esterday we scoured Lewiston for tiny house counter top options and failed. Cement is too labor-intensive and we'd have too much left over (etcher, sealer, etc.)--we're talking about 15 sq. ft. Not anything you'd need a GALLON for. We hit Habitat for Humanity's store and struck out, too.

Except I found a couple of photography books. Out of the 800 or so they had from some sort of "compulsive buyer." One is a brand new copy The Great LIFE Photographers. $10. And another one on shooting portraits. Which I thought would come in handy since I'm thinking if I can get any takers I can make some money this summer shooting photos of people. If you're local and this sounds intriguing at all, hit me up. I get a beefed up portfolio and you get some prints.

So, assuming TurboTax isn't lying to me... (please don't, TurboTax, or I will have to hurt you), I want to spend some of my (our) refund on a new digital camera. The one I have is on its last legs. Too much dropping will do that. I am just torn between getting a better "professional-looking" one (like this) or one that's small and sleek and can hide in my pocket (like this) so I don't look like a tourist later this year when we go to Mexico-Belize-Guatemala. I don't want to spend too much and I really can't justify getting BOTH...?

Keith talked me into this last week.

It was only $200 including the trailer and it's sea-worthy, we think. It needs a lot of cosmetic help, but it will be a fun summer project. We might try to float it down at the river tomorrow if the weather is decent.

There's a lot of people fishing for steelhead right now. Not that we'll be fishing. Probably just rowing. But the waters can be crowded. We walked the railroad tracks across the river from the end of our road the other day and saw several boats hanging out there.

(wishing he was out there in his boat)

Including a guy with a propane heater and his dog.


Planning for our trip toward the equator is well underway. I am the Researcher. I think we'd be going there blind if I left it to Keith. But the more I read, the more I'm becoming enamored with Belize. I'm even checking into volunteer opportunities there (through WWOOF). And Keith wants to be sure to hit the Oaxaca--the state, if not the city--for culinary reasons. A month sounds like a long time, but I think we'll find our schedule pretty full. I'd like to make it to Guatemala, but I don't want to rush and their infrastructure is infamously bad. It might not be worth it this time around.

Keith accidentally broke the news to my parents last night, about our trip. The first thing my mom wanted to know was, What are you going to do with the dogs? His timing was not the greatest because the dogs had destroyed The Dog Chair earlier that day and she was a little annoyed about that. So I said, Well, we can board them to give you guys a break. She's thinking she's going to be working at the restaurant full-time and then dealing with our dumbass dogs... We'll have to butter her up.

Today we were supposed to have a budget meeting. But Keith spent most of the day being Groundskeeper Willie and I cleaned house and made a fire and took a nap. (It feels to luxurious to make a fire during the day. And makes for a great nap, too.)

We're notoriously bad with money and mostly we deal with it on an abstract level. We're just need enough to get by. And we usually don't save any. But in order to finance an idea like a month-long backpacking trip in Central America, we're going to need a budget to help us save. (A friend said she has had good luck with mint. But I'm not ready to sign up for a new account yet.)

Considering I'm technically just out of poverty (and Keith hasn't been paid recently either), saving for something this big is a little daunting. But I've pledged to stop buying tall cans of Starbucks before work, etc. and if we have to I can commit to eating a diet of beans and rice. It could be a weight loss program, too.

Speaking of (not) saving money: Today I bought a baggie full of letters for $2 at the second-hand store. And some red-handled kitchen scissors. I can't decide if they should spell something (even if it doesn't make sense)

or if I should arrange them in a shape.

It's Balmy February and the dogs got to chew on some tennis balls and leftover ribs Keith cooked for the Superbowl.

We Keith finally got the door of the truck fixed. We can now get out of the driver's side door without rolling the window down. (But we still have XM radio antennae cords strung out on the dash like rednecks.) Pulled a door handle mechanism thing (I wasn't watching) out of the only wrecked Ranger they had.

To the lumberwrecking yard! I finished a roll of film and started a new one and we didn't even go inside the main gate.

I took this shot with film, too. To compare. And I should get an email any minute that 3 rolls I sent in at the beginning of the week are posted online (before the prints are shipped). I'm definitely exciting thinking about taking my film camera(s) on the road.

Small steps on the tiny house...

