Birthday Party

Today the Wyoming Fiddlers Association played at the Powell VFW.  Playing started at 1:00 PM, and if Leonard had not caught on by 2:00 PM, Jerri would tell him it was a surprise birthday party for him!

We got there shortly before 1:00 PM and went inside.  We found Teecee and Evee putting food out on tables - Jerri contracted with Teecee to cater the party.  There were iced cakes on a table too, but the big birthday cake was hidden in the cooler.

Roly, Kendra, and Shane Hernandez.

I told Teecee and Evee, "I dreamt that I had Barbara declared an enemy combatant and shipped off to Gitmo."  They all laughed.  We got a plate of food and sat down with Roly, Kendra, Jaden, and Shane Hernandez.  I was telling them about my dream, when speak-of-the-devil, in walks Barbara Atkinson with Kay Bessey!  Oh boy.

We were treated to three hours of traditional western music and some couples got up and danced too.  I think this was the largest turnout I have seen for the fiddler's association.  

Mike, Dominique, Cory, and Kaden Demoney came in later.  I saw Minnie Gams, Jerri's mother there.  Sylvia and John Gams, whose cattle we branded two weeks ago, were there.  I saw Becky Albanese there.  Just lots of familiar faces.

Leonard Torczon on his 70th.

Leonard got some glasses as a gag birthday gift and the glasses have little headlights on them!

We left around 3:30.  Jerri told us to take a plate of food with us, so Bob loaded up a plate and I took two big slices of the birthday carrot cake. 

When we got home I had planned to make apple pie filling for freezing, but I didn't feel like it and we took a nap instead.

This weekend went by very quickly!

Saturday

I put the dogs outside at 5:00 AM.  Then I started breakfast.  We had scrambled eggs with cheese, sliced
honeydew melon, and left over ham steaks with blood orange pu ehr tea.  We lazily browsed the Internet for a while, then I got the furniture pads into the truck and we dressed to go out.

The "before" picture of the bar.

We drove to Clark and checked out our property first.  I was about 76° F and very quiet!  After this we drove out and headed over to Red Lodge.

We visited Nefer at Unique Juniper Furniture.  He said that our bar will not be done for another week or two, but he had his assistant bring six bar stools from the warehouse so that we could have our pick.

While the bar stools were being retrieved, we went out to lunch.  We walked south two locks to the Red Lodge Pizza and had a small pizza with artichoke-avocado dip appetizer.  Then we went south another block to the Swanky Fork get get a mandolin.

Four new bar stools.

It was almost 3 pm when we got back to the store.  He had the bar stools set up in the show room and we picked our four bar stools out.  They are fairly massive!  We carefully laid them in the bed of the truck and wrapped the furniture pads between them.

I could not believe it, but it was almost 5 pm when we got back home!  The dogs were very happy to see us and they did not even have an accident inside!

After getting the dogs outside and bringing the bar stools inside, we began coring and and slicing apples to can spiced apple rings.  This weekend is going to go by quickly!

Spiced Apple Rings

 Ingredients:

• 12 pounds firm tart apples, no more than 2-1/2 inches across
• 12 cups of sugar
• 6 cups of water
• 1-1/4 cups white vinegar, 5% acidity
• 3 Tb whole cloves
• 3/4 cup of red hot cinnamon candies or 8 cinnamon sticks
• 1 teaspoon red food coloring, optional

Preparation:

Wash apples.  Core and slice the apples.  I used an apple corer tool to remove the cores and a mandolin to slice the apples into uniform slices, but you can cut them really thick and remove the cores with a melon baller.  Immerse the slices in ascorbic acid solution (lemon juice) to keep the apples from discoloring. 

The cinnamon candies are the small red candies called "Red Hots" and they can be found at Wal*Mart.  One 6-ounce box makes 3/4 cup.  You might find and use Brach's "Cinnamon Imperials" instead.

