In the last week....

I have been wanting to post for the last few days, but because of spotty internet service and just trying to catch up after being on vacation for THREE WEEKS, I have gotten some of the pictures edited and waded through the mail I hadn't and now I am ready to post. This will be a picture heavy post, you know, because that's kind of what I do, but also because where we were was just gorgeous and we couldn't keep from taking pictures.

I posted last on July 3rd, and then we had the Fourth. We were able to stay for the fireworks at the lake and we also went to town for the car show and the flea market so here are some pics of the car show.
This was DH's second favorite car...it was a pretty sweet looking ride, but wait until you see his favorite....

Now to me, the coupe isn't all that much different than the station wagon, but I think that the yellow one reminded him of his childhood. He had one similar to this that was handed down to him from his father, who bought it brand new. He was reminiscing about drag racing it and fixing it and all of that while we stood and looked at the cars. The man who owned this one had done an excellent job of restoring it. The interior was immaculate and the exterior....well, you can see the exterior.


My favorite of the show, was this....

What can I say, I'm just a truck kind of girl. I would so much rather drive a pickup than most any other kind of car out there. Not only are they eminently practical, you sit up off of the ground high enough that you can see what is coming toward you and you can haul stuff. When you live in the country you have to be able to haul stuff....feed, hay, lumber, kids, kids stuff, trailers, etc. You just can't do that with a car.

We made a rather disappointing run through the town flea market...the only thing I bought was some fresh kettle corn (YUM!!!) and some lavender scented lotion made from honey. It is really nice lotion and was produced by someone local. We did go visit some friends that do metal working so that I could show DH what I want for the railings of the front porch of our house. This couple designs and does metal work and other types of crafty things. One of the things that they have done recently is to design these metal panels with scenes in them for use as either wall art or porch railings. They can do anything that you can think of and they do really fine work. One of the things that turned us onto them was a Christmas gift we got from my parents... personal steak brands. They're cool!!

After we left the flea market, we went to the campground for Lake DeWeese, a local reservoir that has boating, fishing and of course, camping. My dad and the DH had taken my folk's camper down and set it up on Tuesday night so that we would have a place to watch the fireworks from. The local community puts on their fireworks over the lake. We had grilled food, eaten in the camper because of the rain, then we toasted s'mores, my aunt and uncle came down to watch with us and a good time was had by all, as evidenced by the following pictures....





Check out the hat...he'd been begging for a cowboy hat for a while and a shop had some inexpensive kid's hats and wha-la....he is a cowboy.

It started to rain, and not ones to allow our good time to be ruined by the rain, we dug in the back of the pickup truck and found the wonderful, huge golf umbrella. Mom and I shared it in front of the fire. It contained the heat and kept the front of us warm and blocked the cold wind from the back.
This is what the mountains looked like before we got the rain and it was a cold, windy storm. The skies got black, the mountains disappeared and the rain started. It was a fast moving storm, and shortly after it started, the clouds moved on and this is what the mountains looked like:

Can you say "SNOW" on the fourth of July? That's right, the mountains got snow on July 4th!!! Now granted, they are over 14,000 feet high, and what would be a cold rain at 8,000 feet should be snow at 14,000, but c'mon....it was the FOURTH of JULY....there's not supposed to be snow.

After the lightning, did I forget to mention the lightning? that made us think that maybe the town would cancel the fireworks, and when the skies cleared somewhat, we watched the natural fireworks that the sunset put forth. It was like nature was celebrating with us the founding of our country and reminding us that we live in the greatest country on earth. It showed us a spectacular light show put on by God himself...want proof....then look and behold:




You can still kind of see the clouds that were left over after the storm in these shots.








Can you believe the colors in the shot above? Hey Ray, if you read this, wouldn't those colors make a loverly yarn?




I see pictures of sunsets like this where the sun is coming from behind the mountains or through the clouds and the first thing that comes to mind is the Hallelujah Chorus.....Hallelujah, hallelujah. I swear this was better than the fireworks, although we did Oooohhhh, and Aaaahhhh at the fireworks. My shots of them are nothing spectacular. I finally gave up trying to take a picture of them and watched them...here is a
couple of the shots that almost turned out:














The fireworks were great, the company good, the food fun and so all in all, a fine time was had by all.

