Memorial Snow

Happy Memorial Day! While the rest of the country was basking in beautiful weather, we had two days off (Sunday and Monday) and THIS to celebrate with. Jason, as always, was excited. I was bummed. Praying for some warm weather this coming week!

Because of crowds in the parks and stinky weather, we decided to stay at the Ranch this weekend. (We also wanted to save some cash!) Our original plan was to hike locally, but that didn't work out because of the cold and the mud. Instead, we got all settled in our new cabin (it's awesome - pictures soon!) and were forced to relax and lay low!

Chad is home in Colorado until Wednesday, so in addition to Indy, we are dog-sitting Buddy, one of the ranch dogs. He's sort of smelly, but couldn't be sweeter!

The best event of the last week was our surprise horse ride on Saturday afternoon. We were blessed with some surprisingly decent weather, and J.W. decided to start putting us through our paces with the horses. We're expected to do all of our own tack and grooming, and should be able to take the horses out on our own in another month or so. It's amazing how easily everything came back to me - the knots, the grooming, the tack... It's all still there in my mind from all of those lessons I had as a girl. It's a fortunate thing I had those lessons (thanks Mom and Dad!), since on our ride something was really bothering my horse and she got crazy out of nowhere - I kept my seat and my composure and was complimented by J.W. for my excellent horsemanship. :) Nice. Also, while out on our ride, we encountered a Bull Moose on the property. It's one thing to see a Moose in the Parks, but here on the property? More awesome than you can imagine. The location where we saw it was literally less than a five minute walk from our new cabin!

Speaking of the new cabin, Indy's a BIG fan. It has lots of windows and a direct line of sight to the "big doggies" (or horses). He's obsessed.

We also got the okay from the boss this last week for my parents to stay on the ranch for a few days when they arrive in Wyoming on July 8. They spend a month in West Yellowstone (on the other side of Yellowstone Park, in Montana) every summer. This year, they're driving up through Wyoming and into Cody to see us for a few days before driving through the park to the other side. They're pretty lucky - they're going to be staying in the Deer Creek Cabin, which is one of the nicest, coolest buildings on the property. It's awesome. We're super excited to see them and share this amazing place with them, and they're really looking forward to it, too. Dad's especially stoked to get to fish on the Shoshone River here on the property. It's a very, very famous location for flyfishing, and few anglers ever get to fish the South Fork of the river, simply because it runs through private property on both sides. You have to have the property owner's permission to fish it! Hopefully the fish are biting when he's here, and the river has slowed down after the massive snow run-off.

In Greenhouse news, we have not yet caught the Chipmunk that has decided to live in there. (For the record, I am trying to catch this one ALIVE. Indy, however, has another idea about that.) It has decided that it needs to dig up and eat some of my beets. Grrr. They're almost ready to be pulled up - I hope it doesn't get anymore!

Well.... that's probably it for today. Lots more to tell, but I think I'll save that for separate posts. Check back in a day or two for photos of the new cabin, and some more stories that I really want to share!

Oh! And check out Jason's photos from our trip last weekend!

The Super Housekeeper Rides Again... and again...

I feel like the super housekeeper this week. Or a little like Superwoman, although I'm pretty sure she doesn't get as tired as I've been.

It's busy time here at the ranch. I'm currently doing the jobs of TWO people (and technically, I'm doing the jobs of FOUR, since in prior years they've hired three housekeepers and one gardener). We're two weeks out from having guests, and two weeks from moving all the plants outside, and two days from moving into our individual cabins. So... I've spent my week cleaning all the staff cabins, and since I'm a little bit of a perfectionist, I won't walk away from them until they're as clean as I would want them to be were I to live in them. I'm a bit of a germophobe, and other people's dust, scum, and dirty toilets makes me gag. But give me a pair of rubber gloves and a closet full of cleaning supplies? You could eat off of the toilet when I'm done (not saying you'd want to, but still...)

In addition to that, there's the regular upkeep in the greenhouse, and I've started to plant anything that's weather-hardy in the outdoor garden (beans, carrots and lettuce seeds are now in).

Fortunately, our wrangler/part time housekeeper will arrive tomorrow night and start work on Tuesday morning. I'll be glad to have some help with the housekeeping. :)

Apparently Wyoming missed the memo that Memorial Day weekend is supposed to be the kick off to that fabulous season - SUMMER. It's barely Spring out there today, since it's been snowing off and on all day.

