Homestead hopping

I've taken a hiatus from the blog it seems because, well, there's been some other things going on.  Like...moving into our new Casper home!

By the way - we closed on the house on Friday morning and my name was on there, so I am officially a first time homebuyer!  Yay!

Wednesday night and Thursday at ol' 304 in Cheyenne was nothing but packing central.  Our goal was to be on the road to Casper Thursday night, but we were apparently delusional.  We packed until midnight on Thursday, got up at 4:15 a.m. on Friday morning and were on the road to Casper by 5:30 a.m.  Why up so early?  Our closing was at 8 a.m.  We like to keep things exciting.

Here's our life since Thursday...

Ol' 304...

Our little mail slot.  The mailman spelled Todd's last name wrong - it's 'el' not 'le'.

Me packing up our bedroom...

The first mow of the year.  We were the worst kept yard on the block!  But with not being there or it raining we weren't able to get it done.  So, we took some time from packing to weed the flowers and mow the yard...

Packing up the trailer...

Our cute little living room in total disarray...

The kitchen...

Rhubarb from the backyard and a pie our neighbor Betty made for us with some of our rhubarb.  If I had to pick a favorite pie rhubarb would be it.  Pumpkin is a close second... I LOVE the color of rhubarb!

Taking a break to enjoy a piece of pie...

Rigby also taking a break.  It's hard being a cute puppy dog...

The beginning of the purple flowers and end of the tulips that Todd and I planted...

Friday morning, 5 a.m.: Pulling away from 304...

The next few photos document what might be classified as a disaster zone. It's the new house with all our stuff - EVERYWHERE.  The kitchen isn't as bad here.  Not like it was...

But brace yourselves! The living room.  We've slept on the air mattress the last few nights even though our real mattresses are in the bedroom.  Problem is, we don't have the bed frame and it seems pointless to put the mattresses down just to pick them up again and situate on the bed frame.  We have one more substantial load to get from Cheyenne and the frame will be included...

The dining room... You'll notice the place needs some cosmetic upgrades.  I'll get into that later, but let me say: The formal curtains are going, the carpet that is over every square inch of the house (and covering perfectly good, beautiful hardwood floors) will be out, and any wallpaper will be ripped ruthlessly down.  The chandeliers stay...

A prime example: Blue and white shag carpet covering wonderful hardwood floors...!

The upstairs bathroom.  We've decided this will likely be a complete gut.  It's awkwardly arranged making it tight and leaving very little room for storage.  And who puts carpet in a bathroom?  How gross around the toilet!

Speaking of the toilet... It's trapped between the tiled tub wall and the bathroom door making it a tight squeeze.  And it prevents Rigby from his, what we call, Potty Petting Time (PPT).  For some reason, the moment we make our way to the toilet Rigby makes a beeline for us so he can be pet.  He started this at 304 where the bathroom was much more open.  Now, he's having trouble squeezing around the door which seems to be kind of disappointing for him!  And we've become so accustomed to PPT we feel bad for the lil' boy...

And, speaking of Rigby, here he is comfortably sitting on his new front porch.  He loves to go out there and watch the world go by...

I've been jealous of folks who have dogs that are so well behaved they can be trusted to sit peacefully on a porch unattended.  I never thought Rigby would be that dog.  He's a very good boy, but he's also very social and usually can't resist the urge to meet and greet every dog and human within a one mile radius.  At the new house he's been different.  He just lounges out there.  I've only sneaked out a few times to make sure he's still there...

Discoveries

I've been hardcore packing our Cheyenne house this week and last night I came across a couple interesting things.

First, was a stack of notes and papers regarding the second time my vehicle was stolen in D.C.  Yes, second.  There was a total of three times.  It was funny to see officers' names written on drink napkins - I remember very clearly that I was eating dinner with Carrie at an Asian diner when I got that call.

