Mother's Day lunch

On Sunday I hosted 15 of the Martinez family members for Mother's Day. Although my hip joints were killing me and I didn't get as much done Saturday evening as I had hoped, I still had plenty of time to set the table and prepare my food on Sunday before they began to arrive.

Scott had gone out to the store first thing Sunday, and he brought me back a Mother's Day card and the two pretty bouquets of roses that I used for the table's centerpieces.

We brought my sewing table out of the spare room to add seating for 12 at my main dining table, and my smaller pedestal table seated the remaining three. That's the first time I used the two tables together, and it worked really well.

When we were in Iowa last time my mom gave me some cloth napkins from her collection, and I used them in conjunction with the few white ones I already had. I really need to build my napkin collection, but for Sunday I had enough, and the pale green colors worked just fine for the table scheme.

Do the yellow butter dishes look familiar? They're the ones I had just found at Salvation Army the day before, and they worked perfectly with the colors I was going for. The lace on the tables are curtains that my mom gave me some time ago, and under the lace are bedsheets to serve as the background. Who says you have to use fancy things to get a fancy look!

The green bottles on the kids' table ended up having more roses in them, as my nephew Kyle brought me a small bouquet, which was perfect.

As always happens, I was too busy with the foods' last-minute details to take pictures of the food I made, or of everybody sitting down at the table, which was filled with dishes, both hot and cold. I wanted to serve this meal family-style, as opposed to having a buffet line in the kitchen, and it worked pretty well. If I do it again I'll make sure more of the food is in smaller dishes that would be easier to pass around the table.

Our menu was steaks that Scott grilled, Rosemary Cheesy Mashed Potatoes, Southern Biscuits, grilled portobello mushrooms I'd purchased from our Wyoming mushroom producer the day before, potato salad from my mother-in-law, fresh fruit, Red Velvet Punch, Peruvian Salad that I made, and maybe a few more things that I'm now forgetting.

For dessert I made strawberry shortcake. You'll have to take my word for it that it was very pretty! And it also must have tasted good, as evidenced by the fact that this was all that was left of it when we were done. We also had chocolate cake brought by sister-in-law Stacy.

So, I wish I had taken a picture of my table full of food and family, but all I have is the 'before' photos. I will try to do better next time!

These days I've moved on to party-planning, as our Wyoming wedding reception is a mere two-and-a-half weeks away. I purchased more of the fabric flowers that I used in this post at Hobby Lobby on Monday, and yesterday I purchased the lanterns that I'm going to use as a component in my centerpieces. Today my goal will be to get to Home Depot to purchase the drop clothes that I'll use as tablecloths, then after that I'll need to go to Hancock Fabrics and choose some pretty, hopefully patterned, fabric on which to arrange the centerpieces. I also need to scan in and print the photos of Scott growing up, and find frames in which to display them.

An early start on spring cleaning

Well, of course I forgot to bring my red camera to the office to upload some of the weekend photos to my computer. Saturday I spent mostly around the house and some out on errands, and got quite a bit accomplished. Even though it's not yet mid-February, I'm already feeling the need to freshen up the house in preparation for bright, warm sunshiney days. Yes, I know it will be three months before I get any green grass and can open the house windows, but I'm already starting to hurry along spring.

Here are a few things I accomplished. Photos to come:

- Organized/rearranged kitchen cupboards. I think my kitchen gets unfair attention compared to the rest of the house, but it is the space in which I enjoy spending most of my time, and that's how I justify it. After Scott and the girls left first thing Saturday morning to open water for the cows and go to the Association to work on the new flatbed for Snowflake, his little white pickup, I spent the first few hours of my Saturday organizing cupboards, weeding a few things out, putting some extra cupboard organizers in place and finishing filling my new shelves above my fridge with dishes, which ended up being mostly goblets. I also dusted my bottle collection that's on top of the cupboards.

