Snow-ma-geddon!

"It's puking snow!" Mike exclaimed.  He wasn't that thrilled, relocating the white stuff which refused to quit coming.  So it seems, Freedom was the Eye of this Storm.  By the time it finished late this morning, piles of snow two feet high balanced atop fence posts, weighted down roof tops, and blanketed the fields.  A cold front pushed out the clouds around noon and revealed winter in its finest glory!  Now for the bitter cold of January; it is about to arrive.  

Here are some fun winter images.  

November 2022  

December 2022

January 2023

A ski with the dogs this afternoon.  The fields are now so deep, even Rooster is sinking in!  Check out the video at the bottom! 

Our Winter Home

All Things are Piled High - or Buried!

The Barn Quilt

Scenes from our Ski up Tin Cup Junction Road

The Garden Entrance

Gate into the Horse Pasture

Rooster in the Snow! 

A Neat Tool

Our bee club purchased a FLIR, Forward Looking Infared camera, to do just what you see in this picture.  When it arrived, it was just like Christmas!!  I felt like a kid who had opened a gift and just HAD to go use it! With a short charge of the battery, I loaded up the app, and that was it!  Ready to use!!  Technology is incredible!!  These cameras used to cost over $10k!!  Clearly useful for firefighters to find heat, our Hoback station was first in the county to get one.  It was black and white; there was no color rendition at that time.  This tiny camera hooks into an iPhone and displays on the screen.  

So, off I went into the dusky twilight and looked at my hives.  Hot spots means bees are still alive.  The hot spots are the whitest.  We will allow our members to use this tool for a week so they can get a sense of 1) if their bees are still alive 2) where the bees are located within the hive, and 3) do whatever else they think will be fun!!  Of course, you knew I would take a FLIR of Rooster, right??!!  

Here are my Weaver bees.  The hive sits out in the field, down the fence row a bit less than a half mile from the house.  The bottom darker area is where an insulation surround sits.  These are my best bees and they are still alive.  I have no high hopes; this has been a hard, hard winter.  

This is Rooster on the hillside!  He is the white spot in the dark, cold snow.  The area above are pine trees, showing some heat they have retained from the day.  

And Rooster again, because he is a ROCK STAR!!  Looking good in FLIR, buddy!! 

It's Been a Whirl Wind!

New Idaho Citizens!!

Yes, Mike and I have made the big change to becoming Idaho residents!!  The first step was to change our driver's license which, in Idaho, one is required to take the written driving test!  Really????!!  Really!  We studied, reading aloud to each other traveling to Cody to visit Seth, Alden, & Orley for Christmas.  It is a good thing to study.  We know of more than one person who failed because they did not study.  It's a bit of a drive from our house to Soda Springs, ID and we only wanted to make that drive once.  We passed. 

This picture was taken on a celebration xcountry ski afterwards in Idaho!  Yes, the sun was very bright!! 

More smiles!!  This photo, taken on a wonderful Christmas day walk.  Alden in the green jacket and sister Orly in the black jacket.  Seth stayed behind.  He does not walk unless he has to.  The day before we arrived, the temperature sunk to -40F.  This day, it was 40F.  Crazy. 

Two inspirations from the White Girls' amazing Christmas dinner!  Prime rib cooked sous vide (yes, I now have one!) and a pumpkin stuffed with cheese and sourdough bread and mushrooms.  We ate well, we ate well!  The liver pate was an inspiration too!

Here is my rendition of a stuffed pumpkin.  I used sausage, mushrooms, sourdough bread cubes, guyre cheese, and wild rice as stuffing.  Highly recommend this effort!! 

Meanwhile on the ranch, we have hit the jackpot!!  Our hens are laying eggs which suddenly have become in great demand!  I bet kids aren't egging peoples' houses anymore!!  22 of these orbs are incubating in friend Stephanie's incubator and daughter Amilia impatiently watches over them, by the hour, I'm sure!  We plan to keep that incubator working this spring! 

And one final note on how great it has been to have a dog who needs a daily walk.  Rooster drives me to get outside.  I am happier and healthier and so so in love with this giant neanderthal-headed beast.  So much joy, so much joy!!  

I hope you too have had this wonderful of a start to your year!!  Happy 2023!