It only makes me appreciate the sun even more.

Jason and I will move into our immaculately clean cabin this weekend since they're no longer worried about the pipes freezing. It's pretty awesome, and relatively new (built last year) with high ceilings, walk in closet and a bathroom larger than the one in our old rental in Redondo Beach. I'll post pictures after we get all settled in.

So that's where we're at. Looking forward to dinner tonight since Fridays are for fancy, plated, multi-course meals. Short ribs are on the menu tonight, and let me tell you, they look and smell awesome! Tony's been working on them for days. :) Speaking of which... it's time for dinner!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

A Close Second

On Sunday we had another great day - not as wonderful as Saturday, but definitely a close second. :)

We started slow, having breakfast in Jackson and then talking with my parents on the phone for a little while. Got lunch to go and packed it with us into the park, taking advantage of a brief lull in the weather to get out on the only "open" trail in Teton.

Open... HA!

The trail was 1.6 miles each way to Taggart Lake. The first part was the easy part, and it was uphill. The second half of the hike was in 4 foot deep snow, walking on the snow pack. Poor Jason kept sinking all the way! That's almost a mile in the snow each way!

I realized a very large victory on our hike - I did not once have trouble with the circulation in my hands and feet. I've written briefly about this before, but due to my celiac disease, I developed a circulatory disorder called Raynaud's Syndrome when I was 23, where I lose circulation in my hands and feet whenever I get chilled. Prior to our time in Wyoming, I would lose circulation in my hands when the weather dropped under 70 degrees (if I was not appropriately dressed - long sleeves and a jacket.) Now, I can take a two hour hike in the snow if I'm dressed properly. That's a BIG DEAL! It was pretty exciting. :)

We ate lunch at Taggart Lake and hiked back out just in time. Right after we got back to the car, the skies opened up and the rain started coming down. I don't think my circulation would have done as well in the rain if I had gotten wet.

On the drive back into Yellowstone, we finally saw another Moose. This was actually a pair of Moose (the male is just starting to grow his antlers back after dropping them last season), and the first we'd seen in a month since one ran across the road in front of our car.

I Love Moose. They're so amazing!

We also encountered this little lady eating an apple core someone must have tossed from their car. Isn't she sweet?

We stopped for dinner at the Yellowstone Lake Lodge at Lake Village in the park. The food was SOOOOOOOOO much better than what we'd had at the Old Faithful Lodge, and the view was spectacular. Add to that the Pianist they have on staff who plays music nightly in the Lodge, and the setting is complete. The Pianist was playing all the old standards, especially Gershwin, and I was charmed. There's no other way to put it. Charmed. I couldn't stop singing along and think I was making Jason a little crazy.

We finally got home to find out that one of the mares had her foal on Saturday morning as we were driving out. (I KNEW I saw something!) She's all gangly legs. I can't get enough of watching her play and nurse and sleep. :) It's my new favorite pastime on the ranch. We have another foal due in early July - I can't wait!

The Best Day

Yesterday was (in my opinion) the best day we've had since we've been in Wyoming. Have you ever had one of those days where everything just works out perfectly? Where you're totally open to where the wind takes you and the pieces just magically come together?

It was one of those.

It started early - too early since I woke Jason up a half an hour before our alarm. I got confused and thought it was time to get up at 5am. Oh well. We were sleepy, but excited to get going on our adventure.

Upon entering Yellowstone Park, we saw THREE Grizzlies. We had gotten in there early enough, and well, we just got lucky. (I have a video of the mama bear and her cub, but the internet here is pretty slow, so it will have to wait for upload until we're back at the ranch. In the meantime, you can see Jason's photos of them by clicking here.)

There is something I call the Yellowstone Effect (and Jason thinks should be called the Yellowstone Syndrome). The minute one person stops on the side of the road to take a photo, they are immediately surrounded by at least 20 other people with cameras so expensive they can't possibly know how to use them - all shooting in the same direction just in case something's out there.

In the case of the bears, we saw the crowds and looked and saw the bears - it worked out for us. A few other times in the morning, we stopped for Jason to take a photo of the landscape and were swarmed - all by disappointed amateur photographers who thought we saw a moose or wolf or grizzly. In our mood yesterday, it was all just funny. :)

Jason essentially says "Kiss my ass (crack)" to all the amateur photographers following him around.

