Next Trip Planning

We're hoping to take another trip down to Pioche in the fall to winterize and prep for the big demo next spring, when we remove the utility room, kitchen, basement stairs and bathroom.

Here's a diagram of the current house, it measures about 20' wide by 36' deep and the bathroom is 5x5

This is maybe what our future house will look like. This isn't to size but you get the gist.

We still need to figure out how to get into the basement after we remove the stairs down to it.

This section on the left is the bathroom that we will remove, and the brick chimney on the other side, the metal one is already gone. The part on the right is the kitchen & utility and they will be gone too.

Here's a better photo of the chimney

This is the utility room, the door leads to the stairs that go 3 up to the utility room and 7 down to the basement floor; all the blue area will be removed along with the door/stairs,

This is the basement stairs thing. Its all going to go.

We will need to make sure the exterior walls are straight and cover them up with new siding of some kind. Currently the house has stucco on it but we're not sure what we will use on the new sides.

 

After the Trip

We left home at 5pm Thursday May 21, 2026 and drove till we were tired, Friday we woke early and drove to Dugway Geodo Beds, where we spent the entire day digging and found a lot of them, couple 5 gallon buckets full.

Spent the night there, then in the morning we drove to the Topaz dig area and got some but by the time we got there it was very warm and I just wasn't into it. Lan was able to dig some nice small ones right out of the rocks.

Then we headed out and arrived in Pioche at dusk.

Our home when we first saw it this trip.

Lan worked hard to replace two front windows, making them both bigger and straight, and he worked to suck in the side of the house where the stucco wants to bulge out.

Neither of those were easy jobs but both look much better now.

After the stucco was dry I got to paint & since I knew it wasn't going to be an easy job at all, I decided to use the best tools and paint I could afford and I chose 'Pure Turquoise' as the color, or as neighbor Tom says, Brothel Blue.

The 12" boards at the top of the walls are painted white but its old and peeling. I didn't have supplies to clean that up and its probably going to need replacing eventually so I left it alone. The blue is just to protect the walls.

While Lan was working on the windows and walls, I was tearing out the inside walls of the kitchen. I removed all the cupboards and cabinets and took down a lot of the many layers of walls, there was plywood, boards, wallpaper, linoleum and cloth. 

There were a lot of iffy things on the walls so we made sure to use the good filters.

We did a lot of sxs riding too, one day up to the top of Mt Wilson, another trip out to Hackett Ranch and others. We saw a lot of wild horses and that made my heart happy.

We went to neighbor Toms yard sale and paid $50 for the Traeger smoker and have used it twice, for Brisket and ribs. WOW, its fun to use. I'll be cooking another brisket (ok, this one will be a chuck roast) and ribs today. I do need to go to the store for the roast since I didn't think to thaw one of ours.  I'll need another bag of pellets too.

 

We Leave Thursday

 SO MUCH TO DO, 

as there always is right before leaving on vacation.

I've got most of our clothing packed, I will need to wash a couple more loads of laundry, some to wear, others just so they're not sitting here dirty for 2 weeks. 

I've been trying to find an outdoor umbrella style clothesline but none around us and seriously, I do not know why I want one so badly at this time, we haven't ever used enough power to raise the bill more than the minimum monthly charge. I do enjoy saving money, only if its in my head and I LOVE the feel of sun-dried clothing on my body. Our neighbor, Tom, has a clothes line and I'll use that but not for any undies, he already put the kybosh on that.

We do have most of our things packed but that's 89% or 675,329 items.

Yesterday I asked Mom if her offer to give me 'traveling money' still stood; she said yes so I went for a visit. Mom gave me $5,200. Yay, that was awesome BUT

she didn't invite me into the house.

Because Heather and Ashleigh, the 2 total lowlife losers of the family, were there. That hurt.

What I SHOULD Be Doing...

 I should be packing

I should be cleaning

I should be grooming my horses

I should be putting clean clothes on the line

I should be straightening the sewing room

I should be getting all the food together for our trip

I should be putting together a bag of cross stitch things

BUT

What I am doing is sitting here on my butt not doing anything productive

In One Week

We'll be leaving for vacation in a week, heading to Dugway, Utah first, where we will dig for geodes. We've never been there so it will all be new to us but we have seen a bunch of YouTube videos. About half the people find a lot, the other half don't find any. I hope we get a few good ones. 

