Out and about and a Monarch Paramount....

 

I drove to town today to do some grandmothering (I don't like the word babysitting)  with my little Cuppycake.  These are a few pictures of the homesteads, old and new, along the drive there and back.  There used to be a very small town just 6 miles down the road from our ranch where the gravel meets the pavement.  I know that part of it perished by fire years and years ago,  and the rest of it disintegrated from the dwindling rural population.  Albion had a post office, a store, a livery, a grade school, a community hall and a few homes.  This was one of the old sheds from that small town.  The school and hall still stand.

 

Our neighbor passed away a week ago.  He has lived in our community all his life and attended the grade school just a mile down the road.  This is his ranch alongside the highway.  We don't know what will become of it since he had no family of his own to pass it to.  It's a beautiful ranch along the river.

 

Isn't this picturesque?  This old set of corrals and barn have been here a long, long time.  I asked Hubby if he knew who had it or if there was a story behind it.  He said he didn't know, but his dad was sure to know.  The small river nearby sometimes floods right up to that bank that is cut out next to the corrals. There are beautiful finger buttes in the background.

 

I'm considering hauling this old Monarch Paramount range home.  It would need some cleaning-up, some  repairs and some renovating, but I think it would be lovely in my country-ranch kitchen someday. I have been poring over magazines, books, and web pages trying to get just the right ideas for remodeling our kitchen.  Hubby decided for our 30th anniversary that we should give ourselves a newly renovated kitchen since it has always been the hub of our family life.  Every holiday and every gathering when all the kids come home with friends and husbands, wives, and girlfriends, and grandchildren, we find that the kitchen is literally stuffed with people standing around talking.  We want a bit more room for family to participate or just yak over the counter and into the kitchen where all the bustle is.

 

Hubs and I have lots of ideas, and that is sometimes the difficulty of this project, for we must narrow down the good ideas to just a few that will fit into our space.  Before the actual work is to be done, there is a pile of work just in the planning.  It's fun, but it's a job too.  So many choices.  So many decisions.  So many little details.  Maybe one of these days I'll share some picture-ideas here with you.  If any of you have ever remodeled your kitchen, I am open for suggestions that start with... "The Best Thing we ever did was..." or "The One Thing I'd do in my new kitchen is...."

I hope you'll share.