There and back again

Man, where to start. I can't. I guess the best way to explain would be to say:
In the middle of 200 strangers, I didn't feel even slightly intimidated or overwhelmed.
and
I barely noticed being tired of sitting.
It was really really nice. I met Eric who was one of the brothers in the field when my friend Isabelle first started coming to meeting. There were 44 of us who started since 2000, and 14 in 2004. That's pretty neat. We slept in different little dorms here and there - they'd divided it up by when you started in the work - so all us girls from 2000 and later were in one dorm. I'm not sure the divisions... maybe every ten years? Bonnie R made it up there; we were all delighted. She had a wonderful time - only missed one meeting, and that was good. It got her rested enough to appreciate the rest. She was the oldest one present. Lyle told us it had been 81 years since the last time there had been any such meeting in the western half of the continent. Hope they don't wait that long until the next one!
What else? A few notes, maybe.

*Sheep are born looking for a place to die.
*Job 39:25 - the warhorse brings to the battlefield the one who has the weapons and skills to help in the fight.
*When God wants to do a work in us, he sends difficulties. When he wants to do a great work, he sends impossibilities.
*God isn't asking us to serve him with someone else's ability, or to push ourselves to try and keep up with someone else's pace. Do the best we can with what we have been given.
*If we don't care who gets the credit, great works can be done.
*Nothing will happen until it happens in our hearts.
*The secret to a successful marriage is forgiveness, not love.

We left after lunch Thursday, got to Shelby for the night; left again the next morning for Ronan. Sue's mom's funeral was Saturday, so we stopped by the funeral home so Sandy could discuss music. It was a really nice funeral. Robert and Scott spoke - Robert mentioned 'she hath done what she could'. She did what she could for her country, for her family, for herself, for her friends. Got to the grounds here just in time for supper. I need to get in bed now, so Life On The Convention Grounds To Be will have to wait for another day. :) Suffice it to say, we're here, and tomorrow, the framing starts. Speaking of which, I'd better go erase some pictures from my camera so as to be all ready for taking more.

We're here!
It's been so nice to meet all these folks whose names I recognizes, but whose faces are new. And doubly nice to see those I already know again!
The weather is nice; about 71. It's muggy though, so feels a bit warmer. Only major annoyance are bugs! Zillions and zillions of teeny little bugs. You can't open your mouth. They get in your hair and on your clothes and thankfully THANKFULLY they aren't inside too.
First meeting tonight after supper.
AND. I didn't bring my computer. I'm already having withdrawal pangs, so it's nice of Anita to let me borrow hers to check my email.

Alberta Bound

Well, tomorrow we head north. Goodbye, Wyoming, but only for now, I hope! It's been a great month: horses, rocks, sunshine, wind, fairs... I even sewed something! I hope everyone is properly impressed. If you don't know why you should be impressed, I'll be glad to tell you. ;) Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture. :( I forgot. Take my word for it that it's really cool, though, ok? Picture this: one of those three-panel room divider screens, with red bamboo for the frame and a gold and red upholstery fabric for the panels. It looks really nice. I have to confess though, that it's a little on the wobbly side - I really should have put screws in or something, but I didn't have any, or a drill to do it with. But I think the recipients are planning to rectify that.

Adventures of the month:
Squashing my leg in a gate - my fault, I tried to ride my horse through a too-small opening. I thought it would get bigger, see, but the gate stuck on the ground and we kept going. Ouch. But I learned something! Bruising and swelling both travel downhill. My foot is all swollen and it's hard to get my shoe on. If you looked, you'd think the horse stepped on my foot instead of just bruising my leg. I had a gorgeous ride though. Out into the middle of a great wide-open field; untilled, uninhabited - no cows even. It was great.
Getting stung by a hornet. Startled me enormously. We went outside to check out an old metal screen for height; and, unbeknownst to us, there was a huge grey paper hornets' nest behind it. They were Not Happy. And soon, neither were we. On the up side, I am still not allergic to bee stings. ;)
Making jam and pickles. Well, ok, three quarts of pickles is all, and all I did was squish the cucumbers into the jars. But I did help pick the plums, and cook them down, and boil them and pour the jelly into the jars, so that counts a lot more.

I think that's about all... at least, all I can remember right now. :) More news likely after Didsbury, which I am sure will be wonderful. At least, I am sure of it when I remember not to think about how long we're going to be sitting...

