Pirate ship

The kids made a pirate ship while Grandpa was babysitting yesterday. 

 The ship had a pirate flag, a steering wheel and a telescope.

New bathroom

After two years we can finally call our new basment bathroom finished. We actually stretched out about two solid weeks of work out over two years.  We made the final push to finish before my sister's wedding this summer. Now we finally have a home for our barbers chair.

We built in a bunch of cubby holes framed into the wall.

Thanks to Susan we got our shower tiled last year.

Mary's dad built these beautiful cabinets and sent them up with Susan this summer.

 Here's the built-in magazine rack and toilet paper holder.

The sheep and the bull

We don't run sheep on our ranch, but we ended up with one for a few days wen this ewe followed a lame bull off our Forest Service allotment.

We brought the bull home and the sheep stuck by his side all the way. The bull was a bit abusive to its pal, kicking it and butting it when it got too close, but being hobbled with a bad leg he had to endure the company. The sheep belongs to a rancher in Jiggs who runs sheep on the other side of the mountain. She must have become separated from her herd and climbed over to our side of the mountain. With no other herdmates she buddied with the first animal big enough to offer protection and slow enough to not run her off.

The sheep hung out in our corral for a few days, climbing out as she pleased, as sheep are wont to do. She finally moved on when she followed a group of our neighbors cows that got into our yard.

Muddy kids

Mud is like a magnet to our kids, especially for our oldest boy. These pictures taken after the kids found a mud hole in grandma's garden aren't particularly remarkable. We just thought you might get a kick out of someone's enthusiasm.

Partial eclipse of the sun

While much of the country saw a total eclipse on August 21st. Here in Ruby Valley we settled for a partial eclipse. 

This is as close as we got. Enough to cool things off by 14 degrees and to dim the light.

Here's what it looks like through a colander.

and through some hands

The shadows of the trees were really cool with lots of little cresents.

 Here's the fam checking it out with eclipse glasses. The girls was taking temperature and wind measurements for extra credit at school.

This is about as dark as it got for us.