Oregon Living 2022 – Blog #12 – Fun Times and a Sad Time!

 

Sunday, March 20^th., 2022……  Nicer day today. Still not full sun so it was rather chilly but no rain, which is good. After breakfast, Cathye headed off to church while I held down the fort and worked on the blog and watched my Nascar races. Corey is coming over today and the family will be joining him. They will work for a while, then join us for dinner. One of Cathye’s volunteer workers at SHEM, is a chef and recited (from his head) ingredients for his favorite lasagna sauce, which she wrote down and made up yesterday in advance for our meal.  They got the bench out and installed in the island. It all looks really nice out there and will look so much nicer when spring fills in all of the plants and flowers! She did such a nice job and I’m so proud of her! Jacob and I also took some time to dig up the sprinkler risers that will be in the way when the new patio gets built. We found that the garden sprinkler heads were easy to move and I cut them away before the start of the project and will re-join and install after the job is done. The larger oscillating sprinkler lines that shoot out 30-40 ft for the lawn are also in the way and will have to be rerouted.  For the time being, we just exposed them so I can cut and move the lines out to their final places after the deck and the new flowerbeds are done. If it was just a little warmer out there, I would have spent more time on that but for now, it’s good to go. Dinner was really good. I have told Cathye that I have always been critical of other folks’ lasagna, comparing it to Lydia’s which was the best I ever ate – but hers was truly delicious! We all ate and ate. But there was some left for tomorrow and that’s good for me!  After cleanup, the troops headed home and we settled in for the night.  We did get a call from Janie and we talked more about their rv trip up here and also, we discussed the trip from here to ID and back. More details coming on that in the next few days.       

Monday, March 21^st., 2022……  Rainy again this morning.  But not enough to stop us from going out with the dogs and then heading out for some errands. Today we go get our marriage license!  We first went to breakfast in Albany at Pops Branding Iron. It is always a good place for a quick meal. We then drove to the courthouse and found the marriage license desk. What we didn’t know was that we were required to have an appointment!  So, we made one for tomorrow and will also complete the application online, even though we are needed there in person to get the license. No worries. We then hit Lowes and made Jamie an extra key and took it and his new cell phone to him. Cathye decided to get him a Jitterbug phone from Lively. It’s easy to use and we have preprogrammed in three numbers for us and Robin. In case of an emergency, he also has an alert button which will get him instant help. It makes us feel better knowing he’s got that with him (if he remembers to take it!) when he goes out especially late at night. We got back home and rested and had a bite for lunch then I went out and worked on my ladder project for a bit. I have it ready for drilling so it’s coming along!  We had the rest of the lasagna for dinner and settled in to watch taped shows until it was time to call it a night.     

Tuesday, March 22^nd., 2022……  We slept in a little later because our appointment at the courthouse wasn’t until 10:30am. We got up and got going and had the coffee on and the dogs out and walked and breakfast made before 9:30am. We headed out with the paperwork already done online so when we got there, it went quickly.

Once we got back home, I went out and worked on my ladder and finally got that project finished. It now rolls nicely and with the extra steps on the older ladder, I can now reach everything on the motorhome. I put it in it’s spot in the rv garage and then went on to help Cathye with some of her projects. We had picked up a small old patio table for the garden but it needed to be disassembled and painted, so I took it apart and cleaned it up and masked off the glass for her. She’s deciding what color she wants to paint it.  Most of the day was super nice. Spring is finally starting to show it’s face up here now and we are glad to see some warmer days and some more sunny ones too! Temps today were in the 70s, which is unusual but hey, we’ll take it!  I just wish we could get more of them in a row so the ground would dry out enough to mow!

Wednesday, March 23^rd., 2022……  Today we needed to concentrate on the patio deck project.  We have a layout already in planning (we do need a permit for this job) so we already know the deck dimensions. All of the construction on that is part of the bid, but we still have to buy two gazebos for out there. One will go on either side of the main structure and we know that size. We found the exact one we want at Costco but they are a little too big for the space we have allocated. Costco has some other ones online but we wanted to make another trip back there to check on the floor model for exact size where the posts hit. We found what we needed and also bought the requisite $250.00 worth of groceries and other things while we were there!  When we got back home and settled in, I went online but found out that everything we liked was out of stock and they don’t expect it to be back in until late April. I will spend some time looking elsewhere for what we want.  

