Friday

I painted bamboo in my sleep last night.  Time to take a break!

I once painted this scene in my little Moleskine book, looking out my bathroom window to the neighbor's back yard.  What does it say that my best view is out my bathroom window? I have tried to do an 11" x 14" of it several times, and this is the best I have been able to come up with.  I was disappointed with the sky, but I guess it looks better now that the painting is finished.

I am ready for a "quakie fix".  I always paint quakie trees when I get stressed out painting other things.  I started a new one today.

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Did you ever see anything cuter than this?  This calf was three days old, born in a zoo in the USA somewhere. 

 

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Toby Keith writes almost all his own songs.  Did you know he did not write "Red Solo Cup"?

 

 

You're right Pablo.  So does a good book.







Thursday

Another boring, sunny day.

 

The Moose Won!



My friend Heidi sent me this photo.  The hunters tied one of their own on the roof of the truck, got some moose heads, and drove down the interstate like this.  Yes, they were arrested, and yes, alchohol was involved.  Gotta love it.

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My Christmas cactus (yes, it's a "Christmas" cactus, not a Holiday cactus) is so healthy looking this year, and doesn't have one single bud on it.  One whole side of it died last year, and I never did get any pieces rooted to fill in the bare side, but what's left is beautiful.  I have some vermiculite, so I will try again to get some leaves rooted to plant on the bare side.

 

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This guy is on his way to the National Finals Rodeo, and hoping they got that dam finished so he can get across the Colorado River.  Cute picture.

 

 



Wednesday

I think Miriam and I are sick of Chinese brush painting.  Lenore, on the other hand, produced a small one of flowers today that she matted.  It was great.  I filled ten practice sheets with Bamboo stalks and leaves.  I think years from now I will still be practicing bamboo.  I should get Charmain's video back to her, but want to watch it one more time.  Maybe something will click!

Spent most of the day yesterday reading the manual (online) for my little La Crosse weather stations.  Getting them set up is not easy.  You have to insert the batteries in the outdoor sensor before you put them in the indoor station.  Then wait for them to communicate.  Then you  have to press "Set" three times and set the time zone for -7, which is the code for Mountain time.  Then you have to keep pressing "Set" before you can set it for AM or PM, press it some more to change the date, and press "in" to change the month, and "out" to change the day. 

Exhausting!

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I got my "Dear Santa" letter sent to Tracy.  She always gets disgusted with me because when I see something I want, I just buy it, and she never knows what to get me for Christmas.  I told her I want a
 "stick vacuum", a small vac to keep upstairs.  I used to have one years ago, and I guess I wore it out.

 

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Monday

Near disaster yesterday.  The toilet stool was happily flooding the bathroom.  I yelled "help" downstairs to Barrie and she brought me the plunger.  All is well now, just two soaked towels that need to be thrown in the wash.

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Did the anniversary of JFK's assassination go by without me even noticing?  Apparantly so.  Do you remember where you were on that day?

 

I was in Tucson, Arizona, returning home from a dentist appointment when I heard it on the radio.  I didn't go to work that day in the mine office.  I stayed glued to the television along with several friends.

 

Some of my neighbors in the trailer court did not fare as well. Back then you could bring back a gallon of booze for every man woman and child in the vehicle when coming back across the border from Nogales.  These two guys volunteered to make a run to Nogales for liquor for the holidays, and they took their own kids as well as several other neighbors' kids from the trailer court.  They had eight kids with them, all preschool age, because it was a school day.  And the border was shut down tight before they could get out of Mexico.  I don't remember for sure now long they were stranded down there with eight little kids, but it was at least overnight. 

 

Can you imagine it?

 

Sunday

 

Kristy had a "closet explosion" at her house, and this is what our living room looks like right now.  Kasey has a lot of new clothes, and she and her mom are sorting through them.  And I  need to get to work on my downstairs closet so Kasey will have room to put all her new clothes.  Smart moms.  Kristy gives her daughter's outgrown clothes to Kasey, and Barrie gives Kasey's outgrown clothes to another little girl.

 

 

Barrie cooked our Thanksgiving dinner last night.  We had turkey breast, green bean casserole, and a cheesy potato casserole, with pumpkin pie.  Yummy!  Thanks, Barrie.  Kasey ate Thinksgiving dinner wearing a Christmas dress!

Chloe came to visit again, and she ate her fill, then curled up in Kat's bed upstairs and slept the afternoon away. 

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The new electric heater does the trick for warming up my big room.  The little oil filled radiator heater was just too small.  I found an added bonus on the new one.  It has a water container and a built in humidifier. 

 

Now if I can just keep my electric bill paid!  