We had lunch in Teton National Park at the Jackson Lake Lodge. Beautiful Lodge overlooking part of Jackson Lake! We had lunch at the diner there, where the only seating is at these big wrap around counters. (There's a diner like it in Yellowstone, too, at the Fishing Bridge). Because we were bellied up to the counter, we of course had neighbors, all who had traveled in on or another tour bus, most seniors.

I happened to be sitting next to a particularly charming woman (and I mean that without any facetiousness - she was great.) She is widowed, traveling alone on the bus with all the other couples. She was trying to figure out how to delete old photos from her digital camera (from last year's trip to Turkey - my kind of woman!), so she'd have space. We offered to help and struck up a conversation. The conversation began like this:

"Can we help you with your camera? We'd love to."
"We have a saying where I come from: 'Does a bear s*%$ in the woods?'"

It was awesome. She and her buddies from the bus were the quiet protesters, the ones who sit in the back and grumble about the driver and how they never get to stop and see neat things - they just keep on driving. They're on a two week tour of many of the parks in Utah, Arizona and Wyoming, and will wrap up their trip with two days in Vegas.

We told them what we were up to, about working in Cody, and she said to me, "Do exactly what you're doing - see the world, take risks, enjoy your marriage before you have kids. Enjoy every moment and explore." It wasn't that, verbatim, but it was something to that effect.

Like I said - awesome.

After we left our new friends at the Lodge, we headed South through the rest of Teton. It's all frozen over still, but just gorgeous. Prettier than I expected, in fact. Jason continued to stop for his photos - I would get out, check it out, and then freezing jump back in the car to wait for him. All the normal stuff. At pilgrim creek, though, I got out to follow Jason, only to have this angry Yellow Bellied Marmot (Close cousin of the woodchuck, just smaller) barking at me in a tree. She was not happy to see me. Unfortunately (for the Marmot), I was very happy to see her. Cute, isn't she?

Jason's idea of parking.

Jason at Jenny Lake. Even he thought this one was awesome. Go me. :)

We ended up in Jackson Hole. I had been told it was an awesome town and thought I was prepared. I was not. Jackson Hole is a REALLY GREAT TOWN. If you've never been here, you have to make it a point to check it out sometime. It's a little hippie, a little ritzy, a lot of western, and just downright cool. This weekend also happens to be the big ElkFest (celebrating the nearby National Elk Preserve). These arches are permanent in the town square - they really love their Elk here.

We explored Jackson, and ended up in this store that sells pawned and never claimed jewelry from New Mexico. We bought this piece for $29, and it's all real. It wasn't in our budget, but geez.... you can't pass that up. And the woman who owns the store is a character and a half. She's the kind of woman I expect my sister to be when she's in her 70s. Totally done up to the nines - hair and makeup always with HUGE pieces of jewelry on. Again - awesome.

We bought tickets to an early evening showing of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie and saw it with all the Jackson locals. Again, we were shocked at regular priced movie tickets for adults UNDER $10!!!!!!!! Wyoming has their movie tickets priced correctly! Anyhow, the movie was awesome - MUCH better than at least the last Pirates and probably the second one, too (in my humble opinion.) Penelope Cruz is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than the combo of Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, you don't even miss them. In fact, you realize just how much they muddied up the last few storylines. Go see it. You'll have a blast. :)

Entering Jackson, through our windshield. The slopes are LITERALLY in town.

After the movie, we had dinner at the Snake River Brewing Company, which is in fact the most award-winning small brewery in the United States. The food was awesome, and according to Jason (since I can't have beer... sad...) the beer was really great, too.

The Jackson Hole Visitor's Center has a grass roof!

Finally, we made it to our classy accommodations - the Super 8. There are some really, really awesome hotels here in Jackson, but they're all way above our super-saver budget. This Super 8 is pretty nice, though, and one of the cheapest in town. We're happy. And aside from Jason snoring last night, I slept great.

OH! We watched a couple of episodes of Extreme Couponing on TLC last night. We'd never seen it before and were both hooked (especially Jason). Have you seen it before? Those people are crazy! They're like organized, super saver hoarders. You sort of envy them and pity them at the same time. Definitely something to be learned, though. We're not taking advantage of any coupons really, and should be saving SOME money at least. :)

The only mar on the day was a bug that decided it needed to fly into my eyeball. Nasty. Fortunately, Jason was able to gently get it out.