Thursday, March 24^th., 2022…… This morning was supposed to be my acupuncture appointment but Bonnie texted me last night that she wasn’t feeling well and needed to cancel today’s session.  No worries, because we have our friends Oma Lea and David coming over this afternoon for lunch and I needed to straighten things up both in the house and out in the garage.  Since I am between projects in the shop, it was a good time to do a deep cleaning out there. I also needed to clean up the ‘little Rylee hairballs’ that are all around the house. I have a small stick vac that does this job in record time!  I was done and went to help Cathye in the kitchen but she had everything under control. So, I went online again and we found and ordered two 11’ x 13’ gazebos from Amazon.  Delivery is set for 3/30-4/4.  Oma Lea and David got here around 1:00pm.  We had a nice time with them. They are both avid gardeners and have a really large property with plenty of nice trees and flowers and both vegetable and flower gardens that are amazing. They liked what Cathye has done with her island and they all spent some time out there together and enjoyed the sunshine. Perfect!  Later, we had a nice meal and a nice visit. They live in the Coastal foothills outside of Philomath about an hour west of us, so we will likely be spending more time with them in the future. After they left, Cathye went out to work on her plantings and I started thinking about where to store the several boxes of gazebo parts out of the weather. I settled on the rv garage but I need to work on rearranging it beforehand. I was lucky enough to get several nice storage shelving units from Cathye’s place and these, up till now, were just shoved in there and have been used for temporary storage of items for our future yard sale (maybe in July?). I will need to move things around sooner than later.        

Friday, March 25^th., 2022……  Friday, we took off and went shopping. We hit Costco again this time for some clothes and flowers. Costco stocks my favorite shorts and I stocked up! Cathye found shorts too. When we got back, Cathye took her new items out to pot. We kicked back and rested and watched tv for a few hours and then went back out and worked some more outside. We ate leftovers and watched tv until bedtime.

Saturday, March 26^th., 2022……  This morning, after our walk with the girls, we headed off to Kristi’s for breakfast then drove over to Sweet Home. Our neighbors, Rich and Linda, are rockhounds and their club was putting on a rock show at the local high school. We wanted to go see what they had. I was shocked to see so many people attending. It was packed with many vendors displaying and selling their collections. Of course, we had to buy stuff! Cathye was looking for something for Penny and Cherrelyn as gifts for putting together her bridal shower and we found what we thought they would like.  Earlier, Cathye had received a call that the wooden sign that she had made for us was done and ready for pickup, so we did that on the way back from Sweet Home. It turned out really nice!  Even though it might be considered premature a little ahead of the wedding, I went ahead and put it up anyway because we love it so much!  

We had a few minutes to rest and then she changed and I drove her over to Penny’s house for the shower. I spent the next 3 hours working on the shelving units in our rv garage. I got some of the stuff staged outside and then stacked and screwed the units to the garage wall so it would be more stable. I stopped after a bit, resting and watching tv until she called to come get her. I took both the dogs and headed over. Penny’s neighbor’s black lab, Gunner, has never met Rylee. He was excited to say the least. She’s been fixed. He hasn’t!  But it was ok and they got along fine.  The girls shared a little about the party. Here are some of the pics that I can post…

We got back home and she helped with the shelving project and we got everything back on the shelves. I still need to get some more pvc pipe to add one more shelving unit but that will be for next week. We came in the house and snacked because I ate earlier and she had Chinese at the party. Later in the evening, I went on Facebook and was shocked to see Wendy Carpenter’s post about her mother passing yesterday. Bud and Linda were dear friends back in Calif. but I didn’t know that Linda had been ill. I called and spoke with Bud, who is doing as well as can be expected. It's good that all of his family was there and got to say their goodbyes. Sweet lady and she will be missed!  I hope to see Bud make it up here sometime when he is ready.  

Oregon Living 2022 – Blog #11 – More ‘Island Work’ and Some More Two-Steppin’!

 

Monday, March 14^th., 2022……  We made a run to Jamie’s when we were in Albany on Saturday, so we didn’t need to go there today. So, after walking the pups we fed them and then headed off to The Point in Sweet Home for breakfast. We chose that place because on the way back we stopped and picked up 2 buckets of river rock to add to the new ‘rock waterfall’ feature out on the island. Corey will take those out next time he’s here. I finally got all of the holes drilled and ready to bolt onto the wrought iron bench. I disassembled it for painting. 

Cathye sprayed the metal and then painted the wood. She has chosen several pops of color for the island - the first bench was painted teal and this one will be bright blue. Later, we went out shopping. I needed more stainless-steel bolts and she needed boots!  We made the rounds at the local stores and then headed over to Albany where we both found what we wanted. She bought a nice pair of western boots for dancing.

While we were in Albany, we decided to go for seafood and chose The Depot. Great as always!       

Tuesday, March 15^th., 2022……  The weather is off and on this week. Today it was cloudy and a few showers came through. We walked the dogs and then had breakfast. We then headed off to Sweet Home. We were asked to help move a recliner from Robin’s house to Julie’s house. Cathye had given Jim’s nice lift-up electric recliner to Robin after he passed. Today, it was going on to its next owner, who needed it now. Julie has been having health issues and needed a little extra ‘help’ getting in and out of her chair. We did have some help at Robin’s which was nice but Cathye is a strong woman and, together, we muscled it in to Julie’s and were done!   We came back home and rested and hung around the house for the rest of the day. Later, I went out and helped Cathye paint the second coat on the bench and then worked on my rolling ladder project for a while. As I mentioned before, I am combining both of my existing ladders to make one that rolls well and will reach the upper section of the rv when I need it. This project involves a lot of steel pipe cutting and unbolting and re-configuring but it is going pretty well. I need to go get some extra ½” pipe to help extend where I need it.  That will be for next week.

