No, it can't be Monday!

The weekend went so fast, I'm not even sure if I had one.  *sigh*  Monday is not my favorite day.  I accomplished so little of my expectations that it's mind blowing.  Not that I had my two days off all pegged out, but still.  I've always got projects, things...you know, in the back of my mind that I'd like to do.  More often than not, it seems, I don't get to half of them.  I live for the day when my time is my own...

So, anyway Saturday morning arrived and I got the wild hair to take a road trip.  Yep, drove down south to Eugene and then East over the Willamette Pass to LaPine.  It was a beautiful day for a drive.  We stopped at   O'Dell Lake for a short walk.  The weather was beautiful, and there was a brisk breeze blowing.  Perfect hiking weather.  What a huge lake!  The dogs and I took off up the trail, up a rather steel hill to a vista point and looked out over the lake.  I took a few pics and then headed down the trail.  I was doing fine, until the trail narrowed and I made the mistake of stopping.  Panic engulfed me.  Crap.  I had to crouch down and hang on to some bushes for a while and regain my composure.  I have this horrible fear of heights, and I was doing ok, thought I had it made, but I never should have stopped.  So, I crouched there panicking for a few minutes before I sternly told myself to just breathe deeply and relax.  The trail was very narrow and there was a fairly steep descent to the rocks and water below.  I felt dizzy.  Ruby bounded off down the trail back towards our car, but Annie stayed with me.  Dear, sweet, Annie...she gave me a gentle nuzzle of encouragement and that enabled me to get hold of my emotions and actually stand up.  Good grief, my legs were so shaky, and that dizziness just makes me feel weak, even a little nauseous.  But, I said a little prayer and took a tentative step, then another...down the hill we crept.  After a few minutes of this, the trail wasn't quite so steep and I walked on and back down to the car.  How I hate that!  But, at least I made it back without having to stay crouched on that trail waiting for my hubby to come and rescue me.  And Ruby, she went back, found my hubby and kept running back up the trail towards where we were waiting...good girl, she really hadn't abandoned me after all.  :)  My hubby was headed our way, but he didn't know about my little panic attack.  He just mentioned Ruby's actions, and that she really wanted to go back the direction from where she'd just come from.  I love my dogs.

Once in LaPine, we met up with the real estate lady who drove us to view two properties we've had our eyes on for almost a year.  One was an older manufactured home and I didn't like it at all.  The property was really nice, but no way on the home.  The other one was gorgeous!!  It's been my favorite all along, and seeing it in person just started my imagination soaring!  The house is perfect!!  Huge master bedroom with a huge master bath...my dream!!  A nice sized living room with lots of natural light and high ceilings and a huge woodstove.  Slate entry area with beautiful oak flooring throughout the main living areas, carpeted bedrooms and a slate floors in both bathrooms.  A sliding door off the dining room area onto a huge deck with a hot tub and a nice sized, fenced back yard.  Perfect!  It even had lots of windows and a skylight in the kitchen with a cozy eating area with a laundry room behind the kitchen.  The front entrance also has a covered deck, smaller than the back, but nicely sized.  The home sits about a half a block back from the road and has beautiful Ponderosa and Jack Pines between the front yard and the road.  The entire front part of the property is fenced, it has a 36 x 40 shop with a woodstove and a one room guest residence with a woodstove, kitchen, bath and living area.  Just adorable!  The property is 10 acres and needs clearing and some tree thinning, plus fencing would all have to be done before horses could live there.  The property also has no barn.  Not perfect, but the home is.  *sigh*  Good price too, very affordable.  The home has been on the market for nearly a year and the family needs to move soon, so they may be renting the place out, which would be unfortunate, but that's what they need to do, or sell it quickly.  If our home was sold, I'd move there in a heartbeat.  Aah, dreaming is fun, but I think we'll actually make the move someday.  Where we live is perfect, except the winter months where it just rains too much for my tastes.

We then drove on into Sisters where there was a spectacular forest fire going on.  The usually picturesque drive from Bend to Sisters of the 3 Sisters Mountains, Mt. Bachelor and Mt. Washington were completely shrouded in smoke.  Very surreal, and spooky.  We stopped for an early picnic dinner before heading back along the Santiam Pass towards home.

Yesterday morning began with Jules and her mom coming over for a lesson with the horses.  That ran a little longer than usual, which seriously cut into my last day to get anything around home done.  After they left, I went inside and scrambled some eggs for a late breakfast and my sister and niece stopped by for a visit.  I hadn't even made my bed yet...anyway, it was nice to see them and catch up. We picked some veggies from the garden, enjoyed cool drinks on the deck in the sunshine and when they went home, I cleaned up my kitchen and managed to get about 40 pounds of tomatoes blanched, peeled and into the freezer.  I got 9 quarts of tomatoes total.  Finally made my bed and it was just about time to feed the horses and think about dinner.  Whew!  We had taco salads and lemonade, fed the horses, doctored Merlin's eye and headed inside.  I ran a nice, warm bath and felt much better after relaxing in the tub for a while.  Watched a little TV and went to bed...that's my weekend in a nutshell.

I never got to work with Eagle or Ladde all weekend.  Bummed about that.  But, my hubby did manage to get a very early morning ride in on Ladde.  At least that's something!

I've been noticing how very, very dry everything is around home.  Central Oregon was even drier and with the smokey air, it actually made me a little nostalgic for some rain...can you believe I'm saying that?  It would be refreshing though.  Just a little rain to dampen everything and freshen the air...then cooler weather and an Indian Summer until November.  That's all I'm asking for...