Once in a Blue Moon

It was an incredible site to catch the last full moon of 2009 as it dipped down behind the mountains this morning. It is the Blue Moon as the full moon happens twice this month. I wish you all the "magic" of the Blue Moon, happiness in the new year and a safe and joyful end to 2009.

Happy New Year!

The "Dangler" Week

This is it, that lull between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Still hanging on to the old year, not ready to advance to a new year, lots of crazy nothing going on and if you're like me, the ghosts are visiting. Mostly the ghosts of years and experiences past. I do a lot of reflecting this time of year, mainly because I'm too lazy to do anything else, plus it's cold outside and everything that needs to be done, like cleaning house, etc. I don't want to do. I also think it dangles in part because there is always such a huge build up to Christmas and all that is supposed to happen or not happen then. We run around trying to create peace on earth through buying or making the right gift that will change the course of life for people or something like that. I'm really not as cynical as this might all sound, it's just that when you sit back and think about it, it is a little crazy.

So where is this little snippet of a blog entry going? I'll let you be the judge. I'm enjoying the quiet day being blinded by the sun reflecting off the snow, watching turkeys head up the tree to roost for the night even though it's only 3:00 in the afternoon, and being thankful that at the end of it all, life is still good and the world is peaceful on the ranch.

I hope the week dangles for a little longer and makes time stand still in that in-between time of not done yet and happy new year.

3 Years Old!

Eli and Jonah were born 3 years ago on Christmas Eve. We celebrated their birthday with presents and cake, right before we dove into Christmas. It's hard to believe that they are so grown up. Joey is the dark headed one and Eli is the blonde. The funniest thing is that Joey is obsessed with chapstick, totally! He never let that tube out of his sight (it's on the back of the truck in the log hauler) nor did he let Eli's tube out of his sight either. They loved the tractors and farm equipment that Papa B (Bruce) picked out for them. It was a fun way to spend Christmas eve and on the way home....


One of our neighbors puts up this elaborate light display at Christmas each year. The pictures really don't do it justice at all. He pulls old tractors, bailers, farm implements, etc. into a caravan in front of his house, then puts all kinds of lights, aninmated features and the like in the parade. He is right on the highway so people are always pulling over to take a look.

Today after openning gifts, Bruce and I went to the movie, Sherlock Holmes. There has been a lot of hype about it openning today so we were pretty excited, got some great seats, popcorn, a soda and settled it. The movie was a big disappointment. Definately not worth the $32 dollars for tickets, popcorn and soda. Save your money and see something else, trust me.

Merry Christmas all!

A White Colorado Christmas

It snowed all day yesterday and a lot during the night. We ended up with a beautiful powder white blanket of snow for Christmas. The best gift ever! Merry Christmas to everyone and our wishes for a peaceful, abundant and blessed 2010. Love to all!

Monday, Monday...

Well for all of you reading the blog out there, today we tried to settle on, enlarge and frame the family picture. Some of you will be reading this and going, what???? Somewhere between West Jordan and Kiowa there is a disc with over 300 images from the Thanksgiving photo shoot. I had to resort to Plan B (a modified version). Sammi sent me a handful of the "best" pictures, I sent that out to everyone in the family for your viewing. However, I needed to move the process along so I called a couple of experts, aka mom and Teresa. After looking at the shots, the expressions, the lighting, the colors and the people, we settled on this picture as the one we would enlarge for mom and dad for Christmas. It is at the printers as I type.

I like the colors, the expressions and the overall feel of the picture.

UPDATE The picture is at the shop getting framed! Thanks to Barry and Teresa for picking it up and braving the experience of picking the frame. They found a really nice frame (from what they described) and the store is doing the framing for us. WooHoo!

Now, just a couple of quick observations and facts....There are NO pictures where we are all looking at the camera. Someone always seemed to be looking off into the wild blue yonder, or talking or goofing or something. Out of the 300+ pictures, there are only a few that have all of us in them. PhotoShop is not an option! It was a fun day and I'm glad we got the pictures we did. Fact #1 we should do this again sometime and vow to all look directly at the camera, stand up straight, smile and have fun. Fact #2 As soon as the rogue disc shows up, I will burn copies for everyone. Fact #3 We're not half bad looking as a bunch and Fact #4 at the base of everything, we are a family. Thanks for making this all happen and get your checks in the mail.

Tribute to Mr. PeaTalky

Let me start with the blessing of this post first. The tail feathers, all together is a small area, like they had been deposited intentionally as a final gift to me....