Wednesday, March 16^th., 2022…… Nicer weather today. After breakfast, Cathye took off to go to SHEM. I dropped Jama off for her grooming appointment, then went to Albany to get a shutoff valve. I had a valve burst probably because I forgot to keep a trickle dripping in the irrigation valve. I had a hard time finding everything. I also used the trip to Lowes to pick up 6 more bags of rock salt for the water softener.  I stopped for lunch and on the way home, Cathye called saying Jama was ready, so I picked her up on my way back home.  Later, when Cathye got back, we went out and stopped at the yard supply place and loaded up 4 buckets of ¾ stone for the end of the new ramp. I only needed two of them to finish the job. It looks pretty good.

I got the tractors backed in and they fit inside nicely. That frees up space in the shop garage.   

Thursday, March 17^th., 2022…… Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! Corey was coming over today. The plan was to have him move rocks and place stones, which he did in a few hours!  It’s starting to look good out there!  I worked on the weatherproofing coat for the bench.  We set up a station in the shop garage and we paint one side, then the other. Two coats of paint and two coats of varathane, so it takes a while!  Penny came over to visit. With all of the work outside, Rylee and Jama get to run and play outside. Rylee takes advantage of us being busy by taking a quick dip in her favorite mudhole! I think we have hosed her off three times just this week!  Later, we cleaned up and then went out to dinner for St. Pattie’s day. She said that Appletree had really good corn beef and cabbage. I’m not that much into cabbage, so I had their corned beef sandwich melt, which was very good!  While we eating, Dana texted that she had emailed me the bid for the deck. This would be in three parts and the first was for the new deck by itself. This would include the very expensive (%$#@) decking material, priced by the linear foot, and we needed a lot of it!   After the sticker shock, we responded to go ahead with the project! Money flies out the door pretty quickly these days! They will break ground the end of this month. Next quote will be for the existing deck replacement and then the third quote for the roof/truss system and lexan panels. All of this coming about the same time that we are planning another trip – this one to Hawaii. Oh well, I guess you can’t take it with you!     

Friday, March 18^th., 2022……  Sprinkles this morning but the sun is supposed to push through later in the day!  I needed to go buy two more stainless bolts to complete my project on the bench. Of course, Lowes still didn’t have them!  Neither did Home Depot. So, I called Cathye to tell her I was heading down to Eugene to the Lowes there to look. I did find them there (at a cost of $3.98) but considering that it was a total of 80+ miles, these would be very expensive bolts! But at least everything matches and will go together now! While I was out, Cathye got picked up by Lona and Robin who were headed off to Robin’s son’s house to visit. They were also going to have lunch out and hit a thrift shop or two. When she got home later, I saw she had found a nice metal footstool which she says she will paint black to match the bench. Cool!  

Saturday, March 19^th., 2022……  Today we had a few errands to run. Cathye had a really nice piece of maple that she wanted carved with our names for the garage wall. She had a guy and we needed to drop it off today. We also had some more paperwork from the Crawfordsville house that we wanted to get to the new owners for their files. Also, she had found her second PO box key and wanted to turn that in. So, we made a big loop, going to Sweet Home to The Point for breakfast and then to Andrew’s for the wood, then to the old house and then finally to the Crawfordsville post office. That took the better part of the morning, which worked out because our landscape guy was coming today to do more yard work. Mario was due at noon and we made it back in time, but turns out he didn’t come until after 2:00pm! I spent more time out in the shop and I did get everything assembled and the bench is now done!

Corey will be here tomorrow and they will take it out and stage it.  We came in and rested. Later, we fed the dogs and changed and headed off to Eugene. Tonight, we were joining Lona and Misty at the Eagles Lodge in Springfield. Lona’s cousin Arnie, who recently moved back to OR from back east, joined some friends and plays drums in their country band. We drove ourselves there and got in and seated and ordered chicken fingers and tater tots (yeah good old bar food!) and got drinks. The girls showed up a bit later and we visited while we watched Arnie and the guys set up for their gig. These gentlemen are ’senior’ citizens but that didn’t mean they couldn’t play and sing!  They were excellent! We really enjoyed the evening and got in some two-steppin’

before we called it a night and made the drive back home. It was a long day and we were both tired and ready for bed!   

 

Oregon Living 2022 – Blog #10 – Reservations Made, A Trip to the Vet & Movin’ Rock!

