New Life Old Farmers

We were off to see our Little Miss.

Reaching Riley, Oregon, was a very big deal. Partly because of Number Two Son, but mostly because we were almost out of fuel.

Riley had two buildings. The town started and ended on either side of these buildings. On the East side of the highway was the gas station/grocery store, where you could buy stuff like beef jerky, antlers and gum.

As you cannot pump your own gas in Oregon, the gas lady came out. Before she even had the nozzle in our tank, she’d seen the ‘Sewing Machines Solutions” info on the side of our truck.

‘Do you fix sewing machines?’, she asked.

My Loving Spouse said, “Yes, but I live in Ellensburg.”

‘Well, my husband is having trouble with a sewing machine. He is a saddle maker. He is across the road.”

Actually, he had been alerted to the reality that a sewing machine repairman had driven into ‘town’ and was running across the highway.

‘You are an answer to prayer. Can you look at my machine?’

Hmmm, how do you say ‘no’ to that? Before we knew it we were in the second (and final building in Riley), the saddle maker/Post office building.

Billie showed My Loving Spouse the machine he was having trouble with.

Billie said, “Excuse me Ma’am, but the two things I just can’t abide are a Cheatin’ Woman and a Sewing Machine that doesn’t sew.” Seriously, that is pretty hard to argue with.

Billie’s little saddle shop was fascinating. I mostly took pictures and offered wise sewing machine logic, like “have you changed the needle” while My Loving Spouse and Billie talked mechanics.

We’re not exactly sure what happened, but by the time we left, it was all working. We’d seen all of Riley and we were back on the road.

We were closer to meeting our Little Miss….and we are blessed.

I think ‘demo’ is one of my love languages.

From the first time I saw our ‘master’ mini-me bathroom, I knew it had to go.

We had big plans to knock out a wall, expand the room from mini to grand.

Apparently there are roofs in the way where one part of the old house meets the other part of the old house and suffice it to say…we’re not doing that. We are however getting ride of ugly brown cabinetry and a plastic corner shower made for very small people.

Putting in lots of cabinets and a beautiful old claw foot tub does not make a mini bathroom grand, it just makes it tight and kind of ugly. I find our ‘new’ sink at the Second Use store in Seattle for a price that might make you jealous. ($145)

The sink is bound to look even better out of the sewing room and installed in the bathroom. However, we’ve a lot more demo to do. I’ve been ‘told’ to not get carried away with the demo, we’re just getting a little start.

We are sacrificing the lovely old tub for a better lay out and more room. My Loving Spouse and The Plumber’s Helper get to work removing the tub fittings.

We roll the tub out on piano dollies to its current resting spot…the front porch.

I ‘get’ to clean up the nasty floor.

However, the old vinyl pulls up so easily, that I cannot resist just a teeny tad more demo. Seriously, why clean it when you can throw it away?

“Someone’s” Loving Spouse comes running back into the mini bath when he hears the sound of floor being torn up. Oh, ye of little faith, I know when to not over do it with demo….usually.

We’re both very excited to get this job started and even more excited to be loading up Tally-Ho for the long awaited trip to see our Little Miss…

We’re doubly blessed to get to go and see her and get to come back and do more demo!

When we moved to the country, to the ‘berg’, to Glory Farm many family and friends alike questioned our thinking. (Actually, this trend did not completely go away, we’ve just gotten better at ignoring them). Sweet P. was not one of those. She ‘got it’.

It just took longer for her to make her inaugural visit. Make it she did, complete with the sweetest of entourage.

Sweet P., Mr. South Pas and the Hawaiian Gma wanted to see everything and I mean everything. All the animals, my old wood & window stash, My Loving Spouse’s workshop, Cluckingham Palace, the barn and we’d yet to make it in the house.

They brought us tea towels to say nothing of the gifts for Gunner & The Little Miss.

Sweet P. is a die hard bargain hunter. Great excitement was evident, as we set out early for 2 garage sales on each side of our valley and…I couldn’t find either one. (I know, it is a gift.) The drive was beautiful. It reminded me of when I was a Realtor and I’d get a little bit ‘lost’ while showing houses. I got really good at saying things like, “Oh, I just wanted you to see more of the neighborhood”.

Mr. South Pas. enjoyed riding the newest ‘toy’, My Loving Spouse picked up for free at a Garage sale. (Yes, a garage sale he actually found). Yep, free and he had it running in no time. Mr. South Pas. listened intently to all of our safety instructions, as these little things turn over pretty easily.

Until his wife, Sweet P. wanted a ride.

The Hawaiian Gma was intrigued by our herd. The Jett showed off that he was indeed the alpha male of the alpaca herd.

Then they got to experience the Ellensburg wind. The 30 mph gusts had them shelving their plans for doing ‘farm chores’, riding on the mower or playing croquet and they headed inside. Just in time for group #2.

This ‘little’ guy was 3 years old, when his family moved in next door. Our families became very close and from here I launched my stellar babysitting career.

Mark’s Brother and his family had plans to camp in the yard, but with the 30 mph winds….they chose to spend the night in the barn. (Yes, I offered them beds…but they had a plan). Mark’s Brother moved through the house looking for and finding keepsakes from my parents home.

