What NOT to do on Saturday Night

Last night Ed and I are sitting at home; I just

played a game of solitare and Ed is reading. A friend

stops by to pick up a bale of hay and I tell him to

sit down, dinner is almost finished, just a few more

minutes. I turn off the stove to serve up the dishes and

the phone rings, the neighbor says look outside,

you all are on fire. Sure enough, the haystack is in

huge flames!!!

We had 240 bales of hay, now we have a big stinky mess.

Still not totally sure what happened. Thinking that the

exhaust pipe on our friends truck must've touched the hay.

Not sure about all of the farm equipment yet, but

everyone is healthy and all damage is outside. I was told

by several people that there was a picture and small article

in today's paper. I will get a copy of it tomorrow.

Now don't ever say we are boring!!

Oh yea, around 10 PM we finally got to eat.

Black to Silver

One Sunday the end of August we decided to drive up

to a little lake up above Colbran, CO.  We were just

about a mile from the lake when our wonderful '07

Ford decided to just QUIT running. No warning, no

nothing, in the middle of the road the engine just stopped.

So we get to have a 50 mile tow truck ride. We take it

to this shop in town and get it back a week later,

instantly it is acting up again, to we take it back for another

week. Then it is really supposed to be fixed, so we drive it

a couple days and then take a trip up to Lake City, CO.

Ed decides we should go over Cinnamon Pass, it goes

from LC to Silverton, CO.  Right about the middle of the pass,

you guessed it, the stinking truck simply stops running again.

Yep, up here somewhere in the San Juan mountains.

In the 13,000 to 14,000 peaks and straight drop offs,

one lane in most places pass.  We get a $400.00 tow

just back to Lake City, we then have to figure out a way

to get the truck back to Grand Junction, another 185 miles.

The truck goes back to the shop and a week later is

STILL no better. The dang thing only has 45,000 miles

 on it, but...  we now own a Silver Dodge.

Northern Colorado Trip

Also this summer we took a little trip up to northern Colorado.

A good friend of mine, Gaylene came out from WA to visit

people in Craig, CO; so we drove up there to spend some

time with her. Went out to a super cabin site of her in-laws.

So while we were up there we drove over to Yampa, and

went back into the Flat Tops and fished the lakes there. My

Uncle Ken just happened to be working up there, so he came

out to the lake and fished with us. The next morning we drove

back into Yampa, and then drove over to Trapper's Lake and

Meeker, CO on a new high mountain pass (Dunckley) a.k.a.

the Flat Tops Scenic By-Pass.  A very remote and pretty area.

Lackland AFB

One of the other fun things about this trip was that Ed did his basic

training at Lackland AFB in 1963.  He had a good time just looking

around. The first pic is of the barracks that he stayed in way back
then. They are getting ready to tear it down, and it was the last one
 like this.  We couldn't get inside of it, but you could peek in and
get the idea.We also walked around the area were the old airplanes
 were, many of these brought back a bunch of memories for Ed.
We went to the museum on base.
No pictures of that it was too dark inside.

The graduation grounds.

Lots of memories for my handsome man!!

Jessica and her four

At yet another restaurant, this is Grandpa Ed, little

Miss "I like my toes" Gillian and Hayden. I hadn't seen

these grands except the baby since a year ago August.

My oh my how they have grown. Gillian is now 17mos.,

Hayden is 3 AND A HALF..just ask her. Logan and Lauryn

7 and 9 yrs. They are just growing up too dang fast.

Note the night gown, both girls in the same one, Anna came over

to pick us up, on the way home she says, Grandma, I have the

same night gown and when she got home she put it on and slept in it.

Ha...bet you don't know what this is... Jessica tells Gillian

to go to the "Naughty Chair", she walks across the room and

sits on the floor in this little section in front of the kitchen sink.

At the park on base by Tricia's house. Only Jessica and the two little

ones. Only spent about 7-8 hours with them the whole trip. Jess was

out of town the first part of our trip, plus knew that we were going to

get to see them again, real soon... like for Thanksgiving.

It was just amazing at how much all of the kids had grown.

 Being Gpa and Gma is great!

All the Grandbabies in San Antonio

In October we went to see all the kiddos in San Antonio.

Two daughters, two son-in-laws (although Terry is in GA),

and eight grandchildren. As always great to see them all.

This trip we went to Six Flags Fiesta. Anna wanted me to

ride this roller coaster with her since there is NO WAY that

Grandpa Ed was going to do it. I must admit right as it was

getting ready to take off I was asking myself if I was totally

crazy??!! It was quite exhilarating. A little later we went over to

a roller coaster ride that Quinn could ride on and I say to Ed, oh come

on... IF Quinn can ride on it, surely you can go on THAT one.

 And he does.

Oh my, I have not laughed so hard in eons. Quinn might be able to

ride it, but it was still quite a ride and I wasn't sure that Grandpa

was going to make it. After that he stuck to...

