Life on the High Plains

On November 18th President Obama quietly signed a Department of Agriculture bill that reinstated the use of federal funds for the inspection of horses headed to slaughter.  A ban on horse slaughter was instituted by Congress in 2006. I'm really torn on this subject.  I am a horse lover so of course I am against horse slaughter, but on the other hand I've seen what the ban has done on the horse industry in the United States. Unwanted horses are turned free or left attended to starve to death.  The value of horses has dropped dramatically.  Horses had to be hauled to either Mexico or Canada to be slaughtered and faced very inhumane environments in addition to harsh traveling conditions. I am a responsible horse owner and I have the means to properly care for my horses.  Perhaps potential horse owners should have to attend a class on what is involved in responsible horse ownership, but before we can do that for horses we should probably have a class on respon...

When we moved into our new house seven years ago we had a lot of white walls.  Two of our three bathrooms had white walls with a border around the top edge. I've pretty much left them alone of the years because I hate painting!  I also hate wallpaper and borders.  What a pain to remove them.  If I ever even mention putting up wallpaper, I hope someone will knock some sense into me! Well, enough white walls.  Time to re-do guest bathroom #1. Here's before... boring, dull, and just plain ugly.  I did find some spray on stuff at Lowes that made removing that border fairly easy. I selected my new color palette from these towels that I bought at Target. I think it turned out rather fabulous. I love these hooks that I found at Hobby Lobby! I re-purposed some artwork. We were supposed to have new flooring installed in this bathroom last week when they were here doing the living and dining rooms, but ...

They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. I can tell you that is true for my sweet hubby. I've never know anyone who is so grateful to have a meal prepared for him.  He thinks everything I cook is wonderful (most everything, anyway).  Since I enjoy cooking and he enjoys eating, we're a perfect match. We didn't have a lot of leftovers from Thanksgiving and last night he ate the last piece of pumpkin pie.  Before he ate that last piece of pie though, he accused someone of breaking into our house and stealing the SECOND to last piece of pie. After searching through the house we determined the only thing missing was a piece of pie.  Thank goodness they didn't take my camera, laptop, or iPad which were all sitting out in the open.  Before eating his piece of pie we had to have a refresher course on how to load and shoot the gun (yes, the one I received for Christmas last year). Now I'm prepared to defend myself against the pie burglar....

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was a fun day with family and friends, but we missed those who couldn't be with us. Mary had to work the entire day at the ER. Dana and Adam were in Australia. There were also family dinners in Tulsa and Albuquerque.  (Wish we could be in three places at once.) Mr. Beans made us some beautiful Thanksgiving decorations.  Have you ever seen a cuter grandson? Now it's on to Christmas.  I didn't venture out on Black Friday, but I think I'll go out by myself today to see if there are any good deals left.  Hopefully I won't get trampled, pepper-sprayed, or arrested and hauled off to jail. Happy Holidays!

Before... and After. I'm especially enjoying my new "Paisley Park" area rugs. My world is at peace again (mostly).

The Lion King touring company is currently in Denver.  We had tickets for today's matinee performance.  It was supposed to be Irv, Mr. Beans, and I, but  Irv kindly gave up his ticket so Mary could go with Mr. Beans and I.  Who knew Mary had a desire to see a Broadway show? What a good looking mother and son! Of course before the theatre you have to have a good meal.  Since Irv wasn't with us I took Mary and Mr. Beans to a "foo-foo" place.   Mr. Beans was hoping for Taco Bell.  Darn, I couldn't find one. I had the roast leg of lamb with cucumber pita. Mary made a safe choice with the baked mac and cheese. Mr. Beans enjoyed brunch with French toast and bacon. It was all very delicious!  (Except for Mr. Beans' bacon which wasn't crispy enough and they forgot to leave the berries off his plate.  Now he may die.) (Why is it that people who blog take pictures of everything including their food?) The...

On Monday we're having laminate flooring installed in our living and dining rooms.  That will leave us with only two rooms with carpeting--the master bedroom and office. We were going to get rid of all the carpeting, but decided to leave it in the bedroom and attached office so that we would have a chance of sleeping at night.  (The dog's toenails make a lot of noise when they're running on the laminate.) So we have to move everything out of the two rooms where the laminate is being installed.  It's almost as good as moving every three years because everything has to be cleaned out! I'm going through all the drawers and cabinets and getting rid of stuff.  We have really accumulated a lot of "stuff" over 34 years of marriage. I found a lot of treasures and also a lot of things that I don't know why I've kept. Like these green and gold table coverings that were leftover from Jillian's graduation from CSU.  Is there a need to keep these?...

On Sunday afternoon I was summoned to our county's 4-H achievement awards.  I've been involved with 4-H for many years, but the last five years or so I have only been involved at the state level--state horse advisory committee and superintendent of the state horse bowl contest although I do help with some of the county horse shows and judging contest.  I only know a handful of the 4-H kids in our county anymore. Jillian was there to present her livestock bowl kids with certificates and to recruit new team members.  I'm very proud that Jillian has joined our county's horse advisory committee. I served on that committee for a couple years and before me, Irv was a member. A family tradition! I think it's awesome that Jillian is giving back to the 4-H program that gave her so much. The awards went on for what seemed like hours, but it was a good thing that Jillian and I stayed until the end.  Our county extension agent presented me and a couple other leaders ...

My dad is famous.  At least to me he is. When we visited him last month we visited "his" museum.  It's actually named The Museum of Idaho, but I think of it as Dad's museum.  He was a volunteer there for many years, he even managed the construction of the best exhibit in the museum--Eagle Rock USA.  We celebrated his 80th birthday there a couple years ago. But we aren't going to blog about the museum or Eagle Rock today.  Since this is Veteran's weekend I'm going to blog about my dad's service to our country. Dad's museum currently has an exhibit on World War II which is top notch.  After viewing all the exhibits on the 1st floor we ventured upstairs and my dad led us to a case that was all about him. Wow! He never said anything about being a local celebrity. My dad served as a MP in the US Army at the war crimes trials in Japan after the end of the war. He's kept photos and letters and all kinds of mementos from that experie...