Yeah, so it has been a long time since I wrote in this journal and I think it is sort of because I was taught if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. And you know, my back has been REALLY crappy, and our finances are in the crapper (what's new, eh, America?), my marriage has taken it's toll from all of the above and the deal that I was so hopeful would go through fell apart...
It was a secret out of respect for the party's privacy more or less, but three weeks since their visit have come and gone as of today, and I have not heard a word; so I am thinking that their privacy is no longer necessary. The deal was, a family member of the original homesteader of our ranch, Charlie Royal, had always mentioned buying back the ranch. When we started talking about our dreams of Double J, I contacted her and she flew out in hopes of making a deal on both The Royal Ranch and The Royal Roost.
While she was here she learned she could not afford The Royal Roost, bummer but we could move on because it was the easier of the 2 properties to sell. Well, as I said , it has been 3 weeks and still no word so I think she is backing out of buying the ranch as well. So, at least I no longer have to keep big secrets, and we were not in a hurry to sell the ranch until we build our new home anyway...
The good news is that The Royal Roost will be listed with Cabela's Trophy Properties by the end of the year, which should bring great people to see it. And that is where the money is to get started with The Double J, so we really weren't depending on this one buyer, I just really wanted the ranch and it's subsidiaries to stay within the family; even though we aren't family I just considered us caretakers in between I guess.
So, no, this is not going to be a woe is me entry; although I truly deserve one. I have 2, count that 2, wonderful sons home from college! This Christmas will sort of be like having a young child I think with our Austin. He has never experienced a Christmas like we do in our family. And even my Grandpa remembered him when he did all of his Christmas envelopes; a tradition our kids have known since birth and I was quite worried he'd forget our new son, but of course not.
I also have my daughter and son that still live at home with me; my sidekick and my chauffeur. I could not do it without them, literally. My daughter helps me cook and clean and take care of the animals. And, as for my driver, well who doesn't need a driver??? He smiles at me with his red headed grin and although he doesn't love to be touched too much he knows when I'm down and gives me these funny little love pats...
And as for that oldest redhead, he keeps me on my toes. Yesterday we found an old letter to Santa in the Christmas notebook. It said to make sure and not get his brother and sister a thing (not even coal) as they had been quite bad that year and that he would leave lima beans for the reindeer so that they could fart their way across America!!!! (He knew that I was the one reading these letters by this time-stinker!)
Merry Christmas All.
Showing posts with label Extended families. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Extended families. Show all posts
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
A wonderful Thanksgiving weekend...random thoughts.
I couldn't let the Thanksgiving weekend go without journaling a little something. It has been sooo wonderful having all the kids around. Well, except for the 3 am wake up this morning with all of the boys coming home from a party, but I'll even take that, lol!!! We had a great Thanksgiving down at my sister's and got to spend some great time with her in-laws as well.
I have had a great time doing all sorts of research for the ranch and the house. Make sure to read my post at my regular blog for today as it has some great new to me websites I have been using as research tools, way cool. I'm also researching schools, but to be honest I like the whole idea of agricultural business because the words make sense to me, but then you think about the typical agri-business folks like Monsanto and Cargil and Tyson and it really makes me want to run the other way. Maybe if I knew things from the inside I'd be better of to fight them.
Tom has been working on getting the rental all ready to go, which of course makes me feel like a schmuck for not being able to be up there helping him. I am just not physically able to be painting and tiling, etc right now which in the back of my mind has me screaming to myself how in the hell are you going to be GC on a job??? But I always figure out something. Right?
We figure it is time to start making drawings of our floor plans.... Very exciting indeed.
Have to say goodbye to the boys today; MAN do I HATE to do that; at least it is only for 18 days.
Have some VERY important visitors coming this week. DAMN am I getting nervous.
Repeat Mammogram and ultrasound on Thursday, Geez, will be glad when that crap is over.
Isn't this the way everyone's life is right now, a couple of great things, one or two not so good, a couple of good, one or two bad...hopefully in the long run it all balances out.
