Maybe it's easier to just move closer to the hay...

that is what we are starting to wonder!

So this past weekend was our annual Spokane trip for our yearly supply of hay. We drive to Spokane because even with cost of fuel, we pay less than 1/2 the cost of hay from Western WA.. which equates to more than $1000 savings every year!

We left Friday afternoon with Shannon's 1 ton dually truck and her 10 ton flatbed gooseneck trailer.. perfect combo for the 6-7 tons we had planned to buy... We stayed with Derek's nephew Rick and his wife Kristen.. Derek, Rick & Rob went golfing Saturday while I spent the day with Toni visiting and later that evening we all met up at the races. It was a busy couple of days with our late night dinner Friday and then late night again Saturday.. Rick complained that it felt like we were always on the go-go-go when we come to visit and there was no down time. We have a lot to try to fit in on our annual hay trip with dinners, golf, visiting friends & hay, so we decided that in the future we should definately plan a trip over w/o getting hay because that's the only time we typically drive over. It did not feel super busy and exhausting to us, we are used to being on the go constantly. It was funny to hear from the guys who are 10 years younger than us, that they couldnt handle not having the down time.. downtime, what the hell is that? :)

We started loading our hay at 7:30am on Sunday morning, decided the trailer looked great with 6 ton, so went ahead and put 1 more ton on. No squat in the truck and hardly any squat on the trailer, but the tires looked a bit low (one in particular was clearly very low with the load). So we filled them up at the farmer's place and headed to Greg's (my x-coworker) who lives in Spokane to visit him and his wife for a little while. Trailer pulled great, tires looked good.. All was well.. Had a nice visit with Greg/Yvonne and got back on the road at 10:30 to head West.

At 11:15 (about 40 miles from Spokane) we hear a big "BAM" with a jolt of the truck and knew right away a tire was gone! Shit! We pull over and the drivers side rear tire was gone, plus the rim was destroyed. After some panicking, we called Toni's son Darrel as he drives a tow truck, asked him if he had access to a spare tire/rim and we'd pay him to come out and help us. He had a tow call to make before coming to our rescue so it was 3pm by the time he showed up. 15 minutes later his tire was on the trailer, clearly low on air.. we paid him some cash and drove off to the nearest gas station for air. Got the air in the tire, grabbed a quick (not very good) bite to eat since we knew we wouldnt want to stop again for food and headed back out on the road.

As we approached the 1st rest stop on our way, we decided to stop and check the tire just to be sure all was okay. It was the Schrag Rest Area, about 20 miles East of Moses Lake, it was 4:15pm when we stopped the truck. We get out, walk to the tire and see that it clearly is about 1/2 empty on air and we can hear the air leaking out... We walked back to the truck and just sat inside with a blank look on our faces I'm sure as we both independantely contemplated our next move.. 4 minutes later the truck jolted a tiny bit and we realized the tire had just gone completely flat! Its a damn good thing we pulled off I90 or we'd have been stuck on the side of the road..

So we contemplated the options, made quite a few calls.. our emergency roadside service was happy to come help but the only help they could provide was to haul our trailer to a shop and wait til Monday to get the tire serviced. They dont carry tires/rims. So we quickly realized we would be sleeping at the reststop with no food and only a couple bucks in our pockets to each get 1 bottled drink out of the vending machine... I attempted to get pizza places to deliver to us, but we were too far out.. It was suggested that we unhook and drive to get a bite to eat, however we had no chalks to block the trailer tires, it was not a good idea to disconnect and prop that trailer back on the rear axle even more w/o that tire and it's a real bitch to disconnect anyways.. so we sat there and played "20 questions" trying to get time to slip on by faster. We slept OK, not great through that night.