- Washed all the couch pillows, pillow cases and couch cushion covers. There's nothing that makes a house feel cleaner than freshly-laundered couch accessories.

- Took down the sheer burgundy panels that have been on the big front window since move-in. They were dusty. And after taking them down I realized how much natural light they really did block.

- After taking down the panels, I also realized how dirty the windows were. It wasn't yet snowing, and the temperature hadn't dropped, so I cleaned them inside and out. That included the window pane where the neighborhood tom cat had climbed on my porch chair and sprayed the glass. And the wall. And the chair back. I think that's earned him a ticket out of town in a live trap. Window cleaning also took care of Link's nose prints on the inside of other front window, where he likes to sit on the ledge, which his furry belly now overhangs. I think his days spent snoozing in his chair this winter have resulted in a little weight gain.

- Swept, vacuumed and washed all the wood floors upstairs. Although there isn't much for square footage, it sure takes a while to chase down all the hair balls - we're entering shedding season, and Lucy has wasted no time - and the wood chips, chunks other remnants that accompany a wood-burning stove.

- Painted a set of dining table chairs red. They came from Salvation Army, were unfinished wood and had been drawn on by the previous owner's children. Or somebody's children. I had picked up a can of Rustoleum Satin Finish spray paint at Menards with the chairs in mind. The paint project I also did before the temperature dropped and the snow came. It was a little chilly outside, so I brought them inside to the basement to finish drying. Scott came home that evening and we were both in the basement for some reason. He saw the first chair I'd finished and brought inside, which prompted a 'So what've you been up to today, sweety?' Like any husband of a DIYer, he's learned not to ask too many questions, or be surprised at changes to the house. :-)

- Stained a set of three wooden shelves a dark brown. Also before the snow came. They're intended for Scott's collection of shot glasses, which right now are on top of the scalloped wood valances in the front room that will soon meet their end. Although I got the staining done, I didn't get the shelves hung this weekend.

- Hung up two more horseshoe hooks on the right side of the bathroom doorway upstairs. Several weeks ago I hung two on the left side of the doorway, near my newly-established coatrack station in the hallway to the sewing room,  and they were already overflowing with scotch caps, cowboy hats and silk scarves, so hopefully the additional hooks will help spread out our collection. And they also already look full. I have more horseshoe hooks, but currently no good idea of where to put them where they'll be as handy.

- After all those projects I headed out to clean the Roundup office and return some useless off-brand Swiffer wet wipes to Walmart. They did more harm than good, leaving streaks all over my floors. I'll stick with the Swiffer brand of wipes, which work great. So much for cheaper.

- I also was on a quest to find a black dress for friend Emily's upcoming Missouri wedding. I found something at the mall that I think will work. We'll see if I still like it when I put it on again.

- When I got home from errands I started cooking food for our Superbowl gathering, which included the yeast rolls to serve as buns for the sliders, the S'more Brownies... and I forget what else. I was in the kitchen from 6 to 11 p.m., and got quite a bit prepared for the next day. Including cinnamon rolls for breakfast in the morning. Since the yeast roll dough can also be used for the cinnamon rolls I doubled the recipe. I baked half that night, and put the other half in the fridge to bake in the morning. I've never successfully done that, but it did end up working for me, although you have to be patient and wait for the rolls to completely warm up and for the yeast to become active again before baking. For all my yeast recipes - the rolls, soft pretzels and pizza dough - I turned on the oven just enough to warm it up, then set my bowls of dough inside to rise. In the apartment there was a perfect corner on top of the refrigerator that stayed warm from the motor, but I don't have such a good sheltered spot in the house.

- My KitchenAid mixer worked overtime this weekend. It's my most-used kitchen appliance.

- On Sunday Scott went with the girls to open water for the cows again, and I got back to work with some cooking and more cleaning that didn't get done Saturday, like the upstairs bathroom and vacuuming the rug in front of the couch, which is the dogs' favorite napping/chewing/wrestling area. I also moved the loveseat over by the tv and adjusted the tv for better viewing by a group, which caused the antenna to come crashing to the floor because the cord wasn't as long as I thought. I thought I might have to have Scott bring another home, but turns out everything still worked.

