Bozeman, Yellowstone, and Heading Home….

After arriving in Bozeman, we had an extra day to kick around so we drove here and there a bit.  Ever forgetting something, we made a trip to the local Wal-Mart to pick up a couple of things that we found we were in need of.  As we walked through the parking lot, there was a sign in a spot right next to the handicapped parking.  I got so tickled when I saw this sign (I’ve never seen this before!):

It’s not that uncommon to see an airport, even in a smaller community, but I’ve never seen such a scenic route taking you there:

We also knocked around the historic part of town, and I found just the perfect house:

Here is another sign that was on that very residential street, and it is certainly not something I’ve ever seen in Texas:

Bozeman seems to be a very “organic”  and green town in many respects.  I saw a lot of people riding bicycles – not wearing biking pants and helmets via Lance Armstrong, but even wearing skirts and sandals with their groceries safely secured on the back.  I had visited the very large organic food co-op on my first visit, but I hadn’t noticed this little co-op tucked among the quaint shops on Main Street.  I wonder:  how many organic food co-ops are there in town?

We spent some time in our room, and a very antsy Alan passed the time by keeping connected on Facebook:

I love watching local news when I am visiting an area, and I have been struck by the local news anchor.  While still attractive, she is not a blonde, 20-something, contact lens wearing slip-of-a-girl (which seems to be a major requirement for Fox news anchors -- Hooray for women of wisdom and substance!):

On “Yellowstone” day, Alan was up a little before 5:00 a.m.  He was supposed to be at the bus station across the street no later than 7:15 a.m. (not too bad), but at 6:00 he announced that he was going to go on over.  He had stepped out for a while and had noticed that several people were already there.  I was instructed that I was NOT going over with him (as I did last time) to wait for the bus; he would just say his good-byes in the room so as not to be the butt of “mama’s boy” jokes for months to come.  It reminded me of the day that my kindergartener told me not to kiss him in front of school, and in fact, I could just drop him off at the corner.  Oh, the pain in a mother’s heart!  Once he was gone, I figured I might as well get going myself, so I prepared to leave.  As I was loading the car I noticed that the bus was there.  I couldn’t help myself – I had to hide behind the bushes and take a picture of the bus.  I thought I was ready for all of this (after all, we did it last year), but I found myself unprepared for the incredible sense of sadness that I experienced as his bus pulled away.  I ended up crying like a real nit-wit.  My heart certainly goes out to any mother who sends her child away to war – I can’t even imagine how they must feel.  They have my utmost respect and empathy.

Once he was gone, there was no sense in dallying, so I hit the road.  I couldn’t drive past Sheridan, Wyoming, without stopping at this scenic turnout overlooking a beautiful valley:

Spending the night in Cheyenne, I have put my beloved mountains behind me.  I am on my way home.

To Another Place and Time…

I’m writing this while sitting in one of my favorite places in the world…Bozeman, Montana!  Alan decided to return to Yellowstone to work this year (he’s even considering staying over the winter), and I am the one who got to bring him up.  After two-and-one-half days of driving, I have been transported to another world.

Here’s Alan, at home before we left, ready to go (he is really more excited than he looks; he just doesn’t like being in pictures or taking them):

For the most part, the trip was non-eventful.  I wish I had more pictures, but unfortunately my fare does not like to take pictures and I was a little busy driving.  We were in some VERY heavy rain for a lot of our drive through Oklahoma, and while driving through Oklahoma City the rain was so heavy that you couldn't see the signs for the exit until it was too late to take one.  Hooray for Tom Tom -- I didn't have to read the signs.  The rain wasn't exceptionally heavy throughout Kansas, although it was just misty and yucky for a lot of the drive.  For me, the most exciting sight in Kansas was the wind farm.  Even though I’ve seen it before, I still find it striking:

Kansas was more of an audio experience this time.  I lost talk radio just as we got past Hays and I started searching for a radio station.  I could only get one station at one point and it was an “oldies” station.  It was actually quite a hoot for me because it wasn’t playing songs from my teen and young adult years – it was playing songs that I remember hearing when I was quite a young girl.  There is nothing like music to take you to a certain period in time.  It was a little weird when I realized that I remembered the words to all of the songs; I can’t remember where I put my car keys half of the time!