In a 6-quart sauce pan, combine sugar, water, vinegar, cloves, cinnamon candies, or cinnamon sticks, and food coloring.  Stir, heat to boil, and simmer 3 minutes.  Drain apples, add to hot syrup, and cook 5 minutes.  Fill wide mouth sterilized canning jars with apple rings and add hot flavored syrup, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace.

Adjust lids and process in boiling water canner according to the recommendations below.  Makes about 8 pints. 

Style of Pack:  Hot.  Jar Size:  Half-Pints or Pints.
Process Time at Altitudes of 0 - 1,000 ft:  10 min
1,001 - 6,000 ft:  15 minutes
Above 6,000 ft:  20 minutes

Moving Again ? !!

It took eight years, but Buddy has finally learned that the toilet contains water and it is seemingly good to drink.  Now we have to make sure the lid is down when we are not around!

Bob went out during the day to pay the water/sewer/gas bill and get something at the store.  When he returned home he found a letter taped to our door from a realtor.  It turns out the owner of the house we are currently living in has contracted with a realtor to sell the house.  The realtor we are renting from is furious because he is breaking his contract with her.  All I know is that we cannot afford to move again right now.

Tomorrow is Friday and I am glad.  We have a lot planned for this weekend.  On Saturday we have to go to Red Lodge to get our bar top and bar stools.  We are also planning to make spiced apple rings and can them.  On Sunday we are going to the American Legion for a surprise birthday party for Leonard Torczon.  He is 70 this year.

A week from tomorrow Barbara Atkinson, the Second Deputy, will be flying to the Kentucky Derby.  We will get a break from her in the office for a little while!  ☺

Monday

It must have snowed all night long because there was a lot of it out there when I got up.  I started the truck up and let it warm up while I dressed for work.  Bob took the dogs upstairs and went back to bed.

I started out, but when I got to the highway I found it VERY SLIPPERY.  I drove one mile and then I turned around and went home.  A little later I tried again, but it was still TOO ICY.

I called the office and told Carol that I would be late because of the ice.  She said Roly was on his way, but it was taking him a long time because he could not go faster than 30 MPH.  She said that it was not worth it and that I should stay home.

So, back to the house I went.  I washed two loads of laundry and put the clean dishes away.  Around 9:30 AM I went out again and tried again.  This time the road looked a little bit better.  Boy, it was a rough trip!

4 miles down the road I saw a lady in a little red car way off of the road!  She must have been moving because she was so far back she almost put the car into the irrigation canal!  A state trooper was checking on her. 

14 miles down the road I saw a large truck that slid across the westbound lanes and ended up turned around and way off of the road.  Two troopers were stopped here to help him.

1 more mile down the road a state highway patrolman was turning around to go back and help the other two troopers, but his patrol car slid and he found himself stuck in the ditch!

Having learned my lesson back in February, I creepy-crawled along the highway hugging the white stripe on the side.  My average speed was 30 MPH - sometimes a little higher, sometimes lower.  It was a harrowing trip.

Barb, Carol, Roly, and Laura were surprised to see me walk in.  I said, "I could not stand the thought that you guys were down here talking about me, so I HAD to come in."   They laughed at that one.

Mike and Teecee were out today sick.  Jerri said the road was so bad she almost turned back, but then she noticed that her cellphone was discharged, so she went ahead and drove to Cody.

The rest of the day was like many others with titles, phone calls, mail to log-in, etc.  I was going to go home early, but we got a report around 3:00 PM that the Powell Highway was dry and clear, so I worked until 5.

Temps are supposed to drop down to 10° or 15°F tonight.  Hopefully it will be clear and we will have nicer weather the rest of this week.

asparagus

This morning we opened up our box of asparagus and began cleaning it and getting it ready for preservation.  I took eleven bunches, cut the bottom four inches off, and packed about 1 1/2 bunch into each quart jar to make 6 quarts.  I added a teaspoon of salt and ladled boiling water over the vegetables leaving one inch of head space.