- Mother-in-law Shirley arrived at about 11:30, right after I'd finished cleaning the bathroom and washing the bathroom and kitchen floors and showering. I cooked and she and I visited while Scott went to get Bob, who needed a ride to the house while Becky dropped her new grandbaby off with her daughter. Baby Brooklyn and mother Emily ended up coming over to the house later in the day.

- The rest of the afternoon was consumed with visiting and nibbling and sampling my new recipes. Thankfully the soft pretzels turned out really well, and I enjoyed them with the mustard sauce. The cheese sauce I tried to make to go with them didn't turn out so good, and now I don't know what I'll do with that bowl of cheese mixed with green chilies. :-)

- And then everyone left when the football game ended. And I went to bed at 8:30. And it was wonderful. I didn't get my usual couple-hour nap this weekend.

Homemade English muffins

Does it get better than this?

The photo alone is enough to inspire me to make some tonight, and enjoy them with eggs, bacon, cheese and some leaf lettuce. The recipe calls for all white flour, but I like the store-bought whole-wheat English muffins so much that I'd probably change the recipe to whole-grain.

Here's the link so you can have the recipe for yourself: Tasty Kitchen Blog - English Muffins.

I found the recipe and photo tutorial on a rabbit trail from my main goal of finding a Superbowl menu. Here's what I've settled on for Sunday, although it's subject to change on a whim or inspiration. :-)

- Pizza Rolls - a recipe of my own devising, as I didn't find one that I liked. Fashioned after the Old Chicago appetizer. I'll let you know how it goes.
- Mushroom and Swiss Sliders with Spicy Fry Sauce - from Pioneer Woman Cooks
- Tomato/cheese/Rotel/ground beef dip - Again, nothing that has a specific recipe. Throw it all together and heat!
- White Chocolate Party Mix - from Taste of Home. Because I'm pretty sure Scott can still taste the recipe my mom made at Christmas time.
- S'more Brownies - a definite favorite, good for taking to brandings, that I haven't made in a couple years. From Food Network.
- And... perhaps soft pretzels with mustard sauce? If I have the time and/or ambition come Saturday. Mostly, I'd make them because they sound really good to me, and I know I'd eat one or two. Or more.

state fair week

in the midst of everything else going on, i barely mentioned that last week was state fair week here in wyoming. the state fairgrounds are in douglas, and wednesday is the big day for the roundup, as we co-host a cattlemen's conference all afternoon and then a picnic for our wyoming agriculture hall of fame that evening.

the conference features four or five speakers on a variety of topics related to the industry. this year we had a lawyer working with the antitrust/meatpackers issue, an extension agent talking about profitability, or how to make the most money, in a beef operation and jim magagna, who works with the stockgrowers, but was there independently to talk about the recent deal struck with an oil company, el paso, about the ruby pipeline, which begins in western wyoming, and a separate deal struck with a couple enviro groups. the problem with the deal with the enviros is that they came out and stated publicly they were going to use the money to end public lands grazing. as you can imagine, the uproar ensued.

the ever-intelligent u.s. representative cynthia lummis, who had just been reelected by wyoming republicans in the primary the day before, was there to update the group on d.c. and what a mess congress is, and then we had the director of the wyoming oil and gas conservation commission speak on a new oil play taking shape in southeast wyoming, which is unusual because there's been barely any mineral development there before.

then we headed over to a park just north of the fairgrounds for our picnic, where scott helped set up all the tables and chairs before our program, which included two brothers inducted into the ag hall of fame, don and peto meike of kaycee, and grant stumbough of wheatland, who's the rc&d coordinator and has really helped the landowners in that area organize and group themselves to obtain stronger contracts from the wind development companies.