At 7am, I was on the phone with Moses Lk Schwab. They did not carry the size tire we needed so they informed me that we'd have to buy 4 new tires, that no Schwabs carried that tire anymore! F*ck!! Thats pretty much what we were saying.. Derek went to the restroom at that time, said he was contemplating ripping the handdryers off the wall, he wanted to destroy something when he heard what we were about to pay to get back on the road... I told them OK, I guess we are stuck so come on out. I got smart and called around, talked to a guy at Tires West who said we should call Ritzeville Schwab because Moses Lk was a bit shady. I did just that and they carried our tire! AND they had some used tires/rims in the exact size we needed with 80% tread left.. I told him to bring 2.. we would put 1 on the trailer and take 1 as a spare. I was very happy and at 9:30am Monday morning, we were back on the road. I must mention that it had started raining 30 minutes prior to getting back on the road; however it only continued to rain another 5 minutes as we drove away from the clouds and into the sun.

As we approached Moses Lk we contemplated stopping to eat but decided we just wanted to stay on the road and get home asap; we'd wait til Ellensburg. 30 minutes after leaving the rest stop, cruising along at about 50-55 mph, BAM! Another blow out... GODDAMMIT! well that's not exactly what we said, but you can use your imaginations. :) The new tire we just put on blew out.... So it was now 10am, stuck again on I90.

We have now realized that although the trailer says it can handle the load, clearly the tires are rated for only 1/2 of what the trailer can handle.. We call Schwab from Moses Lk, as we are less than 15 miles away and waited for the them come out and put the spare on. In the meantime, we are still very hungry and now pretty thirsty and even with an empty stomach I still had a full bladder! Squatted next to the truck, right there on I90.. Nice! We decide the only 2 options available are 1) Drop a couple tons off the trailer at the nearest farmers house and just give it away to get rid of it or 2) Hope and cross all fingers, toes, limbs, any available body parts that our flatbed trailer is at our house and my parents can go pick it up and make the long drive to Moses Lk to get some of this hay off this trailer! See the day before Derek had told our neighbor he could borrow our flatbed on Monday, so we really needed a little lady luck and were anxiously awaiting the call from my parents saying the trailer either was or was not in our driveway! Thank You Jesus, Jim had not come for the trailer yet (he was unreachable via phone so we had no idea if he had it or not). So as we sat waiting for Schwab, my parents loaded up the trailer and started the 3 hour trek to save our asses!

Schwab finally arrived at 12:30, put the spare tire on and we drove a couple miles down to the nearest exit (Dodson Rd) and quickly got off I90, pulled into a large gravel parking area and sat waiting 2 more hours for mom and dad to show up.

We played a little more "20 questions" as we waited.. doing really good at keeping our cool with the entire situation. I was still completely stressed about the rest of the trip, hoping that removing part of the load would solve our problems, worried we'd blow another tire with NO spare left to put on! As we waited, Derek hit his head pretty hard on the gooseneck section, darn near knocking himself out..

2:30 WHEW there are my parents with some water! We had hussled them out the door so quickly that they didnt have time to think about grabbing a bite to eat for us, I dont blame them I was pretty much telling them what I needed them to do earlier and I felt bad, they had company over and there was no time to doddle. :) They heard that the pass was going to close Westbound at 7:30 for rock blasting so we were on a time crunch.

An hour later, we had 2.5 tons off the borrowed trailer and onto our smaller trailer and another 1/4 ton in the bed of our truck. 3:40pm back on the road for what hoped to be the last long haul to home! A quick stop in Ellensburg (yes we made it from Moses through Vantage Hill and to Ellensburg) for some fuel in dad's truck and a stop at Subway for some much needed fuel for ourselves! As we ate our 6" subs, it had been 25 hours since we had eaten prior.. Derek nor I could recall a time we had ever gone that long without eating and although I experienced some hunger growls, I wasnt really that hungry.. I think the stress of the situation had my stomach in knots so eating was low on my priority list.

