Easter Sunday

We had a beautiful Easter Sunday here in Powell.  It was sunny with a light northwesterly wind and temperatures reached 70°F!

I ran a hose from the hot water heater in the basement outside to the blue plastic 55-gallon barrels and began to fill them with hot water and dish washing detergent.  I agitated them thoroughly, poured them out, and rinsed them out with cold water.  We are going to use these barrels to bring water to Clark to pressure wash our concrete slab.  Later we will grow potatoes in them.

We had chicken soup for lunch and then I got the window fan out.  I took it apart and began cleaning it.  In a few weeks we might have to put the window fan into the window.  For now temperatures are comfortable.

I checked the air pressure in my tires on truck and they are all fine.

We read on Facebook that Dad had a small stroke and is in the hospital.  He woke up with a bad headache and he had the headache this morning, but he noticed that he did not have peripheral vision in his right eye.  So, they took him to the hospital.  A CAT scan tells them that he had the stroke over 48 hours ago.  He is being held for observation until the doctors come back tomorrow.

I had to spend some time pulling boxes and stuff out of the downstairs bedroom because we had to find Bob's MRI photos for his doctor visit on April 15.  While doing this we found a lot of stuff that can be sold in our yard sale.

For dinner we had chicken pot pies.  After dinner we took the dogs for a walk.  Temps are starting to fall now.  It is about 60°F right now.

It's too bad the weekend is almost over.  We had some beautiful weather and we got a lot of things done. 

Pompey's Pillar

Bob at the end of Brushland Drive.

Okay, here we are at Post 2342!

Yesterday I rode to Cody with Teecee and Bob kept the truck.  Bob came down to Cody later with the intention of getting his hair cut, but as it turns out, the barber was closed for Good Friday.  So, he came to the courthouse and visited with Jerri in her office.

We drove back home and ordered a pizza for dinner.  It was lightly raining as we drove back to Powell.  Later the winds picked up and it rained harder.  It drizzled off and on all night long.  We don't see rain very much here - about 8" per year.  The down side to the rain is that the yard becomes muddy and the dogs have to have their feet wiped off before they can come back inside.

This morning we got a McDonald's breakfast and headed to Clark.  We stopped to check on our property, but we did not get out of the truck because it was muddy.  We took some pics at the end of the road at the highway, and then we headed north to Billings.

When we reached Billings we continued east out of town about 30 miles to Pompey's Pillar National Monument.  When we reached the park we found it closed for the season, but the sign said that you could walk in during daylight hours.  We could see other cars parked by the entrance, so we parked and walked in.

Bob with dugout canoes.

It as a little cool with a northwest breeze blowing as we walked in.  The visitor's center was closed too, but we were able to read all of the outdoor placards and we were able to climb stairs up the side of the sandstone formation to see Captain William Clark's 1806 signature for ourselves.  Later we walked to the edge of the Yellowstone River and we saw replica dugout canoes similar to what Clark and his party used on the Yellowstone River that summer.

Our walk back to the truck was a little nicer because the breeze was at our backs.

We drove back to Billings and stopped at Sam's Club to get an 8-pack of tuna fish and a bag of avocadoes because Carol Bednarz asked us to.  Then we got lunch at Texas Roadhouse.  After lunch we went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to get a new electric blanket.  We went here because we had a 20% off coupon.

After this I dropped Bob off at Great Clips for a haircut while I browsed TJ Maxx.

Then we drove home.  When we got home we found Daisy happily out of her crate.  This is the second time she has managed to escape from the crate.  I think we are going to have to get one of those one-piece plastic crates that will be harder for her to escape from.

I called and talked to Mom this evening.  She said they were thinking about driving out here  to surprise us, but the cost of gas and the long drive discouraged them.  She said they considered flying too, but the $700 per person cost and the car rental after that put them off.  I told her that it is still a little early for them to come out - bad winter weather isn't over yet, they don't have the roads into the park plowed yet, and some of the mountain routes are still dangerous.

They should wait until June at the earliest to come out.  Especially if they want to see the rodeo.  Cody Night Rodeo is every evening from June 1 to August 31.

We took our dogs for a walk over to Blairs where I got a six-pack of hard apple cider.  Bob has put the new electric blanket on the bed and it seems to be working.

If tomorrow is as nice as today was I am going to check the air pressure in my truck tires and I am going to run a hose to the basement and bring hot water from the hot water tank outside to the plastic barrels we bought last year.  I need to rinse the fish oil out of these before we use them with the pressure washer to clean our floor slab in Clark.

March came in like a lamb and it looks like it will be going out like a lamb too!

Powell, WY

Chimney at Heart Mtn with scaffold.

