Beach Trip

Picnik collage, originally uploaded by mysticfish.

It is coming up on my birthday again.. this will be a milestone birthday for me this month.. and last year I got to take a fabulous trip to the beach with one of my best friends. She flew out from Minnesota and we drove to the coast and spent the weekend laughing, playing blackjack, getting spa treatments, drinking, eating and taking pictures. We took the long way home.. and when I did this collage, I could not help thinking back to that fabulous trip and wishing to repeat it this year. I don't think a weekend trip will happen, however.... I was just informed that I may be able to clinic with someone that weekend.. and take my portable pony out for a spin.. since he will be coming home on February 12th!!! yipppeee.

Fallen - Wordless Wednesday

Fallen, originally uploaded by mysticfish.

Wordless Wednesday.

This is linked up to Wordless Wednesday Here.

Merry Christmas Eve!

It is Christmas eve, and for the first time in three years, we won't have a white Christmas.  Last year, we had a very snowy white Christmas, we also had snow the year before.  Today, it is just clear and cold.  I have mixed feelings about it.  I love the snow.  I don't love the driving around in it.  The Pacific Northwest gets some snow every year, and every year we are just as unprepared for it.

Part of it is our geography (Very hilly) and part of it is the actual snow itself.  Normally when it snows, it is a little wetter here, and we have fluctuating temperatures, so it gets slushy during the day, and then freezes at night, which makes for very icy roads.  Two weeks ago, we did have a nice snow day.  Other than two unlucky people ending up in our ditch before the snow was done, we had a very fun and uneventful day.  Below are some pictures of what we do on our new little farm in the snow...

This is early on in the day.. when we had just a bit of snow.. Notice the tracks on the lawn.. made by Macgyver..

This is a picture of the small garage in the front and the barn in the back... notice I now have FENCE posts in.. Yeahhhhh... These will be for the paddocks.

This is what Macgyver and Paco did most of the day.. Tear up all the nice snow in our mammoth parking lot..lol

Since one of the quads is taken apart right now for rebuilding, Oldest son decided to try out the Honda scooter in the snow.. He wiped out right after this picture.. and no he was not harmed in any way.  he was going about 2mph. Yes, I did yell at both him and Macgyver to get their helmets on.

Here is Paco on my quad.. he had a great time with it.

Here is oldest deciding his car might do better to keep up with the others.

Even Hurley and Sissy got in on the play.

Have a VERY Merry Christmas!!!!!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

This is linked to Wordless Wednesday, HERE.

Last night, myself and some friends went to see a student of T's sing at the lights of Christmas.. It is a Christian camp that opens up around Christmas time with Thousands of lights, performances, pony rides, the polar express mini train ride, and food.  They also have crafts and carolers, it is pretty impressive.  Below are just a few of the shots I got.  I was playing around with my Camera.

 

 

I couldn't resist

Two Posts in a Day??? Wow...

But a good friend of mine shared thess photos of my horse with me today.. and I, in turn wanted to share it here.

This is my gorgeous boy this last summer...

House Photos

I have come to terms with the fact that I live in Chaos right now.  To satisfy the terms of our Holdback, we have to do much work in a small amount of time.  This weekend we will do the final bits of big work and then next week we should be complete.  By Halloween, I should be actually moving boxes and putting beds together.

The following weekend, I should be finally working on the Barn.  That is when I will really get excited.

My uncle came over last night and looked at the two trees we think need to come down.  He doesn't feel comfortable felling them himself, so he is calling a guy to come and do it for us.  He will help McGyver and I chip and chop up the logs once they are down, but we cannot build any fences until those two trees come down.  One is really dead and he suggested removing that one ASAP before the heavy wind storms we normally get around Thanksgiving come.

I have included some Day 1 photo's here  and some progress photos.  Enjoy!  If I haven't been responding or commenting much, it is only because we are literally working all the time.  When I am not at work, I am working on the house.  Up until today, this week at work has been crazy as well since I was gone three days.  I will be back to visiting everyone very soon!

