Camping in Medicine Bow National Forest

Wow, after sitting at the computer for 2 hours working with photobucket I finally figured out how to put a slide show on my blog. YOU had better enjoy and say all sorts of wonderful things about me! Ok, the normal person would have figured it out in 5 min. Well now that I am all stressed out from the computer, let me tell you about our vacation. We headed to Wyoming on Wed afternoon. We planned to camp in the Medicine Bow National Park. We called ahead to find the best camp ground and to make sure that we didn't need extra protection from bears. We got to the first camp sight in plenty of time to set up before dark. Unfortunately there were not a lot of sights available, and those that were had no trees around them. (Pine beetles have hit this area hard, and the forest service has had to cut a lot of trees down so they don't fall on campers) So we head to the next camp sight, Sugar Loaf. There are more openings here, but surly there is a better one down the road! Story of my life. To make a long story short, after visiting another sight, and turning around 4 miles into a 14 mile trip to another camp ground, we ended up back at Sugar Loaf, setting up in the dark. No fire, No enjoying the evening, just off to bed. The next morning, Mark and I were up bright and early. I headed to the bathroom, and on my way back I heard someone walking behind me. I turn and look, and there is a big bull Moose. I whisper Yell at Mark, as the dog is coming out to greet me and the Moose. Mark grabs the dog, hands him to me and heads for the camera. My Hero! Luckily the Moose just wanted to get out of camp, and was not in a fighting mood. After the girls got up, we went for a hike, and played in the snow, on August 1st! We ended up moving camp sights that morning, as we were in one that was reserved for Aug. 2nd. We were able to do the red neck moving of the camper which involved sliding one bed in, keeping the camper raised and driving really slow to the next camp sight. Unfortunately then next camp sight was on the other side of the camp ground, so everybody got to see the move. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of that. That afternoon, the rain clouds came up, and dumped on us. The parents of the group decided that this was a good time for a nap. We ended up eating in the camper, but the rain did stop long enough to get a camp fire going so we could sit and enjoy. The weather temps were great if you were an Eskimo! That night at 8:00 pm the temp was already 48. The next day we headed to Saratoga WY. There is a hot spring there, and more importantly Hot Showers! We were starting to smell each other! After doing some work on the computer I brought just in case, we headed back to the camp sight. Saturday, we headed home, but stopped in Laramie at the Wyoming Territory Prison. We had a good time, but did not stay as long as I would have liked, as we had a dog in the car that was getting hot as his shade moved. We are home now, working on the laundry and getting ready to go back to work. Next week, the girls and I will head back to Cheyenne to shop for school clothes, while Mark stays and works, and the dog guards the house. Hope this isn't the last blog for a while. Will try to do better now that I know how to get the pictures on!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!  Ok so it's a little late, but that has become a theam with my blog, and I would hate to change things and mess everyone up.

My plan was to not stress about the Christmas letter this year, and simply write one on New Year's after all the Christmas rush was over.  Well you know what they say about best laid plans...  I guess I had too much Christmas, because a head cold with killer sore throat hit me New Years Eve day, and I was down for the count.  So, I guess those that read my blog will be the only ones to see my Christmas Letter this year.  Ok, maybe an abbreviated Christmas letter, as most of you who read this will have read previous blogs of mine.

Kyra got braces on her teeth on New Years Eve day.  Since I was sick, Mark and Lexi took her over to Scottsbluff to get them on.  She hurt for only a day or 2, and seems to be doing fine, as long as she doesn't play "spoons" and get elbowed in the mouth by her Pastor.  She had a multi cultural fair at school this year.  Her country was the Netherlands.  Texas Grandma made a costume for her to wear, and a nice patient of mine, lent her some wooden shoes to wear also.  She and her Dad made a wooden windmill, and all her artifacts and landscape items went on a table to display to the school and the community.  She had so much fun researching and finding everything, and so did her parents.  She just had the food day (everyone brings in food from their country for the class to try) this last Friday.  Kyra and I made a "Thousand Layer Cake", which took forever as each layer had to be cooked under the broiler for 2 min, and there were 12 layers.

Lexi is a teenager.  Enough said!  She has discovered boys, or should I say they have discovered her.  No fears, Mark got a new gun for Christmas, and is not afraid to use it!  Lexi's "boyfriend" was here for Christmas this year.  His name is Zac, and he lives in Michigan.  He is the nephew of our minister and his wife.  I have never heard so much giggling in my life!  Zac is a good kid, but kinda glad he lives hundreds of miles away.  I am not ready for my baby to be dating.  We did let them go out to dinner one night while Zac was here, but had spies in the restaurant that reported back to us.  Yes, we really did.  After the date, we picked them up and they came out here and watched a movie with the entire family.  The day Zac left, Lexi started practice for her traveling basketball team.  We will have 3 tournaments, and all of them will be closer this year.

