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10% bigger than our old house. On Fathers day weekend we made the final run. Not wanting to stress the horses during the desert crossing we left Escondido at 8pm and hit Las Vegas about midnite. We were above Salt Lake by 8am the next morning. We just pushed on and made the drive stright through in 25hrs. The whole scene was right out of the Beverly Hillbillys since not only were all 3 of us riding in the truck but we also had our two dogs (mastiff & pitbull) and our cockatiel in the cab with us. Hunter bonded very closely with the dogs on that trip. The back of the truck was piled high and covered with blue tarps and of course both horses and my mule were in the trailer. You have not lived till you have tried to coordinate that many potty breaks on a road trip. We stayed in our trailer in the neighbors driveway for about 10 days till the powerlines and phone were installed then pulled our rig back to its more permanent location on the side of the garage. (Note to future guests, there is now a full rv hookup with phone/elec/water on the side of our garage for your camping comfort). We stay very busy just trying to get things organized. I am in the process of trying to cut the seven cords of wood that I will be needing to run our stoves this winter. We are also building a hay shelter and a horse shelter. Unlike So. Cal where you can just buy five bales a week to feed your animals, up here you have to plan ahead and buy a years worth of hay at a time, for you math whizzes 3 hungry animals times 1 year equals about 10 tons of alfalfa. The upside is that you buy it direct from the farmer and its only $2.50 per bale instead of the $10 I had been paying. Hunter and I recently stockpiled our first ton and a half and will be getting the rest shortly.

	Greetings, WE ARE FINALLY ON- LINE!!! It has been a very hectic past few months trying to put together this move. It was very strange leaving a career of 24yrs and a home of 20yrs and suddenly becoming unemployed and homeless. Happily though I was able to work through my feelings and get over that depression in about 3.2 seconds. It took four round trips from San Diego to Libby to get everything moved here. The first trip my dad flew out from Mississippi to help me shuttle trucks and trailers up here and to help me build some fence. When he returned home I did two round trip "u-haul" runs by myself with all of our plunder (7 day rental, 1day to load, 2 to drive here,2 to unload, 2 days home) .Happily it all fit nicely in our new shop/garage which incidently is
10% bigger than our old house. On Fathers day weekend we made the final run. Not wanting to stress the horses during the desert crossing we left Escondido at 8pm and hit Las Vegas about midnite. We were above Salt Lake by 8am the next morning. We just pushed on and made the drive stright through in 25hrs. The whole scene was right out of the Beverly Hillbillys since not only were all 3 of us riding in the truck but we also had our two dogs (mastiff & pitbull) and our cockatiel in the cab with us. Hunter bonded very closely with the dogs on that trip. The back of the truck was piled high and covered with blue tarps and of course both horses and my mule were in the trailer. You have not lived till you have tried to coordinate that many potty breaks on a road trip. We stayed in our trailer in the neighbors driveway for about 10 days till the powerlines and phone were installed then pulled our rig back to its more permanent location on the side of the garage. (Note to future guests, there is now a full rv hookup with phone/elec/water on the side of our garage for your camping comfort). We stay very busy just trying to get things organized. I am in the process of trying to cut the seven cords of wood that I will be needing to run our stoves this winter. We are also building a hay shelter and a horse shelter. Unlike So. Cal where you can just buy five bales a week to feed your animals, up here you have to plan ahead and buy a years worth of hay at a time, for you math whizzes 3 hungry animals times 1 year equals about 10 tons of alfalfa. The upside is that you buy it direct from the farmer and its only $2.50 per bale instead of the $10 I had been paying. Hunter and I recently stockpiled our first ton and a half and will be getting the rest shortly.
	We are lucky to have a very competent contractor and everything seems to be on track , the basement excavation is done, the footings are poured and the wall forms are almost complete. They expect to pour the walls Wednesday. The builder says wood work will begin a week from Monday with a 10 week projection to completion. Staying in the 22ft camper is ok but I can't wait to have a full size shower and a king size bed to sleep in. To make things a little easier we are using a corner of the garage as living space,our bookshelves now hold cereal boxes and paper plates. We installed our new refrigerator since it holds about 22 cubic feet more food than the trailer reefer does. We also set up our computer there .
Its pretty comical but desperate times require desperate measures. Hunter has been doing some fishing and is averaging about 20 per trip. He has met several kids and is taking a summer school hiking class that teaches wilderness survival and camping skills. Everyday they take a major trip to me remote spot (up to 12hrs). He comes back dirty,wet and tired but always smiling. Then we here how they spotted some Mtn. Goats or jumped a moose out of its bed. I wanted to go too! Speaking of animals, they are thick up here. Deer are everywhere including two real nice 4X4's and a great 5X5 that we see almost daily. We are getting kind of bummed that we are not seeing many predators. Two nights ago our closest neighbor had a mountain lion run in front of her as she came home then some of our friends about 6 miles up the road have had a grizzly hanging around their place. They know it is a new transplant because they saw its orange tracking collar. People up here equate grizzly reintroduction with having the govt. parole a serial killer to the neighborhood, it will probably be ok for now but one of these days...... There are about a million other things I could talk about but this is already getting long. We will be up and running soon so anybody planning a trip up this way please think about stoppinbby for a few days. It can be kind of dull here but if you get boredwe do have horseback riding, hiking,kayaking,canoeing,atvs,snowmobiles,bicycling,skiing (downhill or cross country),hunting and world class fishing all FREE and within 3 miles of our front porch Hope to hear from you soon. Our address is 111Hutton Dr. Libby Mt 59923,,,,the phone is 406-293-4451. Jay

	Los Vallecitos Riders
	From Friend in Faraway places