All 9 of us fit easily around the new kitchen table. Summer-time fare, water-melon, potato salad and sausages. We emptied the freezer with all of the sausages My Loving Spouse had made. Adventures in eating with promises that there would be no condemnation, should you get one you didn’t like. (Turn that link in for another). Our home was full and the mix of mayhem felt wonderful.

Even if we had to break out the mood lighting for puzzle doers to keep at work.

The joy that comes from being together with people who know both your joys and sorrows, whether from days long past as well as those few people who know the very tender spots in your heart today….is priceless….

and we are blessed.

We are waiting for the stars to align (for the farm sitter to have a whole week free to watch our critters.) We are impatient to go and visit the Little Miss. Some of us were getting a tad crabby, so we planned a quick get out of town within our farm sitter’s 2 day availability.

We packed up Tally-Ho and set off for Lake Chelan and Lake Manson, just a few hours away. Harvest Host was our go to planning guide. They had two wineries with room for us a night each. We arrived at Cheval Cellars to park up for our first night. We sat outside among their apple orchard reading for the afternoon, enjoying the lack of chores.

Marcus arrived in the evening and gave us a tour and a tasting of both their wines and their hard ciders.

We learned the new word/concept – ‘preferment’ coined by Marcus and his wife of a life ‘after’ careers where one is obviously still ‘working’, just at a different sort of purpose. Clearly not ‘retirement’ it is ‘preferment’ (Something like a small farm, might fit this definition). They joined us back at Tally-Ho for cheese, chutney, crackers, tacos and wine, of course. We enjoyed their company immensely, and have penciled in a return to help with bottling this fall.

On day two we set off for town, determined to enjoy a relaxing breakfast. We walked all over until we finally found the sign we were looking for.

Perfect, just what we were looking for! Except for this second sign, no not the ‘beer’ sign, this sign.

Bad British Word.

We adjusted our plan, digging out the sandwiches we’d bought for lunch, eating them in the beautiful River Walk Park.

We watched families coming and going with paddle boards, dogs and bikes. It was completely delightful.

Next on our list of winery was Amos Rome Vineyards. We were suppose to check in at 1:00, which is normally a tad early to start drinking wine.

I must say we adapted fairly well, oh, and the Malbec was delightful!

The view was lovely.

Tally-Ho worked so well. We enjoyed our quick trip out of town. I’ve never been camping before where you come home with more wine than you left with!

We’re enjoying our summer and waiting until we can get our snuggles with that baby girl. We hope you are all well, and indeed, we are blessed.

We were supposed to be gone visiting our Little Miss this week. However, the turbo charger in the truck stopped turbo-ing, so we were home for THE Weather.

It was probably a good thing we were here for all five days of the “h-e-double toothpicks” ( that’s an old quote of Betty’s). No one is going to care for your animals, the gardens and the fields like yourself. As the heat started to rise last Friday we zipped out early for a yard sale and found the one thing we actually needed.

At a whooping $3.00, a shade cloth was procured for the ‘little boys’. Carlos, Santana and Smooth appreciated our efforts, but nothing really beats a sprinkler.

The heat wave certainly ‘encouraged’ us to finish our upgrades to our sprinkler system.

Any gardening I did was done in the early morning or the 30 minutes between ‘it’s not hot as hell anymore’ and ‘oh, Bad British Word the mosquitos are out’.

As we do not have A/C, we did ‘all the things’. The windows, the drapes, the fans, the fans in the windows, cold lite beer instead of red wine. Every afternoon we went for a nice long drive through the countryside in our air conditioned car to protect our dwindling sanity.

I tried telling My Loving Spouse that he didn’t get to complain about the heat, as he complains about the cold and the wind. It was my turn.

We did however, make it..

Thank the Lord.

The wind is blowing which has cooled everything off.

It’s not a breeze, it’s more of a gale.

Someone is doing his best to not complain about it, which I appreciate and

…we are blessed.

Happy Independence Day to you all.

The school year has ended. I can hear the chorus of angels singing.

What did we learn this year?

We can survive change.

We might not like it, but we can do it…a lot. Kids, staff, parents…all of us.

We started with no kids at school.

Then went to 100 kids home Zooming and 300 Kids Hybrid 2 days a week, M, T, Th, F, but not Wednesday with breakfast and lunch served.

Until there were a few groups on Wednesday, but with different start and finish times than the Hybrid days and no meals, just snacks. (Did you know kids don’t like little red boxes of raisins anymore?)

In February more Virtual students returned to Hybrid school so bus routes and schedules were changed constantly.

In April we returned to 5 days a week, same schedule everyday….oh, except for Wednesday which was now early release.

With almost everyone back was it time to collect the 400 Chrome books we’d distributed earlier.

Are you tired yet? I haven’t gotten to the best part. We’re getting a new school! Yippee and Yee-Haw. The old school is being torn down…soon. Everything had to be packed. I mean all of it. Every pencil, every tether ball, every file, every chair and the thousands of library books . The screech of packing tape being unwound was the soundtrack for the last week of ‘school’. The little kids learned to count boxes and the bigger kids learned to move boxes.

