022 Settling in a bit...

October 23, 2008 – Thursday

Redmond, OR

I’ve been settling in just a bit here at the ranch lately.  The last few days have been spent without too much adventure but with much relaxed enjoyment.  Thumbing through thrift stores for treasures and finding deals at the grocery outlet (later known kindly as the used food store) have been keeping my mom, aunt and I busy.  I have found many empty frames from the thrift stores to fill with paintings, in the hopes that it keeps me painting anyway!  It’s been fun hanging out with my aunt, getting to know her a bit more than I have been able to so far.  Yesterday us girls stopped for happy hour at the Red Dog Depot after shopping, had a yummy hummus and pita sort of appetizer and a drink.  As you will possibly find out, it was the first of many stops for me at the Red Dog Depot.  A very cute place on the outside, it was an old rail station that was relocated and redone.  Now, it’s a restaurant/bar with photos of dogs in red frames all over the walls.  Hundreds of them.  And a goat.

I finally have been feeling better, so it’s been time to learn how to do the “chores”.  I really dislike the word chores and prefer to say “feed the animals” or “take care of the animals…”   But people understand the word chores and it’s shorter to say, so I guess I use it sometimes as well.  Anyway, there’s a whole lot to learn about around the ranch.  Especially for me, since it’s a completely different kind of life than I am used to.  So far, I love it; it’s wonderful learning so much about something new, especially hands on.  So, in the morning I hopped on the four wheeler (quad), loaded up the back of it with hay and delivered the delicious stuff to the Llamas & Alpacas, Mini Horses & Ladybug (the big horse).  Patty showed me how she feeds the chickens & doves, cats, dogs, fish & bird.  I took pretty good notes on it all so that if I forget, I can run down the list and figure things out.

Overall, it’s been a nice time.  A bit of a slower pace from running around the country (to say the least) and kinda nice now and then.