These quart jars were sealed up with lids and rings and placed in the pressure canner.  Once we reached 13 pounds of pressure we left the jars inside for 35 minutes.

I chopped up the bottoms of the stalks, but discarded the bottom two inches because they were firm and woody.  We put the chopped asparagus into bags for freezing.

Next weekend we are going to core and slice up some of the 40 pounds of apples we bought.  I bought some Red Hot's cinnamon candy and I am going to use them to make spiced apple rings for canning.


After we got the jars out of the canner and onto a towel to cool, we cleaned our mess up and dressed to go to Cody.


In Cody we stopped at the courthouse so that I could get some of my work caught up.  This only took about 45 minutes, then we went out again.  We went to Cassie's to watch the fiddlers play, but they had a 10 minute wait for a table.  We could not understand this because we saw lots of empty tables.  So, we left and went to Bubba's Barbecue for lunch.

After lunch we went to Wal*Mart to get some groceries.  We spent around $270 here and then headed home.  We almost have enough food put away for another month of meals now.

It is gently snowing out right now.  We are forecast to get 1 - 3 inches.  My drive to work will probably be messy and it will probably get worse as I get closer to Cody.

We are both sore from the branding event yesterday and I think we are going to bed early.

Calf Branding

On Saturday morning we got up around 7:00 AM.  Let the dogs out, fed them, and then snook out to get breakfast at Pepe's.  After breakfast we stopped at Maverik convenience store so that I could get a new pair of sunglasses, and then we headed to Cowley.

We went to the Wyoming LongHorn Ranch to help John Gams brand, tag, and vaccinate his calves.  We started by gathering all of the cows and calves together, then we herded the cattle down a chute, and as calves approached a gate was opened the calves were diverted to pens.  The cows were sent back out to the yard.

Oh the mooing!  The calves were calling "Moooommm!"  and the cows were calling for their babies.

After we had the calves separated we had to further sort them by sex.  Then we fired up the stove to heat
the irons and began herding the calves into the chute.  Jerri had the job of guiding the calves down the chute.

We found a very young and small calf for Bob and Mike to wrestle down.  I think Bob was surprised at how strong these calves could be!   After holding down two of them, Bob was tired out!

I helped wrangle a couple of calves too.  For the first one I got the back and drug the calf out of the chute and held it down by pulling its right leg back to my chest and holding the left leg forward with my foot while Roly held the head down.  I held the head down on my second calf.

Soon we found another job for Bob - administering the vaccinations.  The man handling the needles, Mike, was busy enough with ear tags and we needed someone else to give the shots - a perfect job for Bob.  Jerri said she saw him smiling from ear-to-ear when he got to give the vaccinations!

After we finished with the calves we headed up to the house for a big cookout.  Hamburgers, hot dogs, pork and beans, desserts, beer, and soft drinks.  As it turned out, the skies clouded up, got chilly, and it began to rain!  Sylvia Gams was begging us to eat more because she did not have room in her refrigerator for all of the food!

We left around 3:00 PM, went back to Powell, let Buddy out in the backyard and we took Daisy with us in the truck over to Evee George's house.  Evee is Teecee's sister, and she picked up our Bountiful Basket for us.

Evee and her kids were delighted that we brought Daisy over and they were surprised at how big she has gotten!  We spent a couple of hours visiting at Evee's house and we got to bottle-feed some club lambs.

It was after 7:00 PM when we got home!  I had to give both dogs baths, so I herded them, one-at-a-time to the shower for shampoo, scrub, and rinse.  I like it when they are clean, smell like baby shampoo, and their coat feels soft!

We are sore and tired - quite a weekend!

Powell, WY

Well, spring is here, technically, but we are having cold temperatures and snow.  Snow is forecast for each day through Wednesday!