The fair was great. Small, true, but lots of fun. :) We went through the quilt and other crafts exhibit hall (mostly all quilts), and the hay barn (did you know that they actually have Hay Judging??? I didn't.) It sure smelled good, though all the bales looked pretty much alike to me. I did manage to distinguish between grass hay and alfalfa though!
Oh, and ate disgustingly greasy fair food. Whee. One note though - if getting a corn dog at a fair, double check the place you're getting it from. I got one that was just nasty. I didn't even try to eat the whole thing; gave up and went to get an Indian Taco from another stand instead. And, wouldn't you know it, they were selling corndogs too, and ones that looked much much better. Ah well. I consoled myself with a funnel cake. Mmmm.
And then.....
drumroll
the pig wrestling!
They started with the kids' teams. Looked mostly like younger teenagers, though one team was probably four 10 yr olds. The pig was almost bigger than they were! I should back up a bit. It's a ring; maybe 15 feet in diameter, lined with heavy plastic and filled with clay-mud and water. Duane said it was probably bentonite. There's a barrel in the middle that you have to stick the pig into.
Ok. So, they auctioned the teams off first - the kids' teams went for anywhere between 50-100 dollars; the older people usually 100-200. A couple teams were up in the $400 range though, and one men's team was $500! That seems awfully high to me! I guess that is the prize money though. 15% goes to a scholarship, and then the first and second place teams split the rest 60/40. Then they let a pig into the ring, slathered mud on its back, and the fun started. It wasn't very fair, I didn't think - they put extra water in before the women's teams started, so it was much slippery. And I think they gave them bigger pigs!
But it was really funny, and the people trying to catch the pigs hammed it up. But amazingly enough - if they actually managed to catch the pig, it only took an average of 30 seconds to get it into the barrel. There was a firetruck standing by - I wondered if it was there to resuscitate any pigs who had heart attacks! But no, they were just loaning their hose to wash the contestants off. And believe me, they needed washing!
AND... I got 9000 steps out of the deal. :) I'm a whole day away from Independence now. At this rate, I'm going to starve in the mountains like the Donner party. ;)

We’re in Douglas today and tomorrow. And we’re going to the State Fair tomorrow night. To watch *drumroll* pig-wrestling. Apparently how this goes is someone dunks a pig in the mud and then you try to catch it and stuff it in a barrel. Also, you have a time limit. Yes, you read that right up there; we’re going to WATCH. NOT catch and stuff. It’s a dinky little fair, really, but it will be lots of fun. And dinky is only relative. Maybe somewhere out there, there are smaller fairs. I’m not sure where you’d find them, but it’s possible!

Shawna and I are finally together. It's very exciting - AND we've made it more than three days! Which is a great relief; I don't know if I could have handled another month like last year's.
But all is going well. We're in Riverton at the moment, and will be heading back to Casper maybe on Thursday. There's something historical and cool going on at the Casper Interpretive Center, so we're hoping to get to go.
I'm enjoying getting to spend a little time here. I've been through both Casper and Riverton, but never to stay more than few days; so 4 weeks seems like a wealth of riches.
The nasty part is the mosquitoes though. Not that there are so many, or that they are so large - Portage was much much worse, and so was Saskatchewan last year - but these mosquitoes are evil mosquitoes and buzz around threatening you with terrible diseases! This is not going to help me getting to Oregon faster, but I am still determined. Mosquito repellent, here I come.

America on the Move

I may actually have found something that will get me off my lazy duff and getting a little exercise.
www.AmericaOnTheMove.org
It's a place online where you can keep track of your daily steps (yep, got to have a pedometer for that) or just the length of time you've exercised if it's something other than walking. I haven't done anything with that feature yet though.
The really cool part is that you can sign up for a Challenge. There are 5 or 6 routes that you can walk, and the challenge is to complete them in a certain number of days. I picked the Oregon Trail, and it's actually got me wanting to do a little more walking every day because I'm barely out of Independence, Missouri so far! There are checkpoints along the way, and links to click that tell you about where you've gotten to. You can't click on them until you've actually walked far enough to get there thought - tricksy of them! I have a long ways to go, and I'm almost entirely certain that I'm not going to make it to Oregon by Sept 14, but we'll see. :)
Also, you can have Challenge Buddies; so you can keep track of their progress (AND they can keep track of yours and scold you if you're sitting around too much). And did I mention its free? I'm a sucker for free stuff.
All in all, I like. Two thumbs up.