who's a chicken?!?

this afternoon, we went to one of many local annual events.

it was "the wilson volunteer fire department's 43rd annual chicken fry".

wow that was a mouthful!

and so was their fried chicken lunch!!

nora, our friend (& john's boss) from work

 called yesterday to ask if we wanted to go with her
 and cindy, a friend of her's that is visiting from arizona.

john & i had just heard about it on the radio and were talking about going when nora called, so of course, we said yes.

nora has been to this before and knew we had to get their early.
john & i thought it couldn't be that bad.
i mean, how crowded can a fried chicken lunch event get?  right??

well..

we got there at 11:45, it was supposed to start at 12:00 and there was already
a line of people

 and more were pouring in.

it was @ 20 minute wait when we got in line.
the cost was $8.00
we got salad, roll, butter, fried chicken and some kind of fried potatoes.
beer & homemade deserts were extra.
it was all you could eat, but if you didn't fill 2 plates when you first went thru
there was no way you were gonna get back in line and wait for seconds.

the chicken recipe is a highly top secret recipe that they share with no one.
there is only @ 2 or 3 people that know.
one fireman with over 30 years with the department still can't get the recipe.

it was really really delicious food
the setting was in a field they use for parking in the winter for the ski resort.
the crowd sat in the grass under tall trees.

they had a band playing, but it was too far away to really hear.

when we left, the line was probably well over an hour wait.
the line went all the way up to the trees on the right and then turned down to the left
also, behind where i was standing were more people in line

the food is worth the wait, but i 'm glad we got there early and didn't have to wait.

sunset over jackson lake

yesterday evening we took a drive up to jackson lake lodge for dinner

on the way home, we stopped to enjoy this beautiful sunset.....

our sunsets up here are @10PM

(make sure your volume is turned on)



sunset on jackson lake from annie beth on Vimeo.

beautiful ending

to a really bad day.

yesterday, we had thunderstorms, lightning, and rain.
it was really neat to be inside at work listening to the
rumblings of the thunder and
the rain on the roof
and watching the storm travel across the mountains.

little did we know, that while we were oohing and aahing from below
up on the mountain a whole other event was taking place.

we started hearing rumors late afternoon and
when we got to work this morning,
we heard the awful news that the lightning storms hit
3 different climbing/hiking partys up above.
17 people total
at least one dead
unsure of the injuries to the others
but at least 3 in very serious condition
the details were pretty horrific
we don't know any of the people involved
but our thoughts and prayers went out to them just the same.

after work we had to run to town
and on the way home from town
we were treated not only to one rainbow
but a double rainbow
over the national elk reserve
plus, we got to see both ends.

hope all the good luck
in the golden buckets
at each end of those rainbows
is used for the people who were caught in the lightning storms earlier in the day.

sunday afternoon drive

we took a back road home from jackson today.
i love driving it and ask john to go this way whenever i can.
it's called "spring gulch road"

it travels through farm land
with pastures of cows and horses
and views of the tetons.

i took videos of it with my new camera

i appologize in advance for the bouncyness
between the rough riding truck, the asphalt/dirt road and
my first time using the video, it's all over the place in some spots.

this way we can all take a lazy sunday afternoon drive
and all fit in the truck together.

(it's over 3 minutes long and takes a bit to download, so please be patient while it downloads, wait til it is finished before you try to watch it)

(also, make sure you have your volume turned on)


sunday afternoon drive from annie beth on Vimeo.

got aspirin?

when the baby owls were still in the nest
and i was over watching them,
i noticed this little guy off to the side
at a tree that had the perimeter tape attached to it.

he let me get within a couple feet to him
once in awhile he would stop and look at me, but
overall he did not mind that i was there.

the hole he was working on was about waist level
i don't know why he was making it so close to the ground.

it's hard to see, but i tried to get a picture of the movement of his head while he was hammering the tree with his beek.
it made my head hurt just watching him work on this tree.

he wasn't hammering here, i think he was just checking it out

here and there

sunday we went for a drive to a small cafe in a place called buffalo valley.
it's about 25 minutes north of us.

on the road off the campground, before the main highway
we came upon a large herd of bison.

they were everywhere.
we had to stop or we would have run right into them.
notice how big the bison on the left is compared to the van he is in front of

as they walked up to the side of the truck, they would grunt at us

then the babies would try to sound tough with their little grunts.

i originally thought these guys were under the tree for shade, but now i think that they were scratching themselves on the rough bark to get the last of their old matted fur off.  we have noticed they are looking alot better now that most of their old winter fur is gone and their new season's fur is almost grown in.

these little guys have horns growing in.  they also seem to have alot of scrapes out of their fur

if we had not been so hungry, i would have stayed for hours.


by tht time we got there, we had missed breakfast
but had a good lunch
there was no one else in the cafe so the chef came out and talked to us.
he even followed us out to the truck and kept talking.
while he and john were talking, i wandered around a took a few pictures.