The last time I saw him, he was up in the rafters in the barn, that night the temperatures dropped below 0 into the -20s. It snowed or tried to as it was so cold mostly all that fell were crystals. I didn't see him again and after a couple of days I went looking for him. I had hoped that he was holed up in a warm shelter somewhere, but after looking in his usual places and not finding him, I widened my search. He had lived with us on the ranch for probably 16 years, we had gotten him when he was probably somewhere between 3-5 years old. I knew his habits, his wanderings and his hiding places, but he wasn't in any of them. I knew he was a smart old bird, out maneuvering coyotes, dogs and even the occasional black bear, but like all of us, old age and a cold snap got him.

I found the feathers after the snow had melted, right outside of the horse shelter where he had been spending a lot of time sunning himself. They were all there, his beautiful tail that was only about 8 inches, but already magnificent. I figure he left them for me as he flew on to heaven and that place where birds go to be safe and warm. Many of you got to know him, talk to him and marvel at him during your visits to the ranch and I know you will be sad that he is no longer here.

I already miss him and come Spring will miss his calling and antics, but I am happy for him that he will now be able to find a mate. We were never able to keep females because of the predators, but one year he did mate with a female that laid her eggs outside of our bedroom window in the tall grass. It amazed me that he stayed by her side for almost 45 days, never leaving and tending the eggs when she went for food and water. Sadly the eggs never hatched, but the part that makes my heart rejoice now is that he is probably already hanging with the ladies in heaven.

I am so grateful for the opportunity we had to have this incredible creature as part of our farm family. I will never forget the hours he spent looking at himself in the reflection of the windows or how he fanned and tried to woo the hens and turkeys. What a character! RIP Mr. PeaTalky!

My Sister, Becky

This is one of my very favorite pictures of my little sister. Love ya Becky!

My Dad

For my whole life, my dad has always been there for me. He has always been steady, strong, unassuming, humble and grounded. I love him more than I can ever express, and for more reasons than I can ever record here.

This morning my dad is in surgery. He has battled skin cancer for the past few years and thought he had licked it. This morning before going into surgery, he got the news that they found cancer again in the biopsied tissue.

I am praying for him and for my mom, 2 of the strongest people I know of. Mom has been having bouts of dizziness that are a little scary and the doctors can't seem to figure out why. What both of my parents have on their side is undeniable faith, a love of life and a resilence that is remarkable. I love you both very much....

A Cold Winter Blessing

This is a very rare winter rainbow, created as the sun hit ice crystals in the air as it was going down, simply a beautiful gift from a very cold day.

Silver Creations

I just finished my silver creation. It was a fun process finding the look, getting the materials and then making it happen. I'm pretty happy with the end result. As you can probably tell from the pictures, the pattern is on the left and my rendition is on the right. Next up, a silver heart pin/pendant.

Clarence Update

Still no sign of him, but I haven't given up hope. I look everywhere and call out to him when I'm outside on the off chance that he is trying to find his way back home. I just finished reading The Lovely Bones, or should I say listening to the audiobook. What a great story, there were a few things in there that made me stop and think, like when her spirit was leaving her body and she passed the girl in the parking lot touching her on the shoulder as she passed. I think I've felt something like that, pretty amazing....

More later, just wanted to check in.

Clarence

It's been 2 days since we returned home and we've seen no sign of Clarence. My heart is starting to break as I can't imagine the farm here without him. I found Clarence (the Siamese) and his 3 orange brothers one morning crying in the hay. I don't know what happened to their mom or even which cat she was, the kittens were barely old enough to start lapping milk from a bowl. These 2 brothers are the ones that made it and have been my constant companions for the past couple of years.

They go on every walk with me and the dogs, love to pretend they are big hunters and stalkers but are actually just big lovable kittens. Clarence loved to try to jump from beam to beam in the barn and actually got quite good at walking the 2x4 rafters. I really hope beyond hope that he is just out hunting, that someone picked him up or that he is on his way back home, but that's a long shot....

Miss you Clarence!

Me and Skid

More Candids

I love the black and whites....

So Much to be Thankful for...

Today was the best Thanksgiving ever! My whole family (all 7 kids and mom and dad) were together for a special picture taking event. Seeing everyone and hanging out was such pure joy to me, I loved seeing and being with everyone of my brothers and sisters. It was a very special day, and I am so grateful for the effort everyone put into making it happen. I love my family even with all it's flaws and glitches.

