BARk- Kindness Ranch
I continue to sit here with a huge lump in my throat after hearing the heartbreaking news of the senselessness in Las Vegas. The evil that this person unleashed is unfathomable and my heart aches for the victims and their family and friends. And yesterday I just sat here, numb, trying to process. So today I thought I would share a project I worked on this summer to remind myself, and to share with you, that there are still good people in the world with this glimpse into some goodness here in the tiny town of Hartville, Wyoming.
Kindness Ranch and Animal Sanctuary is a safe haven for former laboratory research animals to be rehabilitated and if all goes well, be adopted into a loving home. The article in the fall issue of BARk Magazine by Rebecca Wallick focuses on the great people that work and volunteer on the ranch as well as some pretty awesome animals. I hope you will take the time to read it. It will give you all the feels that you may be needing right about now.
Click on any of the article illustrations below to see a legible version of the story. I hope you enjoy this.
Love and Peace,
Leah
♥♥♥
Journey to Yellowstone
I’ve been travelin’.
My dad and stepmom came out a couple of weeks ago and we hung out around here for a couples days. Then we packed up their minivan and the three of us took off for an adventure in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks that we will never forget.
What a drive, let me tellya. Dad drove through wind, rain, hail, sleet, and heavy fog. It was wild and I was so relieved to be the passenger.
We had to stop for this gorgeous view of Beartooth Mountain as we weaved in and out of Montana and Wyoming on Beartooth Highway.
We made it into the park by mid-evening and the light was beautiful. Right off the bat we saw Bison. What a great time of year because Bison calves were everywhere!
Pronghorn and Bison graze on the flats together.
When you visit Yellowstone, there is a lot of driving. I’m not kidding. It’s a HUGE park. So we had to get organized as to how we were going to tackle this place. We had a Geyser day, a wildlife day, a waterfall day, etc. They all kind of melded together and didn’t always go according to plan. In fact, the day we were headed to Old Faithful, the road was completely blocked by a herd of Bison so we had to turn around and change our plans. We were in a line of cars 10 miles long and didn’t even see the herd but it is obviously not an uncommon event (see above). This isn’t Disneyland. This is Bison, Bear, Pronghorn, Wolf, Elk, Deer; basically all God’s Creatures’ land. We did make it to Old Faithful the next day.
I’ll share more images from this trip throughout the next few days. It was a fantastic time and a wonderful trip to share with my Dad, also a photographer. I am so thankful to my stepmom, Debbie, for making this happen. She is a heck of a trip designer and orchestrated a spectacular adventure for the three of us. They just started their travel blog and you can visit it by clicking here: Travels with Skip & Debbie
🙂
Wheatland Garden Tour
I attended the 3rd Annual Wheatland Green Harvest Festival Master Gardens Tour last week. I was so happy to go with my friends Clark and Lynette to discover these hidden gems.
Click on these fresh veggies to view the entire garden tour.
Nancy Munier’s garden was quaint and ever so lovely. She walked us through her minty ground cover, around her pot and container gardens and through a trellis into a small veggie garden.
Click on the black raspberry to view the entire garden tour.
Next we went to the garden of LeRoy Jons. He has installed a moveable tunnel greenhouse with berries and veggies planted inside. He also has a field of many types of berries and various vegetables. He was kind enough to let us taste the berries. MMM MMM.
Click on the young eggplant to view the entire garden tour.
Our third stop was the High Tunnel Greenhouse near the fairgrounds Their main objective is to demonstrate the benefits of extending the growing season for vegetable production here in Wyoming. They are having quite the success. The peppers and eggplant are unbelievable.
Click on the farm Fresh Produce to view the entire garden tour.
Taylor Bush is a junior in high school who started his garden 3 years ago. He says it beats having a “real job” so he can have time for school sports. He sells from his home as well as at the Farmers Market every Saturday in downtown Wheatland.
Click on the sweet lily pads to view the entire garden tour.
I could have stayed in this oasis all day! Lee and Ellen really do have paradise in their backyard. We loved viewing her overgrown yet lovely greenhouse, fragrant herb garden, and the pond filled with lily pads.
Click on the vineyard grapes to view the entire garden tour.
As the sun was going down, we puled into the driveway of Sally Sanchez, owner of the Sybille Canyon Vineyard. I was surprised to learn there is a vineyard in Wheatland. She has approximately 400 plants and is having great success. She says she is selling grapes by the “bucket” to local winemakers.
Click on any of these images to view more images captured from these marvelous gardens. It was very inspiring and who knows, I may try one next year.