 

 

It's a Wonderful Life

I hope you have made it your tradition too.  To share a nice meal, turn the lights down, que up the old, black and white version, and watch, again, It's a Wonderful Life.  

We kept our annual tradition and did just this tonight.  What a great movie.  Think of all the lives you have touched over the last year.  There are so many things that you probably don't even realize which have made a difference in someone else's life.  

I think of a recent suicide.  Heart wrenching for those left behind.  I wish Clarence the Angel would have been around to show him all the people he touched.  All of his generosity and giving.  And now, he is gone.  

Mike and I and the kids went for a beautiful winter walk this afternoon.  The sun came out, it felt warm enough to take off the rabbit hat and tie the top layer around my waist.  The sun, far to the south, was shrouded in a halo of frosty ice crystals. Elk tracks zig zag and criss cross helter skelter through the flat white snow laden fields.  We walk a mile, then turn up a boot path I have been beating down since the snow started to fall.  It's an incline and I drop my coat and hat alongside the trail to be picked up coming back down.  We pause at the top of the hill, breathing hard, taking in the vast expansive rural scene.  It is quiet.  No birds.  No elk on the hillsides.  Just the sound of the dogs leaping through the deep snow and the crunch of our boots under foot.  The air is fresh and clean and smells like snow.  Shadows lengthen and we turn back. 

Rooster rabbit-jumps into the deep snow, his nose guiding his body to the next smell.  He buries his head deep looking for the mouse that surely was just there.  Ruby tries to keep up, her short legs never touching the ground in the open field.  They romp and play and have the best of time together.  So much joy the dogs show us.  Watch closely and learn. 

There is no tree, there are no decorations and there are just a few wrapped gifts here in this warm and wonderful country home.  We are surrounded by gifts; a vast view to the south out our windows, wood to burn in the fireplace and heat up our mornings, an espresso machine so generously given to us by friends who should know how much they touched us with this generous gift, two loving dogs, a friend and partner to share the days with, good food and good spirits, family and friends who reach out and check in, making it oh so very clear how loved we are in this life we share all together.  

It is, indeed, a Wonderful Life. 

A Site for the Bee Club

 We did it!!  We have a live, working website for High Mountain Pollinators & Bees!!  Pretty stoked!!  Check it out HERE.  

California was good.  Rainy, cold, but there was much good wine to taste.  Pictures later.  

The gal who watched our house while we were away scored hundreds of points when she sent me this awesome image of Rooster!!!  This dog LOVES snow!! 

Thanksgiving Day

The sense of unwinding can be felt.  A giant nation-wide exhalation into a long weekend of food, family, and probably a football game or two.  There is a genuine thankfulness to Thanksgiving, even when you are retired. 

We have made some great friends here in Star Valley and we are thankful for all these new, fun people in our lives.  They, however, all have family or left town.  We celebrate this day of thanksgiving with each other.  Two good friends, walking through life side by side, sitting in our home on our farm feeling incredibly thankful this year. 

Mike smoked a turkey on the Traeger grill which was simply stunning!  It looked delicious, it smelled amazing, and was the juiciest most tender turkey either of us have ever sunk our teeth into.  Spot on, job well done, Chef Trumbower!!  

We kept it simple.  Turkey, some just made mashed potatoes, gravy from the giblets, and a hot sour cherry pie.  While we sipped wine and enjoyed the somewhat simple Thanksgiving me, we ticked off all the dishes missing and were happy for their absence!  And we took inventory of all the many blessings in our lives. 

I hope your Thanksgiving was equally as refreshing and relaxing, delicious and delightful!  

One More Step

 This was a very good class!  One more class and I will be a Master Beekeeper! 

People Pestering Me

People!  People!  I'm trying to retire here!!  Just kidding and thank you loyal fans for pointing out the lack of postings.  I mean really, the last post has Rooster in green grass on a warm fall day.  It was -9F this morning and snow now covers that grass. 

Winter came serious-like to this area.  The bees cluster tight in their wooden boxes, shivering to stay warm.  Shivering, shivering all day, all night long.  The first day it's decent outside, they will fly to poop.  That's a long time to hold your poo.   

