Kathy Judy

Just entered a wonderful ranch listing in the Mann's Creek area NE of Weiser Idaho. It has around 1500 acres with a great variety of features. There's beautful views in every direction, there are year round springs, there's quite a bit of good hay ground, all the corrals and sheds and feeding areas you need to run a real ranch plus there are hundreds of acres to ride on for recreational uses. This was a referral from Wanda Goodrich a Remax broker owner from Arkansas. Thanks Wanda! I spent a great morning being driven around the ranch by Wanda and her brother. I am sure happy to live now. I thought a lot about what life must have been like when their grandfather homestead the main place. I remember my grandmother and her sisters and brothers talking about how much they did not enjoy cutting sagebrush to heat with on the ranch in Jordan Valley. Phones cars electricity indoor plumbing TV internet cell phones - these all complicate our lives but I like them! Can't wait to go take photos this weekend. We'll take our Kubota RTV (fourwheeler that looks like a jeep) another modern convenience!

We're home today Friday to catch up and then off again for some four wheeling! Must tell you about the first part of our vacation! We fished Dworshak reservoir in North Central Idaho! Picture Payette Lake at McCall Idaho or Lake Tahoe with no development and little boat traffic ( by little I mean less than 20 boats on Sunday and 3-6 the rest of the week). The bass fishing was great numberswise but we sure grow them bigger in Eastern Oregon! We lucked into a great place to stay! Lewis Clark Resort in Kamiah was just perfect - an older place that's being nicely rehabed. We had a log cabin with plenty of parking for our boat and truck 51 feet in all! The Sacajawea Cafe on premises was great too. History buffs would really enjoy all the Lewis and Clark spots, the old mission sites and the Nez Perce historical areas. It's hard when you a commissioned sales person to take any time off but I've been self employed all my life and I know you HAVE to get away or you'll burn out and one or both of the following will happen, you'll get sick and/or your sales numbers will go down. It doesn't have to be long - but at least 3 days to unwind seems to be the minimum. Hope you all take advantage of the long weekend - unless of course you have a live motivated buyer!

Because there is rain, the Intermountain West has irrigation and cheap electricity. The rain is gathereed into reservoirs and used for hydroelectric power and irrigation. AND FISHING. The fishing use is what Carl and I will be doing next week - can't wait. We put our recreation money into a really great boat, a Blazor
Bay which is perfect for fishing the big reservoirs here. We fish Lake Owyhee and Brownlee Reservoir frequently but are venturing out a little this time. We'll fish Dworshak near Orofino Idaho and maybe the Columbia near Hermiston Oregon. All these wonderful places are within ez driving distance from Boise Idaho. We'll fish for bass and crappie but I'm hoping to accidentally cartch a few trout. My husband grew up in the wrong part of the country (Ohio) to truly appreciate trout and salmon. But I like them! Outdoor recreation is what the Intermountain West is all about - I grew up here and never really understood what we have until I left. I couldn't wait to get back where I could go in any direction and in an hour be in public lands and have all the space I wanted.

Is is just me or are you experiencing this too. Here in the Intermountain West where we are socked in by snow and more snow (we have had years of milder winters but not this one) the activity level has really picked up. I enjoy having more business I don't totally enjoy sliding through drifts of ice-crusted snow to do that business but I'll survive and spring is coming!

People have to live someplace and the lower interest rate message is really getting out. I think people are encouraged by the prospect of "free" money in May from the proposed tax rebate. Also those that are getting tax refunds are apparantly thinking more about using that for housing instead of toys etc. Those are my educated guesses anyway.

Yesterday's incident in the glamorous real estate life: while driving over the dirt road to my lisitng, after getting off the county gravel road, and driving by the junk car area, we stopped to attach a directional sign to a lone fence post. I tried sticking it in a barbed wire loop that was on the post but settled for bungeeing it to the post. Then I took a step and sunk down in the snow to my knees. Getting out of that involved getting my hands all muddy and getting dirt on my pants etc. No time to change when I got back to the office before my next appointments. My clients are tolerant folks in general so it was no biggie but it certainly doesn't fit the public's image of realtors!