Powell, WY

Strange day for me.

When I got to work this morning I learned that Molly's grandmother died over the weekend and that she would not be in today.  Eric is in Missoula, MT throwing a retirement party until Thursday, so I was pretty much "it" for Elections today.

I think that I was actually able to shine today.

This day had more than its fair share of strange questions and people in the wrong office, but everything still got done.

We were invited to another calf branding event on May 12.  This is another one of Jerri's brothers.  He lives in Frannie, and his calves are larger, so they will use the roping method to bring them down.  Also, they use an electric brand on his farm.  Coincidentally, he will be getting married that afternoon and they will have a reception with a pork barbecue.

The Schwan's salesman came today and Jerri bought ice cream cones for the whole office again!

Buddy had another accident during the night.  I got up at 4:30 AM to clean it up.  Bob watched him closely during the day and reports that he had to take him out in the morning and it was a loose wet movement.  During his walk this afternoon he didn't go at all.  Buddy seems to be feeling better.

This evening we had red chili for dinner.  I was pleased to find two issues of Fine Woodworking magazine in with today's mail too!

Tomorrow promises to be more of an adventure, especially is Molly isn't back.  We are expecting a visit from our representative at ES&S (Elections Systems & Software), manufacturer of our voting equipment.  If Mike is in everything will be fine, I guess.

Tomorrow is May Day.  I hope we aren't screaming that before the end of the day.

Seldom a dull moment here!

Sunday

We managed to sleep in until 7:00 AM.  I got up to take Buddy for his morning walk while Bob made tea, bacon, and oatmeal for breakfast.

After breakfast I got a scraper, a screw driver, some white caulking, and a caulk smoother, and began to work on re-caukling the bathroom tub.  It took me over two hours to scrape and pull the dirty mildewy old caulking out.  Applying the clean white new caulk took fifteen minutes.

I pulled the screen frame out of the front storm door with the intention of replacing the screen that was flapping in the breeze.  As I pulled the frame out, the pegs were ejected by their springs and the springs fell down inside the frame!

We went to Ace Hardware to get some metallic screen.  The store did not have the small compression springs needed to fix the pegs, but when we got home I went through my parts bin and found some small springs that came out of ink pens, and they were exactly the right size!

I moved the truck out of the garage so that we would have room to work inside.  I had to add 6 psi to the front driver's side tire.  

TBH nearing completion in our shop.

While Bobby sanded down the outside of the roof frame, I was in the other bay ripping the roof gables on the table saw and then cutting the inclined lines out with the jigsaw.  Then I clamped the four gables together and ran them across the jointer to ensure that they were all about the same size.

We glued and screwed the gables down to the roof frame.

I went to the house to get my camera to take a shot and stepped inside to find a big mess.  Buddy had a big accident.   It was on the floor right in front of the door and as it turns out, I stepped right in it too!  He was shaking and scared, but I just sent him to bed and started to clean it up.  Be glad I didn't take pictures!

Using the shampooer, I cleaned up the stains the dog left, and then used the rest of the tank cleaning the dust out of the living room carpet.

We went back out to Aldrich's Hardware to get a 12-foot-long 1x12 pine board to make the bee hive roof out of.  We also got a 12-foot-long galvanized angle that we are going to cover the ridge with.

With the circular saw we cut the 12-foot board into two 54-inch pieces and had a 38-inch scrap.  We intend for the roof to be 52 inches long, but we left a couple of extra inches on to cut off in case of a mistake.  Good thing too - we had a bunch of tear out from this activity.

These boards were about 7/8" thick when we started.  There were scratches on the surface of the boards, and I told Bob I wanted them sanded off.  This would have taken quite a long time and a lot of sand paper to sand off.  We pulled out the thicknesser/planer and set it up on top of the table saw.  I cranked the cutter head down to a hair under 7/8", turned it on, and fed the first board through.

It didn't take anything off on the first pass, so I cranked the head down another 1/16" and sent it through again.  This time it bit into the wood and started showering thin yellow straws of pine out of the back of the machine!

We put both boards through repeatedly planing the top and bottom of each board.  We took the thickness down to 1/2" and all of the surface defects were completely gone.  Bob said, "Well, that was worth the $180 you paid for that!"

I stepped inside to get something, and was confronted with more doggy excrement on the carpet.  I was concerned because there was some bright red blood in some of it.  We came to the conclusion that the bone we gave him to chew on isn't good for him - you could see that most of the poop had bone fragments in it.  So we took the bone from him, and I cleaned up the mess, and shampooed the carpet with the SpotBot.

We took him for another walk around the block since he was pacing.  Two houses down he squatted back in our neighbor's front yard.  The insult came out of him with a loud pop!  It was very wet and runny.  As he was doing his business he moaned.  I made him eat a Pepto-Bismol tablet when we got back home.  He obviously doesn't feel very well.

After a dinner of frozen pizza and bread sticks, I sat down to read my Facebook pages.  I found a new friend request from one of the people next door whom we haven't met.  This was kind of wierd.  As far as we can tell, he ran my license plate number at work since he's a dispatcher for the Park County Sheriff's Department as well as an EMT.  I declined the friend request.

