Feeling Better

 I'm feeling better about my recent life decisions. I KNOW Ambleside won't be ready to go on a 2 week trek across the state, I'm not going to be ready and I don't feel like Lan is too excited about it. Even as I was planning on the ride, I was dreaming of being in Pioche and working on the house.

I've started watching a LOT of YouTube renovation channels, there and thousands to choose from. What to do in a bathroom, what not to do in a kitchen, how to change this for that, how to make this better or hide that. It's all available at the tips of our fingers. Most of the people are flippers and I'm really not interested in their cheap changes, I really like watching the people who are going to live in their homes once they are finished. 

Janna Phipps has been great, for a young girl she's fun to watch and her disposition is funny. She can take a down turn and make it UP. She can cry and then sees the bright side.

In other news...

I have paid for 1/2 a beef and we should be able to pick it up in a couple weeks I guess. I'm not asking for them to do anything extra, mostly steaks. I'll be glad to not have to go buy hamburger at the grocery store.

Amble and I will be having another driving lesson with Stephanie, she will be here in an hour. She texted that she wants to drive Amble in her halter and since I did that myself last week I know Amble will be OK with it. I might need to use a better halter, her regular one has squared metal side thingys and the long lines don't hold onto it well.   I just grabbed one of the leather halters thats been hanging on Bucking Brown and washed it up really quick, that might work.

I need to go open the gate for Stephanie, take some boxes out to the barn for her and sweep the barn aisle. I'm looking forward to this lesson.

Seasonal Greetings

 Winter starts tomorrow.

Three days later it's Christmas Eve.

One day later it's Christmas.

Five days later its New Years Eve, aka our Anniversary.

One day later its New Years 2026 Day.

Two days later we fly to Las Vegas.

One day later we drive to Palm Springs.

Two days later we drive back to Las Vegas, catch a plane and come back home.

135 days later our vacation begins and we SHOULD be hauling Ambleside to Hyak & North Bend area to begin my bucket list ride across the state. If she or I am not ready then we will be hauling the truck & sxs down to Pioche for a nice three week long vacation.

Busy times ahead.

Black Orchid Ambleside

This was the trucks maiden voyage with the camper and I'm happy to say it did OK.

We got a late start and arrived at the area we like to boondock well after dark, so it was a bit difficult to find a spot. We did check out Kaner Flats but it wasn't on the river side of the road, and they wanted $10 to camp and I almost paid $40 because it was dark & didn't notice till the next day that I had put two 20's into the payment envelope. It's a good thing we didn't stay at that campground.

So this is the view we woke up to.

Our morning lesson with Amble turned into an afternoon lesson so we had 6 hours to use. Lan decided we should go check out Boulder Cave (it's only $5) and after the Ranger said it's reservation only, he said there was an opening so took our money and let us go in. There were only 2 other families there the whole time. It's a short cave, maybe 100 yards long and pitch-black inside. Its got bats but we didn't see a single one, since we forgot to take flashlights and my phone light sucks. But we still enjoyed the trek.

This little guy was on the hand rail of a walkway and we're sure he was trying to not get eaten by the Garter Snake that was hanging out below him. We left them both alone.

And, at 3pm, we got to see Amble. 

I got to drive my own horse!!!!!

I have a long way to go with driving but I hope I don't do her, or me, any harm. I definitely need to begin to use weights, my arms and hands were sore after I was done. And my feet were tired after being on the back of the cart for most of the hour from leaning to the outside of every turn.

 

Days Away on A Mini Vacation

 I have a lesson on learning to drive Amble tomorrow morning and I'd like to do it as early as possible, as its supposed to get up to 91* over there. We have decided to go camping tonight so we won't be driving for 3.5 hours at 0'dark:30 in the morning to get there.

I've checked out a bunch of the camping areas around Yakima and a few of them are on the Canyon Road between Ellensburg and Yakima, I don't know if I'd want to camp at any of them. The day use is OK; camping is only $5-$15 but the people are sketchy. They'd probably end up partying all night & we'd get no sleep.  There is the Sunnyside RV Park and it's still reasonable at $37 per night with electric and a pool but we'll be there too late to swim and leave too early to swim.  I did leave a reservation request with them so if the guy calls back, I'll ask about late arrivals, since we wouldn't get there before 10pm.

I'm excited yet nervous to drive Amble and to ride her. I'm not nearly as good a rider as I used to be and I've never driven besides one single time. This is why I need to go over, to learn to drive.

Pioche

We're already planning our next Pioche trip, April 27-May 10, 2025.

IF I can get Saturday April 26th off, we will be able to leave here Thursday evening after we get off work. Usually when we leave in the evenings like that, we're able to drive till about midnight before we have to stop to sleep. Having a travel trailer, RV or camper has always been nice because we aren't paying for a cheap ass hotel room and we can boondock. 

We've purchased interior house wire, junction boxes, plug-ins and light switches for the house in Pioche and thats what we're planning on getting finished this trip. We will have to remove a lot of old stuff, some of that is OLD in this stuff (stock photo)

and some is newer. We will have to leave some because we'll need to use it for tools and lights.

We're going to work on the plumbing too so we can at least use the toilet. Tom, the neighbor, has said we can use his hose so we'll just fill the tub to have flushing water. I want to make sure all the water pipes are completely blown out each and every time we leave so we won't have to worry about busted pipes in the future.

I haven't been able to paint in the trailer because its been too cold, down into the 20s as night. The paint needs a bit of warmth to dry and even though there's a heater in there, I can't use it too much. The whole barn, shop and tack room are on the same electrical breaker as our dryer and its too much so it keeps popping off. I'm not interested in burning down any of our buildings so I'll just wait to paint.  I want to finish at least the kitchen in green paint, and the walls an off white. I'd like to put a back splash around the stove and sink but no ideas what sort yet.  The color of kitchen cabinet paint is Benjamin Moore 'Forest Floor'

In other exciting news:

Erin and I had made plans for her to come over and give me a lesson in driving Amble but shes got that nasty cold/flu I had last month and I told her to stay home. 

I E-Filed our income taxes today and we're not even getting half as much as last year due to a drastic tax cut that happened early last year. We're getting more money on each check but a lot less on our return. I could pay more into it but not going to do that, I'll just know we're getting less. This year we'll use the money for fencing around the back pasture.

I'm trying to save money for our trip but its hard, we'll need at least $800 for r/t fuel.  I think right now I might have $200 saved with potential to save $500 from each check equaling up to $2,500. I best get cracking on it. Maybe I can sell some junk, like the Metro. Thats not junk but I don't need it.