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!