Small Hitters

What to do with a half an acre of grass? We've been wondering this since moving into our house in North Bonneville. Aside from digging it all up or spending thousands on trees, we've drawn a blank. All of our neighbors seem to love to mow as they also
have large lots with lots of grass.
I hate to mow and refuse to buy
a riding mower despite the fact that it takes me one and a half hrs to mow the law. This weekend changed everything and now our yard has a purpose.

Jarred and I have been having a great time mountain biking this fall. We've been wanting to visit Post Canyon which is just outside of Hood River. Post Canyon is what we like to call a "big hitter" area. "Big hitters" are mountain bikers who throw themselves off of huge jumps, ride crazy logs and teeter-totters. Jarred and I are not "big hitters" we have cross country bikes, not made for jumping. I have to admit, I wasn't too excited about trying the obstacles, they looked downright scary. Jarred couldn't get enough of the obstacles though despite the fact that yes, his collarbone is still broken. By the time we left, both of us were hooked. We decided that we needed to go home and make our own "small hitter" course. This is what we've come up with so far. I know, I know, not too impressive, especially after you've gone on youtube and typed in Post Canyon. We look like a bunch of weenies. But hey, it's a start. And now our yard has a purpose.

I realized that I don't have too many photos of Nic, even though I spend the majority of my time with this guy. Jarred took this photo while I had Nic up in Idaho this summer. I had grand intentions of giving Nic a summer off from showing to trail ride with my friend Lori. I find trail riding totally unengaging and generally want to fall asleep in the saddle about 1/2 way into the ride. On the other hand, trail riding is great for the horses. It's mentally engaging for them and is a great way to get them in shape. So I committed to a summer of mentally engaging Nic who has spent his entire life doing circles inside an arena.

Not long after I brought Nic to his beautiful vacation home in Sun Valley, he went lame. To make a long story sort, Nic's got bad feet and considering the fact that he's got a big body and small legs, the condition of his feet is important. Since I've owned Nic he's been a tough horse to put shoes on and has had periods of lameness because of his feet. I think these periods of lameness came to fruition when we finally tried to put a new pair of shoes on Nic at the beginning of the summer. The new shoes ended up bruising his feet to the point that they abcessed. Abcesses are amazing because blood and puss actually spew from the foot. In Nic's case, they happened to spew from the top of his hoof.

Luckily, Sun Valley has a plethora of great farriers and good vets. However, Nic's foot problems weren't a quick fix and I spent the summer soaking his feet and making trips to the vet. We did no trail riding so neither of us got the vacation we wanted. As the summer wore on, I began to worry about the potential that Nic would never heal and I woud be stuck with a pasture pet.

Nic is finally sound now though. He's not 100% but I can now ride him and we're doing a lot of trotting, which Nic does not like because it's work. He'd rather continue his vacation time and get fat, eat, sleep and poop.

Peaches

A couple of weeks ago, Jarred's mom came down with 9 boxes of peaches and 5 boxes of pears for us to can. I generally don't like the canning process as it's usually hot, the fruit gets everything sticky and it takes forever. Last year Jarred's mom, his sister and I canned about 7 boxes of peaches and had a blast, so the social aspect of canning can be fun. Plus peaches in the middle of winter are great!

Barack Obama has his own television channel!

Jarred and I don't have television, by choice, unlike our internet situation. This means that when I am around television, I get the uncontrollable urge to flip through as many channels as possible, in hopes to catch up on what I may have been "missing." I generally find that I am disgusted with what is on television and that I'm not missing much. However, last night, my television experience proved to be full of surprises. 

First off, I was totally baffled to find out that Paris Hilton has a show on MTV called My New BFF (or something of that sort). Intrigued by the show's title, I immediately flipped to MTV and settled down to see what a BFF was. I quickly learned that a BFF was a Best Friend Forever. Hmmm, how would one pick their best friend on a television show? Doesn't sound too exciting as it takes years to develop a best friend, right? WRONG! In Paris's world, a BFF can be chosen in a mere 1/2 hour. Of course there are stipulations; best friends cannot be ugly, must be anorexic, wear enough mascara to cause Cover Girls stock to skyrocket despite these hard times, and they must be as simple minded and mentally inept as Paris Hilton. No wonder it only takes 1/2 hr! I have now lost all respect for MTV and what I believed the channel represented and I now know why my high school students think it's ok to abbreviate everything, u know? 

Baffled, I went back to the good ole' satellite guide to see what other crap I could find. As I grudgingly clicked through the channels, I realized I was wasting precious hours of my life and was about to turn the television off when I came upon a channel devoted solely to Barack Obama. I have to admit, I was surprised that this was even an option, could candidates really purchase their own cable channels? I guess if they can fundraise like Barack, anything can happen. I decided to settle in to see what I could learn about the candidate. 

