Saturday, May 23, 2015

On The Way Out - Soon

Well, we are at the airport, waiting on our flight to Japan.  We've been here about 6 hours now and we have 6-8 hours or so to go until we can check in for our flight.  Then another 7-8 hours until we are actually in the air... or so the schedule goes, as far as we know.  Thankfully, there is a USO at this airport.  It is my first experience with them (Jeff has had quite a bit of USO encounters over his career) and I've been pleasantly surprised at how nice our HOURS stuck at the airport are going.


It has been a crazy trip even just getting to the airport.  We had to make a detour of 400 miles or so on our drive from South Dakota to the Seattle airport, to get our pets cleared to travel.  (long story) 

I am SO eager to finally get to where we are going, get in our new house, and start getting settled in to where we will be living for the next four years.  It's been very hard not being able to get into much of a creative mode for weeks now, but I have been stitching some:



I've even finished a saddle pad, one that I had started a few weeks or so ago:


I really do like this new pattern and I've already started another one, the same pattern, in red and gold. 

For some reason I seem to have stalled out on the very first one (black and white) and I did pack it away in one of (many) boxes we sent to ourselves, because I wasn't sure what airport security would think of the tons of thumb tacks in my laser cut frame - ha!  As it is, I'm hoping what I had researched about being allowed to bring an embroidery needle on a plane is correct.  I've read that it is okay to do now, but if not, I'm prepared to toss the needle I have with me.  I do hope I'll be able to take it, so that I might do some stitching on the plane.


Another thing I've been doing, to partially satisfy the creative bug, is get back into Pinterest.  It's been a little while since I've been sucked in there.  I've been finding a lot of pins for my Craft Storage board (dreaming of setting up my new Studio!) and also a ton of tutorials on making Miniature things.  That one is mostly geared toward possible model horse applications... Mostly for photo showing ideas.  I'm planning to get (back) into photo showing while we are overseas, since I'm highly doubtful there are any live shows over there.  (but hey, maybe I'm wrong... or maybe I'll start some...??)

I suppose that's enough rambling for now.  I'm hoping to get back to regular blogging as soon as we are in our new home - and have an Internet connection.  I have a TON of things I could blog about that have happened over the past few weeks: trips we've gone on, along with hundreds of pictures I've taken along the way.  I figure I can always share some of that until our household goods arrive and I can start MAKING STUFF once again.  :)








Sunday, May 17, 2015

Black Hills Burro

Yesterday we went to visit one of our favorite places in the Black Hills, Custer State Park.  Particularly, our destination was the Wildlife Loop, a road that winds through the park and gives a chance to view the wildlife in the park: bison, pronghorn, elk, deer, turkeys, prairie dogs, and my favorite - burros. 

The burros are "wild", but... they have learned that people will feed them and so most of them will approach cars, expecting treats.  Even when people are on foot, most of them will approach people, looking for handouts.  They often hang out near the roads.  Even so, we were surprised when the first burro we saw, was this one, standing right on the edge of the road.



The burro was all by herself.


Or was she?


I got out of the car, walked down the road a bit, then crossed it to get a better look.


Oh my goodness!  (this was right before he scrambled to his feet on wobbly legs)


Baby was hungry.


A few cars rolled slowly past, pausing to take pictures or touch mama's nose, but no one offered food.


Mama stayed near her post by the road, while the baby explored a bit.


Shaking those floppy ears!


SO adorable.


Mama turned back around to face the road.


Here comes another car.


Do they?  Yes, they do have treats.  Mama eats several apple pieces.


She cleans up a couple of dropped pieces.


Baby gets a snack too.


After she got the snack she was waiting for, Mama headed back up the road, grazing.  Baby followed along.


He was so adorable, I couldn't stop taking pictures.  Look at that little tongue!


Awake and having had a few little snacks, the baby started feeling spunky!


Saucy little man, he ventured out onto the road, ears pinned.


Then ran back toward his mama.


Whee!


They wandered off the road and into some trees, mama grazing and baby testing out his legs more and more.  This was the last picture I took of them.  Baby burro 'tude!


It was so cool to see this pair.  I think the baby might have been born the night before.  Certainly I would think no more than a couple of days ago.  He was so tiny and still wobbly on those long furry legs. 

We did find the rest of the herd a ways further down the road, they had two older babies with them.  Of course I took a ton of pictures of them too, but that will have to be another post!   

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Next to Next to Last

Another quick little update on our moving saga...

There has been a LOT of moving around for us lately - and we haven't even actually moved yet.  We went on a whirlwind week and a half long trip which I referred to as our Farewell Tour.  We visited a lot of family and friends and stayed in several different places along the way.  Today we checked into what will, hopefully, be our next to next to last place we stay before we take the long flight to our new home.  The hotel room we are in for the next 6 days or so is really nice; it is pretty much a small apartment!  It is nice to be "settled" in somewhere, even if only for a handful of days before we move on again, working our way toward our new home.  I'm hoping to do some real blog posts (with pictures!) during my down time here.  Stay tuned!