Idaho Falls

Barrie and Kasey and I went to Sam's Club in Idaho Falls yesterday. Barrie bought dog food, and I mainly bought boring items such as toilet paper, kleenex. Shopping wasn't very exciting, but we sure enjoyed the drive. It was a nice cool day, and we got rained on some, especially on the way home.

We made several stops, one at the viewing spot for the Lunch Counter and Kahula (?) rapids on the Snake. I goofed up there, walked down to see this rapid, and didn't even see Lunch Counter.

I once went through Lunch Counter in a small raft with a group of friends. What an exciting adventure! I was so scared and wanted to get out when we got close enough to hear the roaring of the water. My friend who owned the raft told me to just shut up and hang on!

There were so many wildflowers blooming, and they were beautiful. This is a small patch of Flax. There were areas that were so blue it didn't look real. I hadn't realized how many chokecherry bushes there are in the canyon. They were all in full bloom.

I love the drive from Alpine Junction through the little farming towns. There were so many pretty yards and flowers.

We pulled off to the side before we got to The Rim to watch the cowboys get this herd of cows and calves through the underpass that goes under the highway. They had almost all of them through and were holding them there waiting for the tail end. Of course a bunch of cows in front decided to turn around and go back to look for their calves. It took them a while to get the herd lined out again.

When we came home, the herd was all scattered out and grazing near the turnoff to the Flying A. They all looked contented, and "mothered up". I don't know which ranch this was, but it was a very large herd, and all black.

Another Rainy Day

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Western Tanager

Goldfinch

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Mistaken Identities, both flowers and birds ---

I got some photos of the bird out the window yesterday with the telephoto lens. Then I got out the bird book and did some reasearch of images on the internet. The bird in the top photo is a Western Tanager. The bird in the lower photo is a Goldfinch, which many people call a wild canary. I took this photo last spring. I always have finches, but I don't recall ever seeing a Western Tanager in my yard before.

The mystery flower Judi recently posted that I thought was wild phlox - Roger was right that phox has five metals. Mine are now blooming, and guess what, the flowers have four petals. So I don't have wild phlox at all, but it's Sweet Rocket.

So I have had my bird and flower lessons for the day!

Tuesday

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I should have posted this yesterday with my other "sleeping" photos. This Andrew Wyeth print hangs on my bedroom wall. This is my favorite of his paintings. Not a very good picture because of the reflections on the glass.


This is another photo I took a year ago in May up Horse Creek.



Shorty in the back yard with his favorite toys, a stick and his doll. Yes, he plays with a doll. I'm surprised he hasn't torn it up, but he seems to be careful with it.

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Barrie brought some mushrooms and a bouquet of wildflowers from her dog lot yesterday. All this rainy weather is sure making everything grow. She assured me the mushrooms were fine to eat, so I put one in my omelet this morning. Yummy.

I am stalking a bird out the window this morning, but haven't gotten a shot yet. The first time I tried to take a picture, I didn't have the card in the camera. Then the bird was behind branches. I have the window open and the camera ready for when (and if) he comes back. From the photos Hank and Lynn have posted, I think it is wild canary. Sure is a beautiful bird!

Sleepy Monday

A Sleepy House

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Barrie likes to take pictures of Kasey while she is sleeping. Here she is snuggled up with Cookie, her favoritte stuffed animal. A stuffed black cat is at her back.



Kat usually doesn't use the little condo on her cat tree, but here she is curled up in it. She was sound asleep until I moved in to take a picture.

These two photos make me feel like curling up in a blanket and taking a nap.

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I have a microwave oven with a toaster built into the side. After the planned power outage, the toaster quit working. I unplugged it this morning, hoping that it might somehow reset itself when I plug it back in. That's about the extent of what I know about fixing small appliances. If it doesn't work, I guess I will buy a new toaster.

Then I will be looking for a smaller microwave that will fit on my counter better.

I am still going through cupboards and getting rid of things. I found a little folding pan that is supposed to be used to make omelets. I have no use for it, and I think I paid 25 cents for it at a garage sale years ago. I don't need the rice cooker any more, as the pressure cooker did an excellent job cooking rice. I think there are other items in the back of the large deep cupboard over the refrigerator, like an electric sandwich maker. And How about an old aluminum angel food cake pan? Like I would ever use that again!

Sunday

Another cool rainy day. Is this what it is like to live somwhere like Seattle? I love this weather, but think I will eventually get tired of it if it goes on too long. Then in July and August, I will be complaining about the heat. I at times considered moving back to Riverton, the area where I grew up. But wind and the heat in the summer were not things I wanted to live with. My mother claimed it was NOT that windy or hot there. But as I recently read through the many years of her diary, I don't think a page went by that she did'nt mention how hard the wind blew.

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I don't have new pictures to post, so I looked at the pictures I took in May a year ago. There is one tough iceland poppy growing in the clump of quakie trees in the front yard, and I photographed it last spring. I notice it is coming up, but isn't very big yet.

I took a drive up Horse Creek last spring, and this horse came up to the fence to see me. I love the pink crinkled nose.

I spent a big part of my morning going through some of my kitchen cupboards and the pantry. I have a spaghetti pot that I use maybe once a year, if that, and am sending it to the food basket. Also found a tiny electric skillet I never use, and will put that in the free box at Rendezvous Pointe. I bought it for my Mom when she moved into the assisted living apartment at Homestead in Riverton. Then Alice told me she couldn't have an electric skillet in there, so I brought it home. So I freed up some cupboard space.

