A New Routine

As you know, it's been cold and dry up here in the Pacific North West. Temperatures have been averaging in the low 30's. We crack up while watching our local weatherman talk of the "warm weather" we're are going to be getting as the temp's are supposed to reach 39!


Having a new puppy requires exercise. Lots of it. Maggie is very active and needs a good long walk every day. So we have a new routine. We walk the golf course. I take a racket and ball and hit it down the fairway. She runs back and forth as I walk. This gives her twice the workout and tires her out.

Here's the route that we follow daily:

down the 9th fairway,

across the 6th to the road that leads to the motor coach village. Then across the village and up to the 3rd green and then it's uphill all the way back up.

Occasionally, we come across evidence that our deer, elk or moose neighbors have been around. I have to keep an eye out for where the ball lands just in case it drops into their prints.

All in all we both get a great workout.

While we walk, Stoneridge Guy has been busy with his appraisal business and keeping things moving with the house. There are a few more things that need to be framed within the house. The siding is going on, heating, air conditioning with all of their duct work is almost done and the electrician starts on Friday. Once that gets completed the insulation and drywall can start.


We bought our fireplace, front door and the kitchen is in the design phase. We have picked out our hard wood flooring and kitchen cabinets. It shouldn't be too long before we can actually start on the inside of the house.

The icing on the cake are the unexpected guests that show up around the house.



At dusk, the deer come out from all over the place. Occasionally we get lucky and they come right out in the open. You really need to keep your eyes open when driving too. The roads are 2 lanes and dark. Before you know it there are deer jumping out in front of the car. Fortunately for us, no close calls.

Frozen Fog

We haven't had any new snow for about 3 weeks. Due to a week of temps in the upper 30's to low 40's there isn't any snow on the roads or rooftops. You can still see plenty of snow on the fairway or open fields, but only about 6-12" depending on drifts.

What we have had lately is fog and because it's been in the low 30's it's freezing fog. So imagine being in a thick fog, so thick you only have about 100 yards of visibility. When it freezes the fog crystallizes and falls to the ground like a super fine snow and it will accumulate. The big difference between snow and this freezing fog is that it's ice. Very Slippery ICE!

Now when you get these icy crystals accumulating on trees you get quite a site. Going the back way into Spokane we passed an area that still shows the effect that this frozen fog had on the forest here.


Other than our 2 week stint with the fog, it's been cold but it's been sunny and beautiful!

Our Christrmas Vacation

We made it home from an 18 day holiday trip to Southern California to this view as we unpacked our car. Sights like this make me wonder why we would want to ever leave again.

We left Blanchard on December 22nd during a snow storm in 11 degree temperatures. We couldn't leave until we uncovered the truck from 3 feet of snow. Changing our plans to head west to Portland due to highway closures, we went east through Montana instead. Our first day only got us to Dillon, MT. The driving was slow and stressful only going about 250 miles in 8 hours. Our 2nd day was 12 hours of driving as we made it to Mesquite, NV. Day 3 was a piece of cake by comparison, as we made it to Moorpark, CA in around 6 hours.

Our time was split between both of our families:
Moorpark, Santa Barbara, Reseda, Glendale, San Pedro, Dessert Hot Springs

Sorry to those of you that we missed, maybe on the next trip. Or better yet, come up and see us anytime.