Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #99 – Farmer’s Market & Visiting

Saturday, July 28th, 2018……   The start of another quiet weekend. Rylee is getting better about getting us up super early. Her routine is to sleep on the floor (too hot for her on the bed) and then about 5:45am she puts her paws up on me to see if I’m awake. I am now! She gets up on the bed, we play for a bit, then I take her out to potty and to give her breakfast.  I got through the play part and then Grammy volunteered to get up and take her out and then feed her. Yaay! I got to relax a bit more! Once l get up, and get showered and dressed, I get doggie duties and Lydia can go get ready for the day. Today she was going to the Corvallis Farmers Market with Penny and Marlyn.  The also planned to do a little walking around downtown Corvallis so I passed and stayed home and watched Rylee and the Tour. I had planned on going to Walmart to get some stuff to spray on the gutters but I didn’t make it. I ended up laying around the house and doing nothing in general. The girls dropped Lydia off and she took a nap after her morning. That was about it until she fixed us a nice dinner and we watched episode 1 of The Great Food Truck Race. This has always been one of our favorite summer shows so we were waiting for this for a while. After that we called it a night.    

Here's some pics of Marlyn and Penny out exploring and having fun!

Sunday, July 29th, 2018……  Nothing on the agenda today. I reconciled my monthly bills and paid those not on auto-deduct. Today was the final race for the Tour de France. I thought the 21 stages were very interesting and I was entertained. I just don’t get the fans who stand out in the middle of the road with costumes and flags and just get in the way of the riders. Crazy! If I ever get to Europe and we see the tour, it will be somewhere where it is calm and we can watch in comfort without driving up a mountain or cramming unto a busy street! Anyway, this year’s race was fun to watch. The girls came over this afternoon and they sat around and drank some wine and visited a bit. Of course, Rylee was there not missing anything! 

I watched my races and then went out and checked on my rv fridge. It stopped working the other day when Lydia turned down the cooling temp. I think the cooling unit is gone now so I’ll have to look into getting it fixed. I also have been watering the heck out of my lawn and also have set up a watering system for the grapes, apples, and blueberries.  The lawn is automatic but I’ve got to go out and turn on the system for the fruit. We’ve set up a timer alarm in the house that goes off so I don’t forget to shut the line off before we go to bed. It’s a little work but all of the bushes/trees look a lot better now that they are getting water!      

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #98 – Power Washing, Car Washing, Going to a Play and Going to a Baseball Game

 

Thursday, July 26th, 2018……   Today was play day. No - we were going to see a play! We got up early and I went out and got breakfast and then settled in for a while to watch the Tour de France. Only four more stages left. Later, I got out my pressure washer and started in cleaning the rain gutters. It worked pretty well and I got the west side (garage side) cleaned up and then moved on to the front. I did the porch and then a portion of the walkway.  The gutters on the front side of the house had more staining to them. They didn’t come clean that easily. I think I will buy some bulk 409 or Mr. Clean and pre-spray them with my Hudson sprayer before the next wash.

Later, we fed Rylee and headed off to meet Penny and Marlyn at the local high school. It was not a high school play, but rather a local group (Lebanon Association for the Performing Arts or LAFTA) production. They had a 30-piece orchestra and a huge cast and did The Music Man. It was very well done. We’ll have to keep track of their future productions. After all, it’s only about a mile and a half from our house!    

Friday, July 27th, 2018……  We had a few errands to run today. We decided to go into Albany and take the car and get it washed and waxed, like we did to the truck last week. Since we had left Rylee home yesterday when we went to the play, we decided to take her with us. I first dropped Lydia off at Lowe’s and then Rylee and I took the car in and got the wash set up. They were going to call us when it was ready. We then left to walk the block and a half to Lowe’s. Rylee liked Lowe’s!  Or rather, everyone liked her!  We walked around in the store just killing time and just about when we were ready to head back, they called and said the car was done. We drove back home and Rylee slept the rest of the day! Later, we fed her and left again. This time we were headed to Corvallis to go see the Corvallis Knights play baseball. They are a local league team and they play in and around the Corvallis area. Their home field is on the campus of Oregon State.  Their field is nice and the seats I reserved were behind home plate. Not bad but we were behind the stairs coming up and they were always busy. Next time I’ll look for seats in another section. We got there early because it was cap night! The first 750 people in attendance got free Corvallis Knight baseball caps.

