Only In Wyoming

A snippet from today's event report from Grand Teton National Park.  

Do you know what a mother bison tells her little baby boy when it comes time to leave home??

Bi-son!!!

Save $$ Today

Did I get you thinking about an Insta Pot?  On sale - just today - at Amazon.  You'll save $30!  Check it out at IP On Sale  If you want to support a great online IP site, go to Check out this IP Site and buy through their site. 

Mike is packing to head home and be with his mother.  It will be good for the whole family to be together during this health-challenging time.  I'm sure having family surrounding her bedside will be uplifting for Janet.  He leaves tomorrow.  The dogs, cat, fish, chickens, and horses will be under my watch for the next week. 

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!  

Getting to Work for Labor Day Weekend!

Done with work tomorrow at noon.  Heading south.  Improvements thus far to the Franch home include; a giant mirror (48 x 80"), a bed frame for the free king size bed mattress and springs, a dining room set with 3/4" round glass table. 

Saturday will be the apex of activities.  Jim and Jess  and kids are coming Saturday.  Coralia and her kids too.  Maybe Todd and Janet!  We'll have a pile of people.  For those of you not connected, if you want the user name and password to our camera viewing the scene out the front door, just let me know!  It is really cool to see the horses and mules walk by - live time!!  There should be plenty of activity come this weekend...

I may disc.  I may drive the tractor with the accumulator.  I may cook.  I will drink!  And I will celebrate this new and wonderful place!! 

First Crop!

As I write, Mike is running his swather back and forth, round and round, the field of first year alfalfa.  He sent me this shot from the cab.

 

 

This is a big day on the franch!  Yesterday, friend Tom made a visit and helped fix all the machinery.  Thank you Tom!!  With the acquisition of this farm equipment, farming is going to be 75% mechanic and 25% farming for a while!!

 

It is hot outside (the cab has no air conditioning....) and dry and perfect for cutting hay! 

 

He must be roasting in that cab! 

 

I am on duty and stuck in Teton County.  How I wish I was watching this show!! 

You Can't Make This Stuff Up!!

The title of this blog is a phrase we often use in emergency services when things happen that are just hard to believe!  This report, just read off the state-wide news, made me laugh.  I hope you will laugh too!  

Read this story by clicking on the text You Can't Make This Up!  I can totally imagine this happening!

Yesterday was wonderful.  The day ended with Brahm's Violin Concerto; sweet notes swirling around my tired head as I cooked another meal - you guessed it! - in my Insta Pot!  Cooking is "flow" for me.  All the worries of the day are chopped up in the onions, grated finely in the garlic, and sauteed to a crispy brown in the burger.  Prior to dinner, I got in a nice walk, albeit, a hot one.  Took off early from work and got fairly caught up with the work which had accumulated while we awaited Totality.  

From my greenhouse, pictures of pride!  This was a better-than-last-year for tomato growing.  I can smell the bacon cooking.....!!

Eclipse Diaries, The Day After

Magic.

This is the best word to describe how it was.  Totality was magic.  Watching the light change as the moon eased its way over the sun's path, seeing the sun whittle to a sliver, and then - totality.  There is nothing like it.  An eclipse is neat.  Totality is magic.

We got out lawn chairs and eclipse glasses.  A flock of four sandhill cranes flew over, squawking their gravely vibrato.  Minutes later, three elk - including a yearling from this year - crossed the highway just to our east viewing point.  The darkening of the sun had just begun.

Yellows changed to silvers as time ticked on.  Shadows became sharp-edged and the dried flowers standing a foot off the ground looked 3-D.  The radios and pagers were hushed as everyone had settled in for the show.  Cars and people were everywhere they could be under this umbrella of totality.  The park was packed.

An early morning kidney stoned called one ambulance into service.  They were able to return in plenty of time.  There would be no county-wide calls for fire or ems until far after the 11:36 totality.  Thank you everyone.  Thank you all so very much.

A firefighter gave up looking through his telescope to make some pictures happen.  I wanted to get an image showing how emergency services were ready during this magical event.  Three firefighters jumped into their gear, rolled the engine up into the parking lot, and charged the master stream for this unique image.  The photo went viral, locally at least.  I spent most of totality (we had a bit less than 2 minutes in our north location) adjusting shutter speed and f-stops in hopes to get one good image.

Mercury popped up in the darkened sky.  The light was very similar to that just at dawn, although the horizon was bright all the way around - north, south, east, and west.  Despite being completely blocked by the moon, the amount of light from the sun was surprising.  As I worked through various shutter speeds, to expose for the engine and firefighters, my lens accumulated the sun's light.  The dark pin hole shows the eclipse.  It is hard to be prepared for photographing an eclipse!!

Here, a series of images from the brief two minutes of totality.  Two minutes and a memory of a lifetime!!

Interesting image, but not what I was looking for!! 

Thank you Lieutenant Preuss and Lamoureux and Firefighter Schweitzer for giving up your Totality Time so we could have this image! 

Here, a local news reporter mixes up his fire stations!!  This was not taken in Hoback and the firefighters from Station 4, I am sure, are not pleased.  Still, nice to give a shout-out to many who were ready to answer the call the day the moon passed the sun's path.

Standing By article, click on words to read.

Eclipse at Station 4!!!!

Very Cool!!

Eclipse Diaries, The Big Day

Stationed up north and briefed up for the morning.  We standby and hope there are no emergencies to distract us from the event!!  Here is a webcam of the sun as seen here in the Tetons.  Watch the Eclipse!

Eclipse Diaries, Day Five

We prepared for a lion.  So far, kittens are all that have shown up.

Another quiet stretch of time with minimal events leads all of our organizations to consider ramping down.  A tough decision for leaders.  We all know the switch could still get switched on.  There is risk to sending folks home.