This was a productive weekend.  Today turned out sunnier and warmer than yesterday.  I am tired and sore.

Saturday

Bob on irrigation canal bridge.

We slept in until 7:00 AM.  The dog crying made us get up and take him for his walk.

After the morning walk, we put on pants and long-sleeved shirts and headed up to Pepe's Mexican Restaurant for breakfast.  Once we had breakfast out of the way, we went to Aldrich's hardware and got some hardware cloth and some stain samples for our hive project.

Heading out on Lane 9 we went west to County Road 18 (WY 294), and drove out to Clark to inspect our property.  Today was an overcast and windy day, so we did not stay at Clark for very long.  We headed by down Road 18 to Lane 9 and then went to Ralston.

Buddy enjoying his new bone.

In Ralston we visited the Ralston Reservoir.  This body of water used to be part of the regional irrigation network, but it isn't needed for that anymore.  Now it's a wildlife refuge.  They have a shelter where you can watch birds and other wildlife here.  Because it was cold and windy, we only stayed a few minutes.

Back in Powell we spent some time browsing Linton's Big R store.  We picked up a big "Mammoth" bone for Buddy, and some wool socks for Bob.

To our surprise it was after noon when we got home.  We spent the afternoon in the garage working on our top bar hive project.  I cut the 2x4 to length, and using clamps and some off cut scraps, attached the legs to the end panel and drilled carriage bolt holes through.

Top bar hive under construction.

With the legs attached to the hive body, we began to fashion the frame that rests on top of the legs.  This frame will carry the roof.  We got the frame done and then began to sweep up the shop.  We will work on the roof tomorrow.

Again we were surprised to get back in the house and find it was 6:15 PM!  The time just flies!  Such a rainy cold day made it a good day to spend in the garage anyway.

I phoned and talked to Mom for awhile this evening.  Her big news is that Grandma Pat is moving to an assisted living facility.  Making this change requires a lot of running around getting paper work done.

After our phone call I took a good hot shower to get the saw dust off of me, and I am tired and sore - ready for bed!

Powell, WY

Tomato seedlings growing fast!

Yesterday evening I stopped at Bloedorn Lumber and purchased eight 3/8" diameter, 4" long carriage bolts, nuts, and washers, plus two eight-foot 2x4's of white fir.  These will be used to make the legs on our top bar hive project and attach them to the hive end panels. 

I hurried home because it looked like it was going to rain.  It had been cloudy all day, but it was getting even darker.  By the time I got to Powell it was starting to sprinkle.

Bob made a dinner of pork roast with potatoes and carrots in the slow cooker.  It was very good.  He said it had rained several times during the day in Powell, and Buddy got to go out a couple of different times due to the rain.

There was a little cattiness from one of the ladies on the Clerk side today because we made frozen meals for Jerri and her family.  They felt left out and one of them came over with her claws drawn to let us know how she felt about it.  "Well, that was very thoughtful of you guys to make those meals for Jerri.  It's good that you guys are so in tune with everything going on in the office.  We are just so busy on the other side, we can keep up with everything."  I handled her very graciously, but Molly was pissed!

Today I called USAA insurance during my lunch hour and had a Wyoming auto policy started for the truck and had my Florida policy cancelled.  The person on the phone was going to give me a hard time, "Well, you know Sir, I am not supposed to issue a policy unless the vehicle is registered in that state." 

This almost set me off, "Well, now we have a chicken and egg situation because Wyoming requires me to have a Wyoming insurance policy in effect on the vehicle before they let you register!"  He went ahead with the new policy.

New license plate name plates.

My old policy had collision and comprehensive on it for $479.89 for six months.  My new policy will have the same coverage as the old one, but the premium is only $289.98!  If I had elected to do with liability only, it would have been $114.00 for six months.  This news made me very happy.

It was very windy in Cody today, but it did not rain down there.  Bob tells me it rained several times today in Powell.  I see the grass getting tall again already from the rains.  We will probably have to mow again soon.

The forecast is for rain and cooler temperatures all weekend.  There go any plans for outdoor recreation.

This evening we had baked chicken and sweet peas for dinner.

Powell, WY

Top bar hive under construction.

Yesterday evening it clouded up darkly and then the wind really began to gust!  There were tumble weeds rolling down the street!  Then it rained.  A little.  For maybe 20 minutes.  I saw lightning and heard thunder, so it was an honest-to-goodness thunderstorm.

Temps were much cooler after the storm passed.

At work today, Eric put our license plates up over our desks with string.  These are the personalized plates Jerri ordered that have our names on them.  I will try to get a picture of these soon.

We are having a little bit of trouble with the Cody post office returning much of our elections mail.  Molly took the issue up with the USPS Regional Manager for western states.  He said, "You know, with Dale (the Cody post master) being nominated for Postmaster General, and you guys having an election this year, it would be a shame if any of this got out to the public."  I told Molly, "If I were talking to him, I would have told him, 'Look, if absentee ballots don't reach the voters, I WILL be taking this up with the WY Secretary of State and the AG.'  As a matter-of-fact, I think you should call Max Maxwell's  (WY SOS) office right now and let them know about this problem."

