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The weekend gave us a chance to go to Las Vegas, which we did happily, via Hoover Dam.  The drive down was scenic in the light of the rising sun.  We did run across a carcass that was less than pleasant along the way.  We were nearing Echo Bay when I spotted a dead cow alongside the road, laying on its side, bloated, and some organs spilled out of its backside.  It was definitely not hit by a vehicle, but more likely dumped there, perhaps while still alive.  I did not go close enough to find out if it had been shot on site or not.  There were genuine buzzards on the corps too! 

Hoover Dam is astonishing, and the last time I saw it, the view from the dam down the Colorado River was unobstructed, apart from the old cable system that is still there.  Now the new bridge is there, and it seems to tower above the dam, so much higher! 

We entered Vegas through Henderson, so that meant a stop in at REI on the way.  I just wanted to give the kids a chance to see what a huge outdoor store has to offer them. 

WE were hungry by the time we had visited REI, so we went right from REI to Sam’s Town for the champagne brunch at the Firelight Buffet.  The decorating is getting to be in need of an update, but the food is still pretty good.  Don’t get me wrong, it is not the best, but they do lay out a good buffet there. 

We had a look at Johnny Walker RV after just to see what they carry, but their stock was not impressive.  Everything was used, and it showed, to the point that one even carried a stench in it. 

Next stop was the thrift store, then off to the Strip. 

The Strip is a good name for it!  There were loads of girls walking along in bikini’s with only a light top to cover, or an open front top.  It was fun for Dylan, but Jordan actually needed them to be pointed out to him!  And he calls himself a man?  My wife was spotting them and pointing them out to him!  There were other things on the strip too, but not as memorable as the skin! 

We left the Strip and went to Fry’s to sort out our WiFi network as it has been playing us up pretty bad at home, so we now have a better router, and will be finally starting on the gigabit upgrade on the wired network.  Ijust need some cabling. 

By the time we finished at Fry’s we were tired and ready for home!  So off we went, and amazingly I never got sleepy at all!  It must have been the excitement of having been able to get out of town for the first time in a couple of weeks! 

Today has been a relaxing day!  Katrina and I have gone out to wash the horses!  We also watched a couple of films today!  Right now we have Dark Knight on, it still has to be said of Heath Ledger’s performance, OUTSTANDING..!!  We have also watched 3:10 to Yuma today, which is another excellent film!  On the other hand, School of Rock could have done with a moral. 

There’s my simple summation of the weekend!  Now on to a good week..!! 

Kelsey J Bacon

I woke up at 3:50 this morning, a Saturday, and felt quite wide awake!  Boo!  So I walked outside and observed Ursa Major just above the northern horizon, something I have not seen in the past eight years that I spent living in England.  It really confirmed that those years were spent substantially further in the north latitudes than where I am now.  The difference between 36 degrees north and 52 degrees north is only 16 degrees, but it makes such a difference in so many things in the sky, such as the distance the sun reaches from the horizon at noon, or how long the sun and the moon illuminate the sky, or the position of the stars above.  It amazed me how bitterly the sun stabbed the eyes in the north of England at midday, even when compared only with the south of England, and so it also amazes me these days to see so much light, such short shadows cast, and the sun reach so far overhead!  The difference only 16 degrees can make! 

After coming back in from my sky observations, I looked around on CNN and found this article about Harry Potter, regarding the soon release of the last film in the franchise. 

Typically I despise cultural phenomenon because to me it signifies a lack of imagination among the masses, however, that is difficult to do in an instance where the very phenomenon is as imaginative as the Harry Potter story is.  The movies were well cast, and the characters, right down to little quirks, were well played.  I have enjoyed the films, though I don’t feel excited about watching any of them again anytime soon, as it is getting high time to move on!  Radcliff reportedly cried on the last day of filming, which I find interesting because it really speaks to how much a part of his life the character he played was.  Brave little Harry Potter faces off evil in a tangible form.  How will his player face off with change in real form?  As life changes for all three of the main players, I wonder how they will fare at changing too?  Will they be typecast, as inevitably happens, will they fall hard from fame the way so many child actors do, or will they do more than any of their wizard characters have ever done, and create something new, and more powerful of themselves than what Rowling handed to them to take over?  They brought the characters of Harry, Ron, and Hermione to life, now how will they bring Daniel, Rupert, and Emma to life?  Like the stars in the sky this morning, it will be interesting to see what a difference a few degrees latitude will make! 

Now it is time to try to go back to sleep.  Maybe I can squeeze a few more hours out of this morning!