Friday

Pure madness and craziness in this country!  I'm reading the news articles about the Black Friday shopping across the country - - - fighting, shoving, and a shooting at the big stores, like WalMart.  It's so scary that this country has so many crazies running around.

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I worked to get most of the double point knitting needles out from behind the entertainment center.  There are a couple still back there, but they will just have to stay.

 

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I'm enjoying XM Radio today.  It's the Toby Keith Thanksgiving takeover on the Prime Country chanel.  I like hearing him tell about his life and how some of the songs he has written came about, the story behind them.

 

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Yesterday, I put my spider plant "out on the ice".  I brought a nice artificial plant upstairs to take its place.  It looks nice and won't get sick if I don't water it.

 

 

My little scanner does such a good job, but not on pencil drawings.  Anyway, this is a little 5"x 7" drawing I finished this morning. I darkened the legs a little after seeing the scan.

 

 



Thursday

Yesterday, Lenore, Miriam and I all took our Chinese brush painting supplies to art group.  It was fun.  I think I filled ten or so practice pages with strokes, mostly trying to paint bamboo.  I threw them all in the garbage when I left. 

I had a couple packages at the post office and Barrie got my mail yesterday.  I think ALL things should come with instructions on how to open the darned box the thing came in. 

So much junk mail!  Yes, there's all those places that send you a catalog once a year just before Christmas, whether you want it or not.  I should take each catalog and find a way to get off their mailing list.

We got a notice from the Sheriff's Department yesterday.  Seems a 1st class child molester has moved in down the street from us.  Wolf Dodge must be renting out a few motel rooms after they took over the ZZZZs motel.

I have a question.  What the heck does the "1st class" mean"?

Tuesday

I finally made it through to the end of my iPod music.  Well, not really, because I didn't listen to the Christmas music nor the classical.  Listened to the last Willie Nelson tune last night.

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I think I see a pencil drawing in this old photo I scanned this morning.  This was the loading cute up at Grandpa Raper's place.  Maybe it's still there.  I have done a couple of successful pencil drawings of other old gates, so might try this one

 

I used to love to go to the cutter races up at the rodeo grounds.  Here is my compadre, Barrie, at a cutter race with me.  I once took a great photo of Paul Grandsends' team.  I caught them will all eight feet off the ground.  Paul was shoeing Tracy's horse, and I gave it to him.

 





Monday

After three weeks, the judge has finally signed the order changing Kasey's visitation.  Barrie still hasn't received notice, but she got a phone call from ex last night.  She was waiting in Daniel to pick up Kasey, and he was at the courthouse in town.  He told Kasey he would see her in two weeks, and that he would call her on Wednesday.  Barrie hasn't seen the final document yet.

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Scanned photos of some old pets that are no longer with us.

 

This is Jemima, a coonhound Tracy and I got after the dog we brought with us to Pinedale died.  Jemima liked to wander, looking for coons to chase I guess.  She had a loud bay that hurt your ears.

 

 This is Midnight, who just wandered into our lives one day. He disappeared one day and was gone a long time.  I looked out the window of my classroom one day, and there he was, rubbing against the tire of my jeep.  I went out, put him in the jeep and drove him home.  The minute I let him in the house, he went to he back hall where we kept his water dish.  He left us the same way he came, he just wandered off somewhere and never returned.

 

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Saturday

It's trying to snow a little, but the sun is shining.

The snow plow is parked in my driveway.  Looks like Barrie is ready for snow.

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Still scanning a few photos from old albums every day.  (Love that little hand held scanner!)  I must have gotten my good 35mm SLR camera in 1977, because that's when I started taking a lot more pictures.

 

This is the bridge over Fall Creek, on the way up to Ft. Williams.  I stopped there one day in the summer, and there were dippers,  I had never seen them before, and spent a lot of time watching them.  What a unique little bird!

 

This is the old Eklund cabin that was on the Pole Creek road.  I used this photo once for one of my most successful watercolor paintings.  I haven't been out that way for quite a while, but I hear it's not there anymore. 

There is a definite color shift in these old photos.  I'm guessing the digital photos we print out today with our printer's ink won't last any better.

 

There was a hawk nest in the trees behind the cabin, and I used to go up there and stalk them.  I never did get a decent picture of them.

 

And I used to spend a lot of time at Meadow Lake in the spring.  In fact, I was guarding the trap for the spawning of the Greyling, and with the fish gathering right there to go up the creek, there were always several Osprey fishing right in front of me, but I never got a decent picture of them either.

 

One day I watched a Merganser duck come up the creek, catch a big fish, and swallow it whole.  Wow! It took him a while to get it down.

