November is on the Move!

Busy, busy November. 
Here's what I've been doing with November days so far.  (You will see I have been using my sewing table, a lot.  I love having a room for these projects!)   Swaddle dolls--5 in a row!  For the babies:  Audrey and Dahlia and future babies/gifts, etc.

Rachel told me Audrey was carrying baby dolls about, so when I found this naked baby on a shelf, I had to get her and make her a little nightie!  

And then there were the Barbie Clothes!  I found that Barbie clothes were a lot easier and faster to construct than quilts!  I am fascinated with the idea of stockpiling Barbie dresses!

Oh, and I made a few skirts for Katie!  I discovered making skirts was almost easier than making Barbie dolls!  So I made a few.

And yesterday, after I slipped on the ice Sunday night, I decided to put on my new snow boots!  And, do I love them!  They are warm and furry, and they have good soles, and I felt safe trudging through our most recent weekend snowstorm.  (see below).

I love them so much, that I even took a picture of them in their new, pristine state!   I bought them on clearance last April for under $30 and that was such a good deal!!!!  Check 'em out!

Dad laughed when he asked me how I liked my new boots and I told him I had taken a picture!  Crazy!
While I was doing all this sewing, etc. I watched a couple of TV series:  Ringer with Sarah Michelle Gellar, and  Revenge.  Fun TV shows.

And the month's only half over!  I have to start thinking about Xmas! 

Octoberfest

I am loathe to move on to November without mentioning October.  Our October was not the typical Ocktoberfest with which you are familiar.  It was a work fest.  (Do work and  fest belong in the same sentence?)
The biggest thing we did in October was finish the book!  Hooray!  It is now on sale at Amazon, and at Dad's website:  www.emptysaddles.com.

Then, because I discovered an old suitcase of quilt blocks from Grandma Howe, I re-cut them and used them for the 3 quilts I made: one for Fallon for her birthday, and one for Gabe and one for Sammy, because the boys each asked for a quilt when they were here this summer.

 And when I finished all that sewing, I whipped up a couple of skirts for Fallon, and one for Audrey--re-using one of Rachel's dresses--I saved a few from her childhood and decided to cut them down into skirts.

I sent Fallie's skirts to her before taking a picture of them.  Along with some fun clothes I found at Goodwill that were barely worn.  She has quite a wardrobe now, I am happy to say.
I had a lot of fun in October!

Canning Up a Storm

Yesterday I spent the day picking grapes  (The arbor netting worked!), picking plums, making grape juice, and juicing/steaming plums.  Today I will make plum jelly.  I made plum syrup last week. Here’s how they look:

Aren’t they pretty!  I think so.

After I make the jelly and clean up the kitchen and put all the canning hardware away, I will need a nap. 

Making Progress

Publishing books is quite a lot of work.  After having edited 4 books, I understand why editors charge the fees they do.  Editing requires hours and hours of attention to detail: rewriting, punctuating, and formatting.  I was researching the correct usage of semi-colons and colons this morning and came across this quote:

                     I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out.
                                                    — Oscar Wilde

That says it all for me. Have you ever noticed how many commas are in a descriptive paragraph?  For the most part they go largely unnoticed—you read them as you would arrows, pointing you in a specific direction: hints telling you where to pause,  how to make sense of a string of words.  But too few will leave you confused and uncertain.  And too many will make your path feel jerky and unending.  Good grammar is generally not subjective; there are rules for it.  But, on occasion, it seems that the comma, and even other punctuation marks are a matter of choice.  Given the choice, I generally over punctuate rather than under punctuate.

So, that being said: We are nearing the finish line on our 4th book: Short Stories Out Of Kane.
We are doing a final reading and we are inserting maps of the Kane area and the town of Kane this week.  We shot the photo for the cover and are satisfied with it. 

Grover says those hills are the defining Kane landmark: anyone familiar with Kane will recognize the area by the cover photo.  He grew up with it as backdrop to his childhood and teen years. 

The book will be out in October.  Then we will take a break--I think 4 books in one year is quite enough.

Long gone

Summer came and went in a big hurry.  After my sister's visit, we had a succession of visitors: Richard: Rachel and Jeff and family: Jess and Erin and family.  Two weeks after Jess' departure, I flew out to California and became a visitor myself, visiting Will, Martha, Emily, and Rachel.  By the time I got back the garden had grown to new heights, and the summer temps began dropping.  Oh, if I could only get a few more months of summer, I would be a happy girl!

