Woke up to a dusting of snow. Everything's all white.

As I walked Aaron to school we were noting all the tracks in the snow. Gosh we have a lot of rabbits here!

The calves in the pasture were not too happy this morning. They were crying out for something to eat!

I spoke to a friend yesterday. Shoot the crud is going around again. That terrible flu stuff. She's got it, actually her kiddos shared it lovingly with her.

Traveled to Cody this afternoon. Past lots of grazing cows and horses.

I love how the afternoon sun hits the Pryor Mountains in the afternoon. They turn almost a purple pinky color, just gorgeous! Purple Mountain Majesty!!

For the past few days the Pryor Mountains have been hidden by thick low grayish clouds. Today with bright sunshine, the snow capped mountains seem to be glistening.

It is a good day!

Wyoming thru the eyes of a Massashusetts city girl:

The cows are grazing in the pasture.
The sheep and mini horses are down the street.
I miss the maple trees!
Large Cottonwood line the streets.
I heard an owl hoot.
The neighbor's black angus cows got out again.

Oh Oh... traffic jam...
The cowboys are moving the cattle across the highway.

Just back...

Just back from a craft fair in Powell Wyoming. There were some really nice things there. One gentleman had cottonwood bark carvings of Santa Claus, bird houses... what detail!

There were so many people there that you could stop to see the exhibitors! And that's something for Wyoming!!!!

I had my boys and my neice with me. They had their own agenda which didn't always jive with my own!

Next year I'm going to go at lunch time and avoid the first thing in the morning rush!

Question of the Day...

My 7 year old was snuggled up next to me this morning when he asked...

"I wonder how Santa Claus can go down those chimneys, you know, the ones with the pipe that runs down the middle?"

What an observant little guy!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Busy Mom just shared with me her recipe for Fudge Pie. Hmmmm. A chocolate lovers piece of Heaven!

Good morning! Greetings from northern Wyoming, cowboy country. It's really, really, chilly here this early morning. Just a little above 20 degrees. Crispy!

There is snow on the tops of all mountain ranges. It looks really pretty!

A friend here in town gave us 3 dozen fresh eggs the other day. Sure makes me want to raise my own chickens. They taste so good, so much more flavor than store bought eggs.

Didn't get my pumpkin pies baked yesterday... that's on the agenda for today.

I'm also going to get started on my Christmas cards. I love to receive them and love to send lots of them out! It's a tradition to keep in touch with friends. I was actually hoping to pop them in the mail by Friday...

If you're traveling with little ones tomorrow, don't forget to check out that Storynory.com site for some free downloadable stories to take along. How fun!!!

Just finished canning the last of my garden tomatoes. 5 more quarts of sauce! That makes about 55 quarts in total! That's a lot of tomatoes!!!

I even saved some fresh tomatoes for our Thanksgiving Day meal.

Did you go check out storynory.com?

Was over to Busy Mom's blog just a bit ago. She shared a link to storynory.com, a site that features FREE ipod downloadable stories for children. This is awesome!

I imagine these wonderful stories playing as we travel about countryside of Wyoming and Montana. We spend a lot of time in our car. It's an hour to our nearest Walmart and 1 1/2 hours to Billings for Home Depot and Red Lobster... and most importantly... Costco!

I'll be processing the last batch of tomatoes today! We'll have some fresh garden tomatoes for Thanksgiving, but the rest will be safely tucked away into my canning jars for enjoyment later this winter.

Thoughts of next year's garden:
I'm thinking that I'd like to grow sweet potatoes next year. I love sweet potatoes!

Harry Potter...

We stood in line for an hour, then waited another hour inside the theatre for the newest Harry Potter movie.

A few of my dear blogger friends have asked my oppinion of the new Harry Potter movie. I have to admit that I did enjoy it. But... if you have young children, you may want to do a preview run before taking them.

It could be scary for little ones, especially when Harry is dueling with Valdemort (did I spell this right?).