The other thing I stumbled across was my Colorado "book."  In D.C., I had the D.C. "book" where I kept a collection of ideas for restaurants, bars, shopping, events, outdoor activities, etc.  Friends looking for fresh ideas of where to go and what to do would call me for a suggestion.

When I left D.C., I passed that "book" to Linds C. and focused on a Colorado one; filling it with new stuff as well as ideas I'd collected even as I lived in D.C.  The Colorado "book" also had ideas for restaurants, happy hours, cute boutiques, places to hike and other things Coloradans do...

And, since I expected to be living in Denver I had collected a lot of information about its different neighborhoods so I could know which one I'd love living in the most...

I just threw my collection out and have decided to let my subscription to Denver's 5280 magazine expire.  I'm never going to live in Denver.  Or Colorado.  

And I discovered a while back I no longer want to.  

I think I landed where I'm supposed to be.

Caught red branded

Yesterday, Todd and I went to Jonna's family's branding.  Todd had never been to a branding and I was excited for him to see what it was like.

Relaxin' and grazin' with no idea of what's to come...

Time to round 'em up!

The branding irons heating up...

Jonna getting ready to brand!

Jonna's brother Nathan (in the white hat) holding a calf down...

Todd helping Jonna get a calf down!

Still working on him...

He's down for the count!  There's a lot that happens all at once: branding, tagging, vaccination, dehorning, and...castration.  Hmmm...it's only 10 a.m. and I want Rocky Mountain Oysters.  That sounds wrong.  Like, how it's not "proper" to have a drink before noon...maybe a person shouldn't want RMO in the morning...

The branding was delayed earlier in the morning because of rain, which quit then started up again.  The branding was put off completely then.

An action shot...

Four calves down at the same time!  I actually participated for a while this year - I got to tag - which amounts to basically piercing their ears...

Jonna's brother Nathan again.  I just liked this photo of him...

Shutting down early and letting the cows out of the corral...

Mooovin' out...

Jonna, her mom Gayann, and dad Wayne putting the final touches on lunch.  Usually there's a big spread at the end of the event.

Too bad they'll have to finish them up later!

Tornado!

We had terrible storms around Cheyenne today - including several tornado sightings!

I also watched one!

This is a photo of the tornado I saw.  I only had my crappy phone camera with me, so my pics aren't that great.  This is from Lind H.'s friend...

HE SPEAKS!

Rigby has a bark!!

A full-fledged, throaty, big-boy dog bark!

This is MONUMENTAL!

We knew he had a voice.  He's whimpered, whined, squeaked, and made little yips in his puppy dreams.

But a BARK??

Not once.  Not EVER.

But our renter has a six-month-old puppy, Ella, who I think Rigby likes, but sometimes has a hard time having her around.  I think it's the whole "this is my space, these are my people" kind of thing.

So, I just let them both in from going to the bathroom and out of nowhere there was a scuffle.  A few deep barks and some growling.  The workshop is dark so I couldn't actually see what went on very clearly, and I was so stunned I seriously stood there staring blankly at them before I said out loud, "Was that YOU Rigby?"

I know Ella's bark.  She's still young and has a higher pitched puppy bark.

Then it happened again!  Bark! Bark! Growwwwwl. And a little whine from Ella who was cowering on the floor.

This time I knew.  Rigby had barked.

Of course, I immediately called Todd.  It was like our baby had said his first word.

But here's the mystery: Why has Riggs never barked before?  He's been around far more aggressive dogs and never a peep.

So.  It's confirmed.  Our baby boy has a bark.

Doesn't that sound like it should be some movie title, like, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, or something?

Living arrangements

Todd and I have a renter.

The guy is also a game warden and to help pay the rent on our Casper apartment - and to help him get into town and get his bearings - we asked him if he'd like to rent out our basement.

While it's been very nice to have our apartment paid for it has come with some frustration.

