So far...

I've made it to Ed and Cathy's house. We met up with Jo and Gary to decorate mom's grave...
Today, Ed and I are headed to Casper. Having a nice, relaxing time. Don't know when I'll be home, but I'm getting lots of pics to post for when I do!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Gettin' ready to hit the road!

Last summer, I traveled many times to see my mom...as much as I could, while I was packing our house to move. This summer I am making a special trip to visit mom's sister, Aunt Goldie. They grew up in a household of 12 kids on a farm. Goldie was closest to mom.

I'll also be seeing my son and his wife, a couple old friends, JO JO and CHuck and meet Gary.
I'm sure I"ll have lots of pictures! I head out tomorrow...see ya next week!

UGH stands for.......

That's right...SLUG! I cut my first batch of lettuce from my garden and found my lettuce is full of SLUGS! So I cut it all and threw it in the mulch patch...I need to treat the existing plants so I can harvest good ol slug-free lettuce! I have read about using beer...any other remedies?

Our Weekend: Part 3

Yellowstone Park is a beautiful, amazing place. The western side draws a lot of tourists that want to see all the geysers, the old Historic Resort and is a main route to Grand Teton National Park. The eastern side, the Lamar Valley in particular, is open range and FULL of wildlife.

One of my favorite sites are seeing (and hearing) wolves. They are generally 1000 yards away and you can barely make them out in binoculars. Most people use a spotting scope. We were fortunate enough to watch 4 from the Slough Creek pack through our glasses. I'd never be able to get a shot with my camera, but I still had to show you the Alpha wolf and this pic comes from this website.
That was a special treat to see the wolves. Within an hour, we came upon a young black bear.

Shortly thereafter, we came upon a buffalo swimming across the Yellowstone River!

When it got out, it shook like a dog! lol
And then the best thing...a sow grizzly with her cub.

Hard to see because they were so far away and we weren't going to get close! lol

So, within an hour we saw the 3 "biggies" in my book...wolves, black and grizzly bear. Next stop...lunch by the lake...but not this one!

Here is Yellowstone Lake, the largest lake in Wyoming. So beautiful, isn't it?


We sat in our little camper, ate a sandwich and enjoyed this scenery.
As we drove, we followed the Yellowstone River and decided it would still be a while before we could float in this water!

Weekend Part 2: Camping

If you remember from the last post, this was the view coming off Beartooth Pass. We continued driving down the highway with Pilot and Index peaks watching us.
We found an interesting Forest Service road to take, thinking we may find a place to camp.
And we did! As we sat at our little camper table, Pilot Peak was right out our window.

We took a nice, evening walk and enjoyed the view, as well.

The beautiful wild flowers (gollardia and ?) carpeted the forest floor.
Even our dang privy had a view some would die for!

Next up...Yellowstone Park and all the animals we saw!

The Weekend Part 1: Beartooth Pass

See the mountains on the left with all the snow on them? We headed out to go OVER that pass...It's almost 11,000 feet.

Getting closer to the road, lol. Beartooth Pass is famous for its gorgeous country and switchbacks!

This gorgeous pass is also well known for the snow drifts and avalanches. You can see the snow-chomping machine's marks breaking through this one.

You wind and wind and wind up this highway. There is a lot of cute little streams right now because the snow is still melting on top.
And as we climbed, the temp started dropping and the snow level increased!

Here's a rock catcher...there are several of these thick wired nets used to keep rocks from smashing your car!

We stopped at the overlook and this cute little chipmunk came right up to me-- obviously used to being fed!




Here's the machine used to chop through the snow drifts. What a fun job that would be!

There were foot prints over to this drift, then ski marks down it...it goes straight down, we were at 10, 800 feet at this point and the temp was a balmy 42 degrees Fahrenheit.

Here's a pretty good drift they plowed through, it was about 8 feet tall.

Up on top...still lots of snow!
Here's an even better drift, probably about 20ft.


Yep! It was a strange sensation driving through these 2 walls!
Look along the skyline to the left and you see a little "pokey" looking peak. That is Beartooth. That is the peak this highway, the pass and the whole mountain range is named after!

Coming down the other side, the 2 peaks you see in the middle are named Pilot and Index. More on that later!
Our gorgeous country just goes on and on! And so does this blog post! So I will break it up a little and give you the rest of my awesome weekend a little later in the week. Hope your weekend was good!

Sunflower/Yard update:

Here is the front flower bed. Let's take a closer look!

Ahh, yes...the glorious sunflower! I wonder how Dilly and Bob's sunflowers are doing?!

I think it is looking pretty good!

Here is the other one. Not quite as big, but still looking pretty happy!

Below, notice the three barren stems...they are the sunflowers I planted in the herb garden. I think Helen Lillian, the little rabbit I see once in a while, ate all the leaves...they don't look good, but I just leave them there. Are these what yours look like, Dilly and Bob??? lol


Against the house, you see of the 4 O'Clocks, a little chime, flowers I planted in Scott's uncle's old ash bucket and a cool rock from Moab!

This is a new flowerbed I made. The perennials are slow, but healthy. On the left is the bleeding heart. There are also moss roses, marigolds, dianthus, tickseed and columbing.

In the corner is a geranium and more pansies. The little "rock" has a robin sitting on it and it says,
"Welcome to my Garden."

Love my peony bush! The one next to it is smaller and only has a couple buds that have not opened yet. They look cream colored.

Here's another bed I put in, and are all perennials except for the petunias and marigolds (they do reseed).
To the right are bachelor buttons i started, there are painted daisies, baby irises and little poppies. Next year they will be much bigger!

Look close at those pink blossoms right in the center. They are related to carnations and called "pinks". They have the sweetest, spiciest fragrance. These came from momma's flower bed. She and I both loved them. THINK PINK!

Moving to the backyard:

This is the shade garden. I planted hostas, lily of the valley, impatience plants etc, but not much is happening There is woodvine coming up and the irises I transplanted are blooming.

Look around the chime hanging in the center, lol, and you will see the old merry-go-round that was at the country school JO JO attended as a very young girl...before I was born. When she moved to RS, I was fortunate enough to inherit it and I love it.

Moving over to the other back bed:

Here's a pic of the herb garden that also have veggies and flowers! lol

See if you can find the sage, chives, oregano, basil, green onions, lettuce and radishes. There are also some day lilies and grape hyacinths.

Here's a closeup of the YUM YUM green onions. They are bent over because they are ready to pick. However, I can't eat them that fast (unless I make old lady heads) so I just let them continue to grow.

And finally...

the iris is the loveliest light blue I've ever seen coupled with the pink petunias planted for momma.