Word-y Wednesday

Other blogs have Wordless Wednesday.
Mine tend to be Word-y.

BUT....I'm trying very hard to become a self-contained, quietly restrained, organized, rule-follower this year. 

QUIT LAUGHING!
Everybody has a dream...

These pictures are from our family vacation taken a week and a half ago, and I'm NOT going to caption them.  I'm going to let them speak for themselves. Step One in Reformation 2011....

Coffee Day

I have a friend who only drinks coffee on Wednesdays and on weekends.

Let me repeat that: ONLY on Wednesdays and on weekends.

I'll pause for a moment and let you think about the sort of twisted person that might have that type of caffiene boundary issue...

I recently learned that this friend (and I'm praying for the poor soul) drinks HALF-CAF on those days!

So, it's not REAL COFFEE, even!

It's what I call, Why Bother?

Indeed.

If you are asking how we are still able to be friends, knowing my complete passion for the stuff, you need to know that I feel it's my job to reform and I take this job very seriously.  To the point, even, of buying my friend one of MY favorite coffee drinks...a short, triple shot breve...in hopes that true coffee love would develop. 

I think high blood pressure and cold sweats for 48 hours were the only things that developed.

Darn!

I forgot that triple shots were only for serious java junkies.

Anyway, when I look at the calendar, I always say Happy Coffee Day! on Wednesdays.

Really, some weeks that's all Wednesday has going for it...

Recently, I found a quote for Coffee Day that might need framed in my kitchen.

It will be lost on my friend, but I have others who will embrace it and clap in delight!

"A cup of coffee - real coffee - home brewed, home ground, homemade, that comes to you dark as a hazel eye, but changes to a golden bronze as you temper it with cream that never cheated, but was real cream from its birth, thick tenderly yellow, perfectly sweet, neither lumpy nor frothy on the Java: Such a cup of coffee is a match for twenty blue devils and will exorcise them all."

-Henry Ward Beecher

Happy Coffee Day!

First Day of School, Part II

Okay...you've seen the sweet pictures of the shiny clean students with brand-spankin' new backpacks and lunchboxes, smiling bus driver, cute little teacher and all that.  And everyone says, "Awwww...I LOVE the first day of school!" 

Thank GOODNESS no one is taking pictures of the mothers, that's all I have to say.

Have you ever noticed that?

The unsung heros, who managed to pull it all together to get everyone on the bus, clean and complete....
they look like they've been through war. 

I'm not kidding.

Oh, I know there are a few who actually teach school or have other jobs, and they are neat and pretty on the first day, bless their organized little hearts! 
I'm talking about the stay at home moms who have had, shall we say, VERY flexible schedules for a couple months. 

Frazzled hair, pulled into a quick ponytail to keep it out of her face while she frantically searches the fridge for something to put in the new lunch box. (Because although she may have remembered to get a new lunch box for the child, she neglected to adequately plan for the filling of said lunch box.)

Oversized ratty college tshirt and gym shorts from the run that she thought she had time for. There's a coffee dribble on the tshirt, because an excited child tugged on her arm JUST as she was raising her shaking hand for a first sip, half an hour late.  She's just happy to FIND her coffee, amidst the flurry.

There's pressure to send the child(ren) off with a good breakfast.  All summer, it's been sort of a scavenge situation...survival of the fittest to get cereal, toast or leftover pizza.  Now, all of a sudden, the kids are going to need real nutrition to fuel their growing bodies and minds.  (Also so that they don't get to school and tell the teacher they only chewed on their fingernails that morning...sad violins playing in the background...)  So now she's making eggs (they're fast) AND lunch.  Good grief! Two meals at once!  With no coffee in her system! 

AND....the kids need to be dressed, hair combed, and faces clean.  Again, all optional during the summer, but now rather important.  Hoping, praying that the jeans bought a week ago still fit them...growing like bad weeds....and that the fashion for second grade girls this year is mismatched socks.  (They WERE all laid out and neat, except the brother needed a sleeping bag for his StarWarsGuys...yes, all one word.)

Throw kids in the car, fly to the bus stop in a cloud of dust, not really knowing when the bus is actually going to be there....and looking in the rear view mirror, she sees crumbs on her chin.  Considering the mom hasn't actually eaten that morning, this is a disturbing revelation...

When she sees the other mothers drive up, she sinks a bit in the seat, looking around for sunglasses and wiping the crumbs off surrepticiously on her big tshirt, praying no one had time to put in their contacts.  "I don't know when the bus will be here, honey! Soon!" 

And when the bus pulls up, grabbing the camera to record the magical moment...

So when you look at those dear little pictures of the first day of school, and start getting all nostalgic about the scent of new crayons and chalkboard dust, remember that there's a mother behind them with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder who's sitting in a chair in her tossed kitchen, drinking cold coffee and vowing that NEXT year...NEXT year will be the year they sit down together at the breakfast table all civilized for bran muffins and fruit, calmly discussing the lunch that was packed the night before and the new folders stashed in back packs by color.

