I can almost feel the thick soft fur of beautiful Oscar and the horses. And smell the warm, hay and manurefilled air of the bahn. If I ever have another equine ownership experience it will be of a draft sort... driving horses, for certain. Also noted the bit on the side of the door... and wondered if it was a spade bit; a most misunderstood tool in the world of horsmanship! Beautiful shots, and wonderful memories, I'm sure. :)

Great stories, Iva Mae. I liked the one about the underwear ... ... for those who've been around for a while, I think that possibly there should be a litle tag in some of my underwear that reads "4 - 6" ... ... as an indication of its age? By the way some of the elastic girdles that I'd made way back when are getting a bit the worse for wear. Not so much of a problem, though, when wearing long johns in winter ... ... as long as the elastics in them are fully operational. ole joyful

Wah, wah, wah...that crying was BS. She wants everyone to feel sorry for her and that's was her way. Who else cries like that when they get booted?? I agree her farewell was much too long, and they only did that for the drama. I heard Tony say today on GMA that they only showed the drama of him and Kate for good TV. Hummmm, we didn't think any different, did we!! Bye Kate, glad you're gone b/c you were painful to watch. Go home and take care of those kids, finally. Although, we all know you'll be jalting all over the country doing interviews about your stint on DWTS. I'm sure she'll be up to something else before long to put herself in the spotlight before her reality show begins.

Well, its been 2 1/2 years -don't ask :) :)! and for heaven's sake don't hire your friends even if they are contractors :) L shaped ranch house. completely demolished the long side of the L - living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry, bedroom, bathroom, & garage. The only thing left standing was a rock fireplace that we wanted to save. short side of L (now fondly called the "west wing") we planned on leaving until we finished the other part of the house. 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and laundry in this part of the house. Contractor got a "little" carried away and removed all the siding and insulation in the west wing at the same time he did the planned remodel area. luckily we have a finished basement. We didn't want to spend a fortune heating the outdoors so we kept the heat in the west wing to a bare minimum and moved into the basement. Our plan was to add on about 1400 sq ft and a third garage bay. 1st year we slept on cots in the basement during the winter (we live in snow country) and in a 5th wheel trailer in the driveway in the summer (unless we had company---which we did a few times--and then we slept in the yard under the apple tree). We had no electricity in the remodel area so we used flashlights to find our way around through the mess upstairs and down to the basement. We cooked on the outside grill and had a microwave, crockpot and coffee pot in the basement. Luckily,we had an old beer fridge down there too. We moved everything we could to a rental storage unit but basement took the over flow with boxes stacked everywhere. Periodically the police would show up in the middle of the night saying they gotten a 911 call. Our phone lines got cut early on and the phones liked to do their own thing. No joke!!! We hung one of our old patio doors in the doorway to close off the upstairs as much as we could. I spent a lot of time duct taping around the jam to control the dust and dirt but, believe me, a lot made it through. When we finally got a sub floor we cooked pizza in our new wood fired pizza oven for 50 or 60 people and a few of their 4 legged friends. We strung contractors lights from the ceiling, built a huge fire in the old fireplace and put out some folding tables and lawn chairs. We didn't have to worry about damaging anything or the mess and it was great. Second year I insisted on adding some insulation to the west wing so we at least got to turn the heat up a little and go back to our bedroom. Still cooking outside---have learned more and more dutch oven cooking and cooking over a campfire. We have a great firepit that we sit around in the evening summer and winter. Still under a couple of down comforters at night but as soon as we finish the first part of the house we'll get started on the west wing and hopefully it won't take as long. To tell you the truth it isn't all that bad and we have loads of stories. For me the worst part is cleaning and cleaning and cleaning to try to control the spread of dust and dirt that's constant. For my DH the worst part is lack of privacy and the commotion and noise level. If I had it all to do over I would really think about demolishing the whole house and starting from scratch instead of trying to make an old house new. We didn't do that originally because DH didn't want to move out. He felt it would be easier and cheaper to stay in the house. It wasn't easier and it sure hasn't been cheaper but we're surviving and maybe we respect and appreciate each other more now. We still laugh a lot. So who's to say what's best? Having a shower, toilet, washer/dryer and fridge made all the differnce. Don't think I could have survived going to the laundramat all the time. Silly but true. You might want to think about those things that you can't live without. Long narrative but hopefully thought provoking. Good luck.