Have a great day,
JJ~
I have had a great time doing all sorts of research for the ranch and the house. Make sure to read my post at my regular blog for today as it has some great new to me websites I have been using as research tools, way cool. I'm also researching schools, but to be honest I like the whole idea of agricultural business because the words make sense to me, but then you think about the typical agri-business folks like Monsanto and Cargil and Tyson and it really makes me want to run the other way. Maybe if I knew things from the inside I'd be better of to fight them.
Tom has been working on getting the rental all ready to go, which of course makes me feel like a schmuck for not being able to be up there helping him. I am just not physically able to be painting and tiling, etc right now which in the back of my mind has me screaming to myself how in the hell are you going to be GC on a job??? But I always figure out something. Right?
We figure it is time to start making drawings of our floor plans.... Very exciting indeed.
Have to say goodbye to the boys today; MAN do I HATE to do that; at least it is only for 18 days.
Have some VERY important visitors coming this week. DAMN am I getting nervous.
Repeat Mammogram and ultrasound on Thursday, Geez, will be glad when that crap is over.
Isn't this the way everyone's life is right now, a couple of great things, one or two not so good, a couple of good, one or two bad...hopefully in the long run it all balances out.
Have a great day,
JJ~
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Turning 41
Yesterday I turned 41, and I must say I think it was one of the nicest birthdays on record....truly; so much so that I wanted to record some of the best things down here in my journal, k????
Take for instance when we had lost both of Toms parents; we all were so lost and had gone through so much losing them so closely. I was convinced my illness was grief, that was until I got the bedspins in the night and started throwing up all day....Well, we found out we were pregnant with our wonderful Bella! And even though times might be hard right now with finances and my back; to think that we have 2 sons at college, both from families,that have seamlessly melded into one , and have never had college grads is simply amazing to me.
And now to be dreaming of The Double J....onward and upward we go. The Jeute's have a way of dealing with being knocked around in this life and that is to "buck up" as Tom says. And that is what we will do; so I guess 41 is looking just fine even with a few "bumps and bruises".
Oh, I almost forgot the visit from my alter/older me. Um, yeah no kidding. The night before my birthday Officer H. drops off this gal in our driveway (which in itself is a bit odd seeing as how he is an officer, but we just figure he is on his way hunting or whatever) and I open up the door with a smile on my face and say Hi like I do to all guests. And she says "How do you know me?" I'm like, okay, well, you just came to my door, but anyway, I shook her hand and lo and behold her name was Judy!
She continues to explain to us that she was up enjoying the "babbling brook" just a month after her 15th back surgery, yes folks you read that right 15th back surgery!!!, and got her car stuck!!! Oh, she used to clean our house for the previous owner, etc. As weird as this sounds, she sort of looked like a combination of my beloved Grandma, who is always on my mind at my birthday, and myself; she had her hair all done up like my Grandma used to do. So when she pulled out a cigarette case that looked just like my Grandma's (and nobody uses anymore), one that just recently had popped into my mind for some strange reason I about fell down.
Officer H knew that Tom had lots of practice pulling people out of the ditch, and he was right; so he grabbed his equipment and off they went after she and I compared notes on back injuries for a few minutes and she relived her time here at The Royal Ranch... Crazy I tell you. After she left my daughter and I had seen the connections right away and I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. When Tom got back, I asked him what he thought of the alter me and his face just fell; it took him a second and then he was like "OMG!!!!" He has been telling all his friends about it ever since.
But what we can say is that at least the old gal was up there enjoying the "babbling brook" just a month after her back surgery. We can totally see me doing that. That is how I knew to get her a chair, and wheel it up close to the fire while she was here. And then hand her a phone to call her boyfriend who I was sure was probably worried sick about her. Yup, sure enough. She had gotten lost in the sounds so excited for the holiday season coming up she didn't even realize she was stuck....
Okay, if that is how it's gotta be, then I can deal with that. Yes, it was a very random, thought provoking birthday I must say...
- Tom had a beautiful birthday card waiting by the nice warm fire for me.