And so the year begins...

*No, there will be no photos to enhance this post.  Ever. 

First Day of School 2011

We have a BRAND NEW BUS!!!

And shiny, clean kids ready to board it. 

We have a brand new teacher!

(I don't know if Maggie pushed all the other kids to the side to get off the bus first, but I'm guessing it might've happened.)

Big hugs for Mrs. Carroll...

"Don't worry, we're all a little scared on the first day.  But it'll be okay!"

That's what I heard her tell Mrs. Carroll....

Here! For you! No, really...

That's right.  She found a toad on the front step and showed her new teacher.  Do they just follow the child around, now? I don't want to think about it.  Fortunately (or unfortunately...we'll never know what the intended reaction was to be) Mrs. Carroll handled herself admirably, not screaming or freaking out at the gift.

Ready to learn!

That's the whole school.

When people ask Maggie if she has classmates, she lists the entire school; 6 kids, 4 grades.

Aren't they a cute bunch?!

Through the Window, LATE...

My Through The Window challenge picture was actually taken on Saturday!

You can't really tell, but the little stuffed animal on the boy's lap is also a horse...

I just liked the light and the look on his face....

The harvest is great, the workers are few....

That verse in the Bible is very literal, to me, this time of the year!  Really, the kids and I aren't very involved in the harvest process.  I help move augers, move guys who move trucks, make cookies, take phone calls, run for parts.  I like taking pictures of the whole mess, though. 


Vern is cutting the Willow Creek winter wheat, here...it's an incredible awnless wheat variety that makes great hay.  We hay some of it, but also sell the seed grain, so that's what they're cutting here.

The grain gets dumped in the short truck and wagon...it's alternated, so while one is being unloaded, the other is sitting empty, waiting to be filled.  The reason they are both here is that the Farmer hustled around and got one emptied quickly.  You can't see it, but he's sitting in the pickup truck, reading Men's Journal or a gun magazine...

Dumping the winter wheat into the wagon....

It always looks so rich, to me...bushels and bushels of red winter wheat, pouring into the truck or wagon.

Wait...wait....Angus is carrying a container of scotcheroo treats for PopPops and Dad, but he can't go until he gets the signal.  *Maggie is barefoot.  Remember that Merle Haggard song, "Mama Tried"?  I sing that a lot. 

I felt obliged to warn you about the bare feet, because they are showcased here in all their filthy glory. See how the red wagon looks sort of fuzzy and out of focus?  Chaff in the air, still, from dumping the wheat!

Why is Angus running away?  Well.  It turns out that he handed PopPops the scotcheroos and PopPops handed HIM a salted nut roll candy bar.  He is disinclined to share with his sister and thought he'd beat it back to the car to eat it in private, like a little raccoon. 

He was called back.  And manfully put away most of the salted nut roll, since his sister decided she didn't want slobbered-on peanuts.

This is the kind of bouquet farm girls like!

Well...it's not a salted nut roll, but still pretty cool...

This just makes me smile...

Back to work...

And the load of wheat, headed to the bin!

FREE KITTENS FOR SALE!!!

That's how Maggie says it.  It would seem they have less value if they aren't for sale....just giving 'em away kind of takes the zing out of it!  Be that as it may, we DO have three little orange and white tigger kittens who need good homes.  Here's a couple pictures...they slowed down long enough, finally!

  Kitten-toes...gosh, they're sweet!

And a picture of a fully alert kitten, wanting desperately to tigger-bounce the tom cat, but unable to formulate a plan that would allow a glorious attack, yet live to tell about it.  He never did...

Interested? Leave a sticky note on the fridge, saying so, and we'll work something out.

I think we CAN ship them, although I don't know what kind of shape they'd be in when they got to, say, Jayton, TX....

In honor of School Board Monday...

You know what the dumbest thing is?
I'm the only one in my office, and I still think these cartoons are funny AND can relate to them.

And this one is for a friend who actually ends up having meetings EXACTLY like this.

Tell me, truly...

Isn't she just the most beautiful little cow you've ever seen?

Daisy

Posing like a bovine supermodel....

Crazy Mary...again!

It has been awhile since Crazy Mary has had any questions to answer, hasn't it?

Here's the thing: I'm starting to think the reader who submits THESE questions, regularly, might be a leetle crazier than I am. 

I KNOW.

I didn't think that was possible, either, but judge for yourself after reading the questions. (And subsequent answers...)


1. What posters did you have in your room as a kid?
This one was sort of embarrassing for me to answer.  I was a pretty quiet, devout, serious, sensitive kid (yeah, I don't know what happened, either) and at the time, the Sam Butcher Precious Moments were big, so that's what I had.  Here's an example:

Yes. In fact, I think I HAD this one.

