as well as the ones the Museum had. 

The open house for me was at Lucille's Ferret Den from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.  There were lots of people in those two hours.  Lots of visiting.  My classmate from Phoenix came with her sister from Billings (the year behind us), also had three of my sister's classmates come to visit.  That was impressive.  There were over 100 people there. 

The National Day of the American Cowboy was also that weekend and the Oasis had a free barbecue and dancing to Cooper and the Crowd Thinners.  So all the relatives went to that.  It was good of the cowboys to let me celebrate with them even if they didn't know about it.  Then we closed up the Cowboy Bar again.

Sunday a few of us went to Church, then had a picnic lunch for all the relatives and far out of towners at noon at the Oasis.  More good visiting. Most of the relatives left that afternoon. My kids went looking for fossils on the hill, and the little girls got to pet the horses and mules again.  Had supper at the ElkHorn and  later we closed up the Cowboy Bar that night too. 

It will be another 25 years before we do all this again, unless, of course, someone else decides to have a celebration.  There are three 50 year birthdays coming up all within 6 months of each other.

I have gotten several comments on how much the Mtse businesses like our relatives.  They (my relatives) were very nice and friendly and spent money all over town, so the merchants appreciate them and appreciate their business.