the views from the cafe are amazing.

you look down into a valley with the buffalo river rambling thru it

the tetons are in the distance.

the cafe is part of a dude ranch up the road

across the street from the cafe are some of their corrals

there was a cowboy with a few horses

the chef told us they were going to be holding a roping event later in the day.

i could not get close enough to get a picture, but in a small meadow behind the trees was a mare with her colt. the colt was sleeping in the tall grass.

after talking with the chef for awhile, we drove up the road

which turned into a dirt road after a few miles.

it was beautiful in the back woods
no animals to be seen except for a couple of deers.

the dirt road eventually took us back to the main highway
so we headed back home via the inside park road
we took another side trip to a place called signal mountain.

it's across from jackson lake and

 has a view of the valley that is amazing.

it was the middle of the day and a bit hazy
but the pictures give a good idea of how high we were and

what the valley looks like.

that little road trip from here to there and back again ended up being

a 6 hour drive.

the week in review

just because we don't update our life on the blog daily,
we really do have a daily life.

the internet connection is tough sometimes
so it's very frustrating to try to post every night.
it seems that i have a decent connection right now, so
i will try to post as much as possible before i lose the connection.

we leave for work about 7:30a mon thru friday and get home about 5:00p.
we end up going into town, about 10 miles away, a couple to times a week.
sometimes to grab a bite to eat and others just to go to the grocery store

weekends, we try to get out and see something new in the area.
we haven't done any hiking yet, but are planning on some of the easy ones to get started.

by the time we get home from work, we are beat and aren't up to doing too much,
especially john, he gets a work out all day long moving boxes of books from place to place.

we do carry our cameras with us everywhere we go.
i tend to be the one to grab my camera more than john does.

here is what we have seen lately...

two bald eagles in a tree.  this is not a good picture and i could have gotten a great one, but we were on our way to work and john could only stop in the road while i took this really quick.  i was sooooo discouraged that i could not take the time to get closer.  this was the 2nd time we had seen this pair in the area, so now i search for them everytime we drive by.

a view of the tetons through the yellowflowers that are blooming all over the area.  i am probably wrong, but i think they are called arrowroot balsam or something pretty close to that.

there are numerous versions of this picture in galleries and on postcards.  i tried like everyone who comes to the park, to get a picture like the professionals take.

thursday, we went to a bbq at the home of judy and randy.  we work with judy who is the bookkeeper for the association. 

nora, john's boss in the warehouse was there

as well as steve and nancy, our neighbors in gros ventre.  they work in the visitors centers in the park.

shadow, the dog, hung out and hoped for someone to drop some food for her

judy, randy and nora all live in jackson year round.  steve and nancy are seasonal and live in florida when they aren't traveling.
we have gotten together with this group a few times and enjoy ourselves


last night we drove down to a beautiful area about 60 miles south of jackson to have dinner with a couple that lived in the campground next door to us.  they don't work for the association anymore, but we have kept in touch with them. 
alycyn is a retired irs investigator and lee retired from the army as a special ops.  they own a home in star valley ranch.  their home sits in the woods and they get wildlife all the time.  their home is beautiful and cozy and relaxing.  it was hard to leave.
they have planted hundreds of seedlings in the front yard and have put out quite a few feeders for the birds and squirrels. 

john and lee relaxing on the back patio in the loungers

sad news - the baby owls that i posted about awhile back have officially flown the coop.
good news - they are hanging out in our area of the campground.

i discovered them a couple of nights ago by accident and was able to get a couple of pictures before the knucklehead guy that was visiting his mom who lives across from us, decided to walk right up to the babies and scare them away.
i saw them up in the trees and when i came back with the camera, they had moved down to the road behind the trailer.  
they call to each other from tree to tree.  now i listen for them and can hear them in the evening and the middle of the  night sometimes.
it's surprising to see them in our area because of the work being done during the week with heavy equipment.  it's really noisy and ugly over here, but i guess they stay over on the quieter side of our loop closer to the river and move when the workers go home.

the one on the left had hopped up on a log and was poking around for something.

the baby on the right was just sitting quietly catching bugs out of the air.

the one on the log was the first to see the knucklehead coming up behind me. 

he flew away first.

this one just spotted him coming around from behind a tree and promptly flew away

this post took forever to finish because as i was sitting here next to the open window, i could hear the owls calling to each other again.
plus, i lost internet a couple of times and had to sign in again.
i kept running out with the camera trying to find them and eventually saw one of the adults in a tree across from us. 
i could hear the babies, but they were further back in the trees closer to the river.
i was wearing slippers, so i couldn't go too far off the road to look for them.

the skies have been dark and stormy this evening.

while i was taking pictures, the sun peeked out just enough to light the tops of the trees and where the owl was sitting.

so that is that

our week

july 2010