Monday, February 28, 2011

Fun in the Sun!!! Birthdays,

No, not scantily clad beach babes playing volleyball in the sand. Oil dripping off their sun toned well honed muscled bodies, swimsuits barely staying on as the spike the ball. That is not what I meant.
We had more snow on Friday. I got some really neat pictures of the Radis having fun in the sun, after it quite snowing. Me with the dogs, loving them up!
Grandpa with bear, taking time between filling water buckets. It is already starting to warm up, so starting to shed the winter outerwear.


Shhhh. One of the guineas is hiding in the snow.A frozen water bucket, dumped upside down. Only the top and sides were frozen, and the water is left inside. You can't really tell it in this picture, but it looked like a beautiful mirrored sculpture.


Here are a picture of Ally and Oop,waiting to be fed. .
These sheep came from a farm who had a Border Collie that was used to round them up. They were very jittery and jumpy when we first got them, as they were waiting for the dogs to chase and nip at their heels. As you can see they have calmed down now and like the dogs, I am scratching the bottom of Ally's neck, while Lulu loves her up.

BIRTHDAYS
It was Brady's birthday(15) and Lily's(1),so we had our birthday celebration this past Saturday. The food was good(we had a heritage turkey), the company was fantastic, and I think the birthday kids enjoyed their gifts.
Brady had two of his friends along to help him celebrate his big day.


Lily had fun also.

Tera and Dennis discussing the toys.


Proud parents of Lily, Ryan and Julie.

No pictures of me, as I was the chief cook and picture taker. But Jen did some picture taking.

A head study of my Polar Bear, deep in thought.
More later....................................

Friday, February 25, 2011

dreams, the beginning of the end??????

I overslept this morning, until 6am, which is highly unusual for me, being the early riser that I am. I was having a dream before I awoke, so vivid, so life-like. I was thinking, is this dream real? or is my life here the dream???
I was in Minnesota, at my brother Mikes house in the Minneapolis area. They had this big screen TV at one end of their house, and the movie that was on, was on every wall in their house. Playing was an action movie, and I felt like I was in the midst of the action figures. With motorcycles and car chases, someone hanging off a bridge as the motorcycles race by. I don't believe that anyone was watching it, it was just there, like a wall mural or something.
As I was looking out the window, there was a huge Boston Ivy growing up a trellis, with birds coming and going ,darting out from behind the veils of Ivy leaves, no doubt bringing delectable worms and such to their hungry broods. I was awed on how green and lush Minnesota was, green as green can be, I inquired my brothers where abouts, and he was out planting the garden on Feb 25Th, in Minnesota. I remember thinking to myself, why do I live on this barren brown prairie of Colorado? The winds are gale like at times. The only thing holding onto what is left of topsoil, is pathetic little wisps of bunch grass. Suitable only for supporting the antelope population.
I was sitting at the table with my mother and sister, there were assortments of cookies set out in groups all over the table, my sister in law was probably baking for some charity of some sort. My sister was talking about dieting a midst all these cookies, and here I was eyeballing the most delectable ones. (Probably due to Dennis and I dieting at the moment). And my mother and sister, as svelte as svelte can be.

When I awoke with a start, I started remembering that my dear sweet brother Mikes birthday was February 16Th and I had forgotten it. Yikes! You know how sometimes your computer alerts you days in advance of upcoming birthdays, I guess that is the what my dream was alerting me to, albeit a week late. Is this the beginning of forgetfulness for me? A downward spiral of things forgotten?????A big black hole in my brain? I hope not, as Dennis will have his cross to bear.

Snap back to reality, this is what is outside my window, awaiting for me when I go out for chores. It started snowing last night around chore time, and is still snowing this morning.
No green Boston Ivy winding itself up a trellis reaching for sun rays, no baby birds with mouths agape waiting for the delectable worms. Nothing green. But the blanket of brown is now covered with a blanket of white. The water buckets will be ice covered, the goats and sheep will be maa-ing and baa-ing feed me, feed me, the alpaca will be standing in silence, eyes pleading, as is their way, for their morning feed. And me and Dennis, with finger tips frozen, and wind burned faces, moving as hurriedly as we can with all our layers of clothes on.

