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Maybe Not the Best Time.....

Mike and I have been planning this trip for at least a year. Maybe not so good of a time to be gone.  Dug out from the Epic Storm, more snow is in the forecast.  It is easy to get stressed about snowfall.  We have a few days solo before we meet up with Scott and Stephanie to enjoy Beltane Ranch.  Check it out at Wonderful Place!

Nice day to fly out of Jackson. We get to Salt Lake City with enough time for a drink and a snack.

More to come!

Record Snowfall

When an epic snowstorm hits, you do wonder how it compares to years past.  Temperatures dropped to single digits last night and snow removal crews actually got ahead! Our little road is one of the best plowed in the county, thanks to neighbor Dan Karns! 

Here is the report from Riverton on our Epic Snowfall.

View out the east Window

This is disturbing.

February 5. View from the Camera

Hmmm.  I guess it snowed quite a lot in Freedom too!! Need to get the date corrected.

Today's car crash.  Fortunately, no injuries. 

Here's Some Snow, Michigan!!

I know quite a few people in Michigan.  They think they have alot of snow!  Here's some snowfall for you Michigan!!  We are getting hammered!!  The skiers are loving it! 

Remember yesterday's snow fall amounts?  Add these numbers to those! 

When Winter Gets You Down

There are a ton of things to do when winter starts getting you down!

Check out what the small town of Alpine, Wyoming does - these cool snow sculptures are from their Winter Festival.  The local businesses either create these sculptures or hire out an artist.  People - like me - drive around taking pictures.  Not sure, but there might be some sort of prize....I vote for Jenkins! 

Snowmen in hot tub!

Teepee with ice door

Scary thing

Alpine Fire Department

And when you are super-crazy because of winter weather, you can look up the recent snowfalls - 26 inches on the ridge above where Mike works!  Yaow-zah!!

Renovation Ensues

The old blue/gray shag carpet is staged in the garage, awaiting its final landing place - the local dump.  Rolled into itself, the dog pees stains gross me out and I am even more glad to see it go.  Not our dogs, by the way.  I have learned that from now on, I will be wearing a 10-95 mask when I tear out old, skanky carpet.  Bad stuff there.

Mike and I put the new vinyl laminate down, finishing it up this weekend.  It is stunning!  Funny to get the floor covered with such beautiful flooring and then roll out the giant floor carpet I made off with from a garage sale last summer.  This thing is perfect and came with a thick floor pad!  It looks simply stunning under the bed.  With luck, Roomba will be able to clean in this room soon too!!

Next, the removal of the wall paper.  Having never done anything like this before, I was quite perplexed as I began.  It is true, I did very little research on the whole process.  Learning as I went, by the end of the day, I was ripping off large chunks of the old gray stripped, pink accented paper, wetting down the wall, and removing the final papery glue-backed backing paper.  It's quite the process!  Only one small wall left and the room will be done.

Now the walls are boring.  No doubt, there was visual interest with the wall paper.  An interesting development, indeed......they make stick-on, pull-off wall paper now......

The pink bottom areas will be covered with brushed corrugated metal.  Oh man, oh man - I can't wait for the bubblegum pink to be gone!!  Mike has a plan for covering and I know it will turn out awesome. 

We decided to stay the night last night, working until 7:30pm on our various projects.  He welded up a wheeled frame for the new fire feature, making moving it around on the deck a breeze.  I pulled off my last sheet of paper around 7 and made dinner.

We finished the evening with a long, rewarding hot tub soak!! 

 

Sunday Morning in Freedom

Ahh.  Freedom.

Dinner with friends last night. We shared food, wine, and stories around our new deck feature.

Very nice. Very nice. Around the inside table for lamb meat balls with delicious tomato sauce on angel hair pasta, home made bread, and a pan amazing pie from Stephanie.

As it is said, life is good, life is good!

Hol-i-Day!!

 A slight wave of guilt surrounds my coffee and egg with Swiss chard breakfast. Mike has gotten up early to go work at the Walton Ranch, today is a holiday for me. I sit in Freedom and watch the snowfall, the breeze blow through Dani and Evan’s prayer flags which fits so perfectly between the chains on our outside swing, and I prepare for a day of ripping up the old carpet.