After about 15 minutes of listening to Michelle Obama's mother talk about her daughter's childhood and Barack and Michelle talk about how they met, I came to the conclusion that Barack has hired some fantastic marketing professionals. Not only is he plastered all over the web, but they've even catered to the television watching crowd, those who wish to become familiar with the candidate, but more on a Paris Hilton level. These television watchers don't want to know about Obama's policies, they want to know how he fell in love, who his mom was, that he plays UNO with his daughters. Only once in the half hour I watched the channel did I hear any mention of what Obama would do for our nation. I was able to find out more about where Obama stood on the economy by reading the first paragraph on his web page. While I'm excited to hear that more and more people are voting this year, it frightens me to think about why they're voting. I also decided that television watching is not for me. I'll stick to NetFlix where at least I can have a choice in my own depravity. 

Enough for now, I'm going to go put on my Barack Obama tee-shirt and head outside to enjoy the sun. 

Yesterday, Jarred and I had the opportunity to hear Frank McCourt speak at Mountain View, the high school where Jarred works. What could be more entertaining than a cute, little, old man with an Irish accent? Frank lived up to my expectations as an entertaining speaker. He truly is the same person he is in his memoir. As I listened to Frank speak, I learned many a thing about this little man. He's not afraid to swear in front of high school students (of course, he's a retired teacher with a Pulitzer Prize under his belt), he writes BY HAND, every day and he wrote a children's book. When I heard him say this, I thought to myself, "Gosh, he must really be owned by his publishing company." I just could not envision Frank McCourt writing some cheezy children's book, let alone a CHRISTMAS book. After a short explanation by Frank and further investigation on my part, I found this was no ordinary children's book, it was a Frank McCourt children's book, complete with odd humor and honesty. I recommend checking it out, especially since most of you are now toting babies or young-ins who need to be read to so when they enter school, they will have advanced vocabularies and already be able to read so their teachers will have to do less work. 

The Mazda Wheelbarrow

Since Colleen asked, and I have computer time, I thought I'd explain the Mazda wheelbarrow that Jarred purchased at the end of the summer. Photos to follow.

In the last few years, Jarred has decided that his financial goal is to live debt free (minus a mortgage). To reach his goal, Jarred decided to analyze his finances to see where he could eliminate debt. Since Jarred went to posh-posh UPS, he'll be paying for his education until he's 90. A little extra work this summer eliminated the small credit card bill he had. Now he was close to his goal, but one dark financial cloud still loomed over his financial world....our beautiful silver Jetta TDI wagon with a veggie conversion kit. With the price of gas these days, TDI's are a hot commodity (they get a whopping 50 mpg). So, after some research, Jarred found that he would be able to sell our Jetta for about $1000 less than we bought it for AFTER putting 73000 miles on it. Whoever hears of cars appreciating and not depreciating?

After finding a buyer, Jarred began to look for a more "affordable" car. This meant a car he could purchase without obtaining a loan or much of one. From past experience, we realized that Jarred probably needed a small truck or something that he could drive to various off-road places. While he takes care of the car's running parts, Jarred isn't really into aesthetics, like I am. As he began his search, I had visions of a cute little Toyota pick-up or smaller SUV. I was working in Idaho at the time and sent over craigslist postings of what I was looking for. Apparently, Jarred had other ideas about what he wanted to purchase.

One day while I was working, I get a call that Jarred is going to go to Portland to look at cars. I quickly provided my suggestions and vehicle desires and also reminded him of my number one desire. I DIDN'T WANT A TEAL VEHICLE. I hate the color teal, and the thought of driving a teal vehicle, really bothered me. After this CLEAR reminder, I wished him luck and hung up.

Not an hour later, I get another call. Jarred purchased a truck. A Mazda truck. A TEAL Mazda truck. I actually don't remember being that mad about anything in a long time. For some reason, I just could not fathom WHY Jarred would ignore my needs and purchase a TEAL truck. I was disgusted and curtly hung up on him.

So, for the past two months now, we've been commuting in a TEAL Mazda truck that makes a few noises, has cheap tires from Wal-Mart, no working gas gauge, numerous scratches and plastic hub cabs. Not to mention we have to keep a bottle of Febreeze handy for when the smell gets overpowering. The selfish, cynical part of me wants the damn thing to die, but it just chugs along. It now has a white PVC bike rack in the back, to add insult to injury to my feelings about aesthetics. The bike rack is awesome, just ugly.

I own a F250 Diesel truck that can haul just about anything. Since the Mazda has a bed, we'd kind of assumed that it too could haul just about anything also. However, we've come to realize, after moving wood and other heavy objects, that the Mazda REALLY operates much like a large wheelbarrow. In fact, I've opted to use our wheelbarrow instead of the truck a couple of times.

Jarred is tickled with his new financial freedom but we're no longer riding in style.