 

 

 

Friday

Thank you Kat!  She brought my hearing aide out of hiding and left it in front of the closet last night.  It is not harmed and works perfectly!

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I know how to solve the immigration problem!!  Let's just trade the immigrants for all the people who want to cecede from the union.

 

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Barrie and Duke got the snow plow on yesterday, but she says the wiring is wrong.  Back to the drawing board, I guess.

 

I finished this small drawing of a fox this morning, but I think I did a better job on the tree than I did the fox.

 

This is definitely me!

 

 



Thursday

Kat has a new toy, at least I think she does.  I just wish she would bring it out of hiding and play with it.  It is one of my hearing aides.  I'm pretty sure she won't chew it up or swallow it.  She loves to steal the tiny parts of Kasey's toys, and she always brings them upstairs and plays with them.  On the other hand, when she steals my eraser, she takes it downstairs and puts it in her food dish.  Barrie says we shouldn't vacuum for a few days! 

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Barrie and somebody (I presume it's Duke) are putting a snow plow on her new work truck in the driveway.  Let it snow!  I just finished preparing a sheet of watercolor paper for painting a snow scene.  Am waiting for the friskit to dry. 

 

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Another gem of wisdom about immigration.

 

 

 

 



Wednesday

Has been putting down fine snow, but it's hardly cold enough to snow.  It is 32 degrees at the airport right now.  Mavis says it is 28 degrees.  Who remembers Mavis?  She's our time and temperature girl.  Rick Samulski once did a news article about her in the Roundup when he owned the paper.  It was pretty funny.  He gave her a name, told some details about her personality, and said she lived down by the creek.  Clever.

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Lenore and I practiced painting skies today in art group.  We sprayed a little water on the damp sky, and got an effect similar to using salt.  The painting above is one I did a couple weeks ago, but I worked on the hills and trees today.  You will have to use your imagination on the foreground, because I don't have a clue what I am going to put there.

 

Miriam brought her Chinese Brush Painting kit to art group this morning.  I think I'll take mine next week.

 

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Tuesday

Now playing on my iPod, Chris LeDoux, "Copenhagen".
I'm giving XM Radio a rest, and am playing my iPod.  I thought my Chris LeDoux playlist kept going and going forever.  I finally checked and found I have 61 of his songs.  No wonder it just keeps going on and on. 

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I just ordered a new electric heater for my upstairs.  I can tell already the smaller one I bought is not going to keep me warm.  I could wear heavier sweaters and use a blanket to wrap up in, but darn it.  I'm old, and I deserve to be warm!

 

 

I finished this small 5" x 7" drawing of a Big Horn this morning.  I did some practice Chinese Brush Painting yesterday, but nothing that's worth much.

 

 

Judi wondered if I had pictures of Barrie and Tracy riding "Bucky" the moose at Tok, Alaska.  Poor pictures, but here they are.

 







Monday

Tracy and Barrie both rode "Bucky" the moose at Tok when we arrived in Alaska.  We made it to Tok on July 4, just in time to celebrate Independance Day in the United States.

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My step daughter-in-law sent me some mail this morning about how seniors should dress.  Wonderful advice, Judy!

 

Contrary to what you may have seen on the streets, the following combinations DO NOT go together and should be avoided:

1. A nose ring and bifocals
2.. Spiked hair and bald spots
3. A pierced tongue and dentures
4. Miniskirts and support hose
5. Ankle bracelets and corn pads
6. Speedo's and cellulite
7. A belly button ring and a gall bladder surgery scar
8. Unbuttoned disco shirts and a heart monitor
9. Midriff shirts and a midriff bulge
10. Bikinis and liver spots
11. Mini skirts and varicose veins

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Sunday

I no longer have my outdoor temp thermometer, as Barrie put it in a box when she used the power washer on the house.  It wasn't working very well before that - I think it needs a new battery.  Then I will have to read instructions on the internet on how to set it all up again.  Maybe I don't care that much how cold it is in my yard.  I know how cold it is at the airport.

Three more pictures from our Alaska trip, and that will be all.  The photos are just too poor quality.

 

This is the kind of roads we drove. The highways in Alaska weren't paved at this time.  This is the Cartier Highway, it was raining, and we had to meet logging trucks on this road.

 

 And this is what our Winnebego looked like.  Yes, that's mud, and the muddy object on the back is a motorcycle.

And here is Barrie, the copilot.

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I think I will read about Chinese Brush Painting today, then pull out one of the drawings I have already started and work on it.