Mark continues work at 21st Century Equipment.  He has really gotten back into hunting this year, bringing home 3 deer, that have to be cut up on my clean counters.  I hate the outdoor channel!  Actually it is good exercise for him, and since someone else is going to make the sausage and jerky, it's a win for me.  Mark has spent most every weekend, but when he was working, since the fire fixing fence at the ranch.  They are done for the winter, as the ground it too frozen to do anything, but will start again this spring I am sure.

I continue to work for the local hospital, but work everywhere but in town most of the time.  I mostly split my time between Sidney or Scottsbluff nursing home, and sometimes do both in the same day.  Not much has happened with me this year, so will not talk about boring things!

We hope everyone has a blessed New Year!
The Douthits

Once again it has been forever since I posted a blog.  It has been hard to post a write up of our lives, without the pictures.  I am bound and determined to get some pictures on this blog, and if I don't I may never write again.  Or I may just change photo services, and do it that way.

Since last I wrote, Lexi has been in Volley ball,  and is now in Basket ball.  She has a game on Tuesday and Thursday this week.  Her class is able to go to Washington DC this spring, so we came up with a fund raiser to help her pay her half of the $1550 that she needs to go (Mom and Dad are paying the other half).  We made and sold pies for Thanksgiving.  A week ago Saturday, we baked 28 pies.  The first pie went in at 7:30am and the last went in the oven at 8:30pm.  We still have 4 pies to make, as some people wanted theirs after Thanksgiving.  All told, she will have made a little under $500.

Kyra is deep into her multicultural fair.  What the heck is that you may ask?  Her class at school is putting this fair on Dec. 5.  It is like a science fair, only each kid picks a country and sets up a table with all the things from that country.  Kyra chose the Netherlands/Holland.  We have had a lot of fun researching and finding things for her table.  Mark and Kyra are at this minute working on her Dutch windmill.  My Mom is making an authentic Dutch costume for Kyra to wear that day.  I have ordered a dutch hat and now all we have to do is find some wooden shoes.  They will have a day of food from each country, after Christmas, and Kyra is making Dutch thousand layer cake.  Will let you know how that turns out.

Thanksgiving was spent at the ranch with Marks brother and family and Lonnie and Verona.  The guys and kids were gone most of the time fixing fence.  The kids did have fun discovering the barn and "cleaning" it up to make a club house.  I had to come back one day early to see a home health patient, then spent the day Saturday cleaning before my family came home and destroyed the house again.

We are now waiting for the snow storm that is predicted for tonight and tomorrow.  I hope we get a dumping, even if I have to stay inside with my kids all day.  It doesn't feel like Thanksgiving, and sure doesn't feel like Christmas with 70+ temps.

Will go for now, and try to be better about keeping my blog up to date.

Laura

Douthit Fire

I am sitting with a bagel and a cup of coffee.  It is Monday morning, Labor Day.  Hard to imagine that just 5 days ago I was in a quandary of weather or not to head to the ranch, to help with the fire that had just started the night before.  Let me take you back and tell everyone what happened to the best of my ability, and from my perspective.

Tuesday 6:00pm- Verona called Mark to let him know that a fire had started on the home place of the ranch.  Lightning struck in the yard, but the fire was headed West (thank the Lord, otherwise all the buildings would have burned before anyone got there).  We were in Scottsbluff at the time of the call, and after getting home, Mark decided that he better go up and help.

Wednesday Morning-  I talked to Verona.  The fire was bad, "boiling".  What to do?  Stay or Go?  First I called Harold, he moved patients to other days, and said go.  I was to work in Sidney that day, so called Pedro.  "No problem, you need to go."  Next was Scottsbluff.  "We will handle everything, go."  Last but certainly not least, I called Sarah.  "There's a fire at the ranch..."  Sarah- "Yes the girls can stay here, go"  So I went, with the knowledge that everything at home would be ok.

I first saw the smoke about 27 miles from Crawford.  Of the 2 fires the Douthit fire was larger than the West Ash Creek, amazingg how things change.  When I got to the ranch, Verona was feeding firemen in shifts as they came in.  The fire was North of the house.  What happened in the hours since, are somewhat of a blur.  About 2:30pm, the fire came down the hills behind the house, from both the East and the West.  We moved all the vehicles in the yard to the area that was already burned, and watched as the firefighters held the line.  With fire lines and some back burning, the house and buildings were saved.  Words cannot describe the feelings that go through a person, seeing men and women that have no vested interest in your land putting their lives on the line to save what is yours, all without pay.  So any that may stumble across this little blog, thank you.  It's not enough but its all I have. 

The fire to the West of the house was held contained that afternoon.  To the East the fire headed toward our old dump and the cabin (not ours).  Fire crews from Harrison, Gering and Ardmore SD, worked all night back burning and fighting to keep the fire from crossing the road.  They were succesful.

