Maps

I love them. Maybe it’s the experience I had learning how to draw them, maybe it’s how I learned to research them, maybe it’s how I learned to use the information I gleaned from them, maybe it’s how I somehow learned to read them (and trust me, that’s a skill not everyone has). Whatever, I love them.

I’ve spent the last couple of days poring over Colorado maps from 1843 through 1894, tracking the John Fremont/Kit Carson expeditions in the 1840’s. Proved beyond any shadow of doubt that Fremont and Carson made camp on Chuck’s ranch on July 10, 1843. Fremont’s journal from 1843 was also a big help.

I love going back to old maps, back when they showed no roads but only rail routes. Yes, I own an 1883 Colorado map (actual 1883, not a reproduction) and an 1894 Colorado map. The latter showed 1,000 towns – 700 of which don’t exist anymore.

Visited an antique store before Christmas and found a 1974 Official Iowa DOT Map, complete with then Gov. Robert D. Ray’s photo, message and signature. It’s still there. Someone else will find it more appealing than I did.

The old maps are works of art. New maps are just computer generated. Does any new state map include an elevation graph of the route taken across an expedition and recorded very elegantly as the 1845 Fremont map that I’ve been studying so carefully lately?

For that matter, I can't say I've seen a modern map that even shows any rail lines.

Maps commissioned by Congress in the Lewis & Clark, Fremont, Seward etc. expeditions are a thing of beauty.

Now if I can only find out what happened to Durham, CO – once a rail stop which is now in western GJ.

Seems to exist only on an old map.

National Western Stock Show

January 9, 2012

Yep, I got the year right – haven’t written it incorrectly since the New Year. We’ll see if that continues through 2012.

In mid-January there is an event known as the National Western Stock Show in Denver. Think of it as a 4-H Fair and County Fair and State Fair combined on steroids. 15 days of livestock judging, eighty-thousand and 11 booths selling everything from $11.99 spur straps to $853,042.15 tractors, livestock auctions, and PRCA Rodeos. And a gozillion cowboy hats and boots. And yeah, you can bet that Chuck & I will be there. Near the end of the show, when stuff goes on sale cheap. Mama didn’t raise no dumb cowboys (at least none who live in Colorado).

Christmas and New Nears was wonderful. It was so much fun having Ma out here for Christmas, and equally fun being with Jody’s family in Cheyenne for New Years. Tons of fun memories, and, at least for my Ma, plenty of new experiences. I think she enjoyed every one of them!

I’m cleaning today. My office is full of older electronics and a ton of paper. Both are getting sorted in re: what stays, what goes. I thought I could get this done in a day – it looks like it may take 4 days! It’s an interesting exercise in history and archaeology.

Not much else. Hope this little missive finds you all well, healthy and happy in this new year, and may it remain so for the year!

Much love,
Jay

Apples vs. Green Oranges? And Horses.

Not my choice, folks. Seems my new Little Red travel computer morphed first into a silver (OK, they like to call it platinum) then into a green (color, not Eco-freindly) version. They gave me a 10% discount for their mis-steak, I can probably find a skin for it, and meanwhile, I hope it does better that the Green Hornet or Green Lantern movies of this past summer.

Waiting for little goblins an such to appear at our door. An hour away from sunset, so I think I have some time.

Just finished watching "Secretariat" for the second time (c'mon - I was up at 5:30 this morning and cooking bacon and sausage by 7 am AFTER setup for a Halloween breakfast. Afternoon respite.) Love that movie on so many levels. I love that it starts out with one of the Lord's rebukes to Job - Job 39:19, to wit (from the NIV translation)

19 “Do you give the horse its strength
or clothe its neck with a flowing mane?
20 Do you make it leap like a locust,
striking terror with its proud snorting?
21 It paws fiercely, rejoicing in its strength,
and charges into the fray.
22 It laughs at fear, afraid of nothing;
it does not shy away from the sword.
23 The quiver rattles against its side,
along with the flashing spear and lance.
24 In frenzied excitement it eats up the ground;
it cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.
25 At the blast of the trumpet it snorts, ‘Aha!’
It catches the scent of battle from afar,
the shout of commanders and the battle cry.

That one catches my mind for a few reasons. First, I have known and ridden horses that seem to have no fear (except maybe for the occasional horse-eating plastic grocery bag that blows across their path).

Second - you have to understand the history of horses to get this passage. We are not talking about a nice gentle horse which one takes out for a ride for a couple of hours of a weekend. We are talking about large, stout, draft-sized horses who were trained for battle and could go on as long as the rider could stay on. Trained to respond to battle cries. Willing to keep going until its heart gave out.

Third - Disagree with me if you want, but I believe God gave animals souls. I've ridden horses and asked them for just a bit more and they gave it to me. I've had horses I considered retired old friends recognize me after not seeing me for a couple of years. I've met young horses who seemed to instinctively know I could be trusted. And don't even get me started on dogs.

Finally - regarding the first question God asks of Job in this passage: “Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane?" Well of course man didn't do that. However, in Genesis 1 we are told that man was given dominion over the animals. Personally, I think that's the only reason I can ride a horse in the first place.

I watched a couple of scenes in that movie with interest. The jockey was getting ready for Secretariat to bolt out of the gate, and in preparation, grabbed a handful of mane and held on. Done that many times myself. Because when a horse hears the shouts of the commander, one had better know how to ride well and know who has more control - horse or rider.

Hmm... sounds like a life lesson. Somehow, I doubt I'm the horse when God calls a command. Just the rider who's trying to hang on. Some would say when the command is called, both Christ and Satan hear it and respond.

