The Orchard House has taken the title for the “furthest-away-from-Boise-photo-for-Boise Weekly.” Luckily, it is in my parents’ neck of the woods.

I went on a chilly fall evening. Even with the outdoor seating area completely cleared for the winter, the potential of this quaint patio is obvious.

By the way–when I do get back, I think I’ll order the old-fashioned onion rings and a BLAST (Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, Sprouts & Tomato). Yum!

Jingle and Jangle will be handing out candy canes 12/5 /09 at Patty’s Burger Time. 12: noon to 4 pm.Get a free 4by6″ photo of your kids with Santa. Photos by Photography by Rennie . All are welcome you don’t have to have a classic car, but if you do bring it by, Santa loves a chopped sled. http://photoraphybyrennie.wordpress.com

Johns 1935 Ford is coming along. It will be for sale this spring.

We all know that Thanksgiving, and more importantly the holiday season in general, is not a good time for sales pitches when it comes to homes. Most people are thinking about family, pumpkin pie, ham, turkey, football, skiing/snowboarding and rum-laced egg nog.  So where does that leave you, the real estate agent/Realtor, when it comes to personally marketing yourself?

1. You sell homes, which is where families come together for the holidays. Most  buyers consider their entertainment needs when purchasing a home, so keep that in mind during November and December open houses and showings.  If a home has a particularly cozy great room or an attractive and accommodating dining area, dress it up!  A great kitchen has a huge potential to sell a home and during the holiday season of preparing, baking and frying food, a kitchen’s potential is especially potent.  If a buyer is already thinking of entertainment when purchasing a house and they’re viewing a listing in mid-December, the “this room is perfect for family gatherings” or “imagine a Christmas tree in this room” pitches will go especially far.  Just make sure they’re not Jewish first!

2. Relax a little! If you’re a successful real estate agent, you probably have a large sphere of influence and a high level of contact with your current and past clients.  Don’t abuse them by sending a cheesy, corporate textbook Christmas card that says “Seasons Greetings from insert name here!”  and leaving it at that.  If you’re on Facebook, don’t be afraid to post a few pictures from your family events this season, and don’t leave out the embarrassing ones!  You never know, that picture of you laughing so hard that egg nog comes out your nose might just be the human side a client is looking for.  The world is moving forward and along with it goes the real estate industry.  Walls that once existed between personal and professional have been broken for years and with the advent of social media, this transparency has only been hastened further.

3. Exploit the tax credit! The government was kind enough to extend and expand the tax credit, so take advantage of it!  It will expire permanently before you know it and you’ll wish you had it to offer to clients once it’s gone.  If you’re sending out a Christmas/holiday card to your clients, including information on the tax credit on the back of the card is a timely and helpful way to increase the likelihood that the client actually pays attention to the card before throwing it in the recycle bin.  Heck, if you’re really lucky, the client might even stick it on their fridge for a few days…then their friends and family (who are all visiting, of course) see it and before you know it, you’ve got another client, asking if they qualify for a thumping $6,500 or $8,000 check from Uncle Sam.

4. Focus on past clients. Everyone knows referrals are the fuel for a long, stable and lucrative career in real estate and your fastest route to positive referrals is by keeping a positive presence in your past clients’ lives.  The holidays are a time of forgiving (they’ll forgive you for mailing them a post card, mostly) and a time for friends and family.  Take advantage of this spirit of warmth around the typically slow winter months in real estate and you’ll realize like winter wheat, sometimes it’s best to sow your seeds during the dormant season.  Before you know it, the spring and summer is here and you’ve got wheat (or clients) ready to be harvested!

More photos from Dave , check out that tuck and Roll, he thinks it was red and white

My apologies, but this is going to be a short post.

I’ve just reminded myself that I still have a half-pint of Delsa’s delicious, spiced, creamy Pumpkin ice cream in my freezer. Mmmmmm…..

Read Rachael Daigle’s review OR check out Amy Atkin’s review.