 



Saturday

I brought another photo album upstairs today to scan some photos.  The one I brought up contained the pictures from when we went to Alaska.  I very seldom look at it.  It's a shame I had such a cheap little camera back then - probably a little seven dollar Kokak Instamatic.  Anyway, there wasn't much in the album worth scanning

This old cabin was in White Horse, and is the cabin of Sam McGee.  I didn't even know Sam McGee was supposed to be a real person.  He was a character in one of Robert Service's poems (published in 1908), "The Cremation of Sam McGee."  I googled it to make sure I had the author right, and found a YouTube video of Johnny Cash reading the poem.  Wonderful!

This is a sternwheeler we saw in Whitehorse.

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I'm fixing some rice in the rice cooker, and hard boiled eggs in the microwave.  I'm having eggs in curry sauce served over the rice. 

 

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Friday

What happened to my blog yesterday?  You know, I guess I just forgot.  Nothing to write about anyway. 

Just  had a banana and a piece of Sue's home made bread for lunch. 

 

This is certainly nothing to brag about, but we did have a skiff of snow during the night, then about 15 minutes of nice snow this morning.  It looks like it's going to keep it up all day, but no real buildup of  snow.

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I have been looking at the Kindle Fire for quite a while now and reading about it.  It's similar to the iPad, but I can't watch my Amazon movies on the iPad.  Why would I want the Kindle Fire when I can watch movies on my laptop?  Darned if I know.  Just thinking.

 

 



Wednesday

Enjoyed art group this morning, and ate so many of Vicky's healthy cookies that I didn't stay for lunch, which really sounded good.

We moved the big mat cutter back into the art room, and Conley is going to cut some mats.  The oval mat cutter came last week, so he can experiment with that too. 

Charmain loaned me a DVD and book on Chinese brush painting today.  I've just glanced through the book, and it looks very good.  Thanks, Charmain.  I'll take good care of them and get them back to you.

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Some of the most vocal of my Facebook friends are ranting that the election was rigged.    But none of them had a complete melt down like Donald Trump.  Wow!  That  man better increase his blood pressure medication!





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Oh Yeah - for Barrie and Kasey!

 

Tuesday

I guess there's something to be said for having so many unfinished projects sitting around.  One day, you might just finish several in a short time. 

 

The antelope is small, about 5" x 7", and the buffalo is about 8" x 10". I fought and fought with the buffalo, I just couldn't make him shaggy enough.  They're both done on Bristol Board, using various grades of graphite pencils.

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Yeah!  Election Day!  I think I'll watch the movie "Swing Vote" this afternoon to celebrate.  And I can start reading the comments on Facebook again without trying to filter out the political tirades. If I read something on Facebook where someone is bashing Obama or Romney, that person makes me want to vote for the opposing candidate.

 

 

Ain't it the truth?

 



Sunday

Another of my busy days.  I did a little painting this morning, did a load of laundry, cleaned my bathroom and found a new book to read.

Barrie is sanding the outside of the house - it sounds like a dentist's drill.  I don't know if she's decided yet what  to put between the logs.  It used to be pieces of quarter round, a lot of which had loosened and started to curl up.

I got some new paint brushes and a bamboo vase, all of which have those darned white sticky things on them that never come off.  I reached for my handy dandy can of WD40, and they are now glue free.  I love that WD40!

Saturday

It appears zentangle is becoming very popular.  The new Dick Blick art supplies catalog is now offering zentangle supplies.  Guess I'm going to have to give it another try.

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Barrie is working on her work truck, so she used my pickup to clean up at some one's house, leaves, etc.   After she got it loaded, she discovered my plates were expired, so she just parked it in the garage.  I had the almost uncontrollable urge to dig through and look at the things the people were throwing away.  Later, Barrie said there were some things in there she might take out.

 

I was pretty sure the little stickers for my license plates were at the  post office, so Barrie got my mail the next day and put them on for me.

 

She also brought me my latest order from Dick Blick for some art supplies for the art group at Rendezvous Pointe. 

 

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Thursday

I'm getting bored with the weather.  I'd love to look out the window and watch some serious snow coming down, or hear the wind howling around the corner of the house.  Well, I don't want what New York just got, but would like to see something different. 

I remember my girls always wore snow boots when they went trick or treating, and a costume that was big enough to fit over a coat.  Not so this year.

 

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I am  loving the little hand held "wand" scanner.  If I am reading a magazine and see something I'd like to save, all I have to do is reach over and get it, turn it on, and scan.  This is a picture from an artist magazine I was looking through yesterday.  This large painting was a prize winner, and is named "Fish Sticks".

 

"Fish Sticks" is a perfect name for this painting!

 

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I just noticed that a little vase on top of my entertainment center got tipped over (by a clumsy cat, I'm sure).  It was full of small double pointed knitting needles, many of which are behind the entertainment center.  I'll never see them again.