Sunday, May 31, 2009

jam session

We went to a jam session last night - Dizzy, Cookie, Wrangler Sarah, Roo, and I.  


It was held at the "Mountain Meetin' Place".  

Lest you forget, we're in a very small town.  Well, village.   


So when we got there, it was a bunch of old guys - and a kid - with some people sitting in chairs facing them. 

Wrangler Sarah and Roo are very musical.  In fact, Roo is in school for music.  Oh yeah, and Cookie ain't so bad herself.  So when we showed up, they were pretty bummed.  It looked like these old guys were going to jam and we were going to listen.  

During Twist and Shout, some of the women got up to dance.  Of course, I had to join them!


I made Dizzy get up and dance with me.  


Alas, they let the girls up there to perform. 

And let me tell you, the three of them (Cookie, Wrangler Sarah, & Roo) are pretty good!  


The old guys really liked them and eventually joined in.  


The drummer even had the perfect touch for one of Roo's original songs.  

It turned out to be a pretty fun evening after all.  And we even stayed all the way until the end.  

Saturday, May 30, 2009

phew!

Can I just say it has been one heck of a week?!?

(That's Roo, in case you were wondering.)

I haven't posted for a couple of days.  Thursday night we went to the Potbelly, a local establishment, with a couple of our guests.  And Friday night was poetry night around the campfire, which always makes for a late night.  

The girls and I are getting ready to go to a jam session.  But it's so rare that we have a down moment, we're having a hard time getting out of here.  Cookie is internet shopping and doing laundry.  Wrangler Sarah is playing the ukulele.  Roo is closet hopping trying to decide what to wear.  Dana is working on her jewelry.  And I am writing this as I water the horses.  

I think we'll get there eventually!

Hopefully, I will get some pictures and stories posted soon....maybe even of tonight's jam session!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

boy scouts

You are about to see why I didn't blog yesterday.  The good news is, I remembered to take pictures!  

It was an absolutely beautiful sunset.

So the girls decided we should go for a walk to enjoy it.


And of course, we needed some wine for the walk.  

We actually needed 2 bottles to be enough for all of us.

But I thought it might look kind of, um, well, trashy if we showed you our two bottles.

Except Wrangler Sarah didn't think so!


So I gave in.  

And, well, we were going on a walk.  

So, of course, taking along wine glasses would be a bit of a hassle.  

Actually, taking along ANY glasses would be a bit of a hassle.

So we didn't.  

But after a long day of riding, there's nothing like a big, swig of wine.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

As we walked along, we decided to hunt for feral Boy Scouts.

 
While there is a barbed wire fence in between our land and the Boy Scout land,  

there are boulders to help us over.


Except for those who wear leather-soled boots find it a bit...slick.


Roo can't help but laugh as she assists Cookie upright herself.  

Come to think of it, ALL of us were laughing.  Hence the blurry pictures!


Poor Cookie.  She tore her shirt and  her side!

But she's a trooper and kept on trekking.  


We made sure to take time to stop and smell the flowers, too.


We finally made it to the top of some rocks for the rest of the sunset, but still made it safely back before it was completely dark.  

And that's why I didn't blog yesterday.  

So there.



Monday, May 25, 2009

memorial weekend

As I mentioned yesterday, I headed back to the farm for the weekend.  I took Dizzy, the wrangler from Belarus, with me, so he could see a little more of the country.  And tell me what person DOESN'T need to see the plains of Colorado!!!

While I don't have any pictures of Dizzy - I told you, I fell off the wagon - I do have a few pictures from our weekend.  When I say "few," I mean exactly, um, eight. 



We went to a family friend's high school graduation party.


And here he is.  With a big mouthful.  I made him do it.


And here's all the food with which he was stuffing his mouth.  We did not partake because most of us were just graduation crashers.  In case you're not from a small town, this is how we do it.  It's kind of like a potluck.


This is one of the graduates he was having his party with.  Doesn't she have gorgeous hair?  I sort of miss my hair when I see this.  But then again, not really, because then I'd have to DO it.  

I didn't even get a picture of the other girl, because we weren't there very long.


But this is one of his sisters, if you care.  

I'm telling you, between not staying long and having reverted to my old ways, I have few pictures.  And it's hard to make a story of the pictures I DO have.  