 Each to their own, I try hard not to judge. Old wallpaper, Carpet with plenty of dog pee stains, and bubblegum pink walls are just not my style. We have commenced the remodeling of the master bedroom in the house. Doing it all backwards, we’ve started with the flooring first. I’m sure this will cause a major headache later but it seems the only way to get going. And we’ve had a hard time getting going on this project. There’s always something that gets in the way. Heavy snowfall that needs plowed, decks it need to be shoveled, snow plows the break - there’s always something!   My quest today is to finish ripping out the rest of the carpet and prepare for the final half to be finished next weekend   Here you see the old carpet, the pink walls, and the new laminate. It will definitely be an upgrade! Onward with the cutting knife, yes I will be careful! A good way to cure a case of guilt is to get to work! I hope you all enjoy your day  whether you are working or on holiday!

Our Friend Addie

Addie and I have known each other for 18 years.  Wow!  She and I cooked grand meals for guests at Flat Creek Ranch , the lovely place at the end of a rough road, fifteen miles from Jackson and an hour and a half drive.  You will have new scratches on your rig, tires worn through a bit more, and the possibility of making contact with the undercarriage of your vehicle verses the rocky outcrops on the two track road.  The drive is worth every hard-earned mile!

Addie treated her girlfriends to a fine meal last night in her lovely town home here in Jackson.  Wine (and water for those driving county vehicles) flowed with the many conversations.  We heard of broken legs, overwhelmed schedules, a mother daughter trip to Italy, it always rains on August 4, the struggles of feeding a gluten free husband, growing girls in the most rural norther Wyoming setting of Moran, worries of avalanches taking those we love, and many times - more than one story going on at one time!  As we chattered away the evening, we relished the supple Jasmine rice, a perfect bedding for spicy red curry and the sweet beef dish which mixed well together.  Of course, the meal was completed with an array of Addie's finest; lemon bars, rocky road, and a chocolate gnache. 

Check out Addie's Blog Site and marvel at her brilliance in creating the most beautiful cakes ever!  Can you imagine having to cut into one of these pieces of artwork? 

Thank you Addie.  Thank you for gathering us all up.  Thank you for taking the time to cook for us all.  Thank you for being a long time friend.  And thank you ahead for a taste of that beef jerky!!

We all love you, Addie!!  I think this picture says how we all feel about YOU!!

Painful Week Start

I am not a complainer.  And I'm pretty tough.

Yesterday, while chipping some ice away from some windows, I flipped a big ice chunk into the air and it came smashing down on my hand.  I knew a blood vessel had broken and was rewarded immediately with a growing hematoma.  Soon it was the size of a golf ball.  By the time Mike and I returned to Hoback Junction - after a day of snow moving in Freedom - my giant hematoma was starting to hurt quite a lot.  Off to the Emergency Room.  Happily, there were not bones broken.  I was wrapped up in an Ace bandage and told it would be pretty painful for a week as the stuff was absorbed up by my body.

Come Thursday of this week, Mike will deliver me to an oral surgeon's office where I will get the fractured root to a tooth that broke off extricated from my gum/jaw.  We will be driving to Idaho Falls for the procedure.  I am thankful to have a husband who is able to me my driver.

I hope  your week is going better than mine!! 

Sunday Morning Dreamin'

Two poached eggs over English muffin, drizzled with Hollandaise sauce, slice of ham, sautéed kale, all topped with a triangle of sweet roasted pepper. And coffee. In just the right mug.  Here’s to the start of this week and dreaming!

Bringing in A Below Zero Year

And so, the tradition lives on!  Disturbed only once before midnight by a call I was cancelled for shortly after leaving and returned back to the card game swiftly, we ate, played cards, and marveled at the clear star-studded sky from the luxury of the 102 degree hot tub on a -8 degree night.  By morning, the temperature would be -20.  The Walton Ranch saw -26 on their thermometers. 

The cold day dawned with a blue sky but still at noon, it was -4 degrees.  Not a great day to be frolicking outside.  A much better day to take a nap in the warmth of indoors! 

Here is what happens when your champagne sits on the rail next to the hot tub in -8 degree temperatures.  Janet brought in the ale to warm up a bit!!

Dinner was a bit stressful for me.  The undercurrent stress of a potential call that I might have to run off for caused a bit of anxiety.  Sorry Mike.  I was a grump until it all got put out on the table and I could sit and sigh with relief!  I have been on duty two of the three years we've carried out this tradition.  It is better to not be on duty.  Plus I missed a lot of amazing and delicious wine.  Although I am pretty sure Todd drank my share!! 