Thursday Morning-  The winds shifted, and the West fire jumped the line!  Here we go again!  The fire burns all day and ends up on "Top" in more open ground.  The feds take over the fire and the Smoke Jumpers come in and start back burning, to control the fire. 

About 1:00 pm I head in with Mark to Crawford to take him to the Dr.  The day before he smashed his thumb trying to unhook equipment from the tractor, so he could plow a fire line.  Got to the Dr., and was not able to put in stitches, but he got a tetanus shot and antibiotics, and we were on our way again, after picking up supplies at the fire hall and grocery store.

Thursday- Sunday Morning-  Most of the fires are contained.  The People left are riding fire lines, making sure that fires don't flare up, and also watching tree roots, which can burn under ground, then come up outside the fire guard line.

I came home Saturday late afternoon.  I was invited to Sarah's for supper then was picking up the kids.  I dropped the Dog off first and fed him.  What a wonderful thing to walk into a house that is so clean, when the house you ran out of on Wednesday morning was so dirty, and then a hot meal on top of it.  Thank you Sarah!

I picked the girls up and ate dinner at Strawns, and that is the first the girls saw and heard how bad and close the fire was.  Again I have to thank the Strawns for keeping the girls lives as normal as possible.  That kept the stress off my shoulders of worrying about them.

Mark came home Sunday morning, after one more night of riding fire lines.  With the shifting high winds, nobody wanted to leave until they were sure!

You may ask yourself, what did I have to go up there for?  My job was to make sure that fire fighters had water or Gatorade, food and anything else they needed for them to do their job.  Once the fire was out of our yard, we had to go looking for the fire fighters.  The back of my Yukon was packed with coolers of water, Gatorade and ice.  We also have found through experience that they want a hot meal, the sandwiches get old quick.  We had sloppy joes, brats, fried chicken.  For breakfast it was sausage gravy and biscuits, scrambled eggs and sausage or breakfast burritos.  We also carried wet clothes to wipe off hands and faces, chapstik, bandannas, pain relievers, decongestants, and anything else that we thought they might need.  Our trips out were anywhere from 1-2 hours depending on how far the fire was and how many fighters we found.

So much more happened, but to write it all would fill more time and pages than I have time for now.  As memories come up, you may hear more.

I don't like naming names in thank yous as I always forget someone, but I would like to thank the following people that became my rock, so I could be someone else's rock:

Charlee- you make everything bearable
Donna Norgard- I asked, and you made sure it was there
Pat- You came and worked, and was willing to do anything
Sarah- Never once called to ask how things were going, knowing I would call you when I had time, and sometimes when I didn't, sorry for hanging up on you.
Mom and Dad- You were willing to come and help, waited for my call.
My Co-workers who made it possible for me to leave.

Thank you!

Ok, this is for my sister, that asked so nicely for me to get to blogging again, so she would know what is going on in the Western part of Nebraska.

It's hot... the end. Ok maybe not. It is hot, but not as hot as in Texas. We had quit a bit of rain at the beginning of summer, which caused us to be cool, then the heat turned up, and we were hot and humid, witch is unusual for this area. We have finally cooled down and we are able to open our windows at night.

Most of my summer has been spent working. My bosses son was in a very bad car accident on May 14. Harold was with his son Zach for almost 2 months straight, so that meant I was doing both jobs here. Let's just say that keeping my head above water was about all that I could manage.

I was able to get a garden in, actually 2 gardens. Mark opened an new spot this year and we tried our hand at potatoes. We are actually very good potato farmers, who knew! We had 3 rows of corn, and just put that up this last weekend and got 30 pints, plus that ears that we ate. We are now picking green beans, and I have put up 11 pint and a half jars. We have pumpkin and winter squash plants that think that they should be the only things growing in the garden. (If I get the slide show loaded, you will see)

Kyra was in a lawnmower pull at the county fair 2 weeks ago. For those of you that don't know, a lawnmower pull is like a tractor pull only with... you guessed it a lawn mower. She was in the 700 lb class. They could pull 150 feet. Mom being the optimist that she is, stood at the 75 foot mark, thinking that she would not be able to pull past that point. She took off like a shot, and was still going strong at 75 feet. So mom jumped up and ran to the end of the track. She pulled the sled 148 feet. The furthest in her class, winning her 1st place and $20. Yes, she used my mower that I use for mowing the lawn, and I told her and her Dad that if anything happened to it, they were both in trouble!

We are leaving in 2 days for our summer vacation. We had a trip planned earlier in the summer, but with Harold gone, I could not get away. We are going to Wyoming. We are going to stay in a hotel or cabins, and do all the touristy things up there. Then we are going back to Casper to go school clothes shopping. The girls start school August 25th, so we are getting this one in under the wire.

I hope to write next week and tell you all about our adventures. Until then.