July Musings

Hello, hello!

Mid summer and the living is S L O W and H O T here on Vine. However, the garden is growing and indoor chores are getting done. We planted two tomato plants in May and they have reached to five feet and covered the 4 X 6 foot raised box; the vines are completely covered in fruit and we expect to have ripe tomatoes by the end of this week . . . yay! Do love some fresh off-the-vine 'maters! Another fruit making a grand showing is the watermelon - my granddaughter gave me four Crimson Sweet seedlings for Mother's Day and the two that survived are mega-producing!

June 27, 2018 - The start.

July 18, 2018 - Tiny first fruit.

July 24, 2018 - Palm size.

July 28, 2018 (just four days later!) - Two palms size.

I know it probably seems silly to get so excited over a watermelon, but this is the first time we've planted one and we are amazed! Thanks to my watermelon-loving granddaughter, we'll be sinking our teeth into sweetness in a couple weeks! Incidentally, that same granddaughter, McKenna Clare, is getting married August 17th to a fine young fellow and we'll be gifting them with a quilt which I made all by myself. Here are more progression photos:

 

The rows laid out on the living room floor in preparation for sewing together.

Bent over the sewing machine stitching the rows together.

The completed top draped over lawn chairs.

Machine quilted by Michelle Jensen - ready for binding.

The flange binding - so pretty!

Test drive on our bed!

I began this quilt summer 2017; that is, I purchased the video class from Craftsy, Make a Colorful Hexagon Bed Quilt by Amy Gibson (no longer available) and decided to use some batik prints that my sister had given to me way back, I can't remember when. My sweet and handy husband made templates out of some plexiglass that I had saved because I might need it someday and I began cutting the hexagons and triangles. I'd gotten some pale grey cotton for the background, binding, and back. Well, my chicken heart loomed and the project was put on hold. I couldn't imagine that I had the wherewithal to make a quilt that BIG - my previous attempts were baby or throw size and I had found those daunting. Anyway, long story short, granddaughter McKenna said YES to her squeeze Travis's proposal in April of this year and the wheels began to engage in a confident sort of way. By golly! I can make this quilt! And so, I began sewing in earnest by the first week of July and by the 26th had it completed except for a label (which another talented woman is embroidering for me). Today I stopped at our local furniture store and found a very neat antiqued metal crate to present it to the newlyweds August 17th.

A pretty presentation.

My current sewing project is making myself a dress for the wedding. I haven't sewn a garment (anyway for myself) for years and am looking forward to seeing if I can still do it - and have it fit! Haha! The one thing that bugs me about this is the size I'm having to use . . . ack! The days of misses size 10/12 are certainly long gone!

August has a few birthdays that I want to make handmade cards for and, of course, there is a card to make for McKenna and Travis's wedding day. I have gotten a start on that having colored in two of an illustration I found in an online coloring book site.

The illustration on the left I colored with Zig Real Brush Watercolors and the one on the right I did with colored pencils.

The wedding colors are soft blue, sage green, and ivory and the bride is a blonde and the groom is a redhead. Right now I'm leaning toward using the watercolored one for the final card. What do you think? Watercolor or pencil?

Loving life here on Vine.

Bye for now!

Rodeos, Holidays, and Hot Summer Days

Hi, hi!

We are full well into Summer now, with temperatures going into the triple digits (Fahrenheit), brilliant sunsets, and most notably, rodeos. Especially this past weekend, across the U.S. rodeo world there are so many performances that it is difficult keeping up. Close to home, our grandson Ty and his main squeeze Shannon have been traveling to Rocky Mountain Rodeo Association (RMRA) rodeos and sometimes coming away with a few dollars but always coming away with the satisfaction of participating in this uniquely-American sport.

We were able to take in the 2017 Utah High School Rodeo Association (UHSRA) State Finals on June 3; even though none of our grandsons were performing, there were the kids of rodeo friends in the finals and for the most part, they made a good showing. At least two of the boys who bull-dogged with our grandsons will be going to the National High School Rodeo finals in Gillette, Wyoming (one trip there last year was enough for us!). The State Finals takes place in beautiful Heber City - always a pleasure to go there.