Other than saving enough money to fly the coop at the end of the year, one of our goals for 2010 is to do more work on the tiny house. I'd say FINISH the tiny house, but we'll see how it goes.

Thursday we had a couple of small projects to get back in shape. I can hear the knees cracking and smell the IcyHot, can't you?

1) Install wire bookshelf supports around the bedroom.
The shelf, you remember (or not), goes along the top of three walls on the north end of the house. But it wasn't sturdy enough for us to comfortably use them and not worried about being bludgeoned in our sleep by falling books.

So, we've had this idea for a while and stalled executing it, but once Keith started it went pretty quick. We used wire, eye screws, and hondos. Wait, what are hondos??

These are hondos.

The first wire has a little slack in it because it was the prototype, but once there is weight on the shelf it will look like the others. The rest are tight like the Golden Gate Bridge cables, yo.

We used this wire-eye screw-hondo rig on every other rafter above the shelf. And I really love how they turned out.
I had to go dig for some books to test them. Once I have the shelf full(er), I'll post a photo.

2) Fix the solar panel lights.
Ever since Keith put the barn wood up above the shelf the solar reading lights haven't worked quite right. We didn't know if the cable had been damaged or what, but Keith climbed up there and hooked it back up and it seems to be working alright. They're dimmer than they were before, I think, and definitely dimmer than the CFL lamp next to my bed. My eyes will have to get over it. End of story: the solar panel works.

The dogs did their part by staying out of trouble. When I went to check on them, they were getting some Vitamin D therapy. (This IS February, right?)

Lazlo's hiney is healing surprisingly quickly, so I am going to attribute it to the spray my friend Seneca sold to me that's supposed to help healing. Since I don't have a control group I can't be 100% sure, but they were deep puncture wounds and 3 weeks out they're almost completely healed. Hoping we don't have to deal with any more injuries, but I think the spray might also help Mia with her itching (Dalmatians have sensitive skin).

What's the next project undertaking for the tiny house?? Bathroom or kitchen. Those aren't small projects, though. And finishing either or both with a self-limiting budget (see: saving for flying the coop later this year) will be interesting.

#235

(aka photo-heavy General Update)

First, an attempt at an interview with Lazlo where he repeatedly threatens to walk out and I have to remind him to stay seated...

We went to the mouth of Clear Creek near the Kooskia Fish Hatchery sometime back (who knows what day) to see the eagles fishing. We weren't stealthy at all and scared them off before we could get too close. See him sitting in the branches on the right? Squint.

enjoying the sunshine

Thursday was Keith's birthday and we had to go to Orofino to get his cake (chocolate cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting - was delish), so we did "the responsible thing" (according to Keith) and took the recycling as well.

And we saw some people fishing on the river on the way home.

Yesterday (or some day) we were driving through Kooskia and I had to circle back to get a shot of this VW Bug with "Kooskia or Bust" drawn in the dust on the passenger side window.

Just a random one of Mia playing tug-of-war with me with her Christmas present from Amanda and K2 - firehose recycled as a dog toy. Genius! Our dogs are tough on toys and these are standing up quite well so far. Our dogs should be dog toy testers the way they tear things up. "Pit bull approved" seems like it would back up claims of durability.

The other night we decided for our sanity we need to plan a lengthy trip away by ourselves (sans dogs even). Like a month. Picking the slowest time of the year at both the restaurant and the newspaper (late fall/early winter) means we need to pick a warm climate. Mexico is the logical choice since a) we've already been there and know the tiniest bit of Spanish b) it's warm and c) it's cheap.

Probably fly in somewhere and use their bus system to get down the east coast and around the Yucatan Peninsula. I'd really love to be at Chichen Itza for the equinox (as was our plan for our first trip, the one we threw out the window almost immediately once we realized how much driving was involved), but I have a project at the newspaper that is on deadline then.

Still, one month off is quite a bite and we have a lot to prepare: whittling down the bare essentials that we can comfortably carry in our packs, saving money, compiling info, figuring out who's doing what at the restaurant while we're gone. That might be hardest selling point...

Assaulted!

Ok, here's Lazlo's sad story as of late:

Our pit bull, a most loveable and affectionate and goofy pit bull, was jumped yesterday by two neighbor dogs and ended up with some pretty nasty wounds on his hindquarters. He's feeling pretty poorly, physically and mentally. Their hound took a couple of bites out of his rump. So I'm taking him to the vet this morning to see if he needs stitches or whatnot. His ego is a little bruised, too, so I'm getting something from a friend for that.