This morning's pre-briefing starts at 0630.  Ugh.  In order to get in some hot tub time, shower, and coffee, the alarm clock breaks into my deep sleep at 0500.  The hot tub lid flops open, breaking the morning's hushed silence.  Orion sits on the eastern horizon and Pleiaides bunches its triangle formation just above.  Clouds creep across the darkened sky.  A hummingbird zips by on its way to the feeder; early riser too.  Mike and I soak and quietly talk about the day ahead.  Shared moments are few for this couple during these long days of summer.

My crew today is on the west bank of the valley.  I load up their breakfast and lunch bags and journey over the Snake River; the official dividing line of the valley floor.  Somewhat like the Mason-Dixon line, crossing the river takes one to the high-end side of the valley.  The line's divider is well-known amongst locals.  The crew's briefing format is relaxed.  They chatter, all over the place on topic selection; I let them wander about in their conversation before directing a more formal overview.  An hour later we finish and I head out to get a glimpse of Teton Village.  Driving through the residential areas, every driveway has a car.  Cars are parked along roads.  This place is filled up.  There are bikers, runners, walkers, and para-gliders dropping from the sky.  Orange cones are every where; fluorescent predictors of a road to be closed tomorrow.

Traffic on the main road is not bad and I easily enter my lane without delay.  A drive south to the town of Wilson.  There are people out the door and lined up for breakfast at the famous Nora's Fish Creek Inn.  Their huevos rancheros dish, topped in homemade green chili sauce, is the best.  I want to tell them their wait is well spent.  Roll up that warm flour tortilla, dip it in that hot sauce and grab a mouth full of over-easy eggs and you will understand why the wait was worth the time!

Settled in at the desk at Fire Station 2, I join a conference call arranged by the Incident Commander.  We are briefed on the weather for today - low humidity and stronger winds will contribute to wildland fire behaviors, should we get a fire.  Grand Teton Park is opening a section of road from the main highway to the town of Kelly at 0500.  One way traffic with parking adjacent could be a very popular ticket for Eclipse watchers.  A traffic jam is anticipated.  The road is directly below the path of totality.  Had I not taken my oath years ago and be free to do what I wanted to do for the day, I think I'd get in line.  It will be a great place to be and a 5 mile tailgate party!! I'd throw the grill in the back of the pickup and pack the fixings for bloody mary's with eggs and bacon!  Or maybe I'd be in the hills on my mule....

Instead, I will leave Hoback at 0430 to try to make the 47 mile drive north and get to Moran Fire Station 4 by 0700.

Here is what we are hoping for tomorrow.  It is going to be an amazing experience.  I love how the weather station got this pre-view made for us!  Check it out at What It Is Like To Watch a Total Eclipse 

We wait.  We wonder.  The anticipation of the thing has us collectively holding our breath.  Worry, concern, some fear, and a whole lot of excitement continues to build!

Eclipse Diaries, Day Four

Today, on duty as a second Deputy Branch Director, personal life keeps brushing into the Eclipse work.  Nothing is happening.  There have been no calls, no fires, no nothing.  Being somewhat down the chain of command in this position, it is easy to run off to get a battery in my watch changed, take the 13 ears of sweet corn grabbed from the Farmer's Market down to the fridg in Hoback, and set down at my work desk and make this entry.  Too bad the Re-Store is closed today!  Nothing is happening.

We have pretty much planned for the end of the world on this one!  The Emergency Operations Center is running full force with key positions occupied.  There are easily a thousand people working to ensure this is a safe event across the county.  The forest service ordered crews in from Grand Canyon.  The local police have officers from all over the state.  We have super-staffed for when all hell breaks out.

And nothing is happening.

Of course, we all wish for a Y2K event.  This would certainly be the best outcome.

So, since nothing is happening, I will show you my blue ribbon garlic crop of 2017.  I am very pleased!  The addition of a thick layer of horse manure might have just been what turned this crop into the big clove harvest.  Every one of the 48 heads is beautiful!  Looking forward to doubling my crop next year given a farm to plant them on.....

Eclipse Diaries, Day Three

How does the man on the moon cut his hair?  E-clipse-it!!!

I took the day off from the eclipse yesterday.  Mike and I made out way down south to celebrate a special day.  Almost to the day, three months ago, we bought the place and yesterday, we sat on the font porch of the big house for the first time.

A whole mess of things have happened in the last three months. Four tons of garbage have been hauled to the dump (with at least another ton or so to go),  a new septic tank installed, a field of alfalfa planted, irrigation pipe stepping its way down the field watering the hungry plants (with Mike's help, of course), new floors on the main floor of white house along with cove heat, Nest alarms, new paint, new light fixtures, upgrades on the dishwasher and refrigerator, new windows where old had lost their seal, new bathroom sink top, and all the while, working on weed mitigation, lawn maintenance, and brush removal.  The congratulations go out to Mike.  He has been working like crazy and although there is still much to do, about a year's worth of work got done in 3 months!  Next up - the hay needs cut and the utility room needs a new floor.  No rest for the weary.


We brushed up to the topic on a back road drive to Thayne.  Marked in glowing yellow signs was the word - painted in hot pink paint - ECLIPSE CAMPING.  The signs directed campers to a large field for eastern viewing.  Everyone is trying to make a buck off the event.

The evening ended in Hoback with a Insta Pot of chili.  Turned out very good, if I might say so myself!  Followed this recipe at Darn Good Chili  The recipe says you can put non-soaked beans in and cook, but they were a bit crunchy so I'll soak them next time.

The  humming birds are making their last visits to the feeders.  We make the mix strong with sugar as they prepare for their southern migration.  Sandhill cranes are heard sqaulking in the surrounding fields getting ready for their flights south.  It was, indeed, a ten minute summer this year.