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.

 

 

Winter Blues

I miss my brother, I miss my best friend and I miss the summer sunshine. 

I've been feeling rather emotional and depressed this last week and even though I just had a vacation, I know I need to get away again. I'm going to start planning my next vacation & the fun part is that I have two options, either go to Pioche with the sxs and do some work on the house 

OR 

do the BUCKET LIST  thing I've been planning for a long, long time.

Riding Amble across the state. 

I had originally planned on doing that with Joey but, life. Now I have the means to do it, I've got the time scheduled off and another horse that can go with me.

I've been working on Ambles cart; Meghan had taken it apart to 'refurbish' but she lost all the parts and did none of the furbishing. SOOOoooooo... I paid $200 for parts two days ago and I know I'll need to spend a lot more, I still need trace holders & they're $22.99 before tax and shipping plus I need two bigger wheels and tires since the cart is a good 8" too low to the ground for her. The shafts need to be level and that isn't negotiable. The harness needs a couple parts, not sure if I've ordered those or not... 

I also need to get her saddle fitted to her correctly or get another saddle and I just simply do not have the funds for that. I also need a 6" ported curb bit and good luck finding one thats not $200.

Another Year Older

and deeper in debt.

I turned 63 years old yesterday.

I've never been so far in debt in my entire life; first ever brand new car payment, a second home that's a total rehab, medical bills like I've never had before and a horse in very expensive training.

But the brand new car is our truck and its a tool much needed on the farm. We've hauled/pulled trailers more miles than without, its got 4x4, A/C that works, 4 doors for ease of access, 12 cup holders and already its got 10,000 miles. 

Our second house, in Pioche, Nevada

And medical issues

Ambleside is now ridable but I have to upgrade my tack to go forward. 

The house is coming along, the truck is holding its own, my belly is all better and Amble needs a few tack changes before I can attempt to ride again. Her bit isn't big enough, she needs a 6" and her saddle needs to fit better.  I had a gal, a trainer, come give her a lesson and she got bucked off. I thought it was her just asking too much too fast, now I think maybe the saddle hurt or the bit pinched. 

Booked Flights

 Back in October I purchased the Frontier Airlines 

Go Wild Pass

for Lan & I, at $300.00 each. I figure if we fly once it would already be saving us money & today I purchased round trip tickets from SeaTac - Las Vegas for $126 in total, saving $63 by using their promo code. YAY. If I had been thinking I'd have had us leaving a day earlier so we could go get the rental car and drive up to Pioche, spending that night and the next at our house.  I tried to change the flights but its a $100 fee, making the savings moot. So no Pioche this trip unless we get the car & drive straight 2 hours up there, sleep, do anything around the house we need to do quickly and leave again, on a 7 hour drive to Palm Springs. That's totally do able.

We're flying out January 3 and returning January 6. 

Michelle & Guy arrive January 4 and continue on to Hawaii on January 6. 

We will have about 36 hours to spend with them and it will be a great time. I'm so thankful they invited us to meet up with them and hope & pray its not the last time we will ever see them but that's what I thought when we left England in 2019.

Now I can look for a place to spend the night that's inexpensive...

Another visit to our Pioche House

Here is our 'lovely' house in Pioche as we pulled up to it at almost midnight. 

We're both surprised that solar light is holding up. It's always on at night on a dim setting but as soon as it sees movement, it gets brighter.

Heres the front yard, growing a good bunch of tumbleweeds, there were about 50 bajillion of the dang things around the house. Lan said he's just spray them, but I wanted them gone as they are a terrible fire hazard. 

So, I pulled them by hand. 

We took at least 4 truckloads of them to the dump and that wasn't even all of them. I pulled them for a couple hours at least every other day, my hands were so sore.

Lan did work on the basement, installed LED lights, we got it cleaned up, he moved the freshwater line from the right side of this area to the left, attached some of the new PEX lines to it and has a distribution board set up and attached to the wall. We'll need a new water heater soon, even if we can't use it yet.

This is the old water heater and the pipes under the kitchen area of the house. This stuff is all going to be removed eventually.

This is going from the 'finished' part of the basement to the stairs that go to the house. The bright spots and open to the outside, so vermints can get in.

Since we're now making a truck payment, we don't have tons of cash to throw at this house, so we had plenty of time to explore. This was Condo or Condor Valley and it did not disappoint!

Brian Head in Utah was gorgeous with the fall colors.

I love Aspen trees

Another day we were trying to get back home before the storm came in but got a flat. Rain ended up getting us pretty wet.

This is inside the Jackrabbit Tunnel, last time we were there we only went to this deck area, we didn't go down the ladder. Down here there are SO MANY cool places to go.

Next time we plan on going much, much farther down that ladder, it goes about 50 feet farther before we couldn't see it anymore.

This isn't the best photo but here is a male tarantula I almost stepped on when I was entering a mine. I ended up screaming like a little girl and didn't go into that mine.

