Chirstmas time

It is very hard to hold still long enough to get your picture taken when you are four and it is Christmas!
Dad, Tess and Trig sprinkling sparkly reindeer food outside the chimney on New Years Eve. This way the reindeer see the sparkles and know where to go and can get a snack.

Tess got a sleeping bag. She says this is so she can "go camping in the winter." I was thinking more along the lines of camping in the summer. It was below zero again this week with winds blowing a gale.

Since we were snowed and blowed in for about 3 days. Eric and Tess decided to create a new after Christmas tradition of going swimming. So the first day we could actually stand vertically without getting blown over, we visited the Casper Rec Center to check out their pool.

Other than the weather, we had a very nice Christmas, hope you did too!

It always take a while for me to gather up the courage to post a sad post, and then it always takes while for me to gather up the steam to post after. Around that same time my cousin Beckywas killed in a tragic car accident, it is hard to understand little less write about what we can't explain. Perhaps this is what distinguishes poets from the rest of us.

But, days go by. We had a beautiful Thanksgiving. I had purchased a farm raised turkey from some folks in Carpenter. I was nervous about it being a tough and dry old bird, but it was actually wonderful. It was shaped differently than a store bought bird, having larger legs and smaller breast - but since Eric prefers dark meat anyway, it turned out nice.

Eric has been having to go to a class in Denver for the National Guard once or twice a month, and sometimes in addition to his normal drills. Needless to say this is keeping his on his toes and out of trouble. He was an outrider for the local chariot races and it was about 0 without the wind. He is on the far right on the Dun, Bobbie,in this photo which was taken by Ben Britton.

But zero was just the beginning.

Tess continues to love to draw and loves animals and dinosaurs and Barbie and the Three Muskateers. I didn't know if I approved of Barbie, but the premise is that girls can be Muskateers just as well as boys. She folds paper swords.

I went to a bee keeping class this weekend and looking forward to my first hive in the spring. I turned a year older since the last post...hopefully a year wiser.

There is sorrow enough in the natural way

From men and women to fill our day;

But when we are certain of sorrow in store

Why do we always arrange for more?

Brothers and sisters I bid you beware

Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

About 6 months, always photogenic.

In Cody at Search and Rescue school.

Swimming at Flaming Gorge.


Camping

First day at home.

Plus many, many other photos within the blog....

Again we say goodbye to a loyal friend.

Just look at this empty halloween bag. I am such an abused child.

Ignore the chocolate on my lips.

Trig says....

Whose bright idea was it to bring me from my birthplace in Arizona

to this wicked place named Wyoming?

One tough cowgirl

Weaning calves is hard work...

Especially in the wind and the rain and the snow and the mud with a stuffy nose and gloves that are too big.

But getting to move the cattle with dad, Peanuts, Banjo and the dog makes it all worth while.

I promise this is something she WANTED to do.

Harvest Home

Last year when we went to the Harvest Home corn maze and pumpkin patch there was a wind chill of about -20 it seemed.

Last weekend, we had ten inches of snow and black ice advisories. Love that Wyoming weather!

This weekend it was 80 at the Harvest Home. Perfect weather for pumpkin hunting and the highlight, the corn box! We took our annual trek with our friend Lydia (far right) we ran into cousins Brock and Darci!

Back flipping into the corn.

Tess working hard to bury Lydia in the corn. Im sure Lydia's mom will be finding corn in unusual places for several weeks!

I'm king of the world....or at least Estes Park.

On the trail again

On extra good days we get to have trails not trials. Here is Eric on Clay with neighbor Roy moving neighbor Dennis's cows. Long time blog followers will recognize Clay from his baby pictures on the blog in Spring 2007. Eric is pretty proud of his progress.
True cowgirls wear their hats low.
Tess and Dad working hard. Eric got a fresh horse for moving the cattle back and for ponying Peanuts. She is Clays 1/2 sister and this is sure a nice shot of the "line-back dun." Isn't there a poem about that?
Speaking of shots, all photos in this entry are again courtesy of Karen Bennett who is our hero, as always.

Tess and Peanuts who I think are both a little on the tired side. I hear there was plenty of cow trailing songs sung in an effort to keep Tess awake and them dogies moving, but Eric would never admit to singing, so only those present will know for sure.

Tess started preschool this week. This is her first, first-day-of-school picture. So far she seems to being doing just fine. She gives us very little information about what happens at preschool, preschool must be a lot like Vegas I guess.

Over labor day, Eric and I went to Napa Valley for our anniversary.

Grapes every where you look. I told my dad it was sorta like going to Nebraska to visit corn fields, excepts they don't have moonshine tastings on the edge of the fields in Nebraska.

We rented bikes on Sunday and biked about twenty miles, stopping at several tasting rooms along the way.