 

Monday, March 7^th., 2022……  After getting up and walking the pups, we headed off to Kevin’s for breakfast. Then we drove over to Albany. I needed to get some more lumber for the ramp plus some for another bench I am fixing up. We got those items at Lowes and Cathye got some more plants and we headed back home, with a stop at Jamie’s on the way. Cathye and Penny had a meeting set up for later with her photographer at the wedding venue. I stayed home and worked around the house. I also needed to make our rv reservations for after the wedding, so I sat down and called all of those folks. We have 5 stops coming and going. I only have one more reservation to make and am waiting for a call back on that one. But, it’s nice to have it done. More details on that later.    

Tuesday, March 8^th., 2022……  Cathye had a few errands to run today. But first up was haircuts for both of us.  Our new person, Dianna, who took over for Jenny, has moved into the old Rumors shop and we went there for the first time today. They have fixed it up nicely and it fits the three of them perfectly there! When we got home, Cathye turned around and left again to meet with Terry F., who is leaving to back to San Diego today.  Once she got back, she left again to meet up with Judy for lunch. More wedding planning… I worked on and posted blog #9, then rested for a bit and had lunch before going out to work on the ramp. There is no rain in the forecast until later this evening. After tonight, they say it’ll be clear until Saturday. Anyway, I got everything finished for the ramp. I just need to go get (or order) some non-skid tape for the ramp itself and I’ll be done with that project.

Wednesday, March 9^th., 2022…… Weather is nicer today. Rain is off and on for the week so we’ll see what we can do in the yard. Cathye went off to work at SHEM. I worked on that second bench. After Cathye got done, she headed over to her seamstress to get some alterations done on her wedding dress. I haven’t seen it so I can’t say much more than that!  She went out and did a little more shopping. Later, I got back in the house and rested.   I did get a call from the last campground so I was able to get that in a spreadsheet and sent off to the Calif. folks so they could book. Our trip will begin on the Tuesday after the wedding. First stop is in Troutdale OR with plans to tour around the Columbia River gorge. Next stop is Pendleton OR, where we want to go to the mill and also take in the underground tour. Third stop is Coeur d’Alene ID. We will need to look up things to do there (other than the lake itself). From there we head back toward home. 4^th stop will be in Boardman OR, right on the river. We’ll go back from there to Troutdale for one or two nights before heading back home. Rick and Janie and Mike and Cheri and Gary and Lorna are the folks coming up in their rigs. Gary and Lorna will be cutting their trip short to head back to Calif. Mike and Cheri are leaving us after Coeur d’Alene to continue on to Michigan. Rick and Janie will come back here on their way back to Calif. It will be a fun trip and we are excited to travel with them all again!  

Thursday, March 10^th., 2022…… Today was Jama’s teeth cleaning appointment at the vet. We needed to drop her off at 8:30am although they said she would have to be in line after their other scheduled surgeries for the day. 

They wanted us to go get her around 4-4:30pm. We went to Kristi’s for breakfast after dropping her off. We both like this place and the food is really good. Being mid-week, it wasn’t crowded and we had time to talk with them about getting started. They seem to be doing a good business but nothing was mentioned about Kevin’s. Probably just as well….

After we ate, we went over to Summit Ace Hardware to see their new line of decking material. They will no longer carry Trex because of the product failures and the warranty issue (they aren’t honoring the warranty and are in legal litigations now). Our contractors, Tim and Dana, use Ace for most of their product supply and Tim has already attended a workshop for the new product, called fiberon.  We picked out a few colors and brought samples home. I texted Dana and they said they would be by later in the day to talk more about the project.  We went home to relax and, later, I went out to work on the second bench while Cathye worked out on her island. She found some more stepping stones under the blue atlas cedar and proceeded to move them out!  She’ll feel that tomorrow!  Shoulda come got me! Here are pics as the mulch was going in, and one afterward...

Later, Tim and Dana came by and we chose the one we wanted them to order. They still owe me a bid but promised to have it to me in a few days. They are looking at breaking ground in 2 weeks.

Friday, March 11^th., 2022……  The housecleaning team comes today!  They usually bring the whole staff of 4 and get through the house in a couple of hours. They really do a nice job and both Cathye and I are super pleased. One of the ladies even gets down on the floor in the hallways to hand brush the rug runners to remove the ‘Rylee hair’!  I told her I have ordered a tool from Amazon that you can use that will pick up all of the hair.

She gets first use when it gets here!  We both had massages set up for today. Emily has been working on us since last Sept. and we now have standing appointments each month!  Today it was 10am & 12noon. I went first and then kept going to go get some material for my ramp at Home Depot. When I got home, Cathye had been to her massage and then went and did some more shopping. We got back home and rested. We were going back out later to meet Ron and Teri for dinner. We chose the new Barsidious Bier Garten, which just opened a few months ago north of town. They didn’t get the message and went to the original one downtown and called us saying, “Where are you guys?” They joined us at our location and we had a nice meal. Teri will be doing the flowers for our wedding, so they had plenty to discuss – while Ron and I were flies on the wall!        

