Life on the High Plains

If you ever been exactly where you need to be at exactly the time you needed to be there? Over Memorial Day weekend my daughter, grandson, and I flew up to Idaho Falls to hang out with my dad. My dad had a few to-dos for us.  Mr. Bean's swept out the boathouse and helped my dad haul a load of trash to the dump. We did a little flood mitigation work because they've been having an unusual amount of rain up there too.  The neighbor said we needed to get some gutters back up so guess who go to learn how to hang gutters. Mr. Bean got to use some power tools.   We got the snow blower put away. We made a trip to Lowes to get some extensions for the downspouts.     Then it started raining.  Then it starting hailing.  Then it started raining a little harder.  Then all hell broke loose.  This is where the camera got put away and Mary, Mr. Beans, and I went into emergency mode.     This picture doe...

I'm the most lucky grandmother!  I have the two most wonderful grandbabies on earth. The only problem is that one of them can't be called a grandbaby anymore, he's a young man now who just graduated from the 8th grade.  I cannot believe he'll be starting high school in a few months.  Where has the time gone? Mr. Beans, you have become an amazing young man.  Even though I call you Mr. Contrary, I hope you know how much your Pappy and I love you! Then there's this little lady.  Her mom humored me and made her wear the dress I sewed for her.  I hear the dress made her kind of angry because it covers her legs and Miss GiGi does not like things on her legs.  She has great fun kicking those little legs. Isn't she a doll? Truly blessed!

My daughter, grandson, and I visited Idaho Falls last weekend to see my dad.  Each morning we made our way down to the Idaho Falls Greenbelt. The city has done a marvelous job of developing this area with 5 miles of paved trails that line both sides of the Snake River. We have a favorite 2.3 mile loop.  My favorite spot is this view with the falls in the foreground and the beautiful LDS Temple on the horizon.  It is spectacular. Here's a shot from the same spot on Christmas Eve. A really nice thing about the Greenbelt is that it's a perfect place for families to hang out--even families with feathers. If you're ever in Idaho Falls you should take a stroll on the Greenbelt. Happy Skywatch Friday!

We're going to have some babies around here soon. These are our front yard eggs. And these are our backyard eggs.  Aren't they pretty?  I'm not sure they're real, I think maybe Irv put some of those malted milk chocolate Easter eggs in a nest.  This is our cranky gander, Yoder.  I wish he were still a pretty little egg. He's mean and evil to everyone except his Father Goose...aka Irv.  I have to carry a rake with me wherever I go to keep Yoder from biting my legs.  (Don't worry...no geese have been hurt by this rake, it's just used to threaten them.) Did you know the life span of a domestic goose is 20 years?  Yes, I know.  That is the most depressing news.  I don't think it's right that an evil goose gets to live longer than a dog.  Makes no sense. Anyone want a goose for Sunday dinner?

 Here I am way behind on my blogging again.  So many exciting things to blog about and no time to get it done. Let's go back two weeks.  We traveled down to Las Cruces, NM to attend one of our favorite nephew's graduations from New Mexico State University.  (BTW, we have lots of favorite nephews.) We love all these special celebrations because we get to hang out with family.  There's nothing more important than family! Here's the graduate with his proud parents and brother.  He is a Business major and I think he likes economics.  Economics was my downfall in college--the only class that I didn't get an A in.  My professor gave me an A-.  Now, you may not think that's such a big deal, but it brought my GPA down to a 3.98.   As a perfectionist this will undoubtedly bother me until the day I die.  And here he is with his favorite aunt and uncle. Any good celebration involves food and when you're in New Mexic...

Such a heart warming scene out the front window this evening--or it could be bunny hell for anyone who doesn't appreciate a yard full of fuzzy little rabbits.   10 rabbits munching on our front lawn!  (I apologize for the bad picture--it's hard to get a good shot through the glass.)  I tried to sneak outside so I could get a good picture, but...     only this little guy stuck around.  All the rest of them scattered in 1.2 seconds.   Now you can go to bed and dream about bunnies.   Happy Skywatch Friday!

Yesterday was a first for me. We got up early and made our way to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo for the Run to the Shrine.  This is an incredibly tough 5K with a two mile ascent up this hill to the Will Rogers Shrine.  Of course what goes up must come down so from the Shrine to the finish line is another mile followed by yet another mile back down to the parking lot. The ascent is awful...the whole way I was wondering why the heck I was doing this again.  It's not fun, there is nothing enjoyable about it.  Last year when Mary and I reached the summit we took a look at the Shrine and toasted each other for making it to the top.  This year we were moving along at a pretty good pace so there was no stopping for fun.  We made the turn and headed straight back down. I'm more of a walker than a runner, but I usually run for a couple minutes and then walk for a couple minutes.  Yesterday, however, the goal was to finish in less than an hour so Mary...

Last weekend we flew down to New Mexico for our nephew's graduation (more on that coming later).  After the graduation ceremony and celebratory lunch, several of us loaded up and headed to Dripping Springs for a hike. Dripping Springs was originally named Van Patten's Mountain Camp after the man who built it, Colonel Eugene Van Patten.  It was built in the late 1800s and included several guest rooms, a dining room, and a concert hall.  In 1917 it was purchased by a doctor from San Francisco and became a sanatorium where tuberculosis patients went for treatment.   Now just the ruins remain. I love the history of the place.  I wonder about all the people who visited there during its prime. Incredible mountain views! Beautiful desert vegetation. Great family! If you're ever in Las Cruces I highly recommend Dripping Springs.  It's a 3 mile hike with the added bonus of a little history.  No...

Something crazy happened in Southern Colorado while we were out of town last weekend. My phone kept giving me weather alerts--severe thunderstorm warnings, winter weather warnings, flash flood warnings, and get this--tornado warnings.  My poor dogs must have been going nuts as evidenced by the trashing of our house.  For some reason, when it storms they jump up on all the beds and throw the pillows off...every single room.  Of course they tried to tell me that the house sitter was responsible for the chaos. This is what we came home to:   Here's a section of the road that washed out last year (sorry, I snapped the pic before the shutter was fully open).  Instead of filling in the dirt after the wash out, the rancher just put a new stretch of fence along the bottom of the washout.  We must have had a gully washer because the new fence was broken and the water obviously went across the road.     This was a little further down the ...