The Barn has been ordered.

Building is officially underway at The Olds Ranch (TOR for short). "The Barn" has been designed and steel ordered. I have a full day of appointments next week at TOR to meet with the road guy, the builder, and the slab guy. We hope to break ground on the building next month. The build will go quick. The inside will take longer because Kendyl and I will be doing most of this work. (I would say Dan but he has a killer travel schedule starting in October.)
I will be posting pictures of progress when there is something to report.

North to Alaska

Dan and I and the girls and joined my sister, Whitni, and her family for a cruise of the Inside Passage of Alaska. We departed Vancouver, Canada and cruised to Whittier, Alaska.--7 days of jammed packed fun. This was a great cruise for a family vacation. We saw lots of wildlife - we lost count of the pods of whales. IT WAS AWESOME!
I posted one picture of Dan and I after our day of halibut fishing in the morning and zip-lining in the afternoon in Juneau. Dan and Kendyl rode Harleys in Ketchikan, Tasha and I did a float plane there. In Skagway, we had breakfast in a bordello, drove into the Yukon and then in the afternoon rode a train into the Yukon into a different direction. We glacier cruised. We hiked glaciers, visited a wildlife center. I am busy scrapbooking the pictures. Kendyl is doing a video.
It was awesome. You'll have to visit to see the pictures. There are just too many good ones to post online.
I will be posting more later on our summer adventures.

On the homefront, Granny is doing much better and has moved to an assisted living center in Buckhannon, WV. Her phone number remains the same and she welcomes the calls.

In Texas, I am still busy remodeling our place in The Woodlands and have started on the Ranch buildout. We should break ground in October for our building.
Moving fast on this.

Hope everyone had a great summer and is planning for a wonder fall festival season.
Safe Travels... Tracy O.

YEAH - Summer is Here and July Birthdays!

GUESS WHO??









YEP... it's me!










I took a welding class in June. I can strike an arc and run a bead with the best of them. Well, I only took an intro course and got pretty good... still have a lot more to learn. I just have to practice and practice some more.

I have been swamped lately.
Dan has been traveling with work. Kendyl too. Tasha in China. Then Granny had to have emergency surgery... so we are traveling to WV to see her monthly. She is recovering - but very slowly... but normal for a 92 years young person. She is in a skilled nursing facility so that she can get the physical therapy she needs to recover.


We have put development on hold at the ranch until fall.
We are in the middle of a heat wave and drought, so it is just as well.
And in the middle of all this we are remodeling our home in The Woodlands.
So I am retired but still being a consultant and project manager - just not getting paid for my work. LOL!!

We have attended the May and June weddings....
Now it is July and the parties have begun for the July birthdays. Lots of travel including a trip to VEGAS .... BABY!! Watch for posts later of the parties!

Hope you have a wonderful summer full of family fun and reunions ... and Safe Travels!!

Update from The Olds Ranch

Our unusual trees at The Ranch:

Been awhile since I have posted anything about the ranch.
We have been busy clearing fence lines. Sawing up fallen trees (lost some to drought and to H-Ike). Picking up rusty barbwire from an old fence line we found in a stand of trees. Found out later that there was an old house and barn in this area. Makes more sense since we found a hand dug water well in this area. The rancher that runs cows on the land put an old round bale feeder around the well to keep the calves out. We have been worried about the tank running dry. Worries over... we had a huge rainstorm (dropped over 4 inches in 24 hours) and the tank is running over. YEAH!!
I planted daffodil bulbs last fall - Dan laughed at me - said they were pig food. Well the pigs did get some, but I had daffodils this spring. (Now that they are bigger either the deer or cows are eating the tops off of them... oh well!)
Still working on the barn/shed plans. Latest news is Tracy has signed up to take a welding class so she can weld her pipe fence and the cattle pens.
Biggest news is that the old tower is down and removed. YEAH!
I have added pictures taken at the ranch.

Dan & Tracy resting and planning.

Another ski story

I wanted to share a video with you but first I have to give you a little background. First of all, I finally won something - a Flip Mino HD from the Ellen DeGeneres show. I KNOW!! I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT EITHER!! I put Ellen's assistant through h-e-double-hockey-sticks proving to me this wasn't a scam. Anyway, I received my Mino in the mail and we used it on the ski trip. It is fabulous.