Salmon on top of fresh sautéed spinach, a dollop of white grits, and topped with a caper cream sauce.  A nice salad and a charcuterie board of goodies started us off in style.  How did we end that meal?  With some of Janet's cannoli desserts, of course!  A fine meal to the end of 2018. 

And finally a note of thanks.  Thank you to all who have reminded me, once again, how incredibly blessed I am to be supported by so many people who love me and call me daughter, sister, inlaw, wife, and friend.  Your generous gifts - things and words - have overwhelmed and humbled me.  I am sure I am not worthy of all this, but I thank you and want you all to know how very full my life is because of you!  The word gratitude does not even come close to how I feel as this holiday season comes to a close.  What a wonderful feeling to begin this New Year!!  Thank you All!

Traditions

Tonight we will carry on a tradition that started somewhat organically and spontaneously and now, three years later, will continue on!

Tonight, Todd, Janet, Mike, and I will gather around the table for a meal and some Pitch playing.  Before midnight, we will all jump into the hot tub (with swimming suits - I can't believe you wondered!) and bring in the new year under the stars, with a glass of champagne (not for me, I'm on duty - drats!), and listen to Bob Dylan on the outside speakers.

There's something about traditions.  They are good.  They keep us remembering that some things are worth going to a little extra effort, making that thing priority when so many other items are pulling at that list.  And traditions are fun. 

Making New Year's resolutions are another tradition.  I like to jot down a list every year.  Try to hold myself to these lists of better-meant. 

Happy New Year's to all.  Be safe tonight and all of next year, dear ones!! 

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." ― Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Dinner with Mom!

Mike and his mom Janet. What a wonderful meal at Catch 407. We have certainly eaten well this vacation!  For our last night here, oysters on the half shell, calamari, scallops and clams.  Oh my.  Oh my! Janet enjoyed venturing out into the dark New York night. It is crazy warm here. A wild and windy storm blew through last night, bringing back memories of windy nights in Illinois, childhood memories that remain embedded into my memory. 

New Years Eve is next up. Safe travels for us all. Drink lots of water as you drink up the other libations to bring in 2019. Cheers, Friends and Family, Cheers!

Merry Christmas!!

Mike and I celebrate this year's Christmas with brother Scott & Stephanie and their lovely kids Michael & Angela, Hillary & Brett, and Evan and Dani.  We are staying in their deluxe Adirondack "cabin" and we all fit very comfortably!  You can find out all about this amazing NY State inholding at Where are the Adirondaks?  We have had two clear sky days thus far and a snow storm to whiten things up for today!  Very nice!

Here is a picture from this morning's Christmas breakfast!  What a beautiful family!

Here is the beautiful house.  Stephane and Scott have it listed on Air Bnb.  Look it up at Dartbrook House  They are as thrilled with this place as we are with our Freedom place - we know that feeling - and now we understand why!  What a view looking out to the Adirondack mountains!!

Next up - Christmas Dinner!  A 8 pound beef rib roast, twice baked potatoes, all the fixin's AND a giant bottle of wine await our festive spirits!  

This Year's Gifts

Todd is my Pitch-playing partner.  He and I can cause Janet and Mike to wail in exasperation as we pull off game after game in the "Us and Them" scorecard event.  Todd likes to win.  So do I.  (Of course, so do Mike and Janet!!)

This is what Todd gave me for Christmas!  This summer, vexed with a mounting weed take-over, I grabbed an old bread knife out of the kitchen and started to de-root weeds below the service.  The knife served in other ways too; cutting broccolini, cabbage heads when they were young, and other cutting missions of the like.  I believe Todd's A.M. Leonard Soil Tool will be a much more appropriate and useful tool for the summer of 2019!  And he didn't just get me the knife....I got a PINK handled knife and the sheath to contain the thing!!  What a perfect gift!  Thank you Todd!!

Janet's cookies arrived.  They are amazing and disappearing fast.  I put most in the freezer to try to quell the magical disappearing act they were performing!

We leave Friday for New York.  Watch for more posting of travel.  Watch "It's a Wonderful Life".  Mike and I are making it an annual tradition.  Merry Christmas to all!! Stay Safe, Loved Ones! 

This is SO Cool!!

A wonderful snowstorm came to our valley this last weekend.  For so many past years, we have waited and waited for the snow.  This year, it has come!  Here is a must-see video!  I'm not even a skier and I got excited watching this young man ski.  Check it out and come visit Jackson!  We've got the snow and the mountains to go with it!! Woot!  Woot!!

