New Computer

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This is Leslie, my stepdaughter, with "Snickers". Leslie used to make fun of Paul and Tracy and the way they were with Bogie, their dog. Well, just look at her!! Snickers just graduated from obedience class, and was top in the class. Les and Bobby are so proud!

When the horse gets tired, there is nothing to do but pick it up and carry it.

I was trying to show Kasey the correct way to get off a horse. This is the result. I guess I won't be giving any riding lessons.

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I am blogging on the new computer this morning. I got all my photos and music files moved to the new computer, which took a long time. I have lots and lots of music and pictures. Also got my "Favorites" list copied to it. I'm not sure yet how to get my address book on this computer, but will look into it.

Lots more to be done, and I think I will install one program this morning, then quit for the day and paint! Can't overdo it, you know!

I went into the bathroom to start a load of laundry this morning, and it wasn't there. I found it on my bed - Barrie had done it! She doesn't fold it, but I feel kind of spoiled that she does my laundry once in a while. She says she has to, because the dryer door won't open if the laundry is piled too high in front of it! Boy, am I a slob!!

Thursday

The New Horse

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Here is Kasey on her new horse, from the stable at that wonderful place, the "never never land", the Food Basket!

Checking his teeth to see how old he is.

A girl needs a bubble bath after a hard ride on that horse.

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I told you and told you I'm a house cat, not an outdoor cat! Please let me back in the house!

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I installed the little USB network adapter on the new computer this morning, and it went pretty much as I expected. Windows Vista users had different instructions than other versions of Windows, and it took some doing to even read the instructions which were on the CD. Somehow, Adobe just uninstalled itself and I didn't have Acrobat Reader. So I made a copy of the CD so I could read the instructions on the old computer, and have the drivers, etc. needed on the new one. Anyway, it works, and the new computer is now on my wireless network and is on the Internet. Seems to work fine. Copying files from the old computer is working, but it is kind of slow and sometimes confusing.

It is good to hear that Lynn is doing so well and sounds like she will be home soon. I've sure been thinking about her!

Wednesday Art at Rendezvous Pointe

First, I want to say that my thoughts are with Lynn today, who is in the hospital in Jackson, and having surgery. I am presuming to remove her appendix. What a bummer, but I know she has been in a lot of pain recently, and hopefully this will relieve that.

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This nice four point buck was browsing on the ditchbank down the street. I took this out the bathroom window.

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Cards

I found some paper for cards on the Internet and ordered some pages with envelopes. I am always trying to make watercolor cards and ruin so many. This paper is designed for use in an injet printer, and is pre-scored and perforated. Each sheet makes 2 cards, 5 1/2" x 4 1/2". I found that one of the applications that comes with Microsofe Office, "Publisher" has the templates for cards of many sizes, and I resized the photos I had taken of my art work and placed it on the template and printed. I practiced with plain paper first, so I wouldn't waste the card paper. I think I got 12 cards printed last night. Once I got it figured it, they don't take long at all.

At Art Group at Rendezvous Pointe today - Vicky, Nancy, Conley, Mary Lou, Barbara and I were there. Judi is in Jackson with Lynn, Cindi was taking her son to Cheyenne to be deployed again, and Pam (we think) is in Vail.

I got started on the cat painting. It is very slow going for me. I don't know how to paint animal fur.

The USB wireless adaptor came today. If it works as easily as what the reviews say, it should be a fast and easy way to move files from the old computer to the new one. Yea, right! Computer stuff is never as easy as it should be like it shows on the TV ads.

Wet, wet, wet

I love this type of weather. It has rained off and on most of the afternoon. It is so cool and nice, and everything looks more intense and saturated with color. I know the ranchers are not wanting rain now that they are haying, and I guess I feel a little guilty for enjoying it.

Just a quick photo of raindrops on the window

I like how the colors and contrasts increase when it rains.

