Hanging Around in Star Valley

The Alaska Odyssey took a lot out of us and so we are still hanging around Star Valley. We haven't been completely still as we have worked on our stone and wire and we did take a short trip to see our son and his wife. I have also explored the golf course and actually played a couple of rounds.
Its about ninety miles to Matt and Patty's house and it does our hearts so good to see them and see that they are happy. We drove there on a smokey day and Patty had made a really tasty pot roast. We also had to laugh as she has a new gun, a pink nonlethal biodegradable pellet gun that she uses to discourage roaming dogs and others varmints,(No wild animals). She shot Matt in the rear end before turning it towards the pests. Renita shot it and of course she wants one for herself.
Its so nice and relaxing to be able to work on stone and wire. I have concentrated on dinosaur remains and tiger eye, basically increasing our fossil jewelry collection. Renita has finished some of her pieces from last spring and as usual her work is truly one of a kind!

I had hoped to have more mammoth ivory done but as usual its all about having the right tools and its obvious I don't have what I really need. No problem as the dinosaur coprolite and bone,(the first image is dinosaur bone and the second coprolite), has waited patiently and so I made several cabochons and wrapped them in sterling silver. Dinosaur coprolite jewelry has been a hot seller for us and one of the reasons it has been so well received is due to the presence of phytoliths in the remains. These are fossil plants that have passed through the dinosaurs digestive processes. I am also working on a rock that contains dinosaur gastroliths. Its a sample from friends we met and traded with in Livingston, Texas.

Renita has made three stunning pieces, a large charoite pendant that of course she ground polished and wrapped, a piece of mokovite,(not really sure but at least we think it is), and a beautiful dark and unusual yellow petrified wood that she wrapped in 14 K gold filled wire.
Finally I have been venturing onto the golf course. Its a short coarse. par sixty six, and I have walked it, which of course is how golf is supposed to be played. It felt good to be able to walk a course carrying my clubs, especially since we are at six thousand feet elevation. My goal next year is to use the course to get in shape and do some hiking in the Tetons and Wind River Mountains.

Hitch itch is rearing its head however and the trip to Florida and then Texas is drawing near. It won't be long before the first snow covers this area and so we plan on heading south next week. from here to Florida is almost as far as from here to Tok, Alaska, twenty four hundred miles and while there won't be any frost heaves the roads have certainly deteriorated but that's politics and there are two things to stay away from in polite company, religion and politics! Clear skies.