During lunch I went to Wal*Mart to get a few ingredients for the mini casseroles we are making for Jerri's family.  This evening we backed a small creamed corn casserole,  two French-style green bean casseroles, and two bacon, mushroom, onion, asparagus, and cheese quiches.

Tomorrow during lunch I will got to the lumber yard and buy two 2"x4" boards and some carriage bolts to fashion legs for the top bar hive.  With the legs done we can start working on a roof.

Cat Herding

Sometimes my life at work is just like this - trying to get everyone moving in the same direction.  Ungrateful voters phoning in to scream at you about things that aren't even very important.  Uggh.

Sunday

This morning we slept in a little bit.  It was fully light when we got up.  We only got up because of the dog crying to go outside.  We harnessed the dog up and Bob took him for a walk while I prepared breakfast.

Bob scrubbing down our shower doors.

We enjoyed cheese omelets with black olives and salsa, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and coffee for breakfast.

After breakfast I ran the vacuum cleaner.  Then I pulled the shower doors out of their track and took them outside for cleaning.  Bob scrubbed down the doors while I cleaned out the track with a toothbrush.  We left the doors to dry outside in the sunshine.

The day was sunny and bright.  I think temperatures were in the high 70's today.

We went to the garage and continued working on the top bar beehive.  Bob sanded all of the top bars while I prepared the jig needed for assembly.  Later we went to Ace Hardware where we got some boiled linseed oil, paint brushes, garden row labels, and some round corks.  We did the drive thru at Taco Johns and brought lunch back to the garage.

Top bar hive under construction.

Bob continued sanding while I set up the router table to cut a 1/8" x 1/4" groove down the center of each bar.  This groove will receive 1/4" x 1/4" dowel that we will glue in.  Beeswax will be rubbed onto the bottom of the dowel to encourage the bees to build comb there.

Later we carried the shower doors back inside and hung them on the tub.  Then we went to the grocery store to get some milk, half and half, a skirt steak, some canned beans, two bags of brown sugar, some canned yams, and some canned peaches.

Our neighbors returned from their vacation in Arizona and Southern California.  Bob was on his way to the house to go to the bathroom when Johnny, the talkative old man next door, collared him.  Bob politely asked how their vacation went and it sounds like it was a disaster.  Johnny said that this was his first vacation in 40 years, and he is not taking another one!  

Dinner was simply cold cut sandwiches with tomato and cheese.

I put the dog into the tub and cleaned his ears our.  Also, his feet were very muddy for his walk, so I had to drag him back to the faucet and clean his feet and toes really well.  He almost fell into an irrigation ditch during his walk!  I know that water is cold and the ditch is over his head, so that would have been unpleasant for him.

I checked on my tomato plant seedlings and we now have 21 out of 28 plugs sprouting.  I think 100% of them are going to sprout.

My truck, "The Little Engine That Could" is safely parked in the roundhouse now.  Bob is sipping on his senna tea, we have both been showered, and we are sore and ready for bed.

Tomorrow I will try to go to Ace Hardware in Cody during my lunch to check and see if they have the 1/4" x 1/4" square dowel there.  Also, I will price 1/4" plywood too (for the hive roof).

Saturday

After a breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, coffee, and Cheerios, I got the lawn mower and grass whip out.  I mowed the front and back yards while Bobby trimmed the grass around things standing up and the edges of the sidewalks.

With the lawn care out of the way, we gathered up our used books and went to the Bookstore.  The store gave us $36 in store credit for the books we turned in.  We browsed the shelves and Bob found two hard back books about fishing and one about Secretary of the Treasury, Robert Rubin.  I found a hard back book about trains and steam engines from 1945 that was still in great shape.

Next we headed over to Bloedorn Lumber to get some 12-inch-wide boards to begin the Top Bar Beehive project.  If we purchased cedar, the cost would be $25 per 8-foot board.  If we purchased fir, the cost would be $12 per 8-foot board.  We opted for the soft wood.

On the way home we stopped at Subway to get our lunch.  I got a foot-long sandwich and Bob got a tuna fish salad salad.  I also popped into Blair Supermarket to get a block of mozzarella cheese because Bob wanted to make Caprese Salads with the tomatoes in the fridge.

After lunch I went to the garage and began measuring to cut the follower boards for the inside of the hive.  Bob came out and helped me by holding the boards down while I cut them with the circular saw.  Later we planed the edges down flat and even and then sanded everything.  We also cut the end panels (2) and the sides (2).

I took the truck for a quick run to get it hot and then came back and left it idling in the parking space.  I hooked up our new hose and then sprayed the engine down really thoroughly with Gunk Engine Brite.  After letting this soak in for 5 minutes I rinsed the engine room out and wiped it all down.  I also sprayed the truck body off and rinsed out the bed.

We took the truck for a quick run to the top of The Polecat Bench to dry it off and then we ran it back to the house.

