Cameras Back Up!

For those of you watching, Foscams are back up - you can view the cold, wet and somewhat miserable day we are having.  Tomorrow's high - 44 degrees.  Lovely.

For those of you not in on the cameras yet, let me know.  I'll get you in to look at our Freedom backyard.

Janet, On Our Minds

Mike's mom, Janet, landed in the hospital this week with a life threatening infection.  She spent some time in ICU, but is now out of this intensive care.  Scott and Stephanie and Steven sit by her side, work with the doctors, and keep us updated on her condition.  What a great team of advocates and support!

It's so hard to be so far away.  My mother reminds me there is nothing more a mother wants than to see her children happy.  Michael flourishes in Wyoming, especially now with the new farm.

We are relieved to hear of improvements and are keeping Janet in our thoughts, knowing the difficult health challenges she has faced and is facing.

Stay strong, get well face.  We miss you.

Long, quiet stretch

Greetings All!  My apologies for the long, quiet stretch on this blog site.  I keep thinking things will slow down.  Hah!  Silly me!  Last week just kept throwing things at me and I just couldn't make time for a post.

As I think of last weekend, it seems so far away, looking now outside to a snow-covered landscape.  The last several days have been gloomy, cold, wet, and a bit dreary.  To begin, here is a great picture of Todd and Janet as they began their float down the Salt River.  We enjoyed a wonderful evening in Freedom, sharing Janet's meatballs and pasta and consuming a enthusiastic SIX bottles of wine.  Oh my, oh my!!  What a fun evening!  They learned to play Pitch - one of our favorite card games.

I think I will make Todd & Janet a large print for their wall - love this picture!!  Their float got them some great fish and a memorable ride down the river.  Fortunately, no damage was done to their ship!!

This weekend - a view from our back door, dawn.  The top of the hot tub (bottom right) is snow-free because we enjoyed our morning soak!!

And here, a little friend.  All puffed up and close to his food source.  Yup.  The hummingbirds are still around.  This week's forecast looks a little better....we'll see.  There is plenty of sugar if they are sticking around.

Here it is.....the Winter Weather Warning!!

Right now, blue sky and white puffy innocent clouds light up my south facing window at work.  It is a late summer day.  The wind wafts about, not certain about what it is to do.  My phone dings.  A weather alert.  Check it out.   Time for long sleeves and fleece jackets!!

The full report reads:

The End of Summer 2017

Poof.  Just like that!  The weather is coming, the long sleeves and layers need to come out, the summer clothes go away.  Grass got cut last night.  Probably the last time for the season.  Here is what is coming.

Busy Saturday

While Michael was storing hay in the hay shed, we had the fire we were all worried about - and I was on duty.  Ironically, the fire started when some folks were trying to start an old fire engine!  Here is the story.  Click here to read Fire on the Mountain

We awoke a to a wet walk and drops of water hanging from the fence line.  Perfect!  The forest service crews (most of the fire occurred on forest service land) will have an easy job of securing the fire and wrapping it up. 

Today, another fire department event (keeps me from going south!).  The Moran Fundraiser is today.  I have an apricot vanilla bean pie in the oven for auction.......

Tomorrow is the anniversary of 9-11.  We will solemnly remember that day tomorrow on the Jackson Town Square, starting at 0800 Mountain Time.  You might get a glimpse of the event at Live Video Jackson Hole Town Square if you tune in then.  A quick walk to our Station 1 bay and we swear in the new Chief of Jackson Hole Fire/EMS, Brady Hansen from Logan, Utah.  It will be a very full day - and added to my list is an investigation report and multiple incident reports that must be completed.

Living life to the fullest is exhausting! 

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes!

And your lungs!  It's been smoky around the west.  We have been lucky - thus far, and there are no big fires close by.  That does not mean there isn't smoke in the air, however.  The sun sets and rises in a hue of fluorescent orange/rose color.  The closest color I can come up with is raw wild caught salmon meat. That is the color.  The moon too is smoked color.  Tough year for the west.  We hold our breath and look to storms on the horizon.

This is, incidentally, the first year I am not all stressed out about dry weather and no rain.  Why?  Because Mike is currently putting up green, lovely alfalfa hay.  I wish I had a picture. 

Here is a cool link to show you the smoke moving from all of these western fires.  You will see the corner of Wyoming in the bottom right of the image. 

Check it out by clicking on this link Smoke in the West

Sauce from the Insta Pot!

Along with many other neat things (okay, some not-so-neat things too), there is a pretty apple tree at the Freedom place.   Step one:  fill the insta pot three quarters full with apples.  Wash right in the container, drain the water and seal up.  Put on high pressure for 6 minutes.  Do not quick release or you will have sweet apple water all over (trust me on this one!!).  When the 6 minutes are up, just turn the thing off and let it release pressure naturally (this is a good time to paint a utility room or cut the grass - just sayin'!).  Here are the pretty little apples ready to be cooked!

Turns out, not everyone knows what a food mill is!!  Here is a picture of one working.  There are many selections at Amazon!  Check it out at Amazon Food Mill Selection  Squishing out the sauce and holding back things like skin, stems, and seeds.  Wishing there were chickens in Freedom, this is great chicken fodder!  

Once processed, I added some sugar and cinnamon and heated up a bit.  Careful not to burn the applesauce (trust me - again! - on this).  There are a zillion apples on this tree!  I'm hoping neighbor Pam (new blog follower) comes and gets some!  Anyone else?  

House Warming

Warmed by a gathering of friends, we had a great party last night!  The earth moved, it was such a great event!  About 15 miles from here, these was a 5.3 earthquake.  See the news report here at Earthquake  Neighbor Pam and I were in the kitchen and absolutely felt the house move.  I was worried we had put too many people in the house! We both wondered what had actually just happened, but shortly after, cell phones began buzzing and indeed, there had been a quake.  Certainly, a memorable addition to the wonderful evening!

Here is who came.  First to arrive, Ken and Cyndie Griggs, pack trip friends.  Then Todd and Janet arrived in their pop up camper where they spent the night.  Next to arrive, Johnny and Coralia Robinson with their little ones, Clara and June.  Neighbor Mary arrived with a plate of Benni's elk jerky - Benni to arrive later, he was out cutting hay.  Then neighbors Pam and Lou buzzed over on their 4 wheeler.  Finally Jim and Jess found the place and arrived with their little ones Maisy and Jimmy and their two dogs.  It was a full house!!  We ate, drank, listened to music, told stories, and our friends now understand where we are going for the weekends.

Mike made his first bale of hay yesterday - a very momentous event!  I walked around the field helping him get the accumulator adjusted.  Now a neat eight pack of hay sits in the field to be picked up and loaded.  Baling hay is somewhat of a miracle to me!  Just the tieing of the bale strings amazes me!  That, folks, is technology!!

Jimmy and Maisy got to go for a ride on old Bishop.

The horses were amused with the party and hung around to get apple handouts.  Turns out, there is a nice apple tree on the place.  The apples, although small, are just the right mix of sweet and tart and the tree is loaded.  Six minutes in the Insta Pot and they are ready to go through the food mill in making great applesauce.

All are off in different directions today.  Mike is raking hay, getting it turned up to dry out for later afternoon baling.  I am cleaning the house.  Funny, you clean before company comes and then need to clean even more once they are gone!!  It's all good, it's all very good!!

We have a barley field just to the west.  A departing image.  Thank you friends for your warm and wonderful house warming gift.  Yourselves.  Filling our house with your love.  We thank you for this gift!