Clean Air Act

One thing we've looked forward to over the years of visiting Wyoming was leaving the smog of the city behind us for a few days at least and enjoying the fresh clean air.

As we drove the final moving van and ourselves to Wyoming for the official move we noticed that the air didn't clear up when we left the canyons by the city behind us.  Instead it seemed that the sky was just as smoggy the whole drive.

Part way through the drive we encountered a dark cloud of smoke.

Then we saw the helicopter with the water basket below.

Then as we continued to drive we began to wonder if we should be going forward or not.  The landscape around us was all charred.

We took the exit to our next stretch of the trip and headed northwest which took us around the mountain that was burnt to the other side of the mountain...which was still burning.  

As we drove another two hours north the smoke and fire now behind us we were truly grateful not to be too close to the burning areas.  Grateful for our safety as we traveled.  

We were also willing to put up with the fact that the smoky air creating a smog in our new clean air home would be a temporary inconvenience that was nothing compared to what those living closer to the fires were dealing with.

Only a few weeks after our moving in we began to notice less smoke in the air and cleaner skies.  

That lasted about a week and then the hazy skies returned.  The reports from Utah were frightening.  We had friends in the evacuated areas below the huge 86000 acre forest fires.  We had friends in the pre-evacuate areas.  We found ourselves once again grateful for our distance from the fires and able to find gratitude for only having to put up with some hazy days.  We have been checking for updates daily on our friends in Utah.  Checking in with Caleb and Sarah on breathing conditions in the valley.

But now while they are still struggling to contain the massive Utah fires we are checking the updates every few hours on our own burning inferno.

There are 2 fires in Wyoming.

The closest is 16 miles from our home.

The next is 30 miles in the other direction.

As we left church Sunday evening, we found the haze to be thicker than normal... and then the glow in the distance as we neared our home explained why.

The next day the sky was the worst it's ever been.  

This is our view before we go to bed at night as we check for final updates and evacuation information.  Currently it is blowing away from us and the neighbourhoods on the opposite side have been evacuated and our being sent to the LDS church in Pinedale.  It is surreal to watch it burn and drive toward it since the evacuees pass our neighbourhood on their way to safety in Pinedale, another 20  miles further from the flames. 

We have just unpacked our moving boxes.  I can't even begin to think what to pack for a quick evacuation if needed.  I suppose I'm grateful I still have boxes and 3 vehicles for transporting us away if it should be necessary.  The wind is still blowing away from us.  There is still no rain in the forecast.... except on the east coast.  

Working with Wednesday's

In my ideal world.  We only go to town on Wednesdays.  This makes our proposed daily schedules that we are hoping become routines more productive.  It also cuts way down on the gas costs since we now live 30 minutes from any town.  Trying to be economically efficient.  And time conscious.  Every trip is immediately an hour, just to commute.

So far we have been to town every Wednesday since we moved in.

And a Saturday.

And a Monday.

And 3 Tuesdays.

And a Thursday.

And 2 Fridays.

And every Sunday... but that we also knew about.  So I suppose the plan is to go to town every Wednesday and Sunday and as few of the other days as possible.

The Saturday was to attend the library's renaissance faire.

The Tuesday's were to register for school.. then attend orientation.. pick up books and then learn that the school option wouldn't work after all and so we returned to unregister the following Tuesday.. we also registered and licensed the new car.

The Thursday was for cub scout pack meeting.

Now Monday and Tuesday evenings are jazz choir practices.

Friday was to attend the town homecoming parade and to go to the church social.


NEW GOAL!

Make every trip worthwhile.
Since the rec. center is free for all children in the county, we make a point of taking advantage of it if we are in town.  So if there is a reason to go to town we add a rec center stop.  The boys have become adept rock wall climbers, ping pong players, fish swimmers, and we've learned that the family that plays tennis together.... sweats together.

I often walk laps on the indoor track while the boys play.  Patrick is hoping to try out the racquetball courts next time.

I struggled with needing to buy a four wheel drive vehicle for necessity of getting in and out of our neighbourhood in the impending winter and loving the gas mileage economy of our hybrid car.  Unfortunately an affordable 8 passenger hybrid four wheel drive option didn't materialize.  We did the best, we hope, but now we have 4 cars.  We almost have 4 drivers in the house also.  Ironic that our goals are to stay home as much as possible to be productive and economically efficient.