In case the week gets really, really busy...
I want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! May you travel safely. May you enjoy the gathering of family. May you eat lots of delicious food and not gain one pound!

Harry Potter TONIGHT!

Just about time to walk little guy to school. It's pretty cold here this morning. I'm not sure that it's even 30 degrees as of yet.

My Christmas Cactus is blooming! I picked it up as a Christmas markdown last season. I've always loved the beautiful blooms of this plant. In my back hall, severely neglected by a lack of water... there it was with beautiful pink blooms.

We're going to see Harry Potter tonight! The boys have been counting down the days. Are you going to see it?

Tomorrow the boys and I are exhibiting my photo postcards. You should see the $$ in my son's eyes! We'll just see how it goes! It will be a good lesson in entrepreneurship.

Good morning. I'm just back from walking my little guy to school. A beautiful dusting of snow covered the ground.

We saw bunny tracks along the way and had fun making our own crazy tracks.

I'm waiting for the water to boil so that I can have some Peppermint Ginger tea( I just pop a couple of these tablets into hot water... hmmmm.) My ears are still cold!

Thanksgivings food traditions...

It is so cold today!! I think that my bones are even cold. Worked with Rich most of the day today on our new home.

I heard that the old theatre in Cody is replacing their wooden seats. I'd love to have some for our media room. I left them a message earlier today about it.

Hey, what are your plans for Thanksgiving? I can't believe that it's next week!!! We'll be local, surrounded by Rich's family eating turkey and the traditional yummies.

What is typically served for your Thanksgiving Day meal? Leave a comment and share!

We have:
Turkey
stuffing (I love pepperide farm stuffing!)
mashed potatoes
squash
carrots
cranberry sauce/jelly
green bean casserole
fresh veggie tray
deviled eggs
rolls

apple pie
pumpkin pie
cherry pie

Oh my! I'm getting stuffed already!

It's Tuesday...

It's Tuesday, but it feels like Monday because the kids were off from school yesterday.

The sun shining bright this morning. Sure hope that it warms up nice today! A big improvement over the wintery weather of yesterday!

I made 18 quarts of Salsa last night. I'm actually coming to the end of my tomato supply. Whew! My pantry is overflowing with yummy canned tomato stuff.

We're getting ready to for a craft fair this Saturday. We're going to be exhibitors! The boys like to sell my photo postcards... so we're going to give it a go....

They are budding entrepreneurs! I thought this would be a really good experience for them. Matthew can be in charge of the $money$ and Aaron can do "promotion."

Matthew wants to raffle off one of my 8x10 framed photos. Probably a sunset photo... Hmmm... we'll see how that goes...

I'm waiting for my photos to come in. I ordered them thru York Photo. Would you believe that they print digital photos for 10cents each without a pre-paid plan? That's the best deal that I've found!

OK... Who ordered SNOW?

Yes, winter has arrived. It's snowing. Looks so pretty.

Guess we won't be working on the house today, though.

My ripening tomatoes are crying out...
Salsa sounds good.

Keeping the Cold OUT!
It was pretty cold here on Saturday night. The furnace was pumping away... The front door and hallway were so cold. There was a nice breeze blowing right through that door!

So I grabbed the warm window stuff that I had purchased last winter with great intentions...

I proceeded to make a very simple curtain to cover the inside of the front door. That worked so great that I then proceed to do the same thing for the back door and one of the windows. It's made a huge difference in the comfort of our little cottage rental!

My Father-in-Law... an update...
We were to see my father-in-law after supper tonight. He has made amazing, absolutely amazing progress. He's no longer in Billings. Thank goodness because that 180 mile trip each day for my mother-in-law was a killer!!! He's at our local care center for a few weeks for continued therapy.

He's walking now and is a "warmer" version of his old "gruff" self.

I just can't get over how far he has come in a few short weeks. What a blessing!!!!