Then I got in the pantry. Boy, is that a scary place! Barrie and I have both gone through it, moving and organizing the contents. But of course after Barrie arranges things, I can't find something and move it all around again. We both buy groceries, and we now have seven cans of tuna and about 20 cans of soup. last time I went to the store, I left the groceries for her to put away so she would see what I bought. She brought groceries home today, and I made sure I saw what she bought. We could live for a year on the food stored in this house!

Cool Saturday

Balloons

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Some balloons up in the sky above Wolf Dodge. I guess most car dealerships use balloons, but I think they are kind of tacky.

This is the large orange balloon from the first photo. It ended up in my back yard, stuck on a sharp willow branch. I wish I had saved all the broken balloons that have ended up snagged on trees or bushes along this ditchbank and in my yard. I would take them down to Wolf's and dump them on their front desk!

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It has been cloudy and cool all day with a few rain showers. I even turned on the heat for a while this afternoon. Now it's too hot in here.

I worked on a pencil drawing for a litle while today. I have absolutely no energy or ambitioin. I am even considering getting out another jigsaw puzzle.

I started a new book which I can't get into at all. I think I read 18 pages and have no idea what was going on. It is "Angel of Repose". I will try it again, but I don't have much hope for it.

I have watched the ad on TV for the old Carol Burnett shows on DVDs, and I got one. Haven't watched it yet. It has two episodes on it.

Friday

I got out a couple of old photo albums this morning to start scanning photos. There are so many of them, and I'm not doing as many as I probably should. I found these three today that I thought I would like on my computer as art reference photos.

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Old wagon in Shelter Park

The gate on our loading chute in Shelter Park

Old Eckland cabin on Pole Creek Road

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I did garbage detail yesterday. A crew has been oiling the buildings down in front of me, and when they were finished, they put all their buckets and plastic in my dumpster. Barrie took it all out and put it in front of one of the buildings, and brought the dumpster up to our driveway. I then filled it with some old flower garden fence, a lamp that doesn't work, and other things.

I am baking bread today. Or rather, I put stuff in the bread machine for it to make bread. It is sourdough beer bread, and usually rises so high I have to cut the top off the loaf. My bread never stays soft and fresh. Seems to become kind of dry and crumbly within a day, so I will try to freeze half of this loaf.

I made beef stir fry for us last night. I knew Kasey wouldn't like it, but Barrie and I did. Kasey ate one of her little cups of Chef Boyardee macaroni and cheese. She did eat a few bits of rice from my plate.

I cooked the rice in my new pressure cooker, and it turned out excellent! I have been looking on the internet for more pressure cooker recipes.

Wednesday

Wednesday - cool but sunny. There are a few clouds off to the west, but they don't seem to building up. It was 40 degrees early this morning, and has not reached 60 yet.

Kasey stacks the blocks up, and Kat knocks them down. A fun game for them both!

This buck was in my back yard this morning. His antlers look like they are going to be pretty big. He looks spotted, as he is shedding and has patches of white hair.

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Our art group met at Rendezvous Pointe this morning. Vicky made delicious banana bread with blueberries in it. I ate three pieces!! Nancy St0tt was back this morning. It is so good to see her. Dee joined us for part of the time. She had Caden with her, and he had new watercolor pens.

I talked to Alice, she checked her bookshelves and found that there is another notebook of Mom's diary. It goes from 1985 to 1996. More reading!

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I have been meaning to make my blog easier to read. The colors made it hard for me to read, and maybe some of you others with "old eyes"? So today I got rid of the pretty green background and yellow text. Maybe it doesn't look as classy, but it's easier to read.

Rain and Rain

It started raining yesterday, it rained all night, and is still raining at noon today. A nice gentle rain with no wind, and it is wonderful. It is 47 degrees outside at noon. You can almost see the grass grow!

Pinedale graduated 49 seniors, and 22 of those went through all 13 years in Pinedale, so I had taught them. The valedictorian and the two who tied for salutatorian were in my kindergarten class. I should have gone to graduation, but didn't even think of it. It won't be long before I will not know any of the students.

I am almost to the end of my Mom's diary, and am thinking there must be another one. This one ends after 1984, and I know that she was still keeping it up after she lost most of her sight and had moved off the farm into a little house in Riverton and then to the assisted living center several years later. She had a word processor and a separate monitor. She used large type and a magnifying glass when she used it. I hope Alice has the rest of it on her bookshelves.

Monday

No pictures today, and nothing of interest.

I spent most of the morning in the kitchen, cleaning out dishwasher and filling it again, and taking care of leftovers. I had fixed a couple Cornish Game Hens in my new pressure cooker a couple of days ago. Today I took the meat off the bones and made some chicken broth.

I couldn't remember where my strainer was, and while I was looking for it, I found some kind of microwave thing and didn't have a clue what it was for. Also found a plastic baking pan that was oven safe. I bought it years ago, and probably used it only once. Later I found the directions for the microwave thingie. It is a rice cooker. Good grief! I have a rice cooker, and my pressure cooker has a rice setting, and of course the best rice comes from the old fashioned method of boiling it on the top of the stove for 20 minutes. I think the Microwave cooker will go to the Food Basket.

I'm sure there are other useless and mysterious gadgets in the dark depths of my cupboards.

Lynn mentioned hearing the frogs, and last night I noticed they were "singing" here too. I love listening to them. I just wish I didn't have so much traffic noise. Ever since the gas companies came, I notice the traffic more and more. I usually get up and close my bedroom window about 6:00 every morning now when they are all going to work.

I also spent time on pictures. I took the memory cards out of my cameras, copied all the pictures to the hard drive of the computer in the May folder, and formatted the cards. I wish I had a better system of folders for my photos, but so far, by date works best.