]]> http://hotrodhigh.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/black-white-photos-of-hot-rod-taken-in-1959-howys-service-station-boise-idaho/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:29:52 +0000 hotrodhigh http://hotrodhigh.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/black-white-photos-of-hot-rod-taken-in-1959-howys-service-station-boise-idaho/

I collect old Hot Rod photos, scan them and then give them back. Last saturday at Patty’s Burger Time ,Dave Sorenson brought me these great photos he took back in 1959 .These were Hot Rods that hung out at Howy’s gas station where he worked. The 35 belonged to Bob and the 34 to Jepson. The single finger salute is marked DEBENDINER , 49   Merc. I wish I more of that custom Merc. Stay tuned for the 1936 3 window taken in 1962.

Check out Mountain Home Auto Ranch in Boise, Ontario, Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Nampa, Jerome, and Twin Falls. http://www.mhautoranch.com/index.htm

You’ve  probably noticed the new look Boise Weekly has been sporting for just over a month.

One of the recent additions is “This Week’s Find” — a quick photo & a blurb about, well, any thing or product you can think of.

This Week’s Find is River City Sales – an store that has, well, any thing or product you can think of….

With Jims T parked next to my A , You can see why they call them TALL  T’s.There will be more photos of Saturday on http://hotrodhigh.zenfolio soon

Really we just photo shopped him in, he was at work. Tony , Larry , Rick and Dale dropped by.  A note to Wes , we discussed your Cool Hot Rod car club name today. If we don’t find beer in that fridge during the shop rumble , it will be PICKELS. Now I hope that doesn’t get around. Tony already has the Brewmaster.

If you’re an agent, you know how much work it is to list a house.  Getting all of the forms filled out properly, submitting them to the right people at the right agencies, writing descriptions of the property, taking photos, telling everyone at your brokerage about your new listing, speaking with the client to get all of the facts and specifications of the property ironed out, buying ad space for the listing, etc. you know the routine.

And yet listing after listing, hour after painful hour of filling out forms and doing the legwork to get the listing information where it needs to be, you made only one mistake…and it’s a fatal one.  Your pictures suck!

Fuzzy kitchen = bad

Now don’t get angry with me, I’m not the one who shot fuzzy, low-resolution photos of your property with a cell phone and went to the hassle of uploading them to MLS so they’re  fed to every single real estate search engine in the country.  I’m just the one telling you that people are visual by nature, and if you’re trying to sell a house with bad pictures, no matter how amazing the house may be, you are relying on a very, painfully small crowd of buyers who will say “who cares about the pictures, maybe the house is better than it looks?”

Flattering lighting = attractive = $$

And as a listing agent, ask yourself – do you really want a potential buyer’s first reaction to your listing to be “maybe it isn’t as bad as it looks”?  No! You want it to be “wow, if this place is half as nice as the pictures are, we’ll take it!”

Now, all that priceless information I just provided you can be thrown away if you, the listing agent with a 2mp cell phone camera, can’t figure out how to take a decent picture to save your life.  So here’s a crash course in real estate photography that may just be your ticket to not only selling more homes but picking up more listings in the process because your listings have that “magical touch” that only good photography can provide.

1. Get a decent camera! Regardless of your success as a real estate agent, if you can’t find $200-300 to cough up for a reasonable point-and-shoot digital camera with a large memory card, you should probably think of applying for a job at McDonalds because clearly real estate just isn’t going to work for you.  I would recommend going with a camera from Canon, Nikon or Sony – they seem to make the best consumer cameras for general photography and won’t cost you a fortune to get a decent one.  Here, I’ll even do the legwork for you.  Two great camera solutions – the Canon SD1200 10.0mp digital camera and the Canon SX120 IS 10.0mp digital camera with 10x optical zoom.

A critical thing to consider with digital cameras is the zoom level.  I’ll make this easy.  Optical zoom is the ONLY zoom you should ever use with a digital camera.  This is because digital zoom only zooms in at the expense of the image quality and optical zoom maintains the highest resolution while still zooming in.  If you buy a 10mp camera and use digital zoom, your pictures will end up being well below 10mp, whereas optical zoom maintains the 10mp resolution at any zoom level.