As we approached Cle Elum the skies were lookin mighty ugly and as the downpour started, we just drove on, unwilling to stop. We hoped (once again) for a little lady luck in that the squal would last only a short ways.. and it did stop pouring as we crested Snoqualmie Pass, the skies parted to partially sunny and continued to stay dry until we pulled in the driveway at 8pm Monday evening! Amazingly that with the 2nd round of rain (about 45 minutes) the hay felt only a tiny bit damp. The small flatbed was parked in the shop and the big trailer parked in the barn isle to be unloaded most likely Wednesday... What a TRIP!

We worked really hard at maintaining a good attitude and finding the positive in our situation.. we did both get a day off (although only 1 of us got paid for that time off) and we got some nice time of relaxing and doing nothing (which is always nice to get away from TV and noise). And even with all the extra expenses of these damn tires, the hay is still cheaper than what we can buy over here in Western WA, whether its grass direct from a farmer or the bales in the feedstores.. Next year we plan to maybe rent a big Penske flatbed and let the tires be the problem of someone else and we'll plan to head back on a Saturday with our load and not Sundays.. we'll save socializing for another time! :)

We set out with all the right tools, we had a trailer heavy enough for the load, a truck big enough to pull said load, noone to blame.. shit happens and I'm so thankful to my parents for coming to our rescue!! What was supposed to be a 12 hour easy drive back, turned into a 36+ hour nightmare! It reopened the door to discussion on whether it might just be easier to move closer to the hay and have the hay delivered direct from field to our barn! hmmm... the possibility is there if the right job came up for Derek. Maybe it's time for a change..

Herbs are not just for the birds..

apparently they are good for horses too!


So this past weekend was the annual horse club Ladies Ride, this year up at Harry O, outside of Sedro Woolley. I do miss the old location of Silver Ridge Ranch (Easton, WA) because I like the camping much better there.. but Harry O is free and there are more trails. I brought along my cousin Shana but I told her the stipulation was that she had to sleep in a tent! :) I really enjoy having it to myself when Derek is not with me. It was the running joke of the weekend (thanks to Shana) that because I sleep in the buff (which is partially why Shana was banned) and because I said I wanted "me" time (which was the other reason I gave Shana for not being allowed to sleep in the camper) that she assumed "me" time was for personal/self fulfilling reasons, also referred to as "Piper Time!"


Which to set the record straight, is 100% NOT the reason she was banned from the camper.. lol I just wanted the peace and quiet of having alone time... :)


The weekend went really well, we arrived Thursday afternoon, got our tent and awning set up and opted not to ride that afternoon, it just got too late. We did get in a 4 hour ride on Friday, the weather was nice but not too terribly hot, rode to the lake which was fun. When we got back to camp, a short while later, Edgar laid down.. DAMMIT!! I knew right away he was colicky.. He never lays down around people... He kept looking at his belly, so I gave him a round of Banamine (the magic paste!) and 20 minutes later he was perfectly fine.. He was still eating, drinking, pooping, peeing.. I think he just gets a gas colic or some sort of nervous stomach or something. Maybe he internally is a little stressed out and it bothers him enough to cause him to get a belly ache. We rode again on Saturday for almost 3 hours and Edgar was great.. but around midnight as I was attempting to sleep, I heard him lay down so I got up and sat out with him for 30 minutes to watch him.. he kept looking at his belly so as he lay there, I walked over and gave him another round of Banamine and went to bed. I figured it was better to be safe than sorry and it allowed me the opportunity to sleep soundly vs fretting and watching him all night.


Sunday he again was good to go.. my plan was a 1 - 1.5hr MAX ride... we got back to camp 2.5hrs later! lol Which turned out just fine, I was in no rush to get home since I knew Derek was off golfing that day and would not be home til probably after 9pm. Shana and I slowly packed up and headed out early afternoon. We did get some rain Saturday night and sprinkled on for just a few minutes on Sunday, but overall a terrific weekend with some great riding.


