Life on the High Plains

One of my favorite places in the Jackson Hole area is Mormon Row. Around 1890 the Mormon Church sent settlers from the Salt Lake Valley to this area in Jackson Hole.  They formed a community, dug irrigation ditches, and grew crops in what I would consider to be a harsh area.   This was John Moulton's gambrel style barn.   This is a pink stucco house that was built by John Moulton.  He built it to replace his log cabin.  No doubt that it was the envy of the community.  I saw a painting of this house in a restaurant we dined in and I can't get it out of my mind.  I might have to try it myself.   This, of course, is my favorite traveling partner. He lets me stop and take pictures whenever I ask. The is the Thomas Moulton barn that was built sometime around 1910.  Have you seen it in pictures before?  I see it everywhere.  It's probably one of the most photographed barns anywhere.  This will defini...

I guess I've been on hiatus long enough.  We were on vacation for a week and I didn't blog and then we got home and I had to take another week off to recover from the vacation.  So I haven't blogged in a long time, I haven't read any blogs, and now it's time to catch up. So where to begin? I guess I'll start at the beginning. Irv and I loaded up into the car and made the very long drive up to Teton Village, Wyoming.  We had splurged and rented a very luxurious "cabin" (aka multi-million dollar luxury home) in Teton Village.  It was incredibly beautiful so I immediately started trying to figure out how we could own a home there.  We were in luck!  One lot was left in the subdivision and it was a mere $4.75 million for one acre.  A heck of a deal! I didn't take a single picture of the cabin so I just stole one off their website.  Vacation to me is a lot of activity--hiking and being outside.  The mountains and woods are my com...

Over the weekend Irv installed a security camera outside our house.  Whenever it detects any motion it sends us an email. This is what we usually see. Either nothing we can see or... one of use coming home.  This morning, however, it captured an incredible image. Isn't that the coolest thing ever? Happy Skywatch Friday!

Seems like it's time for me to post an update on my latest painting. This is where it started several weeks ago.   This was the "kindergarten" stage.  Doesn't look like much.   Apparently I didn't take any pictures for a couple weeks so here it is with the trees in the background and the start of the rock wall on the left side.   Rocks take an incredibly long time to get just right so they've gone through several revisions.   At this point I had added a few trees to the left side down by the water.    Time to start on the rock wall on the right side. This is what it looks like as of today.  Getting those rocks to look real with texture and depth is a lot of work and frustration, but it's coming along.  Since I'm headed up to Yellowstone in a couple days perhaps I should throw it in the back of the car and I can be dropped off at inspiration point to finish this painting plein air.  That would be ...

Mary and I are throwing around the idea of starting a new business together--Glam Glass by Mom and Me.  This past weekend we tried out our idea. It involved paint, a variety of glassware, and some creative juices (aka wine).   My kitchen table was transformed into an art studio.   I think the palette was a piece of art on its own.   This one turned out so elegant.   This is Mary's beer glass--it may be my favorite.   Or maybe the martini glasses are my favorite...no, the sunflower is my favorite.     Actually...they all turned out very nicely.   Into the oven for about 5 hours of curing.  Last step is to seal them with varnish.   Only 92 more glasses to go to reach our goal.

Only 10 more days until vacation!   We're headed back up to the Teton/Yellowstone area of Wyoming--my favorite place on earth. Here's a shot from Uncle Tom's Trail last year.  Maybe we'll visit it again. Enjoy! Happy Skywatch Friday!

Out here on the prairie there are no trees unless you plant them.  We've planted a number of trees over the years and the biggest and my favorite was a weeping willow. This last winter killed it. We've been hoping and hoping that it would miraculously come back to life, but it was not to be so today it had to come down.    It's times like this when Irv probably wishes he owned a chainsaw.   When it got to this stage I suggested that Irv carve it into one of those log bears.  Great idea, I thought.    You can't loose a tree without planting a new one and we were lucky enough to find a birch tree at Lowe's.  Birch trees seem to do the best on the high prairie along with some pine trees that we've had for years.     We now have someone to watch over the trees.  I don't know what his name is yet...I need to get some suggestions from my brother.  Our cousin had one of these up in South Dakota an...

What I was hoping wouldn't happen for a long time has happened. The pain is back after nearly six months of being virtually pain free.  It has returned with a vengeance.  After my radio frequency ablation in January the doctor told me I would have 9 good months.  I've been robbed! But that's okay.  I'm not going to give into it.  I'm going to keep getting up and going to work.  I'm going to keep going a hundred miles an hour.  I'm going to keep telling everyone that I'm okay.  I will not whine (except for now). I'm going to start by running in the Run for Rwanda 5K tomorrow. I'm going to win...not the race, but the battle over the pain. I'm going to start treatment with a chiropractor next week...I've never been to a chiropractor tomorrow, in fact I've never really believed in them.  But I have to get my spine back in alignment and stop my L3 from slipping any further out of place. I will start getting all the things on my...