2. Buy a big memory stick. Now that you’ve got a killer point-and-shoot camera, you need a memory stick big enough to hold plenty of photos because once it’s full, those photos need to be dumped to a computer and you don’t want to be caught across town with a useless digital camera all because you took too many pictures.  I’d recommend at least a 2gb memory card/stick, but go with a 4gb card/stick if you’re feeling ambitious.  You can never have too much storage for your photos!

3. Stage the home! Just as if you were presenting the home in an open house, you want this listing to jump off the page when people click to take that photo tour.  This means decluttering the area being photographed, cleaning windows and walls if necessary and straightening pictures on the walls, trinkets on the mantle or shelves and making sure the blinds on the windows aren’t cockeyed, among other things.

4. Take plenty of photos! Now that you have your killer point-and-shoot digital camera and plenty of storage for your photos, you can afford to take plenty.  Your MLS may only allow ten pictures of a property, but that should be plenty if good photos are taken.  Plus, you can create a Flickr account to host the rest of the pictures to show to potential buyers who want to see more than your MLS will provide.  This is also a great way to lure people in to your listing.  If you have another dozen photos of the property along with the ten that MLS provides, the potential buyer will feel like they’ve got the inside track on a listing and could well become more engaged in the process.

5. Take a variety of photos! No one wants to see seven pictures of the kitchen from two different angles.  They want to get an idea of the floor plan of the house, the flow from one room to the next and the general feeling of the house that is affected by all of the above, in addition to the ceiling height, natural light in the room and the general aesthetic of the home from inside and out.  This may seem like a tall order for a group of photos to deliver, but rest assured, the best photos can not only show what a home has to offer but they can even make a home look better than it is, if the photographer keeps an eye on artistic values in each photograph – did you use unique or interesting perspectives with the camera? Is each photograph visually balanced?  Are the photos crooked, blurry or in bad lighting?  There are a number of things that can ruin a photo, but there are also a number of things that can make the photo look even better than real life, and when many homes are purchased by buyers from other cities or states, good photography might just be your best partner in crime.

When you photograph a home for a listing, I’d begin with these basic shots:

Exterior, front of home/street view (1) – Everyone wants to know what the house looks like from the curb, so take a picture that includes the front yard, any landscaping, trees and fences.

Living room/great room/family room (1-xx) – Take at least one wide-angle picture of each main room, focusing only on the best perspective for that room.

Kitchen (2-3) – A great kitchen can sell a home on its own, so take a couple of pictures – some from the adjacent dining/living/family room and some from inside the kitchen, focusing on cabinet and counter space.

Dining room (1) - Most buyers don’t spend a lot of time in their formal dining rooms, and informal dining rooms are usually integrated somewhat with the kitchen, so don’t spend a lot of time shooting dining room shots.  A well-placed china hutch will rarely sell your house for you.

Master bed/bath (2-3) – Next to the kitchen, the master bed/bath can single-handedly sell a home, since, after all, the people buying the home are usually the ones using the master bed/bath.  Pay special attention to lighting – buyers typically want a calming, serene bedroom, so make sure to take advantage of whatever lighting/color ingredients work in your favor.

Other bedrooms/offices (2-4) - take one wide-angle picture of each, just so the buyer gets an idea of what is there.  But keep in mind, the color of the carpet in the kids’ room is not going to sell your listing for you.

Back yard (1-2) – a great back yard can be a big selling points for a buyer, depending on their needs.  If they have a few dogs and love to barbecue, for example, a private back yard with a porch and healthy grass could be a major selling point.  Or for buyers who like to keep a garden, showing off a nice square segment of the yard might be the ticket to viewing a home they may not have considered otherwise.  Remember, you don’t need a hundred buyers to buy your listing…just one.

Connecting shots (2-4) - take several pictures of the main living spaces from various perspectives.  This may include a wide-angle shot from inside the front door, from the kitchen, from the back door and from the hallway.  These photos act like glue for the rest of the images and allow buyers to mentally piece together the home without being there.  This is incredibly important because if a buyer feels like there’s an element of “zen” to the floor plan, if they feel uniquely comfortable with the flow of space from one room to the next, then you, the listing agent, are almost guaranteed the buyer will want to come and view the home in person as soon as possible.