Have a great weekend my friends. See you at the market!
Platte County State Fair | Centennial Celebration
Well, County Fair week is over and we topped it off Saturday with a parade, a yummy Birthday cake, roping competitions, livestock from the 4H club, and even stick horse racing.
Golf carts, fire trucks, folks on horseback, all were throwing candy to the kids (and some of the adults joined in to the candy grabbing as well).
These guys were great on the drums. Er, um, they used trash cans, tin cans and buckets actually. Very talented.
Then we went to the Laramie Peak Museum for birthday cake. Platte County, my home now for a year and a half, turns 100 years old this year. The parade bussed in Platte County citizens that were 90 and older and we joined them for birthday cake and lemonade after the parade. This young lady pictured above turns 100 in February.
After lunch we went to the fairgrounds for roping competitions.
The 4H students raise livestock all year to compete for the biggest and the best. Then there is an auction at the end of the week to sell their animals to the highest bidder. They raised milk cows, goats, roosters, hogs, and steers.
I love the goats!
The stick horse racing was the cutest!
To see all of the images taken this past weekend, please go to the photo gallery on my website here http://www.leahyetter.com/110806plattecountyfair2011/index.htm . Hope you enjoy them!
Happy Birthday Platte County! Thank you for welcoming me into your fair town.
♥Leah
Honk Honk
I’m in town today working at the gallery and I’ve got the doors open to let the cool Wyoming breeze through. Diesel trucks are growling and honking as they pass by on their way to the Platte County Fair. There is a lot going on in town this weekend and I hope we have some gallery visitors.
Have a great weekend folks!
♥Leah
Cowboy Carnival
We made a quick get-away to Cheyenne for Frontier Days on Saturday evening.
We didn’t get there in time for a rodeo but we did get to watch some fumbles on a mechanical bull.
Folks enjoyed sizzling on the Sizzler in the warm evening sunshine.
These carvings in driftwood caught my eye.
We spent most of our time out of the sun looking at the art and jewelry booths.
But once the sun went down, country singer Jason Aldean hit the stage to a sold out audience. Just in case you didn’t know, he’s from my hometown of Macon, Ga. 🙂
Our seats were really high up but since I bought them the day before, we didn’t complain about that. My only complaint was the sound. It was terrible. Throughout the opening acts and Aldean’s performance, there was screeching through the speakers and the bass was so heavy you couldn’t hear the singing. Ugh. Thank goodness for earplugs. Somebody needs to go back to sound school.
I hear that the park held about 50,000 people this weekend. I believe it and what’s funny is that the majority of the license plates in the parking lot were not from Wyoming. They were from Colorado, Texas, Arizona, the Dakotas, California and beyond.
Good times.
Gilchrist street Gallery dot Com
I’m so happy to announce the arrival of www.gilchriststreetgallery.com .
I’ve been building a website for our local gallery for a couple of weeks now. Remember that I am a photographer, not a webmaster, and it’s been a little tough going so don’t be too harsh in your judgements. I’m still working out the kinks and image placement but I have to say that I am quite proud of the site and of our local artists.
We will have an artists reception on Thursday, July 14th from 1pm to 4pm to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. And you are invited! There will be refreshments, door prizes, and you will have the opportunity to meet most, if not all, of the artists with work displayed here. We will be so delighted to see you if you have time to stop by.
I’m excited to have some new prints hanging in the gallery and will have Wyoming postcards arriving from the printer tomorrow!
Abandoned Grainery in Chugwater, WY
I haven’t had this image on the blog but here it is framed and ready to hang on your wall. It is the old abandoned Grainery in Chugwater, WY.
Bald Eagle by the Bridge
And this fellow has been begging for a frame and wall space.
Daybreak
And of course, our favorite. I’ve printed, framed, and numbered Daybreak.
They are all 11×14 prints, matted and framed as 16×20. I’m in love with them and hope they will eventually have a good home. Now, these quick shots do not do them justice. They look so spiffy behind glass and you’ll just have to come down to check them out in person. Or place an order with me. You will not be disappointed!
I hope to see you at the gallery but if you can’t come, I will post pictures of the event so you won’t miss a thing.
♥
Fireworks
We had a nice time watching fireworks illuminate the downtown sky at the fairgrounds last night. I decided to take my new camera out of hiding and work on this challenging shoot. If you’ve tried to shoot fireworks and were unsuccessful, don’t worry, it’s not that easy. I read a couple of tutorials before I went out and these are what I was able to capture. Not the sharpest shots but it was a lot of fun nonetheless.
