Idaho Roses

On September 8th, I received a text from my daughter, Jenn, who had heard from a neighborhood friend who had discovered two baby squirrels in their yard.  Unfortunately, one of the babies was already deceased and the other was way too young to survive on his own.  I contacted two of my “animal people” and found the baby a new momma in Sharon Rae. Sharon and I researched the heck out of what to do and she began the long, arduous, scary and time consuming work to keep this little one alive and healthy.  Keeping the little one warm, hydrated, fed (about every two hours) and making sure that he peed and pooped at each feeding, was a huge task. Sharon shed many tears of worry fearing his imenent demise after aspirating formula or not eating.  She is amazing! I was given the opportunity to babysit the little one periodically which involved a lot of holding and snuggling, feeding him special formula with a syringe and helping the little critter poop and pee.  (Yes, I’m a little scarr

Tradition is defined as “   a belief or custom handed down from one generation to another”.  Today marked the start of a new tradition, which has its roots in earlier outings with our beautiful Mom. Our family matriarch, Camelia Jeanne, decided this past summer that it would be fun to do a tea party with my daughters and their oldest (or only) daughters.  Our biggest obstacle was trying to work around everyone’s crazy schedules.  Yes, it’s not just the gainfully employed and intellectually stimulated, even house fraus (or ranch fraus) have schedules!!!   In Mountain Home there is this cool little cafe/shop with great food that puts on Victorian Teas.  We finally got it scheduled and all arrived ready to celebrate.  After a welcome “speech”, we were ready to enjoy our scones with butter and lemon curd, and our tea. Look at all these beautiful ladies!!!  Three generations of strong, smart, hilarious Vedder women!  Starting on the left, my daughter, Jenn, her daughter (my granddaughter),