At Home in Wyoming

A Creepy Blast From The Past

Every time I go to Old Trail Town, I always look for the 'hearse wagon'.  It is just so deliciously creepy and Victorian looking.  I always try to peek inside but I can't see anything...

Anyway, I thought you might like to see what a hearse looked like out west...before the big, fat black cadillac hearses came alone.

Next time I promise a more cheerful photograph!   DLB

In The Days Before Walmart

For all of you that are bone tired from plodding through the mall shopping for Christmas presents...I am going to flash you back to a simpler time...when what wasn't homemade or homegrown was probably purchased at the frontier general store.

Can't you just hear the cowboy boots clomping on the wooden floor?

To be honest, Cody doesn't have a mall.  You have to drive clear to Billings, Montana for that dubious pleasure.  Nor do we have a frontier general store...the one pictured above is no longer open for business...it is part of the group of buildings that comprise Old Trail Town in Cody. 

But I thought you might like this reminder of what Christmas shopping USED to be like...in the days before Walmart.   

 

A Thing About Log Cabins

I have a thing about log cabins.

They are rustic, they are cozy, they are reminders of a simpler time.

If I were Queen of the Universe I would command that everyone spend Christmas in the mountains in a log cabin.  It would be a rule......sigh.......so not happening.  Which is why I never miss the Christmas Open House at Old Trail Town in Cody.

For the uninitiated, Old Trail Town is a collection of cabins that were rotting around the state of Wyoming, and someone (I think it was Bob Edgar) brought them to Cody to do their rotting here.  There are quite a few cabins...it looks like this.

My favorite cabin is the saloon, because it reminds me of the one in the western Lonesome Dove.  Every kid in Cody will say that their favorite thing is the stuffed mutant two-headed calf. 

Kids like weird things.

Anyway, at Christmas they throw open all the cabins, and decorate them for Christmas.  It is worth braving the cold to check them out.  I took lots of pictures, which you will see peppered throughout this blog over the next month or so.  Until then, I will leave you with another picture of the cabin at the top of the page, which was once a one room school house that I think was near the Wood River outside of Meeteetse.

If I had been a student there, I would have prayed to get the desk by the woodstove, wouldn't you?

 

The Merc

 
This is the Mercantile Store in the tiny town of Meeteetse...sadly it is out of business/closed right now.  I think that they held the Labor Day dance in there last year, or was it the year before? 

I want to go in there and buy bolts of calico.  Does anyone use calico anymore?  Or has calico gone the way of old merc stores in small western towns? 

I saw in the newspaper that one of the town goals was to get the Merc back up and running.  I hope they do, and I hope they sell groceries so all the elderly folks in town don't have to drive clear to Cody for food.  It is too far, especially in winter.

Meeteetse always has "BIG DOINGS" over Labor Day.  A rodeo, dance, parade...and it is lots and lots of fun.  I will miss it this year as my husband is on call, so we are stuck in town. 

But if you are out this way over the holiday, swing over to Meeteetse for some small town western fun!

Less Is More

 

This is the old bank in the little western town of Meeteetse, Wyoming.

I am constantly reading decorating books, mostly French (I have no idea why...Wyoming is about as far away in culture as you can get from France...but there you have it) and I am told that one of the first lessons in decorating a home is that less...is more.

I think that is true also of our lives.  I tend to junk mine up with big time wasters simply because I am too fragmented and/or lazy to look at the details of my life and figure them out.

But Proverbs 27:23 says that we are to "Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds." 

In other words, pay attention to the details of your everyday life.  Take the time to think things through.  Keeping it simple means cutting out the things that aren't working.  The clutter.

For example, I have been a member of a credit union for over 20 years.  I liked it...but they moved earlier this year to a bank building that is difficult to get to in the tourist traffic.  It is oddly situated in a place where it is easy to get killed because there is no turning lane, and it is at the top of the hill. 

There is a credit union that is a lot closer to my home.  It is smaller, it is cozier.  It is safer!

For some reason it never occurred to me to switch credit unions until this week.  The credit union that worked for over 20 years had changed in a way that caused me stress, but I never thought to change it, because I had always banked there.

I think that keeping it simple means paying attention to the way that you do little things, and if it is not working...hit that delete button!

Because sometimes less...is really a whole lot more.

 

 

 

Simple Ain't Simple

 
It is hard enough picking out tunes on the jukebox without this elk audience of two...I always wonder if they approved of my choice!  This jukebox sits in the corner of the Elk Horn Bar and Grill in Meeteetse, Wyoming...

I had a family member tell me this week that he discovered that his life runs better when he keeps it simple.

There is one thing I know about keeping life simple, and that is that simple...isn't simple to pull off.

In other words, folks...simple ain't easy.

But it is the most important thing, because it forces you to live deliberately, instead of just floating along, being so overwhelmed that at the end of your life you find that time ran out.