On the second day, we got into Sheridan a little later in the day than we normally arrive on other legs of the journey.  On the drive through Wyoming we listened to a radio news show, “Wyoming Tonight”(?) and it’s always fun to get a feel for an area through its news programs.  Here are some of the big stories:

1.  Some highway near Riverton had had both lanes shut down for a while after a truck carrying some bees had gone off of the road.  The road stayed shut down until the area fire department took care of the bees.

2.  Gas prices in Wyoming are some of the lowest in the country due to the fact that they get a large supply of their crude oil from Canada, and Wyoming refineries are humming along with no problems.  I took this picture as we fueled up in Sheridan:

3.  Of interest to my husband, the hydrologist, would be the story about Wyoming taking measures to do some controlled releases of water in the area.  Apparently, Wyoming had a much larger than normal amount of snow pack this year, and coupled with the large amount of rain they have been getting/are expecting this week, they needed to do these controlled releases to make room in area lakes for storage of the large amount of melting snow/water.  This made me happy because I know that often having enough water is an issue in some places in this part of the country.

Sheridan is still beautiful, and I love being able to see the mountains, no matter where in town you are:

The best part of the drive for me is the area just outside of Bozeman.  That’s where you really start to see the mountains.  At first they were really “misty”:

Something that I found really exciting was that it began to snow as we went further up into the mountains.  The air temperature was cold enough for the snow, but the ground temperature was warm enough that it didn’t stick to the roads and posed no danger to a Texas driver.  I always love to see the snow covered trees, especially the little “Christmas” trees:

Once we were at the motel, I wanted a picture of the snow:

Alan and I treated ourselves to another “blast” from our past.  The “Dairy Queen” restaurant was everywhere when I was growing up, but they have all but totally disappeared from the area in which I now live.  However, Bozeman has a great Dairy Queen, and that’s where we decided to go for dinner.  Here is a picture of Main Street and all of the cute little shops:

After we ate, I took this picture of some birds that were sitting near a dumpster.  Holy cow!  I feed the birds at home (every day), but I don’t think I could keep up with these guys!

Alan doesn’t leave for Yellowstone until Thursday morning, so we are hoping to get out and explore a little tomorrow.  I can’t wait!

Stinky McFinkey, Order from Chaos, and Chickens

It seems like it has been forever since I have been able to read blogs (and I’ve missed that!) or write one of my own.  I have been so busy that it’s not even funny.  March is the “birthday” of Relief Society, our women’s organization at church and I was in charge of a big, blowout dinner celebration.  Although it did not occupy all of my time, it did occupy all of my brain cells for the first half of the month.   I am terrible when I have an event looming on the horizon; I can’t think of anything besides “the event” and do not switch gears very well.  It is almost paralyzing at times.  Glad that’s over.

I also began a new adventure in March (in fact, the week of the dinner).  It’s a long story, and it’s their story to tell (not mine), but the bottom line is that Miss Popper is no longer going to day care when her parents are at work.   She is now spending her weekdays with her old Lolee, who does the best she can to keep up.  It is actually quite comical to see us.  The little girl who arrives at my house around 7:30 in the morning has been roused from her blissful sleep by her mother, who insists on waking her in order to change her diaper, feed her, and all that stuff.  By the time she gets to my house she is quite done with it all and can be somewhat irritable.  I call this little child, “Stinky McFinkey”.  I do my best to console Miss McFinkey, I give her some breakfast and a bottle, and then I put her little fanny down for a morning nap.

Miss McFinkey insisting on feeding herself:

Nap time is where the magic happens.  Over the next hour or so, this slumbering child is transformed.  When she awakens, she is no longer “Stinky McFinkey” – she has become “Cutie McTooty”.   Little “Cutie” and I have a pretty good time for the rest of the day.  So far, we have both survived three weeks.  She is so sweet and we have been working on reaching her milestones (sitting up, etc.) together.  I love having my girl here, but I will say that there is a reason that 50-year old women are infertile.  I just don’t have the energy her mother seems to have. 

