Blowing In

After a lovely weekend in warmer climes, the wind blew us back to the ranch. And maybe blew a few tumbleweeds, too. (Like the one in the middle of the road? And two more are to the left of the road, and will soon be across it.) I have lots to write, so hopefully I'll find some energy soon. I hope you've had a good weekend!

Simplifying the Closet

In my efforts to get my house more organized, I'm tackling one little area each day. I read advice to spend 15 minutes each day decluttering. I can't quite seem to do that much, but just 5 minutes is making a difference. And some days I can get a few more minutes in.

One area that I recently organized was my closet. I had heard that I should get rid of clothes that I hadn't worn in the last year. Sounds simple enough, but it still didn't motivate me. What finally made me get to work was the suggestion to turn all my hangars around. If I took something out to wear, then I could put the hangar back in the regular way. After six months, I'd know what I still hadn't worn and could consider getting rid of those clothes. So far, this system is working great, and I'm taking a big bag of clothes to the thrift store tomorrow. It feels so good to see things leave the house!

So much of everything (clothes, dishes, space in your house, size of vehicle, size of yard) should you have? The Frugal Girl has a very reasonable answer you can read here.

Sheepherder's Party 2013

I had the opportunity to hear Sourdough Slim last weekend as part of the Sheepherder's Party. He sure is entertaining! He performed for the school kids earlier in the day, and Desert Boy enjoyed it so much. When he saw Sourdough Slim at the dinner, he went up to him and told him how much he liked the performance.

I was inspired enough to get out my old accordion and play a few tunes. It was fun, and I'll try and do it again soon.

For more about the Sheepherder's Party, check out my other blog.

2013 Fire and Ice

This past weekend we headed to Cave Lake for the annual Fire and Ice Festival. Down in the valleys it was frigid, but up in the pinyon/juniper zone, the temperatures were in the 30s and very pleasant.

The last two years I've entered the snow/ice sculpting contest, but the last two years it's been cancelled due to warm weather! (See what we did here and here.) Fortunately this year it was cold enough to have the competition. But alas, I did not enter. That was okay. It was great fun to go look at the sculptures and do some of the other activities.

 One of those activities was sledding. Desert Girl was ready!

I went down with her multiple times, and each time at the bottom, she said, "Let's do it again!" I have never seen her so enthusiastic about sledding!

She's quite relaxed, as you can see!


Desert Boy did some sledding too, and even managed to find a little jump. But he had much bigger plans than just sledding. He also wanted to do the snow bowling.


It was fun, but it sure made you appreciate the automatic pin setters in the bowling alleys!


We enjoyed some time with friends at the lake. Here's Sam on his way to what looks like a strike.

Of course we had to do a couple tours of the lake to see the ice sculptures.

A lake monster

Race car

Ore cars

King Kong

 And my favorite, an Icthyosaur (Nevada's state fossil)

Well, seeing all the snow sculptures made Desert Boy really want to do one. So he did.

 Gathering snow.

 More snow

 The great and fantastic snow volcano!

Maybe next year we'll enter again. This year's weather was super, and it was really fun to be out there.
To hear the music (and see the dancing and snow sculpture in action), check out this short video:

Random Weekend Happenings

It's been cold. Not the coldest it's ever been, but it's been a long three weeks without getting above freezing. Some mornings are gorgeous, with frost coating everything, and I've tried to take photos a couple times. Last year I think I wore my puffy pink jacket that goes down to some ridiculous temperature rating only once or twice. This year, it's the coat I wear all the time, and I'm so glad I have it. 

This weekend the cold temperatures nearly froze our water pipes, even though our house is heated with hot-water pipes that run under the house and through the radiators. I absentmindedly turned off our pencil stream of water one afternoon at 3 pm. Half an hour later, I remembered to turn it back on. Nothing came out of the faucet. Do you know what it feels like when you turn on the faucet and nothing comes out? It's certainly not a good feeling. And I might have muttered something under my breath that wasn't fit for young ears. Fortunately, the water eventually started running again. We had one other little forgetful episode, but that was also happily resolved. Whew. I'm so ready for warmer weather, and today we finally got above freezing for a couple hours. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see mud.

The weekend was full of fun activities, including a birthday party for Andie Mae. The kids had fun playing, and we came up with some good balloon games. The best part was the little girls giggling. Oh my goodness, the cuteness factor went off the chart!

We went to a couple other events, which I hopefully will blog about soon. It seems that some days just don't hold enough hours! I haven't slept well the past couple nights, I think because of cold medicine I've been taking, and then the hours creep by.  Hopefully my internal clock will get settled soon.

 We had some good laughs this weekend. I had to run and get the camera when Desert Boy came out dressed like this. I think he's the Train Conductor Superhero. Sensing no danger, he didn't stay long, so I didn't have much chance to question him.

In an effort to find some warmer weather (and some exercise!), we headed up the mountain, where it's been consistently ten degrees warmer. Sure enough, we found melting snow and even little sprouts around the new mud puddles! Desert Girl made sure she pointed out every patch of mud to me. And every little pellet of rabbit scat. And every rabbit track. Ava showed me all sorts of juniper berries. They all were very happy for the snack breaks, which occurred at every bench. We took advantage of the breaks to look at the birds: a western scrub-jay, Clark's nutcrackers, common ravens. Then I heard a familiar sound and taught the kids to "pish" for mountain chickadees. We were successful, luring one closer to our location by our alluring sound. I think they enjoyed being outside, except for the snow in the boots and cold feet.

Well, now it's time to dive into the week. How was your weekend?