What a Weekend!

I knew Friday morning as I turned on faucet to brush my teeth that it would be a different weekend.  We had planned on taking our old motor home over to our river property in Ione, WA to spend some time clearing trails and creating access for the tractor so Dave could begin developing the property in ernest.  I had my tooth brush all ready to roll and was very displeased that no water ran from the faucet.  Hmm...  nothin!  Long story short... we decided that the recently discovered break in a water line must have caused the well to go dry and burn out the well pump.  At this time we still aren't sure... we just have ... no water.  When Dave got home that afternoon I heard him making a couple of phone calls and figured he was getting information about the well pump.  Instead he asked me if I was ready to go.  Well no... I thought we were leaving Saturday morning.  He said he thought we would leave tonight (Friday) since we had no water... no reason to hang out at home - but instead of going to Ione which is north east of us - almost Idaho and almost Canada we would be taking the truck to Post Falls, ID to buy a trailer and then Saturday morning continuing on to Genesee ID to pick up a cattle guard he found on Craigs List.  Huh???  Ok!  I scurried around and grabbed just a change of clothes since I knew we would be back to repack before going to Ione.  We thought we would just pick up the trailer and then find a little motel to spend the night before heading to Genesee.  I had no clue where Genesee was but with Google Maps on my phone I had no doubt that we would find it.  On the way we realized that Post Falls was so close to Rathdrum where our dear friends Lori & Woody live that we thought we would call them and see if they were home.  They were.  Years ago they purchased a very old building that housed a saloon called the Westwood and have lovingly restored it.  The building is historically important as it is the oldest continually operated building in the Kootenai county.  It's been a post office, a bank, a couple of other things and finally a saloon.  I don't spend a lot of time hanging out in saloons these days but this one is special.  Woody was running Karaoke Friday night and Lori after working a double shift that day was hosting a birthday party for a friend.  They invited us to stay with them and we gratefully accepted.   Years ago they sold their home and built an apartment in the building behind the saloon.  The same building also housed a large garage where their much nicer motor home was stored and that's where we stayed.
Dave was smart and went to bed early but I wanted to visit with Lori who had to stay until closing so I did not get to bed until after 2am.  Oh baby!  About midnight Lori brought out trays baked artichoke dip with bagels and little smokey sausages.  Of course I snarfed a bunch of bagels and dip.  It was delicious!  And I enjoyed my visit and the food and even sang Rocky Racoon on stage.   Dave was up at 7:30 am and ready to go!  Big sigh!  We snuck out without saying goodbye since our friends are not early risers.  We stopped to get gas and I found some coffee labeled "extreme caffine".  Perfect!  :)

I called Dave Dennler to get his address so I could punch it in to Google Maps.  He insisted on telling me exactly how to get there and finally gave me the address - the only piece of information I needed and wanted as I was sleep deprived and grumpy.  He asked me what my name was and when I told him Kathy I learned way more about a certain young woman in his past than I needed to know... she had been married three times by the time she was 37 and got really mad when he did not give her an engagement ring for Christmas.  He told me that he had lived on and operated his farm for 55 years.  I knew we had a serious character on our hands.  :)  Genesee is "a ways down the road from Moscow" and I must say that I'm very glad I wrote down some notes from his directions because my GPS gave up miles from his farm!  Finally we made it (after stopping and getting directions from another farmer working outside) and were rewarded by a place that was very fun to see.  His lifes work he said.  He's 75 years old and can no longer work but about 6 hours a day and has nobody to leave the farm to when he's gone.  He showed us anything we wanted to see and asked me if I didn't want to take one of his little donkeys home too.  I just have to insert a few pics from his place.

Here's his weathervane:

A view from the farm...

Here he is loading the cattle guard onto our trailer with a 1940 something tractor.

This is just a pic of some of the crazy stuff he makes.


The ride to and from Genesee ID was spectacular.  I love road trips anyway so I thouroughly enjoyed myself.

We made it home and began the process to reset for our little camping trip to Ione.  Man we were glad to not have sold our old motor home since it was the source of drinking water and showers with no water in the house!  Sunday morning we went out to breakfast in Chewelah before heading over the mountains so that I would not have to wash dishes in the tiny motor home sink.  Even with splitting breakfast I know my body was screanming, "come on!  Give me a break!"   After all, half a biscuit and half an order of hash browns is still quite a glycemic load!  I told myself to just shut up and take it.