cynthia lummis also presented the wyoming ag in the classroom educator of the year award to kathy tatman of lingle.

senator john barrasso, grant stumbough, don meike, representative cynthia lummis, peto meike and senator mike enzi at our picnic, after the three wyomingites were inducted into the ag hall of fame. each of them receives a custom belt buckle with their name on it, and a framed copy of that year's hall of fame print. if you notice, don meike switched his belt buckles on the spot, and he's proudly showing his off in the photo. :-)

this is mantha phillips of casper, teacher kathy tatman, whose husband was an extension educator in goshen county for years, and cynthia. mantha is the president of ag in the classroom now, a position publisher dennis held for many years prior. mantha's house is gorgeous inside, and when you visit her she brings you coffee in a glass cafe mug. :-)

i can't remember exactly how many years the roundup has hosted the picnic, but it's never rained. come close a couple times, and dennis was a little nervous this year, watching a rain cloud go south of douglas. it was another beautiful evening, and it was hot when we got there to set up the tables and chairs, but it cooled down and there was a breeze, and it was gorgeous later that night for the locash cowboys/joe diffie concert that scott and i went to with his mom, sister and nephews.

peto and don are two of the nicest gentlemen you could ever meet.

and grant stumbough is very bright, and easy to work with, and is always available to answer questions. i have a feeling all the landowners in his area agree.

and here they are, in live and living color, the locash cowboys, who dress so over the top that i couldn't bear to put their photo in the state fair edition. however, they did win me over a little, as they do sound really good. maybe i'll give them another chance or two, since their first single, released last spring, didn't help them out any, either.

and the classic 90s country artist joe diffie took his turn singing to us. scott and i danced a little to some of his stuff, and i danced with scott's nephew dallas, but i tell you what, country swing dancing in a dirt arena is very tough. one fast song with dallas was enough for me!

and then, walking out of the fairgrounds, the gates were locked and climbing over the chainlink fence scott proceeded to tear the entire nail off his thumb, so that spurred a trip to his mother's to doctor it before we headed back to casper.

picnic in the park

this is the face of a happy pug who has spent the last couple hours playing his heart out on the green grass of a park with other pups and a bunch of kids.

last night we had a picnic with roundup staff, and our guest of honor was ex-coworker andrea, publisher dennis's daughter who used to handle our accounts. she was home from south carolina to attend a class reunion this weekend.

designer tracy came down from kaycee with her family, which includes husband alvie and daughter bailee, and son grady.

and heather's kids got to come - pearl and emmie.

the park we were at is right near my house, and i often bring my dogs here to exercise.

it's up on a hill, so a person can look over the town, and see the mountain, and the summer sunset was quite pretty.

1406 S Lincoln Housewarming

last friday night was my housewarming party! i knew i wanted to have one eventually, so originally i had picked a fairly empty weekend. turned out not to be that way, but it was ok. it was attended mostly by roundup people, and scott's family members also gathered together.

curt and diane and their twins carter and cooper came over.

and jody.

and peggy and publisher dennis and scott's brother bob. note: dennis is sitting on a blue chair. prior to that he was sitting on a red chair, which suddenly and unexpected left him sitting on the driveway and his drink on his head.

scott fired up his fairly new charcoal grill and grilled the burgers. this was the first time we tried the ground beef from tyrone, and it did make good burgers.

this was tyrone, the 20-something-year-old retired lead steer up at the association. some outfits use steers who know the way to help move cattle from pasture to pasture.

a chilly day in april he met his fate. so far scott and i have grilled some tenderloin, that was delicious. don't worry! health inspector friend jamie, who inspects the processors in the area, was on hand to ensure everything was proper. :-) the hide went to lander to be tanned. i want a hide rug someday.

my food buffet table was also in the newly-cleaned patio, and i had the chance to use some of my dish collection. the thermometer hanging on the wall was a housewarming gift from jody. it was pretty hot in the patio, so scott had set up the box fan to keep air circulating.