Every other 10 minutes we were eating! We went to a

couple great Mexican food restaurants and this pic is

from the Rainforest Cafe on the Riverwalk. It has gorillas,

tigers, and just lots of real size animals stuck all around you in a

 rain forest setting. Every 30 minutes all of the animals 'come alive'.

This is Lexsie and Quinn enjoying the nearby ape.

                                       

Since we were there right before Halloween, we got to

go to Trunk or Treat with Anna, Kaid, Quinn and Lexsie. 

The trunk was decorated by Anna and I will say it was the 

BEST one there. Here is Anna, Quinn and Anna's friend.

It was a fun week...  and yes, I did see Jessica

and the other four grandkids...  next blog entry! 



Puppies

In August Maggie surprised us with a litter of 5 puppies!!

Now I say surprised us because she did not look PG until

about 3 days before she had them. We had a blast with them.

I had each of them named and VERY spoiled before we found a

home for 4 of them. Little Blue in the middle stayed here with Ed.

The Hardy Reunion

The end of July found us driving through Vernal again, on

our way to the Hardy Family Reunion. What a BLAST!

Stacy met us in Vernal then we drove on up to Flaming Gorge.

I am so sad that these are the only pics I have of the event,

dummy left her camera at home. We had a fantastic time.

It was the first time I met most of the 'Hardys', and

I enjoyed each and every one of them. If anyone wants to

share some pictures, we'd love it!!  hint. Good people, good
food, good scenery, and lots and lots of cute kiddos to spoil.

Off on an adventure...

We took off on the bike the 2nd or 3rd of July

and ended up in Vernal, UT that night. I hadn't

been past Rangely, so I finally got to see Dinosaur, CO,

the Blue Mountains, Jensen and Vernal, UT.

Outside Jensen (in the Dinosaur Nat'l Monument) we

went to see Josie Bassett's homestead. Years ago I read

a book about Brown's Park in northern Colorado and the

families that lived there. The most colorful persons were

the Bassett Family members, mainly Annie and Josie.

What a character!!

We spent the night in Vernal and came back home

the next day. We went over going over Douglas Pass

and came back going across over to Meeker, down to

Rifle and then back home.  It was a blast our little ride.

First Cutting

This is spring and summer around here.

Although it is work, it is still a bunch of fun.

It gives all of us something to do, even if it

is only supervising by the dogs.

This had rye in it that Ed used as a cover crop.

It was extremely tall.

Winter Project

Okay, we didn't fall off the face of the earth, I just got lazy.

 The winter of 2011 we did an overhaul on the Farmall.

It was a dirty job, but the results are wonderful.

I may give Santa a ride in the Palisade parade.  HOHO

Sunday Morning Fun

The dogs barked and barked all Sat. night, ALL night!

I got up at around 4:30 a.m., and I'm outside with

my handy flashlight lookin' to see if I can see what

they are barking at. Nope!! I can't. At about daylight,

I finally decide the new dog is just barking because the

neighbors roosters won't shut up, so I tied her up around

the corner.. a little later, Rusty is going nuts and Maggie is

going to break her neck if I don't un-tie her... and this is what

they tree-ed...  I saw it go up the tree, it is bigger than Rusty.

Is it a little bear?? Think so! But best take pictures from

every angle, look with the magnifing glasses, every angle,

before we call DOW.

Finally blow up pictures on the computer.  We now are pretty

sure that NO, it is the world's largest raccoon. At that point

I have Ed shoot it...don't really want it attacking the dogs.

It falls down and another one goes further up the tree. 

It ended up being two huge raccoons!!  No, we aren't the

only ones who are crazy..  we had other people think it

was a little bear also..  who else had this much fun on

Sunday morning????



New Addition

A guy that Ed knowes wanted to find a new home

for his Red Heeler... welcome Rusty's new pal

Maggie!!

It has been fun watching her learn all the new

rules at her new house.

 Can't eat the cat! The cat is your FRIEND!

Can't go play with the cows, that is a no-no.

Can't chase cars and trucks no more,

And the pecking order is in order;

Rusty is my pal, we can be friends - the end.

New Neighbors!

 

Aren't they cute!!  Twins! 

 It is fun watching the neighbors new calves...  jump and romp in the field!!

Back to School

At the end of our trip all the older kiddos had to

go back to school.  Rebekah flew back to Denver-

  Kaid and Anna were ready for the school bus.

Lake Erie and Science Museum in Cleveland

I got to see Lake Erie!!  YAY!!! The only one excited was me.

We went to the children's science museum in Cleveland.

It was huge and very interesting.

That is Anna the Astronaut.

On the left side of the building was the Cleveland Brown's stadium,

and on the right side, the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

We did not go into either left or right. Ha!

But I did think that I should go sit in the "bone yard section" for a while.