Thursday's Thoughts...

As soon as we arrived on top of Cyclone Pass, put down our helmets and lunch bags, Mr. Chipmunk showed up.

I thought, "Oh, he's a cute little guy."
He thought, "I'm irresistible!"
I thought, "I bet I can get a picture."
He thought, "More wilderness tourists!  Take all the pictures you want.  I know you've got some food here somewhere."
I thought, "Hey, you're not very shy or very scared of us."
He thought, "No food in the helmet. It must be in this other bag.  Oh yeah, here it is."
I thought, "Come on little guy, move on."
He thought, "Come on gal, share some of this buffet.  See how cute I am?"
I thought, "Hey buddy, it's pretty obvious others have fed you, but I'm not going to, so move along."
He thought, "If I chew through this bag, lunch will be mine!!"
I thought, "Hey, quite that!...shooooo!" 

Over the weekend...

I agreed to sing the National Anthem (in a quartet) for the 5K Parade Day event on Saturday.  I DID NOT, however, realize I would be singing at 6:45 AM.  That was an EARLY morning for moi.  But it was for a great cause, so it was worth it.

Before that request came in, three friends and I had made plans to ride to the top of Cyclone Pass on our 4-wheelers.  This would be my third trip. (I wrote about it last summer- Labor Day weekend.)  Two of the four had not made this ride, and we wanted them to see/experience it.  So later that same morning, we headed for the mountains.

Brett and Marlene were riding in their side-by-side ATV, and about 3 miles up the trail, it overheated.  Dang!  This is the second time/trip this has happened.  Brett thought the problem was fixed... evidently not.  Unfortunately, they felt it best/wise to just turn around and go home.  What a disappointment.  So then, the next decision was if Julie and I would go ahead and make the trek.  Well, after considering all the options, we decided to go on ahead and give it a try.  Once we got to "the chutes," if Julie thought it was too rough, we'd turn it around.  Or if one of us got wedged in somewhere, we could always ride out on the other machine.  So, we decided to go for it.

Here's a little reminder of the trail of boulders once you get to "the chutes."  It is stepper than it looks in the picture, and it's a slow, bouncy ride!  You have to carefully pick your way through the sea of boulders and sharp rocks. 

The Chutes is a 3-mile section and took us an hour.

Looking back at what we just rode through!!

But we made it to the top!!  We took pictures, ate lunch, and thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of the panoramic view.  The elevation is close to 10,000 ft.  The wind was blowing, so we were hoping we could hold the cameras steady.

Shoshone Lake and the Wind River Range

Oh yeah, and then we had to bounce back down... a 2 hour trip back to the pick-up. We were tired, but happy,  puppies at the end of the day.

A desert garden...

Let's check out the Russian Sage.  These two plants are starting to look mature for the first time.  I think this is my 3rd season.  The lavender spiky blossoms are out, and the bees are loving them.  I've never seen such huge bees going after the sweet nectar.  Wonder where they came from.

Spring Forward Socks

Yahoo!  The Spring Forward Socks are finally FINISHED!  They are drying. 

Thursday's Thoughts

I attended another concert on the library lawn last night.  The performers were the same folks from two weeks ago (no new pictures), but they played an entirely different set of songs. 

One song that Ben sang was one I had never heard before.  The tune is titled,"The River Knows Your Name" and was written by John Hiatt.  It's a beautiful song...and Ben delivered the lyrics beautifully.  After I got home, I had to look it up on-line, get a copy of the lyrics and guitar chords.  I also listened to a You-Tube recording of John Hiatt singing this song, which he wrote...but I'm not too impressed with his singing voice and delivery.  Nevertheless, if you listen to it, you get the idea.  When this piece is sung with a deep, lyrical voice... it's memorable!  Last night's crowd loved this piece.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp7iz2RZ80o

Here are the lyrics:

Oh the river knows your name
and your tears falling like the rain
all around you suffering and pain
Oh the river knows your name

And the river hears you cry
As the lightning cracks the open sky
As your Momma sings a lullaby
Oh the river she knows why

Let the river wash you down
Beneath the surface with a rushing sound
Like a freight train passing through a town
Let the river wash you down

Let the river take away
All the words what you and I could never say
In the silence Darling let us pray
Let the river take it all away

Oh the river knows your name
From the Brazos to the Wabash to the Seine
No two journeys are ever quite the same
But the river knows you name,
Oh, the river knows your name

One can was not enough...

I discovered that one can/gallon of Superdeck was not enough to treat the deck.  So, yesterday I was able to pick up another can...and as soon as it cools down a few degrees, I'll finish the job.  It's going to get mighty close to 100 degrees today...so they predict.  And I didn't get up before the crack of dawn to work in the cool of the day...so the job awaits.

With all the construction activity going on around here, I did not see my little wildlife buddies - the rabbits and lizards.  Then...finally, they both showed up.  The lizard was really wondering what the heck happened to his old haunts.  The rabbit  seems pretty content...nibbling on greens, with no one bothering him or making a bunch of noise. 