Anyhow, from there we headed to the cemetery, where we put flowers on the graves of my great-grandparents on down to my uncle.  




That evening was spent in the usual style.  The older generation played music.  The in-laws chatted.  Everyone was merry.  

But, I fell off the wagon and didn't take any pictures.  Uncle Jim, did you do any better?  Can I, um, borrow some pictures?

Dizzy and I had to head out the next morning when the rest of the family was heading down, but we had a nice couple of days.  

And that's how I spent my Memorial Weekend.  

How about you?

Sunday, May 24, 2009

happy memorial day!

I headed down to the farm after work on Thursday and got back to the ranch this afternoon.  I got to go with the family to put flowers on the familial graves.  Please celebrate those who have passed before you, while you enjoy your day off (hopefully you have the day off!)

While I was at the farm, I just couldn't fight the dial-up internet - yes, there is still such a thing as dial-up internet - so I didn't get anything posted.  

Anyhow, I will hopefully get a new post up soon, but I have to admit something.

I had a relapse.  

I forgot to take pictures.  

I have a few and I'll see what I can make of them, but I'm sorry.  Hopefully I'm back on the wagon again.

See you soon!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

orientation

Orientation.  Initiation.  Hazing, if you will.

The dictionary calls hazing this:
haze2 vti
to persecute or torture somebody in a subordinate position, for example, a fraternity pledge or a first-year military academy cadet.

The only problem is...I'm NOT in a "subordinate" position.  But in this case it doesn't matter.

The lions went for the weakest of the herd...Dizzy.  Dizzy is our new guy from Belarus, so of course he's willing to go along and "learn" whatever we have to teach him.  

Next, they went for the dumb one.  That would be me.  I'm standing there, with Cookie, Dana, and Wrangler Sarah, saying, "Poor Dizzy!  That's what they meant when they kept saying 'orientation'".  

I was in the midst of clearing the picnic table when Slim, ever so politely said, "I'm sorry, but you're going to need to put that down."  I didn't even have a chance to run before they grabbed me.  

I kicked and screamed.  


The dogs barked.  


I held myself rigid so I wouldn't end up with with splinters in really uncomfortable places.


While they were kind enough to take off my hat, they dropped me in head first.  GROSS!


And can I just TELL you how FUH-reez-ing that water was!  Ugh!

It was one of our hottest days yet.  80 degrees in the morning.  But before lunchtime, a storm started to roll in and it dropped about 10 degrees.  Brrrrrr!  Not to mention mountain water is just melted snow, so it comes out of the hose ICE COLD!

The lions went for the next dumbest.  Apparently, the cooks thought they were immune to being thrown into the trough, which is why Cookie grabbed my camera and followed me down.  But, alas, she was next.


And again, they were kind enough to let people take off important items, such as boots.  



It just makes me really happy to see how wet Bryce got from dunking Cookie.  



Dana went ahead and got prepared.  She took everything out of her pockets because she KNEW she was next.


I love Cookie's face in this picture.  Check her out on the fence.


The 4 of us posed for our fuh-RIJ-id photo as Wrangler Sarah ran around the entire place with Bryce and Slim in hot pursuit.  


She was eventually captured and came willingly.

Her only request was to NOT be dunked head first because her dreads would soak up the horse nastiness more than the rest of us.  


They kindly obliged.  

And so all the new staff was successfully haz...er...initi...um...oriented.

...............................................

Roo, our new housekeeper, arrived last night.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

shelves - the hanging

Wow.  Sounds like we took a hangman's noose and just ripped 'er loose, doesn't it?  

Well, as it turns out, hanging those dadgum shelves was the hardest part about creating them.  

Dana had just arrived an hour earlier, literally, but we welcomed her by cramming her, along with Cookie, Wrangler Sarah, and me into the tiny bathroom.  

I started by looking for studs.  Yes, I know, I am ALWAYS looking for studs, but I was looking for the ones in the wall, this particular time.  And I am proud to say that my ear picked up the first one, via knocking, right away.  

The second, third, and fourth time, however, I missed.  Finally, by the fifth try, I had Sarah go get the stud finder, because I was failing miserably, even with measuring.  