6. Remember, photography is an art! Despite what you may have seen on Facebook or Myspace, photography is still indeed considered an art, and a very high one at that.  Do it justice!  Honor thy camera! Take pictures that make a home look as much like a piece of art as a place to live and you’ll find your way to success in short time.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to get an idea of how tasteful your photos are.  Are your pictures showing off the colors in the house?  Is there a tile surface with a beautiful texture that could be featured in a photo?  Are the blinds open, allowing as much natural light into the home as possible?  Sunlight is not only the brightest light in the world, but its color spectrum is the most appealing and the shadows cast by natural light through windows and skylights create contrast in a photo and make every picture more dramatic and enticing than it would be with flat lighting.  Avoid fluorescent lighting whenever possible, and avoid using a FLASH! whenever possible.  A camera’s flash alters the color of surfaces in the house, flattens the photograph and creates a one-dimensional feel that could easily be avoided if you just turned on some lights or opened a window or two.

7. Save every photo until the listing is sold! The last thing you want to do is delete every photo you don’t upload to MLS, only to have a buyer request a picture of a room not shown and having to go to the home and do it all over again.  If you’re going to go to the trouble of doing steps 1-6, you might as well follow through and keep an organized folder on your personal computer for each listing you have so you can access the photos quickly upon request.

You must remember that this industry is constantly changing, and with it are buyers’ wants and needs.  Currently, first-time homebuyers make up roughly half of all sales, and most of them are buying modest homes that appear to offer a lot of bang for their buck.  And with 80 percent of home buyers using the Internet as their first means to searching for a home, you can bet every photo you post along with your listing will be seen by hundreds and maybe thousands of people that you never even get a chance to speak with for any number of reasons.  If a picture is worth a thousand words and your MLS description only allows 20-30 words to describe the house, then you better be taking advantage of the ten thousand extra words you can say with a digital camera and ten well-taken photos.

Now that you know everything there is to know  about digital photography (at least when it comes to real estate), get your new camera, get to your listings and take some pictures!  You may just be surprised with the results…

I rode home from work shivering in the slightly chilly weather (I need a cold weather haberdasher–I’m terrible at dressing myself once it drops below 70!) along Loyola through Central City. The asphalt is really, really nice in that neighborhood, but it doesn’t exactly look like a neighborhood that would have newly paved roads. It’s a delight for the cyclist, that’s for sure. I stopped near Marengo to take a picture through the locked fence of the New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD) Tennis Center that is being rehabbed, I think, to offer an Uptown tennis facility to Uptown New Orleans. It feels oddly out of place, this tennis center. I think I have an idea that tennis is for rich people, and this isn’t a rich people’s neighborhood. Now, of course all kinds of people play tennis. But I have these early associations of tennis with the kids who lived in the Highlands and went to the Country Club to play tennis and swim in a private pool. I hated those kids. But heck, maybe it’s time to get over it. Everybody should get to play tennis. I bet it’s fun. Of course, this place isn’t open yet, so this is all idle chatter. But there are a lot of other activities sponsored by NORD, from football and swimming lessons to theater and dance. I wouldn’t have thought to check that resource except that I rode my bike past here and wondered what was behind the gate. Another win for the bicycle!

So this last weekend was a whirlwind of chaos, excitement, caffeine, smart people, and a huge lack of sleep.  Not to mention I even gave up watching the Boise State Football game to sit in a small space with people I didn’t know and come up with a creative and strategic business that would hit it out of the park.  Idaho Startup Weekend was Nov.13-15 kicking off Global Entrepreneurship week for a gathering of like-minded people intrigued by the idea of new businesses within 54 hours.   Ideas are pitched and then voted on, and depending on how many attendees, groups are formed.  Idaho Startup Weekend included about 35 attendees and from that 4 new companies were derived.