Here is my girl, having a great time playing:

When I am not trying to keep Miss Popper alive or doing church stuff, I have been trying to work on our yard.  There is a reason that I have never shown a full picture of our yard (only close-ups and snippets).  You see, our dogs declared war on our yard a few years back, and they seem to have adopted a “scorched earth” policy.  We also have a variety of building projects that were started, but not finished, resulting in piles of lumber and building materials scattered hither and yon.  This is the year that we are finally working TOGETHER to get our yard in shape.  Robert is working on finishing the mansion for the chickens and other items in an attempt to use up the lumber.  I am planting flowers, herbs, and berry bushes everywhere that there is sun in the hope that if there is enough stuff growing, it won’t be so obvious that we don’t have grass.  We are also looking at laying some more flagstones on all of the “paths” that the dogs have created.  We are trying to create order from chaos.  Once we are finished, I might get brave enough to show you some “before” and “after” pictures.  For now, I will just show you a couple of things that I found this spring that were inexpensive, but that I find oh-so-neat.

I found this cute little thing at “Dollar Tree” for one dollar.  By having Robert drill some holes in the bottom, I transformed it into a cute little planter, just right for one lone plant:

My favorite thing is the set of solar-powered butterfly lights.  I put them among the butterfly bushes (ha ha).  Once dusk arrives, they put on quite a show, changing colors in sequence.  Beautiful!

I am still enjoying our chickens, Opal and Ruby.  I do have to make time for them to run loose in the yard because the hawk is still in the area.  Too many times I go out into the yard, only to find feathers everywhere:

That sight still makes me sick.  Not my girls!  So they are kept safe when we are not in the yard and allowed to run crazy when we can be out there.  I tried to get a good picture of them tonight, but they don’t stay still for very long.  Here is a blurry picture that at least shows what big girls they are:

So that’s it!  That’s the big excitement here in Woodbury World.  Hope things are going well in yours!

Kindred Spirits

I recently read a post by Kathleen from “Eggs In My Pocket” that made me laugh so hard that I immediately ran to Mom’s room to show it to her.  “What could be so funny?” you might wonder.  Kathleen had taken pictures of her cookbook collection for her post entitled, “I Love Cook Books---" , and you will see why I found it so amusing in just a minute.

When we remodeled our kitchen, Robert decided it would be nice to have a breakfast bar along the outer wall.  I asked that he not use plain legs at each end of the bar; instead, I thought it would be a good idea to have cubes holding up the countertop.  Why cubes?  Well, here’s the support for the left side of the breakfast bar:

And here’s the support for the right side of the breakfast bar:

Do you see the humor now?

Kathleen’s blog is just one of many blogs that I have discovered and enjoyed.  I not only enjoy these blogs, but I also have found that they have helped my self-esteem like nothing else.  You see, when it comes to loving squirrels, chickens, cook books, compost, and wanting to live in the country, I am the oddball in my family.  This has led me at times to question the wisdom and validity of my own desires and dreams.  I lived over 40 years as a city girl, and I was perfectly content.  Why, all of the sudden was I morphing into an animal-loving, learning-to-quilt-and-sew, earth mother? Was I losing my mind?  Was this one of those horrid side effects of pre-menopause?  Was I just a nit-wit?

The blogs which I have discovered and enjoyed have let me know that I am not alone.  As I read the experiences of others, those experiences are always good for a chuckle and a lot of inspiration as well!  The ties that I feel toward people whom I have never met constantly amaze me.

I initially was not into reading blogs, nor was I interested in writing blogs.  I am a practical girl with lots to do, and therefore everything that I do has to have a purpose.  Then I became the “Emergency Preparedness Specialist” for my congregation at church.  There wasn’t enough paper in the world to give out all of the neat information that I was finding, so I began my blog, “The Gan-Green Thumb”.  In addition to articles about food storage, flood insurance, 72-hour kits, etc., “The Gan-Green Thumb” is also a chronicle of my misadventures in gardening (an essential part of self-reliance).  I try and fail and try again, and then I report on my experiences.  This blog was a worthwhile venture for me because it was a tool to help others find resources to help them in their quest for self-reliance.  It had a purpose.

