Gotta love the Owyhees!

My sister, Jill, and her boyfriend, Bill, came up to stay with me for a few days over the Thanksgiving holiday.  It was really nice to be able to spend some time with them while we all had the time to do it.  They pulled in Tuesday night and Jill brought me a few boxes of stuff of Mom's ... stuff she had narrowed down from the 30 boxes or so we had in storage.  One of the many little treasures in there is a photo of my mom on her wedding day.  If you've never seen old photos of my mom, she was one of the most beautiful people in the world.  I have the perfect frame for the photo and I can't wait to hang it in the living room.

Anyway, Wednesday we didn't end up doing much.  We visited with Dean and Brooke, and Bill helped me with a ton of hay when it got delivered.  He also replaced a few of the electrical outlets with three-prong outlets (yes, this house is that old) and figured out how to hook up his computer to my t.v. so we could get caught up on the new season of Dexter.  Dexter rocks.  Wednesday night, we went and hung out at Caba's for a while and had a few drinks.  Came home and crashed early.

Thursday was spent, for the most part, over at Jaenne's house cooking, etc.  (Well, not me.  Jaenne and Jill did an awesome job on dinner -- two ham roasts from the previous pigs I had, and one of the best prime rib roasts I've had in a long time!)  Thank you, Jaenne, for hosting ... and all your hard work!  It made for a very nice day ... a day that always has the potential to be much much worse.  If I could get rid of a holiday ... any holiday ... Thanksgiving would definitely be it.

Friday, I took Jill and Bill on a road trip through the Owyhees.  It was rather chilly and the wind was whipping, but we managed to see some ... um ... sights.  LOL! 

Starting out in Murphy.  We swung by the courthouse.  If you've never heard the story about the Lone Parking Meter in Murphy, it's a kick.  Here's a couple of photos of the meter from the other day.

From there, we headed to Oreana ... a place that is hardly big enough to call a "town" ... but I've heard a lot about it, so I had to go check it out.  My neighbor Dean's friend did a lot of the stone repair work on the little church in Oreana, so I had to see it.  What beautiful work!

Continuing down the road, we stopped at the Black Sands Resort past Grandview.  The resort wasn't open, but I still captured a few shots of the area itself.  This is probably real pretty in the summer.

 

I saw a few ducks hanging out, and momentarily wondered if the black one was the Cayuga that recently flew away from my place.  

Hmmm ... You know what they say about looking and quacking like a duck.  Might be!

Here's a cute shot of Jill and Bill.

Finally, we ended up in Bruneau.  There is a bar in Bruneau that my neighbor kept telling me about, so I had to stop in and see it for myself.  What a cool place!

 

The goat-roping arena~!

The brands on the walls were really cool.  The owner told me they had a big branding party, and everyone brought their branding irons and put their brands all over the walls and on the bar, etc.  

Even the bathrooms were adorable!

The bar itself is very unique.  The owner mentioned how they really tried to keep the history intact, so all they really did to the bar was put a new top on it.

Some cool bottles...

The best part of the bar, for me, though was the people.  Found some information out about the area that I don't think I would have otherwise run across.  Very cool stuff!  And good drinks, too!

And our final destination was Bruneau Canyon.  I haven't been there in years, but it hasn't changed much.  Hahaha.  It was very very windy and made it quite chilly.  We didn't hang out long, but enjoyed the view for a few minutes anyway.

I think Jill's hair explains it all.

Saturday, we didn't do much ... just kind of putzed around.  Took Bill to Cleo's ... everyone that visits me, at some point, has to do the Cleo's walk.  It's just ... original.  Went back to Marsing for a few drinks, then later met up with Justin for dinner.  Jill and Bill left this morning.  I think it's safe to say a good time was had by all!  :-)

Kahlua update.  She is lovely.  What a nice, calm, gentle horse.  And patient.  On Thanksgiving, I tacked her up to see how my saddle fit her.  Since I had her saddled, I figured I might as well hop on her.  So I rode her around in my little arena for a few minutes.  I made a million tack mistakes, but that was to be expected.  The latigo is pretty well brand new and I have a hard time getting it as tight as it needs to be.  Can't wait till that smooths out a bit.  But all is well.  She's getting to know and trust me, and figure out that I'm an idiot, but a pretty harmless one.

More later...

Jodi