Update: The vet said no stitches, they have to heal by themselves. He shaved around the bites so a hair won't get in there and cause infection (it looks worse now!), sent some antibiotics home with us and said he can have aspirin, too. Lazlo was a good dog at the vet, of course. The vet said, "They (pit bulls) make such good patients because their pain tolerance is so high."

Lazlo says, "WTF happened?!"

take a penny, leave a penny makes another appearance

Mom and I decorating the dining room for the holidays.

SP through holiday decorations

prime rib and fries

our best cook, Diana

Got 2 more rolls from the Minolta developed...two rolls of b/w, one from a wedding in Sept., one mostly with restaurant pics. Pretty happy with how they turned out, putting the Diana Mini away for a while. I think it's best suited for occasional use. I want the control I get from the Minolta most of the time. But the Diana is so small it's easy to carry.

So we're trying to make Thursdays Keith's day off. Weaning the restaurant off of him. This morning we had to drive to Harpster to pick up sausages. We go through about 40# a month right now.

The river is thawing with all the rain and warmer temps. It feels like spring, not mid-January. If the ice breaks (it's looking like it will at Button Beach, just upriver from the restaurant) we might get really busy with fishermen.


There's supposed to be a bunch of eagles congregating on some salmon a few miles upriver. I want to try to get up there sometime tomorrow to check it out.

Pepsi finally came through with a sign! It's even more official now.

The path to the tiny house gets trickier with all this crappy weather. Mud moat. I'm going to go out there now and try to clean. Try to get motivated to clean...

Newness

Moved the cash register for better flow. And to make it different. The little tree on the crate on the left is from the original owners (Dale & Jilinda) wishing us luck.

Check out this great find @ Loving Hands (local thrift store), among the other things we found---a big chalkboard for $1.50! A DOLLAR FITTY.

My dreams of a restaurant special board in chalk are coming true. Kind of. I abandoned my initial plan to make a chalk sunset, realizing my own (and the chalk's) limitations, and settled on a pseudofence. I'm being totally overprotective of it and I will growl if someone tries to write something on it. Teeth bared.

First two rolls from my Diana Mini are developed. Realized a major error in the operation---turning the advance knob too far for half frames. Ah got it now!

bumper sticker on a friend's camper

old brekkie joint in Missoula

cabin de Blankenship for one night @ Christmas

we were alone in the hot springs...

going down Lolo Pass (winding road)

The rest (of the ones I liked) are posted here.
Review of our cabin on Yelp.

Still working on getting Keith out of here (the restaurant) more and hopefully we'll start working on the tiny house bit by bit. It's about all we can do at this point to stay on top of laundry and firewood chopping.

It's official

We have a sign for the building!

We won't talk about PEPSI's extremely lame excuses for not getting out sign-on-a-post changed. Keith talked to Coke, thinking that would light a fire under PEPSI, but it looks like we're at their mercy and it will be 2-3 weeks before the old Jilinda's sign on the pole comes down. Rats!

But the menu is out (oh, by the way, here's the link to the restaurant's site that I made by myself in my big girl panties) and the new name is on the building. Our decorating budget was swallowed by payroll and other imminent bills, so we're working on changing the decor in small steps.

We have some horse tack to hang up, the "x" brand will go somewhere, my grandma is making curtains for us, I need to order some enlargements of the ranch pics so we have something to put on the walls. I was at a point where I was really frustrated at our inability to make all of the drastic changes I envisioned. But, you know what, mental health is a prized possession and I'm not about to give mine up to a restaurant.

Oh yeah, and happy new year.

Decay & Diana

I'm really interested in this person's stream on flickr lately. You can read into that all you want and you'd probably be right.

Yesterday my Diana Mini came in the mail. It looks like this. Only without the flash. Which I might get someday. But don't need right now.
I've run about half a roll through it so far, mostly in the kitchen at the restaurant last night. (I'm trying to get a whole roll out that I can have one-hour developed in Missoula before we go to the hot springs Thursday.)

It's tiny and plastic (it's a toy camera) and it takes square or half-frame photos like these:

I can't wait to see what kind of things she'll produce for me. 36 or 72 shots to a roll, I have a lot of time to experiment.