I had no desire to have a personal/family blog.  However, two people changed my idea about that.  My friend, Kim, and I had just reconnected via Facebook after losing touch for several years.  I absolutely LOVED being able to check in on her and her house full of rescue dogs via her blog, “Life at Golden Pines”.  Talk about connecting!  Also, my daughter has a blog, “Lackey Antics”, and through her blog (as well as Kim’s) I began to see the possibilities.

Thus, “Woodbury World” was born, and it wasn’t long before I was blog surfing to see what else was out there, as well as reading the blogs that many of my new friends had listed on their reading lists.  I have found treasure beyond belief!

Maura at "Lilac Lane Cottage" was kind enough to make a comment on my chicken post and let me know that she also kept some baby chickens in her house for awhile.  Her love for her chickens lets me know that I am not a looney tune.  Oh, and her blog is absolutely beautiful.  I would so move in to Lilac Lane Cottage if she would let me!

I recently found a new smile or two over at “Life on Sassy Cat Hill”.  The picture of the three baby squirrels (click here) brought a smile to my face and a tear to my eye as I thought of my sweet  Chewka Marie.  Also, seeing rabbits and cats hanging out together brightens my day!

As a practical girl, I am often at war with myself when it comes to taking out time to do crafts.  There’s always a little voice in my ear whispering, “You know, if you have all this time to cross stitch, you could use that same time to clean the bathroom or rake those leaves.”  Many thanks to Kathleen and her blog, “Yesteryear Embroideries”, for helping me to give myself permission to take time to create.  Also, “Crazy Mom Quilts” and the lady over at “Muddling Through” make me want to lock myself in a room with my sewing machine for at least a couple of days.

One of the first blogs that I found was “Lallee’s Cottage”.  I think that it was when reading her blog that I realized that there are some kindred spirits out there.  Her love for her animals really shows, and I enjoyed reading about her remodeling her guest room awhile back (we are always remodeling something in our house, so knowing that other people are busy, too, kind of helps).  I have often laughed and told my mom that Lallee is who I would be if I had a nicer house!  In fact, my “grandma” name is “Lolee”, and although it was not planned nor patterned after Lallee’s name, I kind of like being in such good company.

I could go on forever:  pretty much every blog that is listed on my reading list is there because I found either inspiration or kinship, or both (and all of the recipe blogs are good for a couple of pounds or so!).  I am so grateful that I have the chance to find “kindred spirits”.  Thanks to ALL who share of themselves so that others may have a smile or two!  You often make my day!

Chicken Update!

The girls are finally outside (they moved out on Sunday night), and so far things are going well(except that I sometimes miss them being so close – but not their mess!).  While the “mansion” (big coop) is not ready, the “efficiency apartment” (tractor) has finally been completed.  Robert did a pretty nifty job in transforming what was once Molly’s dog crate into a suitable short-term home for my girls.

Here is a picture to give you the overall idea.  He eventually DID put the finer mesh all the way around the coop (even the doors) to keep the possums and other critters from being able to reach in and grab the girls:

He made a hinged lid for easy access for us:

Here’s a look at the inside (before I added the pine shavings):

There’s also a panel in the back that cannot be lifted unless the heavy, hinged door is up:

What was once the bottom liner of the crate is now a removable roof:

As long as there is chow and fresh water, the girls are pretty content:

It took them several hours to discover that the crate had a new addition, but once they did, they seemed to enjoy being in there.  We have a removable panel so that if it is too cold, stormy, etc., we can lock them in:

But their favorite time of the day is when their mother comes outside for awhile and lets them run around.  I do this two or three times a day.  I wish I could just turn them loose on their own for hours on end, but between the dogs and the hawk that hunts in our neighborhood relentlessly, I feel like they need some watching.  It tickles me to see them pecking and scratching and acting so “chickeney”.  Opal found a grub on her first trip out and was so very proud of herself!

