Jacob Springs, Day 77...

We have...

More stucco...

sheetrock taped...

the beginnings of stairs!

and a retaining wall behind the house...

Life is good.

Jacob Springs, Day 76...

Jacob Springs is busy today.  We have the sheet rockers, the stucco guys, the surveyor (for the barn) and some random guy on a cat up there (I have idea what he's doing.  He's pushing dirt around and I'm sure charging a bunch of money).  The landscapers were there this morning too, but the stucco guys ran them off and told them not to come back until next week.  Evidently the dust they were creating isn't good for applying stucco.

The interior is beginning to look much more 'homey,' don't you think?

This is the stucco guy who said he might have "warned" me about using such a dark color, but then went on to say that because of the wrap-around porch, we should be safe from too much heat absorption.   Thanks stucco guy.  He really was nice.

Here's our new back door that actually fits.  The first one was about 3 inches too small.

And the random cat guy.  Like I said, I have no idea what he was doing.

Here's what it looked like from the road.  Lots of vehicles and activity.  That trailer over there on the left belongs to my sister Linda.  She likes it up there and it's nice to have someone there at night.  

I'm also afraid I have some sad news to report.  The hawks have gotten the last of the chickens, including Hoot.  We miss them.

Camping 2012

Linda, Jake and I took the grandkids camping and boy did we have fun!  We went to the Bruneau Sand Dunes and I highly recommend it for a great place to take small kids.  

There's a pond there loaded with bluegill and bass. You can sit right on the dock, drop a worm in the water about 2 feet deep, and the kids can watch the fish bite and reel them in.  I swear, they catch a fish every drop of the line and they had such a great time!

Even though it was hot, the kids found water at the campsite and had a great time getting wet.

Uncle Jake/daddy was such a good sport and pulled them up and down the little hill where we were camping.

We had to make a run for it through 100 yards of sprinklers to get to our fishing dock the next morning.  But, it was all part of the adventure and the kids loved it.

The kids climbed one of the huge sand dunes while grama sat at the bottom and took pictures.

It was such a great 2 days.  The kids were all so incredibly good and I think we're going to have to make this an annual event.

See All These Cute Kids?

We're taking the oldest 4 camping on Thursday.

along with this one.  She's my great-niece and she's 3.  Her mommy thinks she's naughty - but she's 3.  How could you possibly think this sweet girl is naughty?

Jacki just had a baby and Heather is due next month.  I thought they might enjoy a day or two without kids.  Well, Jacki will still have 2 at home but the loudest ones will be gone!

We're heading over to Bruneau Dunes State Park.  We used to take our kids there and they always loved it.  There's a pond with bluegill and bass and a little dock that you can sit on.  Every time you drop your line in the water you catch a fish.  The kids will have such a good time (and so will I - it's a great place for fishing!).

We'll also spend some time on the sand dunes.  I think I'll take some cardboard pieces for the kids to use as sleds.  I also bought some lawn games for while we're at camp. 

It'll be great to spend some time with my sister and son as well.  I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures when we get back!

If You're the Slightest Bit Envious...

that we're building a new home - think again.  While it's "mostly" gone pretty smooth, let me tell you what REALLY happens when a couple builds a house.  Especially a couple that has been married for 25 years and has known each other/dated for 38 years.  I'm sure if we were newlyweds, we'd be all "giddy" and excited about every detail that the other thought was a wonderful idea.  Unfortunately, we're at the stage of our lives where we both have our own ideas, and even though I'm right, he continues to insist his ideas are better.

The laundry room.  What man REALLY gives a rip about that?  Mine does.  Someone gave him their old kitchen sink and he wants to use it.  Doesn't matter that it's not deep enough to wash off dirty boots or kids - it was free - and he also wants to put it in the counter top where I plan to fold clothes.  Doesn't matter that it will only leave 2 ft. of useable space for it's intended use.  It was free.  Guess what.  There will be no sink on my folding table.

The master bath.  I tried to secretly have the electrician put in an outlet for a flat screen (that we already own) so that I can sit in my jetted tub and watch tv.  I thought he wouldn't notice it was there until I had the tv all hooked up but 'ol stink eye noticed the outlet the day it was put in.  He insists there will be no tv in the bathroom.  I loved my jetted tub in our old house and used it almost every night, especially in the winter.  Can't tell you how many times I thought to myself, "the only way this could be better is if I had a tv in here."  Guess what. There will be a tv in the bathroom. 

