More Fun in Thermopolis!

Fun in the barnyard with Darren and Daniel Leonhardt!

Have bucket will travel.....or, er......

Amilking we will go...!

We'll catch a goat.....

....and tie her legs (so she won't kick)....

...and Daniel'll clean her up....

Darren, practiced hand that he is, made sure that there was a nice steady flow...

Meanwhile....mama is happily munching away.

Who said goats can't be patient?

Ahhh! Success! A nice steady stream hitting the pail. Jana's a great milker.

In Thermopolis with the Leonhardts

It's getting to be a "thing" with me--these mountain shots. I just love mountains and these, on the way up from Rawlins to Riverton always fascinate me with their lines of rock. This could have done better, for sure, considering we were traveling along at 65 mph but....we were on our way to Michelle's funeral. It was such a lovely, special day--just like Michelle herself.

This is my first art quilt--I call it "Fall". The second one seems to be spring or summer--not sure which. They were a lot of fun.

This is the second of my art quilts that I made for my sister Dorothy. Kathy Williams let me raid her stash--Thanks a million Kathy! And, Sue Williams let me use her sewing machine for hours on end, for the quilting and final assembly, so thanks to you too Sue!



Jana humored us and played a tradition--"Three Blind Mice." I missed the first part with the camera unfortunately but we might get the chance to retape this in the future where there's more light so it will "take" better. This video did not upload so.....hopefully you'll be able to see "Three Blind Mice" at some later date! Sorry.

Time with the cutest boys!

Fresh snow on the mountains even though during the night we were pretty sure the howling wind might blow away the mountains, let alone the snow!


Brrrrr!

This is what we woke up to in the morning on our last trip of the fall to Elk Mountain and Chris and Kate Williams. We had a quiet indoor (for the most part) snow day before we made a trip to Craig, CO to see a couple of sister workers there.

I had a quilting project and just a couple of days to get it finished so I kept pressing on in spite of all the tempting distractions.

Music around the piano with Chris on the harmonica--oh, yes, and Fischer too, of course!

When the sun came out it seemed like the perfect time to build a miniature snowman on the deck.

Fischer is wondering where Hazen has disappeared to.

There he is!

He's driving the semi cab out of the underpass...., I guess???

Hazen at a pensive moment---"moment", not minute mind you--more like a fraction of a second! :)

The Hunt....such as it was!

The Laramie Mountains on our way to Lusk and the 4-3 Ranch.


Red Sky at morning, .....hunters take warning.....?



I loved our time with the kids....the kids, and their parents were definitely the BEST part of our time in Lusk on the 4-3 Ranch. Thanks JD, Lisa, Justin, and Melody!



We saw more mule deer than whitetail. The rutt is beginning so they were acting pretty stupid.




An owl we saw the last morning of our time actually hunting.

Snowed in on the South Dakota side of the 4-3 Ranch---roads were closed due to a little bit of snow being blown madly around in bad winds and ice underneath. We didn't mind an extra night with these lovely folks! :)



What do YOU do when you're snowed in? We puzzled and pictured and.....


You name it we did it....oh yes, I'm sure there was some music in there --after all, Jana is here!

But still little ones got bored and wondered if it would ever stop snowing....Callie looks longingly out the window. It's apt to be a very long winter.

An enjoyable day on Elk Mountain

The view from partway up Elk Mountain last Saturday.


Owen Williams shot a nice bull elk early Saturday morning and the easiest way to get the meat out was on horses. I was lucky enough to be included even though I really was no help at all! Thanks Willis, Owen, and Pres!



Here's Owen with his "third smallest bull elk." I was impressed even if he wasn't.

It took a little work to get the head packed so the young mare wouldn't get jabbed by the horns but Owen managed it.

Owen put the elk meat on pack horses. Two young mares (just 2 yrs old) accepted the packs well without problems. I lifted a hind quarter to see how heavy it was. It had to be at least 60 pounds. Elk have a lot of meat on them.

Here we were nearing the end of the trail--almost back to the trailer. Pres took this photo. We just wish there was a way to get him in the photo too.

Our trip to Albin to see the Lerwicks

A beautiful Wyoming sunrise through the gate at the old Lerwick homestead. Lots of memories in this place. Most importantly--LOTS of good beginnings in this place.


Lunch with Kosha, Peggy DeWit, and Phyllis.



Jana with her Grandma Phyllis--two beautiful ladies.



Auntie Lorraine enjoying baby Hattie and vice versa!



At Jim and Linda's it was especially wonderful to see all the young ones....enjoying hymns around the piano while Jana played.

Fun times together....Lorraine's in town!

We had a few nights with some of Jana's relatives, Bob and Kathy Berwick. It was great to have Ada there for supper and a scrabble game (Jana won of course!). There were lots of laughs and good thoughts shared.



Tink gave Lorraine a little smooch as we got ready to take this photo...everybody has to get in on the fun you know. :)


Jana knows how to get things--including even Tink, under control. Isn't Tink well mannered now?

The Red Buttes

Some of the friends here in Laramie live just south of town in an area where all these great rock formations just "sprout" out of the ground like giant red mushrooms. We enjoyed climbing around them. In the photo below you can see our friends' house through the opening in the rock--it's the one with the green roof.