The Gams Cattle Branding will be on Saturday, starting at 10 AM.  We are going, but we cannot be there first thing because we have to pick up our Bountiful Basket that was ordered this morning.

Today is Tax Day and true to their promise, Shoshone Irrigation District has water in the canals and ready for delivery.  Summer can't be far off.

Weekend

On Saturday morning we slept in until 7:00 AM.  Then while Bob fed the dogs and dressed, I took the truck and filled the gas tank.  We got in and drove to Clark to check on our property, then headed over to Red Lodge, MT.

We had breakfast at Cafe Regis.  We both had a big omelet with andouille sausage, spinach, cheese; wheat toast, blackberry jam, and coffee.  The main road through Red Lodge, Broadway, was all torn up with a water pipe replacement project, so we had to take back streets and park on a side street when we went to visit the bookstore and tea bar.

On this visit we just got a couple of books - no new teas.  I found a John McPhee book, Uncommon Carriers, and Bob found Wheat Belly.  Because we spent over $35, we were entitled to a free book, but we could not find a free one on the free shelf that we liked, so we quietly slipped out the front door.  We put our books into the truck and then headed over to Unique Juniper Furniture.

The showroom was closed, probably because of the torn up street, but we headed around to the back and walked up the alley.  Here we found Nefer with a dust mask on sanding a slab of juniper wood.  He invited us inside and was excited to show us the slab he picked out for our bar.

Our slab is 3 inches thick, 8 feet long, and 21 inches wide.  All of the cracks and holes have been filled with ground up blue turquoise.  Nefer buys the turquoise by the pound where it is mined in the Sonoran desert.  He showed us the big chips of turquoise, then he took us outside to show us how he grinds it up.  He uses a hand-cranked food grinder, like you would use to grind corn for tortillas!

I should have taken some pictures for you, but I left the camera in the truck!

Nefer expects to have the bar finished in the next week or two.  Because he needs the storage space, he is going to ask us to come pick up the bar and bar stools when they are ready.  We will store them until it is time for installation.

Bob requested that we go to Cody next so that he could visit Walgreens.  He wanted to get some vitamins and get his new passport photos taken.  We timed the trip to Cody as we passed Western Heartlands and we were at Cody city limits in 30 minutes (72 MPH average speed). 

After getting the pictures and vitamins at Walgreens we headed home.  The dogs did not tear the house up, and we were glad.  We stopped at O'Reilly auto parts where I got some oil and an oil filter, then we went to Blair Supermarket to get some food for the next few days.

This morning it was much clearer and sunny.  Temperatures made it up into the 50's.  So I started the truck to warm it up and then I went out to prepare to change the oil.  I got the oil changed, but noticed that the side and bottom of the engine were very greasy with oil and antifreeze.  I ran the engine to get it hot, then used Gunk to clean the engine and engine compartment.  I took the truck over to the self-serve car wash and used the pressure washer to clean all of the gunk off.

During the afternoon I painted my leather checkbook cover project in the basement, showered and shaved, and prepared for another week of work.  Bob spent the day getting his medical records and MRI images ready for his doctor visit tomorrow.

Powell, WY

TGIF!

Today was a busy day, but overall, it was good.  We worked our butts off in the Clerk's office and deserve a break now.

Barbara has been trying sooooo hard to be nice these past couple of days.  I do not know if anyone talked to her, but Jerri knows that I was pissed with Barbara.

YRA airport and Cody from Beacon Hill.

I went in early to get my scanning caught up.  I stopped on Beacon hill and took this picture looking over Yellowstone Regional Airport and Cody beyond.  In the background you can see Spirit Mountain, the Shoshone Canyon, and Rattlesnake Mountain.  The Golden Hour lighting was just too good to pass up!

Jerri and Leonard are playing out at the Edelweiss in Clark this evening, but I really don't feel like going any place.  Besides we would have to get a tank of gas before we went.  We are planning to go to Red Lodge tomorrow to view the slab Nefer has brought in to use for our bar top.