A picture taken last week of clouds over the mountains

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I didn't wake up until 9:00 this morning, so didn't see Kasey before she left for daycare. She had a new little pink "Tinkerbell" backpack, and sparkly polish on her fingernails and toenails, and was very excited about both. Those of you who know Barrie probably know that she never had polish on her nails in her life, and never wore pink. Well, she still doesn't, but she is having a ball doing "girly" things for Kasey. Who can figure?

I started a new oil painting today, 12x16 from a photo I took a Fremont Lake and enchanced in Photoshop. It has some strange colors in it that appealed to me.

Sunday

Kasey and Barrie and I went to Rock Springs shopping today. Kind of a last minute decision, and we didn't even leave until about noon. The cloud formations over the mountains were as beautiful as I have ever seen, and I should have taken pictures. The sky was turning pretty black to the south west, and just out of Eden, the skies opened up. We drove through a deluge for about 10 minutes, then were out of it. It was sunny and hot in Rock Springs.

Went to WalMart and really stocked up on some things, like toilet paper and paper towels, but of course I have remembered things we should have gotten after we got home. I took one cart with cat food, paper towels and toilet paper out to the pickup, then came back and we started shopping seriously. We filled two carts. We didn't buy any meat, as we are now pretty faithful customers of Specialty Meats.

Barrie got a pair of $5 sunglasses for herself, I didn't get anything, but of course we got some things for Kasey. The potty training project is picking up steam, so she needed more panties and rubber pants. She needed new tennis shoes, and then we saw some cute little boots, which of course she just HAD to have. She didn't say so, but her Mom and I thought she needed them!

Then we got in the grocery department, and really stocked up.

We didn't get home until about 7:30, put away all the perishable and frozen things, but left the rest of it in the basement.

The house seemed really hot when we got home, after traveling in an air conditioned pickup. Kasey slept all the way home, and she and Barrie have gone out to the dog lot to take care of dogs. Me, well I'm upstairs with my shoes off, and the air conditioner on. Kat must have been lonesome. She greeted me and even rubbed against my legs.

Saturday

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Barrie laughs at this one, and so do I. It had a lime green background for a while, so I think I have improved that part, anyway. Mud is better than lime green, isn't it? It is a little 6" x 8" canvas. As the palette is tiny, made to fit in the box, I can't put much paint on it. I only used the three primary colors, and white.

I think this was a little better than the first one I tried. Maybe the ability to oil paint will come back to me. Maybe I can do some touch up after it dries, but I think it's served its purpose. I want to try something a little larger now.



I think this looks like an interesting project for a drawing or a watercolor. This piece of driftwood has been on the floor in the back seat of my pickup for a very long time. I picked it up at Fremont Lake.

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Talked to Tracy this morning. She and Paul are spending a relaxing weekend at home. She thinks I should just pull the hard drive out of the old computer and install it in the new one. It has an extra bay for a second hard drive. The new one would be my primary drive, and the old one would be the secondary hard drive. That way, I won't be forgetting any old files. And all the clutter on the old hard drive would not be slowing down the new computer. Might be a good idea.

Friday - Kittens Have a Home

Yay!! The kittens have gone to their new home this morning. Julie told me Leslie R. had asked about kittens. Leslie said they can't be in the house, but will have a heated barn. I think they are going to a good home, and will be together.

Also, Julie brought me cat traps, and we trapped the mother cat. Julie picked her up this morning. She really isn't very healthy looking, and Julie will probably put her down. Kind of sad, but I believe it is the humane thing to do. being a feral cat in Pinedale is not an easy life.

New computer

Here is the new computer, set up on the dining room table temporarily. I have installed a couple of programs, and when the wireless adapter arrives, I will (hopefully) be able to transfer all the photos, music, and documents to the hard drive. When everything is ready, I will move it to the desk in the computer room and hook it up to the wireless router.

I have a large pile of old computer books and CDs that I cleaned off the bookshelf in the computer room. I have been so frustrated because I can't find the installation disk for Quicken, the program I use to keep track of my checking account. Now I am wondering if maybe I purchased it by downloading it and don't even have the disk. It's not an expensive program, and there is a newer version, so I plan on ordering it today.