I am not complaining.  I had fun all summer and played with my family.  I went to Yellowstone twice, and up to Sibley Lake on the Big Horn Mountains.

Sibley Lake, Big Horn Mountains

 I visited the Buffalo Bill Cody dam twice and had a great time at the Cody parade on the 4th. 

4th of July Parade at Cody, Wyoming

  We had our own fireworks show twice, and we had lots of watermelon and popsicles to eat.  Rachel and Jeff finished my brick walkway, and pounded posts for Dad.  Jess fixed our computer problems and set up Netflix streaming for our continuing entertainment. 


The kids jumped on the trampoline and played in and under the treehouse and  enjoyed the swings. 

Thomas at Aunt Grace's treehouse

Katie climbing in and around and under the treehouse

Jess and Erin--enjoying themselves and watching the kids climbing trees

Baby Dahlia loved the swing

They drove tractors (pretend), rode in wagons, and threw rocks in the water.

Audrey loves her Radio Flyer Wagon ride.

The boys liked throwing rocks into Sylvan lake at Yellowstone Park, Wyoming while Mom and Grandma and Audrey watch.

 What a fun summer we had!  Come visit us any time! 

Yellowstone with Diane and Glenn

We had a great one-day trip to Yellowstone with Aunt Diane and Uncle Glenn while they were here.  Here are few pics from our fun day:


We started off with pics at Yellowstone Lake.  It was overcast and the clouds and the lighting were lovely for picture taking!

 We stopped to look for animals and I took this lovely picture of the open meadows.  It was especially nice the day we were there because there was so few tourists.

 We went up to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the waterfalls.  It was very beautiful.

"Hello.(pause) Hey, why are you calling me?  I'm in church."

 On the way back we got very close--too close--to a buffalo.  It was nearly at Aunt Diane's window.  I could see her pulling away from her side of the car.  He wasn't interested in the cars though, so we were just fine.

Dad looking for the wildlife!

Nearly finished

Several weeks ago I posted our bathroom teardown. Little did I know then how much work is involved--even in a small bathroom like ours! I thought the prep was a lot of work. And it was. The actual tiling was the easy part. Spread mortar on a tile and lay it on the floor. Easy, peezy. 

One thing I learned--I do not want to do tiling on vertical surfaces--namely walls, ever again. Too much leveling, and unevenness in the floor lines. Hard as I tried the floor dipped down and hence, the tiles had to adjust for that! Maddening! 

But then there is all the finishing work: namely, grouting, sealing, and installing the cabinet, reinstalling the toilet and connecting the plumbing! 

Dad was good to do all the plumbing and all the prep work. That only left me with finishing. I decided before putting the trim work up that I would paint the walls. That way I could make a mess and not worry about having to clean up the edges. The problem was that parts of the wall had large spaces where the plaster seemed to be missing. That and a few other pock marks and indentations where the wallboard had been made me decide to go with an uneven look. Embrace the texture, so to speak. So I tried this tissue technique I had heard of. Check it out. 

You paint the wall with a coat of paint, then you crumple up that white wrapping paper tissue that you use at Xmas into a ball, then unfold it, and lay it on your wet wall. Then when it has enough folds, or creases and personality, you paint another coat over it to adhere it to the wall. It comes out great, and very uneven, which is actually a plus. I like it. Great texture.


So, all in all, for our first effort at tile work in our bathroom redo, I think it looks pretty good!

On the Double

I'm not sure what it meant originally, but if On the Double meant working twice as hard on twice as many projects with a list of new projects twice as long as before, then life here at my house is life "on the double."


Here are just a few peeks at what's been happening lately.

We have just finished editing and revisions on our 2nd and 3rd books!  They will both go into publication next week.


Last week we had a delightful experience with No Time to Trust.  The Lovell Library Book club read and reviewed it as their May selection.  With a bit of anxiety and nervousness Dad and I went.  Fifteen people  attended, most of whom were effusive in their praise.  What a trip to have so many people discussing, exploring the reasons for the characters' actions, defending and even quoting passages from Dad's novel!  They were not simply kind, they were enthusiastic.  Hooray! 


Amid the mental exertion of  "the books" we have managed to plow up and rototill and plant a large garden. I thought I had a picture, but I will take one once the plants start growing.  Trust me, it is large--larger than we need.  So, I will have plenty to can, and give away, I hope!



And we have torn out the bathroom floor, wall coverings, and cabinet.  Here's how it looks in the teardown:  It's pretty hideous!