They don't seem bothered a bit by the heat... just hide from it and relax.  Another day in paradise?

Summer artists

The second annual Chalk the Walk event at the library was a tremendous success.  More artists. More admirers.  More folks listening to the free live music too. 

One of the gals in our knitting guild won 1st prize with her chalk painting of an Indian Paint Brush.  Yahoo!!  Way to go, Rachel!

Here's another one of my favorites, a chalk drawing of a Self Portrait by Vincent Van Gogh,

Thursday's therapy...

Live in the moment... be grateful... and enjoy the beauty of

green fields in the valley - framed by the sage of desert plains.

And the deck is stacked...

Here's the rickety deck - a "before" shot.

The tear-down is in progress.  Oh yeah, and I had to give the juniper a major trim.

And here's the new wrap-around deck - an "after" shot.  Huge improvement.

The guys did a great job.  I'm so thrilled.  Within the next few days I'm going to treat the wood...that ought to keep me out of trouble.

Tear out the old...pour in the new

I've been waiting...waiting...waiting...and the crew finally arrived!  They tore out the wood porches and walkways. 

And poured cement!  These guys are amazing.  Their work is perfection. 

I'm lovin' it!!

Music of the night...

Another evening concert, on the library's lawn this time, entertained about 50 music lovers sitting in their lawn chairs.   The featured entertainer was Erica Flom on fiddle; she is an outstanding artist who has won many titles in fiddle contests in this region.  She asked Ben Brown to accompany her (at the last minute), and they did very well together, not having had the opportunity to rehearse.  Ah, the fantastic abilities of  accomplished musicians!  It was delightful, and the audience was very appreciative of their performance.

I suppose you heard on the news that we could get a glimpse of the Super Moon over the weekend.  I don't know if anyone has written a "Super Moon" song, but I think an opportunity is there for the taking.  The Saturday evening view was awesome. 

Another of Nature's backdrops...

Tuesday night... I got home from Knit Night with the gals just in time to snap another of Mother Nature's glorious backdrops at sunset. How about that pink lining on the blue-grey clouds?

Music in the park...

Kudos to the CWC Community Band musicians for another summer season of "Hot Notes, Cool Nights" on Monday evenings.  I look forward to every concert!!  Jason's selections and the band's musicianship and musicality are wonderful artistic gifts to the community!  Great job!!

The featured guest artists: The Jeff Troxel Trio.  All three are master musicians.  Awesome.  They make fast finger-work look effortless.   I'm so glad they were part of this summer's line-up! 

Western Gun Blazin' Sunsets...

No doubt about it, I've discovered our summer sunsets are the best.  Within the last year, I've been watching the skies like never before.  What drama the summer skies put on the stage! I almost missed this show... rushing out of the house, barefoot, to capture shots of the final moments of sunshine on the horizon last Saturday night.

Getting together over the 4th...

Getting ready for company...  can be a workout! 

Mow down the weeds, mow the grass, get a little ahead on the watering, get the beds made up, stock the kitchen (although my bro usually brings a variety of foods he'll be cooking on the grill), and clean the house.  It's so nice when it's done...  what else can you say?  The family is coming...

Then, we planned three days of activities.  Day one: a 4-wheeler ride to the top of Indian Ridge.  Day two: the boys go fishing, the girls relax and chat, and we all go to the fireworks at dusk.  Day three: go to the lake, water ski, ride the jet ski, and eat my brother's famous grilled shrimp and steaks.  Soooo good.

Day one:  This is the only day I made a point to bring my camera.  We have never been able to ride Indian Ridge this early in the season.  One of the big treats of getting up there (about 9,000 ft. in elevation) this early in the summer is that the spring flowers are blooming.  We were pleasantly shocked at the abundance of beautiful flowers growing along the trail.  Some were fragrant. Sniff, sniff....awww.   I stopped several times to get a photo. 

It make look kind of dry, but it's the intensity of the sun in these pictures that wash out the color.  There was still a lot of moisture in the ground, and it did not feel as dry as it does later in July when we usually make this trek.  The vegetation was lush and beautiful for this part of the country.

The mountain peaks in the Absarokas create an awesome panorama.

We only hit a couple bad spots, this being one of them; a huge snow bank covered the trail, so we had to skirt it...in the mud.  It wasn't so bad for those of us on 4 wheels....but a different story for those on 2.        My brother termed it a "controlled slide." A lot of mud and standing water awaited us at the bottom.  We had to choose a different route to climb the hill on the return trip.

 

                                                                         Lunch break.

Grandiose views from the trail.

 

We had some smoky haze blowing in throughout the county, and I saw on the internet that it was smoke from fires in Canada!!  I had assumed it was from fires in the southwest.  Nevertheless, it was a warm, beautiful day...perfect for this ride in the high country!