So now the week typically (have yet to have two similar weeks... can we have a typical yet) looks like this.

MONDAY.  At home all day.  Take off in the evening with Duncan for choir.  Walk laps while others swim or play.  or Patrick and boys stay home to work on projects.

TUESDAY.  Repeat Monday.

WEDNESDAY.  Rush through morning.  Need to leave by 3.  Only day we pick up the mail.  Cub scouts.  Youth church night.  Any accumulated errands.  Library returns and pick ups.  Big boys stay and play chess while little boys go to scouts.  Banking.  Groceries.  Gas.  We take the weeks accumulated recycling to the depot.  Stop at the ranch for packages that have been delivered and to say hi.  (Can't get packages delivered to our address)  picnic dinners in town parks.  Some weeks we've gone fishing.  The goal is to leave by 3.  But... errand lists get long and sometimes we've left as early as 11.  It's a long day but lots of waiting happens.  There's 2 hours between scouts and church.  Eating only takes so long.  Last few weeks we've been picking up our food storage from the ranch basement where it's been stored a few boxes and buckets at a time.  Or we've stopped by the old property to pick up items we had moved there (Outdoor benches.  Trampoline frames, picnic table.etc..) No wasted trips.

THURSDAY.  Enjoy no leaving.  Except once a month for pack meeting.

FRIDAY.  Enjoy no leaving.  Unless there's a fun activity.  Oh and once a month when the orthodontist comes to town.

SATURDAY.  So many projects to work on it would be nice to not leave but instead stay and work on the many projects... but... we've not been home for a Saturday since we've moved.  We've been helping the ranch barn rebuilding project.  And there was a renaissance faire.  And this week the big boys were invited to a board game night at a new friends house.  And a cousin's birthday party cook out.   Plus multiple weekend trips to Utah, but those are further apart now; only every 6 weeks.

SUNDAY. Church.

Ideal and reality are struggling to coexist. 

The New Dishwasher

For a grand total of $12.50, we invested in a new dishwasher for our Noble nook.  (still trying to come up with the best name for our new home)  The new dishwasher consists of a drying rack and a utensil holder.  We already had a dish mat.

Lessons in dish washing have been received fairly well.  Once again our sponsor t-shirts have been useful.  Learning the order to wash dishes in and how to rinse all the soap off have been more exciting for the younger boys than the older ones.

Each of us have a day assigned each week.  Thursday's are a wildcard.  If you're obnoxious during the week you may be assigned Thursdays.  If you don't do your dishes before bedtime you have dishes the next day until there are no dirty dishes left so it's ready to hand over to the next person.  The incentive not to leave your dishes until the next morning has worked well.  And not too many sleepy late night washings have been needed.

Everyone has become very aware of dish use.  "I'll eat out of the pot.. save a plate.  I can eat my dessert on my dirty plate.  We can use just one serving spoon.  Just drink water from your water bottle, saves cups." 

Morning, Noon and Night.. all types of outfits.

A quick word from our sponsors

This move was brought to you in part by

-Grunt Labour
-Antelope Supervisory Board
-Long drawn out Decision Agonizers Association
-The oops T-shirt Department at AirCooled.net 

The t-shirts became the most valuable asset in the move.  Other than the phrase...

'It came with the house' (which described so many little things that made  moving in go smoothly... from the carpet cleaner, to the wheel barrow, to the boxes of nails and screws, to the music CD's that Miles claimed, to the curtains and the dinner bell....

The phrase, 'use an air-cooled shirt' was the next most used phrase.

The shirts which were an oops  for the second time... The logo was printed upside down so we inherited the oops. 

They've been used to:
-mop up messy spills
-to shim a shelf
-to wrap fragile items
-to keep sharp things from rubbing against the uphostery in the car
-as a place mat at the table
-as an apron until ours were unpacked
-to protect church shirts during dinner
-as a pillowcase
-to line the cats carriers for an added level of comfort
-as a curtain to block the bright sun during a meal and to keep the glare off of a computer screen
-to line cabinets throughout the house when I grossly underestimated how much shelf liner I needed but wanted to keep unpacking
-to plug a hole in the utility room wall where a vent used to be needed
-to line the laundry room sink that isn't in use currently so a basket could be put in it without scratching the surface
-rolled up as a draft snake
-to wear when we didn't know where jammies were
-to wear for dirty jobs (the most obvious use)