We sliced up three tomatoes and laid them on plates.  We salted the tomatoes, and then sliced up the mozzarella and stacked the slices on top of the tomato slices.  I drizzled olive oil over all of this and then sprinkled pepper and basil on top.  Bob heated up leftover rice pilaf from last night's meal and we ate that for dinner.

After dinner we went back to the garage where we sliced one 12" x 1" x 96" board into pieces 17" x 1" x 1-3/8".  We made 35 bars and these will become the top bars that the bees hang their comb from inside the hive.  We used the table saw and the compound mitre saw for these operations.  We made so much dust!  My nose is full of fine powdery saw dust now!  We will move ahead with some of the assembly tomorrow.

My tomato seedlings are 6 days old today.  Out of 28 plugs planted, I have little plants sprouting from 11.  The picture posted here shows one of the little seedlings.  The black wire goes to the temperature probe next to the rock wool plug.  The temperature probe senses temps in the seed bed and a thermostat turns a heat mat beneath the seed tray on and off to maintain a temperature of 70°F ±2°F.

Cody, WY

I met Molly this morning at Powell Valley Care Center, a long-term nursing facility that is attached to the hospital in Powell. Here we were taken to the Activities Room and residents were brought to us if they were interested in registering to vote. We heard several interesting statements while we worked here...

"I am probably going to die before the election. If I die before the election, what happens to my ballot?" Molly explained to him that he really didn't need to worry about it, but I would have told him, "If you die, we have to give your ballot to a DEMOCRAT. There! Now you have a reason to live!"

A sweet little old lady was agonizing over which political party to select, "Oh, I want to vote for a Democrat, but my late husband will never forgive me if I don't select Republican."

"I am a Republican. I am so conservative, I thought Jesse Helms was a Liberal!"

After two hours at PVCC we stepped across the parking lot and visited The Heartland Assisted Living Center. Everyone was waiting for us in the living room. This facility was very nice. I bet it's very expen$ive to live there.

When we left Heartland, we went back to our cars and Molly said I had 19 minutes to get my lunch. I was supposed to meet her at Rocky Mountain Manor at noon. I went to the house and quickly heated and eated my lunch, and then drove up to the Manor. I parked next to Molly's van and found her eating a hamburger and a salad from McDonald's.

Inside The Manor we found residents sitting down at their lunch. We set up our table and then the Activities Director gave me a microphone and let me explain to the residents what we were doing and how long we would be there.

I think we registered another 30 residents here. Then we headed to Cody to enter the registrations and order the absentee ballots. On the way down to Cody I passed through a rain shower which is kind of rare here in the high desert.

Two hours later it was time to drive back to Powell.

Bob made hot dogs with sauerkraut and cous cous with brown gravy for dinner. He told me that I needed to pick up a bag of Dog Fuel down in Cody soon since Buddy is literally "scraping the bottom of the barrel".

We worked on the spoof that is attached here (read the belly dancing ad carefully), and then we watched the movie, Latter Days, before turning in at 10:15 PM. It was raining when we went to bed.

Tax Day

Today is the last day for filing 2011 Income Tax. Every year the Northwest Rural Water District has the irrigation canals filled with water by Tax Day. The canals are full.

Today Molly and I went to nursing homes to register elderly voters. Our first stop was the Absaroka Assisted Living Facility in Cody. I did not know what to expect since my only experience was nursing homes was when we had Tom and Louise living in Oaktree. This facility is very nice! All of the people still understand everything going on - they just need a little extra help.

Dana, the Activities Director, is a very energetic woman from Palm Beach County, Florida. She coordinated this event for the residents. She said that many of them had been following the primary contest on TV and knew who they wanted to vote for, but could not stand the idea of getting on a bus to go to the polls, or standing in a long line to vote on Election Day. Everyone was very happy that we were making the effort to register and get absentee ballots for these voters.

"Vince and Molly are Elections Officials and they are from the courthouse. They will bring the ballots to you in July and after you vote, they will collect the ballots and take them back to the courthouse in a secure car. I won't be handling this at all."

I mentioned to Molly that we should bring one of the old-style steel ballot boxes with us when we return and let each voter slide their ballot through the slot into the box. That would give the voters more confidence in the system and it would keep the ballots secure until we get them back to the office for scanning.

We took all of the Voter Registration and Change Forms back to the courthouse and let Eric begin entering the info into WyoReg while we quickly ate lunch. Then we headed out to our next outreach location: West Park Hospital Long Term Care.

This facility is inside the hospital and while it did have the "hospital smell", it was well-run and the residents seemed happy. I registered my oldest and youngest voters here. The oldest voter was a woman named "Beatrice" and she was born November 2, 1910. She still knows what's going on, but she can't hear so well. The youngest voter was born in 1946.

We were back in the office around 3:00 PM and then there was plenty of work entering all of the info from the forms into WyoReg and getting absentee ballots ordered.

There was a 20% chance of rain today, and while it was cloudy this morning, I don't think we saw any rain. It cleared up really nice in the afternoon and turned sunny.