Our staff has earned their summer break.

We have some plans…

I’d had an idea for a hat rack using our extra croquet mallets. One of my magazines came with something like this and I hollered, “I can’t believe it. They’ve stolen my idea!!!”

My Loving Spouse said, “Well, actually their idea will be easier to make.”

‘Oh, okay make their idea.’

We really are trying our best to ‘pack up’ and hit the road, but first I need to install a new drip system in the flower garden. We’ve hit some snags, (insert eye roll). I said to My Loving Spouse, “Do you wonder what it would be like to be like ‘normal’ people?”

‘All the time….but it’s not going to happen’.

School is over. It is time to play and to celebrate our new Little Miss.

Who arrived safe and healthy….

and we are truly blessed.

Enjoy your summer….

My Loving Spouse aka PaPat has removed the ‘Do not disturb’ from his phone and designated special ring tones for My Other Girl and her husband Number 5 Son. After 5 miscarriages they have made it to 38 weeks. This little Granddaughter is set to make her entrance into the world this week. We’ve been praying for her and creating for her.

PaPat built an old-fashioned wooden pull toy.

The baby ducks waddle behind the mother delightfully. This meant that I could make the duck quilt, I’d had my eye. Duck parts began being produced months ago.

The first duck was over ‘zig-zagged’. It was turned into a bib and sent out previously.

Bath time rubber ducks dressed up for Easter were sent in spring. Unbeknownst to the parents, we had a ‘duck theme’ going on.

Bess and I are still in our quilting learning curve, but that machine is fun to use. I try my hand at imitating the duck pull toy on the top and bottom of the quilt. This type of quilting remains a work in progress.

The original source for this quilt came from here, so I want to make sure I give them credit. You can see I duplicated their quilt almost exactly. Well, except for mistakes, those are all mine.

The kids face-timed us to open everything, which was joy in action. We’re now waiting for that special ring tone and planning our trip to Salt Lake City. My Other Girl has expressed multiple times, that this Grammy gets all the snuggles she wants….

and we are blessed.

I was weary.

I prayed, “Lord, I am so empty. I don’t even remember what to do to help myself.”

Two hours later a text came out of the blue…

“Hello, sister! I just heard about a new airline that is going to service Pasco Washington. Is that near you?”

Hope that could hug me and fill my heart was on her way.

I collected her from the Pasco airport, which was super simple. We had to stop to take a picture at this store, because it says it all! Also, I love this store and I don’t get out much.

This is her mother and I back in my topless, bonnet days.

We were family. Our mothers were best friends in a time and place in So. California where one did not have family near by. Her family moved closer to our family when her daddy died leaving her mom with 4 kids and our families became closer. My dad was her surrogate father and her mother was there for us in special ways. She used to tell people that she changed my diapers, but I cautioned her to drop that tale as some folks may think it was recently.

Love, laughter, acceptance and truth showed up. It was just what I needed, life can be hard. We did our best to wear her out with the farm and adventures.

She fell in love with our alpacas.

She went along to pick up Carlos, Santana and Smooth….laughing often at their antics as she learned about alpacas. She helped protect Stuart the chicken, who was being picked on by RuPaul. (RuPaul met an unfortunate end as he violated one important rule, if you’re not necessary you’d better be nice.)

The irony of Stuart seeking her protection on top of the BBQ wasn’t lost on any of us.

The spring rodeo of Bareback and Bronc-riding gives us a night out, in celebration of being together and the ending of lock downs a night of ‘normal’ felt so good!

We fit in plenty of country fun. The Fire Captain shows up to give us a ride in his army jeep exactly as old as her.

We had the 2021 Croquet Open to get the season underway. She finds our friends delightful and even finds a goofy match in Sweet Sue wearing their straw hats in a unique way to battle the blowing winds.

We talked and talked and talked about…our parents, our past, our children, our joys, our sorrows and our faith.

We laughed, we cried and I was filled…

and together we were blessed.

Saturday our newest three joined the ‘herd’ at Glory Farm.

The little boys are 7 to 10 months old, adorable and completely quirky as only alpacas can be.

Smooth is the youngest and seems to have the potential for being a calm and quiet boy, but as his “jewels” have yet to drop…who knows, males with “jewels” can be a bit… unpredictable.

Carlos is the oldest at 10 months and wants to know what is going on beyond that fence, but from the safety of his side of the fence.

It is clear already, Santana is the character. Inquisitive, quick and first out the gate.

The ‘big’ boys, Benny and the Jett are determined to check out the little ones at every opportunity. Currently they are usually separated by a fence, so everyone can have some time getting to know each other.

We had a trial run of the whole herd together. Benny worked hard at letting the little ones know, that he is no longer at the bottom of the pecking order. ‘Togetherness’ only lasts in small increments.

Naming 3 was a challenge. My Girl and I both thought about Elton and John…but it wasn’t right. I decided to stick with the music theme and My Loving Spouse decided to humor me. In the end, I went with a great rhythm…seriously, you can’t beat a good rhythm. (Carlos Santana Smooth)

and we are blessed.