Oregon Living 2025 – Blog #47 – A New Fridge, a New Tree and a Great Dance!

 

 

Sunday, November 30^th., 2025…… Today ended up very busy. Cat walked and fed the girls while I went out to get breakfast. Randy called while I was in line at Tony’s tacos. We talked for a while. He wants to plan a trip up here soon. His buddies are both recovering from mountain bike crashes but are healing slowly. After breakfast I got out the fridge dolly and the ramps for later. Cathye and I had already moved everything out to the garage fridge and freezer and she had already cleaned out the shelves. So, it was ready for me to take some pics. I took 3-4. Justin brought Skylar and the three of us went to work. We tried the front door but it wasn’t going to work. We tried the door into the garage but that wasn’t going to work – until we took off the door. That worked and we got the fridge moved out and set up in the shop garage. I have even left the ice in there so they could see it works!   After they left, I sat down and worked up an ad for Facebook Marketplace. I had found that they were selling anywhere from $300.00 to $500.00 in this area. So, I listed it for $350.00 and posted the ad.

It wasn’t 15 minutes before I got a response wanting to come tomorrow to get it. She asked for dimensions as did several others who responded. We left later for class and I spent more time there answering even more inquiries. I think there were 6 in total. One guy wanted to trade and I asked him what he had (just curious because you never know!). He sent a list of maybe 30 items! But the lady (Rachel) who wants it gets first look tomorrow. We talked to Mike and Cheryl and asked them to be on my procedures committee and set a date and time for our first meeting. After class we went on to pizza before coming back home to watch tv and then go into the spa. Like I said – a busy day!

Monday, December 1^st., 2025…… We were up early and got the dogs walked and fed. Costco has been communicating with me about the refrigerator delivery, which would be 12:00pm to 2:00pm today. But we still had time to go to the gym and then breakfast. I needed to stop by Walmart on the way to pick up some more dog treats, but we got everything done and were home in time for Cat to leave again to go meet up with OmaLea for lunch in Philomath. The driver called at 11:30am and said he was about 10 minutes out. No word from Rachel. I had everything ready and the guys used their mover’s straps to carry the fridge in. They connected the waterline and we were good to go.

We can’t put food in it for 24 hours and we knew we were supposed to dump the first load or two of ice.  But it looks good and I think we will be happy with it! Cathye will need to read the user manual and we will decide what to use the FlexZone drawer for (veggie or meat crisper most likely). I few minutes after they left, I got a message from Rachel saying they were just leaving Springfield and would be here in about 45 minutes. I was ready. But when they got here so were they! They had a nice trailer with sides and she brought a friend to help. She liked it and never haggled – she just handed me the cash! He brought a fridge dolly and got it strapped on and covered nicely and then got it loaded and tied down on the trailer. And they were off! Cathye got home before they left and came out to say hi. Easy peazy! I immediately took it off Marketplace so I wouldn’t get any more inquires. We came in and started pulling off all the tape and shipping packaging on the shelves and such and got them washed and installed. We weren’t quite sure how the icemaker worked but in about 4 hours we heard the first chunks hit the ice tray!  Turns out we have two bins of different sized cubes.

Later, tv, spa and bed.    

Tuesday, December 2^nd., 2025…… Today is haircut day. We like to get her first appointments of the day (10:00am).  So, we had time to sleep in and walk the dogs then eat and then go for that. Afterwards, we came back home and worked around the house – laundry, blog, procedural manual) and then kicked back for a bit. Later, Cathye posted our old Christmas tree on a local free site. We also were able to bring in everything from the garage freezer and fridge and load it into the new fridge. Cat got a text back later in the evening from a lady saying she was in town shopping and would like to swing by and pick up the tree if that was ok?   We said sure and went out and got the boxes off the racks in the garage. When she got here, she loaded them up and left. Easy peazy!   Tv and bed.    

Wednesday, December 3^rd., 2025…… More laundry today. I spent time finishing up my manual. We have a meeting here tomorrow night and I wanted copies. With the add-on workbook for the Strawberry Festival there are over 60 pages in this one now! But I got 4 copies made and I am ready for tomorrow. More on that later….    