I really think the "bandysnatchers" visit my house in the night and hide things from me. "The Bandysnatchers" was a song I used to play for kids about some little creatures who came in the night and hid their crayons, pencils, etc. The kids even built a bandysnatcher trap once, but he sprung the trap and got away! He did leave some treats for the kids, though. I had to get to school early that morning to pull that off.

Thursday

No pictures today, just updates:

I unpacked all the new computer parts today and got it all set up on one end of the dining room table. I got the very basic elements set up, but didn't get it on the internet. I had thought it "might" have wireless network built in, but it doesn't. So I have ordered a USB wireless adapter. According to all I have read, it should connect to my home network with this, and I can transfer files from the old desktop computer. I have done this between the desktop and the laptop, and it works great.

I am going through my pile of CD's and finding many that I can throw away. There are several programs I will install on the new computer, and installed a couple today. I guess the new computer will take up half the table for a while. There is still room for us to eat on the other end.

I called Julie E. this morning and she brought me two cat traps. Barrie set them up, and has already trapped the feral cat that is the mother of the two kittens we have in the house. i hope Julie can find a nice barn home for her. She gave me one name of someone who might be interested in the kittens. If not, I'm sure she will help us find them a home. They are pretty well "house cats" now. And so cute, who could resist them??

Wednesday

A Girl and a Kitten

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Kasey never got to do this with Kat. Kat would never tolerate being held or petted from the time she was little. You would expect her to, because she was raised on a bottle, but she is a "touch me not" cat. She does like to snuggle on my feet, as long as I don't try to pet her.

These kittens have Kat buffaloed. She backs down to them, even if she is eating. After they scare her off, she seems to take it out on her tail, whirling, hissing and growling at it. Barrie says she has a mental problem.

I enjoyed art group this morning. Barbara sent a quiche in with Vicky for us. It had a potato crust and was delicious.

After bragging about planning the colors for my new painting, I forgot to take the information to class with me, so I just did a soft background for the cat painting.

I had a surprise the other day - I was sitting on the front porch when my old bobtailed cat came up. She was one of the two original cats I got, and I had her spayed. I have not seen her nor her sister all summer, and assumed they met the fate that most feral cats on this hillside meet, whatever that is. It took her a little while to warm up to me, but then she was rubbing all over me and purring.

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My new computer came today. I ordered a new Dell desktop. It is in the dining room, still in the box. I'm not sure I will even start on setting it up today. It is so much work to set up a new computer and get files on it. I know there are programs and cables to transfer everything from an old computer to a new one, but that is just what I DON'T want to do. If I put all that on the new computer, it will run just as slow as the old one. I am going to take my time and be careful about what goes on it. It can be added to my home wireless network, and hopefully I can get that done and transfer just the files I want. Then I have to start cleaning out files on the old computer and decide what I want to do with it.

Tuesday

You can easily tell by the photos I am posting today that absolutely nothing is happening here!

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I am going to try to paint a portrait of Kat tomorrow in art group, so I wanted a good photograph of her eyes. Sometimes they look really green, other times they look grey. I even made a little study of color mixes to use. The people who paint with me should be very proud of me! I usually don't do much planning before I start a new painting, but I just use a hit or miss technique and blunder through experimenting with color mixes as I am working on the painting.

Kasey with her coloring book. She hardly presses down enough to leave marks on the paper.

Barrie went to the grocery store a couple of days ago. We had peppers and zucchini both on the list, but she said they didn't look good and didn't buy any. Today she went to Speciality Meats at Obos to pick up some meat scraps, and said she always has a problem when she goes in there, because she always buys something! She brought home some lovely peppers, a package of green, orange and red, and some zucchini.

This will be of interest to Rollie and Judi, who have warned me about our local grocery store. They charged Barrie $12 for 4 tomatoes. She went right back and straightened that out. The checker had made a mistake and rang up 4 boxes of cherry tomatoes. They also had charged her for a head of cauliflower, which she didn't get.