The elk have been a daily event in our field and a daily worry after they knocked down a section of fence and the mules figured out where, got out, ran down the road, and visited with our neighbor's herd.   The elk come down from the mountain in the evening and head to our neighbor's saifoin field.  Then, they string a line of steamy bodies toward the mountain in the morning.  We soak in the hot tub listening to their calls.  This morning's snow plow activity messed the world up for them.  There was a moment when the herd - 200? 300? elk - was running our direction.  I had the binoculars on them.  A herd of elk running our way, steam encasing the whole lot of them.  Antlers above the dense pod of anxious bodies.  A scene I shall not forget soon.  The beauty of it.  They finally got a break and ascended into the dark forest.  

We have been loving "Somebody Feed Phil" on Netflix!  This guy steals my heart with his love for food, for people, for places, and for his parents.  It's a cool show.  Five stars!

I won something today.  Yes, remarkable!!  Bought some raffle tickets, as I do every year, to benefit a fresh food entity in Jackson.  I won a $958 package!!  A turkey (like one that was raised on a farm), a magnum of Jackson Hole wine, and a carving set made by a very exclusive and expensive knife place in Jackson.  Check them out!  We have absolutely NOTHING to do on Thanksgiving (so so sad) as it seems our entire resume of friends all have family.  We miss you Family, so far away.  

New in the kitchen, Swedish cinnamon rolls.  Holy moley, these things are amazing!!  I will be offering them frozen when my Jackson online outlet reopens.  Take the frozen roll out the night before you want it, pop in a 350 oven for 25 minutes, slather on the cream cheese frosting and take that first bite.  Ooooo, a bit of cardamon in the dough, almond meal oozes with cinnamon sugar for the filling, all sweetly braided into a lovely thing.  Before you come and visit, make sure I have some ready! 

Soon it will be time for our annual tradition of watching "It's A Wonderful Life".  We will turn down the lights, turn on the old version, and watch it knowing exactly what comes next.  And that would be us wiping tears away.  Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.  What a great tradition, what a great show.  

Here are some photos that tie to the above update.  Happy Thanksgiving.  All the many blessings! 

Rooster in the snow

Winter walk

Elk Tracks

Elk in the field

Rolls just out of the oven

Dressed in cream cheese frosting

Hive holding shivering bees! 

For The Love of a Dog

Yesterday.  Warm fall day.  A slight breeze.  A dog who has absolutely stolen my heart.  Rooster.  The Gentle Giant. 

Next year's garlic crop is in the ground.  707 cloves of pungent goodness!! 

Midwest Vacation

 I got to partake in the Omaha Bee Conference on Saturday, after flying from Salt Lake City to Omaha.  This has been a bit of a messed up trip, but I arrived without incident, got my rental car and found my hotel.

Pre-conference, I was invited to join a group of bee people for dinner.  South and west of the city, I drove through brown cornfields, dropped down into the Platte River drainage, flanked by a sandstone bluff to my left and an amazing sunset to my right.  My phone mapping app took me right to the driveway turn, up a narrow steep gravel driveway to a magnificent home perched on the bluff overlooking the shining sunset colored Platte.  It was stunning!  Inside, I was greeted by warm and friendly Midwesterners, bottles of nice wine lined up on the counter while the man who made mead tried to get me to drink his brew.  Not that fond of mead, I declined and found appetizers.  We went around the room with introductions.  I received the award (a unified applause from the crowd) for the person who came the furthest distance.  

The lasagna was pulled from the oven and we settled into places at various rooms of the spacious house.  I sat next to Mike who spoke of queen rearing for the club.  The fireplace chimney sported an amazing quilt, studded with peacocks, designed and created by Pam, the cook, the homeowner, and the very capable and competent woman; albeit, not the warmest of candidates in the room.  

The next day's conference quickly helped me realize this somewhat extravagant adventure was well worth the money and time spent.  The first presentation presented the effort to plant prairie strips in agricultural fields.  CRC benefits included, these strips of grasses and flowers brought pollinators, birds, and foul to the midwestern fields again.  Quite an exciting project.  For those of you who have known me a long time, having planted an acre of prairie in Illinois at Mom's place, this project resonates!!

The day moved on from one amazing speaker to the next culminating with a beekeeper from the Yukon who has a mere 30 frost free days to grow!  His bees don't get much time!  Quite the engineer, we were treated to data, pictures, and tips of keeping bees in very cold climates. 