I mentioned that we had been on vacation for three weeks. It really wasn't a vacation for all of us. DH still worked the first two weeks and then the last week was spent running errands, going to Colorado Springs, and then "doing the Fourth". We were all ready to leave on the 5th, but the company had other plans...we didn't actually get a load until the 10th. Then we went from Westcliffe to Fountain, CO and then to Denver to pick up the load, then to Kansas City, MO and back to Kansas City, KS to deliver that load. The next day, the 12th, we picked up in Olathe, KS and went to Houston, TX where it was nothing if not HOT and HUMID. Not only that, but the air conditioning in our truck is intermittent at best, so we start out the trip with air and then after 50-60 miles it goes off. It is soooo hot and sticky, yuck. We left Houston on Friday and drove up to Dallas. We spent the night in Dallas and had 2 fans running, four windows and a side door open just to keep it cool enough to sleep. Fortunately we were parked where there weren't any other trucks running, so we didn't have the heat from that. Sometime this morning it started raining, and we had to shut the door above our head 'cuz our pillows were getting wet.

One of the things that wasn't work related that got done while we were on vacation was this:
I have been NEEDING a yarn swift. I have been looking at them on ebay and Joann's and debating what kind to buy, when I came across a conversation on one of the knitting sites that mentioned the do it yourself directions for a yarn swift. I showed it to DH and he said that he could make it, no sweat. The last week we were at my folk's house, I made my dad hold some yarn for me so that I could wind it into a center pull cake on my handy dandy ball winder. He didn't like it much, and when DH asked for some help building one, Dad jumped at it (he didn't want to have to be a swift again). They came in the house a couple of hours later with this little beauty. Not only is it good looking, but it works like a dream. If you, like me, are needing a yarn swift, contact me here and we'll see what we can do about that.

The next bit of news that I have is that I finally got my invitation to Ravelry. This site could be dangerous. It has all kinds of options for fiber artists and crafters and I could probably spend a lot of time organizing things and looking at patterns and what not. If you haven't yet, and I can't imagine that you wouldn't have, go put your name in for an invitation. They are still in Beta testing and until that is done, their computer program is inviting a certain number of users everyday until everyone that wants to be a part of the site is invited, so you might have to wait a while, but it is soooo worth it. It's fun and it helps you to keep your stash organized and keeps you from doing what I do, buying two of the same books because I know that I want it, but I forget that I already ordered it, so I buy it in a bookstore and then I end up with two of them. You can keep track of your projects, your Works In Progress (wip's) and use the site to find different kinds of yarn, and ... and ... and ... It's cool.

Look at what the DS found. He was outside playing in the dirt (isn't that what little boys are supposed to do?) and he came in to show his Nena this...a "horny toad". I didn't think that these little creatures were supposed to be as high as 8,000 feet, but I would be wrong, cuz here is proof. Can you see how red DS's hand is...the poor thing got sunburned. I am such a bad mother, I sent him off to go riding without sunblock and this is what he looked like when he came back. Bad Mom, Bad Mom...oh well, isn't the first time and probably won't be the last.

One evening, DH was out taking pictures of this really incredible sunset (pictures would follow, but none do it justice) and he decided that we needed yet another picture of "THE Big Red Truck" all lit up. Here it is.

I guess that is all the news that I have. We are on our way to Colorado again with a load. This time we are going to a little mining town called Pletoro...it's not on any map, but if you have Streets and Trips, you can find it. The directions that we got from out company say that we will have to go 17 miles on a small US highway and then 23 miles on US Forest Service roads. That's okay, but if you have been in, or lived in, the west, you know that USFS roads are usually dirt. That's kind of rough on the Big Red Truck, not to mention its occupants. We have to call when we get there and have someone lead us in. Let's hope we have cell service out in the middle of nowhereville.

I did forget to mention that while we were on vacation, we had a birthday celebration for my dad, DS and me. We went to the General Store and had lunch. The General Store is a little building up on the mountain that serves breakfast and lunch and then has a dinner show on Saturday nights. They usually have a Bluegrass show along with either a chicken or a steak dinner. It is something that has to be experienced. Anyway, we went there, had lunch, passed out presents to those with a birthday (sorry no pictures, forgot the camera) and then went home. We gave my dad some spurs for his birthday, which was a really good present for him. He's been looking for some and we had found some for him quite a while ago and finally had them and him together, so he got them. The boy got some books, a hat, a puzzle and a dvd about wolves. He really likes wolves, so we try to give him things that appeal to him. He also is into dragons, so we have a little bit of variety to look through. I got a handthrown chip and dip bowl from DH, a Celtic Woman CD from DS and then my mom and dad gave me Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting without Tears, and Knitter's Almanac. I think, after looking at the books, they are very similar, but have a couple of different things in them, so I will keep them both.

Now that is really all...I have been working at this for hours because of the slow in truck internet connection and waiting for all of the uploads and stuff. When I have more news to report, I will be back, or even if I don't have any news...just because I have to post.