and some of my glass collection i put to use as a centerpiece. this long table and my long serving table were borrowed from friend jamie, and jody chipped in with the collapsible (sometimes unexpectedly) picnic table on the grass, as well as a crock pot for part of the baked beans i put together.

the girls lucy and foxy really wanted to join the party, and we did eventually let them out, and paula's pug pup tyson was also over.

tyson partied a little too hard! he had a fun time with the kids who were at the party, as did the other two pups. they got lots of child interaction.

p.s. thanks to heather of double h photo for taking most of these pics while i was busy making sure everything was as it should be!

trav's branding

these photos were taken last friday night out at trav's place at waltman, about 60 or so miles west of casper toward shoshoni.

i think we should brand in the evening more often. the light was gorgeous!

friend eddy, with his one-eyed horse woody.

scott and one of his black horses, fiddler.

we only branded 10 head friday night, with the bulk of them branded saturday late morning. i got back into casper about 10 p.m. saturday, but that was ok. it was a good weekend, doing good work with good people. and the food was delicious! ribs friday night, and brisket for lunch saturday when we were all done. the post-branding lunch alone is enough incentive for me to go to brandings. i also met three women from riverton whom i really liked, so that was a nice change from the usual mostly-male crowd at these events.

speaking of gorgeous light, this was the sunset that welcomed scott and me back to wyoming from iowa last tuesday:

on the horizon to the right you can see some of the wind towers that have gone up in the last year. wind energy development is one thing wyoming is working really hard on figuring out.

4th of july, 2010

it's very green in iowa. lots of moisture, and very green. my dad was able to get his hay raked and round-baled on saturday before it came in and rained again sunday, but the ruts in the hayfield sure aren't pretty. this photo is looking north from my parents' farmyard.

there are a lot of old mercedes sitting around the place, and this is the one my family's had forever, she's known as sadie, and my dad let me drive her around a bit while i was home.

this is my recently-purchased mercedes, still in the shop where my dad, scott and i worked on the few rust spots. if you rub them off, spray them with rust inhibitor, then paint them again they take a whole lot longer to get worse, and it's one of my dad's favorite things to do. in this photo scott was having disagreements with lucy as to how long she was going to stay sitting there.

saturday morning scott and i woke up and headed over to one of the hog sites. it had recently been washed, and new pigs were coming in a few days, so we put it together, which includes tipping the feeders back and putting the pins back in the gates to hold them, lowering the brooder heaters, lowering the waters and putting the mats down. my dad hires someone to come in and wash. it's a least-favored job around the farm.

the baby pigs need to be kept at a temperature of 93 degrees when they first arrive, so even though it's summertime they need the extra heat. the trucks came from kansas to unload on tuesday, and i was sad that we missed it and scott didn't get to see the little ones. they're pretty cute when they first arrive. the other two hog sits are full of pigs almost ready to load out and head to market. it takes about five months to grow them out from weaning at an age of 21 days to market weight of around 240 pounds.

oh yeah, and scott looks green in the picture, because not long after it was taken he was struck with the stomach flu my sister brought to iowa.

here's the barn all put together and ready for the babies. the side curtains are down in this photo to help dry the barn out, but usually they're closed, creating what's known as tunnel ventilation. the end of the barn behind the camera also has curtains that raise and lower, according to the barn's inside temperature, and the wall of fans at the other end turns on and off according to temperature. the whole system is highly computerized, and should any part of it fail the control panel calls my dad's phone first to let him know he needs to go check on the pigs. in the wintertime especially, if some part of the ventilation fails to come on, the pigs will overheat and die, or suffocate, neither of which is a pretty thing. thankfully my family has never had that happen.

saturday evening, after a long nap, scott was feeling better so he and i headed to ames and stopped by campus for a quick tour. this is the iconic clock tower, known as the campanile, that guards central campus.

catt hall lies across central campus to the north of the campanile.

