50th Birthday Party Celbration!

I turned 50 in December - Kieth will be 50 in 4 weeks - so we had a big birthday celebration out at our house last night - LOTS of friends & family showed up to help us celebrate & we had an AWESOME time!!!

Towards the beginning of the evening alot of the ladies hung out in the house...

Most of the guys hung out outside - the awful wind of the day laid nicely so it turned out to be a beautiful evening!

There was a bounty of food as many bought salads to go with the burgers & brats the boys grilled for us as the girls shuttled the food from grills to kitchen so the line could keep going!

Tucker & Lincoln at the grills - had lots of company standing around to visit with!

Lots of cars filled the yard...

As it got dark it was thought there should be a campfire ... good idea!

Colby got her Grandmas to stand with her for a picture.

And Grandpa Rich too!

It was my Mom & Dad's 53rd anniversary yesterday too so we were celebrating that too!

Here I was opening many funny cards about our future as 'old' people!

Rose came from Gillette to share in our celebration!

Sharon, Becky, Deb, & Rose out by the fire

Pretty fire! They kept it going real good!

The circle around the fire kept getting bigger & bigger!

Good friends hanging out together in the calm cool evening around the fire! Duke & Margit were even there from Clear Lake! Several from our class here - Deb, Bob, Duke (class below us) Neal, Kieth, Rose - fun night!

The chairs around the campfire spot this morning - along with the wood hauling 4-wheeler & trailer! The chairs are all picked up & put away now - the kitchen is cleaned - the dishes washed - just the memories of the evening are left! And they are good ones! Thank you to all of you who came out & shared our evening with us! You made it a great time that will not be forgotten!

Deb

Summer is Here - Let the Haying Begin!!!

Welcome to the Smith ranch in June of 2009! See how you can see the buildings under the sign?!?

This is a view we never have pictures from ~ so I decided to get some! Oh it is so nice to have everything be so green!!!!

This was Kieth a couple weeks ago - getting the spraying done ...

This little bird just stayed perched on the sign post for a long time as I was driving down the driveway!

So then these 2 stayed put on another fence post!

Quite a birdy conversation I would say!

What a beautiful sky today!

The hills are alive with CLOVER!!!

More clover ...

Tucker windrowing the hay ...

BIG windrows where Lincoln has raked the hay ...

Look at the hay pile up out there!

Still more ...

Then Kieth gets to it with the baler ...

Then here comes Lincoln to do the stacking of the hay ...

He's backs up & puts one on the back balefork ...

Then grabs another with the grapple fork & away he goes to the stack!

So the process goes over & over again ... day after day while we have the hay to cut & the weather cooperates! Supper's not till about 9:00 PM on those days either!

Deb

Retaining Walls Going Up!

This really has nothing to do with the walls, except that the sun went down on several days of working on the wall & I did take this on one of the wall working evenings! I just thought the picture was pretty awesome, so had to share!!!

This is our wall close up so you can see the color of the blocks that we are using. It is called Autumn Blend.

Here is Kieth & Lincoln on the first day - the ground work of the front wall - the time consuming, hard part is doing the figuring before you actually lay any of the blocks we found out!

Here they are again, progress is being made!

Here you can see the curving in part that goes to the steps leading into the front yard. Tucker is on the tractor bringing in more fill dirt for the yard.

Tucker dumping the dirt in the yard & a further out view of the wall

The front wall from the east side when it is pretty much done

Here is the front wall when the guys were finishing the west side of it. The steps are not done yet, but it is ready for that. The dirt work still has to be finished also, but it is going to look so nice!

From the west when they were done with the front. My guys have done such a nice job!

Now here is the back yard & wall when they were working on it! There is another couple rows of block on it now - but the cap rock had to be ordered so it is not here yet. Kieth did put up some steps out of blocks in back yesterday, but he doesn't know if he is happy with them or not yet, so hasn't started on the front ones yet. Besides that, today he could actually get out in the hayfield & start baling! So life's work comes first now - we may be on hold for awhile with the walls, but they look very nice & the guys came a long ways in a few days & did alot of work!

I can just imagine the yards inside them full of nice green grass ... hopefully next summer!!!

Deb

Chancie's Big Day

I already told you that Chancie & Aaron got engaged on June 13th - but now I have some actual pictures to share! Plus a wedding date!
August 28, 2010 is the big day ~ about 13 months from now
Here is Chancie at our house a couple days later when she came down to show us her beautiful ring!
Here are the 2 of them the night of the engagement - they got engaged in the morning & went out that evening with friends.

Here is her hand with the ring, some flowers Aaron picked for her that day, & a heart shaped rock that he gave her - all up on the mountain in the Hills.

The next day they had gone 4-wheeler riding in the Hills & when they got home, this is what they found on their driveway! The neighbors had welcomed them home with nice congratulatory greetings in sidewalk chalk! That was pretty cool!This is Aaron's nice little house in Lead - we went there for supper after a track meet in May - it is fixed up really nice. It's just REALLY on a HILL!!!

Deb

The Odd Couple

The cast of the Philip Drama Group's presentation of the female version of "The Odd Couple" that we performed 3 nights the 1st weekend in June.

Us ladies spent most of our time around this table playing "Trivial Pursuit" & talking about everything that was non-related to anything! Then there were the gentlemen callers ...

Weren't they the suave, debonair Spaniards?!?!?!?!? Classy!!!!!!! They were just TOO FUNNY!!!!!!!!!! All they had to do was walk onto the stage & the audience erupted into laughter! They didn't even have to speak to get their first laughs!!!!

They also had a really tear-jerking scene with "Florence" - well for them anyway, I guess by the time the scene was over it was tear-jerking for the audience too as they were laughing so hard!

When all was said & done "Mickey" the cop & "Manolo" the Spaniard went home together & chalked up another fun time of being in a play together and having enjoyed the company of the other Philip Drama Group actors & actresses for another season!

Deb