Monday

I at least covered the canvas with paint, so will move on to a new one. This is only 6" x 8", so it didn't take much to cover it.

I have heard of oil painters who tried watercolor and hated it because they didn't have any control over it. I kind of felt the same way after attempting this little bitty oil. I wonder if it might be easier to try something a little larger.

Judith suggested that I might like acrylics better. I know I've used them before, many years ago, and didn't care for them much. I am complaining that the oils don't dry, but I seem to remember I didn't like the fact that the acrylics dried so fast. Who knows?? I'll just keep putting paint on surfaces and having fun!! And I do have some acrylics, so will try them too.

I just brought a few pieces of my plastic fruit upstairs and will try to set up a still life to paint. That will be a first for me!!

I mentioned a few days ago that the lilac bush on the west side of the house had grown up so high that we couldn't see out the living room window any more. I had cut it back about 5 years ago, but it is a healthy bush and grew back. I looked out today, and Barrie had the loppers and was working on it. She also cut back some willows by the carport, and some caragana bushes by the back gate. She must like the new loppers I bought! She's got quite a pile down by the driveway to haul off.

Dave Carney came by today to see what I want to have done to the house. The back part of the house, the brick part, has two bedrooms and the back hall. The back door often has a snow drift at the bottom when the wind blows, and the three windows are the old junky aluminun frame windows that have been in there at least 40 years, and the storm glass has long since broken. I have just closed that part of the house off in the winter for the last several years, but now that Barrie and Kasey are home, it needs to be "winterized" So Dave will put in three new windows, and a new door - all airtight, and double pane glass on the windows. Because that part of the house sits on a cement slab and doesn't have heat into the rooms, they will probably still be a little cool - but no more snow drifts and ice on the windows.

Sunday

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I probably won't be doing more "whiskey art". These from the Canon printer definitely show more color, but it isn't really good color. The owl turned out all green and I tried to touch it up with some brown watercolor.



Barrie is going to make up some flyers and try to get rid of the two kittens next week. They are so cute, so comfortable in the house, eat well, and play a lot. Time for a home for them

I have fussed with the little oil painting, and am not sure what to do with it. I don't know how to add anything to it when the paint is still wet. Maybe I should let it dry and then start again. I put a big white puffy cloud in the sky, which didn't work. So I blended all that and like the sky better.

The forecast said 40% chance of rain today. It is clouding up some, but I doubt it if rains.

Saturday

Out of my Comfort Zone:

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Last night I was straightening up my art room a bit, and sort of taking inventory of all the "stuff" I have. When I first got back into painting after so many years, of course I thought I would be doing oil painting. So I bought new stuff, and bought new stuff, and bought new stuff. One of the things I just "had to have" is this little "guerilla painter box". I was going to do plein aire painting. Somehow, watercolors took over, and I only did one oil painting, which isn't completed yet! So today I set up this little box for the first time, put a few paints on the palette, and started on a little 6" x 8" painting. It's fun, so far.



Kasey loves her swimming lessons. Here she is in her "Tinker Bell" suit.

Getting undressed for swimming class

No blog yesterday - I'm not sure what I did all day - nothing important or interesting, anyway. It was supposed to get really hot, but there was a nice breeze all day, and I never turned on my little air conditioner. As long as there is a breeze, my upstairs room does not get unbearably hot.

Thursday

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My pink peony bush had only one bloom on it this year. I cut it and put it in a vase. It didn't get very good care the past couple of summers, so that is probably why there was only one bloom. I can remember cutting off the old flower heads and counting over 100 of them. It is getting better care and more water this summer, thanks to Barrie, so maybe next year it will bloom better.

The little cardboard box in the kennel was supposed to be a litter box. But the kittens have decided it makes a good bed. Barrie moved the kennel into the dining room, and they seem very comfortable in there. They are so playful. Today Barrie left the door open and they came out and were playing under the shelves in front of the window. Their poor Mom is still hanging around and wants them with her.

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I actually did a little cleaning today - my upstairs bathroom and the litter box, always a delightful job. Also did a load of laundry. I think that's enough for today!