Been de-cluttering...

Oh it feels so good to de-clutter!

It all began when there wasn't room on the pantry shelves for my newly canned tomato sauce and salsa. Look how organized my pantry shelves are!! All thanks to my hubby who has excellent organizational skills!

Then my office/sewing room was next. Wow! What a difference!
My desk still needs a lot of work though!

Tomorrow I'm going to a class at Northwest College Cody campus. I'm going to learn all about selling on eBay. Fun!

Thought that I'd learn all about it because my parents want to get into selling their antiques online... and maybe my mother-in-law might want to sell some of her collections of "stuff." And I have these printer cartridges from my printer that just stopped working... that maybe I could sell???

Return of the red ripe tomatoes!

Saturday cooked more sauce from my abundance of tomatoes. Canned 18 quarts!

Looked at my tomatoes today and decided that I'd better get back to work... lots more ripe ones. So my Vita Mix blended up more yummy tomatoes. Got another stock pot full of sauce and still another sink filled with clean tomatoes...

My pantry needs to be rearranged again to make more room for canned tomato stuff.

We're having homemade pizza tonight. It's a favorite at my house.

I've been having fun on ebay. Just bid on this book on Square Foot Gardening. It's about doing gardening in 4x4' raised beds. Supposed to be easier than the traditional row gardening... It sounds interesting. Thought that I'd read about it.

Yes, I'm already dreaming about my garden for next year!

Busy Saturday...

Hi there. Rich and I went to see the movie, The Greatest Game Ever Played. I really enjoyed it. Would be a good family movie.

Made bacon and eggs for the boys this morning. Matthew is off to the farm to help sort pigs. Rich will be heading down to the house to finish building walls. Maybe Aaron will go with him to help.

I'm teaching the women tomorrow at church, so I've got to get my lesson all together. Also on my agenda is to can up the sauce that has been slow cooking all night... And help Rich with the walls this afternoon...


Busy Saturday!!! What's on your agenda?

Red Ripe Tomatoes

You know all those boxes of tomatoes that I've been posting about?

Well... the majority of them are red... and ripe... and ready to be processed into something yummy.

I've got two stock pots full of sauce simmer... with NO END of ripe tomatoes in sight!

Good morning...

Well, thanks for stopping by. Take a seat at my kitchen table. Would you like some hot cocoa or some herbal tea? Happy Friday!!!

Excuse the dishes... they seem to just keep growing not matter how many times they get washed.

I think that I'll have an Energy drink this morning. I need a boost. Maybe you'd like one too? Rich has been working me pretty hard on that house. We moved a pallet and 1/2 of that heavy chip board yesterday. Things are coming right along, though! We'll have to celebrate when the roof goes up!!!

2nd floor is almost all framed up. Hope to finish it today. Come on by for a visit!

Not as cold out today. Should be quite nice by this afternoon.

We're all getting our hair cut at 1pm today. We are all turning into hairy beasts! Especially me!! I just can't stand it another day!!!!

I'll be heading out the door in a minute to help Rich push up the center wall in our new home. It's so exciting to see our home coming together.

My mother-in-law was by last night and gave us an exciting update on my father-in-law. He walked yesterday with the help of a side walker. He is finally able to move his right leg a bit. This is a momentus event!!!!

Happy November!
Here in northern Wyoming leaves are falling off the trees covering the ground. Large 100 year old cottonwood trees reveal their many branches reaching high up in the sky. The air is crisp and filled with aroma of burning wood. Late afternoons between 2pm and 4pm are the warmest part of the day... then the sun drops down for the night at 5pm.

Just back from a nice walk. The weather is so different from yesterday. Nice warm sun... didn't even need my winter jacket this morning.

Rich and I will be off to push up some walls at the house in a bit.

I had all of 3 trick or treaters last night. I guess that I was thinking about my previous life in Melrose, MA when I bought those 3 bags of candy. We used to run out!