Grand Entry (6:00 p.m.MDT)

Sunset (8:54 p.m. MDT)

On the 20th of May Shannon's parents drove out here from Sparks, Nevada hauling Shannon's three rodeo horses. She had enrolled in a summer class at Utah State University (where she will be starting her junior year) and also has employment in Logan so she decided to have her horses housed here at the Diamond A ranch and do some rodeoing with Ty for the summer. Once she completed her class at the end of June, she began coming down each weekend and has been, as I mentioned above, traveling to rodeos around the state. She participates in breakaway roping and barrel racing while Ty is entering the steer wrestling in as many RMRA rodeos as he can. We don't go to any of the out-of-town rodeos (kind of had our fill over the last 30 years!) but we did take in the 72nd Tooele Bit & Spur Rodeo at Deseret Peak Complex on July 3rd. Both Ty and Shannon were entered in that night's performance and Ty managed to split 3rd and 4th place in the steer wrestling - with his buddy who happens to haze for him!

Shannon's breakaway run; caught but with a figure 8 loop which is an illegal catch. 

Ty throwing his steer in 6.4 seconds.

Shannon returning from the third barrel; unfortunately, the ground was bad (there hadn't been any raking before) and she didn't want to push her horse especially since three racers who preceded her had taken falls during their runs.

The crowd at the performance was unusually large - in fact, the grandstands were full. It was great to see so many folks out for the hometown rodeo. Here are a couple more photos from the evening:

Two of the Bit N' Spur Rodeo Grand Entry Girls posting the colors. These thirteen cowgirls have been riding with the Bit N' Spur Rodeo for 18 years (some of them) and have been in high demand for state-wide rodeos. The team was nominated and selected to perform at all five performances of the 2017 Days of '47 PRCA Rodeo, which is truly an honor for them and for Tooele County.

Sun going down in the west. Brilliant!

Once Shannon had finished her barrel run, she and Ty (and Ty's hazing partner) headed back to the ranch for a few hours sleep before leaving at 3:30 a.m. July 4th for the slack at the rodeo in Salina. That evening they headed to Mt. Pleasant for the rodeo there; they are certainly getting a taste of the rodeo life! But, they are young and energetic, and at least for now, are having a blast.

July 4th, Independence Day, Clare and I puttered at home as it was VERY hot. At 10:30 we drove over to a place where we could watch the fireworks display at Deseret Peak (after the rodeo) from a little distance. I haven't figured out how to capture good photos of the fireworks but suffice it to say, there were plenty of celebratory displays going on around the valley, "ooh and ahh" worthy!

Rango's summertime style.

We are taking these dog days of summer slowly and surely - hope your days are as happy as ours!

Bye for now!

Wyoming Adventure, Part II-b

Oops! Blogger went haywire and I lost the back side of this post! I will now try to re-create it in all it's eloquence! Haha! :)

Visiting Mount Rushmore - I took many photos here because like Devil's Tower and Crazy Horse before, I felt like if I didn't keep my eyes on those presidents in stone, they'd somehow disappear! What an awesome feat! The Visitors Center (nice and cool) shows a timeline of the work on the carving, the geological facts of the mountain, and other related facts. The National Park Service Mount Rushmore website, here, has all the information about the conception, the funding, the carving, and the completion of this symbol of the birth, growth, development, and preservation of the United States of America.

Me, Clare, Jenn, and David and the four presidents in stone.

Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln.

Also in the Visitors Center, there was a display of small quilts, part of the "Find Your Park" challenge for the 100th year celebration of the National Park Service on August 25, 2016. I liked this one of Rocky Mountain National Park beautifully rendered by Marilyn Remboldt of Lincoln, Nebraska.

We were all getting quite wilted and hungry, so before leaving the park, we went into the Memorial Team Ice Cream Station to sample the TJ's vanilla ice cream, based on Thomas Jefferson's original recipe brought to the United States in 1780. . . delicious!

We left Mount Rushmore and journeyed back to Gillette, stopping in Custer so that Jenn and Cassie could look in a tee shirt shop they'd spotted on the way up, of all things! Made it back to the CAM-PLEX in time to grab dinner at the new Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom and then we settled in to watch a movie ("London Has Fallen" - very bad!) with Dave and Jenn. Thursday would see us staying close to camp to watch Team Utah in Performances 8 and 9, 2nd Round. 

 

Ah yes! A frosty Lemon Shandy.

Bright and HOT for Performance 8 (2nd perf of the 2nd round).