I will call my brother later today and do my meacopas.
The quilt gals warned me that March is the snowiest month here, so we are off to a good start. We desperately need the moisture for those bunches of grass, to hold the topsoil, so we can do our gardening, but not for awhile.
On a sunnier thought, here is a picture of me a few days ago, trimming Roxies toes.

It is reported to get 40degrees tomorrow, so the snow won't be around too long.
More later..........................................

Saturday, February 19, 2011

New beginnings


She was lying semi recumbent, half on her side, and half on her chest. Her nostrils flaring rhythmically with each heave of her flanks. The nutrient rich brown soil damp smelling with the morning dew. This great black beast,lying amidst the corn stubble, which had been sustaining her this winter, as a source of feed for her and her companions. She occasionally outstretches her front legs to give her more leverage. All alone, separated from her herd, but within seeing and hearing of them. It is her time....a good time as the baby will be full of colostrum and all warmed up from the suns rays by this evening. The coyotes would be at bay now, until the moon comes out again tonight. Feasting on the days abundance of placentas as the cows drop their calves. That is what I saw this morning on my way to take care of my granddaughter. The farmers field is speckled with little black Angus cows, doubling day by day his herd. Yesterday I saw a newborn calf, standing near its mother, with the placenta just starting to drop. It is so nice to witness the miracle of life out here on the prairie. I have to ask myself, how many vehicles drive by this and only see the open road stretched out before them, with thoughts only of their workday ahead. Now this was a not too busy country road, and when I finished taking my picture, and thinking of this Black Angus cow birthing, there were two other vehicles behind me, no one had honked their horn at me to get going, no one finger salute given me as they drove by. Ah, today is good.

Quilt Challenge
One of my good friends from Fargo asked me to make a quilt for her. She had these 12 blocks in her drawer for many years, the special thing about these blocks is they were embroidered by her mother and grandmother. What a treasure. I am ashamed to say, that they sat in my drawer for awhile, but I needed to come up with the proper way to display these blocks, and I think that I have accomplished it. Her colors were lilac, pale yellow and sage. There was no lilac in the blocks, so I used periwinkle blue instead, hope she does not mind. Ta-da here is the quilt. I am very proud of it, and it will be difficult to send it away. I heavily quilted it to make the blocks "pop". As always, if you left click on any of my pictures, it will enlarge the picture for closer viewing.




We had a day of trimming alpaca feet that I was going to put on my blog today, but I am having computer problems. Only 1 of my USB ports is working, and that powers my mouse. I can't download pictures. I fear that my Mother panel is going, and may need to be shipped to CA for up to 6 weeks. If it comes down to that, due to the age of our computer, we may be getting a new one. So unless I can come up with some way to get my pictures on my blog, I may not be posting for awhile. Hope not though.

ART SHOW
My Wellington friends(Red Hats) and I had a glorious day yesterday. We started out with lunch at Perkins,lively conversation, was the first course!, and then went to the Ansel Adams art exhibit at the Fort Collins Museum of Art. He started taking black and white pictures back in the 1930's. (I believe he was born in 1902 and passed away in the 80's) They were fascinating, some of his first works were when he was a teenager.. I was particularly drawn to two of them. Both were from New Mexico, one was of white sand with a yucca, and the other was of a small town(started with an h but I can't remember the name) with the moon rising overhead, and you could see the town, with the cemetery in front, and all the crosses were white and very visible in the light of the moon. My friends and I were standing in front of this picture and I said, this picture reminds me of haunting loneliness. And they agreed. All his works were like that I guess. Well anyway, you can check him on line.

Here is a bit of eye candy for you, Happy belated Valentines!! This is at my sons home, now they know how to do Valentines Day up right!

More later.................

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

mini ice age?