The drive to Ione was beautiful.  We live in such a gorgeous state!  I was feeling great after a good nights sleep and upon arriving was thrilled to discover that at some point in the last ten years a new cell tower must have been erected because I plugged in my wireless modem and my little mini notebook and presto!  I was connected to the internet.  I tested a phone call on skype - logged on to my remote Valley Supply connection just to test it to see if I could possibly work from there.  Yep!  :)  After messing around with that I moved on to the more critical online tasks... Farmville.  :)  I know!  So lame!  Dave was busy clearing brush with the chain saw and thought he'd take down an old dead tree.  I thought he was just going for the little stuff so I was very surprised when the tip of the tree crashed down on the front of the motor home.  How exciting!  What the heck!???  Well anyway... he finally finished clearing and came in all sweaty with bits of pine and cedar stuck all over him.  He decided to change clothes and went rummaging around in his over night bag and then asked me if I had packed him any extra T shirts.  Again... What???  The answer would be NO!   Since when did I start packing your clothes???  So he found my (formerly Katie's) grey/black rose print camofloge jacket and decided that would work.  It was very pretty on him!  :)

Here he is standing between his two favorite trees on the property.   Too bad it's blurry!

Dave decided then that he better check in to his work situation one more time.  The job he had been sighed up to (he works for BNSF) had been annuled for the holiday which gave him a three day weekend.  He fortunately called in and discovered that someone with more seniority bumped him off that job in order to get the holiday off and Dave had been reassigned to work Monday on the six thirty am job.  He was thrilled!  NOT!  He is at the place in life where time is more important than money and he was really looking forward to having the holiday off.  Instead he's going to be making a lot of money today.  All that to say.... we packed up the motor home and dogs and headed home.  Camping trip OVER!

Back on the road again!  Ione is only about 60 miles from our house.  That's not too far... unless you have only driven about three miles down state hwy 20 when the engine of the motor home shuts down.  :)  Well all I could think to do was pray!  Dave looked over at me like I was a loon and I said, Well, if you have any better ideas..."  He thought we should call AAA and have a big tow truck come.  I informed his that I "forgot" to renew the coverage for that year.  He decided I better keep praying :)  The engine kicked back on and on down the road we went.   It was such a pretty drive and we enjoyed the scenery as we drove along the river.  At one point I realized that I must be getting older... Dave looked over and commented, "Look at the reindeer."  I looked around and said I don't see them... I didn't know we have reindeer here."  He looked at me once again like I was crazy and said, a little louder than was necessary, "I   said    looks   like   it    RAINED HERE woman!"  Ha ha!  Well... we were pretty nervous about the engine but kept plugging along until we got within two miles of the top of Chewelah Peak up the Flowery Trail road when the engine shut down again.  This time he looked over to make sure I was praying!  :)  Never fear!  After considerable cranking the engine and praying we finally made it to the top of the pass and started down the other side.  He kept our speed pretty slow since the brakes were not as responsive when the engine shut down :)  We wound our way down the 10 miles to the bottom and eventually came to our own little road.  I was never as glad to see Cottonwood Creek Road!

Since we knew we were faced with another couple of days of showers and dish washing in the motor home Dave decided to go over and get some water from our neighbor Denny (who also thought Dave looked very pretty in his girl sweater).  He let me and the dogs out at the end of our road and we walked on home.  About half way down the road I saw our part time neighbor Jeremy driving towards us.  He stopped the truck, got out and grabbed a nice tuna fillet that he had recently caught and had frozen.  He had thawed it out for dinner but they changed their plans and wondered if I might want it.  :)  It was oh so tasty!  I also chopped up some of the root veggies that I had bought at the farmers market on Friday (which now seemed like a week ago) and roasted them.  I had bought a fancy kind of beets.  They were candy apple red outside and when I cut into them there were red and white rings on the inside.  So yum!  Dave and I actually fought over the beets :)  I also added a few little fingerling potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic and a couple of zucchini.  I wish I had taken a picture of the veggies ready to roast.  They were beautiful.  I have enough for one more dinner so I will take a pic when I prepare them.

This morning Dave got out of bed at 5 am and headed off to work.  I pretended to be asleep :)  I'm so bad!!! I did fall back asleep and did not wake up until 7 o'clock.  I feel very much like I'm playing hooky as I sit at my desk writing this.  It's Monday morning and normally I would be working.  Instead it's Labor Day!  I think I'll go into town and see if the laundromat is open.  Dave hopes to have our water up and running tomorrow eve but I'd just as soon get the piles of laundry out of the way today.

After all the adventure and random meals of less than healthy food I weighed in at 149.9 this morning.  :)  I'll take it!  Glucose was 106 which tells me I better buckle down and get serious!  I want normal glucose readings!

If you have persevered and made it to the end of this little story you know way more about my weekend than you wanted to know and I apologize for that.  Next time - just stop reading!  :)

Last note little note:  good thing we came home!  I learned that the temp was predicted to reach 33 degrees last night so I covered my tomatoes!  Whew!  Close one!  I've watched over them too long to lose them now!

Ciao!