I was excited to contribute and test my skill set in this environment, but was not really sure that actual businesses would come from this process.  Boy, was I wrong.  I definitely had an A-HA moment when the idea pitcher, Jana Briggs, Co-founder of Yaro, expressed her frustration with social media and her plan to make a difference in the world of social networking.  Caffeine, and hours later getyaro.com is born.  Yaro is  a platform that gives you control over your social media presence by providing one location where you can manage the content you publish to your social networks.  Basically Yaro will allow social media power users to stop pissing off their facebook friends with twitter posts including RT, @trace360, and #hashtags that confuse non-twitter users.  Users will be able to go to one place to get control over their mass chaos and time-suckage that social media can be.  Thank God is all I have to say!

So now that we have a plan, and website with our beta invites to test Yaro we are hitting the ground running.  The event and sponsors in the community are so awesome to help and have faith in what local talented individuals can do.  Seriously, if only people realized that creating new businesses and providing help in doing that will start the cycle to end this recession.  Sure a stimulus for healthcare is great, and stimulus for people in foreclosure is much needed, bailouts for major companies…not so sure.  What is  really going to help the community land on its feet, is creating new businesses and jobs.  This event has provided help with legal, accounting, biz development, free software, hosting, reports, and office space due to great supporters.

The great thing about this is it doesn’t end after this weekend.  Yaro, and Morgan’s Journey, a non-profit website for cancer patients, have already had a great start.  The journey and the momentum gained from gathering strangers in a room under unusual circumstances has inspired these new companies to continue and become successful.  Ideally, we will be creating new jobs and employee local talent to continue our dream and join the journey with us.   Really, who thought that could happen in one weekend.

Well, after this past Summer League for the Girls Basketball in Idaho, the prevailing view was Timberline Girls Basketball was the team to beat.  It had been since 2003 that Timberline has any kind of successful girls basketball program.  Of course, that year, the team won District and State. led by Maggie O’hara and Emily Florence.  Go to the Timberline High School Girls Basketball web page and you will find that sports gem displayed prominently…twice on one page.  Coach Rich Clements has hung his hat on that team for 6 years, when in reality his teams have stunk it up ever since.  Year in and year out poor results have followed the program.  During the past few years Centennial High School has dominated, beating practically everyone.  Then, summer league in 2009 comes around and guess what, the Timberline High Girls Basketball Team beats Centennial.  Sure, it was summer.  But the game had a late season do or die feel, or even a playoff feel.  Why?  because fans, players, and coaches on both teams knew one thing:  this is the year that Timberline could challenge.  The stands were full for a summer league game.  THS (Timberline) was sky high the rest of the summer and during open gym practices in September and October.  Rich Clements rotated his players throughout the summer games beautifully, though he did pull his inexperienced 9th grade daughter up to play with the Varsity.  Chalk it up to providing experience and a bit of nepotism, right.  The real 2009 -2010 season arrives and why mess with a great thing right?  Keep the same girls, use the proven rotation, and find success.  No, Rich Clements doesn’t operate that way.  Two things are true, and dominate his poor coaching results the past few years.  the real season, Clements plays his favs, more than T-Mobile’s, but not much.  He plays 6 and at times a 7th player.  The remainder sit, except for an occasion 90 second stint.  Oh, and his experienced team of two returning varsity starters and proven, successful,and talented JV players from  last year (4 seniors, 2 juniors) who were sky-high only days prior at the prospect of a state title are now dysfunctional and downtrodden.  Why??  Read on.  The team is joined by Clements daughter, as a “floater” I am told.  You know, the 12th man, used to fill in on rare occasion when the other 10-11 need a rest and to gain some valuable Varsity bench time.  She would play JV primarily, as Clements proclaims to the players and parents, in great detail.  Not so fast.  The team wins easily game one.  Game two and three are different stories.  Clements soon inserts his daughter as the 6th man, leading to several costly turnovers in each of the first three games.  Only 6-7 players play any significant time in those games, 2 players not at all, one other for 2 minutes.  The teams starts out 1 – 2, losing to a 4A  team and a low-end 5A team(THS is 5A).  What else?  The team is leading  in game two (13 point lead) and three (close, but leading at least), but Clements sticks to his plan of only playing the favs, the team tires, badly.  Game two against a 4A team, the Timberline scores ZERO points in the 4TH quarter.  Clements plays his inexperienced daughter throughout, benching a starter, and failing to use proven players, with very fresh legs.  Game three, same story:  late lead is blown, shots fail, and players struggle, all the while, fresh legs, experienced legs, sit.  The game is down to 30 seconds, THS down by 1.  THS has the ball.  They have missed several jumpers in a row.  The best outside shooter is shooting horribly.  Clements game plan:  give the ball to that player to shoot a THREE!  Wait, that is the genius plan?!?  Give it to a poor shooting, exhausted, shooter.  For a THREE?  What about a drive to the hoop?  What about using some fresh legs?  Oh, and it gets better.  Clements has the players run a play that takes 20 plus.   seconds off the clock to execute, then shoot.  Result:  air-ball.