Some highlights are blown out and there is a little blur but hey, I came back with something and that’s what matters.
And how lucky I was to even capture the fireworks from the heavens. (far right in the image above).
Lightning struck often while the fireworks were going off.
We were with friends and a lot of folks we didn’t know and the commentary by the kids was a hoot. There was a lot of oohs and ahhs and “how’d they do that?” and “sweet” and “whoa”. They got to play with sparklers and performed for the camera.
I hope everyone had a safe and happy fourth!
Saturday in Downtown Wheatland
Last Saturday was my day to work at the Gilchrist Gallery and the folks were still here. It was ok because they wanted to see it and walk around downtown Wheatland.
Various sights around the Gilchrist Gallery
But an hour after we were there, the Art Guild came in for their monthly meeting and they offered to watch the gallery so that we could go explore downtown.
We went to the thrift and antique stores and Dad found some great old records. Debbie found plates and I found another fabulous leather purse. Check this out, it’s a convertible!
I just love secondhand treasures.
Fresh Veggies, Bucking Broncs, and Rodeo Queens
Every Saturday for the past month or so at Pocket Park in Downtown Wheatland, local growers have hosted a Farmers Market. We enjoyed some yummy squash and zucchini last week and this past Saturday morning I made it in time to get a couple of ears of corn too. There is a young man who is growing corn to raise money for his college fund so next week I plan on buying a couple dozen to freeze for the winter.
I’ve also enjoyed some herbs from a sweet lady that offered me a taste of fried sage this week. She fried the sage leaves in olive oil with a little salt and pepper and boy was it tasty! Her sage bundles were all bought up before I got to her table so I grabbed the last bag of rosemary and hope to get some sage next week.
There was a young woman there who is a missionary with her family in Honduras. She’s in Wheatland caring for her grandmother for the summer and brought these lovely treasures that she and her siblings have crafted. They are vases and small pots made of pine needles and wrapped with colored thread. There’s even napkin holders and heart-shaped trivets.
She roasted coffee beans from Honduras and had a few bags to sell. Of course I bought the beans because I am a coffee fanatic.
I didn’t buy much but it’s a weeks worth of vegetables for the 2 of us. Squash, zucchini, corn, rosemary, and coffee. The corn is already gone, it was a test drive to see if it was as tasty as it looked, and the vegetables will be steamed every night this week.
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Saturday night, Patrick took me to the State Fair in Douglas for my first ever rodeo. It was so exciting! Those cowboys that ride the bucking horses and bulls are certainly brave and a little crazy I must add. I’ll write and show you pictures soon as I’m now sorting through all the wrecks that make my fanny a little sore just looking at them.
And stay tuned to find out which one of these lovely ladies was crowned Rodeo Queen 2011. I know you are on the edge of your seat but be patient, I will announce the winner soon.
867 Gilchrist Street: the Gilchrist Gallery
The Platte County Art Guild along with Helen and LeRoy Rutz decided to start a Gallery in an empty retail space in Downtown Wheatland. It is a local artist co-op and they’ve been up and running for a couple of months now. The art guild welcomed me in with open arms and now I too am a member of the co-op! Yesterday Helen helped me hang a few of my framed prints from my travels to Greece in 2008 and I also hung a few from my Wyoming collection.
Because this is a commission free gallery, the funds are low for obtaining a sign. But I’m sure if we artists put our heads together we’ll come up with something. Helen says it’s already in the works and we’ll be rid of the poster and cardboard sign soon.
My elk duo in the velvet made the front window!
When you walk in the front door, you will be greeted by one of the artists showcased in the gallery. Every member will put in a day or two a month of running the gallery.
There are all kinds of mediums in the Gilchrist Gallery. Paintings, pottery, stained glass, sculpture, photography, jewelry, and all kinds of arts and crafts.
My framed prints, “Rays of Light” and “Sidewalk Pelican”, hang among these beautiful paintings.
“Rooftop Shipwreck” (top left) “The Perfect Loop” (bottom middle) “Clouds:Santorini”, and “Village Windmill” (both in corner).
I’m so excited to be a part of this gallery and I look forward to my first day of “work” in September.
I haven’t met all of the artists but my new friend Victoria Bennett-Beyer has her photography hanging in this gallery as well.
I’d like to invite you to visit our art gallery and to explore our beautiful little town of Wheatland. And if you have any questions, leave it in the comments section or just shoot me an email!
Uprooted Magnolia 
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