While I was away, Derek spent Saturday morning golfing with Jen & John in Snohomish and then spent the afternoon at the Hunt Test out in Duvall/Carnation area. He met Elroy who owns Earl.. Earl is the pappy to our future puppy.. He met lots of very nice people that were more than happy to talk with him and answer questions about the world of hunting with dogs and hunt tests.. We initially thought about training Cooper on our own, but he was advised its not as simple as it seems so Derek is now gung-ho on sending our dog down to OR for 3 months of training.. I told him he has 7 months to save up the cash! I have a feeling this new adventure will be somewhat time consuming and I think I will be very thankful to have the horses home 24/7 next year so we wont forget they exist as we focus on the pooches. :)


Speaking of pooches.. Ellie is doing really well. She is getting big and fast, she FINALLY now "asks" (because she cant quite jump up on her own yet) to come up on the couch with me and sits by my side (well when she is tired anyways cuz if she has an ounce of energy in her, she wants nothing to do with sittin still for more than 3 seconds at a time!)


So back to the herbs.. I called my vet to find out what could be causing Edgar to Colic. He had a 4-day colic bout that started at that Winery Ride last year, then he started to colic again last month while camping and again this month.. my vet, Dana indicated he could have ulcers which when stressed might cause him to start to colic.. so she recommended Celery Seed & Aloe Vera Juice! There are ulcer medications but very expensive, so we'll try to the cheaper route first. There is also a supplement that might help but it too is pretty spendy at $100/month! I will try the seed and juice and start feeding them to him a week before all camping trips and then through the camping weekends.. see if we can get his internal system to function better... Another reason to have him home so we can feed him grain year round as well.

My camera either died or both sets of my batteries died.. :( I really hope it was the batteries or the battery charger that died.. not quite ready to buy a new camera yet! So I stole these couple pics off Shana's FB page.. this is how I wash my hair with no shower or bathroom, just a teakettle and some soap! :)


And then the lake we rode to, you have to walk through part of the lake to get back on the trail.

2 Hot 2 Function..

that was the case this past weekend.. mid-high 90's.. ugghhh

We didnt quite have the gumption to get our asses out of bed as early as we should have to beat the heat, knowing we had work to get accomplished outside. We managed between Sat & Sun mid mornings, to get all the t-posts pulled out of our pasture and seperate all the field fence wire.. why? so we can start the process of building our permanent fencing.. finally!

I am tired of having the horses away from home, we have decided that next year, the horses will stay home with us most of the year, which means we will be feeding hay year round. That is the tough part because I get free pasture, so why pay to feed what I can get for free? Well it just sucks owning my own place and not having the boys home with us. We may occassionally take them to my parents to eat down their grass now that the fencing and clearing is finished, but other than that.. we want 'em home! It will still be a few weeks before we get it all finished, taking down the old fence was really only about 1/5 of the work to be done. I'm just hoping for 70 degree days vs 95.. We just melt when it gets that hot and have zero motivation to do anything other than waste gas driving around in the air conditioned truck!

It should be interesting to see how Ellie reacts to having the horses around. It will be a while before she can go in the pasture with them.. I certainly dont want her to become a pancake! This morning I found a dookie in the back bedroom.. it had clearly been there a day or two.. lol Not funny really, my dog shit in the house and I didnt catch it, oh well what can ya do.

I have been out for a couple rides without Derek lately.. he's had other plans so I went out with Gerri (Red's owner) and then my friend Rachel (highschool re-connect friendship). They both rode Red, so I was able to ride Edgar... I joked with a friend (Shannon) that Edgar has become 'man'ified.. he's stiff as a board, is not soft and supple like a woman would have her horse. He turns and stops just fine, just in a more gruff manner now.. I'm sure Edgar prefers Derek's style of riding though, a little more laid back and less demanding. :)

I'm excited for the weekend, our annual horse club Ladies Ride. My cousin Shana is going with me, although I do feel a little bad that I am not allowing her to sleep in the camper with me! I told her I kinda wanted it to myself so she will have to tent it... lol I dont think she minds, I think she will enjoy having her own "space" as well, but she will be welcome to come in and we can play cards or chat etc.. I just love sleepin in the buff on hot camping nights and I'm not givin that up.. LOL Dont ever open my camper door in the morning without knocking, you might just stumble upon a full moon in the light of the morning sun!

back to puppy business..