Friday morning was grandson Ty's second, and final, run at a steer; he made a good, solid 5.95 second run. However, with his earlier run of 15.05 seconds, he would not be in the top 20 for the Short Go Saturday evening. Clare and I decided to pull up stakes and head for home via Cody, Wyoming. Since this part of the trip was quite different and I took many photos along the way, I will post it as our Wyoming Adventure, Part III!

Wearing red in honor of our troops.

More later.

               

Wyoming Adventure, Part II

Here is one of many coal mines outside Gillette. This country is rich in coal, oil and cattle; and, wind!
When we returned from our trip to Devil's Tower, we grabbed dinner and headed back to the arena for Performance 5 of the First Round. I took a photo of this precious little baby girl for Alternate 2 of Rinda's 2016 Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt since I am uncertain that I will ever find #17, twins, before the September 22 deadline.

I did post this on Instagram too.

Plans had been formulated with our son and daughter-in-law and another Utah rodeo couple to leave early Wednesday morning for Mount Rushmore; since we were within 150 miles of this renowned monument, we figured that we'd take the opportunity to see it. Not far from Rushmore is the Crazy Horse Memorial so we took in that too. We entered South Dakota and the Black Hills 10 miles out of Newcastle, Wyoming on Highway 16. This country is truly beautiful forest and it was a curvy but very pleasant drive to Custer and then on to the two monuments.

Crazy woman at Crazy Horse.

The sculptor's, Korczak Ziolkowski, vision. More information can be found here.

We watched the video presentation in the Visitor Center and came away from that quite impressed with the determined effort not only of the original visionaries of this memorial, but with the continued dream of the family and the organization they have built.

Ziolkowski's original generator used to power the drills he used to make the first holes. According to his narration in the video presentation, it was not terribly reliable and would "kaput" just as he had climbed the stairs to get to the top of his drilling site; hence, the sign out of the exhaust stack.

It is difficult to describe the size of this monument although the crane boom seen at the top of the hand (which is currently being carved) looks very tiny and is, in comparison to the face.

We journeyed on through the Black Hills National Forest to Mount Rushmore - I spotted so many gorgeous wildflowers along the way but stopped myself from asking Clare to stop so I could photograph them . . . it would've held up the caravan behind us! There were White Yarrow, Purple Prairie Clover, Blanket Flower, Black-eyed Susan, Sunflower, Wild Meadow Rose, Lupine, Aster, and Green-headed Coneflower among many others. What a feast for the eyes! 

Arrived at Mount Rushmore along with hundreds of other summer tourists and made our way to the viewing point:

The flags depict all 50 states of the United States of America and the dates each entered the Union are inscribed underneath.

Wyoming Adventure (and a bit of South Dakota) Part I

 We are back home here on Vine after a nine-day trip to Wyoming. What an adventure it was too! Our grandson had qualified in steer wrestling for the National High School Rodeo Finals being held in Gillette, Wyoming this year (last year it was in Rock Springs) so, because it was our last chance to go, we loaded up the motor home and set out Friday morning, July 15.

Set to travel. 

Sunrise over the Oquirrh Mountains.

East on Interstate 80.

Twelve hours later, we pulled into CAM-PLEX Multi-Event Facility in Gillette; Ty got checked in and stalled the horses while we settled into our reserved camp spot in BoxElder RV Park #2. After that long drive - stopped to re-set the awning on the motorhome which ballooned out at the mouth of Weber Canyon (caught by the tornado-force winds); stopped three times to fuel up the truck and let the horses stretch; and, stopped for breakfast and then lunch - we were all very tired. All of us slept like the proverbial logs, despite the wind buffeting the motorhome and people pulling in in the wee hours.

Saturday morning.

Saturday, most of the nearly 1,500 participants, their horses, families and friends, pulled in to set up camp for the events beginning Sunday evening with the first performance of the first round. The six RV parks on the CAM-PLEX grounds and area hotels/motels were quickly filled with high school rodeo folks from 42 states, five Canadian provinces, and Australia.  Our son and daughter-in-law arrived Saturday evening and set up their trailer next to our motorhome. Not long after they settled in, the wind came up and the clouds rolled in; then, the heavens let loose with a true downpour for about 20 minutes. Cooled things down nicely.