Yesterday we had pandemonium at the courthouse as a high-profile murder case was heard in District Court upstairs.  There was a confrontation in the parking lot between the family of murder defendant Myron Friday and newspaper photographers.  Later, the family (who is also Arapahoe Indian) came into the lobby and began cussing everyone out who was pushed up against the windows looking outside.

I said to the office staff, "Listen to that woman in the lobby with the potty mouth!"

The defendant pled guilty and accepted a life prison sentence with the possibility of parole.  Then there were more confrontations in the courtroom between the defendant's family and the family of the victim.  Sheriff's deputies had to be called in to keep the groups seperated.

Myron Friday killed his wife with a Phillips screwdriver during a dispute last year.

The Fridays returned to the courthouse today and came to me at the counter to ask directions to the public defender's office.  We sent them to the county attorney office upstairs.

Jerri was out sick today, and Kari was out sick too.  With Barbara on vacation we were a little short-handed in the office and it got a little busy this afternoon.

Buffalo Bill Cody's great-great-grandson, Kit Cody died in a plane accident in Florida last month.  Today his widow, Linda, came to my counter to transfer title on some of his toys and cars.  I had to transfer two motorcycles, a pick-up truck, and a Mercedes-Benz car.  She has a couple more cars at home to transfer and will be returning. 

Weather was really nice today.  It was sunny with a high near 60°F.  An old-timer lady said that March will go out like a lion and she added that we always have a big snow storm on Easter.

Weekend

Yesterday we let the dogs outside around 8:30 AM, then we headed over to Clark to check on our property, and then go to Red Lodge for breakfast.

We decided to make a detour and visit Leonard Torczon at the Clark Landfill and ended up staying in his shipping container "office" for about three hours.  He has a small wood stove in there to keep it warm.  We talked between interruptions from his customers.  We met Art Kidwell, the man who wrote In The Shadow Of The Beartooths, a history of Clark, Wyoming, while we were there.

Eventually we headed out, but by now it was time for lunch.  We drove into Red Lodge and ate at Cafe Regis.  I had the Full Montana roast beef sandwich and Bob had the Pastrami and Swiss sandwich.  Next we went to the bookstore and tea bar.  We got The Last Eleven Days of Earl Durand, a forest service map of the Beartooths, some stevia leaves, and a bunch of tea.

After that we headed across the street to the Unique Juniper Furniture store.  We've ordered an eight-foot-long, three-inch-thick juniper bar for the new house.  This will be cut as a single slab from an 800-year-old tree on top of a mountain in Chihuahua, Mexico.  The mountain top is remote and you cannot get there by car, so it will be brought down by mule.

Nefor, the production manager we ordered from is asking for more money than just the deposit we left because he expects to have problems getting the shipment out of Mexico.  He is bringing a semi truck load up from Mexico and will make our project and much of his summer inventory from that wood.

It was around 3:30 PM when we got back home.  To our surprise, Daisy managed to get out of the crate.  She kicked the plastic bottom pan back and then realized she could lift the cage and crawl out through the bigger holes in the bottom.  It must have taken her a couple of hours to discover this because her bedding was all soiled anyway.

Buddy ran out of food this weekend, so we are feeding him puppy chow, but it is higher in protein and it is giving him gas.  Stinky.

Our electric blanket died this weekend.  That blanket is over 22 years old.  No matter what setting you leave it on, it no longer heats up.  We are looking for an electric mattress pad now.

Today we just hung around the house.  It was very cold and we did not go out.  I made quesadillas for breakfast and later we all went back to the bedroom and took a nap.

The weekend seemed to pass quickly.  I have to get a shower and shave so I can be ready for work again in the morning.

Spring

My new camera.

Old Man Winter is trying to get his last few jabs in.  It snowed this morning and the winds were really blowing.  This made my trip to Cody a little treacherous.  As I got closer to Cody the road grew steadily worse.

The snow stuck to the grass, trees, and shrubs, but it melted on the streets.  Afternoon temps in the 40's ensured that it all melted away.

The forecast is for more snow tomorrow.

My drive home was mostly sunny with some wet highways from the snow.  Those highways will probably slick with black ice tonight.

Bob got me a new camera!  I got the Fujifilm Finepix XP170 digital camera.  This camera is waterproof to 16 feet, shock resistant, dust-proof, and frost-proof!  Also, it can wirelessly transmit pictures to iPhone, Smartphones, and Android phones.  The battery for it is charging now.  We are going to start taking a bunch of pictures again.

I am still working through the exercises in Python for Kids.  I have finished Section One, and now I am going into Section Two where you begin writing code for a computer game similar to the Pong of the 70's.