Little miss Ellie is turning into super fun puppy now! In 2 weeks, she's had 1 accident in the house, she sleeps through the night pretty well and was moved up into the big girl crate (Russell is much happier about that) and she's picking up on commands amazingly quick! After only 5 times of "practice" asking for SIT, she now does it on command.. I am just blown away with how quickly she picks up on this stuff. She will be all excited and put her front paws up on me for attention and I can ask her to SIT and she will get off me and sit.. I cant wait to see what else I can teach her as time goes on. She's not so good on the "come" command but I think that is more out of being a little timid/shy than being disobedient.

She definately has the "outdoor dog" smell going... lol Whew that girl stinks when she gets wet and I just gave her a bath about a week ago! She's a little digger, the other day when it was rainy out early in the day, she must have gotten wet and then spent some time digging because when we got home, she was covered in dry mud! small clumps of mud all over her underside and legs.. She will definately be getting a weekly bath, I cant handle outdoor dog smell.. :)

I am really happy we got her, Russell is much happier (most of the time!) and she filled that void. I am not too worried about our 3rd dog and how we will handle it, I just know we will.

We have been educating ourselves about "Hunt Tests" which are tests for bird dogs done out in open fields and in ponds, to judge their ability to retrieve birds and listen to commands etc.. We found a couple clubs that run shows in the area, Monroe/Carnation is the hot spot of the state for these events.. how lucky is that! We will be joining atleast one of these clubs in the near future and attending as many tests and practice days as we can to get educated on what we need to do with our Cooper in the future.

There is a big Hunt Test coming up soon and Derek is going to go (I will not be able to make it :( bummer) and he is going to get to see other Boykins work. People come from out of state and we are really excited that Elroy (who owns Earl, the pappy to our future puppy) will be up here for the next event!!! We have been wanting to meet Elroy and his dog Earl in person... Derek can take pics in person, ask questions and get information about these Hunt Tests and meet the dog we are so proud and excited to own a puppy out of. Earl has accomplished a lot and we hope to be able to train our pup to accomplish great hunt test scores as well..

As far as the other animals in our life, the goats seem much happier now.. my parents have finished half of their fencing so they are turned out to the big pasture now and then my parents also went out and bought 2 sheep and 3 goats, threw them all together and they've established the pecking order and are happy to be a group. My boys were a bit chicken, rarely venturing out in the pasture very far but now that they are a full "herd" they all support eachother and have no problems leaving the barn.. I'm not sure I will want to break up the little herd and bring them back home, maybe we'll have to buy a couple new ones to put back at our place... hmmm

...the plan for next year (well actually as soon as we get our fencing done which we are starting this week) is to keep the horses home 24/7 instead of putting them out to pasture.. in keeping them home, it would mean feeding hay year round but we realize that having them away from home, we are not riding as often as we could be, the boys are now in "out of shape" status.. and with getting another dog and getting involved in training that dog next year (and potentially working/training Ellie as well for agility), if we dont keep the horses home, we may never squeeze in riding.. oh what have we created for ourselves? I dont want to be so busy we forget about the one activity that soothes my sole.. riding!

passing of a friend..

Derek received a call a week ago, an x-coworker of his that he worked at Heiser with, passed away unexpectedly. David Ridge was a friend... the guys carpooled to work every day and they maintained a relationship even after they had both left Heiser in the dust... His wife Emily used to make these DELICIOUS banana roll-up things, she'd make them fresh so when Derek dropped off David after work, she'd hand him the still hot out of the oven platefull and then Derek would drive over to my work (5 minutes from their house) and pick me up to head home. We'd munch those things down before we even got in the car!