They found a spot in the yard where the dirt was somewhat soft and had the best time taking a sand bath.  At one point there was so much flapping and carrying on that Opal looked like she was having a convulsion!  This is one of their favorite things to do:

However, one of my favorite things occurs right before I tuck them in at night.  I let them run around for one last time for the evening as I sit in a chair.  It isn’t long before Ruby flies up to sit in my lap, and Opal soon follows.  They will roost on my shoulder and just cuddle and coo.  Ruby likes to put her cheek right up against mine and rest.  Opal will move down to the crook of my arm and let me pet her until she falls asleep.  They will each just snooze until I tell them, “Girls, we can’t stay here all night.  I have to go in!”  Then I put them back in the tractor and they settle in for the night.  I just love those chickens!

Happy Valentines Day!

Is there anything sweeter?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Something to Cluck About

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and I received a very unique gift. As many people who know me have discovered, I have a real itch to move to the country and once I get there, I want to have a few chickens. I have bought a couple of books (just to be ready when the time comes) and I look forward to fresh eggs and feathered friends. Well, on my birthday, my husband surprised me by bringing the country to me. I received two baby chicks.

They are just as cute as they can be…two little gals…I was told they are Ameraucana by breed…about 6-7 weeks or so old. They have interesting feather coloration and green legs and feet. When they are older they will lay green eggs (I think there’s a book title there somewhere). According to the website mypetchicken.com they may not be true blue Ameraucana, but instead may be what they refer to as “Easter Eggers”. I don’t care; they are cute and they will lay eggs of some color, and that’s good enough for me.

There’s just one little catch: We got the chickens before Robert finished the chicken coop. He had told me that he was re-doing the greenhouse, which had fallen into a sad state of disrepair. He didn’t tell me that it would be one part greenhouse and one part chicken coop. But the time got away from him and my birthday was here before he knew it. Undeterred from giving me the birthday surprise of my life, he figured we could keep them in a cage outside for a few days while he got the coop livable. What we didn’t count on was the weather system that made history as it moved across the country. We had four continuous days of ice and below freezing temperatures – unheard of for our area.

So into the family room they went. Luckily, we still had the crate in which we had put Molly when she first came here. So: two chickens…in a dog crate…in a family room…in a house. Sounds normal…at least for around here.

(The big bag of feed in the background is a birthday gift from my daughter. I have put it up for when they are older because they are eating a special medicated chick starter feed now. It's good to know we will always have plenty of supplies!)

I will say this: Having them in such close proximity has led to having some pretty tame chickens. By the second day the golden-colored chicken, now named Opal, flew across the cage and sat on my shoulder when I opened the door. She is somewhat shy, so this surprised me quite a bit. However, she has continued to come to me on her own, every time I open the door, and she loves to ride on my shoulder and “peep” in my ear. If I hold her just right, she will snuggle down and doze in my arms. She never strays far from me whenever she is out. She lets me kiss the top of her little scraggly head, and she loves to have her “chin” scratched.

The dark brown chicken, now named Ruby, comes to me every time, also. However, I don’t think she is motivated by “love” for me; I think she mostly wants to make sure that I am not going to hurt Opal. Ruby is very protective of Opal. Ruby is also more adventurous than Opal and is more prone to hop off of my shoulder and look around a bit. However, she doesn’t go too far, and is still very good about coming right back to me. I get tickled at her boldness; she is constantly hopping on top of her feeder and playing “Queen of the Hill”. However, having pine shavings everywhere is not quite as funny, but luckily it is not forever. I have become a champion broom handler.

Robert is working on a smaller habitat, known as a chicken tractor, because he will be able to have it finished long before the coop would be ready. Also, I have always wanted a tractor because it will allow the girls to tromp around our yard and still be protected from the hawk that frequents our neighborhood. (I would croak if something bad happened to my girls -- I’m too attached now!). In the meantime, I will just sweep and sweep as they peep and peep.