Summer Afternoon

"Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." ~Henry James

"In summer, the song sings itself." ~William Carlos Williams 

"There shall be an eternal summer in the grateful heart." ~Celia Thaxter 

"Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability." ~Sam Keen

"The path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day." ~Proverbs 4:18 (NKJV)

"People take pictures of the summer, just in case someone thought that they had missed it and to prove that it really existed." ~Ray Davis

Real Country Life

Well, the garden is watered, the flower beds are weeded, and the barn is clean. 

The house, laundry, dishes, me? Not so fortunate. 

"I don't have to be perfect to be perfectly loved by Jesus." ~Angela Perritt

Tin Lizzie

My goats have never eaten a tin can, but they have investigated my new tin garden goat, Lizzie. 

"By swallowing evil words unsaid, no man has ever hurt his stomach." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

An Irish Welcome

A morning spent with Irish, a Thoroughbred mare from Rainhorse Equine Assisted Services, was a beautiful lesson on the impact of welcome. 

Welcome means to gladly receive or accept. Who among us~whether person or horse~doesn't want to be gladly received or accepted? Welcome is a balm for the overlooked, the dismissed, the rejected. 

"For the Lord...will take delight in you with gladness...." ~Zephaniah 3:17 (NLT)

Thunderstruck

The USAF Thunderbirds amazed thousands of Cheyenne residents and tourists with their extraordinary precision and fearlessness. 

Some of our nation's best, the Thunderbirds inspire audiences all across the nation and around the world. But they've never met their biggest fan: my mom. 

"God is not confined to what you can imagine." ~Louie Giglio

Hail to the Squash

Summer squash don't get enough respect. All the brilliant scientific minds in the world couldn't take a little sheep manure compost, a bit more water, and a few days of sunshine, and whip out some big yellow blossoms which, in the blink of an eye, turn into pounds of zucchini or yellow squash. 

"All dinner guests were required to eat squash, and then take some home in plastic sacks. We started considering dinner guest lists, in fact, with an eye toward those who did not have gardens. Our gardening friends knew enough to slam the door if they saw a heavy sack approaching." ~Barbara Kingsolver, My Year of Eating Local: Zucchini Wars

Sinks Canyon Hike

Sometimes the mountains are too far away, and there's nothing to do but go to them. 

Middle Fork of the Popo Agie in the Shoshone National Forest

My son, Zach, and cowdog/hiking dog, Bodie

A yet-to-be-identified wildflower

Weidemeyer's admiral butterfly

A series of waterfalls can be reached by trail

The Sinks, where the river disappears underground

Indian paintbrush

"For Jehovah God is our Light and our Protector. He gives us grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk along his paths." ~Psalm 84:11 (TLB)

Summer Sabbath

Sultry July Sundays find many of us lingering in the shade, sipping iced tea and munching watermelon. Meanwhile, our livestock are lazing beneath Russian olive trees, enjoying both shade and snacks. 

Joy

Blueberry

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time." ~John Lubbock 

July Gardeners

July gardeners are sticky with humidity, perspiration, and Deep Woods Off. Sweat has dripped off our straw hats, bedraggled our hair, and stung our eyes red. 

Never mind that our fingernails are stained green and brown. Camouflage befits soldiers in the War of the Weeds. 

We've never looked (or smelled) worse, but who cares? Flowers have never looked better, beans and tomatoes are setting on, and zucchini harvest is underway!

"Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden." ~Robert Brault

Medicine Hike

The sky was obscured by smoke from distant wildfires when we went hiking near Medicine Lodge last weekend. 

Indigenous folks used yucca (below) to make shampoo, food, fibers for baskets and ropes, and medicines to treat diabetes and arthritis. 

Natives to this canyon used the leaves, roots, or fruit of Oregon-grape (below) roots to make yellow dye as well as medicines to treat acne, rheumatoid stiffness, dysentery, wounds, and stomach troubles. They used the berries to flavor soups. 

Being far less ingenious, Hubby and I ate sandwiches and took ibuprofen for our aches and pains. 

"Only to the white man was nature a wilderness and only to him was the land 'infested' with 'wild' animals and 'savage' people. To us it was tame, Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery." ~Black Elk, Oglala Lakota Sioux, 1863-1950

Growing Up

If the calves weren't getting so big, we'd lose them in the tall grass. 

Glitter

Millicent, aka Mills

Duke

Freckles 

"I do not understand the mystery of grace--only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us." ~Anne Lamott

Picnic at the Pond

Where better to spend a 97 degree holiday afternoon?

"And may the Master pour on the love so that it fills your hearts and splashes over on everyone around you." ~1 Thessalonians 3:12 (MSG)