Then we will head to Pioche.

Today I'm printing a couple cross stitch patterns to do on the trip, patriotic ones for our nations 250th birthday. This eagle one was hard to figure out & get it so I could even see the pattern.

Now I can't even figure out how to get to the other picture!

I'm tired and hungry, stressed out and headachy. We have SO MUCH to do and so little time, like the last 6 months hasn't been enough time to get our shit together! 

Packing For Travel

We'll be leaving on another trip to Pioche in 9 days and let me tell you, I'm pretty stoked.

We'll first drive to Dugway Geode Beds in Utah, where we will dig for geodes and I thing we're guaranteed to find some. I'll be taking a shovel, bucket to carry them, spray water bottle, all sorts of things. 

They are in Simpson Springs, Utah

This is one area

This is what the area looks like. 

I've read that the BLM goes out & digs up more areas once in a while.

I hope to find a couple cool ones, I hope to find enough that I can share and give a few to Jeremy so he can cut me one.

Then we'll continue on to Pioche. There are several ways to go between the two places but the dark purple line is one we haven't taken before.

I've been planning the things I'll be doing when I'm there, one of which is painting the basement walls. Currently they are gray concrete and purple paint. I've read that you're supposed to use a certain kind of paint on concrete but I'm sure they didn't use that special stuff before so I'm going to paint over it with the paint I have, a light gray. It might brighten it up a little bit.

I'll be pulling weeds again, tumbleweeds. 

Lan will be working on the sewer lines and a bajillion things inside the house. We're ramping up for when we take down the bathroom, utility room and kitchen but there's so much to do before then; basement, clearing out the interior of the rooms, 

We also need to pay a few bills while there too, the garbage bills is $150 for the year, too bad we can't just pay for the time we're there, and the truck tabs are $741 (yikes) but I have called our local DMV and its half as much to get license and tabs in Washington than it is in Nevada.

We will utilize the town pool, its ALWAYS nice to go for a dip when its blasting hot.

We're leaving home on May 21 and heading to Utah but we'll need to sleep somewhere along the way so we got ourselves a free truck canopy and we'll build a bed in the back. The bed will need to be big enough for Lan to sleep on it, so at least 6'3" and that only gives him a couple inches leeway. 

Lan wanted to paint it but that's just one more thing to do and he's already too busy doing shit here and he did point out that it matches the SXS.

Yeah, we'll be taking the Can Am too, its why we bought the house down there in the first place.

Oh yeah, we've got the shed frame up, now just needs the roofing put back on and I'm hoping to find Costco garage sides for free that I can put on it. It has seven 12' corrugated green fiberglass panels for the roof but one is broken so I want a clear or opaque panel, for additional light.  We're going to store the new cart and Kenny inside this.

 

Long Weekend

I found this on FB the other day and was able to go there to get it later that same day & bought it for $1,000.  I'm stinking excited about that.

This is directly out of the barn.

And this is at home before being washed.

Very dusty. I hadn't realized they had shocks and springs but this will make for a nicer ride.

There are a few things that need repairs and we're going to be working on them:

Black polycarbonate, also needs a piece in front of the tool area, under the front of the seat. The drivers seat has damage & it too needs to be fixed.

I'm sure the wheel hubs need grease, brakes checked and shocks checked out. 

Lan also found the double tree for the marathon cart, up in her barn above the tack room behind a bunch of other junk. Getting into that tack room was a chore, we had to go through the back of the barn and the old man had been a hoarder and never got rid of anything. 

This harness came with it and I'm sure they had it connected incorrectly, I *think* that strap behind the tug isn't supposed to be connected to the breeching. It doesn't matter, I'm going to put the wooden cart back together and put this harness with it and sell it as a set.

I found this cart online Thursday and we went to see it that night, and I paid her $100 down to hold it. 

We went back Friday to pick up the cart and at that time Lan asked if we could buy this lean-too for $100 and she accepted. 

So we returned Saturday to get that. That's when Lan found the biothane harness and I took it because the cart came with a harness, which I didn't take. I did find another saddle & didn't take it but should have. Oh well.

Paying $100 for this lean too was crazy as the panels are at least $200 new, they have no rust and are heavy duty. There are 3 panels, plus the roof is in good enough shape to reuse. One roof panel is broke and I think we need to replace it with a center strip of clear or opaque so we have more light in it. 