We are not sure David's exact age, but we are guessing he was only about 26 or 27 and apparently he died of a Heart Attack :( He was playing basketball with his buddies when it happened. His memorial service will be at their home on Saturday, we will definately plan to go and pay our respects to his wife and the family. They had 5 children.. it was a tough weekend for Derek, he lost the last connection he felt to my uncle Dave when he lost little David. Uncle Dave mentored Derek at Heiser and Derek passed that down and mentored little David.. We are not sure if he had an unknown heart condition that caused his way-too-early passing, we just know it is hard to accept things like that happen to such young friends with so much life ahead of them left to live.. really touches home and makes you think about your own life and what you should be doing to take advantage of every day.

Family Reunion

Well we had a great weekend, the annual family reunion at Lk Wenatchee with Derek's family (his mom's side). We left Thursday and camped til Sunday. The original plan was to take the kids with us, but we realized that Ellie is just too young to expose her to the elements of being in such a dog-friendly environment.. plus she is not able to hold her potty yet so she would have to be with us 24/7 which puts a real damper on swimming! :) Maybe we need a doggy nanny! lol

So I'm sure Russell was not very happy with us as we had to leave the children outside the entire weekend and he hasnt been locked out of the house since.... well he never has been for 4 days straight! My parents came over twice a day to feed them and play with them, we could definately tell he was ready for us to be home though. It really is amazing since Ellie came home, he does not whine and cry, we have yet to hear him howl, he seems happier and not so lonely. Just this morning he really started to "play" with her, he was pinning her down and play biting her neck, just like he used to do with all his other girlfriends... She is getting bigger by the day it seems, she runs circles around him and she loves to steal his ball and hide it under herself.. she's one smart cookie! She has had a couple pee accidents in the house, so I'd say she is 75% trained to go outside.. sometimes she just needs a little reminder. I have been working on "sit" with her, she knows her name already, doesnt always "come" when called as she is not a brave puppy, she tends to steer clear of iffy situations.

Here's the kids after our return home, happy and content!

Later Sunday evening, Ellie was telling me she was hungry... she will lay down at her bowl when she thinks she needs to eat.

So back to camping! We had okay weather, Thursday was spent just getting set up and hanging out.. mid 80's. Derek had said that he would go swimming with me in the mornings, I think after last year I made it look/seem so refreshing that he wanted to do it this year.. Well Thursday night was not so warm of a night, it was not cold, but it was comfortable on the borderline of cool so when we awoke Friday and it was in the 60's he was second guessing his decision. But we headed on down to the water with looks of "Are you crazy!" from those around us. Well apparently we were crazy because that water was COLD! Much colder than last year's morning swim. It took Derek about 15 minutes to get to waste high, then another 15 minutes of standing there deciding if he was going to dunk. I did dunk, washed my hair, was freezing but felt refreshed. After 30 or so minutes, Derek finally decided to dunk and then immediately got the hell out! I was chilled for many hours that morning, I had to put a hoody on to warm up and finally around 1 or 2 it warmed up enough around camp to want to get back in the water. It was much warmer down at the water than in the trees, it probably reached low to mid 80's on Friday and we spent an hour or two in the water. Pam and I swam out to the "No Wake" bouey.. that was a long hard swim as the water was very choppy; It took us atleast 30 minutes to casually swim out there and literally only 5 to get back.

Thursday evening Derek & I had walked down to the lake around 8:20 and realized we had missed the sunset by about 10 minutes, so on Friday we decided we wanted to catch the sunset and let everyone know we'd be down at the lake at 8 for those that would like to join us. It was funny, because Derek's nephew Rick (who is about 12 years younger than us) was teasing Derek and saying "Oh is this what guys your age do, go down and watch sunsets?" :) He thought it was silly, but we all went anyways.. it was beautiful! We had a few pics taken (the only pics taken the entire weekend) and they are a bit dark. There was one taken that used the flash and it was aweful! You could see just how gross my hair was so I decided to burn that picture (okay well I sent it to the trash anyways).. lol But I think these are okay and good enough. The very top pic was the first pic taken as the sun was setting and then we got these shots below as it continued to set behind the mountains.