Saturday, March 12^th., 2022……  The plan today was to drive to Portland to go to the Home Show there. We decided that we needed to wait until it came down to Eugene and, today we would go out and look at picking up more stepping stones for the island. We had also seen a front yard decoration with a pot on its side ‘pouring out’ river rock and she decided that would look great out on the island. So, we went looking for a pot as well. We went to Kevin’s for breakfast and then drove over toward Corvallis where we knew a landscape supplier was located.  We found and bought and loaded over 850 lbs. of granite stepping stone pavers in the truck!  We stopped at Wilco where she found the nice pot that she wanted so we loaded that too and headed home. It was all unloaded and stacked for when the boys will be back to haul it out there and set it out.  We need the river rock and that will be the next task. We beat the rains and got inside for the rest of the day and relaxed and watched tv. Time change tomorrow!

Sunday, March 13^th., 2022……  Lost an hour last night!  I love daylight saving time and wish it would be voted on as a permanent thing for Oregon (and the west coast). But today it was hard to get up. We were signed up for a two-step class at the Pineway Golf Course clubhouse at 9:00am this morning!  They were serving breakfast beforehand so we were up at 6:30am and showered and walked and fed the dogs so we could be out of the house before 7:45am. It turned out that we didn’t need to be so early because the time change affected the folks running the place. They were late getting in and so we had to wait as they prepped for breakfast. The class didn’t start until 9:45am but it was ok. We were busy learning and had a great time and even managed to get in our meal during the break. Here’s a pic of the group for that session.  There were two people taking pics and while we were getting staged the took the shot!  They used the one where Cathye was hidden!  

Bummer!  After we got back home, we wanted to work in the yard and shop. But it was way too wet. Cathye had Corey and Jacob scheduled to work today, but we called that off for now. We ended up resting after our morning workout and we just hung out and watched tv and Cathye did some more wedding stuff. We went to bed early but it turned out neither of us could fall asleep for a long time.   

 

Oregon Living 2022 – Blog #9 – Remembering a Year Ago & Movin’ Bark!

 

Monday, February 28^th., 2022……  We slept in this morning because we were not in any hurry to leave the hotel. I asked if the casino had breakfast and she said, yes!, so we headed back there. She was very happy because after the meal, we went back in and played the slot machines and she won everything back from both of our losses yesterday! Yaay!  After dragging her out (just kidding!), we headed up the coast to Newport and took hwy. 20 back to Corvallis and then up to Albany to see Jamie and also to go pick up my taxes that were ready. I was not happy! I got a refund from the state but had to pay to the feds. Bummer! We got home and played with the dogs and unpacked. We just threw the dirty clothes from the trip in the washer and got that done. Penny had received several packages and some mail which we went through before resting for a bit. The rains that had started on the coast last night hit Lebanon earlier this morning and we found that Rylee’s drag strip was flooded again!  That’s good for the valley because the crops need the rain, but I only see more wet soggy grass that I can’t mow for a while!             

Tuesday, March 1^st., 2022……  After a great night’s sleep, we got up and got going. It sprinkled on us while we were out with the dogs, but that was about it for the day. Temps expected in the mid-50s, which is refreshing. I think we are supposed to have a few more cloudy/rainy days before the weekend, which is supposed to be nice. Cathye had leftovers from her breakfast at the casino yesterday so she had that and I had a sliced turkey and egg sandwich. Cathye went to get her nails done while I worked on the blog, which I was way behind on. But I have learned to take notes on my phone, so I can sit down at the laptop and get everything input pretty quickly these days. I settled in to watch some of my taped races from the weekend. Penny and Butch came by so Butch could give me a couple dozen .243 shells for my new rifle. Thanks, Butch!  I think I will plan to go down soon to Eugene to go with him to his rifle range to sight it in. Again, no hunting plans – just wanted to add it to my arsenal!  Dinner was Costco mac and cheese. Tv until bedtime – until we got a call! – it was 11:59pm when Cathye’s phone rang. I didn’t catch it in time. We thought it was a robo call or a butt dial until it rang again. Turns out it was a neighbor at Jamie’s apartment complex in Albany, calling on his behalf. Jamie was out of the house on a late-night candy bar run to the local convenience store and lost his keys enroute. So, we needed to get dressed and drive there to go let him in. Cathye left her key and if he doesn’t find his tomorrow, he will need to get another cut. No worries for us though, just a little lost sleep!          

Wednesday, March 2^nd., 2022…… Sad day! One year ago today that we lost Jeff.  Penny, Cherrelyn, Cathye and I are going out to our local sports bar to have a beer or two in his honor. I am no longer in contact with anyone in Florida, but I did see a post from one of Jeff’s close friends who had a memorial plague put in the ground at the place where the accident was. I saved his pics to my phone….

I talked with him on messenger and thanked him for doing that. He said how much he misses his old friend. Such an honor!  Did I mention it is a sad day!