This evening Bobby baked steaks for dinner and he made boiled potatoes with salt and butter on them along with some cooked sweet peas.

Tomorrow I will be meeting Molly here in Powell. We have three facilities we are visiting tomorrow: Powell Valley Hospital Nursing Home, The Manor, and The Heartland. We expect to head down to Cody around 2:00 PM.

Sunday

For breakfast we had oatmeal, Canadian bacon, and coffee. Then we picked up our shopping list and headed down to Cody to buy groceries at Wal*Mart.

The weather was very cloudy, windy, and cold. The tops of all of the mountains were up in cloud. As we got closer to Cody it was obvious that it had rained and snowed there.

We shopped for about two hours and got a big heaping cart load of food and some non-food stuff. Some of the non-food items included a 50-foot-long garden hose, Spray-N-Wash refill, dish washer powder, and toilet paper. I just knew the total was way over the $200 we had on the EBT card, but it only came to $177. Subtract the non-food stuff, and we still have $60 left on EBT for later this month!

On the way out of the store we ran into Christine Houze from Wyoming Workforce. I swear she is in that Wal*Mart every time we go in!

For lunch I took the truck through the Arby's drive-thru and we got sandwiches and curly fries. Then we started our drive back to Powell.

First we put the groceries away. Bob left one roasting hen in the sink to be baked this evening for dinner. I had to take the truck up to the gas station and fill the tank ($43.00 gone!), then I put it into the garage when I got back.

During the afternoon I took the Grodan rock wool out of the water it had been soaking in. I broke it into individual cubes and stuffed them into the seedling tray. Using a pencil I enlarged the seed holes and then dropped two or three tomato seeds into each hole. I set the heat mat under the seed bed to 70F, put the plastic green house cover over the seeds, and set the timer on the grow lamp for a 15-hour day. Now I just have to check on it from time-to-time.

Tomato seeds take 7 to 10 days to sprout.

I am still a little sore from the calf wrangling event yesterday. Mostly my right shoulder and collar bone.

Back to the grind stone tomorrow. We will be visiting nursing homes this week to register voters and order absentee ballots.

Calf Wrangling and Branding

I rode with Molly down to Cody to the library where we attended the Park County Democratic Caucus on behalf of the County Clerk Elections Department. Molly was dressed like a "hippy" to make the "liberals" feel like they could trust her (ugghh), and they had her get up and speak for about 5 minutes.

We were done shortly after 11 AM and I rode back to Powell with Eric. At the house I changed out of a jacket and tie into a t-shirt with long-sleeved canvass shirt and blue jeans. Molly joined us a few minutes later and we all piled into Eric's big four-door truck to drive out to Cowley to John Gam's (Jerri's brother) Wyoming LongHorn Ranch to participate in calf wrestling and branding.

By the time we arrived all of the smaller calves were done and we had to get the males processed. The calves are herded into a chute and pulled out one-at-a-time by two people. They wrestle the calve to the ground and immobilize it while an identification tag is clipped into its ear, vaccinations are injected into the shoulder, and the "Flying W" brand and a three-digit number matching the tag and branded into its hide. The stench of burning hair and skin was pretty powerful!

After watching the brands being heated up with a big propane torch, and watching a few of the calves being processed, I jumped in with Roly Hernandez (also from our office) and helped. I got the head end of the animal and when we got him on the ground I held it there by putting my knee on its neck and holding its front leg folded up.

These calves were strong! As the brands were applied they cried out (mooed) and tried really hard to get back up! Once it was over they were very happy to run out of there and rejoin their herd!

Bob got a couple of pictures of me doing this, but as it was cool and a little humid today, he didn't feel that he could do this without hurting himself.

Finally all of the cattle were processed and we all went up to the house to enjoy burgers, potato salad, devilled eggs, baked beans, apple pie, and drinks. A fire was built in a fire pit they had on the patio and later Jerri and Leonard Torczon treated us to guitar and fiddle music.

This was a fun afternoon and a first time experience for us. I think Jerri told everyone she had some folks from "back East" coming today who had never done this! Everyone was very friendly and answered all of our questions.

If you look at the picture to the right you will see Molly Cozzens, an unknown youngster, and Bob Mihaley. If you look closely over Bob's shoulder, you will see Jerri Torczon peeking through the boards of the cattle chute.

It would have been even a little better if it wasn't so windy. At least it didn't rain on us and turn this into a muddy mess.

I am a little sore in my right shoulder and hip - getting old, I guess, but I am told that people half my age end up sore from this too.

Tomorrow we will go to Cody and watch Jerri and Leonard play at Cassie's for a little bit before heading over to Wal*Mart to get some groceries. Then it will be time for another week of work.

Powell, WY

I rode to work with Molly this morning and left the truck parked outside next to the garage for Bob to drive down to Cody later.

Today was Friday The Thirteen. It has been thirteen weeks since the last Friday The Thirteenth, and it will be thirteen weeks until the next one!

The main part of our work consisted of z-folding 250 health insurance brochures and stuffing them into envelopes, attaching mailing labels to the envelopes, printing postage on the outside of the envelopes using the postage machine, and then mailing them. We did this for Tami, the benefits coordinator.

