Who lives in this kind of house!!!!

Hubby and I went garage saleing  last Saturday.
We were awestruck by this neighborhood, which had a "neighborhood sale" but very few houses had sales. What did it was always clothes and furniture.

And who the heck can afford a huge house that is just about the same size as the lot. Most of them 3 stories!!
Not me!!! Beautiful houses, but I wouldnt want to clean them either, oh, they can probably afford a house cleaner!

 It was a beautiful day for a drive. Man I would not want to clean this house!!

And leading up to the BIG one!!!!!

 Their own freaking castle!!!

 There are two garage doors on the right, and three! on the left side!!!

 The main entry! I had to pick my jaw up!!! he he he except I thought it needed a fountain or pond at the bottom!!! LOL

 Beautiful rock work, three!! stories!! We were wondering just how many people live here!! LOL

More humble abodes around the corner.

Just makes me shake my head. I am a country girl I guess. You couldnt give me one of these. Unless I could sell it and have the money!!! Someone in this economy is making bucks!!!
Hope you enjoyed the views!!! We didnt find a lot on this day. The weekend before we found a few goodies though.

Discrimination

An Ann Taylor store that a bloger friend went to, totally discriminated and lied about her entering their store with her Guide Dog. She is blind.   Read her story here        http://cruisinwithcricket.blogspot.com/2012/06/finding-lemonade.html .

I wont be shopping there!

Rode the old mare.

I went out and rode the old mare today. She is so good. I put her through her paces, at a walk and a trot! LOL because the two of us are way out of shape! She did everything I asked. Sidepass, haunch turn, forehand turn, back up, and she wasnt to bad with her head, which has always been her problem.

( No these arent new pics, some from my archives. )
Sometimes I think we forget what a pleasure and older horse is to ride. This mare responds to just a calf touch. If you hit her with a heal she will jump out of her skin! She is so lite, and easy to ride.
Then there is Emma, she argues with you most of the time, and to get more precise moves, I usually put my ball spurs on. She is getting better, but then she isnt 27 either!

I said in a previous post, that Easy has her moments. Well we had one of those today too.
We worked in the pen for about a 1/2 hour and then went out to the neighbors field. That was all fine and good, no problem, until we got by the back fence and the other neighbors steer, first spooked and ran away, and then decided he wanted to make friends!!!!! I told her he was more afraid of her. I told her she chases cows, and has chased a lot of cows. No way, she was having none of this steer!!(as I was laughing at her and just trying to let her work through it) She spun in circles, she backed up, when I had her face in the direction of the steer she backed up some more. Until I finally spanked her butt! Then she was better and we continued on, with a little blowing and watching behind her! She is so funny, never out of control, just pitching a fit. Silly old mare. She was trying me, I know she was! Because she straightened up after I got after her. She knows better.

We had a good ride, didnt want to ride to hard, she had done everything I asked, and sweated up over a stupid steer!! So we went back to the barn and I let her out.

Things that Emma shies at every time, like the pile of timbers, Easy doesnt look at twice.
If any of you are into Parelli, Easy is a Right brain introvert. Who becomes a lot more extrovert the more she is worked with. Emma is a Left brain introvert with a lot of extrovert tendencies too! They are polar opposites!

I think with some conditioning the old mare will be fine for the competitive trail ride I want to do, she does love to get out. The ride is 6 miles with 1 obstacle every mile, so a lot of rests. I just want to get out and ride!!! Now to get the trailer licensed!!

Peanut butter cookies!! To drown my disappointment.

This is a quick, easy, cookie.
I didnt know how they would turn out, but I was very pleasantly surprised!!!

Healthy Peanutbutter cookies

1 cup peanutbutter
1 cup sugar

combine then add,

1 tsp baking soda
1 egg

Bake at 350, for 10 min.

The recipe I copied, (found it on Pinterest) claimed only 36 calories per cookie, of course that depends on how big your cookies are! :O)
Very good, a bit crumbly  when warm, which is how I like my cookies. But not to bad when cool.
Next time I make them I am going to do 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar, because I like the taste that the brown sugar adds. They do satisfy that craving! Dont they look great! Big and puffy!!

And drowning my disappointment in cookies, because, my Emma is still really lame after a month. I am now going to keep her in Mickeys stall for the next two weeks. That stall has the smallest outside run, and no step up into the stall. I am beginning to suspect that Emma injured herself going in and out of the stall. She throws so much mud when she comes in, that she has made the step up into her stall a 16 plus, inch, step up. I have plans to get a truckload of hog fuel or large bark to fill it in, but I have to wait until it dries out.
So my plans of riding Emma in the competitive trail competition, July 14th are on the back burner. I am now thinking if I want to ride, I am going to have to ride Easy, until Emma heals.  ((sigh)) It is her left stifle she has injured. I suspect it is a flexor muscle, because it is when she picks it up and forward, that it is hurting her.
Dont get me wrong, Easy is great! I just had my heart set on riding Emma. At 27 years old Easy can still be quite the challenge!! But she is old and getting a little arthritic, she should be in retirement! She does love to go though!
Have one more month until the ride, we will see how things go.