All of these first photo's were taken the first few days we were there.  We actually slept on our mattresses in the dining/family room area.

Above picture is our Family Room and off to the left of that space is the Dining room and Kitchen

This is the Main Bath.. it needs SERIOUS help.  Mcgyver is actually working on this room today.

 

This is our Living room, Day one.. it had a swirly, gaudy VERY filthy Carpet, and the drapes were pretty icky as well.  Since this picture, there is NEW carpet, and the drapes have been cleaned.  I am waiting to replace the window treatments in this room as they are HUGE windows and the bedrooms have to come first.

 

This is the Master Bedroom, it also was in need of some SERIOUS attention.  It now also has new paint, new trim, and new carpet.  I will photograph it when it is put back together.. although I think I did take a couple of shots with the new Carpet and the new paint.

 This used to be my kitchen.. in my old house

 
This is my new kitchen.  It won't look like this forever.  Just until after the barn is done and my pony comes home.  I am sacrificing having new stuff in here and getting started on painting cabinets to get my pony home.


Now for the updated photos:

McGyver installed Cedar floors in the Hall Closets.  The Hall Closets were so gross I had to wear a mask to clean them out.  Now they have been Bleached, primed with a stain killer/blocker, the shelves were all cleaned, bleached, painted and put back in and he put in Cedar floors to make them smell nice.. it is wonderful and was a really inexpensive solution to our flooring dilemma in these closets.

This is now our dining room.  Paco is sitting at a CLEAN table in the dining room.  It has since lost this look and is now functioning as a work area again since the rain started up again.  he Paneling in this room has been the source of a couple of very "heated" discussions between McGver and myself.  HE thinks it is fabulous and is inherent of the character of the house and because it is in SUCH good shape, we should leave it.  I want it gone or painted White.  I want a different look in here.  So.. I am sure we will revisit this room again.

This is looking down the Hallway to the bedrooms and the Main Bath on the Right, Hall closets on the left.  This was in pretty bad shape as well and had NO trim.  Now the walls are Waverly Natural and the Trim is a nice White that I can't remember the name of right now, as I have purchased more paint in the last week than I care to remember right now.. and  75th Trip to Lowes is today right after work for guess what.. More paint.

This is the new carpet in the Living room.  It is made by Mohawk and is a Smart Strand.  You can do up to a 50/50 Bleach Water combo on this.  It is WONDERFUL carpet and we love it.. but it is a little on the pricey side.  We got ours on sale for 17$ a yard.

This is with our 50 inch plasma up.  We now think this looks little.. and that is my beautiful lab's BUTT in the shot.. Whooops.. she didn't run Quite fast enough.

Progress on the Master Bedroom.  I am finishing up the cut in stuff this weekend.  The color is Pine Needle Green.  It was scary in the can.. (mushy peas), but now I love it up on the walls!

We still have some things to do.. but with the new carpet and the white trim.. it is coming together nicely..

All this work made for some very tired people.. but these guys were absolutely EXHAUSTED

 These guys were all tuckered out.  They have totally settled in though.

Thanks for bearing with this very long post.  I hopefully will get to post again sometime this weekend with some more pictures.. otherwise it will be sometime next week.

Happy Weekend folks!

Saur-Kraut Band

DSCN0483, originally uploaded by mysticfish.

I had mentioned that I would tell you all about the funny thing that happened while McGyver and I were in the bar. We had sat down at a table near to the front and These folks in funny clothes kept coming in.. there must have been about twenty of them. They are a band that is comprised of the American Legion chapter there and they raise money for charity by selling buttons, pins, shirts and hats. They were Awesome. The look on McGyvers face though.. Priceless.. he actually ended up enjoying it.. these folks were really good.. but they played Right in Front of us the entire time. Talk about front row seats. We really enjoyed them. They played awhile and then wandered down the street to play somewhere else. That is what they do.. just pop in, play and then head out to play somewhere else during the festival. Pretty cool, I think.

