Kathy Judy

Today I get to help with the Global Village Festival in Ontario Oregon. I'v e done this most years since it was started, I really enjoy it.

Our area celebrated diversity before it was cool and before we even knew what diversity was.

It's not that prejudice doesn't exist here, it does, but tolerance is the most prevalent.

Our area first had Native Americans, then some French, Spanish and Northern European people, then lots of Basque people some Chinese then Mexicans, then Japanese because we were a free zone in WWII. Of course there is a smattering of every type of person. All this is a county with less than 40000 people.

The festival features booths with different nationalities sellling their typical foods and each booth features a craft that the kids can do for free, the kids collect stamps from each booth on their "passports" and then they are elegible to win a mountain bike.

There is constant musical entertainment, a newer addition are the Hula dancers from Boise, they are fantastic. I always enjoy the bagpipes, the Mexican and Basque childrens dancers and like to top it off with the Taiko drumming.

The food costs, but everything else is free! Families can have a whole day of fun for the cost of a lunch.

We here in the Intermountain West take beautiful scenery as our normal. We are used to and expect wonderous views everywhere we go.

THis last weekend I was able to add a new area to my experience. We went through Washington State diagonally, I had been to and love the Tri-Cites with the Columbia River and the vinyards. Spokane is pretty with the mountains in the background and green without being soggy, The I-5 corridor is well.... it's I-5.

I'd been to the Olympic Rain Forest many years ago, Coast pretty, forest too soggy. (I am a desert person).

We drove from Tri-Cities to Yakima, lot s of vinyards and other farms, then you go through a desert then hit Ellensburg and start the mountains. It just gets prettier - Cle Elum (Washington has lots of oddly named towns) is gorgeous , then you're up and over Snoqualmie Pass and down toward Seattle, but we went further North and West.

The Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island are farming areas I didn't know existed = I always thought the whole area was greater Seattle.

We delivered a piece of farm equipment to Coupeville on Whidbey Island - farms and lovely homes (planning and zoning meetings ought to be interesting there) with lovely water views EVERYWHERE.

The weekend of May 21 and 22, rural Washington State was wonderful, we didn't hit rain till we came back home to our Eastern Oregon desert!

When my kids were young teenagers they went skiing on the Ontario Oregon parks and Rec Dept ski bus. It goes 110 miles to Brundage Mountain in McCall Idaho.

It's a wonderful place to ski - beautiful mountains looking over Payette Lake, lots of powder.

As a parent it was fantastic - imagine sending your bored 13-15 year olds away all day on Saturday and they come back having had fun and being exhausted!

I got to relive this. Saturday for her thirteenth birthday we sent our granddaughter Cayla and her half sister Kassi skiing on the bus.

I had crockpot chili waiting - I picked them up at 7 we came home they ate - giggled awhile and were asleep by 9- perfect.

Middleton Idaho is a small town near Boise/Nampa. It's in Canyon County and part of the town qualifies for Rural Development Financing. For you city people this is a loan program (really a set of programs) run through the Department of Agriculture. Why this department? Because we are a farming area and are always on the poor side.

The loan program I'm talking about here is the RD participation loan - it's your regular type mortgage loan but with some RD money in it and it is a 100% loan. No down -

Middleton - like many towns - was overbuilt during the boom. Consequently there are a lot of repos and short sales, fabulus buys, half their original prices. These are driving the market - the new construction in town has had to really reduce to compete - AND THEY HAVE.

I'm in Middleton at least twice a week - it's 25 miles from my office. My buyers are thrilled with their choices. I have noticed lately that even though the weather is yucky - rainy/snowy foggy etc.,and it's the normal dead time of the year, there's a lot of activity in Middleton.

It's not just price. Middleton is just what it says. Really well located - you can zip to Nampa, Caldwell Boise or Ontario in just a few minutes while enjoying life in a small town. There are new schools and they are even building a new supermarket.

Normally we here in the Intermountain West specifically the area near Boise called the Treasure Valley, have mild winters. November will have a skiff of snow which melts instantly, December about the same maybe a little more frequent. The real winter comes in January and February.

But once or twice every ten years it's different. As though it isn't bad enough that our beloved Boise Broncos lost, we are inundated with snow.

I have over a foot on my car and have been quarantined by my husband until he gets home in a few hours and can plow our long drive. He's not just being nice, he also doesn't want to get the "I'm stuck in a drift can you pull me out" call. I'd probably be fine but might as well stack the odds in my favor and wait awhile.

Showing farms in the winter is hilarious, you kind of wave your hand over the white fields and describe the soil under the snow. I know how my luck goes, I am expecting a farm showing call any minute.