Oregon Living 2022 – Blog #44 – Halloween & Looking For Landscapers

 

Sunday, October 30^th., 2022……  We slept in this morning. Cathye decided not to go to church today so we hung around the house and had breakfast and walked the dogs. I watch races and football and/or baseball on Sundays and Cathye didn’t have any other plans so we pretty much stayed home all day.                 

Monday, October 31^st., 2022……  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  We got our permit for the deck today!  Russ called and said he had gotten the email from the city building department (guess they chose to notify the contractor and not me!) and that it was ready for pickup. We were already out heading to Albany anyway for breakfast and then to Costco, so we just went by the courthouse and picked it up. We headed to Costco and finished our shopping. But I made a detour to the tire department first. I have an appointment to take the car back to them on Thursday.  I have a tire alert on the Acadia.  I already know that one of the sensors is out because I have added air to that tire and it still stays on.  I’m going to have all of them changed out because the car is 12 years old and once one goes…

Later, Russ came by and picked up the plans.  I worked on my blog and Cathye fixed us a quick ground turkey and rice dish. It was yummy! We hung around the house watching tv. We didn’t expect trick or treaters because it was rainy but we had a few candy bars in case the neighbor kids were out. Nobody was, so it was a big zero for us. No worries, it was just another quiet night watching tv!

Tuesday, November 1^st., 2022……  After walking the dogs this morning, we decided to go to Kristi’s for breakfast before going to get our haircuts. We had a nice meal and had some time before our appointments so we stopped in at Jamie’s to pay his rent and pick up his phone. The one he has now is through Lively and is on a month to month contract. Problem is it doesn’t ring loud enough for Jamie to hear so it needs to be replaced. We were planning to take it in to Verizon and add it to our family plan. But when we got there, we found out that his state assistance guy had brought him a Cricket phone! When Cathye listened to Jamie explaining it all, she was confused so she’s on the phone now talking to Peter to find out what is going on and what is best going forward. Ok, it’s later now and she said they decided to go ahead with this other phone because it was free. I don’t understand that (some kind of state program) but they decided to work it through and see what Jamie likes. Stay tuned….

Wednesday, November 2^nd., 2022…… We have an appointment scheduled today with another landscaper. Since Mario up and quit, and Fernando doesn’t seem to be able to find help, we have started calling around looking to see who’s out there. Cat made several calls, one of which was to Angie’s list, and she is getting responses. Funny note:  She had two calls and scheduled a meeting here but got a call back saying they “didn’t think it would work today because of the snowstorm”. What snowstorm? Further conversation discovered that two companies based in Klamath Falls (way down in Southern Oregon!) had intercepted her Angie request. I don’t think they can service us from that far away!  I remembered that I had a guy (Alan) mow the west 40 for us way back when but backed out because his mower wasn’t big enough. He still does the lawn across the street for our neighbors and I knew he also did landscaping, and I had his name in my phone from before - so I called him. Even if he couldn’t do the landscaping, maybe he had a referral for us. He came by today and walked the property with Cathye. He said he’s already let folks go for the season but will get back to us with us if/when he gets a crew.

Thursday, November 3^rd., 2022……  Rainy again today. BUT, this time, the temps have really dropped. We are getting mornings with 39°! There is no snow predicted for this low-lying area but they say Mt Hood up by Portland and maybe some of the mountain passes in the Cascades east of us could see some snow this next week.  We still get the dogs out though, rain or shine, for their walk and today was no exception. After breakfast I left to go get the tire sensors installed on the Acadia. I also wanted to go to the courthouse to pay our taxes, so I brought that paperwork. I had a 10:00am appointment and was a little early but they were open and took the car in right away. I had an hour to shop and walked around with no direction or list. I ended up with a pair of sweatpants for me (later I found they were too small so Cathye now owns them!) and some dark chocolate treats! I got the car and headed home, only remembering that I missed going to the courthouse when I was almost home! Maybe tomorrow!  We got a call back from Alan later in the day. He doesn’t have the workers now to do the fall/winter cleanup. Of course we were disappointed but he did give us another company who might be interested. I went to their website and sent them a request for an estimate. We’ll see if they follow up or not.      

Friday, November 4^th., 2022……  Housekeeping today so we were up and out with the dogs early so we could pick up around the house before the crew got here for the 9:00am start. Cathye went and got us coffee and breakfast (thanks sweetie!) and I took the dogs out to the motorhome to set us up out there. It was about an hour and a half later and we were back in the house. Then Cathye said she decided to get out of the house for a bit and she was going to go spend the day shopping with Lona. I had an appointment with Pointe Pest Control again today. I requested they come back out and finish the garages. He had missed them last week because we were out and the doors were closed.  He showed up a little early and I explained my problem and he quickly went to work out in the garages.  But he said there was nothing he could spray around food for the little moths we have been experiencing in the house. He agreed that they were from larvae from flour, grain, oatmeal, pancake batter, etc.  We just needed to remove the source. We had already searched the cabinets and found no signs. We had also already cleaned out the lazy susan in the bottom corner cabinet.  We didn’t find anything but it was a great opportunity to get rid of any outdated cans or boxes. We filled up a trash can for sure! We kept looking, this time in the spice and cooking sauces in the cabinets across the kitchen. We found them in a sealed jar of cashews. All we saw was that they had reduced the remaining cashews to dust and made a colony. Funny, the jar was sealed tight!  That wasn’t the source but that quickly went out to the trash!  Hopefully, we will find it soon!

Saturday, November 5^th., 2022……  Today was a bizarre day! Oops, I meant a bazaar day!

Cathye had called Penny and they planned their day.  A few returns, some shopping at the big box stores, and before that, they wanted to hit the local Christmas bazaars, and boutiques around town.  I was home with the other girls! The rains have been off and on this week. Sorry, SoCal, I wish we could figure out a way to get some of it down to you guys (although I hear you did get a pretty good drenching a day or so ago!). So, I was not going to be working too much outside today. I hung around the house and watched tv. Nascar season ends this weekend and I had Friday’s truck race on tape and then I watched the Xfinity division race today after that.  Cup finale is tomorrow. Motocross and IndyCar are already over. The only things left are two more F1 races the next two weekends. The World Series didn’t interest me too much as I am not an Astros fan! I watched hoping the Phillies would come out on top – but it wasn’t to be! The girls got back later in the afternoon and showed me all of their treasures. I have curtains to hang and pictures and such to hang as well. They both said they already have a good start on Christmas gifts already!  Later, we settled in and watched the weather. The excavation for the deck is doing what it’s supposed to do. The fabric is designed to let water through, but not debris. It is but very slowly. I don’t like that the water pools up out there.

I need to call Russ and find out if he’s concerned. Tv until bedtime. We’re all caught up now on Dancing With the Stars. I still don’t like that it’s only on Disney+ but at least it’s commercial free!  Plus, we are really enjoying the competitors this season. Even Tyra is semi-tolerable!