Well, spring has come and gone, rather prematurely, I think. We witnessed a couple dozen glossy ibises, a cormorant and a snowy egret, a black crowned night heron; the sandhill cranes and blue herons are back; had a gaggle of geese, now reduced to one gosling and parents. There are quite a few more fox this year and those pesky racoons and skunks are trying to move in. I chased a skunk (from a distance) out of the yard that probably wanted to establish a residence under the porch again. Clark finally managed to shoot the one last year that thought she lived there, but she managed to crawl back under to die. Good thing the cold weather was fast approaching!
The mornings have been glorious with the symphony of birds tuning up. I felt the sharp contrast of joy and suffering as I sat meditating last week. While the birds were sweetly singing, the calves were bawling as Clark put the hot iron to their hides.
Jim and Sande made their annual trip out here to their ranch before Memorial Day weekend. They have become more resolute to move out as retirement becomes an option. Clark has put up many tons of hay over the last 10 years on that property in spite of the rising cost of fuel, expenses of maintaining all of the equipment, and Jim's struggle to continually piece together the 40 year old center pivot.
Stan and Pat were here to meet them and enjoy the traditional barbeque feast.Sande's contribution to tradition is her watermelon "tractor". 
Stan invited me to go with him and Pat to the BodyWorlds exhibit in the Denver Museum of Natural Sciences. It was an incredible combination of art and embalming (displacement of body fluids with acetone, then polymers) creating amazing rubberized "body sculptures". 
One thing I realized is that all bodies are naturally lean. The rest is added on later. The bonus feature of the trip was an IMAX movie "Mystic India". Whew!!!!
After we got back to their place and walked the dog, we cruised the neighborhoods so I could see first hand the challenges of finding 'just" the right house to buy. Ft Collins really is a sweet suburban area with many bike trails in the green belts that criss-cross the fertile Front Range town. Then add to that the college town charm and you have quite a package.
Finally got most of my garden put in, experimenting with the new and improved raised bed method. You put down weed barrier in the bottom of a four foot square wood frame and add a special recipe of rich moisture retaining dirt. It was a lot of work initially and some extra expense, but with my deteriorting body I hope to have many more years of productive gardening if this works.
So now to get ready for Serena and Cole's visit next week. Serena originally wanted to enter the Chugwater Chile Cookoff but I have my doubts about the new location at the Kaufman Ranch. I didn't see one tree or even a shrub for the matter and what grass there might be was not green. If the temperature goes back up into the 90's again, well.....
They will be flying into Casper and I will drive 125 miles (one way) to pick them up. I told her if she flew into Denver I wouldn't be able to get them. I'm just a big sissy. Besides with only three gates, travel through Casper is such a breeze!
So back to cleaning, laundry, mowing the lawn, weeding the garden, work a couple shifts, buy groceries, catch up with the bills and Ranch paperwork, etc, etc, etc....
Text © 2006 Mona E. Dunn