Tomorrow is blue jean day at work.  Also, we are supposed to have a going-away party for Tami tomorrow, but I never really liked her, and I think I am not going to go.

St Patrick's Day

Temps dropped during the night down to just below freezing.  Today it got warmer,  but not much warmer.  It lightly snowed in the afternoon, but it all melted as soon as it touched the ground.

This afternoon we drove to Cody and watched the Wyoming Fiddler's Association play at Cassie's.  We ordered buffalo-elk burgers with fries and enjoyed the music.

After the fiddler's packed up and we finished our beers and burgers, we went to Wal*Mart and finished our grocery shopping.

Evidently  this last hurrah of winter is really playing havoc on roads across  the state.  Bob just read to me a news report of three road closures and a bunch of reports of black ice.  Boy, we sure know about slick roads!

Ides

It got up to 70°F on Friday!  Maybe we ARE going to get an early spring?!

I was stuck inside all day and it seemed like an eternity.  We were rather busy and busi-ness and perfect work do not go hand-in-hand.

Bob made an onion-spinach quiche for dinner.  I found the floors all cleaned, the backyard picked up, and the laundry done!  He was pretty busy too!

I am working my way through the Python For Kids book, chapter by chapter, and I am doing all of the exercises too.  I am glad I got this book because I have already learned quite a few new things!

This morning we had leftover quiche with oranges and blood orange fermented tea for our breakfast.  Then I put the dog crate into the basement, put Daisy in the crate, and we got into the truck to go to Billings, MT.

We shopped in the Tractor Supply Store in Laurel, MT and got a small sledge hammer and a large galvanized thermometer.

Next stop:  Macon Concrete and Construction Supplies.  Here we got two 5-gallon buckets of J42 concrete cleaner and stripper.  This stuff is not cheap.  It cost $350, but the man told us to keep the receipt - it if turns out that we do not use both cans, we can bring the un-opened bucket back for a refund.

After this we went to Bed Bath and Beyond to look at electric griddles.  We did not find a satisfactory one, so we are still looking.

Then it was over to Lowe's where we got some wooden dowels in various diameters, a scrub brush broom, a squeegee, a 100-foot garden hose, and a 2-gallon weed sprayer.

We had lunch at KFC.  We both had two-piece meals with biscuit and cole slaw.

Next we went to the used book store.  I got Nicola Tesla Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900.  Bob got The Hive and the Honey Bee.  Not too far away from the used books is the Tandy Leather Factory.  We popped in here to get a couple of leather tools and three little bottles of colored leather stain.

Finally we went to Sam's Club to get some foods, trash bags, and toilet paper.  The total there came to $118.

On the way back home we passed our accident site north of Belfry on MT72.  The missing posts have been replaced and the barbed wire is all put back up.  The only clue that we had the accident is that one of the posts is still bent.

We stopped in Clark to inspect our slab.  It is still just fine.  There is some fine brown dust on it that needs to be swept away, but it has survived the winter in perfect condition.

Jerri and Leonard are playing at the Edelweiss in Clark this evening, but we are too tired to go.  We are thinking about going to Cassie's tomorrow afternoon to watch them, and the go to Wal*Mart after that to get our groceries.

Wednesday

It was very dark when I left for Cody this morning.  After a brief stop at Blair's Supermarket to get my  two bottles of water, I turned west on US14A and headed toward Cody.

US14A runs in a straight line for five miles between Powell and Ralston.  A couple of miles ahead I could see a car pulled over on the shoulder with its hazard lights flashing.  I slowed down and pulled into the inside lane to pass. 

As I got closer I saw other cars pulled over, and as I went by I saw that a girl driving a small white Honda had struck a cow!  Other people had stopped and helped her pull it off of the roadway.

I was passing through Ralston when I passed the deputy sheriff with his lights flashing on his way to the bovine-Honda collision.

I don't know how this cow got up into the highway.  It is fenced on both sides and there aren't even any cattle anywhere near the road.  Most farmers have removed their livestock from the fields because they are getting ready to plow and disc the fields and start planting.

Weekend

Despite several forecasts calling for snow, we did not get any at all this weekend.

On Saturday morning we had breakfast at Pepe's.  Later we went to the American Legion to pick up our Bountiful Basket.  This week there was no line!  We went right inside!  Our basket had lettuce, celery, bok choy, miniature bell peppers, strawberries, yellow mangoes, bananas, lemons, and garlic.  On our way out we picked up our 40-pound box of California oranges.


We had canned ravioli for lunch with Blood Orange fermented tea brewed in our new IngenuiTEA pot.

