It's a cooker out there...

Another weekend has passed. The entire day of Friday was consumed with a BIG yard sale I helped host with a friend. My gosh we got rid of a lot of stuff!! It feels good to down size a bit with a goal of continuing to simplify our lives. I made enough money to make it well worth my time and had a good time doing it. Being a hard core yard saler, it was interesting to observe the other side of the coin. I have to say I was a little surprised at how cheap people really are. People don't seem to look past the yard sale price to what the item cost originally. It seems to have no bearing on what they are willing to pay. As much as I love to go to the sales I hate to dicker on prices. The weather cooperated, we got plenty of sunshine without too much heat.

Doug's brother hosted a bbq Friday evening. Dean lives on a farm just down the road from ours. He has such a beautiful, lush setting in the middle of all of these dried up wheat fields. It is always refreshing to go over and hang out at his place. He has a cool, stocked pond so sometimes someone brings a pole and throws a few casts out in hopes of catching a bass. The kids always get such a kick out of this. But this time we just stayed close to the patio and watched the kids ride their bikes around and visited with good friends. I had ridden my motorcycle over so I left just before it got completely dark with hopes of having a little bit of light to help me see to feed the animals and tuck them in for the night. It was a real thrill to see 5 bucks (Doug calls them the Fab Five) by the railroad trussle and another 4 in the piece east of our house.

On Saturday a few of our friends from Warden came down to the spend the afternoon searching for houses in the area. I enjoyed showing them around and helping them see the areas in and around Walla Walla. Tara is a friend from horse shows and although she is no longer showing I know we would have fun together if she lived here. Her daughter is a couple years older than Hadley and they would have a great time if the move works out for them.

The chores never seem to end here on the farm. Doug spent a good deal of Sunday dealing with irrigation and hand lines and also building a long awaited bunk bed for Hadley and Kate. The end results was well worth the wait and now the girls are sharing their little "surf shack" room. It's a strange to think that 30+ years ago Doug was sharing the very same bedroom with his brother Dean. In a house with 4 bedrooms there is something comforting about being close to your loved ones.

My cousin, Ryan, completed the STP (Seattle to Portland) bike ride last weekend. I believe it was 200+ miles and she soared through the race. I am so impressed by her abilities--she just took up bike riding this year and has been going on some LONG rides. Her sister, Erin, is equally amazing with completions of marathons and the STP as well. Ryan will be coming out here this summer to drive wheat truck for her dad for a week. It will be a good chance to see her.

We didn't let the weekend stop when Monday rolled around. Kate, Hadley and I took good old Elvis for a ride around the pasture. Hadley lasted a lap or two and had enough of Kate head butting her while sharing the saddle so she opted to go check for eggs and run with the goats instead. Then Kate had Elvis all to herself which I am sure was her original intent. She rode round and round the pasture and when I finally had enough of leading Elvis I pulled her off but it wasn't without a huge tantrum. Nice to have someone who shares my love of horses no matter how much noise she makes about it.

Every day, this time of year, we try to make a point of getting out to the raspberry bushes and picking them. This has been an especially good year for berries and if I don't end up using the berries that day I freeze them for the winter because I know we will get more berries tomorrow. Tonight I made an especially tasty dinner of salmon on the bbq, rice and beans followed by individual raspberry pot pies for dessert topped with home made vanilla ice cream. I would be lying if I didn't admit to eating two of them.

I know it is said how chickens help so much with gardens, keeping the weeds down, eating bugs, etc. While that might all be true, I would also like to note they make a mess of some things in the process. I had a nice patch of succulents in one spot under a tree but apparently the chickens must have liked what was underneath them because they have just about torn out every single one. During the hot summer afternoons I often find them in and among the raspberry bushes. I think it must be cool from the watering and the bugs must be plentiful. They seem to enjoy eating any berries that have fallen to the ground. Here is a picture of Uno striking her best pose.