Sunday was a good time to familiarize ourselves with the surroundings both at the CAM-PLEX and the town of Gillette. Of course, there was the inevitable Cowboy Trade Show at the Wyoming Center hall and we (me and most definitely my daughter-in-law) had to check that out. But first we checked out where the ponies were spending their days in the horse stalls. Here we are - with the two dogs - on the golf cart (which was the approved mode of transportation besides trucks, for getting around the CAM-PLEX grounds).

A view of BoxElder RV Park - well filled.

By late afternoon, another storm came in delaying the first rodeo performance by about 30 minutes. However, the show went on and we were on our way to 11 more performances Monday through Saturday morning. 

Monday morning dawned with high hopes for Team Utah steer wrestler Dawson Stewart, so we packed ourselves into the golf cart and buzzed to the Morningside Park grandstand to watch. 

Timed events arena and grandstand.

The wind was whipping grandstand flags and the clear sky was making us think all was well after Sunday night's storm. However, there was another downpour in the afternoon but that ended before the evening's rodeo and our grandson, Ty, made a tough run of 15.05 seconds - a lot of cowboy grit demonstrated on that one. (That can be seen here at the 1:20:15 mark.)

I just had to capture this view of the moon rise and sunset looking southeast of the arena.

Tuesday morning saw us at the arena again for Performance 4 of the First Round. After the steer wrestling was done, Clare and I decided to take a sightseeing venture to Devil's Tower National Monument, 62 miles northeast of Gillette. Not only is Devil's Tower the first declared U.S. National Monument in 1906, but it served as a backdrop for the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" in 1977. It is also held sacred by various Native Americans, most notably the Lakota tribe. More information can be found here and here. Although it was very hot and bright, coming up on the Tower from highway 24 was a breathtaking sight. Following are various views:

Approach from the highway.

       

At the Tower trailhead.

Climbers spotted. 

                                                                 

View from the Visitor Center.

 

Ah yes! An ice cream salute.

The National Monument also boasts a 40-acre prairie dog town; residents were not shy!

A tunnel opening in the center, dog running away to the left, and one standing guard to the right.

Prairie Dog Town.

We took a short detour towards Hulett at the Devil's Tower Junction and saw this aptly-named ranch:

Makes me wonder if this could have been the original white man's name for the tower.

Stay tuned for Part II of our Wyoming Adventure!

Complete - 2015 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt

Happy September!

I think it's fair to say that I've completed the Scavenger Hunt with all 21 items, plus the three alternates. Here are numbers 13 and 21 to round it out:

Although this is NOT a merry-go-round/carousel in the strictest sense, it goes around, it has horses (live, not wooden), and it's amusing (as in entertainment for children at an amusement park). It actually is a horse walker but it's the closest I got this summer to #13 on the Hunt!

Number 21 - A photograph of you with a sign reading "2015 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt"

That's me and the sign printed out from Rinda's blog (doctored a bit with white pen to make the words stand out - a suggestion from my sweet husband).

So, although a few of my photo finds are doubtful (#'s 7, a turtle; 13, a merry-go-round; and, 18, an over-loaded truck, car, bicycle or other vehicle), I had a great time hunting! Thanks again, Rinda, for providing another summer of photo diversion!

Here's how it ended up, with links to posts:

SCAVENGER HUNT LIST

1. A bouquet of flowers
2. An ornate door knocker
3. A person walking a dog (or other animal)
4. People playing a board game or card game 
5. Architectural columns
6. A metal bridge
7. A turtle8. Someone "plugged in" to social media 9. A tent10. A college or university
11. A cellular tower or television satellite dish
12. A public restroom, bathroom, or toilet
13. A merry-go-round or carousel
14. A traffic signal
15. A flag pole with at least three flags on it
16. A panoramic view, taken while standing someplace high in the air
17. At least two people wearing matching outfits or uniforms18. An overloaded truck, car, bicycle or other vehicle
19. A ticket booth
20. A natural body of water
21. A photograph of you with a sign reading "2015 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt". Note: you may not use a substitute for this item.
If you find something on the list too difficult, you may substitute one of the following items for any one item on the list, except for Item #21:
Alternative A: People eating outside
Alternative B: Someone holding an umbrella
Alternative C: A rocking chair

I'll be back in a day or so with My August in Numbers. Do check out Julie's August Month in Numbers here - she truly has a gift for entertaining narrative! 8)

Ta for now.