I did get a chance to tease Rick regarding the sunset issue because his wife ratted him out and said that recently he had "Thanked" her for cuddling with him.. so I told him "Oh I see.. Derek cant enjoy a good sunset, but you can enjoy a good cuddling session?" or something like that.. it was funny though!

There was some thunder Friday evening and maybe a couple minutes of sprinkling, but nothing serious at all and we awoke to clouds :( The boys were going golfing Saturday so there was no morning swim, us wives decided to cook them a nice breakfast of pancakes and eggs and bacon, yummy! I stuck around camp most of the day, I know it was warmer out in the sun but I was comfortable just relaxing and doing nothing! About an hour before the guys were due back, it started to thunder and once they got back, the lightening and rain started. It was pretty loud, pretty much right above our heads! but it also became quite muggy and with the bug spray and sunscreen on, I was feeling a bit sticky and decided it was a good time to take a bath in the lake. Derek and Crystal came down to the water with me, it seemed like the storm had passed by, it was still thundering out, but I hadnt seen any recent lightening and it felt like it had moved on. They both thought I was crazy, but I walked out in the water, it was raining but it felt great.. it was actually a very comfortable water temp. Dawn and Tammy were down at the beach pointing off to something, I assumed they were pointing at where maybe Kenny and Cody were swimming..

So I just casually stood in the water, slowly deciding if I wanted to swim for a bit or just get busy and wash my hair.. when all the sudden a VERY LARGE bolt of lightening struck right above everyone's head!! Apparently the storm had NOT moved on yet... I basically was like, OH SHIT! I dunked pretty fast at that point, Derek was on the shore telling me to hurry the hell up... so I washed the hair and body quickly and got the heck out.. Which was a total bummer because the water felt great and I could have swam out there in the rain for another hour.. When I got on the beach I realized what Dawn and Tammy were pointing at was a forest fire that had started not even 1/4 mile away from the beach by a lightening strike! It clearly had happened within about 45 minutes of us being down there, there was no visible "fire" in all the thick trees, but a lot of smoke so something was definately on fire over there.

It continued to rain for pretty much the entire evening on Saturday.. it would quit here/there but it sure made for a mess in the camper with pine needles stuck to our shoes as we walked in/out. Sunday we awoke to broken clouds, sunny skies.. We casually took down camp and headed out at noon.. no more swimming. Overall it was a great weekend of seeing everyone, Derek's ribs turned out super yummy! I'm already excited to go back next year, and VERY happy that his family has restarted this reunion after about a 20 year break.

I cant say there is much else going on with us lately.. with having the new pup in the house, we havent been getting a lot done, but we hope to start changing that soon. We have a day ride planned for Saturday, I forget what it feels like to ride its been so long! :) We are also having Dave Marzolf (realtor) come over and give us his opinion on the value of our place right now so we can make a decision about what direction to go with trying to get in a home loan modification. The bank is taking their sweet time and of course values are still dropping.. we now worry/think our home value is below our loan value, not good! Dave will give us a better idea on that so we will know how to proceed with the bank and if we will tell them to take this house and shove it or if we'll try to find a new route to approach the loan modification. It is very frustrating, we are just in a hole right now and need to dig out, with or without the banks help. Neither of us wants to loose our house, but we are tired of struggling. I know I know.. some of you are saying "well you can afford a new dog but not your house?" well, yeah actually! We have a little bit of money saved up for such things like a new dog or new fencing etc.. but when I have to start dipping into that "savings" to pay my normal bills/mortgage, thats when I know things are too tight....