Overtime At Work Pays Off

 I've spent so much of MY time working that now its finally paying off. Over 60 hours overtime in June, then 40 in July, now I've already gotten 10 in August. Summer is the time of plenty but in winter its a time of drought and us on-calls will struggle to get hours. The state requires we get 40 hours each week but they don't do it until we beg for it.

I got a nice check again today and I'll be putting a significant amount into the safe for hay and our fall trip to Pioche. I've already got an envelope overflowing with cash & think I need to get another way to hold it all.

We're heading to Pioche September 25th till October 3rd. 

There are many ways to get there and we try to go a different route each time.

This is the most direct & fastest (16 hours drive time) route and the one we'll probably take this trip due to only 1 week off.

But look at all the options, we could go thru Vegas but we hate Vegas.

We could go thru central oregon which is beautiful but seems like such a long drive.

Thru California to Tahoe & then over...

We only have a week so it'll be the direct route.

And we HAVE to have a plan on exactly what we're going to do while there. I'd LOVE to put in another window, get rid of the old one with the built in A/C unit that Lan broke on our last visit. We can take another unit, that's not an issue, but I'd like to get a window in.

We also need to prep for next spring when we're going to rent an excavator for a full week and remove the back two rooms and the old bathroom and then we have to make new outside walls. Or something, not sure on that yet. We WILL need a lot of wood, nails, screws, saw blades, etc, etc. We might need to take more than 2 weeks for next springs trip.

And we HAVE to have a plan in place for a roof over it.

I LOVE planning trip and things to do on the house while we're there.

Horse News:

Ambleside now has a properly fitted saddle and its XXXX Wide!  That girl needs to lose weight.

Saddle Fitter Sarah found:

 an older Wintec for $330.30

Gullet system $140

3rd saddle fit $50

And me riding alone for the first time in the new to us saddle

Two days later this became available, a Gypsy Gold 'Appleby' saddle for $1,200.

I'm supposed to haul Amble over to The Riding Place on the other side of town tomorrow to check it out. I do have the cash for it but then I'm stuck with the wintec too. Oh well, I might never get another chance to purchase a saddle like this while I have money to buy it.

This would be a great saddle for Amble if I can get her down in weight, right now she's a tank.

Oh yeah, I took her to a show last week & she got 2nd in Halter

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

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.

 

Re-evaluating Life

 I've decided to not do the John Wayne Riders & Wagons ride across Washington state this year. Its been a Bucket List item for 30 years, I wanted to do it with Joey but never got around to it. Now, I have Amble and was planning on it with her this year but we're not ready; I don't have her saddle figured out, I don't have a cart that fits yet, I don't have money ($3,500) to buy the cart offered last week, I need to sell these ones that I do have that are way too small and I don't have the $2,000 to pay for the ride this year.

We DO need to go to Pioche and work on the house there and we do have cash for that but its a separate account and neither of us are getting into that money.

I also have a big too much personal debt and can certainly pay more of that off.

I'm sad today, having made all these life plan changes.

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.

Hollywood!

Flew into Las Vegas & headed south on Hwy 15 toward Los Angeles

Its true, hardly anyone in Las Vegas but this was a Sunday morning

Stopped to see these colored rocks

And the Aliens

Got a bit of rain.

Not too long after this photo was taken, I was driving and avoided a multi car pile up: 3 lanes, 70mph, slamming brakes, cars flying off road on both sides. I saw at least 4 cars go off, didn't see anyone hit another car but I wasn't sticking around. I was in right side lane & got the hell outta there.

Michelle & me, reunited again after 5 years, we originally met in 1996 when she worked at YMCA Camp Seymore in the kitchen with Amy & me.

Michelle is from UK, I've been over there to visit her 3 times & shes been back to the USA about 4 more times.

Friends for life.

Guy & Michelle. They got married last summer and get to travel the world together

In Hollywood we saw these little robot delivery things all over

famous signs we saw

While Michelle & Guy had a little 'lie in', Lan & I went up to the Griffith Observatory

Thats the Pacific Ocean out there

This was seen from the Observatory and we could see it from our room as well

Our room was on the 6th floor & we only had it for 1 night, I think it was the one below the christmas lights

End of the line.

On the way home we went on Zzyzx Road and stopped in to see the Desert Studies place. It used to be a high end resort for the rich & famous but now its just a lot of untended trees and filled fountains alongside the dry lake bed.

Then we flew home

 

We fly tomorrow

 We will leave home at about 5:00pm and arrive at the airport at about 6:00; we'll check in and go thru security and go wait for our plane, which pushes at 7:28pm. We will arrive in Las Vegas at 10:00pm and theres supposed to be a shuttle to pick us up to go to our hotel, which is a cheat ass one off the Strip.  I'm not going to overpay for a room there.

We pick up our car Sunday morning at 10:00am 

And instead of driving to Palm Springs, we will head into the heart of Los Angeles to spend about 36 hours with Michelle and Guy there, since she told me the dates they would be there incorrectly. Ugh. But we'll make it work.

It will just be so good to see them again.

They have reservations to stay in West Hollywood so I suppose we better get a place near them.

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...

Planning

I'm planning my 2026 and it includes learning how to drive my mare.

Ambleside has had 6 months of professional training by people who know what they're doing but unfortunately I live 200 miles away from them so it wasn't easy to go there for MY lessons. 

So I've made arrangements for MY lessons with a local gal, Stephanie. She's actually the first person who let me drive her own pony and is the one who got me hooked. Our first lesson will be her coming here to check out my harness, to teach me more about it and tell me what kind of parts I need (tugs, I think) and what I might need for the cart. I also have the wagon and I'll need to make sure I've got the correct attachments for that as well.

This is my harness but in these photos I wasn't 100% sure how to fit it to Amble. Our trainer, Will, made it fit correctly and he is the one who pointed out what is missing.

Also for 2026, I'm going to be taking riding lesson as well and those are starting this week, 

December 5, 2025 with another local lady, Liza, who will come to our farm to teach me. I'm pretty sure I've got all the gear I need but I hope if there's anything I'm missing that she can tell me about it. 

This photo was taken before I cleaned the saddle. Its old and beat up but after all the saddles I tried on her, this is the best fit. Maybe we can upgrade in the future but for now I'm happy enough with it.

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More travel plans have been thought about: traveling to Palm Springs in January.  It is now cheaper to fly into Las Vegas and rent a car than it is to drive our own car down there, plus gives us a LOT more time with Michelle & Guy.