At Least It's Not Snowing

And we have power.
Sure...it's cold.
But there aren't any big snow drifts.
The water lines aren't frozen (yet).
Look honey...there's a beautiful ice skating rink in the back yard,
look how the sunlight makes it all look so pretty.
Oh goodness..the ice skating rink even goes into the barn!
We can do a loop-de-loop!
Let's call our friends and have an ice skating party ;)
We'll have to move some of the furniture...oh wait...it's stuck to the floor by the ice....oh well...they'll just have to skate around the furniture.


Isn't it pretty?

It reminds me of that pretty pond we had in the back yard last summer.


Denial...it's a good thing.
Just trying to make a positive out of a negative.
Life is good.
Ice dams in the ditch in front of my house are good.
No..really...it's all just stinking good.
;)

Man Camp Week

It's "Man Camp Week" in the Methow Valley.
Oh yes...deer hunting season.
Where 99% of the hunters make the other 1% look bad.
Every year it's the same story. We're working on our property, we cross paths with a hunter, we tell the hunter he's on private property.
Hunter tells us he's on state owned land.
He has a map in his truck.
He's been hunting here for years.
We don't know where our property lines are.
He has permission from the owner.
Those fence wires were cut when he got here.
The gate was open.
There aren't any No Trespassing No Hunting signs.

I'm curious.
Are all these corny excuses printed in the Hunters Manual?
Because every cornball camo wearing beer guzzling binocular peering doofus in a pickup truck going 30 mph in a 50 and shootin' from the side of the road seems to spew the same drivel.

There...I feel better.
Thanks.

Ladders and Bits and Pliers...Oh My!

And saws and dust and giant messes.
Soooo...the "remodel recess" is over - time to start whacking away again, on to the dining room!
More layers of flooring to peel back, once again we're having to cut a grid with a skill saw and use pry bars, hammers - and lots of muscle.
Just like the kitchen, five layers.
Berber carpet, over glued down 70's "indoor/outdoor" - isn't that what they called it? The indoor outdoor was glued down to some old 60's beige fake stone linoleum...which was glued down to plywood - which was megga nailed into some groovy 40's linoleum-ish stuff that I kinda like. Under all those layers is the original t&g fir flooring which is in pretty tough shape.
I'm throwing in the towel on that one and covering it up with a floating wood floor.
I'm tough...but not that tough, no more refinishing of wood floors for this girl...at least not on the main floor.
Upstairs?
Maybe ;)

Light on the Horizon

Yesterday.
Noon.
I make a dash to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients for a cook-a-rama.
While I was stopped at Main waiting for my turn a low rider sedan passes in front of me...all three passengers have sideways ball caps and are slumped down in their seats. Odd...I think to myself. I pull out behind them and we get to the stoplight. While we're waiting for the light to turn I watch them pass a crack pipe - lovely.
It made me sad...what the heck is happening to my little town? Did they just come from the grade school? It was only a mile back from where I noticed them passing.
I had visions of them parked at the convenience store right next to the school, it's a huge hang-out for kids...it's where they buy junk food, pop and deep fried joes. Guess it would be a good place for the creepy peeps to hang and set up shop.
I know...my wild imagination.
Fast forward.
This morning.
Still working on the cook-a-rama. Cracking the last of the crab to put into the freezer, blanching and shocking corn on the cob. Still wondering about my little town. Out of the corner of my eye I see someone in a hot pink sweatshirt coming down the driveway. A woman I don't know...must be car trouble. I open the front door and she asks me if I know a specific young lady, whose name she gives me. In her hand is a handful of credit cards with the young lady's name on them. Ms. Pink was out for a walk and happened to notice the cards alongside the road, our farm was the next stop so she came down the driveway, knocked on a total strangers door and asked if I could help her locate the owner of the cards.
Thank you Ms. Pink.
You didn't know it but I really needed someone to remind me that this is still the sweet town I've always known and loved.
I got in touch with the young lady's husband...they're stopping over tonight to pick up the cards.

Be Still My Heart

I'm in love.
The search is over...I've finally found it.
The barn of my dreams, OK....barn(s).

This is it, they don't have barns like this where I live, so I guess I have to move.
To Michigan.
Where it seems there is a plethora of beee-uuuu-tiful barns.
The Husband and I took a short trip to see my fabulous cousins - honestly...they're fabulous. R.W. and M.E...their initials stand for Really Wonderful and Marvelous Entertainer!
We had five days and four nights of perfect sights, wonderful company, lots of laughs...serious R & R all the way around.
I know I know...we were there in September so the weather was perfect for this sissy girl. I know the summers are hot and muggy and the winters are bitter cold...so cold my favorite gal at the post office who used to live there says your nose hairs freeze...ow!
But I love barns...serious barn love is a problem.
I think I could handle the weather...
if I lived in a really cool old barn.