Does Clements have any coaching skills at all?  Why turn form a proven strategy from summer league to a ridiculous plan in the real season?  And more!!  His daughter no longer plays, sits with, works out, or is listed with the JV.  Nepotism.  Selfishness, at the expense of the team, at the expense of winning district and doing well at state, for what?  To play his daughter.  To make her the college dream he wants, that he could never achieve.     Guess what, Rich, you are the failure you are trying to avoid for your daughter.  You, Mr. Clements, are the worst high school coach in Idaho.  Another season, another poor team performance.  The players, parents, and fans suffer, all for your selfish. demented plan.  And along the way your lies, deceit, and broken promised destroy young basketball players.

Okay, so we’ve all seen those TV shows where people who make terrible financial decisions hire a guy (or gal) to yell at them for half an hour on television in exchange for financial advice. Typically these people have sports cars, third cars, luxury SUVs, a $2,000/month bill from dining out and a house that pushes 4,000 square feet. Then you find out that these people both make $40,000/year and live in Miami suburbs…and you start to feel like a math genius because you can sense an unbalanced equation without even having to get out your calculator.

After seeing the numbers, it’s a wonder how they ever managed to afford all of these luxuries in the first place. If the big cars and bigger house aren’t enough, these people usually have $50,000+ in credit card debt, usually racked up at department stores and restaurants. And then the real shocker is when one of them loses their job, the darling young couple is simply flabbergasted that they’re teetering on the edge of losing their million-dollar lifestyle…on a combined $80,000/year salary.  Most of us in the audience know right off the bat that these people are doomed…but for those of us who don’t know this, keep reading and you might avoid falling into the same abyss as the darling young couple.

If you watch these shows, you may get a little panicky. You might say “if that happened to them, it could happen to me!” and you may be right, if you attempt to live a painfully lavish lifestyle on a modest income with no real savings in the bank. But if you’re like the rest of us and work hard for your money, make wise and educated financial decisions and calculate risks before jumping into them, you’re probably going to get out of this whole debacle without any major scars.

I’m thinking Jim Crawford has seen this all too many times as a Realtor working in Atlanta, GA.  That’s why we strongly recommend reading his blog (click his name!) about budgeting out your money.  He writes specifically for first-time homebuyers, because if you’re already in a home, you’ve either figured it out already or you’ve gone under, and there’s probably not a lot Jim can teach you about sound financial choices.  Jim points out that while no amount of planning can stop you from losing your job or suddenly falling ill, the right budgeting can make those often devastating events seem like more of a speed bump than a life-ending catastrophe.

This is advice that you can be assured those people I spoke of in the first paragraph never heard, or at least never listened to.  What’s that old saying – “luck favors those who are prepared” – you have a choice to either be the unprepared, living under mountains of financial baggage and always looking for a magic bullet for your debt, or you can be the prepared, budgeting out your money every month, saving every last dollar you can afford to sock away and crossing your fingers in hopes of making it out of the recession with a job and a home.  Because even if you never use all of the lifelines you provide yourself, at least you can come out of it with a flush savings account and steady income – and believe me, there are worse things in the world than having more money than you need.