We’ve had a lot of on and off rain this week. It was pretty wet this morning when we walked the dogs. She headed off to SHEM and I took off to go run an errand and then go get my breakfast. First stop was at Central Bark where I ordered 3 cubic yards of mulch for delivery tomorrow morning. Jacob is coming over and he will spread it out in the island area.  I had received a request from my dentist office yesterday, asking if I could move my cleaning appointment to this afternoon, so I went and got that done. As soon as I got back, Cathye and I went down to the Eugene airport to pick up her friend Terry F.  She is the daughter of Jackie, who lives in the mobile home across the street from where Cathye lived. Jackie turns 93 this week.  She dropped me at the house so I could feed the dogs and she went on to the mobile park. Once she got back, we hung around the house and relaxed for a bit. Then it was time to head over to Gametime. Turns out Penny and Cherrelyn were at Pizza Schmizza!  It was a miscommunication. She says she told me Schmizza, I heard Gametime! No worries though. Since we had already ordered appetizers, they left and came where we were.  We had a really nice time and it made the day a lot better to be with them to reminisce and recall a few ‘Jeff’ stories! 

I did drink enough to have to have Cathye drive us home but all was good. It for sure made a sad day a lot better!  

Thursday, March 3^rd., 2022……  The weather today is, in one word, crappy!  WTF! I thought they said it would clear up?  We are waiting for sunny days. We want to work outside again! I need to work on the ramp project in front of the new shed. I don’t think I will work in the cold and the wet. Cathye wants to finish up her island project. And, despite the weather, she has Jacob coming over to spread bark mulch. It was delivered early this morning. Cathye was home to tell the driver where to dump it because I was in Corvallis at my acupuncture appointment. Before I got home, she decided she needed another 3 cu yards and placed that order. Later, Jacob came by. Cathye wants both Corey and Jacob to do the mulch spreading job together, so Jacob’s job today was to dig up and transplant the plants where the new patio deck will be going. Problem was he wasn’t feeling well. He has a heart condition (which we didn’t know about until today!) and his blood pressure and pulse were racing!  So, we sent him home to rest and found out the next day that his wife had taken him in to the er later that night. He was fine but told us later that he was on a monitor (when he got here) but didn’t say too much more than that.      

Friday, March 4^th., 2022……  Today was round one of the bark spreading project. Corey came by around 9:00am. Jacob was here later after a doctor’s appointment. He wants to work off his loan from Cathye so we agreed that he could stay, but we gave him explicit instructions that he was to do jobs that we gave him and he was not to spread bark!  So, I had him move the garden tools out of the shop, wash them all off, and when they were dry, move them to the shed.  Corey got out the tractor and the trailer and made loops from the bark pile to the island. Jacob would help shovel the bark into the trailer, then go over and work on the tools while Corey spread the mulch out on the island. After the tools were dry and stored, I had him trim back the grapevines that we had started the other day. They worked like that for most of the morning and got the tools done, the grapevines pruned, and close to half of the bark moved and spread before they had to leave. I worked some more on my shed ramp.

I need to go get more 2x6’s and some more deck screws.  We all finished up our jobs and they left and we came in for the day.

Saturday, March 5^th., 2022……  No rain for the next several days. It’s cool but with the sun out, it is a nice day for March!  After walking and feeding the princess and the butthead, we left them home to rest, and took off to go get Terry, Cathye’s friend, to take her out to breakfast to celebrate Terry’s belated birthday. We tried the new place in town. Long story short (yeah, right!), Kristi and Reese used to work at Kevin’s before they had some kind of argument/disagreement and parted ways. That was a few years ago. But just recently, they opened up Kristi’s 50’s Café, coincidentally just around the corner and down the street from Kevin’s!  We always liked Reese’s cooking, and we kept in touch with Kristi, who went to work at the local Chinese restaurant here in town, so we wanted to go eat there to support them too. It was Saturday and their place is twice the size of Kevin’s and was jammed full!  The service was a little slow as they are just getting going, but the food was pretty much the same with Reese at the stove. That is, very good!  We will have to bounce back and forth but since Shirley May was forced to close, it will give us a little variety again. We dropped off Terry and headed home. Cathye worked in her greenhouse and I worked in my shop. I needed to clean it up. I did that then started in cutting up the old squatty red rolling ladder. I will start next on the tall beat-up aluminum one.  I forget how much detail I have written about these two ladders, but basically, I am cutting them both apart and taking the best of each one to make one for the rv garage. It has enough steps which will allow me to move it close to work on the upper sections of the motorhome, which might be the awnings or just washing it by hand. I have engineered what I think I want so now I just have to cut both apart and then reassemble!  Hopefully, I can make it work!  Later in the day, Mario came by for his first assignment as our new landscaper. Kirk is still MIA, and more on that as we know more so stay tuned, but we needed to move on. Today, Mario edged and defined the flowerbeds from the lawn. He also cut back all around the French drain that goes all the way around the lawn. He blew all of the yard debris and sprayed all of the above and most of the flowerbeds to kill the weeds. I’m really happy Cathye is taking the lead on all of this. She loves her new yard and the plants and flowers and has many new plans and ideas which will make it look great. And I’m glad not to have to worry about it anymore. For me, I will just concentrate on the mowing from now on! Yaay!      