- I had gotten emails from Irina (all the way from Germany including pics of the baby) and Aunt Judy, and oh so many facebook messages!
- Enough calls to make me run late; a nice long chat with my sister Lisa who I never get to visit with anymore, Scott, Kelly, and I know I'm forgetting some....
- And then lunch at VI with Grandpa and Mom and Dad! What a treat for me; great company and lots of food. I got to tell Grandpa all about The Double J, and have him all to myself, er share him with M&D, but they get to see him pretty often so they didn't mind!
- Mom and Dad all to myself for the car rides to share a few of my ideas about the new house and maybe going back to school??? Yeah, if we can afford it I may hit the books again. I could substitute teach at the kids' schools and learn more in my field; I want to study Agricultural Business of course.
- The wonderful email from Tom about remember when: reminding me of times like when we had just gotten rid of Isabella's pacifier at the age of 2 and we travel all the way to CA and hop out of our Suburban and see a friend whose 4 year old has a pacifier hanging out of her mouth. The look our daughter gave us was priceless. Halfway between you guys tricked me and that girl looks ridiculous!!!! And how about the time that same daughter had screamed so long on a road trip Tom was so frazzled at one hotel he hopped back in the Suburban and ripped the boys' bicycles right off the roof on the motel arch! Last but not least he must remind me of our naked hike up Mt. Rosalie that started our businesses in the first place...
Take for instance when we had lost both of Toms parents; we all were so lost and had gone through so much losing them so closely. I was convinced my illness was grief, that was until I got the bedspins in the night and started throwing up all day....Well, we found out we were pregnant with our wonderful Bella! And even though times might be hard right now with finances and my back; to think that we have 2 sons at college, both from families,that have seamlessly melded into one , and have never had college grads is simply amazing to me.
And now to be dreaming of The Double J....onward and upward we go. The Jeute's have a way of dealing with being knocked around in this life and that is to "buck up" as Tom says. And that is what we will do; so I guess 41 is looking just fine even with a few "bumps and bruises".
Oh, I almost forgot the visit from my alter/older me. Um, yeah no kidding. The night before my birthday Officer H. drops off this gal in our driveway (which in itself is a bit odd seeing as how he is an officer, but we just figure he is on his way hunting or whatever) and I open up the door with a smile on my face and say Hi like I do to all guests. And she says "How do you know me?" I'm like, okay, well, you just came to my door, but anyway, I shook her hand and lo and behold her name was Judy!
She continues to explain to us that she was up enjoying the "babbling brook" just a month after her 15th back surgery, yes folks you read that right 15th back surgery!!!, and got her car stuck!!! Oh, she used to clean our house for the previous owner, etc. As weird as this sounds, she sort of looked like a combination of my beloved Grandma, who is always on my mind at my birthday, and myself; she had her hair all done up like my Grandma used to do. So when she pulled out a cigarette case that looked just like my Grandma's (and nobody uses anymore), one that just recently had popped into my mind for some strange reason I about fell down.
Officer H knew that Tom had lots of practice pulling people out of the ditch, and he was right; so he grabbed his equipment and off they went after she and I compared notes on back injuries for a few minutes and she relived her time here at The Royal Ranch... Crazy I tell you. After she left my daughter and I had seen the connections right away and I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. When Tom got back, I asked him what he thought of the alter me and his face just fell; it took him a second and then he was like "OMG!!!!" He has been telling all his friends about it ever since.
But what we can say is that at least the old gal was up there enjoying the "babbling brook" just a month after her back surgery. We can totally see me doing that. That is how I knew to get her a chair, and wheel it up close to the fire while she was here. And then hand her a phone to call her boyfriend who I was sure was probably worried sick about her. Yup, sure enough. She had gotten lost in the sounds so excited for the holiday season coming up she didn't even realize she was stuck....
Okay, if that is how it's gotta be, then I can deal with that. Yes, it was a very random, thought provoking birthday I must say...
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
The Great Windstorm of 11-13-11...