Sunday was a day of relaxation as I made my way to Lincoln to spend time with my very good bee friends, Sheldon and Courtney.  They were kind and housed me in their Tiny Home, taking the upstairs bed and giving me their downstairs bed.  We all settled in and it was delightful.  A long walk in a park, and a stunning visit to the Sunken Garden filled my camera with images.  

Monday was spent working with Sheldon on a Necroscopy Certification course.  We got a ton done.  My experience with fire investigation helped create a course that will be worthy for others to use.  I camped out at Barnes and Noble for the afternoon and we reunited to eat burritos, drink beer, and talk more about bees!

Today, we shared breakfast and said our goodbyes.  Off to the International Quilt Museum went I for a tour.  Found my artist; Freedy Moran!  A gifted now 92 year old lady making the coolest ever quilts!  Her work grabbed my heart and my desire to give something like this a try!!  Great winter project!! 

Here are some images.  It was a surprisingly great few days in Nebraska!! 

Heart Break

Brene Brown, one of my favorite thinkers/writers, has a new book of words that describe feelings.  She says if you have ever had a dog and it dies, you know the word heartbreak. 

Smoke started getting ill two weeks ago.  First, we thought it was kennel cough but the antibiotics weren't working.  He kind of got better, and then got worse.  This weekend, his white count escalated significantly - despite the antibiotics.  Spots were found on his liver, a tumor was pushing on his gall bladder, and a lymph node on his neck continued to swell. 

The doc, a sweet young gal from somewhere south given her accent, cried saying she wished she could have done something for him.  We all cried.  Mike, me, the doctor, her assistant.  Smoke stands, getting our last love and scratches.  He already has a port from all the care they have been giving.  He goes quietly, laying down, just like he would at home.  A quiet, peaceful death surrounded by loving souls.  

Hearts break for our Smoke Dog.  The most expensive dog we have ever owned thanks to all this vet time trying to get him better.  Oh well.  

Mike digs a deep hole in Freedom.  Where the new greenhouse will go.  Sad day.  Sad sad day. 

Here he is with his buddies, Rooster and Ruby, saying hello to Goldie.  The Hanger Cat. 

Heart break.  When you know that friend - the one who gives you unconditional love, the one who looks up at your eyes with happiness and love, full of expectation of what the day may bring - that friend is gone from our life. 

His collar will join Rusty's, Lucy's, Sally's, and Butch's, hanging to remind us of all those furry friends we have had the joy of spending our lives with. 

And those who are left, Ruby and Rooster, are held close with love.  They fill our hearts and help the sadness ease.  

Extraordinary Moments in an Ordinary Day

 Magical Moments.  Caption Below picture. 

Headstone, Kemmerer Wyoming

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  Horse shoes made into arch.  Lion's Park, Cheyenne, WY

Bringing the sheep down off the mountain.  Tin Cup Pass, WY

Long Live The Bees

Thanks to the help of many friends - some of you who follow this post! - High Mountain Pollinator & Bees is now a proud local non-profit and part of the 2022 Old Bill's Fun Run.   Thanks to many generous donors, this event helping to raise funds for local non-profits, will match donations for groups on the giving list.  

Our group's mission statement is: To provide quality education to beekeepers and promote pollinator habitat.  There are no avenues for formal training in this region and enhancing habitat is always a good thing.  

This is a tax write off, a way to help us get started, and a very good cause!!  Consider making a donation so our little group can grow, we can help beekeepers become more educated, and plant more pollinating plants.  It's a win-win for everyone!!  

Click on this link.  Choose Old Bills, then Conservation & Environment, they enter High as the keyword to search.  It's as easy as pushing the "Simple" button!  If you give us $10, we will get that plus a percentage from the pot!  Last year that $10 was worth $15.70!!  Pretty cool thing!!

We had an observation hive with live bees for people to see at the event.  The Queen was marked with a blue dot, a drone was marked with a red dot, and many workers were marked with a white dot.  Everyone really enjoyed seeing the bees on the comb.  We handed out packets with fringed phacelia seeds so people could go home and plant some pollinators!  It was awesome seeing the positive response at our booth!! 

Here are some photos from the event and a QR code to scan if that is helpful!  Thank you for considering giving up some green for our effort!! 

QR Code for Old Bill's Donation Site