Thursday, August 30, 2012

Horse show

Tess and her dad recently went to the local gymkana and then to the local horseshow.
 Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!
 Ribbon collector after her first gymkana.
 First gymkana
 First horse show.
 Ribbons after the horse show.
Practice at the horse show.
There is one horseshow left this season. They are already making plans. The mom will plan on taking her better camera.

Friday, August 03, 2012

Cousin Christine's wedding.

The best part of my part time judge appointment is that I can perform wedding ceremonies. I have gotten to marry some of my lifelong friends, did a surprise wedding on horseback in the middle of a branding, and a rained out wedding in Herb's living room. Later this summer I'm doing a wedding on a boat! But getting to marry my cousin Christine Curtis earlier this summer in Lander was special.
 The best part about being the officiant of a wedding is getting to hang out with the groom and groomsmen while we are waiting for the bride to arrive.
I enjoyed getting to know Kolten a little better.
 Beautiful bride and groom. They had picked out real special vows.
 All smiles!
 I think my dad is saying "they really let you be a judge, huh?"
 Aunt Lorna and Cousin Jill looking magnificent!
 A large portion of the Curtis wildbunch - Uncle Alan, Dad Doug, Aunt Lorna,
 Uncle Gene, Uncle Calvin
 Tess, Aunt Emalee and me.
 Aunt Lorna and Uncle Alan
 Big stories being told.
Uncle Alan brought Christine to the wedding on their tractor - Tess and Pops had to try it out.
We had a wonderful time in Lander, catching up and eating a chokecherry milkshake and checking out Sinks Canyon. Christine was such a beautiful bride!

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Sawmill Fire Collection

This is when the fire started. Taken from the east side of our house. The fire at this point is on the south side of Sawmill Canyon, pretty far back in the canyon on or just outside of the impact range.

It didn't take long that afternoon to become this and it jumped to the north side of Sawmill and was headed north and west down the canyon. This is from our porch.
My friend whose sons are fire fighters said that when the smoke looks like this and creates clouds is when the fire is so hot it "creates its own weather" which we heard so much about during the Arapahoe fire and its ever changing wind patterns.

My dad's fire truck, Glendo Unit 15. Here we are waiting at Regan draw with is one draw north of Sawmill, near the Stone House. Soon after this my dad got his dozer and began building fire line which is what he did for about 2 days straight.

Third night of the fire, now it extends from Sawmill to Regan draw. The blue light is my parent's yard light. My parents have put computers and family photos in their cars, although we were never given an official evacuation notice.  There is still a river between those flames and their house.





This is looking up the North Cassa Road on Wednesday afternoon.
Frey's bridge on Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday evening.

Pictures Eric took of fire on Thursday. He spent the day with the fire truck.

The fireline and various trucks. Notice how horribly dry it is. Hardly a blade of grass in sight. It is July, not October.

Hot shot gang. Also a good picture of the fireline.

Up Regan draw

Lacy and Rowdy built this sign.

Taken from our big River pump.

From the bridge looking up river either Wednesday or Thursday. This is burn out smoke I believe. But the burnouts worked. The color in this picture is not from instagram - but is the real thing.

Unit 15 and Eric. There were fire trucks from all over. Torrington, Guernsey, Berthoud Colorado, Riverton, Worland, Cody, South Dakota, four hot shot teams from Colorado, and this was just what I saw while delivering chicken legs and watermelon.
 I didn't get very good pictures of the air support. But there were at least two helicopters with buckets.
And this big helicopter with a suction tube. It was amazing to watch. They would fill from the river. Also C-130's dropping the red fire retardant. Also there were numerous spotter planes flying about the whole time.

So when all was said and done and thanks to fireman and good wind directions this fire stayed on the east side of the river. It significantly damaged our neighbors property. No structures were lost, but almost 15,000 acres. There is a good map here.  http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3024/
As I speak Eric and dad are out again at another fire nearby this one and there are two other fires burning in our county, not to mention Arapahoe which has burned almost 100,000 acres and some of our friends have lost their home in that fire, not to mention their pasture. It is incredibly dry and we aren't even to August yet. I'm afraid if crickets rub their knees it will start a fire at this point. I hope this is the last of the fire pictures I have to post.

Monday, July 02, 2012

The smallest firefighter

The Arapaho fire is quickly burning to the west. It is currently at 80K plus acres. The sky is full of smoke and the hills are afire. Thankfully firefighters are working day and night to stop it. Many of our friends and neighbors have lost buildings, homes, and almost everyone is mourning the loss of  a piece of their memories of Laramie Peak.
 However, thankfully, some firefighters have stayed close to home. This afternoon we had a brief rainshower which wasn't even enough to keep the dust down but was enough to start a lightening fire a few miles from our house up Middle Bear. Many of our friends and neighbors spotted the fire from the interstate. While my dad had been dispatched to Arapaho last night, he didn't have to stay up there too long and was able to come home in the early morning hours. We are glad he came back so he and Eric could take Unit 15 up Middle Bear and put this fire out before it started.
 When the flames were out, the smallest fire fighter was disptached.
 This fire was particularly scary becuase it was very near power lines as you can see from the pole in the background here.
 Tess mopping up.


Unit 15 and Unit 14 mopping up. We are thankful for our local firemen. Firefighting is a hot, dirty, dangerous and plenty miserable job.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

It wouldn't be spring without branding pics!

Branding Dennis's cows at South Bear. May 13.
 Tess and Belle bringing in the cows
 Karen, Tess and I gathering, Dennis in the foreground. For the record, this adventure was not exactly this peaceful and serene. The other ten cowboys are off running down the ones that escaped!

Three generations of branders.


 Eric and Clay
Some photos by our multitalented friends and branding assistants Karen and Becky.

Ballerina

Tess has graduated from Introduction to Ballet to Ballet 1 and had her spring recital on May 6. These pictures are from the final dress rehearsal when I got to practice my "momarazzi" skills