"What Did You Do Today, Kathy?"

Well, they have kept me running today, for sure.  Cardiac arrest, smoke in an office, car crash south of town, and just finished this - certainly the most impressive of the day - RV fire.  I am saying this fire was most possibly caused by a rechargeable lithium ion battery recharging on the front seat of the RV.  The truck next to it was totally consumed as well.  No one was hurt and the grass fire didn't race up the nearby hill.  All in a day's work.  We'll see what the evening hours bring. 

Living A Full Life

The other day, I advised my worn-out overworked and exhausted friend Jason to not let life pass him by.  Sharing the story with Mike, he commented that perhaps I was not one to give out this advice; implying of course, that perhaps I too might be worn-out, overworked, and exhausted. 

It is true.  We have been insanely busy with overloaded plates.  At work and at home.  Still, it feels like a very full life not a life running me over.  When I get overwhelmed, I celebrate the many things I can get done in a day and am physically able to do.  No, life if not running by me.  I'm living it very very fully.  Mike might feel a bit overwhelmed.  He has no water in his irrigation ditch.  The new diesel pump sits quite next to a dried out irrigation ditch.  The water seeps into our neighbor's field creeping every so slowly our direction.  Today he is meeting with someone about the potential to pipe the ditch.  I think he has some moments of overwhelm-syndrome!

Our pack trip was wonderful, excluding a brief moment of terror as we watched Mike and his floating mule bob down a very swift section of the elk fork.  Call Mike for the story.  Everyone on the pack trip was relieved Mike did not drown, Cosmo the mule did not float away or drown, we all were able to cross the raging river, and there were no further near-miss events.

Summer is full-on now.  A week of heat has prompted the fire danger to elevate into High Fire Danger.  A couple of fires dink around forest acres; carefully being monitored by Forest Service personnel.  With the cool and wet spring, there are heavy fine fuels (grasses and the sort), to take a small ignition and translate it into a raging wildland fire.  We will have a long fire season, I fear, this year.

Here are some pack trip pictures from my camera. 

CHECK LIST FOR A PACK TRIP:

Leave the comforts of home.  This picture taken from Seth and Alden's front deck at their lovely home near Cody, Wy. 

Pack up, weigh out, and lay out loads for mules to carry to camp. 

Load the four legged workers.

Travel down the trail.  Nine miles to camp!

Breath a sigh of relief.  Site of the near-drowning for Mike and Cosmo.

Arrive at camp.  Relax and enjoy.  

Round-About the Weekend

Below our house is Hoback Junction.  Highway 191 South and Highway 89 south meet at a circle, confounding those who have never driven through a round-about.  Sitting in the back yard at our place, it is not uncommon to hear long blaring horn shouts as road-raged travelers sound their impatience for round-about newbies. 

The middle of this circle is mounded with a mixture of mostly gravel and a bit of dirt.  The first year after its construction, locals had all kinds of ideas of how to make this mound of dirt turning to weeds look nice.  Bronze sculptures were the popular requests and were shut down by the Wyoming Department of Transportation.  People kept talking and speculating and I started doing.

Thanks to watching a prairie in Illinois turn from weed patch to splendor, I dug down and started weeding.  Each weed disturbance got a hand full of local flower seeds (bought with my own money).  It was not a one day project.  The round about is bigger than one person's effort.  It takes me days every spring, picking away at this beautification project.

I pulled weekend duty last weekend - the first nice weekend of the year.  Saturday morning was robust with calls, peaking with this high-peak pass call, a car fire on Teton Pass.  Check out the news article and picture at this BUCKRAIL ARTICLE .  (I really have not been promoted, incidentally!).  Things quieted down after that, allowing me some community service time, making full attack on goats beard and sweet clover plants. 

Want to see the round-about?  You can find it live at HOBACK ROUNDABOUT . 

As I wrestled with the stubborn sweet clover, I saw the giant bumblebees.  These bees are like C-130 bombers!  Sadly, I am not smart enough to take the live photo off my phone and show you this bumblebee's flight.  It is super-cool! That is a white penstemon and blue flax flowers, both I planted as seeds (proud gardener report). 

Mike spent Sunday on the Snake River getting his tri-annual re certification in Swiftwater Rescue.  He had a very good day, but a long one.  As the day ticked on, I tackled the lawn chores.  I've always wanted to cut the diagonal on the Becker yard steep-sloped lawn.  Anyway you cut this lawn, there will be a time when  you are putting all of your body weight on one side of the mower to keep it from tipping over.  Serious.  Thanks to my substantial body mass, I am pretty good at this technique!  I took a picture when I finished the diagonal cut. (Okay, I realize, this may not be a big deal for most of you, but if you are a grass-cutting connoisseur, you will appreciate this diagonal versus the traditional horizontal cut). 

Mike returned home from his big day, sunburned and weary.  We retired to the back yard, turned on the outside speakers and relaxed in our yard to a popping campfire.  The temperature was just right, the grass cut and all tidy-looking.  It was a good day, a very good day.