A funny incident happened to me while standing in the line picking up our ski tickets. I was waiting patiently in line (oh yes I was...) when I heard a couple whispering behind me. Saying - "yes those boots are called rear-entry and they don't make them anymore. " Well, I knew they were talking about my boots. Yes, they are really really old. My first pair dry-rotted and I had to finish that ski trip with them duct taped together. Kendyl found a pair on eBay and that is one of the best Christmas presents I have ever received. You see Nordica made these about 20+ years ago and they are the perfect fit for me - without too much lean on my poor old knees. I can ski standing up in them. (I don't do bumps anymore -not worth the pain later.) Dan - bless his heart - bought me some really really expensive boots but they about tore my ACL my first trip out with them - so now Tasha skis in them. Lucky her! So anyway, I have my Old School Rear-Entry Nordicas. The second topic of their conversation was about my skis - at this point I had to turn around and talk to these folks. My skis were older than they were. Yep, still ski on Old School straight skis. They are showing their age and have turned from white to yellow. I do however have new bindings - this is for safety! (I just bought new shaped skis and new bindings for next season.. we'll see if I like them - will take my Old School Roosters just in case.)

Enjoy the video and watch for my Old School equipment.

There is no editing on this video, Dan is filming - we girls are skiing.
In the video, the Olds women are in black (girls have white/ivory sleeves); the other girl snowboarding in yellow and blue is one of Tasha's friends that lives near Breckenridge.

March Madness-Olds Family style

March absolutely flew by. Tasha has officially moved to China. We spent the month helping her with her many to do lists. Her house is rented; she is moved out-stuff went to storage; lots of stuff was sold; the renters have moved in; Maverick now lives in Fort Worth with their old neighbors (and he is loving the adventure there); the Lexus and bicycles are at Kendyl's house; and Tasha has reclaimed her old bedroom at our house for when she/Curt are in the US. Makes you dizzy doesn't it? Anyway She is in route to Shanghai at this very moment where Curt will pick her up. Dan is traveling there in a few weeks on business, so he will be their first family guest at their apartment in Suzhou. You will have to read Tasha's blog/facebook to get the rest of the info.

We did sneak in another ski trip - this time to Breckenridge. We drove and Kendyl flew in because she is saving her vacation for other trips. We had a great time. This was the first time in many many years that it was just the four of us skiing together.

Here are some pictures from this trip.

This is from the very tip top of the mountain looking down at Breckenridge..

It is a long way down. There is a new lift that takes you up, but you have to climb up the rest of the way.

This is for the Extreme Double Black Diamond skiers - Dan, Tasha & Kendyl slam-dunked it!

This is now supposed to be the highest ski run in North America (beat out A-Basin). They had a great time and there are stories to tell.

The Olds Daredevils at the top after the hike up and before their hair-raising decent to the bottom - not really but it was steep.

One story from this trip: We were all skiing together and usually Dan follows me down the mountain. This year HE had a hard time keeping up. It appears that I am now a much faster skier than he remembered, so he was dawdling around thinking he was letting me get a head start but when he looked up - he couldn't find me because I had already made it down to the lift.... My trip in January followed by this trip really improved my skill level. I am back to what I used to do when the kids were little. I bought new skis for next season, so I will have a learning curve.

More later - will try to post a short video from the trip as well. Will get some ranch pictures up soon too.

February - Where did it go?

Howdy! As usual it is busy busy and I don't know where February went.
Curt and Tasha had their going away open house on 1.31.2009.
Curt left for China on 2.2.2009. He is very busy with his assignment.
Tasha and I made a trip into West Virginia to visit Granny and to see Parker play basketball. We had a great visit. Tasha is trying to visit all her friends before she leaves. She finally took her leave of absence and is now currently getting things wound up here before she takes off to China sometime at the end of March.
We had a quiet Mardi Gras - (quiet for us anyway) we attended the Rockets game. They won!
Dan is busy working and has NOT been traveling.
Now we are in full swing for skiing in March and for Rodeo. WHOOP! and baseball season is starting. (another trip to WV to see Parker play!)
Kendyl is training for the MS-150 in mid-April and has also started playing soccer again in a women's league. So we have once again joined the Sunday Bear Creek soccer groupies!!
Tracy is busy with the barn raisin' - we are still in the design phase, are getting the barn plans done and we have a builder!! Dan is still in denial! Planning on dropping the CB tower soon.
Dan and Tracy have been busy working on the ranch - just clearing downed trees from H-Ike and normal fence repairs.
That's our February recap...
Safe Travels... Tracy O.