The second picture is fuzzy and the only reason I stuck it in is to show you the flooring-- We took up 2 layers of vinyl.  The first was easy, and the second,  the yellow patterned vinyl you see here--not so easy.  Then there's a layer of felt...hmmm.  That didn't come up at all.  We left it. 

Wait 'til you see the tile we picked.  It is subtle shades of blue, cream, silver and beige.  I'm going to paint the walls a pale blue. Today we are going to Billings to get the remaining supplies we need to finish it.  I will definitely post an "after" picture once we finish.


Recently we took a drive up the road to Devil's Canyon in preparation for this summer's visitors: starting with Aunt Diane and Uncle Glenn  in 3 weeks.  Here are a few of those pics.


                I have compiled a Things to do in Wyoming book.  Some of the places I haven't even seen yet.  Should be fun! 

Recently we bought an antique table that will easily seat 10 (we bought 10 chairs with it).  More prep for visitors.  Here's a partial view of it, topped with the flowers Martha sent for Mother's Day. (I guess you really can't see it-- but the lace table cloth is nice, isn't it?)  It was a steal at 50 bucks, and besides, it reminded us of Grandma Howe's dining room table for some reason.

About a month ago on one of our many parts excursions to Powell, Dad spied this tractor and said it was just like the tractor he grew up driving as a small boy on the farm.  (Of course this one was newly refurbished with a brand spanking new paint job--so it looked only remotely like the one he was remembering.)  I made him get out of the truck and sit on it so I could take a picture.  And here it is.  Try to picture him as a boy 7  or 8 years old, driving it up and down the fields, if you can.

Dad's still cleaning up and organizing the darkroom.  I'll post a picture when it's not a maze.  And he bought all the wood to build a workbench over at the farm.  It's all cut out and lying in a pile by the garage. 

Oh, and I'm still working on the front path and the flower bed.  I even bought roses and daisies and dahlias and phlox and poppies to plant.  


And last, but not least, I've included a pic of one of our baby calves-- a hereford!  I think we are nearly to our 100th calf.  Last week Ruth said we had just 4 more to go.  

And those are just a few of our current adventures. 

 Tomorrow is our 41st Wedding Anniversary.  We are planning to celebrate it either today in Billings, or tomorrow in Cody.  We'll see.  Maybe we'll celebrate twice! 

It's Spring and I'm Excited!

 In honor of this grand experience I changed my blog page.

There's nothing like living in a  cold climate to make you appreciate the arrival of Spring!  The grass has slowly been growing, giving a light green hue to areas that have been brown and beige and grey.  The leaves have come out on the trees, making them look less like standing stick figures.  And the lilacs have started to bloom!  Hooray!  It's Spring and it feels like the world is waking up!

Fix it Or Forget it, or “What? Me Worry?”

Two avenues of thought for your consideration:


There’s a crockpot cookbook which recently became very popular titled Fix it and Forget it.   Very catchy, and a very useful collection of recipes for people on the go, or too tired at the end of the day to go any further in their day and create fabulous food.  They want food ready when they walk in the door so they can just sit down and chow down, now.  I highly recommend it as a solution to the incessant and ongoing need to feed hungry humans.


And....Have you ever heard of, or do you recall Mad Magazine?  It was popular during the 60s–kind of like an early Saturday Night Live in print–a satire on politics, and popular culture in cartoon-like comic book style.  Probably an outgrowth of all that hippie, beatnik revolution stuff.  Its influence was even seen in the TV series called Dobie Gillis which featured a beatnik guy named Maynard G. Krebbs, who did little or nothing, was completely anti-establishment and spoke in weird sentences; his most popular may have been “You rang?”  Well, as I recall,  Mad Magazine had a weird looking little guy whose most popular sentence was “What? Me Worry?” The older I get, the more I realize that he had the right idea. 


Where am I going with this?  Well, it occurred to me that WORRYING IS USELESS! AND ANNOYING!  So I am coining a new motto: FIX IT OR FORGET IT, and  I’m calling it FIFI– the acronym reminds me of those pampered poodles it seems everyone was fussing over and primping and carrying about and naming Fifi years ago.  Do you recall?


So, I’m climbing onto my soapbox today and this is my message to the world:   


Life is too short to be worrying.  And if that doesn’t resonate, let me say it this way: All the things you are worrying about will eventually fade.  They are not worth spending your life’s valuable moments agonizing over them. 


I know it’s easy to say when they are not your own concerns.  And I am not suggesting that there are not things to be concerned about and solve.  But giving them any more energy than simply fixing them and forgetting about them steals bits of your life away.  And feeling miserable about things you can’t fix, is a crime.   And it can make you sick, physically and mentally.  I know this.  I have experienced this.  Too often.       


