YouTube - Tumbleweed Invasion

YouTube - Tumbleweed Invasion

For a person who has had first hand experiences with these "Russian Thistles" as we called them, this was very, very funny. Who cannot enjoy laughing children!

Carrie Underwood Sings How Great Thou Art - New Version

Carrie Underwood Sings How Great Thou Art - New Version

In the right place at the wrong time

In the midst of one of life's small miseries I was scheduled to have a Echocardiogram of a leaky heart valve.  The misery was, and still is the common cold.  Now this is an unfortunate litany of how ironic life can get.  During the Echo procedure,  the strong armed tech person come close to breaking my sternum, which set my esophageal ulcer on fire.  I mentioned to him that I was having chest pains.

As he escorted my dear protector husband and I out the door he said I really ought to have that chest pain looked at.  What a great idea!  Across the hall was my Heart Consultant' Offices.  Any thinking person would say to them-self, "this is where a person with a chest pain should go."  I believe about 10 cardiologists are on staff in this new facility, including my own cardiac surgeon.  So in we went.
The receptionist was perplexed.  She dealt with people with appointments, not chest pains.  So she has a person take me into a room and another person comes in.  I have no idea if these women are nurses, teacher aids, or the cleaning people.  I explained that the Heart Hospital person that conducted the Echo exam across the hall told me to see a doctor. 

"I will call 911," she said.  "Don't do that!"  I was horrified by that thought.  I was pretty sure it was the ulcer on fire but probably should make certain.  She was so mad that the Echo people didn't take care of this situation across the hall when I was there.  She didn't really know what to do with me as long as I nixed the 911 call.  There was not one cardiologist in the place, but there was a nurse practioner.  They had a short consultation and my lady person wheels in an EKG machine and hooks me up to all the little leads and finds out that I am not having a heart attack.

I could have saved all of us about an hour or more if I had just gone home.  Some advice, a person would be well advised to ignore.

Old, Gray, Falling Down

It never occurred to me that our sturdy redwood fence would ever fall down.  After almost four decades it has gone the way of London Bridge.

Who Knew

"A view of a production well near the Continental Resources Inc. offices north of Buffalo in Harding County on Thursday, March 10, 2011. The company recently came online with a new station to create air pressure to push oil out to the production wells. The new station draws so much power that it has its own substation on site. (Kristina Barker/Journal staff)"


According to Kevin Woster, Rapid City Journal Staff, "The capital of South Dakota is Harding County, In the state's northwest corner.  It is a place where oil and natural gas development fits in nicely with sheep and cattle grazing - and has for more than half a century."


My dad included Thumb Butte in many of his western paintings.  The above photo is lovely with the snow.  The oil well is a bonus for the hard working ranchers and some wise homesteader's descendants.  I suppose one of the reason my dad featured the butte in his paintings was that he herded sheep in the area.  When they were safe and feeding on the buffalo grass, he would climb the butte and carve something into the red sandstone.

Bring on the Bees

Bring on the bees!  There was a time in my life that I never gave a bee a second thought unless I mistakenly thought it was a wasp.  It is amazing how when one thinks some thing is endangered, they get very important.  Bees are life itself.

We spray the pear tree after the blossoms drop and after the pollinators have done their work.  I appreciate the work of bees or whatever else spreads the stuff of life around.

I once had a little ornamental pepper houseplant  that I needed to use a little paint brush and do the task myself,  flower by flower.  I miss that little spot of red in my houseplant collection. At the moment six African violets bloom near my windows.  They are the offspring from the plants my mother started from leaves the year she died, 1996.  She made mulch on her own windowsill in the assisted living facility she lived in for about five years.  When I stopped to do her hair, I often got to see the progress of the last banana peel in the small plastic bag. It never smelled of anything but rich moist loam.  I still don't know how she managed it.  My attempts turned to white mold and horrible stenches.

First Newborn Bison Calf

According to today's Black Hills Travel Blog, the baby above is the first born calf of the 350 that are expected to be born this spring  in Custer State Park.  The 1,300 bison is one of the largest pubically-owned herds in the world.


The Badger Hole in the park is where South Dakota's first poet laureate, Charles Badger Clark, lived the last 30 years of his life.  There he wrote poetry, read from his extensive library and wrote many letters.  He died at 74 in 1957.  My small graduating class of 13,  Buffalo, SD, 1953, had the privilege of hearing him deliver our graduation address.

His lectures kept him alive but were unimportant to him other than the attendant social intercourse. Notwithstanding his own attitude, the influence his speeches, especially commencement addresses, had on the state's young people was inestimable.  His message was often serious but tempered with his unflagging good humor, and always couched in common sense terms and logic. The Old West had taught him the values of self-reliance and the virtues of nature, and he passed this experience on to his eager young audiences.

Finlandia

This is my song gospel christian songs free mp3 midi download

Our Lenten Services at Holy Cross conclude with the Lord's Prayer "Living Words" sung to Sibelius' Finlandia. It is so beautiful it is painful. Our retired pastor, Vernon Jacobs, wrote the arrangement. It was sung at his funeral by the local Lutheran Brotherhood Chorus.

Our Father God residing now in heaven. Hallowed be thy name forever more. Thy Kingdom come, Thy holy will be done__on earth as it is surely done in heav'n. Give us this day our daily bread, O give us__that we may live in health and strength to serve.

To thee O God we come our sins confession. Forgive us Lord as others_we forgive. And lead us not into temptations pathways but from all evil guide us all our days. For the dominion power and the glory are Thine for ever and ever, A men.