Oregon Living 2025 – Blog #13 – Yard Work and Plumbing!

 

Sunday, April 6^th., 2025…… The rains came back this morning!  I had already put away the mower so we were good. Of course, our neighbors took advantage of the nice weather yesterday and mowed their lawns again, But we still can’t!  The next several days won’t help either!  I was up and out to get us coffee and breakfast while Cat showered and walked and fed the girls. After that, we had nothing the rest of the day. Our class is finishing up their Plus lessons tonight and are going to pizza afterwards, but since Cat has missed 4 out of the 7 lessons, she can’t go back until next time. So, we just chilled today and had dinner and watched tv til bedtime.   

Monday, April 7^th., 2025…… Today was gym day. I am still showing for afib, but I want to stay active and the gym was perfect for that! I did limit my workout but felt good. The rains are back so we can’t get out and do much outside. We still need to finish moving the mulch from the raised bed to the blueberries. Our wheelbarrow is full of rainwater, so we won’t get to that today!  So, we just hung around the house all day and rested. But we did manage to get out to lunch. We met Judy and Lynn at the bowling hour bar for Taco Monday. We had a few drinks and made plans to go to the American Legion on Thursday.

Tuesday, April 8^th., 2025…… I am feeling much better. I think I’m back to normal. My tester shows unclassified, so I think I’m good. Cathye was going to go up to Salem to help Vikki unload boxes and get settled in. She also wants to double check with them about getting a wardrobe cabinet of their choosing for their closet. My plan was to go to class today. Cathye decided to not go up to Salem and would go with me as well. She still has some issues with the way she was treated in class last week, but she wants to go see if there is any animosity.  We went early so we could visit with those having lunch. No issues. She hugged it out with one of the ladies and they are good.  We left right after class because we have a meeting at 4:00pm for an estimate for painting the house. Trevor and his company were found on our local website and he came by today. It was the first so I have to be sure to ask all the questions and then keep them the same for the other guys. It went well.   

Wednesday, April 9^th., 2025…… Weather is holding up so far today. There is sun so we decided to go out and work on the raised bed some more. Cathye raked up the bed around the plants and I hauled six wheelbarrow loads of mulch out to the blueberries and, after Cat spread that out,

 

we were done for the day. Today, it was Travis who came to check out the house and build info for his bid.  It went well and I learned to ask for a few more specific items to be included. For example, we have board and batten on the shop and rv garages, which need to be caulked in. He specifically addressed that because it is time consuming (labor).  I don’t think we covered that with Trevor for his bid so I will have to go back and get that adjusted.     

Thursday, April 10^th., 2025…… I was up early and let Cat sleep. I could only take Rylee out because Jama won’t leave the warm bed with her Grammy! Once she was up and going, we headed off to the gym and then to Kristi’s for breakfast. Today is our back to back massage appointments 1:15pm and 2:30pm.  Problem is that today Cathye made plans to go to the Senior Center for a tea with Lynn and Judy. It is at 2:00pm so the only thing we could do was text Emily and ask that Cathye shorten her time to ½ hour so she could make her tea. I went at the 2:30 time and then came back home. Cathye was done by then. We fed the dogs and then headed into town to the American Legion. We were meeting Lynn and Judy there for dinner. Tonight was Jam Session. The girls have applied for auxiliary membership and Cathye applied tonight. She said I should join so I already had my DD214 in my wallet and went in to the office and got in. After that we had dinner and danced

before leaving. Later, it was tv and then bed.

Friday, April 11^th., 2025…… The weather is getting better! We were forecast for only one or two days of rain before the sun would be out for more than a day!  That’s great news because we are itching to work out in the yard!  I have the truckster running and the mowers are charged and ready to go. I still need to fix the trailer tire and also the leak in the wall shutoff for the shop’s outdoor spigot. But first up was a run to Costco. We did that and got back and started in working. Today I tackled the plumbing. Walt had installed a shower type valve system and had both hot and cold water running out to the mixing valve out by the garage door. I guess he planned on using it for washing his cars or maybe hot water for his pressure washer.  We’ve had issues with it for years. First off, there wasn’t a hot water heater in the shop garage until I put one in years ago. Then I discovered that the old cvpc pipes were too small to get adequate water pressure to the valves.  Then, recently, those pipes (no longer to code) started leaking slightly. A few days later, I went out and found it had burst and was shooting all over the garage! The water was turned off out there until we got back from our trip. Since that line is no longer good, I needed to cap it off  and went and found the parts and got it done. So far, so good. Right before I got started on the plumbing, we drained the spa and cleaned it. Cathye had already got new filters and I kept track of the water inflow while I was removing the leaky valve.  Later, we ate dinner and watched tv. We had checked and found the spa was already up to temp, so we hit that before going to bed.            

Saturday, April 12^th., 2025…… Another nice sunny and dry day! We were up and going and had the girls walked and fed. We ate then went out to do some more yard work. For me, it was trimming up the grapevines and hauling them out to the burnpile.  Cathye worked on getting the potting soil out of her plants and we added that to the raised bed.

 

Yes, the one we just emptied! But this is a richer potting soil and the stuff we moved out was compost and was only stored there for the winter to protect the beds. It was a nice day and we both took turns sitting out and resting on the porch in the warm weather. Of course, Jama loves to lay out there with us and soak up the sun. We have about half of the patio furniture in place. We still need to get the couches set up and the pillows out of storage and back on, but we will wait until we are sure the rains are gone. Later, we came in and rested and ate a light dinner and changed into our square dance clothes. We headed over to Sweet Home for their dance. They start at 6:30 with rounds and squares are from 7:00 to 9:00. That works better for us and we plan on suggesting that our Club do the same if we can at our dances. When we got home, we had a nice soak in the spa for a bit before calling it a night.