Kelsey J Bacon

The summer days in Nevada have not been speeding by, I will tell you that!  We get lodged indoors most of the time trying to cower from the heat!  The poor chickens and ducks and horses are stuck outside in it and I feel almost sorry enough to let them in!  Especially the horses!  They’d do well in the air conditioned temperatures inside!  I hear about people with cooler temperatures up north and remember that they also get it cold in the winter, and that seems to last a good six months, while we are hammered with heat for only three months, and the rest of the year is actually pretty nice! 

So this summer has been a lot of movie watching and general hanging about indoors, which I have got to admit is contributing to a touch of cabin fever!  What’s more, the town nearby is so small that when I go in to pick something up, I end up looking through the Library, the Ace Hardware, the True Value Hardware, and the grocery store, which is pretty much everything in town, then I find myself wanting for more, but there is just no place else of interest, so I have to go home wishing that I was close enough to Vegas to just sort of pop in!  Oh well!  ‘Tis the trouble with living the small town country life! 

The specter of horse feed still hangs over us!  Unbelievably, I heard yesterday that the price went up again!  I have got to call for a new bag of feed soon too, so I will be finding out for sure if it is true!  I hope not!  I don’t think my heart can take it!  It had already been $200 a month to feed the three horses!  I think it would be a price well worth paying if they were our primary means of transportation for say, under five miles.  But that is not practical, even in the saddle, in this heat!  After my little incident passing out and falling off the horse, I am a bit more cautious! 

Getting up at 4 AM weekday mornings has really made part of the day bearable, Trouble is that the rest of the day is spent tired!  Jordan gets it easy and naps for as long as five hours in the daytime, then when he is supposed to take a turn watching Kiry for me, he ends up yelling at her or something and I am LUCKY if I can get a 20 minute nap in!  This routine is just not working out!  I need to get a good 30 minute nap in, or stop waking up at 4!  It would be nice for a change to feel rested enough to really get the day going, but I am just one of those people who cannot seem to function on little sleep!  The six hours or less per day I have been getting is cramping my style! 

Luckily, I do function best in the morning, so I get a heap of chores done most mornings, and then get on with the hot and restful part of the day!  I think what would really excite me is photography clients!  Especially portrait clients!  I am happiest in my personal time when I am behind the camera! 

This has been a quick fix!  It is late on a Friday night, and I am going to go after that lie-in tomorrow morning!  Really looking forward to waking up around seven or eight, rather than four! 

Kelsey J Bacon

This morning I am recovering from a party that I didn’t attend.  Mostly the pain is in my neck, probably from sleeping on it wrong.  It was enough that I dreamed of being in a head on traffic collision that busted the windshield and of course sent the airbag off.  If you are one of those believers in the metaphysical, then so sorry, but I am not with you on this one.  I don’t believe dreams are omens or the like, or I would be a whole lot wealthier!  The only thing this dream foretold was that I was going to wake up with the headache that spurred the dream. 

You might want a cardigan or jumper this morning as it is cool out there.  It is already half eight in the morning and yet it has not even quite warmed up to 95 degrees (that’s 35 Celsius for those who need to know).  Yesterday it hit 115, or 46C.  I am still expecting to see hotter temperatures this summer..!!  I expect a top of 120 to 125 (48.8 to 51.6). 

Had a Brunch break just, and am now back onto this post while Wild Wild West is playing on the player.  It is a family favorite. 

For the start of our Fourth of July fun, we are going to be as ironic as can be!  I am taking two Brits to the local Indian Reservation to watch the Indian’s blow off fireworks in celebration of American’s independence from one of the countries that invaded the Indian lands, and America’s becoming the nation that rounded up the Indians and put them on the reservation.  Should be fun!

Tomorrow there is a breakfast available for free close by, then supper later in the day. 

Now it is evening and I have got to say, it did not all work out!  When it came time for the fireworks, the wind here was howling, so I was not about to bother driving the big diesel all the way over to the Reservation just to find out the show is cancelled, or even worse yet, still on!  I am not up to being blown up for the holiday weekend! 

When the wind kicked up we all ran outside to clear the laundry lines, feed the animals, and batten down the hatches!  There was sand blowing, so the boys covered their eyes as best they could, though I have to admit being a total dork and putting on my swim goggles so I could see!  I think I will keep those to hand for the next storm! 

While the rest of the family is up to putting on another movie tonight, I am not bothered to stay up and watch it as we are planning a 4AM start tomorrow.  We have been doing those a lot lately since it is so hot midday that nobody wants to move.  So it is naps in the middle with a cool start to the morning, and some last minute antics in the evenings.  I would be loving the schedule if I could get a certain almost three year year old to cooperate!  If she were to nap too, I could actually HAVE my nap.  Yeah, it’s off to bed soon! 

Now, should I take the three year old with me, or let her stay up with the rest of the family?  Maybe THAT is the secret! 

