HAPPY VETERANS DAY

Today on this veteran's day, I have to take a few minutes to thank all the service men and women throughout the world who work each day to protect the freedom's that I enjoy so much and yet seem to take for granted. Thank you to both those who are currently serving and those who have served in the past.

Here's pictures of a few of them:


JW Jr. - Vietnam

JW WWII


My Daddy - WWII



The girl child who will probably not be happy i posted this but I like this picture.

No picture of the boy child scanned in so here's one of the family not in uniform:

Meet Dutch

So, while I'm in Colorado working for the week, JW has been out trying to find the perfect horse.

On Sunday I had called about one horse and the guy had sold it but he had another one that he would sell. He wanted more than we really wanted to pay but he has a very mild-temperament and is one that we feel anyone could ride.

The owner had a complete diary of the horse - all vet visits, dates shod and how he rode everytime he rode him.

He is a registered quarter horse and his registered name is Tuff Dutch - they called him Tuff but I'm thinking that Dutch would be a good name for a horse belong to a Van Haren. We'll be calling him Dutch - starting Saturday morning for sure.

They have kept his mane razed down because they used him for roping but since I like long flowing manes, we'll be letting it grow out. He and Badger are getting along very well and JW tells me he is a perfect gentlemen both on the ground and in the saddle. He's a red dunn - chestnut in color with black skin. Can hardly wait to meet him.

Saying Goodbye

Last Saturday - Memorial weekend, we drove to West Yellowstone, MT to pick up the granddaughters and bring them back to Butcher Creek to spend a week (while the parents went to Mississippi to look at a job). After eating lunch, we loaded up and decided to drive through the park, by the Artist's paint pots, out through Gardiner and on home.

It took us 45 minutes to get into the park because the traffic was so bad. We stopped at the paint pots and hiked the 1/3 mile to the view point. A lovely day for a hike and the girl's loved the bubbly mud - Madison thought it looked like eyeballs when it popped into the air. We got to see a bear just a little ways off the roads, lots of buffalo with brand new babies, elk and some sheep that looked pretty sad with their raggedy hair since they had started shedding.

We stopped at the God Bless America travel bug cache and left off the travel bug. It's still sitting there so if it's still there in 3 weeks, guess i'll pick it up and take it through Idaho and over to the original cache near Alexshuman. Picked up these little croc travel bugs - the pink one is named Madison so going to take them to CO with me tomorrow and place them in a cache there. (if I can find it, my gps cost a fortune and I'm not too happy with it so thinking it is going to be sent in for repairs - does everyone else's gps flake out and tell you to go one way 28 feet and when you start heading that way, it tells you to go a different direction 95 feet - oh well, I digress)

We got home about 6:30, ate sandwiches for dinner and sat on the deck for a while. Then, I told Jules - "We need to take some carrots out and say goodbye to Dudley. Tata is taking him to a new home tomorrow. His feet are hurting so badly that he can't stay here any longer."

I cut up some carrots and took the girls out to feed them to the horses. Then Jules went and sat on the big rock in the front yard, hanging tightly onto her stuffed Dudley, staring at the mountain and crying her poor little heart out. "I don't want Dudley to leave, I want him to stay here".

Last summer Dudley would limp for a few days and then seem to heal up. This summer, he was limping and at first, we thought it was because he hadn't had new shoes in 8 weeks (need to change them out every 6.) Unfortunately new shoes didn't help and when JW took Dudley to the vet a couple of weeks ago, she told him that he had degenerative hoof disease and there was nothing she could do for him. He would just continue to get worse and worse. The only thing we could do for him is to give him this stuff called butte which is a pain reliever. Dudley has never liked medication of any kind, we were not even able to spray him with fly spray as he would just go crazy. To give him butte, John would have to hobble his front legs, then tie one of his rear legs up. It would take both of us to hold his head still long enough to squeeze a couple tablespoons of this paste stuff into his mouth. We decided the best thing to do would be to take him to the open sale auction and sell him - we're not exactly sure what would happen to him but it was the best thing for him.

Tata went out to talk to Jules and then she asked if she could go see Dudley again. So I took along the camera to snap a few pictures.

JW was Dudley's best friend - it was so hard for him but early Sunday morning, he got up and headed into the auction. 5 hours later he came home with an empty trailer. The girls and I had gone out to spend some time with Badger because he was really missing his partner. They hadn't been able to spend much time with Badger because Dudley was always pushing him away so it was fun for them to be able to go out into the pasture and pull Dandy's (dandelions) for Badger - "who is going to feed him when we go home?"