Just a few examples, but I guess you get the picture.

Once he figures out that his ideas suck, and mine are genius, things will be fine.  Juuuuuuust fine.

This is soooooo us...

Jacob Springs, Day 65...

I took some new pictures this morning and thought about the fact that within 2 months we'll be living here.  We're really excited.

They stained the deck - weathered gray.

My jetted tub is in!



 Here's the back side of the house...

and the west side...

one of the many flowers Ival has planted.  I love the color of this sunflower.



and a strange footprint I found this morning.  It obviously has 4 toes.  Looks to big to be a bobcat, but too small to be a cougar.  Any ideas?  I'm going to have to borrow that camera we gave mom for Christmas and mount in on one of the posts on the porch to see what critters we're getting up there!



George Jones - Final Tour...

I just heard that George Jones is planning his final tour in 2013.  He's always been my favorite country singer.  I will, somehow, get tickets to see him.  I've seen Willie Nelson twice - loved him, but I've never gotten to see George.  Hang in there George, one more year - I'm comin'!

What's New...

Most of what's happening at Jacob Springs has been inside - and boring.  Unless of course you're excited to have the house done.  That's me.

We have the electrician up there, the plumber, the heat and air and today they're installing most of the parts of the central vac system.  I haven't taken pictures because, well, like I said it's rather boring.  But it also gets us closer to completion.

Today I went and picked out several colors I like for the interior.  I'm mostly looking at white with a bit of blue tint, white with a bit of gray tint, or white with a bit of green tint.  I love green, but the outside is going to be green so I'm thinking I need something different for the inside. 

So, once something exciting happens inside I'll post pictures.  

Did I Finally See a UFO?!

Any of you who know me, know I'm totally fascinated with ghosts, UFOs, bigfoot - anything weird or bizarre.  I would love to experience any of these oddities.
Well, I may have done so but I just don't know.

I wake up early, usually between 5am and 6am.  The other morning I woke up at 5:30 and turned on the tv to watch the Olympics.  On the side of our rental we have French doors that look out over the foothills with a few homes on acreages just across Dry Creek Rd.

I was watching tv when I noticed (it was still very dark outside) out of the corner of my eye, an orange object that looked to be about the size of a marble (from here) moving horizontally across the window.  I thought it must be a reflection.  Nothing on the tv was orange and I didn't have any lights on in the house.  I watched it for a minute never taking my eyes off it because I couldn't figure out what it was.  There are no roads over there.  Finally I got up and walked over to the glass door and peered out.

I cupped my hands around my eyes and watched as this orange glowing "orb" moved slowing between our house and the foothills.  It went behind a tree and then came out the other side, then, changed to white - like a headlight but not nearly as bright.  I couldn't believe my eyes because I knew after plastering my face against the window that it was definitely not a reflection of something.  There was something there.

I ran the few steps to grab the binocs and when I looked back it was gone.  I looked through the binocs for a long time trying to find it again but couldn't.  I have no idea what I saw but it was weird.

Below is a picture.  I didn't take this picture, it was on the internet, but this is exactly what it looked like.



Cleaning the Wagon...

We started at 7am and our good friend, retired Game Warden, Dutch Oven Camp Cook and Cookbook Author, Butch Welch came up to help.  What a life saver. 

If it's old, especially if it has anything to do with cast iron or old west, Butch is full of information.  Not only did we completely take the wagon apart to clean it, but we got a history lesson on almost every hand-forged inch of it.  He told us about the wood, the hand-forged wrought iron and every pin and nail.  It was actually great fun.  Butch, only you could have actually made this nasty project fun!

All we have left is the box.  Before we put it all back together we'll give it a good scrubbing with dawn dish soap.

What a wonderful adventure this was!

Oh, and I'm going to go buy a kiddie pool today and we're going to soak the wooden wheels for a few days to get them back to fitting as tight in the iron bands as they were years ago.  Butch is helping with that too.  By next weekend we should have our kitchen island put all back together!

Wagon Delivery!

Well, even though I thought I'd decided it was even too odd for us, the wagon kitchen island was delivered today.  For some reason I thought it would require 6 strong men to get it on the porch, it was actually quite uneventful.  They backed the truck up to the porch, undid the straps and wheeled it out!

Tomorrow I will take a bottle of Simple Green and degrease this baby.

Today we also got windows!  They're beeeeuteeeful windows!

 It's looking more like home every day!