As we were getting packed up to come home, this happened. To the brand new truck, didn't even have 7600 miles on it yet. It was an accident.

Before we were 100 miles away from Pioche, Mora had found another tailgate for sale in Portland, Oregon so we went there on the way home & bought it for $300.  It's also from a brand new 2025 truck so matched perfectly.

Heres the leaving Pioche photo. I hope someday I'll have the opportunity to stay longer & not have a set date to leave.

 

Another Vacation Just Around The Corner

 We'll be heading to Pioche again in just a few weeks, leaving here as early as September 18th and not having to be back before October 4th. Between then and now I'll be working full time and I'm sure OT as well, and I'll be forced to work other docks. I greatly dislike working the other docks, I don't know those jobs as well. The 'Triangle" of Southworth, Fauntleroy and Vashon Island are all confusing on the best days and when you throw someone like me in the mix there is a good chance of fucking shit up. Stupidvisor Phil made sure to fuck with Tim and I by making me go to Fauntleroy yesterday and Tim is at Southworth today. There is NO reason to do that besides their POWER. Irene told me it's because those docks had a lot of over time this summer, so I told her so have we, shit Tim and I had over 24 hours in the last 2 weeks, 15 by me. 

I simply do not want the stress of working other docks. Night before last I didn't sleep well, was awake every hour fretting if I had missed the alarm and was late catching the fucking boat; Thats not healthy. Then when I did get to Fauntleroy it wasn't warm at all, the predicted 80* was a FUCKING LIE and I froze my ass off because I'd taken just my vest, not a coat. 

So I need this vacation.

Between now and then, I'll have a lot going on. Tomorrow I'm working the Bremerton morning sellers shift 4:15-2:15 and after that I have to start getting ready for my medical procedure Friday morning. Getting ready will consist of a shower in medicated soap tomorrow night and no eating after 11pm. I can have water to drink up until 4am or so. I'll have another medicated shower in the morning, then have to arrive at the hospital by 8am.

What is an ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography)?

• This exam involves the use of a slim, flexible lighted instrument called an endoscope is passed through the mouth and through the stomach into the duodenum (the part of the small intestine that is closest to the stomach) to examine the opening of the bile duct (the tube that carries bile from the liver and gallbladder into the small intestine). A thin tube (catheter) is passed through the endoscope and inserted into the tubes (ducts) that lead to the pancreas and gallbladder. A special dye is injected into these ducts, and x-rays are taken. This helps the doctor see stones, tumors, and any areas that have become narrowed.
• The exam is performed under sedation to minimize gagging and discomfort during the procedure.

 

This is my second ERCP, to remove the stent they installed 2 months ago. I was asleep for that and will be asleep again. I'm sure I'll feel just fine afterward. 

I'm sure the stupidvisors will find work at the other docks for us to do in the next week and I'll do it but only to bring in a paycheck. I will not go above and beyond for anyone. 

Next weekend Lan and I will have to go pick up Amble from the trainers in Granger and I am looking forward to that. Mostly I'm looking forward to having her here so I can ride her.  When we do go to pick her up I hope to get a couple whings done, 1 is another lesson for me and another is to get her harness fitted to her. Shit, I don't even know if it will work with the cart I have for her.

Then 1 week after that is VACATION. I barely have enough time to make plans!! We aren't going to have loads of cash for doing all the work we'd like to do so we'll do a little work and spend a lot of time on the sxs. We haven't done that a lot lately and that's important to us, its WHY we bought a house in Pioche.  I want to some day take it to the Arizona Strip 

and ride all over Utah and much, much more of Nevada.

Rear Wall Rebuild

This was the houses back wall when it was listed for sale.

The previous owners were going to flip it and we're saving the old pink insulation to use again. We hauled all of it to the dump.

You can see all the old wires hanging and dangling, everything original to how we bought it.

On previous trips we had rebuilt the worst walls, the front and left side walls in the lower photo.

This wall was an exterior wall before and was difficult to tackle and repair correctly, or, as best we could.

The vertical boards are the same as using plywood now. He had to remove all the 2x2s and broken boards, a lot of nails and wiring.

Lan built this wall in a few hours, since he knows how to do it now.

That table is made of particle board and saw horses, we've had to move it a few times already and man its been handy. At least once a day I'll go through the house and put away all the tools so we have room for others as we need them.

In the photo below is the entire 20' wide wall, its about 9.5 feet tall.

The closet door on the right will be framed for a window and that closet will be gone. 

The door in the middle will ramain and will eventually go into a new bathroom & utility room, with another door out the back to a deck area.

This is the doorway, where you can see the original exterior siding. We *MIGHT* try to save the siding by using linseed oil on it. This wall though is going to be turned into a proper interior wall and IF we can save this siding, it could possibly be used on other exterior walls IF we go that route. I had wanted metal siding but Lan is not interested in that, he wants Hardi board but I think that would look ugly. This siding has a LOT of nails in it but those holes could be filled and with linseed oil it could be beautiful again.