It was a special treat to hook up with Dan's family later in the afternoon and just shoot the breeze for awhile, quite the houseful of big and little kids. Thanks Eisha and Brinley for the hula dancing and thanks Dan for smoking the meat, it was INCREDIBLE!

My heart is just so full tonight, thank you all for making it such an awesome day!

Could've been really bad

Yesterday morning we discovered that we had a water leak at our Hurricane Hacienda. A distress call to my brother Barry:

"Barry I have water seeping out of the ground at the sprinkler box, what do I do?"
"Open the gray box and turn the blue handle to shut the water off"
"I turned the handle but the water is still bubbling up, what else should I do?"
"Go out to the box by the road, find the lever with the 2 holes and turn the knob until the 2 holes line up"
"ok that stopped the water, now what?"
"We're just leaving SLC, I'll be there about 5:00"

Did I mention it was Sunday???? Barry drove straight out to our house and started digging in the sopping wet red clay dirt. He got down deep enough to expose the pipes, then had me turn the water main back on.

"TURN IT BACK OFF!!!"

Water was not coming from the sprinkler lines, but deeper in the hole. After a lot more digging and a lot more mud, he determined that the leak is in the main water line to the house. By now it is past dark, he is muddy head to toe and it is cold.

"Hello Dan...." "I'll be there first thing in the morning, just leave the water off and don't use the toilets."

Dan showed up this morning and dug a lot more mud out of the hole. The water line in directly under the sewer line. He has to cut the sewer line to get to the water line. What a stinky, wet, muddy cold, yucky job! After a quick trip back to his shop for parts and a swing by the Chevron for a diet Coke, we are back at the mud hole. My brother is amazing! He is on his belly with his head in the hole fixing the pipes.

"Ok, turn the water back on" "SHUT IT OFF! SHUT IT OFF!" The water is coming now from the sprinkler line, no problem, just cap the line.....Sweet Success!

After a couple of cuss words, the water goes back on, the sewer line is reconnected and we can flush our toilets.

"Dan you are so awesome, what do we owe you?" "Nothing, just glad I was here to help, Barry did all the hard work anyway, he dug the hole out for me"

I Love my brothers!

Apple Dumplings and Small Town Bazaar's

Today was the Elbert Women's Christmas Bazaar. Elbert is probably smaller than Virgin, but man can they host a bazaar! The event was held in 3 locations, the Old Mercatile building, the old Post Office building and up the hill at the school. It smelled like heaven when you walked in and there was all kinds of hand made stuff, from the cool to the small town strange. I got some awesome peppermint soap, some knock your socks off green chili a couple of other odds and ends and went back for the apple dumplings. The dumplings seemed to be the one thing everyone was stocking up on so I bought 3 of them and we had one for dessert....it was AMAZING! Now I will be on the quest to get the recipe or find someone to teach me how they do it. The crust was so flaky and light, it just melted in your mouth. I'll try to score it for the recipe card project. Wow, is all I can say, it was beyond words!

Things to ponder...

A few people have begun gratitude postings, blessing boards and such as a great way to get ready for the holidays. I wonder if part of it isn't to try and keep our heads above water in a very troubling time. I have a couple random thoughts and ramblings, so if you are still reading, bear with me...

Since reading The Shack, 2 things have stuck to me like glue #1 being aware of just how many times I make a judgement and then trying not too and #2 the part at the end where he keeps repeating, "I forgive you" 7x70 is what the bible says, in real life it's harder, but I read a long time ago that you don't have to KNOW how to forgive, just be WILLING to forgive. Not easy for a stubborn Capricorn, but I keep trying.

In the Tao Te Ching writings, my favorite verse is...when your cup is full, stop pouring. Great advice for every area of our lifes. For those of us who like to continue to fill our cup to overflowing, maybe we should consider sipping awhile.

And still my favorite, taking time each day to write out 5 things you are thankful for, so you have a good list on those days you think the world is out to get you.

I sign off with this question: If you don't have all the things you want, are you grateful for all the things you DON'T have that you didn't want?

New Moon

Last night's full moon was pretty spectacular! Just started re-reading New Moon in anticipation of the movie this month, I can't wait!

Skunked

Last night the absolute worst happened, a skunk got into my garage and sprayed! That after spraying all 3 dogs. I burned candles all night, have the windows all cranked open today, more candles, Febreeze and it is still so thick it burns your eyes and throat. I don't know what to do at this point, I can't spray tomatoe juice on everything and I don't know what else will help. Any suggestions? Besides moving?

If I could have found the 22, I would have dropped my first kill....argh!!!