Barrie replaced the latch on the storm/screen door today. That door has been there for longer than I have been in this house - probably 50 years old, and the latch finally just wore out. The new one Barrie bought didn't fit quite right, so she had to do some drilling, cutting, bending, and I don't know what all, but she got it on and it works.

Today I printed out a couple of photos on my Canon photo printer to try for the whiskey art. I thought maybe the Canon ink would work better than the HP ink. They transferred pretty well, but I don't know if it was because of the ink or because of the photos. I'll start adding some pen and ink details to them today.

Wednesday

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Vicky showed us the fun process of "whiskey art", and several of us in the painting group have tried it. Not too many succesful results, but here are two that Judi and I did. Others in the group have promised to add to this little display.



This Judi's "whiskey art" of The Honeycombs. Judi showed us how to use pen and ink to enhance these images, which are usually very disappointing after the ink is transferred to the paper.

This is my old cabin. Didn't look like anything until I added the pen and ink.

This could be the same hummingbird I photographed a couple of days ago. He was hanging out in this tree in the back yard and feeding at the feeder at the upstairs window.

We had a special guest at our art group this morning. This is Cindi's son's new pet, a Sugar Flyer. She is just a baby. They are native to Australia, are marsupials and are nocturnal. So cute!! I didn't really get a good photo of her. She did not appreciate being brought out of her "pouch" to meet us, and she was quite vocal about it.

Conley had surgery on his leg last week. He had a large vein removed, which has ruptured in the past. He seems to be doing very well. Glad to see him back.

I didn't even work on a watercolor today. Instead, I worked on a pencil drawing of an antelope doe and twin fawns. Guess I need a break from watercolors.

Tuesday

Is summer over already" It sure got cold last night, and hasn't warmed up a lot yet. I finally gave up and shut a couple of windows. The forecast says it will be warmer the rest of the week.

Barrie ran her dogs this morning. She left here about 4:30 and said it was 27 degrees at her dog lot.

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The kittens are becoming tamer. Their mother has been hanging around close to them, but I saw her up on the ditchbank this morning.




I wanted to post this photo of my step daughter-in-law Judy. She just finished this quilt top and sent me a picture of it. Isn't it gorgeous? She is going to have someone else machine quilt it.

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I am seriously considering buying a new desktop computer. I think the Dell is at least 6 or 7 years old now. It has become so slow and sluggish that it is a pain to try to use it. It takes about 10 minutes to boot up. I have looked through the start up files, and even tried turning some of them off. But when you don't know what they do, you hesitate to do too much there. I could have it looked at, but as old as it is, I don't know if I want to. Barrie was trying to open a letter she wrote in Word last night, and it just sat there and sat there. We turned it off and restarted it, which takes a long time, and tried again. I eventually got it to open the letter, but I could almost hear it say HUH? WHAT?.

I don't want a new monitor - love my 24inch flat screen.

The Kittens

Yesterday evening I saw one of my cats with two little white kittens playing on the pile of old willows on the ditchbank. I had Barrie come look. I was just getting my camera out when they disappeared into the dead willow pile, and I saw that Barrie was walking up there. The first kitten was hiding just under the edge of the willows, and Barrie caught it easily.

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Gotcha!

This is not a happy cat!

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It took longer to catch the second kitten. Barrie put them in a large dog kennel in the front yard, and put food and water in with them. Their poor momma kept looking for them by the willows. Sometime during the night she found them in the kennel and was waiting beside it this morning.

Barrie is working on taming the kittens. They are eating well and ready to be weaned. They are so cute and I think we can find homes for them. Here is Mom trying to get up her nerve and come close to Barrie to see her kittens.

Getting socialized.

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I'm watching on the news on Salt Lake TV about the canal that washed out and buried a house, causing the death of 3 people. I wonder how large that canal was. Some of you remember when the canal behind my house washed out above Nick's place. That's not a large canal, but it washed debris clear across the highway and took out Nick's garage and buried a couple of his trucks. The ditch was running extra high at the time, but Nick was digging into the hillside to build a retaining wall. I have water in my back yard in the summer, and people complain about the ditch leaking. But I know the hillside above the ditch has water running out of it into the ditch.

