We found our perfect place today! 22 acres in the heart of wine country! We’re applying for it tomorrow! Keep your fingers crossed and send all the jingles you can muster, please! I’ll tell you more about it as soon as we get the application faxed in.
A great ending to a wonderful weekend!
Oh! In other news, my former company and former drivers are on this season’s Ice Road Truckers. If you have questions, just ask and I’ll see if I can answer!
How was your weekend?
So, CP is going to go check out some more acreage tomorrow and Friday or Saturday.
The one he’s seeing tomorrow is 4 acres that is fenced and cross fenced with a 4 stall barn and feed room. It’s a 4 bedroom house and near our beloved KacyK on the outskirts of Oregon City. We’d only be responsible for the electricity and cable here as it’s on a shared septic and the owner pays the electric for the pump house.
There are some cons to this house. It only has 1 bath. Not so great with a family of 5. The owner lives on the adjoining 30 acres. His house is right next door. It’s a bit more pricey than we want for the distance. And right there, the distance is a bit more than we want to Portland proper. There also aren’t any other outbuidings besides the barn so there isn’t any place I can hold dog training classes (not a must have, but a bonus with the right place).
So, CP will be seeing this place tomorrow on his lunch.
The next place is in Newberg, on the other side of the freeway and out a teeny bit from where CP works. It’s probably about 15-20 miles away, instead of the 45 we are right now.
It’s a 4 bed, 3 bath house on 22 acres in wine country. The house was built in the ’70s and hasn’t been updated. Also, this house is 2600 square feet. No idea about the fencing.
I think the cons are pretty evident. The house hasn’t been updated and no idea about outbuildings or fencing. Fencing is easily remedied with tape and hotwire.
CP also took a look at a house just a few minutes from his office today. It wasn’t perfect and it was spendy. Actually, it was the same price as both these farms, but there wasn’t really a yard for the dogs and we’d still be stuck boarding Casey.
While we don’t object to boarding Casey, we’d like to have him home and have some space for a garden and room for the dogs. And in reality, having Casey at home means we’d most likely be able to get a second horse.
Our criteria is pretty simple. At least 3 bedroom, at least 2 baths, a decent yard (more than the 2-stall size ours is now) and a kitchen we can cook more than frozen dinners in. Ideally, the kitchen has to be at least as big as the kitchen I have now. Oh, and we’d like to stay under $1400 a month unless there’s room for Casey. In that case, we’re a little more flexible.
So, wish us luck and keep those jingles coming that we find just the right property!
After my last post, I suddenly found that I had a life again!
So, on the 16th, we went to see the Lipizzaners here in town. We had front row seats, where CP took a ton of pictures. He seemed to be the only one with a professional level camera and after the first act, the horses and riders began to pander to his camera. However, he still hasn’t passed any of his pictures on to me. So, you’ll have to make due with a couple from my own camera.
This rider looks like my MIL
Andalusian
Unfortunately, I got a lot of butt shots
And then, CP was off to Texas and Bend. So, I had a lot of time to spend outside the house. Yay Me!
This weekend, we had Kitty with us. And as a surprise, we got to see Doodle for dinner as they were in town. We even got to have her overnight. She will be back with us for the summer in a couple short weeks.
Before Doodle went back to the Disney Princess, we went to a park, walked across an old train trestle turned bridge that spans the Willamette river and the kids all rode the Carousel.
Doodle, Kitty, Dude
Doodle always rides the winged unicorn
Dude looks just thrilled, doesn't he?
The carousel was Kitty's idea...
After our trip, CP and I were mildly sunburned where we missed applying the sunscreen. The kids, however, were not.
We returned Doodle to her mother and saw Disney Princess’s new baby. Doodle is adjusting to no longer being an only child with her mother..
So, we spent the weekend taking Kitty to the tack store and finding her show clothes, fly spray and a crop for riding practice. We also made multiple trips to the bookstore. The second and third trip had to do with bribery for Kitty. Instead of money, she kept naming specific books she wanted in exchange for babysitting and some extra chores. I was quite happy to comply.
On Sunday, CP and I actually went out on a date for the first time in what seems like forever. We went and saw Angels and Demons, which was very good. If you liked The Davinci Code you’ll love Angels and Demons.
