We are so glad...

We are so glad ... that we escaped from the formerly golden state of California.  Nearly every day we see a new example of the insanity there, and here's yet another.

We cannot imagine what they're thinking. 

I hope I don't live long enough to see this sort of crap in Utah...

A most pleasant surprise...

A most pleasant surprise...  A few minutes ago my cell phone rang – it was my friend and neighbor Tim D.  He told me he “had a little something” for Debbie, for Mother's Day, but he couldn't get into our house (nobody was responding to his knocking).  I came down to let him in, and found him all dressed for church – a phenomenon I'd never witnessed before.  Had to have a photo of that (at right)!

It turns out that the ward he's in has a treat for all the moms on Mother's Day each year.  He copped one for Debbie, knowing that she wouldn't be there: a nice slice of banana cream pie.

There are so many reasons why we love this place, but Tim is one of the bigger ones...

Paradise ponders: the magnificent Cabo and fairy stairs edition...

Paradise ponders: the magnificent Cabo and fairy stairs edition...  Debbie and I took a morning drive up to Hardware Ranch and saw remarkably little wildlife.  We did spot three deer (instead of the hundreds we were anticipating) and a couple of magpies, along with a few turkeys – and that was it.  Later in the afternoon we took a little drive not that far from home.  During that we popped up over a little rise west of our house and had this magnificent view northwards up Cache Valley.  It's a beautiful place we live in...

Well, I managed to finish the dovetail joints on the second window frame.  I glued it up and put it in clamps.  Today I'll be mostly consumed with paperwork stuff, but tomorrow I should be able to move on to start applying the finish to the frames...

Cabo and I took a nice little walk in the afternoon, up our usual back road route east of our house.  The photos below are all from that walk.  The first two show a dry field (i.e., not irrigated) that's been lying fallow since we moved here.  This year someone has tilled and planted it in some sort of grass, which has just started sprouting.  The next two photos were taken near the highest point of our walk, looking to the west at our beautiful valley.  In the second of them, very near the center you can see the brightly reflecting roof of our barn.  Then there's Cabo, trying to take back the red tail hawk feather I had just taken away from her.  I'm not sure what she thought she'd do with it, but she definitely wanted it!  Finally, the last photo shows something new for our neighborhood: a field of “Roundup-ready” alfalfa, and the weeds right next to it that were just sprayed with Roundup.  The alfalfa looks ridiculously happy and verdant, even though it was just sprayed with Roundup (which normally kills alfalfa).  Meanwhile, the weeds are all dying.  These fields are going to be practically weed-free this year, except for those few weeds that can survive Roundup (dyer's woad, especially).

While Cabo and I were walking, I got a text from our friend Michelle H.  She wanted to know if she could come over and get a log cut up to make fairy steps.  When we walked back into our driveway, she was already there, with her “log” – a pine branch perhaps 2" in diameter. :)  We cut it into roughly 1/4" thick slices, which she used to make the steps in the fairy garden at right.  Cute, eh?  Michelle told us a funny story about her experiences shopping for the gewgaws in there – women were jealously guarding the pieces they'd managed to snatch before someone else got them.  Some of them looked like they might actually get violent, over plastic mushrooms.  Michelle is wondering about her fellow humans... :)