Flutterby....

This little guy was flitting around when I walked Hubby out on his way to work. I ran back in for the camera! Got one decent shot, on my favorite Rhodie!! In person it is a lot darker purple. Soon as I snapped this last shot, it flew over to the neighbors!

Memorial day

I went and visited the cemetary today.

This is Hubbys Moms, Dad. Grammpys resting place. Grammy, Isabel, is still with us, as I posted previously of her 99th Birthday party.

 This is Hubbys Dads, parents. Herman and Arvillas resting place.

 Hubbys Dads, Sister and her Husbands resting place.

 Hubbys Mom, and Dads resting place. Someone had been there before me and left the lilies.

 I cleaned them all off and put up the flower vases.

Where everyone is. The family is buried close to each other.

There were a lot of people, and lots of flowers! I took a few pics as I drove out.

Next time I need to take some tools to do a better job cleaning. Some that had not been visited in awhile, were pretty covered in old cut grass, from lawn mowing. I seen an older couple with a spray bottle of cleaner and they cleared 2 inches all the way around the head stone, about that deep too, looked good when they left. This is a huge cemetery! I cut flowers from around the yard, rhodies and cut some flowers off of the snowball tree. I remember my Mother-in-law doing that every Memorial day. I even left a small flag for Hubbys Dad, who served in the Navy. Not fun, but it needed doing.

Horse Cartoon, Fergus!!!

I found a new horse cartoon!! Check her out on the web!!! Made me laugh!!

Cant wait to see more of her stuff! You can "like" her on FB.

Crazy flying machine!

Crazy flying machines!!! Between this guy and the other neighbors new model plane hobby, we are watching the skies around here. This flying machine is pretty loud. It has a big fan behind the motor and he sits kinda in a chair.

 I finally managed to catch some pics of him, he flew right over today and waved. He has a bright new sail, the old one was white.

 As close as I could get. And there is no way I would do this!!! LOL

 Going in for a landing. He lives on this hill to the North of us.

 And safely down. Whew! He must have flown for over and hour. (Nuzz Muzz was talking about the power lines around her new house, well we have them too, and the regular monthly helicopter fly over to check the lines.) Hmm power lines a bit of an obstacle for the flying machine!!

Now if I can only get used to the model plane flying over and resisting the urge to duck, every time I hear its motor fan cut out, when its right over head, and I am walking out to the barn!!! The thing is big!! And would hurt! LOL

Pre-Mothers day trip to the Nursery

The weekend before Mothers day, I took my Mom up to Columbia Gorge Nursery. It is owned by Linda and Tony Roberts. I met Linda when I worked at the feed store, and I still get a special invite to her spring sale every year! Here is a tour through the green houses.

 She is a busy woman all year, and supplies flowers for landscape projects to a lot of local businesses.

 I think there are 4 green houses in all. She grows flowers, flower baskets, herbs, and vegetables. She also sells native plants and trees.

 The 10" pots are only $12 at her sale!! Flowers are $17-28 a flat of 18, depending on the variety.

 Someone else loading up! She has these nifty push carts to haul around your purchases!!

 Those wooden hanging planters are only $18 each! Such good prices for this sale!!

 Here is her price list.

 I cant imagine the work it takes to fill all these green houses! The fences off areas are already sold plants.

 A view from the other end.

 They dont show up very well in this pic, but there is wild Lupine blooming everywhere right now! This is just beside the road.

 One of my 12" baskets, red, white and blue.

 Kind of a funky pic, but I had to get that purple Verbena in there, Purple/blue flowers are my favorites!!

 My Dahlias are all planted and coming up!! When I can keep the slugs off of them!! so they can come up.

 The tall spindly plant in the back is a free Hummingbird attracting flower that Linda gave, both Mom and I.

 Here is my favorite Petunia!! Blue Daddy, is its name. I bought the purple Alyssum to put in with them this year. I bought a whole flat, 12 Blue Daddy, and 6 Alyssum to put with them.

 These are on each side of the glass door onto our deck. They are each on top of a milk can.

Flowers, flowers, flowers!! and my garden is planted too! Walla walla onions, Zucchini, burpless cucumbers, mini pumpkins (which I like to bake and eat like Acorn squash) Tomatoes a few Jalapenos, and Blue Lake pole beans!! I hope to plant corn, but I have to wait and see if I will have some room. We share the garden plot with Hubbys brother.