More grapes! But you can see how dry the hills are...not what I was expecting.

Golden Gate. The Bay Bridge was closed, so we were expecting traffic to be much worse, but we were lucky.

Fisherman's Wharf which we visited on the way back to the airport. Interesting for us landlubbers.

Sea Lions. Tess would have loved this. But, she had fun staying with grandma and pops and they went to the National Trails Center in Casper where she learned about wagons.

Today's Harvest

A couple of pictures of our gardens gatherins for today. While we have had a rough year with the garden, we are starting to get some fixins. Today, I made chokecherry syrup a couple of which are shown here just for fun. Tess is excited to have this on ice cream with her Pops. Also pictured are some of the plums we picked today (many more in coffee cans spread around the house), the only acorn squash I think we are going to get, part of the tomatoes, brocolli and cauliflower and we even got 9 outta 9 on the eggs today. I made pickled beets a couple of weeks ago but I forgot to put them in the photo.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to make carrot pepper salsa as we still have lots of carrots and onions and maybe that will also cut down on my tomato and jalepeno numbers. If I'm real ambitious maybe I'll get some photos.

Trying the followers widget for awhile. I believe that if you become a follower, you will get the breaking news when there is a new post. You might even see a common friend or too. Its not hard.

Wings and Things

A few weeks ago, Ft. Laramie held a program about bats and other nocturnal animals. There are several different species of bats occupying some of the older buildings at the Fort, and the Wyoming Game and Fish, National Fish and Wildlife and National Park folks set up nets to catch and observe them up close. Most imporantly though, there was an educator from Riverside Zoo in Scottsbluff who brought a SCREETCH OWL!!! Tess was horribly excited to go to see the SCREETCH OWL! Here she is with a wing from a Great Horned Owl. She was excited to learn all of the owl facts.

We also went rafting the other day.

Raft navigator extrodinaire. We are able to put in at the power plant at Glendo, then raft down to our place and get out. With the water running this high and fast it takes about 1.5 - 2 hours.

Speaking of rafting, some of our Oklahoma counsins came for a visit and they went rafting. The best part of their visit though was the cheese. They are partners in a new goat cheese factory in OK. They left a variety pack of their cheese and it is excellent! Eric ate the smoked pepper jack almost immediately. There is nothing better than a egg-mcmuffin sandwich in the morning with a fresh egg, homemade bread and cheese made by your family -- perfect. If I've tempted you, you can check them out at http://www.pureprairiecreamery.com/ As for the fresh eggs, I have been selling out and may have to get more hens next year to keep up wth demand.

Sunset from our porch the other night.

Trig's big ride

Saturday we loaded up the pickup to move the cows from one summer pasture to another. Trig has been on several short rides before and has been practicing chasing cows out of the yard (although not in time to save our garden from an untimely heifer demise) but he finally got to go with the big boys! In the pickup with Alice.

as easy as one....

two (he is hiding behind a sagebrush in the center)

three!

Big reward of a swim in the tank at the end!

Cassa briefs

Our summer has been fun and full. Here are a few highlights...Wandering bulls seem to take up more time in a summer than they deserve.

Lovin' on Pryce's pig. Not sure who has the bigger smile in this picture.

Watchin' dad ranch rope at Millikins!

Dad ropin'

Taking the dogs for a hike along Middle Bear

Baseball practice.

and Bible School, Tess was the youngest and won the top student award for the pre-primary class. This was her second Bible School, the first, she was a little nervous.

We went to Frontier Days on Friday and Tess rode all the rides she could. We were fully prepared for the big slide as last year it was her favorite, but this year the merry-go-round was the biggest hit.

Eric and I took our raft out this morning down the Platte to soak up some rays.

We were sad to suddenly lose my Uncle Rudy. But glad we had just gotten to see him and his legacy at the family reunion.

The hay looks good and the cows are fat. Our garden is growing, almost as fast as the weeds.

Good night and good luck from the Cassa flats.

Families

We loaded up the pickup with dogs, a tent and a bunch of eggs and joined a passle of Curtis Cousins this weekend at Flaming Gorge to celebrate my Aunt Lorna and Uncle Rudy's 50th Wedding Anniversary.

We went rafting down the Green River.

I especially like this picture of Eric looking mischevious as he climbs back into the boat after he jumped into the COLD water. Cousin John also had jumped in and was trying to get his girlfriend Billie all wet.

A whole boat load of cousins.

Tess playing "Go Fish" with my cousin Dahlene and her son Jaron. Dahlene also taught me to knit hats.

Tess enjoying the sunset.

Friday was wet and cold and we were thankful we had two dogs to make it a two dog night. Saturday we had a nice dinner and a huge cake to celebrate Lorna and Rudy's anniversary. Tess reports she is ready to go camping again on "Tuesday or Friday."