You found that you liked to take walks, but never found time to do it.  You liked to read, but were too busy to fit it in.  You wanted more time with family, but by the time you got done working, fighting traffic, cleaning the house, paying the bills...well, it just didn't happen.

Whoops!  There went another life.  Was it yours?

So this week on the blog I want to think hard about keeping things simple.

Stay tuned...

Shiny Red Tractor

 

This shiny red tractor with a FOR SALE sign on it was parked across the street from Lucille's Cafe in Meeteetse last week.

I don't happen to be in the market for a tractor, but I must say it is a classy little tractor...I think it would be fun to drive in the parade!

Hello Dolly

 
This photograph was taken at Beck Lake, one of the little parks within the city limits of Cody.  Past this clearing the weeds were all mashed down...which means that the deer have been bedding down here at night.  I wouldn't mind bedding down here myself...it looks so cozy!

I wanted to do something nice for my husband today, because he fixed my vacuum cleaner by finding a big ole plug of dog hair that was stuck in a place where I couldn't find it.

I have a dog, it is shedding season...enough said.  I cannot function without that vacuum cleaner.  Dog owners out there will know what I mean.

Anyway, one of his favorite treats (my husband, not my dog) are the Hello Dolly Bars at Peter's Cafe.  So I hunted around and found a recipe and made them today.

They are easy, easy, easy...so I thought I would pass this along.

 

HELLO DOLLY BAR COOKIES

1 stick butter, melted

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup chocolate chips (I used the miniature ones)

1 cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts just because it was what I had, and I liked it better than pecans)

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

 

Preheat over to 350 degrees

Mix the melted butter and the graham cracker crumbs and press firmly into an 8 inch square pan

Add the flaked coconut and spread over the graham cracker crust, then do a layer of chocolate chips, and then a layer of nuts.

Drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over the top.

Bake 30 minutes.  Cool in pan.  Cut into squares.

 

My husband liked them even better than Peter's 'Hello Dolly' bars, and almost as much as his eclairs.

I said almost. 

I have never yet found anything better than Peter's chocolate eclairs, and would never be able to top them, no matter how much dog hair he drags out of that old vacuum!

 

A Little Sunday Reading

 
This little western church is St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Meeteetse, Wyoming.  I have been inside this church, and it is just as sweet on the inside as it is on the outside.

Is that a bird sitting on top of the cross on the church steeple?

 
Yep, this bird knows where he should be come Sunday morning!

Anyway, this church has a mystery...look at the side of the building.

 
The church appears to be held up on one side by a series of steel bars.  I wonder why...was it tilting, or did it need some extra reinforcements?  Or maybe more people sat on that side of the church than the other!

If you live in Meeteetse and know the answer, please solve this riddle for us.

Anyway, in honor of churches everywhere I am going to poke a little fun at the time honored tradition of the church bulletin.  (You know, the thing everyone is reading instead of listening to the preaching). 

The following are some of the typos or mixed up wording in actual church bulletins...see if you can figure out what they MEANT to say...

 

"Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale.  It is a good chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house.  Bring your husbands."

"Today the pastor will preach his Farewell message, after which the choir will sing "Break Forth into Joy!"

"Easter Sunday we will have a 9:30 worship service.  The 11:00 will be hell as usual."

"Tonight's sermon-"What is Hell?"  Come Early and Listen to our choir practice."

"Thursday night--Potluck supper.  Prayer and medication to follow."

 

See what fun you are missing if you don't go to church?!

Cody Refugee

 
It happens every year about this time.  I don't know if it is the heat, the swarms of tourists, the bands playing on the front porch of the Irma, or having to stand in line at the grocery store...but I have an overwhelming urge to stand in the middle of Main Street and tell everyone that the party is over, and everyone should just pack up and go home.

I have tourist fatigue!

My solution?  Get out of town at least once a week, and head for Meeteetse, Wyoming...a little town with a population of 300 plus, that is about 29 miles from Cody.

Why Meeteetse?  It is a real town, not a tourist trap.  The scenery is beautiful...the picture at the top of this blog  was taken just a few minutes out of town.  It is quiet, it is peaceful...almost sleepy on a hot summer afternoon.

So we go.  We drive down roads we never went on before, just to see where they go.

We saw an antelope or two.

 
We walked down the wooden sidewalk.

 
We ate a burger at the Elkhorn Bar and Grill.

 
Yep, this is fine dining in Meeteetse!  And other than the locals bellying up to the bar, we were the only other ones there.  Not a tourist in sight!

I love Meeteetse.  I want to move there tomorrow.  But we have jobs, and a house, and bills to pay in Cody. 

Maybe someday...when we retire, I can finally move to Meeteetse.

Until then, I don't think that they mind taking in Cody refugees!