Here is McGyver watching

 

I will finish up posting some of the other photos from our drive back today, I really hope you have enjoyed them!

Berry Tree

Berry Tree, originally uploaded by mysticfish.

Playing around with Flickr Editing.. Called Picnik

Fall Drive Continuation photos

So my computer was having issues last night and really over the last few days.  It is my netbook.. my "Home" vs work computer.  I finally got all issues resolved today with it.. (crossing fingers and making funny faces), and so can share some more photos.  The other issue I really have is that my connection speed at the temporary "home" is really really horrible.  This is why I mainly post during the week, when I can take advantage of better connections speeds.

Without further interruption from me..

Heading down the pass on the East Side of the Mountains

Walking through The back side of the town

This is just a cute bench outside one of the many cute shops

View towards the festival tents

Some of the buildings there.. EVERYthing is Bavarian Style

Next Post I will share some of the pics from the funny thing that happened while we were in the bar having a drink before heading home.. It was hilarious!!!  I should have gotten more pictures of my husband, as he is always a little stunned by surprise things.  This was pretty cool!

Ciao for Now!

Fall Leaf Festival Drive

We took the drive on Saturday afternoon because we had bad news on the appraisal.  Basically, this one was worse.  So... our only two options at this point.. do the work or walk away.  We want this property, so we are going to have to do the work and hope that the Bank that is orchastrating this short sale will assist or compensate us with closing costs or something.. anything.

So to take our mind off of the crap.. Hubby and I took a drive over to the festival in Leavenworth.  It is only about an hour or so drive from our property, so we thought we could just take a nice drive, go and have a bit of food and a beer and come back.  I wanted to take pictures and boy did I!  I have tons of them and will share a few of them with you today.  I hope to go up to the falls tomorrow morning with Coco and Bella and take some more pictures as well.

This is on the West Side of the Pass just past Index

I lurrrve these big Pine Cones... I should have brought some back with me!

At the Pass.. they are supposed to get snow tonight.. WOW

I am having trouble tonight uploading any more images, so I will have to finish this tomorrow.. I don't have a good connection out in the woods

TGIF?

I have been waiting alllllllll day for news that the second appraisal was done and that we have our status that we need to move forward and close.  This is the very last thing we need to close on this house.  It was supposed to be in this morning.

So far.. 3:09 Pacific Time (PM).. NOTHING yet.

I have to leave in about 40 minutes so I am really really praying that some miracle happens and we hear good news in the next half hour.  (I am the eternal optimist)

Tomorrow we are going to head over to Leavenworth for the Fall Festival with Padewan.  I think he is {insert sarcasm HERE} excited to go with us.



Below is an image of a street in Leavenworth during the festival.. I sooo cannot wait to capture some shots like this:

Leavenworth is a small Bavarian Themed Town in Eastern WA.  We are about an hours drive away.  You can check out more cool stuff about Leavenworth HERE.

Enjoy!  Have a fabulous Weekend all!

Fall Festival Party

We usually would do Quite a bit to get into the Fall Season and Feather our nest...

Fall Cleaning and organizing, some canning, tons of baking, and I would usually wash and scrub all of my horses summer fly masks and sheets and pads.  I also help McGyver get the property winterized and the house ready for winter and stock up on holiday items for baking and treats.

We also like to get in the mood by taking a fall drive.  This Saturday, we are going to drive over to Leavenworth.  I posted earlier today pictures of our last fall drive.  I will post some more in this post.

Here is the first one.. which I modified with an all new signature using Photoshop Elements.

And Here is one from my Flikr page that I added a Signature using Picnik

Which one do you like better?



Be sure to see other ways to Feather your nest and get more ideas from Here and Here



I am off to see all the other great Fall inspirations out there!