We are planning on putting the cart and Kenny under this lean too, behind the barn.

 

Well SHIT

 I thought things were going well

then I realized I missed a credit card payment

then I realized I missed 3 credit card payments

Things To Do This Weekend

We rented an excavator to do 4 jobs around the farm this weekend.

1. Make a road along the fenceline to the back corner

2. Dig up the frost free hydrant to replace

3. Level the spot beside the shop where the RV is sitting

4. Bust up the hot tub & bury it in a hole & cover it with the fire 

Or, that's all things Lan will be doing. I mowed a large section of the front pasture to have a tack sale in there this weekend. I will move all the cars to the back so there's room for the guests to park.

I've got saddles and all the other crap not needed any longer and I'm going to sell it all, or as much as I possibly can. I'm sure I can get about $300 for Joeys saddle and maybe $800 for Wifi's dressage saddle. There are a bunch of old bridles and other junk too. 

I've got some household crap to sell too, actually lots of crap.  

Kitchen appliances, some clothing, a few other things. 

I just want it all gone.

Brandan 'fixed' the photos on my computer and now its all ruined, nothing is in the folders as they should be.

 

Hair

This is my hair now, its been growing since 2022, so 4 years so far

This was when we lived at the old farm

Triathlon hair, I LOVED it when it was this short

Starting to grow it out

This was my hair when we went to Sali's Game Of Thrones party

During Covid

During covid I was so sick and at the end of September, when I was mostly well, this was the length when I got it cut. More than 22" was cut off and donated to make wigs.

And a bit after the hair cut!

Then ~ vs ~ Now 

Theres a lot less hairs growing now, not nearly as thick as it was 5 years ago.

Heat

When I was growing up we had a trash burner in the kitchen that would heat the whole house. We also had a natural gas heater but the trash burner was warmer. I always loved backing my butt up to it to warm up on a cold winter day.

When Mom decided to rent the house out she removed the trash burner and it's been sitting in her basement since then, about 40 years. I REALLY, really want it for the Pioche house. The power goes out so often and when its only 22* outside, having a wood burning stove will keep us toasty.  Mom has said we could have it but I didn't feel like she really meant it when I asked if we could put it in the Pioche house. Is it because Mom is 85 and might never travel to Pioche to see our house? Maybe. Is it because she just doesn't want me to have it? Another maybe. Or is she letting Candie have it for her house? That's a very strong probably. All I know is that it would be perfect for our tiny home.

They don't use a lot of wood, the fire box is actually pretty small. The ashes fall through the grates on the bottom and are collected in the bin below it. 

This stove pictured isn't Moms, it's just online but this is the same kind.

Mom told me she wants to give me more money, for our next vacation, but I have no idea how much it might be. I have a feeling she's giving Heather a HUGE amount of money for a down payment on a house somewhere. H made an offer but that's all I know. I hope she's going to let Ashleigh live with her, since neither of them needs to be mooching off Mom & Don any longer, and when Jordan gets sick of his dad again then he can go live with H too.

Mom & Don gave half the business to Jordan & that lazy shit hasn't done shit to help run it. 

 

Our Next Vacation

We'll be heading to Pioche but taking a little longer route than straight down. Last year we went through Winnemucca to see the Gypsy Horse Fest show and it was very nice to see the horses but I was disappointed that there were only about 50 horses, max, at the 'west coast' show. I liked that they had it at all and that I got to go but it was a long way out of our way to see so few horses. It was an extra 500 miles and a day of driving to see the show.

This is the realtors photo of our house in Pioche, the one online for the sales photos, May 2024.

Our 1st visit, May 2024. 

I didn't think about taking a front yard photo on this trip.

June 2024,  our 1st trip as owners. 

When we arrived the front door was wide open.

September 2024, 2nd trip

December 12, 2024, no photo!! but I had just turned 62 & we flew down, went to Zion & got my America The Beautiful pass and went to Pioche.

April 2025, 3rd trip

September 2025

We had taken the trailer down in spring.

The yard was FULL of tumbleweeds, took me days to get them all pulled up.

I have full trips of photos missing or in other folders, lost for now. Dang. 

Its 5 weeks till we leave again to head down, we're planning on heading thru Utah & visiting the Dugway Geode state park where we will dig for our own geodes. I will definitely take an arrival photo this time, and every trip after this one.

I'm going to be looking for the perfect house numbers/sign for the front.