Kitty seemed to enjoy having alone time with just Dude too.
And yesterday, we drove Kitty up to see her Aunt’s in Washington. As school year ends, the custody battle starts again, so Kitty is still staying on neutral territory with Grandma, my ex-MIL.
I got to see my former sister-in-law pregnant with her second child. As I was in Alaska when she was pregnant before, it was rather amusing to see that she looked like she was smuggling a beach ball under her shirt and sat the 6th month mark. Actually, she sort of reminds me of one of those punch balloons attached to a stick! Well, it’s great that she and I still have a close relationship.
So, a long drive home and more sunburn rounded out my weekend. I woke to my toes still being singed and pink this morning. Next time, I’ll remember to put sunscreen on my feet too.
How was your weekend?
*Quick Edit*
Just wanted to add that we are still looking at properties and have not found the right place yet. Came close yesterday. The land was great but the house needed so much work and the rent was just too much for a house in that condition. If only it had been a little less costly.
I know I haven’t posted much lately. I’m here. I’m lurking. Not a whole lot to say.
I took CP to the airport this morning. He’ll be back on Wed from a client site. And that’s about all the excitement around here lately.
Still no word on the house. There are still 9 days until the current tenants are out. We hear she’s going to go with the couple she didn’t have a good feeling about, but last we knew, nothing was set in stone and no money had changed hands. We’re still hoping. Or hoping our perfect place will show up soon.
That’s all for now. What’s new with you?
“Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise”.
These words are forever embedded in my mind. Many childhood hours were spent with Star Trek on the television. Many evenings were spent watching Kirk schmoozing the ladies and marvelling over Spock’s mind-meld abilities.
Eventually, Star Trek was replaced by Star Trek: Next Generation which was followed by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and lastly by Star Trek: Voyager. I never became a “trekkie”, an uber-fan.
Flash forward to today. A whole new Star Trek movie. A whole new cast, a whole new story. No longer would we be stuck with the stacato way in which William Shatner speaks. No! Now we have a whole new James T. Kirk. A new chance to cultivate a whole new generation of trekkies.
Chris Pine (right) makes a much sexier Kirk than William Shatner (left), don't you think?
Chris Pine gives Capt. Kirk a much edgier, sexier, more dangerous Kirk. And who doesn’t love a bad boy?
Without mentioning any spoilers, this movie covers the beginnings of the crew of the Enterprise. And, I can say that Producer JJ Abrahms did justice to my childhood memories of the original Star Trek show.
A new cast, a new story and much more advanced special effects. It’s a must see movie that even a newbie to trekkie-hood will enjoy. Best of all, no Star Trek experience needed.
I give this movie two thumbs up. It’s definitely a must see!
Still no official word on the farmhouse. We’ve heard that she’s going with another couple, but as she doesn’t have a good feeling about them and no money has switched hands yet, there’s still time for things to change.
So, if you don’t mind, please keep up the jingles and positive thoughts. We really really want to rent this place! Thanks!
I spent some time with Casey this weekend. He was looking very calm and relaxed. And best of all, he was happy to see me!
Tasha left me a message saying that he’s doing great! She says he’s back to being his normal calm, sweet self. So hopefully, we’ll be taking a few lessons together soon!
Update: Casey has been sharing a paddock and stall with another gelding. Since this happened, he has been so much happier and more relaxed. He’s even gotten easier to blanket. He tolerates slowness and fumbling without the wig out or getting stressed.
He’s working harder under saddle and doesn’t seem to think that people are going to kill him any more. His attitude is very willing and eager to learn. A big change from not so long ago!
Casey is learning to work off the leg as he doesn’t care to be bumped with a person’s heels. He doesn’t really need spurs either if you’re willing to use some leg.
He is not liking to do rail work, but Tasha is working on that. She says he seems very afraid on the rail. She will try riding him in his big boy bit soon now that he’s used to wearing it for a little bit every day.
She also says even under duress, Casey does not try to pull anything dirty under saddle, which is great!
He was also zapped on the nose by the hotwire the other day and didn’t seem to blame the nearest human like most horses do. Tasha said he seemed to figure out it was the fence and not her. Nor did he have any issues after he wrinkled up his lip and make faces for a minute or so.
I am happy my horse is happy and doing well. That’s all I need!
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