I have expectations that I really don't think are unreasonable: keep our common areas cleaned up, and be respectful of my space.  I thought these generalities would be easy enough to accommodate, but, it turns out I've had to be pretty specific.  Such as: If your dog comes in and muddies up the kitchen, basement stairs, laundry room, etc., please wipe it up.  Or, as a solution to the big muddy boot tracks in the laundry room, how 'bout we say all work boots off in the workshop?  Perhaps he could wipe down the counters instead of leaving globs of food dripped all over?  Or maybe he could turn lights out and not open every door in the house while the heat is still turned up.

These all seem like pretty logical actions to me!

I've left a couple of written messages for him, but today, I had to have a face-to-face chat.  I've been gone for nearly two weeks in Oklahoma and Casper.  When I came home for lunch today I went to use the bathroom only to find the seat left up and, to be delicate, the toilet in need of a good wipe down.

My last straw.

This is MY space.  MY bathroom.  What is he doing using MY bathroom??  I don't go into the bedroom/bathroom downstairs.  And I certainly don't expect him to be in mine.

It turns out he had his little brother and his bro's girlfriend over for dinner and a movie - which I don't mind - and he seems to think it got left up when they were here.

Ok...ok.  But it'd be nice if you cleaned up after your guests, particularly when they're using MY things, right?

Todd assures me I'm not hard to live with and don't have unreasonable expectations, but maybe I'm just spoiled with Todd.  He's uncommonly clean for a "dude".

I like our renter, and if he weren't living in my basement I'd probably like him more.

But right now, I'm REALLY enjoying my time alone in the house while he's out.

Happy trails to Oklahoma

Wednesday afternoon was the end of my big trip to Oklahoma.

Wyomingites dominated the plane ride back, easily outnumbering the rest of the passengers.  I love how we travel in packs.

An Oklahoma sunrise. I was on the 9th floor of the hotel and this is what it looked like out my window each morning...

A statue of Buffalo Bill outside the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.  We had a big reception there one night.  It was a pretty amazing museum with lots of gorgeous Western art...

I'm doing a Flat Stanley for my little cousin Ciarra.  Only I've turned her into Flat Stanley-etta and made her into a cowgirl.  I'm not good with arts and crafts so her face is kind of messed up.  Here she is at the Oklahoma City bombing memorial...

The "entrance" to Bricktown, what's billed as the entertainment district in Okla. City.  It was right next to the hotel, so I ate a lot of meals in this area...

Such as this place on the canal.  I had a nice - but rather salty - Cajun meal here...

The American Banjo Museum is also in Bricktown.  I tried to go in to take some photos for my sister Kelly who has a fascination with banjos, but I decided not to spend the entrance fee.  I made up for it in getting her birthday present from there though!

This conference always has tons of tours you can choose to go on if you want.  A few of us decided to take the "Rubbin' Buckles on the Ol' Chisholm Trail" tour - I think the name is funny.  It was pretty interesting and, let me tell you, the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center in Duncan, Okla., is awesome!  Very experiential.  I highly recommend it! 
 

The Heritage Center also had a wing filled with Western art.  This piece was found in a barn and then restored! I so wish I could stumble on something like this!  It was one of my favorites...

One night, a large group of us from Wyoming went to the stockyards and had dinner.  There's a place called The Cattlemen's that is famous and is apparently listed in the book "1000 Places to See in the USA and Canada Before You Die".

So, of course we had to go!

Some Western-style transportation...

I bought this lovely piece at an antique store in Duncan, Okla. I LOVE Western jewelry and turquoise and sterling.  Just guess, GUESS how much I got this for?  $10!!  I've worn it every day since.  Doesn't my dinner napkin make for a lovely backdrop?

The crowning glory of the trip was meeting up with my old boss, former U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley and his wife Lynn.  I just LOVE Mr. Hefley!  He is SO great and I haven't seen him since he retired to a ranch south of Okla. City where he and Lynn raise horses...

Lynn, Mr. Hefley and I at Toby Keith's restaurant...