I have learned a new word since moving to Idaho: Meritage – pronounced Meh-rih-TIJ and rhymes with Heritage. From our friends at WineIntro.com, I learned that this is a made-up word, but no one could make up the following this wine has. Every time I mention Woodriver Cellars, someone chimes in with I love the Meritage.

Unfortunately, it took me three months to even give this wine the time of day. Idaho is really hot in the summer, so I was busy sipping sweet white, but as soon as fall hit, I turned to the reds and now, I must admit, I am in love!

The Woodriver Cellars 2006 Red Meritage (30% Cabernet Sauvignon ~ 30% Merlot ~ 30% Malbec ~ 10% Cab Franc) is a blend of Bordeaux grapes and features cherries on the nose with hints of mineral and slate at the finish. The Woodriver Vineyard is located at an optimal elevation and provides a wonderful, rocky Bordeaux-like soil, which is perfect for Meritage red wines.

Woodriver Cellars Winery, in Eagle, Idaho has a commitment to great winemaking that starts in the vineyard and continues throughout the entire production process and into the bottle.

What is in Meritage?

In 1989, as wineries were choosing names for their various blended wines, it was getting hard to keep track of them all, so an association was formed to try to define a “Bordeaux Blend” of grapes that was done on non-French soil. With over 6,000 submissions for the name of this blend this combination of the words “Merit” and “Heritage” won. And, it shouldn’t be pronounced as if it were French!

Meritage cannot be a mass-marketed wine and the release  must be under 25,000 cases. It has to be a “high-end” wine for the winery – it can’t be their bargain basement offering. And finally, it has to be a blend of certain grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot. There is also a white Meritage, which is far less common. This uses Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and Muscadelle.

Meritage tastes just like Bordeaux, since it’s made with the same grapes. There’s a rich, full aroma to it, including blackberry, black cherry, spices, chocolate and vanilla. Most Meritages have the Bordeaux signature flavors – cigar box and rich fruits – with a hefty feel. It’s great with a steak, or with game meats, such as venison and pheasant. Please note: Meritage should be served at 64F for the best flavor.

Here are a few photos from our very fun and busy fall season.  Don’t forget about getting christmas photos done, it’s not too late!

I was bench racing at Wes Rice’s shop today and was about to leave as all he had in his fridge were pickles( Read NO BEER) When the subject of the Barons car club came up ,and a friend of Wes’s said he had been a Baron. With only a few members in the early 50’s I am always amazed when I find another. Bill Stanley drove a blue 1948 Dodge back then and a 1963 Chevy pickup now. All OB, originall BARONS are automatically Barons’ today, So a big welcome to Bill. He gave  me names of several more “OLD Barons” I will be contacting. As soon as Bill gets me some pics of his Barons ride I will get them posted. Then Wes , who I have known since high school asked how do you become a Baron.I said not by having only pickles in the fridge. He promised to mend his ways.

Rumble master Jimmy the T, please add his shop to the shop tour rumble as he assured me there will be BEER in the fridge. Please welcome Wes as our newest member, he drives a 1941 Chevy pickup hot rod, he built years ago. You have seen him at Patty’s Burger Time

Yes that is Wes and yes I did invite him in , But check out that V/8 barbecue. Larry I think Wes should bring the barbecue to your rumble this spring.

Reasons I want to go back to Patty’s Burger Time?

Oldies rock blaring on the radio, rich milkshakes, classic cars, fries & fry sauce, neon lights, breakfast burritos, super nice staff, foot long corn dogs & roller skates.

Rachael Daigle’s review is here.

Nathaniel Hoffman’s review is here.

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THE NDN new video is about the Boise scene.

Check out the blog, the trailer and a shocking interview.

BSU game  and cold weather couldn’t keep the crazys home from Patty’s. We are hanging out about 3:00 these days because of the cold. The Barons had several cars out , Timmy B was there. Later a bunch of us including Patty and Wendi went to the Sunshine to watch and dance to JR and the Stingrays. Another group with Diamond Dick went to jackpot, Hope they filled their gas tanks before gambling.