This is the closet that's to be removed. We store all the tools and equipment in it and when we leave its covered by the sheet of particle board that's our table, so it looks like a wall. 

It already had the shelving and it handy for all our needs. I try to put all the similar items together so they're easier to find but Lan just throws things in there sometimes. 

Don't get me wrong, he's always been this way but this project has been frustrating to him in ways he's never experienced before. 

Here he is beginning with some wiring. There had been a useless light switch there before so he removed it and put in a 4 plug outlet. Then he built a small shelf beside it that holds all 4 chargers and the batteries for the tools. The trash can fits below & is easy to throw stuff into, with the shop vac beside it.

It the 2 weeks we were just there, it was only warm enough to use the fan once. Without any insulation its gets very warm very fast, and same with the cold.

The yellow ladder was gifted to us from Jon. We need to take another, taller, one as well so we can reach that high roof.

Our neighbor Tom has lived here most of his life, he worked in the mines when he was much younger. A few years ago he was able to go to one of them and he found the time books, found his name in some of them and he said he found the name of the guy who lived in our house at the time. He can't remember that guys name now, but I'd REALLY like to know who he was. I'd love to know the history of our home.

Thats it for now on the back wall. I hope you've enjoyed our rebuilding as much as we have.

 

Fabulous Pioche Trip

 We did SO MUCH STUFF on our recent trip to Pioche that I'm going to do this in parts.

First I'll cover the trip, then on future updates, I'll fill you in on each thing we did.

We left home i n Port Orchard on Friday, April 25, 2025 in our Dodge 3500 dually pulling the 23' travel trailer. We headed south, not knowing for sure what route we'd take but we knew we needed to end up in Winnemucca for the Gypsy Horse Fest. It was pretty cool to see a bunch of Gypsy's all in one place, all looking fabulous, but I sincerely thought there would be many more. I also think Ambleside would do really well there because shes got such nice movement compared to some of these horses. Judges asked for extended trot and all they did was speed up a bit while Amble puts on a show all her own.

They were fun to watch but we stayed only about an hour because we had time to make up since we'd had a blow out on the trailer and had to spend time changing it and going 60 moles out of our way to buy a new spare. Plus going to Winnemucca added about 500 miles onto our trip.

We did see wild horses this trip but I got no photos of them.  There were 2 mares near one mine, 3 more not too far out of town and a LOT in the Steens Mountains of Oregon.

We went on Highway 50 again, known as the 'Loneliest road in America' and this time it truly was, there were times we'd drive an hour & only pass 1 car.

We boondocked overnight just west of Austin and it began to snow early in the morning. Not heavy, not unexpected but it weas 12 hours earlier than they said. We had a few mountain passes to go over and they were in the clouds.

Somewhere along the way we passed the 'Shoe Tree' and had to stop for photos. We'd seen one of our youtube channels stopping there so we did too, next time we'll each have a pair of shoes to add to the tree.

It was kinda gross seeing all those shoes.

Finally, we reached Pioche and got the trailer parked. It will be out place to stay whenever we go down there, a place to sleep, pee, cook and have A/C or heat if needed.

This was the first photo of the house, I always like to get one. It looks like a meth house with the reflective car window things in the windows.

Lan finished his Lego Mustang car model Andrea gave him for Christmas.

On our first morning I enjoyed the sunrise through the Lilacs. They are all over town and the whole place smells devine.

We got to see friends, this is Jon, he's one reason we bought in Pioche. He is 85, a grieving widower and inventor.

And this is Maynard who lives across the street but is now our Pioche pup.

We replaced this window

with this one.

Lan built this wall, reinforcing the wall that's an exterior wall but the kitchen is on the other side now.

He added 2 walls to form the bedroom. If you look closely you'll notice the spot we saved for the fridge so we can have the classic triangle of sink-stove-fridge. 

More on walls later.

We also went into a few mines on our trip, more on those later.

We tried to take a hike somewhere every day, on this day we hiked around town then up to the Cross on top of the hill.

Here Lan is pointing to our house.

We also had to shower but not i n the teensy trailer bathroom so we'd go out to Cathedral Gorge state park and hike around and go into the slot canyons, then use the facilities there.  That is one place we definitely want to take Soren.

I'll skil to coming home. We left Thursday afternoon, May 8th and drove all the way to Jackpot, right at the border of Idaho. Stayed at Cactus Jacks hotel. Left at 9am after a yummy breakfast in their buffet.

We drove to Twin Falls and watched Base Jumpers jump off this bridge, the only place its legal in the USA. Way fun.

Then as the day got hotter I started bitching about no a/c in the truck.  We stopped in Mountain Home at the McDonalds for lunch and started staring at the new ford trucks.

And we bought this one:

Its in our backyard now, they let us drive it away without us paying a dime. We left the old truck there and felt a teensy bit bad because it took us a LOT of places but it never had A/C and I'm getting too old for that bullshit.

2025 F-350 4 door, 4x4, diesel with 20 miles on it.