Daisy is loosing teeth and claws.  When we leave her in the crate, she scratches and claws so hard to get out that she is breaking her claws off!  Today I found one of her molars on the floor.  I checked her mouth and easily pulled another molar out!  She's getting "big girl" teeth now!

This morning I made breakfast.  We had breakfast quesadillas made with cheese, Canadian bacon, scrambled eggs, and more cheese.  We had strawberry Danish, sliced oranges, and tea with it.

Later got into the truck  to go for a ride and get out of the house.  We drove down to Greybull, and then followed US 14 up into the Shell Valley in the Big Horn Mountains.  We did not know how the roads would be, but I told Bob that I would turn around when they got wet or icy.

82.4 miles from Powell to Upper Shell Valley.

The roads were almost completely dry the whole way.  There was quite a bit of snow at higher elevations, but I think you could drive this road all the way to Burgess Junction and then on  to Sheridan.  We didn't of course, because we didn't feel like we had the time for it.

The Shell Valley follows Shell Creek up into the Big Horn Mountains and the scenery is startlingly beautiful there.  We stopped several times as we drove up to get out and take pictures.  You could hear the mountain stream roaring and rushing far below.

We stopped at the Shell Falls Interpretive Center and  got out.  The center was closed and snowed in,  but we hiked in and walked the observation paths like other people were doing.  The water fall was completely covered with ice, but you could see and hear the water falling behind it.

As we drove higher we saw evidence of snowmobilers having fun in the snowpack.  There are pull offs where you can load/unload your snowmobiles and we even saw the Sno Cat tractors that groom the trails for the snowmobiles!

Because most places are closed on Sunday afternoons, we had to drive all the way back to Powell to find anything to eat, and then we ended up going to the grocery and getting fried chicken and potato salad.

I am still working in my Python for Kids book.  I am doing the exercises chapter-by-chapter.

We get paid this week and I have Girl Scouts coming tomorrow with a cookie delivery.  I have the clocks set forward one hour.  Here comes another adventure-filled week at work!

First Anniversary

It seems that my first anniversary at Park County Government passed unnoticed and uneventfully.  The first anniversary was Tuesday, March 5.  I realized today that I have been working there a year.

I pulled another one of Daisy's teeth out this morning.  I have her two bottom incisors on my desk now.  Her top canines are very loose now too!

The past couple of days have been sunny and nice outside, but I think there is a change coming.  The skies were very grey this evening and one forecast I saw calls for snow tomorrow.

Having every title second-checked has reduced the number of errors going out of our office and being discovered by the Treasurer's office to zero.  Everyone was making mistakes, not must me, the new guy.

Triple Homicide

On Saturday there was a triple homicide in Clark, WY.  Two teenaged boys went to a house not far from the landfill, went inside, shot and killed a woman and her elderly parents, and then drove away in her black Audi.  Neighbors saw the two cars fleeing, but what tipped them off that something was wrong was the victims dogs chasing them down the road!

The boys were apprehended within two hours.

Today the courthouse parking lot was a circus.  TV news crews were filming as the sheriff's office brought the accused in, and sheriff's deputies were stationed around the lot because Sheriff Scott Steward was afraid someone might try to kill them!

Aside from that distraction, our office was very busy.  Barbara left at 11:30 to attend a funeral in Thermopolis and she did not come back.

It was good to leave and come home.  I am glad it is still light when I get home!

Sunday

I made scrambled eggs with turkey sausage links, a small bowl of mandarin oranges, and hot tea for breakfast.  We really had a pretty day.

It was sunny and clear, but there was a breeze.  Temps reached 66° outside (and probably a little higher when standing in the direct sun).  I spent part of the morning cutting up scrap aluminum into pieces small enough to fit into my furnace and into the crucible.  Later I took Bob to Blairs Supermarket to take advantage of a canned goods case sale, we went to Subway and got sandwiches for lunch.

After lunch I  set up the furnace in the drive way and began melting.  The first thing I melted was some brass scrap with a load of post-1982 pennies (zinc with copper electroplating).  I dunno, these ingots turned out very gray.  It's almost as if I put too much zinc into the mixture.  It let out a lot of white smoke which I tried to stay away from and avoid inhaling.  Zinc alloys can give you a case of the "zinc shakes" and a bad headache.

Next I changed to the larger crucible and began reducing my scrap pile to nice aluminum "muffins".  I melted enough today to make 18 more muffins. 

The wind really began to pick up during the afternoon, and now the temps have dropped over 30°.  The wind is howling outside right now and it was lightly snowing until a few minutes ago.  Bob said that the high for tomorrow is 30°F.

Maybe it's good that I am going back to work.