Oregon Living 2022 – Blog #14 – Family Time, Flying Home, Mowing, and Tats!

 

Sunday, April 3^rd., 2022……  Rain last night but this morning it’s clearing up. The sun is out but it will only be for a few hours because the forecast is more rain later tonight and all day tomorrow. Sorry SoCal – wish I could send it your way!! The only thing on my to-do list today was to work on my blog and also work on my checkbook and my bill spreadsheet. The rest of the day was spent watching races and auctions and in general just kicking back. Cathye is going to tea this morning and they are shopping as well. Terisa has taken off work for the entire week. They spent some time planting seeds this afternoon. They are also going to Daniel’s parent’s house later today for dinner. I remember that almost everyone in his rather large family still lives on properties close by each other so that means they spend a lot of time with each other.   

Monday, April 4^th., 2022……  My day started out with some rain but it didn’t hardly get anything wet. No rain is forecast for a few days so I am hoping to be able to suck up the dead grass later in the week.  Cathye’s morning started out with a trip to the maple syrup building on Daniel’s family’s property and they all worked out there helping bring in the tasty stuff.

Later, they headed over to Daniel’s business shop where he bases and has his rock excavating equipment housed. Felix loves his daddy’s trucks!  After that, she took the car and drove over the state line to Springfield VT and the grandkids, (Josh and Tate) took her out to dinner at the Sumner House, a pretty fancy place. They got to take pics around the place. I liked this one on the staircase…

Tuesday, April 5^th., 2022……  One more day until she comes home!  I was up and out with the dogs early. The weather has turned cold again!  Low clouds and early temps in the low 30s! I didn’t shut off the sprinkler lines because I thought we were done with the freezing temps, so I hoped my pipes will not burst!  They did not but I went out to the farthest spigot out and opened it a bit to help from cracking. Cathye spent some time packing for tomorrow. They left for an adventure out on Distance Hill Nature Trail. It’s set up for kids and she said it was really fun. They stop every few yards to read a ‘page’ in a trail book.

Felix really liked it!  Later, Terisa had an appointment and Cathye took him to the park where they had some one-on-one time!

 

Wednesday, April 6^th., 2022……  I was up early again. Guess I don’t sleep late when I’m by myself! I had all of my chores and breakfast done before 8:00am!  Meanwhile, Cathye was on her way to the airport!  The airport is about 2 hours away, so they were on the road early. Cathye’s flight had her going 2 hours to Detroit with a three-hour layover there before she got her 4-hour flight to Portland. I hung around the house until around 4:30 and fed the dogs before Jama and I headed up to pick her up. I had plenty of time so I took the scenic route through Silverton, which I hadn’t done before. It was a long flight but she made it ok and I got her back home with no issues. I’m glad she had a good time with family, but I’m sure glad she’s home!      

Thursday, April 7^th., 2022…… Cathye was up bright and early this morning. She is still on eastern time!  I knew she’d have jet lag, so I didn’t have anything on the plate for today so she could crash and rest up. We went to Kristi’s for breakfast.  We had an early dinner and watched taped shows (Survivor and The Masked Singer) but she went to bed early and I stayed up to watch my auctions before calling it a night.

Friday, April 8^th., 2022…… This morning was spent running errands. Cathye had to order chocolates and pick up her dress. I answered an ad on Marketplace for a bunch of church chairs that were for sale for $5.00 ea. I saw these and thought I had space to store a dozen of them and, for the price, they would be great when folks came by. So, we split up today. She ran her errands and I headed off to Corvallis to check them out. I found the place and saw that these were used but were sturdy and in pretty good condition. I offered him $4.00 ea. and bought 12 and loaded them up and came back home.

Cathye was still out. So, I started my other task.  My goal today was to pick up the dead grass and dump in the burn pile. She got back just as I was ready to head out with the zero turn. It is way easier to pick up the dry grass and dump it after the fact than try to load it up when it’s green and wet.  She set out a chair at the burn pile and helped with the dumping and we made quick work of that task. We got that done and came in and cleaned up. I had heard from Kirk that Justin would be coming by to return my utility trailer and the Husqvarna tractor. I won’t go into details, but let’s just say getting this done as Kirk transitions out of his business and moves out of state, was a major issue!  Justin was coming in just as we were leaving and we talked a bit and then we took off for our 4:00pm appointment.  We had to leave because we were going to get tattoos! Yep, I said that right! This would be Cathye’s 5^th or 6^th, but it would be my first! Imagine getting one at 72!  Penny said her friend Marlin got her first one at 81, so there! Anyway, we had come up with an idea to replicate the infinity symbol that I bought us for our wall. Brad, who is a family friend and has been tattooing for many years, has had a shop in this town for about a year now. We had sent him the image and he worked it to a 3” size, which is what we wanted. We chose our left forearms and I went first. I was surprised that it wasn’t painful at all! Just little scratches. Took about 20 minutes once he got to the ink. I guess if you’re having one done with a lot of ink, it would feel different, but I was good to go! Cathye got hers next and we were done.

We came back home and had dinner and rested for the night and watched tv until bedtime.       

Saturday, April 9^th., 2022……  The weather today is nice and sunny but still a bit chilly. After taking care of the pups, we headed off to Elmer’s for breakfast and then stopped at Coastal Farm and Ranch because they were doing a Saturday sale and they had the blue poly tank that we wanted. I had been buying Rylee a new pool every year now and they only last one season, and sometimes less than that!  So, we kept thinking about what to do and we saw that a lot of the farms here have these 8 or 9 ft. tanks in their fields that are used as watering tanks for their animals. They are made with thick poly plastic and should last for years and would make a perfect pool for Rylee.  But they are upwards of $400. to $500. so we held off on it. But Coastal had the 8-footer on sale today for $359., plus we got one $10. in-store ‘Coastal buck coupon’ for every $50. spent. They are good starting tomorrow, so Cathye found things she will go back to get and will use up that $70. pretty quickly! I drove back to the loading area and they put the tank in the truck. Or should I say on the truck bed.

It was hard to fit it in but we dropped the tailgate and tied it down and headed home. I couldn’t see behind me in the mirrors but didn’t think it was an issue and we made it home ok. But we realized when we got close to home, that we had succeeded in covering up both brake lights!  So, I guess we were super lucky!  We got it unloaded right before the skies clouded up and it started raining. So, I’ll move it out to its final spot next week. No hurry.