Sorry for the super long post, but like I said - Awesome day. :)

Of Chipmunks and Waterfalls

We had a couple of inches of snow on the ground this morning. It's so cute how excited Jason gets about the snow! I'm just hoping and praying that it will get cold enough just once to kill all the ticks that have hatched out all over the place. Fingers crossed for a summer without ticks.

My day was a slower one, at least at first, so I took a walk down to the fishing/swimming hole to see the baby geese. Yes... it's a stocked trout pond so the guests can feel like successful fisherman. And yes, the goslings were precious.

My day got much more exciting this afternoon when I discovered that the "mouse" in the Greenhouse Indy has been crying about all week was, in fact, a chipmunk. A circus ensued, involving Chad coming to try and chase it out. All to no avail. There is STILL a chipmunk in the Greenhouse. The idea of Indy killing a mouse is much different from Indy killing a cute little chipmunk. But the chipmunk can't stay, no matter how warm and comfy he is. A chipmunk can do much more damage to my veggies than a mouse can. And let me tell you, there are some serious green tomatoes going on those plants. I'll keep you posted on how the chipmunk ordeal pans out. I'm trying to get the little guy out alive.

This little steer cracks me up. The roping steer are very cute and super skittish. They're not at roping size yet, so they just eat and roam around the arena.

Let's see... what else? Oh! With the snow and the rain, the waterfalls have started back up again. It's hard to see them, but there are four in this picture. Maybe I can get Jason to take a better one for me. We'll see.

Jason and I are headed to Jackson Hole and Grand Teton for a one night stay tomorrow after work. We're hoping to go through Yellowstone to shave off some miles and time. That's only if Sylvan pass is open with all the new snow. If not, we'll go the long way around. Either way, we're going since next weekend is Memorial Day and tourist season really kicks off then. We're interested in getting in there before it's a zoo. :)

Next post? Hopefully photos from Teton!

"Honey, I'm still a guy"

My husband is a guy - a man's man. An outdoorsy, active, mechanical-brained male who happens to take beautiful photos. But no mistake - he's a GUY.

And I love that about him.

I was listening to my iPod in the greenhouse today while Indy chased a mouse (I was trying to avoid being a part of mouse murder, but well, we've been through this before...). The Brad Paisley song, "I'm Still a Guy" came on, and I just started laughing since it made me think immediately of Jason. I was lost in flowers, thinking of my man's man, when he sneaks into the greenhouse and scares the crap out of me. He then proceeds to tear apart the storage corner with Indy, trying to get the mouse (which is still roaming free). In the process, he found a dead mouse in the container and took care of it for me...

Thank God he's a GUY.

If you've never heard the song, you have to take a listen. Just click play on the link and then keep reading the blog. (There are photos below!) Ignore the photos in the youtube video... cheesy.



My favorite lyrics are:

"These days there’s dudes getting facials
Manicured waxed and botoxed
But with deep spray on tans and creamy lotioney hands
You can’t grip a tackle box.
With all of these men lining up to get neutered
It’s hip now to be feminized.
I don’t highlight my hair,
I’ve still got a pair,
Yeah, honey I’m still a guy.
My eyebrows ain’t plucked,
Theres a gun in my truck.
Thank God I’m still a guy."

And speaking of my GUY, he grabbed my little point and shoot camera and took some photos of the greenhouse today, cause he thought you all should see it. He said, and I quote, "Well honey, you definitely have a green thumb." To which I replied, "Oh, I've killed a couple of plants, but I always get rid of the evidence before someone can see it."

So here's my cheerful greenhouse, courtesy of my guy. :)

First Harvest

I got to harvest the first of the greenhouse crops today! Granted, I have been harvesting all sorts of herbs and lettuces for weeks, but I somehow don't feel like those count.

Anyhow, I was very excited and took these pictures for you. I picked green onions, red radishes and white icicle radishes this morning. I also picked quite a bit of baby greens - red and green salad bowl lettuce, iceberg and arugula. :)

Aren't they pretty? It's hard not to get excited about crops. :) I started a bunch of veggies seeds in small pots today, so that I'll have little seedlings ready to plant out on June 15 when it will finally be safe from frost.