We registered a dozen new voters. The last one of the day was kind of strange. It was a woman with four different middle names (one on her drivers license, one on her voter registration form, one in her WyoReg voter registration, and a different one on her original registration). She was changing party affiliation from Republican to Democrat.

At the end of the day Bob arrived at the courthouse driving my truck and we followed Eric to his house on the east side of Cody. Here Eric gave Molly, Bob, and me a tour of the parsonage, and then prepared a nice dinner of grilled veal/antelope with bacon wrapped asparagus spears. We presented a bottle of Ray's Station Cabernet Sauvignon to Eric and he had beers for us in the fridge. Molly had to drink water because Mormons are not permitted to have alcohol, coffee or tea.

The dinner was very good! This was the first time we'd had antelope. We were having some good conversation when Eric's wife, Audrey, popped in unexpectedly. She pulled a chair up to the table and became the star of the show.

We stayed until 8:30 and really had a good time with them.

Our drive home was dark and partly rainy. I know I am tired from a full day, but I am looking forward to the activities we have planned for the weekend.

Powell, WY

These past few days I have had a nasty cold. I spent all day Tuesday in a cough syrup haze and then decided yesterday that I just could not face a day at work. I texted Molly, and then went to bed. I was in bed yesterday until around 2:30 PM.

This morning I felt better. I am still tired, but I was good enough to shower, shave, and dress for work.

Eric asked me to deliver a replica civil war sword to a trophy engraver here in Powell. Bob took it up there yesterday and picked it up today.

Tomorrow evening Molly, Bob, and me will be going to the Rydbom's house for dinner. I will leave the truck parked outside and ride to work with Molly. Bob can come down to Cody at the end of the day with the sword and a nice bottle of red wine I pulled out of storage.

On Saturday morning Molly, Eric, and me have to go to the Democratic County Caucus, then we have the Calf Wrestling and Branding Event right after that in Cowley, WY. The weather probably won't be ideal for this, so we plan on getting dirty.

I am still very tired.

Powell, WY

We had a quite Easter at home. We enjoyed a holiday meal of spiral-sliced ham, with couscous, and sweet peas.

I came down with a nasty cold. I bravely went to work and endured all day, but I stayed home doped up with cough medicine today. I don't like to stay home because I don't get paid when I stay home.

Finished reading The Ice Balloon this morning. Now I am reading a Dave Gingery book about sheet metal projects. My Hydrofarm heat mat thermostat came today too!

Using the ham bone for seasoning, Bob made a bean soup for today's dinner.

Passover

The weather changes so quickly here!

This morning the lawn was covered in ice and snow, and by the afternoon it was completely gone!

We had to be out of the house at 10:15 so the realty could bring a potential buyer through. We all got into the truck and we drove down to Willwood to see the historic Willwood Dam. We drove across the one-lane bridge over the top of it and then headed back toward Powell.

On the way back to Powell Bob's phone rang and it was the realtor saying that she was running behind and needed to bring the buyers over between 1:30 and 2:00. I told Bob that I was going to do the front wheel bearings on the truck and that I was going to be home when the came. I can't plan my schedule around the realtors time tables.

We browsed stores in downtown Powell and had lunch at El Tapatio Mexican Restaurant. Then we went home, I put on sweat pants and a sweat shirt, got the floor jack, jack stands, tire iron, 17 mm wrench, small hammer, screw driver, magnetic parts holding tray, wheel bearing grease, rags, and parts washer. We removed the front wheel bearings, one wheel at a time, cleaned the bearings, inspected them, re-packed them with grease, re-installed them, and adjusted them.

While we were working on the truck the buyers walked into the backyard. "Are you the owner of this house?" I said, "No, I am not, but I live here." They wanted to take a look around and I had no problem with that. They said that if they buy they house, they will probably let us continue to live here. The realtor was about 10 minutes late catching up with them.

After we got the front wheels put back together again we started the truck and took a quick run to the top of the Polecat Bench, turned around, and came back. That was a 12 mile run at highway speeds and everything was fine. No shimmying from the steering, no vibration, and proper braking.

Back at the house I put on shorts and a t-shirt, then we put Buddy into his harness and took him for a walk. We walked up the alley between Fourth and Third Streets and between Cheyenne and Davidson Streets. There is a really nice backyard shop behind one of the houses here and we admire it. It is a 1400 square foot building sheathed with metal agricultural building siding turned sideways. We have been wanting to talk to the owner for awhile to see who built it from him. Well, today was our lucky day!

The fenced backyard had three dogs in it - a big black lab, a white lab, and a little mut that made the most noise. The lady, Megan, came out to get the small dog and put her away. Then she came back to the fence to talk to us about the shop building. She let us into the backyard to see the front of it too!

She told us that a local architect located west of town named Clark Wilcox designed the building and it was done very inexpensively. It might be worth our time and money to arrange a visit with this architect. I could see that shop building being built in Clark as an excellent house for us. I will try to take some pictures of this interesting building the next time I walk the dog.