I ALSO had horse posters, just as sentimental in their own way.

*blushing*

2. What’s the biggest belt buckle you own?
It's actually quite modest...about 3 1/2 inches across, by about 2 1/2 inches high.  I have two...my folks gave me one when I was a little girl and George Yost gave me a roping buckle when I was 21-ish.  No rhinestones, no bling of any kind...German silver, I think. 

3. If you were to arrange for your son to marry a Disney princess, which one would you choose?
Now THIS was a question I spent some time considering...
Belle, from Beauty and the Beast...although, she may be eliminated as a princess, since technically she was a peasant until she married Beast and lived happily ever after.  Whatever.

First of all, she's literate...that's big.  She was brave, strong minded, fiercely loyal, kind, whimsical and brunette.  (I get a little tired of the blonde Disney princesses.) She put her father's happiness and well-being ahead of her own and found a way to be happy in a place that was rather frightening at first.  That's my pick. 

4. When you were growing up, where did you hide stuff you didn’t want your parents to find?
Seriously?  Two places...under the bed in a box that held EVERYTHING and also in a tree cubby of a big cottonwood by the creek. There may still be something in the tree cubby; I haven't been there for a long, long time!

5. What is your favorite highway rest area?
This is the question that made me think the question-er had completely flipped out. 
I don't, as a rule, stop at highway rest areas.  Mama always said that's where the scary, bad men hide in the bushes, waiting to grab unwary travellers and do them great harm. That warning stuck with me, you know?  NONE are my favorites!  I guess the only one I really end up using is the one in the Hysham hills, only in the broad daylight.  Montana isn't really known for her charming rest stops; I mean, if you can even FIND one...
 
I'll take ANY Crazy Mary questions...just email me!

You might be from Garfield County if....

• you were baptized at Hell Creek or Devil's Creek. (It's TRUE!)
• you gauge coat weather by whether or not Basco has the garage door of the old Fire Hall open.
• you talk fondly about Sweet Marie and everyone knows you love ice cream.
• you know a pickup by the dog in the back.
• you've had to drive at least 81 miles for a dinner-and-a-movie date.
• you're related to a Murnion. (This is true, too! I think nearly everyone is, here, by one marriage or another...)
• you have a story about "The Trees".  Good OR bad. Or both.
• your outfit is muddy to the hood and people congratulate you on your good fortune.
• you had the Ryan Grocery phone number memorized before age 10.

Feel free to add more in the sticky notes section!

From the judges' booth...

This week was the Garfield County Fair! 

I have two jobs at the fair, now, every year.  The first job I wrote about last year around this time was that of 4H Foods and Photography.  It's a mixed blessing.  The good part is that I get to taste the best food, mostly cakes and cookies and brownies, all day.  The bad part is that I get to taste the best food all day.  By the time I finish up, around 3:30 p.m., I feel like throwing up, simply from all the sweets.  I'm frantic for protein!  But let me tell you this: there are some GREAT cooks coming up!  Beautiful loaves of bread, pretty cookies, amazing candies...

My other job is that of helping to clerk the 4H sale on Saturday morning.  I go to a little judges booth/announcer stand and wait for the sale to start so that I can take money and issue reciepts.  The booth is pretty basic; some years we freeze, some years we cook.  This year was perfect...coolish and no real wind to speak of! 

Because my job starts a little later in the sale, I get to watch part of it, which is so very interesting.  People know we're in there, but I don't think they ever really think that we can see them, you know?  It's an insider-observer sort of thing, and I like that I can see the stands of people, the 4H kids waiting for their animal to sell, parents, buyers, auctioneer, runners...everything.  I didn't think to take pictures until my phone was just about dead, but I managed 3.  (The funny thing, to me, is that I ALSO managed unknowingly to get three people who constantly worry about their picture/story coming up on the Chronicles.  I won't identify them, but it truly was a coincidence!)

Looking out at the stands and the reserve champion steer being sold.  It was a pretty good crowd for the sale, considering how much harvest is going on in the county right now. 

Waiting to sell the steer....
I was never in 4H (still a little mad about that, because I desperately wanted to), but I think I'd have been one of those kids who walked out of the arena in tears, knowing my steer was going to the processing plant that afternoon.  Even though, you KNOW it's going to happen, it would still be hard, I think.

This is my favorite picture, taken out of the window where the buyers come to pay for their animals.  These kids are also waiting in line to sell their steers; it's sort of a behind the scenes image.  At the bottom of the picture, you can see the buyers' sheets, listing the animals/exhibitors/weights/placing.  There are ranch pickups in the background, the 4H concession stand on the hill next to the arena stands for the rodeo later that day.

About 3 minutes after this picture was taken, buyers started showing up and it got crazy busy!

Next year, I'll try to get pictures of the rest of the fair.  I just didn't think of it in time!