From the Kitchen Table

by Lynn Harlan

We were filling up at the local gas pump the other day, and Bob said to a neighbor, “Nicki, how old are you?”  

She replied, “Older than you, Bob.” 

So Bob asked if she was old enough to remember a summer like this one. Her answer was no.

We moved our cows and calves a while back, and they’ve never been on anything but green grass this summer. It’s been a little hard on hay-makers, but Wyoming is still green and beauteous. 

Of course with all the wet weather, there’s been an abundance of flies and mosquitos, but it’s the middle of August so hopefully the big heat is over and we can enjoy what is left of summer. 

Hold off pumpkin lovers, we still have some summer days left. 

Bob and I did our long trek to the mountain again in late June with a sizeable herd of ewes and April lambs. There were so many cripples this year – was it the mud? Someone surmised it might have been the -40 degree weather we had last December that froze the foot just at the hairline. 

We worked some crippled ewes out several times but could never get them all mothered up and cut out, which was a trying part of the trail. We had plenty of water this year on the flats, and one day, a huge patch of yellow clover kept the sheep happy enough we both were able to catch a nap. 

There was good grass all the way up, and on top of the mountain, the grass was simply gorgeous.

We had our five-year-old grandson along for five days. He’s old enough to leave with his Lego’s for a bit, and he did a lot of riding along on the four wheeler. We made a tent in the camper on a rainy day and sped over to Willard Springs Lodge for our yearly ice cream cone. 

Bob taught him the card game of Old Maid, but it seemed Bob was always the old maid.  We truly enjoyed his “help.” 

Bob and I attended my class reunion in late July in Casper at the Hangar in Bar Nunn. I have history with the building. 

Wardwell Field Airport was built in 1927, including a fully-modern hangar and runways. It was the official airport for Natrona County until 1952 when the airport was relocated to the former Casper Army Air Base out on Highway 20-26. 

In 1954, Rancher Romie Nunn bought the former airport and 640 acres and later built an indoor arena in the hangar. He subdivided the area, calling it the Bar Nunn Ranch Subdivision.

My parents built a barn, and we kept our horses there from 1966-72. I learned to rope in the indoor arena. 

In 1982, the subdivision became the town of Bar Nunn, with its original runway streets. In 1990, Wayne Bundy bought the hangar, removed the indoor arena and moved his boat business, Bundy’s Marine, into it. 

When Bundy’s closed, the hangar fell into disrepair until the current owner went in and sandblasted the white paint off the walls, rewired and made other improvements. In 2016, the old hangar was repurposed again as the Hangar, a bar and grill and large venue spot.

It was a great place to have a class reunion, and the committee did a great job of enticing 200 attendees – out of a class of 600. It was fun to catch up. 

Stop in and check out the Hangar sometime. The barn my dad built is still there – it’s the only one left. 

I did have some other excitement at the end of the sheep trail. 

Luke, my grandson, and I went down to check out the river on the Fourth of July. In true grandmotherly fashion, I slipped on some rocks and scraped my arm. It didn’t bleed and I didn’t think much about it, but it seems this little scrape allowed strep to set in, and I became very ill with sepsis the last few days of trail – which I didn’t know. 

Thankfully, on the third morning, Bob turned the sheep herd over to Henry, one of our Peruvians and drove me to the Buffalo hospital. It was a good thing he did. 

Shortly after I was on the chopper to the Casper hospital, where I was in ICU for four days while they worked to figure out the infection. There is a very good infectious disease doctor there, and he was very interested in my case. 

It’s been a month now, and I am happy to say I am well and getting strong. I received such an outpouring of love and concern, I am still overwhelmed.

Life is, indeed, good.