Barrie and I have both had bad dreams about the ditch going out above our house!

Sunday

Sure is a quiet day today. Barrie and Kasey didn't get up until late, had breakfast, and have gone to the dog lot.

When the fireworks started last night, Barrie and Kasey were not home yet, and I realized Jarvi and Shorty were in the back yard. I went down and opened the door - Jarvi shot in and jumped the gate that keeps them in the back hall. Shorty came right in, but I had to take the gate down for him. Jarvi immediately went into the bathroom, but Shorty thought it was a big game. Barrie came in just then, and was so relieved to see that I had brought them in. Several years ago, Jarvi left during the fireworks and didn't come home for about five hours.

I was outside this morning when Judi drove by and took my picture. You just aren't safe anywhere!! Sure glad I wasn't in my pajamas!

I have given up on the book "Angle of Respose". I am over 100 pages into it and find that I have to got back and read the last 10 or so pages every time I pick it up, because I can't remember what happened. I think that's a pretty good sign that NOTHING happened, at least in my mind. I found my Larry McMurtry book, "Sin Killer", the first book of the "Berrybender Series". Although I have read them before, it's been a while, and I am enjoying reading it.

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I painted a couple of greeting cards last week. That's about all I got accomplished. This morning I started a new one of a snowy branch and a chickadee. I am so tempted to go through my rack and just throw out the ones I started that I have lost interest in or I think I don't have to ability to finish.

I accidently came upon an interesting web site last night. It shows "Life" Magazine covers from way way back. They have a link to EBay for each one in case you are interesting in buying it. I don't believe they have included every cover, but I didn't really watch carefully. I started at the beginning, 1928, I believe, and am up to 1955. They also have other magazine covers, such as "Saturday Evening Post".

http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/life

Ok, I have struggled to insert the link to the Life Magazines Covers, but it is not working for me. I use the little "insert link" icon at the top, and insert the link. It shows up, but not after I publish the post. I edited the post, tried again, and it showed up when I previewed the blog, but not after I published it. Does anyone know how this works??

Later ----- Aha! I figured it out! The link was there all the time. I passed the cursor over where I put it, and it turned into the pointy finger. The text was invisible against the white background. When I highlighted the text and changed it to black, it showed up, and worked when I clicked on it.

Saturday Rendezvous Parrade

Kasey and Barrie and I went downtown to watch the parade this morning. I don't even know how crowded it was on main street. We parked down on the side street where the parade route turns and goes up by the Retirement Center. The only problem was, some of the participants thought that looked like a good place to turn around. and they quit there. Oh well. I'm sure we saw everything.

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Dark glasses and floppy hat, and lots of sun screen.

This is Jessie E. I taught him in kindergarten. He is one of the "flashiest" of the Pony Dancers in the Rendezvous pageant. I saw him later at Trappers' Row, and he gave me a hug. I am always pleasantly surprised when kids I taught that long ago remember me!

These two pictures are a pair, for sure! The top one is Kasey, of course, with a red balloon she got at the parade today. The bottom one is Barrie with a red balloon at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake.

Friday

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This little hummingbird was feeding at the feeder on the front porch this morning, and and taking a break in the pine tree in front of my bedroom window.



I finished this watercolor of an old wheelbarrow yesterday. I thought I was doing pretty well until I added the grass. The reference was a photo Lynn sent me. Thanks, Lynn!




Another photo of Kasey playing in the kennel. This is to show that we didn't really lock her in the kennel. She could open the door!

Yum!

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Barrie and Kasey went to Kasey's swimming class yesterday, then to the rodeo. I stayed home. I told Barrie I think I have spent enough years doing the "Meet Me on the Green" thing, and have had enough fun to last forever. Some years I had too much fun! Do you think my old age has anything to do with passing up all the festivities?

Kasey showed me how the horses "jumped" and how the men fell down.