Oregon Living 2023 – Blog #14 – A Busy Week!

 

Sunday, April 2^nd., 2023……  Another rainy day. Yes, that is the norm for a while! So we didn’t walk the girls because by the time we were up, showered and dressed, it was coming down! But, we let them out in the back and they did their business so all was good.  We had our coffee and breakfast and relaxed and watched tv until Cathye headed off to church. Like I said, it was tv most of the day for me. The showers let up later in the day so I was able to go out to my shop and work for a while. No projects yet - just cleanup today. Later, we had stuffed salmon and then hit the spa before bed.       

Monday, April 3^rd., 2023……  This morning was back to the gym day! We first got up and out with the dogs, fed them and then left for the gym. We took two vehicles because Cathye had to go hit the bank and then go pay Jamie’s care home. I got changed and started. In Calif. at the Boeing Health Center they had some pretty nice machines. Their equipment was all new and in perfect working order. I didn’t expect that here. Boy, was I surprised!  I found the treadmills and figured them out pretty quickly. I was taking it slow for this first workout. Cathye had lost her card and had to get another one so she was a little behind me. She got on her treadmill as I was getting off to go over to the recumbent bikes. Again, I started off easy and then moved into the resistance machine room. I found, to my surprise, that those machines were even more modern than Boeing’s!  Instead of hard weights with pins, these had air adjustments. You turned up the air pressure for more resistance. Pretty nice! Cathye finished up and left and I changed back into my street clothes and left a few minutes later. We met at Kevin’s for breakfast. Yeah, we know – work out, burn up all those calories, and then go fill up again! She headed off to finish up her banking duties and then headed off to Walmart and got a few things. Later, we hung around the house and rested for a while. She actually took a nap! I felt ok but rested and watched tv and took it easy. Her landscape guy (Adam) had called and wanted to come over today to talk with her. She was concerned that he was quitting on her even before he started. That happened with the last guy!  But he only wanted to tell her he was down a man for a few days so what she wanted done this week would take a few days longer. No worries! They would start tomorrow.  Leftovers for dinner and tv and a nice relaxing soak in the spa before bed. That will surely help those muscles we worked on today.            

Tuesday, April 4^th., 2023…… I had to get up early this morning because I had a dental appointment at 7:30. It’s right around the corner though so it wasn’t too bad. I did have to let them know about my blood thinner because if my teeth bleed, they will know ahead. But I had no issues and Amanda got through the process with no problems. I stopped by and picked up breakfast burritos at Carl’s Jr.  The guys showed up today for the first round of landscaping. When I got home, they were already hard at it and had a lot of the weeding done. They ended up spending 6 hours and will be back on Thursday to do the bark dust (aka mulch). Cathye will be going later today to the supply yard to pick out the color. We usually go with the red fir which doesn’t have any splinters. She did that and arranged for the delivery tomorrow afternoon. Later, we decided to drive over to Albany to go to The Depot for fish and scallops and then stop at Costco on the way home. We are picking up steaks for dinner on Saturday. It is Butch’s 70^th birthday and we are having them over for a small party. I say small because he doesn’t want any presents or cake. We’ll have fun though!  Tv and spa time before bed.        

Wednesday, April 5^th., 2023……  Today was haircut day!  We have a 10:00am appointment for both of us. We walked the dogs, fed them and relaxed for a bit before heading over there. Once that was done, we stopped by Walmart for a few things. We needed more paint for the patio table and chair set. We have decided to keep those and paint them a copper colored hammer tone finish. I had already done one chair to gauge how many cans we will need. We got four more cans and I bought a new pillow. I have been waking up with headaches and I think it’s the pillow. I have tried a few that we have around here but wanted something else. Later, the guy showed up with the 22 ½ yards (that’s all the truck will hold) of bark dust and Cat was there to tell him where to put it!  

We needed to have them drop it in a way so the gutter guy can park and set up his truck when he comes on Friday.  Of course the guys may be able to get it all spread by tomorrow.  She had brought out the leftover green bean casserole from the freezer and we had that for dinner. It was even better the second time!  We watched The Masked Singer and Survivor, hit the spa, then called it a night.         

Thursday, April 6^th., 2023…… We were up and out early this morning. No rain, but cloudy and chilly. Temps in the high 40s so it’s starting to climb up a bit. The guys were here and working by 8:00am. She wanted to stay with them and didn’t feel like working out so I went to the gym by myself. When I got back, they had a lot of the bark already spread. They had brought a loader and made quick work of placing it in strategic areas before spreading. They were very careful not to drive on the lawn or the flower beds and only had one area that they put tracks in. But they smoothed it out before covering it with mulch so no worries. They even asked for the second load to be delivered today - we need 50 yards total. When Cat called The Bark Place (which is the local place two miles from us), they told her they were out. So, Adam recommended a place on hwy 20 on the way to Albany. Turns out they had plenty and it was considerably cheaper even after paying an out-of-area delivery charge. But their truck was smaller so they would have to make two trips to get the 22.5 cubic yards.  We knew we were taking a chance hoping that the color would be the same or close. Turns out we got a totally different dye job and one looks wet and dark, the other dry and lighter. 

After they got it down and going, we could see we will need to spread some of the new stuff over the old to blend it out a bit. But someone who sees it will think one side is just wet so it still looks pretty good.

The last pic came from their website!

While they were doing that, I worked on painting the patio set. As mentioned, we decided on a bronze hammered finish and it looks great, even with one coat! I have five of the six chairs and the table to do and I have to work around the sprinkles but we’re in no hurry.  After the guys left, we cleaned up and came in and rested for the day. Tv and spa time before bed.      

Friday, April 7^th., 2023…… Talk about getting up early! The gutter guys were coming today and Mandy had said 8:00am. But, they drove up and were getting things out of the truck at 7:30!  I was barely up and showered and had to dress quickly. Good thing because they were measuring the gazebo for gutters. I quickly pointed out we only wanted to go with the roof gutters today and that I had told her we wanted only option A from the invoice. Phew! Anyway, they had the gutters measured and ran out on their extrusion former

and made quick work of it and were out of there in an hour & a half!  Adam and Johnny were back today and finished up their bark mulch job. They can’t get around the house because it’s just too mushy right now, even for a wheelbarrow. So, that will be the next round whenever that will be. Adam and Cat also need to sit down and come up with a plan for the landscaping around the deck. Again, it’s still too wet to start that now. But whenever it dries out enough, we want to be ready.     

Saturday, April 8^th., 2023…… Tomorrow is Butch’s 70^th birthday! Penny wants to celebrate but he doesn’t. So, we are having them and Mariglee over for steaks and game night. We had the patio ready and I fired up the grill shortly after they got here. Penny and Mariglee brought fixin’s and hors d’oeuvres and whiskey for them and Fireball for us and we settled in and drank and ate 

and then played Mexican Train for a few hours. 

It was a fun evening! They were ok to drive but I’m glad Cat and I didn’t have to!  We sat out in the spa for 30-45 minutes or so then came in and called it a night.  A busy week for sure!