Watch Him Ski!!

A Feast for the Thankful!

We gathered with friends Todd & Janet around the coffee-table-turned-kitchen island in the tiny hovel on the hill here in Hoback.  The house fragrant and warm with the roasting of a turkey, potatoes and yams, stuffing, fresh rolls painted with butter, and brussel sprouts, pies warming on the stove top.  Shiny wine glasses, eclectic tableware settings, and cloth napkins decorated the table space. 

Corks popped as we toasted the meal, the day, and our friendship.  By the night's end, many bottles, drained of their bottled wonders, were placed in the recycling bin. Thank you Nichelini WInery for brining us such delicious wines.  A cold bottle of Lafollette chardonnay complemented Janet's appetizers perfectly.  Warm shrimp drowning in a pool of cheese topped with a piece of bacon began the feast.

The refreshing cranberry, pear, amaretto dish would be remembered - albeit, a bit late - at the end of the meal.  The festive red dish came out and we cleaned our palettes before digging into a heated game of Pitch cards. 

Warm pies filled with sour cherries and sweet peaches were brought forth to pause Todd & my winning streak.  Cold vanilla ice cream countered the warm flakey crusted slices.  We practically licked our plates!  And next, set off for another game of Pitch.  Todd & I won all three games - just sayin'!!

Snow quietly fell outside.  Twice, the door had to be propped open to cool things inside off a bit.  A quiet storm, no wind, no drama.  This morning, inches of the white decoration balanced on tree branches, wire fences, and powerlines.  Blue sky and sunlight drenched the wakening landscape.  A beautiful winter day dawns.  Mike took off to feed horses, mules, and cows.  I savored the day off and lazed in bed until 8:30.  What a treat!

Off to Freedom this afternoon.  Saturday will be the first Cutter Races in Afton and then I am on duty Sunday/Monday.  I hope your thanksgiving too was filled with the love of others, amazing food offerings, and fun! 

Wine, Food, Sightseeing, Smoke

The plane bounced around as the wheels hit the Sacramento runway.  The wind was roaring out of the northeast.  Brown dirt blew up from the barren dry fields patching this agriculturally quilted landscape of central California.  By the time we got our car and found 101 North, the smoke cloud cut through the sky above.  The Paradise Fire roared to the north; we would learn of its devastation later that night.

The four of us set out to see the countryside, taste new wines, splurge on delicious food, and enjoy a break.  We set off with lofty goals and we not disappointed.  The air-filled with smoke which became a diffuser for the light the remainder of the trip.  The soft yellow sunlight filtered by smoke.  Ash fell on our car overnight.

Todd and Janet have been friends for years.  They live down our road and are volunteers for the Hoback Fire Station.  I fondly refer to Janet as my "loud mouthed obnoxious Italian friend."   I heard rumors that many in the fire department were surprised we were vacationing together.  They predicted a very good experience or a very bad one, knowing the personalities of each of us.  It was very good, indeed!!  From Thursday mid morning to Sunday mid morning, we put 450 plus miles on our rental car and enjoyed so many sites in wine country.  We met a really cool man named Kent.  Found a new favorite wine label.  Played game after game of Pitch (Todd and I being the distinct winners!).  Saw a bobcat run across the road in front of our car.  Made a trip to the coast to choke on the smoke and marvel at the disappearance of the sun long before sunset into that thick layer of smoke.  We howled at a pack of wolves in someone's front yard.  Only in California.

Did you know the airport by Santa Rosa is named after Charles M. Schwartz?  Janet is a huge Charlie Brown fan.  As we rolled south through Santa Rosa, we discovered there is a  Charles Schulz Museum which went on the "Next Time" list promptly!

We walked down rows of rotting grapes, smelling sweet and grape juice-like.  Fruit flies buzzed about the browning, dehydrating orbs.  Why would one leave grapes on the vine, we pondered, as we picked them and ate them!  Later, we learned 2018 was an exceptional harvest.  There are only so many vats to make wine in and if one grew more grapes than one sold and could not find a buyer for these grapes, well, that farmer would most likely leave them on the vine.  Oh, the jam I could make!!

Here are some images of a great trip!  I was dubious about what seemed like such a short trip, but it was just right.  We all were kind of glad to get out of there before more fires got on the ground.  It is dry and windy in California.  This will be a long, hard week there and hopefully the weekend rains will come through for the tired crews.