Guess it's important who you're hanging on to.

Apples and Oranges

Or maybe it should be Apples and apple red computers.

A few weeks ago, TLMK's Director of Operations stopped by her office and said "Here - you need this." This being an Apple 32Gb iPad2 with a Bluetooth keyboard. She has learned to love it. I messed around with it for a few days, and decided (despite Her Loveliness's encouragement) that I really don't care for it. I guess I'm a dyed-in-the-wool PC guy.

I had a Droid X phone- it can do cool stuff, but I never got used to the virtual keyboard, let alone the "auto-correct" feature. Rochelle - I've seen your messages that were auto-corrected. No thanks. Went back to a LG Octane that has a real keyboard for messaging. Any "mis-steaks" are purely due to my fat fingers.

My old LG Voyager seems to be working perfectly again. I may go back to that one that I used and loved for 4 years.

Meanwhile, my 7 year old "Little Red" laptop is on its last legs. Has been for a while. So while shopping around online, I found another L'il Red - same size except 8 Gb of RAM, a 500 Gb hard drive, a Blu-Ray drive, a whopping fast dual-core processor, and it cost $250 less than the iPad2. So I bought it. Should be delivered in the coming week.

Yeah, it weighs 5 times what the iPad does. I'm used to schlepping around that much weight. And it has Win 7, which I'm used to as well. It'll take a day to get stuff xfer'd, but I've already started that process. Actually looking forward to that.

So all you iSomething enamored folks out there, I'm sticking with a PC based computer. Should you ever visit Happy Valley without your Apple gadgets, I have a very red PC that you may use. Maybe the color can remind you of apples.

Meat meat meat meat...

So I posted in a previous blog that my steer was going to the processor. It did, with 2 others. I'm in Alaska, Chuck's in Florida and Minnesota, and he gets a call from the processor saying "this one's too lean to even get short ribs, let alone steaks. We recommend you grind the whole thing." To which he agreed. and somewhere in translation, a mis-communication happened, and they took all three steers and turned them into several hundred pounds of very good lean hamburger.

To put it politely, Chuck was not amused. I rather enjoyed listening him voice his displeasure to the meat cutter (his tirades are legendary).

OK. I send a note to TLMK about the mix-up, she forwards it on to employees and friends, and suddenly we have orders for 200 lbs. of Longhorn Burger! Fortunately, we were going over there anyway and I had time to get to the ranch, and between his big cooler and our big cooler, we found ourselves last Monday hauling 200 1 lb. packages of Longhorn Burger back to Happy Valley. And on top of that, Chuck had a guy call up and order 150 lbs. more!

Forget the lemon adage - when life hands you hundreds of pounds of good burger, make hamburgers and meatloaf! And a profit!

Oh - I still have a steer going in to the processor at the end of this month. I'll have tenderloin, steaks, roasts, and even more burger!

Let me tell ya 'bout...

OK – we won’t be addressing birds and bees here, for those who remember that Roger Miller song. Too many of you have young ones and your time to struggle with that conversation will come eventually. Been through it – and in some evil way, will probably enjoy watching you struggle through it.

But the flowers and the trees… planted 2 clumps of Aspens and one Emerald Queen Maple today to replace trees that had died off or just simply needed removing for whatever reason. Had a landscape contractor do it to save my back (and heart). Great result. TLMK is going to be pleased when she gets home tonight. The maple is supposed to turn bright gold in the fall – will match the aspens. And it’s a hard maple – will make good furniture a few generations from now, but not maple syrup. And never a MBL bat!

I’ve pretty much given up on tomatoes in this soil. Way too much clay, and believe it or not, not quite acidic enough. I’ll do what my Great White North relatives did last year – buy the tomato strainer and a bushel of Roma tomatoes at a Farmer’s Market and make sauce from there!

Ah, but we do have roses and day lilies and Asiatic lilies and Salvias that my landscaping friend is envious of. And one Holly bush that is quite vibrant – the best he’s seen in the Valley according to him.

I’ve been dead-heading my roses regularly for a couple of months now. Makes them thrive like you wouldn’t believe. I didn’t realize that there’s an art and science to trimming roses until I was asked at church “Does anyone know how to trim roses?” I have a lavender rose (free-standing) which by next year I hope will best the world record for the tallest free-standing rose. I have a deep pink rose bush which I just found out last week is a “Perfume Delight” bush. It’s one variety of roses that are used in making perfumes. We have one. Go figure.

I also have my three JP2 roses which I found out last week were requiring more calcium. So we’re saving up egg shells and crushing them up to put around the bases of the three plants weekly. A tip from a gardener friend.

I suppose I ought to take a few pictures of the place to let you know what it looks like. Or of course, you could come out here and see for yourselves.

(Oh, no – seriously. No need to thank me for the guilt trip – it’s on the house!)

Whew!!!

Finished planting everything except the trees this weekend... TLMK once again did an artful job of planting our herb garden just outside our back door. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (and Oregano and two types of Basil). I love cooking with fresh herbs during the summer!

Dead-headed all my roses today. A couple of years ago, I'd pluck off all the wilted petals, collect them, and when the wind was right, toss them with the wind into our neighbor's yard. Brought laughter to a 3 and 5 year old to have "confetti" blowing into their yard. That's a good thing.

Santo Subito (yeah, you Protestants will have to Google that) - I have three John Paul 2 roses in bloom. All young, but still there. 5 brilliant white double petal blossoms right now - 7 more to come probably in the next week.

We are tired but happy with our botanical results this weekend. No mondo huge veggie garden here, but we do what we can! And hopefully (in the case of tomatoes) can what we do!