–Goodnight!– 

Kelsey J Bacon

There is a gallon of Flavor-Aid in the freezer cooling off so I can drink it later, and the air conditioning is doing its thing, working on keeping the house at a reasonable temperature so we can stay active and happy in here rather than hot and miserable.  Missus has finished work an put The Mummy on while she works on some crafts.  The baby has had her supper and is watching along with, while both of the boys are still at the reservoir swimming with their friend Porter. 

I got my four turkeys today, and we have put them with Jordan’s latest batch of chickens in the cage along side the coop.  The coop has been emptied of all its chickens, and the four pheasants let loose in there.  The chickens from the coop are now in the old swimming pool, and I expect them to come out soon.  That means that the backyard has two roosters, seven hens, and I think nine ducks loose in it.  We are down one duck at any rate because Porter and Jordan killed one and ate it today.  Dylan watched and ate too.  I mostly kept Kiry inside, but I did watch the killing of the duck, though I have to admit that while Porter opted for a slit throat, I think an axe would make a cleaner, faster kill. 

I did not eat any of the duck because I never really liked this particular duck anyhow.  He was flakey and dry, and never looked that tasty while he was alive.  It is sort of sad in a way.  The duck was the weaker of the two males, and in the end, his mate left him for the other male.  He was smaller, and he was abused by the other male when they were put together.  Being the weakest link, he was the one chosen to die so the stronger one could continue mating with the females.  I was never a hunter, so I have never seen an animal turned into a meal in a day before. 

Jordan had a little help from his mom and put a new screen on his netbook today, rounding this out as a full day for him before he went to the reservoir! 

Katrina is asleep now, Kiry is asking for a drink, and Rachael Weisz is looking so sexy as the geeky Evelyn Carnahan.  I could just about use a nap myself.  If nothing else, a tall cool drink of Flavor-Aid. 

This morning JJ and I got out at 5:30 on Patches and Precious.  Now, Precious has been a troublesome horse from the start, and is the same one which threw me off several weeks back.  She has been through some training, and it really has take root, however, JJ has been through some training too, and it has really helped out! 

JJ was not really up to taking Precious out because she still has a bad reputation with him because of her tendency to try to rear up, and to kick.  I told him to lunge her first.  He did, and did a fair job of it, then got on her in the round pen, and worked her that way too.  Meanwhile, I sat on Patches and kept him from eating, and kept him standing still, which he has not been good at before.  Finally, JJ decided that he’d be okay going out on the trail, so we did.

We rode off towards the reservoir and Precious played JJ up a little as we got out of sight of Umber, but JJ knew what to do to get her head about her, and he did a fine job of it.  We rode the two around the reservoir and over to Porter’s house (a friend of JJ’s) to see their new goats they have there.  Oh yeah, I want a goat!  There were a few times that both of the horses played us up, but we got them to cooperate, and carry on. 

Finally we got them home again and walked them past the gates with little trouble, which is excellent, They earned some sweet oat to go along with their breakfast.  This is only the second ride of the summer holiday, but so far, if things go on as they have started, we may get these horses trained and trail worthy sooner than we’d hoped.  Of course, let’s see if it pans out, eh? 

This morning’s fun and games started at 4:00 when JJ and I got up and ate breakfast, then got ourselves ready to go for a ride on Patches and Umber.  By the time we got over the time and got the horses saddled and a few things done, it was still just before 5:00 when we left the property.  The temperature was perfect for a short sleeved shirt.  I could not complain at all. 

We took off over the hill across the street, then headed south to the Fairgrounds, and eventually down to Jordan’s high school, and then back again.  The horses did really well on the ride apart from playing us up when we got back to the fairgrounds and found another horse there that looked very much like Precious, the horse we had left in the stable this morning. 

After getting back and feeding the animals, JJ and I had to go back down to the high school to pick up some of his ceramics projects that had been in the kiln yesterday.  We also ran into a teacher of his in the hall, and talked to him about JJ’s performance in English class, and what it is like in England.  As it happens, the teacher’s wife lived in England for six years, so he has visited, and also has her opinions on life there. 

When we arrived home again, JJ talked to his dad, and then we had lunch, and went for naps.  We are trying out the siesta schedule, so we can be awake in the cooler parts of the days, rather than burning up in the 100’s like I am doing now due to my slightly early wakeup. I only have the baby to blame, right? 

It didn’t much matter that Kiry woke me as I would have been woke up soon by the man who brings us the alfalfa cubes.  He stopped by to ask if he could drop off tomorrow morning as he has to go see the doctor about a cut on his leg that is apparently getting infected. 

Tomorrow we are going to go to town and pick up some more chickens that Jordan had ordered.  They have all but one of his in, and then the only thing left it the Turkeys that I ordered the other day.  There is going to be a yummy supper on the table for Christmas! 

Kelsey J Bacon