We went to bed the night before last to the power flickering and the wind howling. But as I lay there in bed listening to my basement bedroom window being sandblasted by wind from a direction that the winds never blow from; I knew we were in for some damage. I just wasn't aware of how much.
Between here (The Royal Ranch) and The Roost, our "nest in the woods" as we like to call it; are some very thick, very old forests, and even regular wind storms can wreak havoc on power lines, etc. We learned our lesson early on upon buying the ranch and the Roost; if the power goes out, chances are there is a tree down on the lines somewhere on Camp Creek road and we can find it and let IREA (our power coop) know where the problem is a bit faster to get it fixed a bit faster.
So when we awoke in the night without power it was not a big surprise, nor was it a big surprise to still not have power in the morning. The surprises started coming when we saw the AMOUNT of damage. Between here and our cabin, which means our soon to be home, The Double J, there were at least 20 downed trees! Many of them in the roadway to Camp Creek, along the power line, some on neighbors properties; like a roof and a classic Blazer.
The guys had a great day on Sunday "working" to clear trees and drink beer together. Our wonderful neighbors Dan and Steve pitched in of course and they all three went up to Sean and Rocky's (yes that is a girl's name and she is soooo cool!) because they are the one's that had the tree on the roof and that dang cool Blazer (Dad, it is the yellow of the Jeep that I tried to talk you into giving me-ha!); of course the tree went right down the middle of the hood and roof of the beautifully lifted classic!
We must say, that we are very proud of our power coop, IREA. Although they are not to hip on alternative power or rebates of any kind like that; when it comes to an emergency or downed lines those guys are all over it! They had Camp Creek back up and cleaned up in just a few hours; and we are talking some big trees with some major power outages. And each time we passed them they were always pleasant and had a smile on their faces. We even got a robo-call saying they were sorry for any inconvenience; last time I checked IREA had no control over the wind, but it sure was kind of them to call.
I was curious about all of the trees that were damaged. They ranged in size from about 6 inches in diameter to well over a foot. The large ones of course were old/rotten on the inside and will make great firewood and if they aren't on private property we will make good use of them. Many of the smaller ones Tom noted had either been damaged many years ago by lightning or something else, possibly beetles, but he didn't see many signs of those, thankfully.
One of the most amazing things about this storm is that these trees didn't just break off and fall to the ground like they normally do. Many of them we found multiple feet away. The wind had broken them off and then carried them 10-15 feet in some cases, simply unreal!!! We have walked through a lot of forests around here and not seen evidence of that kind of storm, I think this really was a once in a lifetime windstorm....at least I am hoping it was.
Between here (The Royal Ranch) and The Roost, our "nest in the woods" as we like to call it; are some very thick, very old forests, and even regular wind storms can wreak havoc on power lines, etc. We learned our lesson early on upon buying the ranch and the Roost; if the power goes out, chances are there is a tree down on the lines somewhere on Camp Creek road and we can find it and let IREA (our power coop) know where the problem is a bit faster to get it fixed a bit faster.
So when we awoke in the night without power it was not a big surprise, nor was it a big surprise to still not have power in the morning. The surprises started coming when we saw the AMOUNT of damage. Between here and our cabin, which means our soon to be home, The Double J, there were at least 20 downed trees! Many of them in the roadway to Camp Creek, along the power line, some on neighbors properties; like a roof and a classic Blazer.
The guys had a great day on Sunday "working" to clear trees and drink beer together. Our wonderful neighbors Dan and Steve pitched in of course and they all three went up to Sean and Rocky's (yes that is a girl's name and she is soooo cool!) because they are the one's that had the tree on the roof and that dang cool Blazer (Dad, it is the yellow of the Jeep that I tried to talk you into giving me-ha!); of course the tree went right down the middle of the hood and roof of the beautifully lifted classic!