Bob made salmon filets with pesto sauce and some chopped baked sweet potatoes for our dinner and it was good.  Now we are going to watch some video over the Internet, and head to bed.

Powell, WY

We received an email message last night from Angie, Connie Tullos' daughter.  She told us that Connie died
in the hospital on Friday, April 5.  She had been in the hospital two weeks to the day.  She mentioned to her daughter that she just loved talking with Bob and me.

Connie was a lady from Mississippi that we met during our train ride in Alaska.  She was very friendly and she was taking a trip with her husband, Jimmie because she had just had triple-bypass surgery.  After we returned home, Connie continued to follow our adventures in my blog and she wrote to us from time-to-time.  Later we became friends on Facebook.

Elk herd at Skull Creek Hill.

This morning I took my longer detour to work through Clark.  The way the rising sun lights the Beartooth front is particularly beautiful!  From the point where WY 294 intersects with WY 120 to the courthouse parking lot took me 33 minutes.  I even stopped to dink around with my camera on my way south.

I stopped at Skull Creek Hill to take a picture of a herd of elk on the hillside.  Only when I got to Cody did I have to stop and let a juvenile deer cross the highway in front of me.

Today was another busy day in the office.  It was even busier because Kari was out sick all day.  Kari is pregnant and she's been having lots of morning sickness.  We are taking bets on when she will quit.

We got paid today.  That by itself makes it a good day.  I checked on online banking and saw that the money was actually put into my account last night!  So, I sat down after work and wrote a check for the land payment, made online payments to Lowe's and Verizon, and then put $200 into my savings account.

Dinner this evening was turkey roll with asparagus and salad.  We had the leftover vanilla ice cream for dessert.  Now we are enjoying some relaxing nighty-night tea before heading upstairs to sleep.  I am glad tomorrow is Friday!

Powell, WY

Our brief spring-like weather has ended. 

There was a brief thunderstorm yesterday and we had pea-sized hail.  Then the winds began to pick up.  We heard the wind howling all night long.

This morning I left for Cody early this morning because I had scanning and other work left over from Friday evening.  The drive down was a little difficult because the wind was blowing so hard I was fighting to keep the truck in my lane!

After I got to work it began to snow.  It snowed hard and began to stick to the ground.

The drive back home was even more difficult.  Big Horn Avenue was covered in slippery black ice and the truck slid several times as the high winds moved it sideways!  We did not set any world speed records on the return trip to Powell!  I briefly considered turning around and spending the night in Cody.

Once I was out of Cody the road was in better shape, but I fought the wind all the way home.  There was lots of blowing snow and visibility was not very good.

The roads will probably be an ice skating rink tomorrow morning.

Weekend

Leonard, Jerri, Mike, Roly, and Bob.

We ended the week on Casual Friday, and it was good to see this week off.  It was very hectic.  After taking a nasty phone call from the Treasurer's Office, I stomped into the vault and told Jerri, "Call the bailiff because I am going over to the Treasurer's Office to punch someone in the throat!"   Roly started laughing out loud because he knew who I meant.

She got up and phoned over there, but she didn't get a warm reception from the bitch that heads that department up.  I am telling you, something very bad is going to happen to Sally Henderson one of these days.

Last night we went over to Jerri and Leonard's house.  Jerri lit her brush pit on fire and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  This pit is also full of horse manure and it burns very well.  Jerri said, "I have my employees over to my house to eat shit!"  Hahaha!

This morning I loaded the 55-gallon drums onto the truck, filled them with warm water, loaded up the weed sprayer, brooms, squeegee, 5-gallon bucket, citrus concrete stripper, and some rags.  We got a McDonald's breakfast and then headed to Clark to clean the sealer off of the concrete slab and prepare it for staining.