We had pizza rolls for dinner this evening. Tomorrow we are baking a spiral cut brown sugar coated ham for our Easter meal.

Good Friday

The forecast called for rain, but as I stepped out to the garage to start my way down to Cody, I saw snow flakes coming down! I took the salt and de-icer out of the bed of my truck to keep it from getting wet and clumping, but as I drove to Cody, it began to snow harder and I had second thoughts about taking that weight out of the truck bed!

Molly stepped out and while Eric and I were working at our computers, we heard a female voice squeal inside the vault, "Ohhhh! I found another one!" We both looked at each other and grinned - it sounded like Barb Atkinson found another one of the hidden plastic Easter eggs!

One of our tasks in the afternoon was to make the bulletin board more "interesting". We laminated the ballot from 1938 and put it up. We put up pictures of old voting machines too.

Bob sent me an email later in the afternoon that said "it looks like someone turned on a snow blower here in Powell". Everyone on the Clerk's side was trying to get Jerri to close early and let us go home, but in the end we stayed until 5 PM.

The drive home was not too bad, but I didn't see Heart Mountain the whole way and there were times when you could not see more than a mile. The street and sidewalk did not accumulate any snow, but the lawn looks like a giant frosted mini wheat! Cars parked on the street are covered in snow and ice too. It's a shame too because some of the trees were pushing out blossoms and buds. Mother Nature can be cruel, I guess.

The realtor called to say that they are bringing someone through the house tomorrow at 10:15 AM, so we will have to go out with Buddy for awhile. I was hoping to do the front wheel bearings on the truck, but now I am not sure if we will.

Post 2155

I don't think I did anything today except help with registering two people. Very easy day. Today makes one month that I have worked for the County Clerk.

We had a very unusual situation come up today. A voter had his polling place or district changed, and the voter information card mailed out to him was returned for insufficient postage (he is living in Mexico, but has a Cody, WY residence). According to Park County Mapserver, the address he gave is owned by someone else, and I don't even think he has a lease there. Mike said that Wyoming Statutes say that if a person lives outside of the US, you have to let them register using their last United States address. The election laws in this state seem to have a lot of holes in them.

Further investigation revealed that this person goes by his first name only - Joseph. In WyoReg it is listed as "Mr. Joseph". I pulled his hard card from the file and found it entered the same way. Plus, he registered by email and a color image of his passport was attached to the card. The passport simply said "Joseph". Very unusual.

Molly decided that we are going to visit the three nursing homes in Powell and the three nursing homes in Cody during the week after the branding event. The week after that, Eric and I are going to drive a truck full of permanent records down to Cheyenne and deliver them to the State Archive.

I finished David Crockett this evening. The Ice Balloon was delivered today - just in time!

Tomorrow is Good Friday, and I think it's going to be a good Friday too!

Powell, WY

When I arrived in the Elections Office I found our chairs all missing. I turned my computer on, got a chair from the vault, and sat down to start. Then I noticed that my computer mouse was working very slowly or not at all. I turned it over and found the laser eye covered with Scotch tape. "Oh, the fun and games never stop around here!"

Later, when Molly came in, we found a ransom note on her desk for our chairs, and a Photoshopped picture of her with Ahmadinejad and Kacinski. In retaliation (or is that escalation) Molly and Eric were planning to contact the Sheriff's Office to have a deputy come in and question people in the Clerk's Office regarding the threatening letter we'd received. We strongly suspect Roly as the mastermind. We never got around to calling the Sheriff because other events happened later to make us forget it.

In addition to tornadoes in Dallas, and a plane crashing into a Publix Supermarket in Deland, Molly had a car accident today when she went to Wal*Mart to get pens. Apparently she was trying to pull into a parking space at the same time that another lady was trying to take the same space. She wasn't charged, in fact the other lady got a ticket because she did not have her license and registration with her! Still, her car was scratched up badly and she was shaken up over it.

Christine Houze at Wyoming Workforce phoned me today in Elections to thank me for the small floral arrangement I sent to her at the office. She's made a point to show it to everyone in the office.

I spent most of my day re-labeling old file folders and discarding duplicated file contents. In the afternoon some perforated card stock was delivered and we set to work printing the standard text on the back of the cards. Tomorrow we will print the front side of the card for the 3,700 voters who were affected by redistricting.

The day was sunny and clear - just beautiful. Temps made it up into the high 50's again today.

Bob made a nice crisp fresh salad for dinner this evening. I will probably take leftovers with me for lunch tomorrow.

Powell, WY

Temps dropped to 34F during the night. It was chilly when I took the dog out this morning, but I still went out in shorts.

The drive up to Cody was interesting. There was a lot of cloud cover to the west and even the top of Heart Mountain was wrapped in wispy clouds. Cars were coming east from Cody with snow on their hoods and roofs!

Apparently it snowed last night in Cody - the streets were wet and many of the parked cars still had snow on top of them.

Work today was good. I was kept occupied with the busy work job of re-labeling folders in the file cabinet. I went to the clerk's office and got my Wyoming Title for the truck. That cost $9.