curtiss hall is an ag building, on the east end of central campus, and a building in which i had many classes. on the west end of campus is bearshear, which looks similar to curtiss, but i didn't get a photo from where we were standing, it was behind the many trees.

we'd already gone to the mall to get some proper iowa state attire for scott to bring back, and then we went to a favorite restaurant in town, hickory park.

then, after hickory park, we went just up the street and got chocolate shakes from b-bop's, the burger drive-in, and headed home. it was a short and sweet trip to ames, although i never even got to see cafe diem, my favorite coffee shop from college times. i usually go there with my laptop to do some newspaper work when i'm in iowa.

sunday morning my whole family as well as some extended family and cousins went to my parents' church, then enjoyed delicious pork chops for lunch, as well as all the trimmings, and the good iowa brats for dinner. this is my brother showing them off, before placing them on my dad's new grill. it's pretty fancy, but makes events like this really easy. all 30 pork chops can be grilled at once, with lots of room to spare.

dual gas tanks, and both sides open for easy access. the shelf panels are taken off for going down the road.

this is the east end of my parents' house, and the main entrance. the first part houses the mudroom and my mom's catering kitchen. the little yard is picket-fenced off to keep the dog out of the nice flowers.

looking north down the driveway. the hay field's been baled and the bales already picked up. note standing water in the low spot. that's my parents' farm dog, leisel.

scott and i drove my brother's 1970 buick convertible in monday morning's parade.

my brother had a dozen cars lined out for the parade, and many of his friends drove and rode the others, including the collection of several international scouts. my brother drove this car that was in front of us. thankfully it was cloudy, because it was so humid it would have been really hot with a sunny morning.

monday was the july 4th celebration in williams, which includes the annual cakewalk monopolized by hemkens so we're sure someone will get a cake. and we all stayed in there and went twice in a row. it's not rigged. no. 

cousins, aunts and uncles all join in the force.

my cousin amy won the first time, and my mom won the second.

that afternoon we stopped by to take some hog barn pictures with the pigs in the barns for scott. these pigs are several weeks from loading out.

each barn has two feed bins connected to feedlines that bring the feed into the barns' feeders on an automatic, as-needed basis. the 'boots' on the bins are clear so you can tell when the bin's empty, or when you need to pound on the 'cone' to shake more feed down to the auger, which happens often on hot, humid summer days. you can also tell when the bin's empty or hung up by the way the auger sounds.

each of our hog sites has its own incinerator for the deads. notice the tall iowa corn! each of the hog barn sites sits in an isolated corner of a field, as they have to be separated from each other a certain distance to control air-borne or bird-carried diseases. only a certain number of pigs is allowed on each site.

after the pig pictures we went over to the family's ruby farm, where we ate inside the new shed because of rain clouds outside. it was pretty wet inside the shed, too, because of the previous day's rain blowing in.

the walkway made from the shed's extra lumber. soon the yard will have a proper gravel driveway to avoid such troubles, it's just all so recent it hadn't happened yet.

my dad talking to other area farmers in the cold-storage area of the new building.

following dinner we all migrated to the north end of the farm yard to watch the fireworks, which are set off right across the road and over our farm, so the display is practically in our laps. sometimes we even get ashes and sparks falling.

the next morning scott and i packed up in the new silver car and headed out on our trip back to wyoming. this is the two of us, with my parents that morning.

we stopped by my friend holly's on the way out of the state to admire her house improvements, and also saw other common iowa scenery, like corn fields and this ethanol plant.

i'm glad scott was practicing driving with his eyes closed.

that hill in the distance just so happens to be the one i wrecked my pickup on a year and a half ago....

there's been a lot of rain in iowa this season, and this is what happens to the fields when it rains a lot.

lucy snoozin in the backseat.

she got very bored by the time we got home to wyoming. :-) on the way back scott and i stopped at the tack shop in valentine, neb. and again in chadron for dinner, arriving back in casper at about 10 p.m.