YOU TELL ME...

Are they worth it? I have been eyeballing an ad in the paper about a "moving sale at the Follet Ranch". Sounded like it could be good. Maybe I would hit the jackpot and be the only lady crazy enough to drive to Durkee for the opening at 7:00 am. I've been working nights this week and I was going to be off at 5:30 in the morning so it was perfect. I headed to the freeway straight from work. I have never exited at Durkee before so the drive was nice. The signs directed me 5 miles into the country down a dirt road. As I drove up at exactly 7:00 there were already 15 other vehicles there, mostly pick-ups (after the ranch stuff I suppose). There wasn't anything left! Well to be honest it didn't look like there was that much to start with. Tools and tack in the shop but the garage had all the household items. At first glance I thought I was going to go away empty handed. Then I spotted these beauties. I picked them up and they have some heft to them so they weren't just cheap ceramics. I almost put them down and then I thought of Barn House, Bella Shabby, and other blogs I follow and they would grab them and put them on their blog in a heartbeat so that's what I did! They were only $3 each. So were they worth it? I got a nice early drive on a beautiful winter day and breakfast at McDonalds to boot. I'd say so.

CRITTER CAM

Gareld's new christmas toy has been alot of fun. We had to send it back after christmas for missing parts but now we have the new replacement and we got it set up on the property. We noticed quite a game trail coming off the mountain so Gareld set up the camera to the side of it.

Here's me. We were testing it out to see if it took pictures.

Gareld moved a salt block over to the trail...

We captured a bull shortly after we had been out there to change the card.

Ahhh....Success! Can't wait to get a coyote or the bears in the summer. This will be fun to watch

and we go out to check on it a few times a week. Together time.

HOUSE PLANS

It is fun looking through house plans. Narrowing down the possibilities. Choosing one that has all the features we want. Keeping it in our price range. This is the latest favorite (note the

smily face:) I like the porch in the front. We like the open kitchen and vaulted great room in the back looking out at the mountain. It has three bedrooms. The master bedroom also has a porch facing the back which is a neat feature. I don't know what I would do with the sitting room yet but I would think of something. The more we think about a garage the more we like it!! More storage room! Of course all this is just wishful thinking until our house here in La Grande sells.

I posted this for Brandon to see. Happy Birthday Brandon Bond 2-19-83. Love Ya, Mom :)

GARELD'S TURN

Gary turned 50 this week. For his birthday (besides his trip to the sportsman show in Portland) Morgan and I worked on some old pictures we found of the property. We made six of them into 8x10's and framed them. Here's one of the house with roof and back room still in good shape. Gareld thinks Sherwood must have taken them in high school. There were about 20 black and white prints. Really nice photos and great to have. I will share more of them with you later. There were two of his dad that he didn't remember seeing before. Thanks Sherwood.

Isn't this a neat image... Gareld's dad, Merlin and the cat that we now have from the estate. It will continue to work the property. Gareld has already done quite a bit with it. He leveled the ground and pulled that trailer into position. We are going to undo everything this spring and we are sure glad we have it.

FOOD STORAGE

I had a project I wanted to tackle on Saturday. I was thinking about it all week. I have this little corner of the basement that I keep food storage in. Mom has been giving us food storage items for christmas the last few years. Morgan moved all her stuff back in while she goes off to Maryland and I shove things in there when the cupboard upstairs is full. We are counseled to have a storage plan of some kind and this was mine. Here is the before picture: as you can see most of it is sitting on the floor. I got to work and started digging out. You'd be surprised at what I found.

My "food storage " area had more than food. Mold, rust, MRE's, spiders, leaky water jugs, dust bunnies, dirt, applesauce from 1992 :( and a lot of junk. Not very appetizing that's for sure.

Look how old these cans are. Dry pack canning from 1989. I checked online for shelf life information and we are over the limit by 15 to 20 years. I tossed them and 2 dozen milk jugs of water that have been down there since we moved in 19 years ago. YUK! (I did feel a little pang of guilt and thought of the people in Haiti as I was dumping food and water.)

TA DA! The finished product. Now I need to get busy and fill in the gaps. I can see what I am low on, what we use and what we don't use. I'm inspired to follow direction.