I told Jules that we were going to dig up an old bush and plant a new bush that we would call the Dudley bush. On Thursday, we went to the Rocky Mountain Flower Farm in Red Lodge and when I told one of the lady's who work there what we were looking for, she took us over to the bushes the deer wouldn't eat. She showed us several including a spirea named Little Princess. Of course, Jules wanted that kind so the lady showed her the 20 or so bushes she had and let Jules pick out the exact one she wanted.

We worked and worked Thursday night to get out the old cedar bush but just couldn't get it done. Tata and Jules finished digging that out on Friday morning and when I took my lunch break, we got the Dudley bush planted. Can't wait until the pink flowers start blooming.

JW has been looking on the website for a new horse - it is not good for Badger to be alone - horses are herd animals and don't do well alone. He found several paint horses for sale - when I told Jules I might buy a painted horse, she said "why don't you want a real horse". JW said that Friday when I took the girls into Billings to see their great-grandma Mary, Badger went into the barn and just hung around him while he was doing some work. He said the next morning when he went to get him off the pasture, there was a young calf who had come over the fence into our pasture so Badger was just hanging out with the calf in a corner.

John is going to go check out a mule and a horse tomorrow - this time we are getting something that me and the girls can ride. The girls will be back over this way in a couple of weeks so hopefully we'll have a new horse that they can enjoy.

Jules sent me this story a few weeks ago (her Dudley is a large stuffed horse that I bought for her when she was here exactly 2 years ago so 2007 not 2006 - typed exactly as she wrote it)

Dudlyl and I mett in 2006. So I bought Dudlyl. My Nana said. "Ther's go home. When we got home I showed Dudlyl Nana's Dudlyl. Nana said "They almost look the same. But yours has a dot on its fourhed. Then the wind blew Nana's Dudly's hair bles. I said "Hey they look the same. See? Yes I do. I rode on my Dudlyl.


We'll miss you Dudley but it was great that we could have you in our lives for 5 years.

NEXT

I am almost finished with JW's quilt - just have to finish tacking down the binding on one side - woo hoo. Told him I had to finish it before I go to CO and spend a week in a confined space with people from all over the world and end up with swine flu.





Also got this little thing ironed together so I can work on it in my spare time in CO - have to blanket stitch around all of the pieces of fabric. Bought this about 3 years ago in Payson when hairball and I ran into a quilt shop - thinking it's about time I get it done so I can hang it on the wall in my new guest room. (Now if I only had some guests to put in that room.

The Tale of the Whole Wheat Tortillas

Okay so since I've been faithfully working out 1 hour a day on weekdays - prepping my body to do some hiking if this snow ever stops and we can actually drive in to the hiking trails - I decided I should try to make some whole wheat tortillas. I also decided I should use olive oil which is actually good for you instead of lard.

I put 2 cups whole wheat flour, 2 Tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp of salt in a bowl. Mixed this together thoroughly and then added 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp hot water. Then pulled this mixture out of the bowl to knead for a while.

Normally when I make tortillas, I knead the dough in my hands by twisting it and turning it and as I do this, it turns into a very manageable dough. What i found with the whole wheat dough is that as I kneaded it, it got stickier and stickier.

So I formed it into 6 balls and lightly coated each with a tiny bit of olive oil and left them on the counter to set a bit. While they were setting, I browned up some chopped onion and garlic then stirred in a bunch of chopped green chile and shredded pork. Added about 1/2 cup of water and left that to simmer on the stove.

I then heated up my griddle with the intention of rolling and stretching the whole wheat flour tortillas and cooking them up. I discovered that they rolled pretty good as long as there was plenty of flour to keep it from sticking. After rolling it out as much as I wanted to, I picked it up off the counter to stretch it out. It did not stretch at all. I put it back on the counter and rolled it out some more until it was as thin as I wanted it to be. Then placed it on the griddle to cook.

JW teased me about these saying they would never be able to be used to make a burrito. And since the first one felt a bit crispy, I thought he was probably right. We were both rather surprised when I put one on a plate, spooned on some green chile and rolled it up very easily.

Now came the taste test. We found them to be edible but the whole wheat totally overpowered the green chile. Back-up plan - a bowl of green chile accompanied by bite size Tostitos.

So, while the whole wheat tortillas might be more healthy, the occupants of this house are going to stick with the traditional enriched white flour tortillas made with lard. But, at least, I can say I tried.