Camping

 We're taking the 14 1/2 year old great nephew camping for 2 nights about 30 miles from home, taking the mtn bike for him to ride and the SXS for us all to enjoy. I'll take my cross stitch so they can go ride & I'll work on that, have a nap, enjoy snacks.

It'll be fun.

Cars On Trips

Which car will we take?

The 2025 Ford F-350? 

It still smells new & has everything but diesel is more expensive than gas and this gets lower mileage.

If 20 mpg, it will use 125 gallons of gas with cost of $686.25

The 2009 Subaru Impreza?

It gets the best mileage at 30+ but needs new tires and isn't yet 100% reliable. This would save on fuel but tires will be a few hundred bucks. Lan can mount them himself and we'll need them anyway but getting them for the trip means trip money goes to tires.

If 30 mpg, it will use 83.3 gallons of gas with cost of $374.17

The 2010 Ford Escape?

It also has a few quirks but its only getting about 20 MPG anymore and isn't 100% reliable either. With this we could make a run into Cedar City, Utah and bring back more than we could fit into the Impreza, plus we can take it off road. 

If 20 mpg, it will use 125 gallons of gas with cost of $561.25

If we take the truck it would be a bit slower just because its bigger but we can haul anything in it and go off road if needed.

If we take the Subaru we'll 'save' on fuel overall but no fun stuff.

If we take the Escape it will cover all the bases.

 

 

How To Proceed

OK, so here is our house in Pioche, what it looks like right now.

Living room on the left, kitchen on the right. It is 20' wide across the front.

This is a rough drawing of the house

And this is a rough drawing of what it might look like when we're done rebuilding it.

We're going back to see the house in September or October, we do need to winterize the trailer and get all the measurements and make final plans on how we're going to do next springs demolition of the utility, kitchen & bathroom and THEN we need to get it all covered again so the basement doesn't flood in the winter from any rain and snow. They haven't had much of either for 2 years so they're due for a good amount, I think, this winter.

The bedroom is already framed in and it will be 12'x12' with the closet on the side along the living room, to provide a little sound proofing.

We both want to have a large window out the back of the house to see the views of the valley but as of right now, we're not exactly sure how that's going to work out.

I had so many ideas of things we could do with this house but all those photos are lost and it kinda makes me sick.

 

Over Time Is Done

 We got home on June 5th and I had another week off, but got called in for OT on June 11th. Then starting Sunday June 14th, I worked 6 straight days for that first 60 hours, I had Saturday June 20th off, then another week of 60 hours, 1 day off and this week I worked the last FIFA hours yesterday. I'll work Thursday and Friday for only 40 hours this week.  There were 2 holidays when I got OT so cash wise they were each $1,000 days but I chose Comp days so I'll get more time off. Today & tomorrow are the first 2 days I'll have off together since June 12th & 13th.

What I need to accomplish in these 2 days is:

Get the RV cleaned out and set up for Jeffs visit Monday

Put bedding and stuff out there 

Make sure there is water in it so he can use the toilet if he wants

Shop for snacks and treats, and beer for Jeff

          Shop for gluten free foods since he is intolerant 

Shop for an awesome Birthday gift for Jeff, he will be 66 on Monday

 

On July 11th there will be a memorial for Aunt Rita and there will be far more people there that I don't want to see than the few I do want to see. Until 2 months ago I thought that things were good between Sali and me but then I caught her in a lie so I no longer care to see her. And YES, that's petty but she simply didn't need to lie to me in the first place. 

I wonder how many more family members will die before I see them all again?

 

Back To Work

 We've been home a week and during that time I worked 50 hours, 10 is overtime on a holiday so I'll earn about $1000 that day, now for my second week I'll work 60 hours so worked time is 110 hours plus a holiday, which for the regular holiday time I'll take as comp.

I did not plan on working so much right off the bat but its available and I'm high enough in seniority to get better shifts but honestly I enjoy every position on the dock.  Mostly I sell but traffic and plank are as easy as pie.

All this OT is due to the FIFA in Seattle; they are paying for extra people to be on the dock so I said 

SIGN ME UP!

The OT will be about 70 hours each week through July 10, by the time it's over I'll be wiped out.

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.