It was a little cool and windy because rain was forecast.  We started by spreading water all over the slab to get it moist, then we filled the weed sprayer with citrus concrete stripper, pumped it up and began to spray it all over the slab.  We worked it in with a broom and let it sit for about 30 minutes.

Bob standing on the clean slab.

We put more stripper on and brushed at 90 degrees to the first go.  Then it was time to start rinsing it all off.  This was treacherous because the stripper and sealer and diesel fuel mix was very slippery.   Bob fell once and I fell once getting down from the truck.  We took off our shoes and worked barefoot on the slab.

The slab is as clean as we could get it, but we are going to have to return after we get electric out there and use Bob's motorized floor scrubber and a pressure washer to get it completely clean.  If you don't get all of the stripper up, it will turn the stain black when you apply it.

We packed up around 12:45, headed down to the Edelweiss to get drinks, and then went to the Clark Pioneer Rec Center to pick up our Bountiful Basket.

Now we've had a dinner of baked salmon with baked cubed sweet potatoes.  I have done some laundry.  I sliced 4 pounds of strawberries and packed them in light syrup for freezing.  We are both sore and tired.

Powell, WY

This morning I took a different route to work for a change.  I drove west on Lane 9 until I came  to Road 18.  Here I turned toward Badger Basin and drove to Clark.  I saw antelope on this route and the Beartooth Mountain front was lit up very brightly and colorfully by the rising sun.

At Clark I turned left on to Wyoming Highway 120 and headed down to Cody.  I had to slow down as I approached the Chief Joseph area because there were deer crossing the highway.  They just walk up to the fence and jump across it with ease.

Although this route is a few miles longer, it only took me 10 minutes longer to get to the courthouse.

Barbara came back to work today.  I was a little surprised to see her.  She was in a good mood all day and nobody got a lecture.

My first customer of the day was a doozy.  She had title work waiting for her, plus she had a lien release and four titles in addition to the truck that needed a transfer.   I began with the four lien terminations since they would have to be clear before I could give any of them back to her or transfer them to a new security agreement, which is what 3 out of the 4 would be doing.  Additionally, two of the titles were filled up, and new titles, in-lieu of titles would have to be created for lien addition.

Because it was taking a little while the lady, who was hovering over me, said, "Is there something wrong?"  I replied, "No, there is nothing wrong, but there is a little bit of a process I have to follow, and you have quite a bit of collateral here." It took about 30 minutes to get all of her stuff taken care of, and the fees came to $40.  ($9 for the title transfer, $9 each for two in-lieu of  titles, and $10 for the new security agreement).

We really stay busy all day in the Clerk's Office!

In the afternoon a man from River-Rail Community Federal Credit Union came in with a Big Horn County title that had a lien on it from River-Rail, but the lien had been lifted by Big Horn County.  He had an affidavit of repossession, and he wanted me to transfer this title into the bank's name.  I looked on the back, and nobody had signed off on it.  I took it to Barbara, she got up and she loudly began to tell him that this was a clear title and there is no way our office was going to repossess it.  She told him that when he had the lien lifted, his bank gave up any claim to the collateral.  She said, "I don't know what you are going to do, but our office WILL NOT be transferring that title."

I cannot understand how this happens.  The banks do 100's of repo's every year.  How can they manage to mess this up?

This evening I talked with Dad for a little bit.  He is out of the hospital and feeling okay.  His blood work numbers are great, his heart is great, his blood vessels for the most part are clean.  One theory about what happened in his head is that the blood vessel collapsed and then clotted.  He has more tests and a questionnaire to fill out for the doctors.

When I got home I found a note paper clipped to the gate.  "Dear Vince and Bob, I chopped down some cherry trees today and the city will not let me stack the wood near the dumpster.  I am sorry about all of the mess.  I will clean it up as soon as I can.  The city will come and chip the wood up to make mulch.  Martha Christiansen"

Dear God!  She is 80 years old!  How did she chop down trees?  Bob said he saw her using a chainsaw!