There is nothing more satisfying than being out in 0 degree weather, snowing, and peaceful, except for the occasional maaaa or baaaa of an animal, hungrily waiting for food and water. Also, being out in that weather for an hour or more, makes it feel nice and toasty warm when you finally do get to come in after doing chores, but alas, the cycle will start again come 4pm this afternoon. We are expected to get only 8 above today and -8 tonight. Now if the wind does not pick up, it is doable. I don't know what I do without a man to do the water bucket thing for me. Thanks Dennis!!!!!
Is our weather getting colder? I just received a few days ago, an email from a very dear friend who lives near Tombstone Arizona. She said that Bisbee/Douglas AZ airport reported 0 degree weather, her cattle water tanks are covered with 3 inches of ice, and there are broken water pipes all over. She has had to carry water buckets to her goats and alpacas for 4 days. Well, welcome to my world. Also, during this Arizona cold snap, my folks lost all there winter crop of oranges, all 200 of them when their temp got down to 18 and their irrigation line broke. Here are my folks oranges.



When life hands you lemons, some people make lemonade. Here is what Ryan and Dennis did in the cold weather, they went ice fishing! Up at Red Feather Lakes, it was snowing, and the roads were slippery with ice and snow, but heck, we have 4wheel drive. Here is a picture of the ice houses on the lake. I remember when in Minnesota, Mil Lacs Lakes, well known for walleye, the ice houses are so thick, that they have street signs out on the lake, so you can find your house. Some are quite elaborate with TVs, kitchens and probably all the amenities of a lake cabin.

The catch was very good that day, and here are the rainbow trout that they caught. My apologies to all you vegetarians, but they were really tasty also I might ad.
But it gets even better, whilst leaving their fishing spot, they spotted a herd of Elk amongst the trees. I am so thankful that Ryan had his camera along with him.

Mini ice age? Well I don't know about that, as it will hit the 50's by the weekend here they say. I don't know how we took all those decades up in Minnesota, as they probably won't warm up until May! Well anyway, I have few precious hours until 4pm. I need to get on with my girlie stuff. A new quilt project is calling my name.
More later......................

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

BRRRRRRR! Quilting

Whoeeee. It was a cold -19 below when I left the house this morning at 0645, on my trip to town to take care of my granddaughter. My Columbia jacket was even making a crackling sound as I walked out to open the gate. I drove by a herd of black Angus beef cattle, pastured for the night on an old corn stubble field, all sporting white frost on their faces and sides, from the tell tale signs of exhalation's against their bodies. Old man winter has reared his ugly head once again, and to add insult to injury, after we had been teased with balmy 63 degree temperatures last week! Reminded me of my years growing up in Minnesota, so cold that taking a deep breath, your nostrils would stick together, or iced up eyebrows and moustaches. Or even worse, licking a fallen icicle, or sticking your tongue on the metal bars of the swing set in the school yard,something that only has to be done once in a lifetime.
Dennis had to do the livestock chores by himself today. Even though we have electric out to our barns, the sheep and the 2 little buck boys don't have heated water buckets, as they have their own shelters, with no electric.. So there was some ice chipping and water hauling in store for him. Other than that, everyone came out OK with our cold temps.
Dennis all of a sudden heard a loud commotion and all the animals were standing at attention and looking towards the sheep's shelter. Little Allie, our black sheep had tipped the water bucket and was running around with the bucket around her neck.. Luckily Dennis was there and able to free her, or there could have been a terrible outcome. Needless to say, her bucket is now snapped to the cattle panels, so this will not happen again. Just life on the farm, always need to be aware of safety issues when having animals.

QUILTING
My Saturday Sampler quilt is home from the machine quilters house. It took me a year to make this quilt, all I have left to do now is put on my binding. Well anyway, the gal who quilted it was a quilt judge and she suggested that I show this quilt at the Weld and Larimer Co fairs this year. She thought that it was quite nice. I was really happy to get the compliment. I put so much of myself into my quilts, and it was difficult for me to have someone else quilt it. The reason I had her quilt this particular quilt, is it's quite large and is getting difficult for me to do myself with arthritic elbows, and does take a toll on my back. All my other quilts I have done myself for the past 20 years. It was my one and only treat to myself after all these years.
Well anyway, here are a few different views of the quilt, it you left click on the picture, it will give you a close up of the quilting.
I am going to call this quilt Arizona Sunset. Because of the colors which remind me of Arizona. Where I wish that I were today.

I just could not resist putting in a picture or two of my granddaughter Lily, when we were at Estes Park this past fall. Something that will take the chill out of these cold winter days, and should bring a smile to any ones face.

More later......................................