What's That Weed?

Weeding like a maniac...here at the farm and over at the cabin. I've been weeding here at the farm for 30 years...I know every weed, when it sprouts, when it sets seed, how deep the roots go, if it's clumper or a runner...and if I have to get nasty and use an herbicide.
But the cabin...oh goodness gracious the cabin.
The weeds there are evil, mostly stickers.
Last year a new weed sprouted at the cabin, and it didn't have stickers! It was even pretty, and it thrives in the heat with very little water...it's even my favorite color of green.
I've asked several people if they know what it is and if it's noxious, but nobody has a clue.
So...I'm calling on a professional. My neighbor at the cabin, he's a weed patrol extraordinaire.
Dave?
Can I keep it or do I have to clobber it?

It's moo-thirty a.m....do you know where your cows are?

I mean...2:30 a.m.
The husband's cel phone rang this morning at 2:30, it was Antonio the night milker - there was a cow having a calf and he needed hubby to come over and "pull a calf"...guess you could call him the mid-wife for cows.
Hubby heads out to the other farm, I snuggle in hoping to go back to sleep. I start to drift off...
I hear a moo, the moo is coming from the wrong direction. After living here for thirty years a girl gets to know which direction a moo should come from, if it's a stress-moo, a horny-moo, a pain-moo...you get the picture. This was a stress-moo...and it was coming from the northwest - moos here should come from the south.
That's it, if a moo is coming from the wrong direction this could spell serious trouble.
I got out of bed, went to the upstairs window to listen, "moooo, moooooo".
Downstairs I go, outside...in my jammies and sandals. Walked into the backyard and out to the veggie garden, no moo. Walked back to the house to get a flashlight, moo, dang it...moo bouncing off buildings. Walked out to the silage bunker, hear stress moo. Brain wakes up a little more, perhaps it would be"hoove" (pun intended) me to get my car so I can drive behind the barn and use my headlights to scan the field...grab the cel phone and dog too! Drive out...and there she is - what the cow-crap??? She's brown - at least I think it's a she...the bovine is in the field and with the lousy light and long grass I can't see so good and I for sure can't see her "privates"! I know I can't chase her alone, in the dark, with a bad ankle to boot. If I did chase her...where would I chase her to? I don't know anybody in the neighborhood who has reddish brown cows - where on earth did this beast come from.
Think to call hubby, who I think is still at the other farm, get hubbys voice mail - I'm thinking he's busy with maternity duty and can't answer. Sooo...I go back to the house, thinking I'll wait for hubby to come back...then I hear the beep - his cel phone voice mail alert...he doesn't even have the stinking phone with him.
What's a girl to do?
Go back to bed, not my cow, can't chase it alone, where would I chase it to?
It's stinking dark, my ankle hurts, I walk verrry carefully - I dO NOt RUn!
Go back to bed is the only clear answer, I wouldn't even know who to call because I don't know anyone who has cows that look like that...in the dark I was guessing she was a beef cow. She's in the field, there's lots of grass...settle down missy and we'll deal with you in the morning and don't you daaaare get lost in the corn field...cuz we'll neverrr find you in there.
Hubby comes home an hour later...he had been home earlier but when he didn't see my vehicle he went down the road where he saw a lot of other trucks. When he was at the other farm there were two cows on the road, he also had no idea where they came from...so he locked them up and came home, he figured when he didn't see my rig I went to help with the rodeo-round-up...little did he know I was in my rig behind our own barns scanning the field for strange bovines.
We jumped in his truck, ( I changed from jammies to jeans fyi ), there were more cows, more guys in trucks, and some ATV's...while we were telling them about the beast at our place two more moosies came running out from some body's back yard. They were WiLD! CRaZy! BEaStS! The other farmers told us where the strays came from, and it was wayyy up the road, and they were scattered over a couple of miles - these gals crossed busy roads and nobody got hurt...a-freaking-mazing.
When we got home we checked the pool for cows, just in case - cuz it's happened before. No cows taking a midnight dip...whewww.
This morning when the sun came up there were three brownish/red cows hanging over the fence trying to make friends with our black and white girls.
Somebody came while we weren't home and loaded them up in a cattle trailer and took them back to wherever it is they belong, I hope they ship them someplace far away, becaue these girls obviously have a serious case of wanderlust.
Somebody owes me somethin', I hear the cattle hauler that was housing them at his place was out fishing or crabbing or something ....I think that a nice fish or a dungeness crab or two would be a lovely trade for a lost night of sleep.
Doncha think?
Just sayin'