Gratitude

We had snow the night before Thanksgiving which made the event all the cozier especially for Serena and Cole coming from the "boring" San Francisco Bay weather.
In spite of the icy roads, Clark made it to the Cheyenne airport to pick up Serena and Cole and Solomon made it with his family driving up from Albuquerque, passing Clark at Chugwater. Stan and Pat strolled in at noon on T-Day with hor d'ourves and wine. Of course Serena brought special ingredients from the Bay Area for her recipes such as white eggplants, gorganzola cheese, some lemons that tasted like a cross between lemon and tangerines and San Francisco sourdough bread. Serena and I both love to cook and are quite compataible in the kitchen.


We had the woodstove blazing...

so whether hiking,


riding the Polaris ATV, (Jake)

drinking wine on the deck at sunset, 20 degrees more or less

ice skating,



or picking rosehips


...you could always come in and thaw out.

The people I am grateful for (including brother Stan taking the photo) and the rare opportunity for all of us to be together


Like this snoozing coyote at the pond, I think it's time to take a nap.



Text © 2007 Mona E. Dunn

Put Another Log on the Fire...

Boil me up some bacon and some beans...



Autumn has finally turned cold enough to put a dinner pot on the woodstove for the day.

Clark just loves his new log splitter so we stacked several loads on the woodpile by the house. As the sun faded in the west the north wind dropped the temperature 30 degrees.


The fall colors in Wyoming are brilliant but subtle at the same time.It helps if you look closer to the ground.






Clark hauled the cattle over to the Circle for winter forage and headed to the sale barn in Torrington. He cashed in his Christmas account and invested in the "Stock" Market, buying eight pairs (cow/calf) and a bred heifer to add to the herd. I can't say that was a bad idea given the current decline in paper stock. Then it was time to sell as I kissed the yearlings good-bye through the stock trailer. We kept back two to finish out for spring butcher. Clark, Dan, Harry and Shannon are all available for each other when it comes time to work the cattle.

They finished up today branding, inoculating and castrating the newcomers. Rocky mountain oysters, anyone?



Text&Pictures © 2007 Mona E. Dunn

On the Move

With the autumn chill the wild animals are looking for winter range. Yesterday a bald eagle in all of his glory swooped the canada geese on the pond sending them squawking into a close knit group for protection. When I tried to get a picture from the deck he flew about 6 feet over the house.In addition to the geese we've seen widgeons, wood ducks, scaups, ring-neckeds, canvas backs, and buffle heads and of course mallards.



This morning over homemade bisquits and gravy (Gary, I'll share my recipe but it's really all about technique) we watched a coyote wandering over the dam. Clark finally admitted to Dan and Bill who had dropped in for coffee and whatever other goodies I might have baked this week, that he doesn't mind coyotes since they do keep the rodents down. I noticed the other day a proliferation of prairie dogs in the "town" over the hill from here and do believe it is because of the bounty on coyotes.

After a short while the nice 5 point buck (10 pt if you're east of the Mississippi)
that's been cruising through the property every day came out of the woods below. He meandered around at the pond for several minutes.


I've been feeding the eleven geese, twenty five chickens, three horses and a donkey for the Cindy, the girl on the hill.

She helps her Dad on the various farms he has around the country and is gone a lot. It's a good excuse to hike up the back way (as I've discovered a few extra lbs I can't seem to squeeze into my last pair of "big" jeans) and collect some large rocks for the terracing I want to create in the back yard. Her place is very cute and I like the perspective from the top of the hill.
This is just the chicken house.

Well, time to feed the critters, work on the Craft Fair projects for Nov 10th, get ready to go down to Stan's to see the Rinpoche and then contemplate how to host ten family memebers for several days at Thanksgiving.

Autumn Performance

Gold transmutes to bronze

This mid-October Indian summer day.

The wildly breezy morning air

Invokes a round of applause

From the crisp leafy trees.

Standing ovations are in order.

The riotous clapping subsides

Leaving a hush of reverance.



Text & Pictures © 2007 Mona E. Dunn