Here’s my most recent example:  While Dad and I were cleaning up the garage yesterday,  Jack (our dog) came across the rat/mice poison bar, and promptly began chewing on it!  Yikes!  That’s not good.  And Dad said, “That dog is either going to be very sick or dead.”  At that very moment Worry crept in along with his best pals, Anxiety and Fear.   I just hate those guys, all three of them!  And I get sick to my stomach when they visit for even a minute! 


My first reaction was a kneejerk factual approach along the lines of “whatever happens, happens.”  That is my protective “I’m not worrying about this” response.  A few minutes later, I thought of a possible remedy for the dog, which we initiated.  And then we took the “wait and see” approach.  And happily, the dog lived through it.  (He is considerably larger than a mouse, and I imagine he ate very little of the poison before Dad spotted him doing so.)  For all of you dog lovers out there, I know my approach may be unconscionable to you for a variety of reasons.  But it is what it is.  And the point of the story is– fix the problem and/or forget it.  But don’t make yourself and everyone crazy!  And don’t let Worry, Fear and Anxiety move in with you!


So, from my soapbox I am proclaiming: FIFI!  FIFI!  Fix it or Forget it! {And in the background you may be able to hear Bobby McFerrin singing “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”}

Progress: Dragons of Fire! and No Time to Trust.

Saturday, March 10th:  
When I told Grover I was going to work on his book again Friday morning, he said, why don’t you call it “our book?”  I asked him if he was saying that because he felt guilty when I called it his book...for all the work I am doing.  He said, Yes, a little.

Well, after doing a hundred pages of searching for comma splices and reviewing all of the sentence construction I concluded that I had, indeed, also written this book.  That after all, WE write books.  It was a corner I turned.  Interesting that it has taken me years to claim my part in the authorship.  When I started I felt reluctant to change anything, thinking that I was denying him “his voice.”  But now, I think that the combination of “his voice” and my grammatical construction, are the perfect balance for a well-written novel.  So, I see it now as Our Book.  It’s about time, I guess.  I finally finished the editing and then Grover decided he should take a look at it.  We have been reading it aloud to see if it flows.  Will we ever finish up?

Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Today we had an exceedingly successful day.  After spending all day yesterday tearing my hair out while I tried to upload No Time to Trust, I could certainly use a day like today.  Grover helped me sort out the kinks in the uploading process, and together, after 8 hours of effort we were able to successfully load not only No Time to Trust but Dragons of Fire, as well for the proof order.  We even put together a cover in record-breaking time!  We were so excited we almost danced around the room!  I sent everyone the preview cover copy and didn't even check for errors.  Hey, thanks everyone for reading the back and pointing out the typos.  We can use all the help we can get with proofreading! 

 If you didn't see the cover, here it is, warts and all!  I have to wait for approval of the proof copy to correct the typos online.

      After getting all of this done Dad went right out and emailed me his 3rd book, so I could download it and begin editing it!  Crow Woman on Deadman!  Bet you can't wait!

It Can't Be March Already!

I got home tonight.  At 10:30 p.m.  I have been gone 3 1/2 weeks, but it seems like longer.  I skipped out on February, and that is how I got to March so soon.  Poor, cold February.  I can't believe I missed the coldest part of the winter!  I am so smart!  I am so lucky!  I am so surprised that the temperature will be rising with each day, that it has already been to its lowest low and I MISSED IT!  Hooray!  What a lovely trick.  I feel almost wickedly sneaky to have gotten away with hiding out in CALIFORNIA.  There is no better hiding place to be --- unless you consider warmer beaches, and sunnier climes. ( Hawaii comes to mind.  Tahiti.  Fiji.  The Caribbean.  And all of those other places we dream of.)

Tomorrow it is supposed to snow.  But it will still be warmer than it was in February, so I don't care.  And when I get up to go swimming on Wednesday at 5 a.m. it will be 25 degrees, not 5 and I won't have to pretend as I dive in and recover from the coolness of the water that it is 100 degrees outside and mid-summer.  And I won't have to question my sanity for wanting to dive into cool water when the temperature is hovering near zero.  I will not feel the insanity.  I will feel hope and pure joy for the thought that summer is coming, slowly but surely.

California Here I come!

Do you know that song?  It's an oldie.  "California, Here I come, Right back where I started from..."  I have been singing that song my whole life.  For most of us, it applies. 