Sunday, March 6^th., 2022……  This morning Cathye was planning on going to church but got a call about a girl trip!  Robin and Lona were going down to Eugene to pick up a car that Robin had previously loaned to her son-in law/daughter and Cathye rode down with them. Meanwhile, I stayed home. Corey and Jacob came by for round 2 on the bark job and brought their sons, Brandon and Noah with them. Corey got out the tractor and the trailer again and with Brandon’s and Noah’s help, made runs (with the boys riding in the trailer) to and from the bark pile and the island.

I have an old oak bench that Cathye wanted painted for the island and Jacob was given that task today.

While he did that, the boys would help shovel the bark into the trailer. It was late in the day but they got everything done and cleaned up. Corey’s wife Britney, came by with daughter Lilly, and visited. We tasked her later with picking up a pizza. The whole team was pretty muddy, so we decided to just put up a table and ate in the shop garage!

It was a long but very rewarding day! 

Oregon Living 2022 – Blog #8 – A Last Goodbye & A Belated Valentine’s Gift

 

Sunday, February 20^th., 2022……  HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYLEE and BRANDYN!! Brandyn is 8 (birthday was on the 12^th) but his bd party is today. Rylee is 4 now. Hard to believe. We had a few things to do today. Cathye headed off to church. I was going to work on my blog which I was behind on. When she got back, we did some shopping and then got ready to go to Sweet Home. Brandyn’s party was being held over there at Sankey Park. This is a nice little park in town and has the Weddle covered bridge nearby. So, we knew we could take the dogs there. It was cold and windy when we got there, but when we took them out for a walk, Rylee wanted in the water!  It was like ice but she just sits down and looks at me. Ahhh! She had fun and I had a towel so we were good with that.  We walked the bridge and explored with the pups and then got back to the party. After a bit, we weren’t planning on staying long so we had Brandyn open our gift first. He was happy! We loaded up the dogs and headed back home. I had already started watching the Daytona 500 and went back to the taped show and finished 90% of it before we settled in to watch the closing ceremonies at the winter Olympics.     

Monday, February 21^st., 2022……  Rain again last night. It was super cold and drizzly this morning when we had the dogs out, but no more rain was expected today. The cold front is definitely here and they say snow is expected if the rain clouds come in to the area. Only 5% chance of that but either way it will be cold here for a few more days! We took off later to go stop at Kevin’s for breakfast and then on to Albany for our Monday trip to see Jamie. After that, I drove us into Corvallis to check Batteries and Bulbs because someone said they work on e-batteries. I checked but they don’t do that there. We stopped at a bike shop and the guy told us that he only knew about online battery exchanges with one or two companies (which I had already found). Even though we now have two new bikes, we will still fix up the folding bike to sell. Still need to check to see if it’s cost effective to replace the battery or just mark it down and sell as-is. When we got back, Cathye got a text from Pedego that the fenders were ordered and hers and mine will be shipped here as agreed.  Sweet!  Dinner tonight was a test. We are looking at feeding those coming up from Calif. for our wedding. Cathye tested a spaghetti bake tonight.  Turns out we didn’t have spaghetti noodles so we substituted macaroni salad noodles. It was ok but didn’t turn out as expected so she says she will probably try something else.      

Tuesday, February 22^nd., 2022…… Cold again this morning. No rain – just cold temps. My truck was outside last night and had a nice coat of ice on it this morning. No worries – we just use another vehicle until it thaws out!  Cathye had an eye appointment this afternoon. I was going over to replace a faulty two-way light switch so I headed off to Wilco to pick one up. Penny had a dental appointment so we waited until she texted that she was home before going over. Meanwhile, we both worked on getting text messages out to those folks from whom we hadn’t yet received rsvp’s, reminding them to at least give us their choice of meal so we can get that finalized. Of course, another one came in the mail today just after I texted!  We got the text from sis and headed over. She was doing fine after her visit. Cathye brought over some of our spaghetti bake for their opinion and Penny and I shut the power off and changed out the switch.

Problem was that it did nothing different!  I’m stumped!  She said no worries – she could use the other switch on the other wall. Next time we have an electrician around with some time she will ask for him to look at it.  Later, Cathye headed off to her eye doctor and I stayed home and worked on my checking account and bill spreadsheet. We had take out (Carl's Jr) for dinner and then relaxed and watched some taped shows until calling it a night.      

Wednesday, February 23^rd., 2022…… Even though the sun is out today and there are no clouds in sight, it is still really cold!  I went back to shorts a few weeks ago and don’t want to switch.  So far, I’m good but we’ll see…

Cathye went off to SHEM and I worked out in my shop on pegboard. I pulled down the one I hung in the potting shed and set it up in my shop so she could put her own color on it. I now have more than enough space on the walls for hanging tools and such!