Thursday, December 4^th., 2025…… Today was spa day for the girls!  Jama doesn’t like being away from Grammy and Grampy but Rylee loves being treated like a queen. Later, when they got home, they were exhausted and sacked out for a sleep while I was working on my blog. 

Meanwhile, Cathye was working on a Christmas tree pull-apart to serve tonight for my meeting. Later, everyone showed up.  We had a small committee but everyone had things to say and I think we accomplished a lot. We made some on-the-spot changes tonight. Next steps are for the committee to do a deep dive into the manual and then we will break it out to the respective board and committee chairs to edit for their specific roles. Oh yeah, Cat’s snack went over well!

After everyone left, we relaxed for the evening and watched tv.

Friday, December 5^th., 2025……  Not much on the agenda today. We have been hoping for a few dry days so we can get out and do one last mow for the season. The grass is really high and we don’t want to let it get any higher! But, it doesn’t look good! Rain for the next several days. I was asked to go over to Grace’s house this morning to get out some of the clothes totes in the Club trailer and put them in her garage. She also needed  a few racks to be brought in and assembled. She will go through the clothes and get them on hangers for pick up tomorrow for the dance. I got that done and headed home. Later, I went out to the workshop and worked some more on my water pump doghouse. I need to figure out the roof angle and I think I have that. I also worked on a ‘backstop’ for the figures that will go up around the foyer alcove. I made three pieces and got them up there. While I was on the ladder and up in the alcove, I went ahead and put out the window lights and then the string lights that go just under the figures. Cathye helped me line everything up and we were at least done with that for the year!  

We decided not to get out the Christmas village this year so that will mean less boxes to drag down and back up when we get to that stage!    

Saturday, December 6^th., 2025…… We slept in this morning and then got going. I went out and moved the truck and tractors so I could get to the racks. We first put back all of the Thanksgiving totes and then selected those that were not Christmas village boxes. I got those to the back porch and Cat will go through them really quickly today just to find our Santa hats. We will need them for this afternoon’s Christmas dance. Later, I dressed and headed off to Grace’s to meet Mike and hook up the trailer so he could pull it to the senior center. Grace had asked me but when I looked at the trailer, I had second thoughts about pulling it. It is rather large and I think the tongue weight is more than either of our trucks can handle. Mike tows their camping trailer, so his truck will work. Turns out not!  When he got there we hooked it up. No provisions for safety chains but that wasn’t the problem. It turned out that he locked up the trailer brakes!  I called Frank and he said he wasn’t sure that the trailer even had brakes. Mike wasn’t happy but took off anyway. I wanted to follow him but was on the phone so when I left, I didn’t see him. When I got to the hall, he had already unhooked and was gone!  At the dance later, he told me that his truck’s system sensed the trailer and went into rescue mode until he hit override. But it worked and he got there. We unloaded everything and the ladies got the clothes out while Cathye and I worked on setting up the food table because we had kitchen duty. The dance was pretty well attended and I think everyone had a good time. Our beginners need these dances to get their feet wet and see what all we do a t a dance. After the dance, we held a gift exchange. I had volunteered to lead the endeavor and had everyone grab a gift and get into a large circle. I believe we had 25-30 folks play! I read from a page called Christmas with the Right Family. As I read from the script, each person had to pass their gift to the right when I said right or to left when I said left. It took a few minutes to get the rhythm but it was fun! Cathye wants me to do again for her girl’s night Christmas party next week!  After we cleaned up the kitchen and got all of the clothes and racks stowed away in the trailer. Mike hooked it up and while the others went off to Ixtapa for an afterparty, he and I went over to Grace’s and dropped off the trailer. It went quickly – Mike pulled it in and hit the mark on one try! We unhooked it and joined everyone at Ixtapa’s before saying goodbye and coming home for the evening. Cat shared Vikki’s new post with me. The family went to visit the Grinch!