Anyhow,  I am getting excited about my upcoming trip!  Marsha and I are leaving on the 10th--which is just about 3 weeks away.  I plan on starting off my stay at Rachel's house, and then kidhopping.  So get ready for me, I'm acomin'!

Books to Read

Erin wrote a nice book review of her recent favorites, and I tried to reply/comment.  I don't know why, but the comment didn't go through.  So I wrote an email to send her, but I don't see it in my sent file.  I don't know why it's not there either.  So, 3 strikes and you're out...I'm going to try posting it on my blog and see if I can stay in the game.


For last month's book club selection I read a significant book–inspiring.  Unbroken by Laura Hillebrand.  I was afraid it was about another horse, but it was not.  It was about a POW survivor of WWII.  At first I thought it was chiefly about his Pacific ocean plane crash/rescue.  He was at sea more than 6 weeks.  But, unfortunately, he was rescued by the Japanese, and he spent nearly 2 years in a torture camp.  He was later rescued by the American GIs’ invasion of Japan.  But what I didn’t expect, was that he had another rescue coming.  And though it sounds sappy when I write it, it wasn’t written that way at all.  His last rescue was from the after affects of his POW experience, and the vengeance and pain.  By Billy Graham.  I had never thought about Billy Graham as more than just a grandiose money-making TV pastor.  But at the time our war hero encountered him, Graham was starting out with his first big city tent meeting.  I have to give him a completely different view–a new found measure of respect–because his work changed people’s lives.  The POW was a man of indomitable spirit.  He endured an incredible dose of abuse and adversity.  The book is worth reading because he he not only survived, but he endured and triumphed.


Another book I read this year was The Glass Castle. I don't remember the author's name.  Martha handed it to me for the plane ride home.  It was also a true story, though this was written by the author herself.  Her life was not as tortured.  However, she did suffer the affects of negligence and extreme poverty as a child and teenager and had to, basically, self-parent.  In spite of her circumstances, she also had an indomitable spirit, and enough tenacity to improve not only her life, but that of her siblings.  It was hard for me to read because I believe children should not have the cares of the world on their shoulders, and should not have to be their parent’s caretakers.  I have thought of her strength often.


Erin mentioned that she read the first of The Hunger Games books.  I read those last year while associating with the Vista Women's Book Club.  Rachel, and Em and I have read those as well.  Martha?  maybe.  I don't remember.  But we all enjoyed them....though enjoy is maybe not the right word.  They were fascinating and the kind of book that you want to see through to the end.  I am anxious to see the movie coming out in March---though I wouldn't recommend it for children or pre-teens.  Neither the book nor the movie.  


I have just begun reading Inheritance by Christopher Paolini, the 4th of the Eragon series books.  I have been waiting years for him to write this 4th book. Luckily he has a brief overview of the story--which means I won't have to go back and reread the first 3 to begin the 4th.  I have always liked the fantasy/sci-fi/magic/medieval/ futuristic stories.  Dragons and magic.  How can you lose?   I'd sit down and read it right now, but unfortunately, I do need to sleep.  Tomorrow, I hope.

Why Write?

Indulge me a moment.....that is, if you are even out there.   Are you?  Do you read what I am writing?  Why am I writing?  For me?  for you?


Originally I wrote for my own amusement.  Then I started writing to connect.  And I changed my writing style to be more readable.  Fewer words, more pictures.   It may be working, but how would I know?  It's all sent out into the blogosphere, with nary a trace of impact.


The other day I used all of my past blogs for a journal update for the year 2011.  That was useful.  But I can journal somewhere else, and say all that needs, or may want censoring.  For me journaling is not blogging.  Journaling is therapeutic.  Blogging is something else.  I am not sure what.


I am disheartened.  Is anybody out there listening?

Happy New Year!

Don't you love this bright and cheery new background for the blog?  I do!  I thought it was just the way to begin a new year!  With sparkle and pizazz!


Saturday morning I was cleaning the desk drawers and I came across my yearly journal.  I had been faithfully keeping it for so many months.  But when I checked on the last entry it was dated June 5, 2011.  Whoa!  Six months!  That's a lot of catching up to be done.  Luckily I decided to see if I had updated my life in my emails to friends, and sure enough I had a reasonable recap. 


What was interesting to me was to see how many activities and projects and encounters I had experienced in the last 6 months.  Maybe that's why I wasn't journaling!  I had a lot of fun in 2011!  I printed and cut and pasted my emails and blog entries and brought the journal to a close on the very last day of 2011.  It seemed like the perfect way to close a very busy year.