Thursday, February 24^th., 2022……  The weather is still pretty chilly. We keep watching the temps in SoCal and see they are enjoying 70s and higher. This is about the only time of year that I am a little envious of them! But I wouldn’t trade this life up here for anything! We both layered up and went out to work in the shop. Cathye painted her pegboard (teal) and I started filling in and rearranging things on the shop walls. Then she worked for a bit on her plants 

and then came in and cleaned up and headed off to Albany. Even though she has already bought two wedding dresses, she is still not 100% decided on either, so she headed off to a new place she heard about in Corvallis to see what they had. Meanwhile, I was cleaning out my fireplace in the shop and discovered that my shop vacuum was not filtering the dust very well. It needed a new filter, so I stopped what I was doing and drove over to Albany to Home Depot to pick up a couple. I got back and went back to work on my rolling ladder

and saw Mario, our new landscaper, drive in. He was early for a rototilling job Cathye has him doing out in the back island. No worries – I got him set up and he was working away when she got home. He did a terrific job in tilling in the peat moss we had spread out last week. Now she can plant out there when it’s time. We are also going to be hiring him to take over for Kirk. All of my attempts to contact Kirk since the first of the year have gone unanswered. The only response we heard about what that he had texted Penny that he was working by himself now, but hasn’t come by to work for her either. Aimee, our realtor, has been trying, unsuccessfully, to contact him too!  It’s not like him to do this and we hope everything is ok with him and his family, but some communication would be nice – there’s really no excuse to totally ignore us!  So, we are moving on and will have Mario come by twice a month. So far, he is a courteous and knowledgeable gentleman and we hope to continue with him if he is prompt and fair with us.  

Friday, February 25^th., 2022…… Not much going on today. We walked the pups and went out to Kevin’s for breakfast. For the rest of the day, we just stayed home. Cathye finished up sorting through all of the boxes from the mobile home that were stacked up in the garage. With her stuff and my stuff, we have built up a pretty large pile for the yard sale!  We will be having that but not until after the wedding and rv trip after. Speaking of those subjects – I think we have plans almost completed for that week. We now know who will be rv’ng with us afterwards, so I can look into mapping out a trip plan for us. We are going up to the Columbia River basin and then east as far as Coeur d’Alene, ID.  I still have reservations to check in to and the trip plan to send to the group, so I need to get on that asap.  We also had some light packing to do. We leave tomorrow for the weekend.

Saturday, February 26^th., 2022……  We were up early and had the dogs walked and fed. We were headed out. Penny will be coming over to spend tonight and tomorrow night here. We are headed down to Central Point (just a few miles north of Medford) to attend a memorial mass for my late friend, Dick Deemar, who passed in January. I made reservations at the La Quinta Inn. It is about a three-hour drive down there and the weather was mostly dry but overcast. We did hit a few showers, but for the most part, it was an easy drive. We found our hotel (check-in was later in the day) and then drove to the church. It was a very nice service and reception. 

We left, checked in to our place, then went over to Sharon’s home for a nice visit with her. 

We had plenty to eat at the reception so when we left, we headed back to the hotel for the evening. They had an indoor spa, which we took advantage of – but only after hitting Walmart for bathing suits because we forgot to pack those! Anyway, it was a nice end to a long day!   

Sunday, February 27^th., 2022…… We slept in and got up and dressed and checked out of the hotel. We walked across the parking lot to Shari’s for breakfast, then headed off for the second half of our trip. This was Cathye’s Valentines gift!  I had booked a night at the Driftwood Shores Resort in Florence. This place is right on the beach and Cathye had picked it out as a nice place to try. The drive over to the coast from the central valley is about 60 miles, so we were in no hurry. We stopped at the elk observation area for a few minutes. Some cows were out feeding but no males in sight. So, we took a selfie 

and continued on our way. Like I said, we were in no hurry. Ok, she was!  Because part of the adventure was a visit to the local casino! Cathye is a slot lover and I think has players club cards from all of the casinos in Oregon!  So, she knew about 3 Rivers Casino in Florence!  I knew where it was but have never been so I needed to stop and get my own players club card. We stayed there a few hours and went through more than a few dollars. Both of us held our own but both of us gave a little money to the casino in the end. We drove up the coast and found our hotel but check-in time wasn’t until 4:00pm so we went down to the bay and had linner at Moe’s seafood. We thought it would be crowded but since it’s offseason for them, we got right in and seated and had a really nice meal. 

Afterward, we went to the hotel and checked in and went to look at the pool and spa. The spa was out of order but they said they had heated up the pool so we tried that. Not hot enough! But we found that if we kept moving, it was ok. After that, we headed back to the room and showered and relaxed for the evening and took in the view from our balcony. 

The lady at the desk said to keep an eye out for whales, as they have started migration and were seen just offshore, feeding on krill, and since we were on the 4^th floor (of 4) we might get lucky and spot one or more. We didn’t but still had a nice relaxing time. More in the next post....