We must say, that we are very proud of our power coop, IREA. Although they are not to hip on alternative power or rebates of any kind like that; when it comes to an emergency or downed lines those guys are all over it! They had Camp Creek back up and cleaned up in just a few hours; and we are talking some big trees with some major power outages. And each time we passed them they were always pleasant and had a smile on their faces. We even got a robo-call saying they were sorry for any inconvenience; last time I checked IREA had no control over the wind, but it sure was kind of them to call.
I was curious about all of the trees that were damaged. They ranged in size from about 6 inches in diameter to well over a foot. The large ones of course were old/rotten on the inside and will make great firewood and if they aren't on private property we will make good use of them. Many of the smaller ones Tom noted had either been damaged many years ago by lightning or something else, possibly beetles, but he didn't see many signs of those, thankfully.
One of the most amazing things about this storm is that these trees didn't just break off and fall to the ground like they normally do. Many of them we found multiple feet away. The wind had broken them off and then carried them 10-15 feet in some cases, simply unreal!!! We have walked through a lot of forests around here and not seen evidence of that kind of storm, I think this really was a once in a lifetime windstorm....at least I am hoping it was.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
The Beginning
Well, that has a familiar ring to it. But I sort of feel like a blushing bride with a bunch of secrets....and I can't quite let all of them out of the bag yet. But the fact that I am at a new home, with a new name, new subtitle, etc. should give you quite a few clues as to what is going on in our world.
I will say, however, that I am going to approach this blog in a much different fashion. As many of my dedicated readers know, I have suffered a tremendous setback with my back. I can no longer be the rancher that I once thought I was going to be; the one that my beloved husband Tom and I pictured and planned for more than ten years ago on our tenth anniversary hike. But what I have come to learn, is that not many people are where they thought they would be right now in their lives; so we just need to dig in and run with it and that is what we are doing.
A while back on The Royal Ranch blog I wrote a piece about some llama folks really getting the best of me; but even better, I had made a friend that week. A lovely woman by the name of Betsy Bell, double B's to my double J's, how perfect is that? Well, anyway, I of course emailed her to tell her that I had written about her in my blog and when she replied she asked how on earth I had time to journal my comings and goings with all that I do. And I thought to myself, next time around, that is how I am going to blog...as a journal only....not as a way of doing business.
I think that may have been one of the ways I went awry with my other blog, it became a chore. And we all know how chores become; tedious and time consuming, etc. And this new blog, which will chronicle our whole new adventure in life needs to be just that, a journal in our families (Jeute/Prentiss+) history.
So welcome all. I hope you enjoy our journal on becoming more sustainable ranchers. We look forward to sharing the journey with you...that is as soon as we can let the cats out of the bag-ha!!! And soon you will be able to find us at doublej(no vowels) dot org! Get it? (dblj.org)
I will say, however, that I am going to approach this blog in a much different fashion. As many of my dedicated readers know, I have suffered a tremendous setback with my back. I can no longer be the rancher that I once thought I was going to be; the one that my beloved husband Tom and I pictured and planned for more than ten years ago on our tenth anniversary hike. But what I have come to learn, is that not many people are where they thought they would be right now in their lives; so we just need to dig in and run with it and that is what we are doing.
A while back on The Royal Ranch blog I wrote a piece about some llama folks really getting the best of me; but even better, I had made a friend that week. A lovely woman by the name of Betsy Bell, double B's to my double J's, how perfect is that? Well, anyway, I of course emailed her to tell her that I had written about her in my blog and when she replied she asked how on earth I had time to journal my comings and goings with all that I do. And I thought to myself, next time around, that is how I am going to blog...as a journal only....not as a way of doing business.
I think that may have been one of the ways I went awry with my other blog, it became a chore. And we all know how chores become; tedious and time consuming, etc. And this new blog, which will chronicle our whole new adventure in life needs to be just that, a journal in our families (Jeute/Prentiss+) history.
So welcome all. I hope you enjoy our journal on becoming more sustainable ranchers. We look forward to sharing the journey with you...that is as soon as we can let the cats out of the bag-ha!!! And soon you will be able to find us at doublej(no vowels) dot org! Get it? (dblj.org)
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