As it turns out, on this ranch, studs are here, studs may be there, or studs may not be at all.  Neither Dan, nor Ellen, were surprised that I couldn't find one where there SHOULD have been one.  And there was only one.  So I REALLY hope that shelf holds.

I was using a small drill bit, which Dan bought for me since I broke the other two.  And it was really hard for me to get the screw in without spinning the drill, so Cookie took over for me.  


This is her concentrating face.  

And by the way, she is putting her foot on the sink counter to get enough force to put the top one in, so it's not that I'm just a wuss.  I mean, that is part of it, but not all of it.  


Wrangler Sarah is only smiling because I told her how to hold it more easily.  She was sweating 2 seconds before that.  


Dana is our camera woman, so you're not seeing her, but this is Cookie finishing up the job.


And this is my idea.  Come to fruition.  In all its glory.  

It makes me smile every time I go into the bathroom.  

Monday, May 18, 2009

shelves - the process

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm going to show you how I created my bathroom shelves.  

Before we get started, I want to acknowledge everyone who helped me.  I already mentioned my parents.  Wrangler Sarah and Cookie did some holding.  Dana directed the leveling.  And finally, these guys were there, every step of the way.  

That's Selene looking at you and Curly scratching her booty.  I call Curly #2, because that's what her ear tag says. 

Ahem, so as I was saying yesterday, I built these shelves around the crates.  So I started my measuring there.


I found two long pieces of pressboard, which made me happy, because that means our shelves are smooth, instead of giving us splinters.  Lord knows we get enough of those as it is!


With this length, I was able to cut 5 shelves (including the top and bottom) into 19" pieces with the circular saw.


I cheated with this picture.  I was cutting the sides, because I forgot that I was going to blog this.  You can see the shelves behind my leg.


Then, I took the shelves down to 18" using the table saw, so that I could square it off better.  (Cam, you notice the safety glasses?)

However, please keep in mind that I'm having to freehand because on 4 of the 5 pieces, neither end is square, so I couldn't use the guide thingy on the table saw.  

Which means you come out with pieces like this.  Slightly uneven.

But once I got all 5 pieces, I made sure that they lined up.
  
Again, I'm doing some post-editing.  You'll notice this picture only has 4 shelves.  That's because I originally planned on leaving it open-topped, but Wrangler Sarah assured me it would look better closed.  I agreed.  

Once all my pieces were the same length and squared to the best of my ability.  I cut two side panels to be 40", so that the shelves would all be 10" apart.  Apparently most hygiene products are 9" tall...who knew?

I pre-drilled holes...  


...and screwed the shelves to one side.

Then I laid the other side panel on top.

Of course, Selene was supervising.

Screwed it to the bottom shelf.


And...

Uh. Oh.  

So, um.  Hey, LeAndra, remember the part of the email where Dad said "EXACTLY even?"  Whoops.

Oh yeah.  Did I forget to tell you that I broke a drill bit in one of the shelves?  And, um,  I decided that it was ok for it to stay?  Yeah, well it wasn't ok.  It was making my shelves uneven.  

Luckily, Dan pulled it out with his pliers while inspecting my work, so I was again along my merry way.  And I would just like to add that he is the only man who touched the whole thing and that was the only thing he did.  Thank you very much.

I would also like you to know that I did such a good job that Dan thought I made it from a kit!  Little did he know I was scavenging through his scrap piles immediately upon arrival.  

That pretty much fixed the gapping issue, so then I used a level to make sure the shelves weren't crooked when I screwed the second side on to the rest of the pieces.    

Ahem, but as you can see here, based on the middle bubble, you have to make sure the entire shelf is on even ground or it does you no good to even use the level.  

Because the shelves were still a bit wobbly and I needed a way to secure it to the wall, I added a back piece.  But, again, I'm making this out of scrap wood and I don't have any more long pieces, so I had to make 3 small pieces.  

First I had to take off the nice rounded edge, though.



And that's where the guide thingy came in handy.

To make the back panel, it was more measuring, cutting, pre-drilling, and screwing.  


Don't forget a little turkey jealousy.  They didn't want the goats to have all the fun.  

And finally....

Are you ready for this?


Voila!  The finished product.  (It's not cracked, that's just where I couldn't cut straight.)

Please hold your applause to a dull roar.  Thank you.