Our Western Way of Life: Recovery

I'm glad to say that Jonathan is making progress from his sprained ankle. It still hurts like the dickens, but he can at least walk on it and work half-days (and chase ornery cows when he has to...even though he really shouldn't).

Tuesday was Jonathan's birthday. It marked the end of our celebration marathon, which starts with our anniversary, followed by my birthday, Lane's birthday, Maggie's birthday, and finally Jonathan's birthday all within about two week intervals.

It was a pretty laid back day. I made him huckleberry pie and he took it easy in the La-Z-Boy :) We did run a few errands and I raked up the leaves in the yard. I'm a terrible wife and didn't even get him anything...though he always tells me not to get him anything and for once I obeyed. That counts for something, right? I'm pretty sure he'll renew his Western Livestock Journal subscription as a gift to himself and be happy as a clam.

When I was making our saddle I needed some stirrups to set the fenders and as a general reference for making the finishing touches. We didn't have stirrups and I didn't like the selection or price of any at the local stores, so I wasn't about the fork out the money for stirrups that we didn't like. Anyway, I found two saddles for sale on Craigslist for $100 for both. One was a kids saddle and the other was an old antique. The antique saddle was estimated to be at least one hundred years old and had belonged to the man's grandpa, who passed away about thirty years ago. Neither of them were in good enough condition to use, so I talked the owners down to $80 for both. I took the stirrups off the one and finished our saddle. Then I fixed up the kids saddle and sold it for $75. (This story is going somewhere, I promise.) That means I was only out $5. I cleaned up the antique saddle and it's been sitting in our shed since. I'd love to use it as a decoration somewhere, but I don't have the room for a saddle anywhere. It's made by George Lawrence of Portland, Oregon. I tried to do a little research on the maker to see what it might be worth as an antique, but didn't turn up much. I decided this week that instead of having it take up room in the shed, I would re-list it on Craigslist for $100. I put it on our porch railing to get some pictures of it, and it remained there for most of the day. I had two people call about it, but neither of them were available to look at it immediately.

The next day one of our neighbors knocked on our door. He said he drove by the day before and saw the old saddle out there and wanted to take a look at it. To make a story somewhat short, he used to be the president of the historical society up here and he collects old saddles. He's also an antiques appraiser. Turns out my $5 saddle is worth a LOT more than the $100 I had it listed for, and it's no longer for sale :) I'm glad neither of the people were available to come buy it. The stirrups aren't original, and the value will go up considerably if it has authentic iron stirrups on it, so he's going to look around for us. The sheepskin is pretty worn and the skirts have come un-sewn, but other than that it's in really good shape for a 100+ year saddle. I've always loved antiques, but now that I've had an exciting Antiques Roadshow type moment, I may be catching the antiqueing bug :) Needless to say, I guess I'm making room for the saddle somewhere.

I've had fun this week playing with the jig-saw I got myself with my birthday money. I've had it for a while now, but I haven't been able to find the wood I needed anywhere to cut out the projects I had planned. I finally found some, so I cut out new Christmas ornaments for our tree (since the others aren't too kid-proof). I have lots of projects on my I'd-Like-To-Make list now that I have a jigsaw and some wood :)

The only other exciting thing I can remember doing this week is carving pumpkins today.

I did decide what the kids are being for Halloween. The reveal will be the next time I get around to blogging.