Jerri came in around 9:30 and we heard, "I think I know who did this!" She called us to her office to see the Obama pictures that were put into all of the frames holding her family pictures. I said, "But Jerri, you're a Republican!" She laughed and nodded. She didn't really know that we were behind it! She was accusing one person after the next in turn. Before the end of the afternoon she had accused the DA of tampering with her office.

She thought it was funny, and she was calling people down to see what April Fools prank we had played. She must not have been too sore because she bought the department ice cream cones from the Schwan's man before the end of the day.

Temps reached the high 50's and my drive home was sun lit and nice.

Bob had White Bean Chicken Chili prepared for dinner this evening. He took the utility bill to City Hall and paid it, and he went to the library and checked out a book to read.

Temps are supposed to go down to 32F tonight. We might have to turn the window fan off and take it down tonight!

Weekend

We did not win the lottery. In fact, I don't even know anybody who won it. I guess I will have to go to work on Monday.

Yesterday morning we walked Buddy, and while he was gobbling down his breakfast, we quietly went out the back door and drove up to Pepe's Mexican Restaurant for our breakfast.

After breakfast we took a drive down WY 295 and into the countryside. We ended up in Lovell, WY, another farming town like Powell about 20 miles east of here. Lovell is a little bigger than Powell, and the Western Sugar factory is here. Western Sugar makes table sugar from the sugar beets that are grown in this area. We stopped and bought a bottle of water and a bottle of juice and then drove right back to Powell on US 14A.

When we got home I spent some time writing checks for my bills and paying bills online.

Later I went to Amazon.com to check out small fountain pumps to replace the pump in my small parts washer. This pump dissolved in the kerosene that I used as solvent the one and only time I used it. Cheap Chinese crap. Exasperated because none of the pumps available matched the old pump in size, I went out to the garage to find the small fountain pump we bought at Skycraft last year for $15.

This pump was able to fit into the holding brackets and the flexible tube and nozzle actually screwed onto the threaded plastic discharge line!! I proceeded to wire the pump into the switch and cut a new hole through the parts holding shelf for the flexible pipe and nozzle to pass through. As a test we poured a 50/50 solution of Simple Green and water into the tank and turned it on. Success! It actually works even better than before. To protect the pump impeller, I placed a couple of strong magnets in the bottom of the tank out in front of the pump suction. These will attract and trap any ferrous metal pieces before they reach the pump.

I think we will clean and re-pack the front wheel bearings on the truck next weekend. We will use the parts washer for the cleaning stage.

Later we went to Powell Police Department and I got my VIN number read off of the truck and written onto the Wyoming Title Application. I had to pay the police department $5 for this and they almost messed it up! Then we went to The Realty Connection to pay the April rent. We dropped the rest of the bills into a blue mail box.

We took Buddy for his evening walk, and while this walk was a bit longer than usual, he was panting and dragging along. He was happy to get home and get a drink of water.

After taking Bobby to McDonald's for an ice cream treat, I stepped outside with binoculars and looked at the skies. It was very clear and you could see Venus and Jupiter very bright in the west. The skies are just covered in hundreds of stars here at night! The light pollution in Orlando only allowed us to see the brightest stars, and that was maybe 7 or 8 stars.

Today we went to Cody and ate breakfast at Granny's and then we went to Wal*Mart. We browsed the hard lines and Bob got a couple of flies that resemble mosquitoes. We got him a long-sleeved plaid shirt that was on clearance for $3 too. We picked up toothpaste and moisturizer, and then we started to get some groceries.

After buying groceries, we went to Ace Hardware to get a circ clip (c-clip, or e-clip) to snap onto the threaded shaft of my vise. The old one kept falling off, and finally we lost it. The 1/2-inch one snapped right on and pushes the moving jaw back when I open the vise. We also bought a fluorescent light kit for growing plants.

I intend to use the "Jump Start Grow Lamp Kit" with my "Germination Station" seed germinater and heat mat to start some tomato plants. We are doing this in the basement. When the tomatoes are 5 to 6 inches tall, we will transplant them into plastic containers and move them outside after June 1 (after the last frost). I am waiting for the heat mat thermostat I ordered on Amazon.com to deliver sometime this week, then I will prepare the rock wool cubes and make starter solution for the seedlings.

The seedlings will be located on an old stove hearth down in the basement. Here they will be almost a foot above the floor and hopefully, above the coldest air down there.

Out in the garage I found my old dual-fan window fan and I brought it inside. It was very dirty. We took it apart in the kitchen and carefully cleaned it. Now it is in the bedroom window blowing warm air out and pulling cooler air in from the basement.

The forecast was for rain today. While it was very cloudy and overcast today, and temps did drop down to "chilly", it did not rain. Maybe tonight. The grass is starting to turn from brown to green, the trees are putting out green shoots, and buttercups and other flowers are starting to come up. We noticed several cherry trees in the neighborhood with beautiful blossoms all over them.

Today was April Fools Day and Palm Sunday. That does not happen very often on the same day.