We found free parking and waited until the gates opened. We got our caps, found our seats (not too hard – place seats maybe 3500), and then walked to the Block 15 pavilion to get something to eat and a beer and ice tea. We went back to eat and waited for the game to start. It was super hot but we were seated where the sun went behind a building so after about 35 minutes it was nice. The Knights played the Hayesville Hammers (yeah, I know) and won 6 to 1.  The game only lasted 2 hours so that made for a nice outing. We got back home and played with Rylee until bedtime.      

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #97 – Yardwork, Sprinkler Repair, and Another Visitor

 

Tuesday, July 24th, 2018……   I slept in this morning. I guess I was still tired from fishing yesterday! No plans today. It was going to be really hot today.  Lydia did go out and pull some more weeds but I made her stop after a bit and come in for the morning.  I picked up her stuff and she enjoyed the a/c and a nice cold glass of water. Kirk came by this afternoon and spent some time working on the flower beds. We’ve decided to have him work for us on a regular basis, twice a month, to help keep the flowerbeds under control. Later, Lydia went back out and worked for another hour – until Kirk left for the day. He cleaned up their work and Lydia came in and cleaned up. I had decided that I was going to take her out to dinner tonight – her choice. But she couldn’t decide when we set out. So, I chose The Depot for seafood. She said that was a great choice. We had a nice meal and headed home to work on the sprinkler systems. I have all of the 8 zones on the main system and the 3 zones west of the driveway on timed programs. I can override them to choose whichever ones we need to see. We concentrated on the flowerbed’s irrigators rather than the lawn rainbirds. We went through each of those zone by zone and identified the ones that needed adjustment and/or repairs, plus we found some areas that we need to add sprinklers to. Rylee has decided to chew the ones she can find so some of those were in need of repair. I have to go get more material but at least we have a start now.       

Wednesday, July 25th, 2018……  The weather will be hot again today. We had no real plans so we decided to go to Coastal Farm and Ranch. We needed to exchange one of the cushions on the newly bought front porch chairs. One of them has a burn spot that we can’t explain, other than we got it that way and just didn’t notice it. Coastal was very understanding and with very little explanation, exchanged it with another one from their display. The manager said they would just put a huge markdown on that set to sell it. We then stopped at Arby’s for lunch – for me – Lydia had eaten just before we left. Then we drove down to Corvallis to Garland’s Nursery.  That’s where Kirk and Lydia got the plants that he put in last season.  Some of them weren’t doing too well so she wanted to ask for some advice. Kirk also transplanted three red leafed shrubs from my sister’s house.  They have gone dormant. The nursery expert told Lydia to scrape the bark and see if it’s green at any point.  She thinks when Kirk took them out, he didn’t get enough of the root ball that they needed to survive here. We’ll get to that tomorrow. On the way home, we heard from my sister. Her friend, Marlyn, is arriving in Portland and shuttling down to Albany today. She was going to pick her up and they were going to dinner. Since I just ate, we came home and Lydia went off to meet them at Ixtapa. Afterward, Penny took Marlyn back to her place and she got settled in there. After a bit they came by so Penny could show her our place and we could sit out with us on the porch and visit for a while. Plans are in place for a few things to see and do while she’s here. More on that later. Afterwards, we watched a few more of our taped ‘watch together’ shows before calling it a night.           

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #96 – Anniversaries and a Fishing Day

 

Sunday, July 22nd, 2018……  Happy Anniversary Randy and Maryanne! We called and spoke with them and wished them a great day. They were getting the SeaDoo cleaned up and ready to take out to the bay this afternoon. They said that the weather was definitely warm enough today! We are also warming back up here again.  Today was in the high 80s. Next week we are supposed to get into the 90s. Lydia and penny went to knock the pickleball around again today.  I’m going online to get her a paddle since she’s been borrowing one from the senior center. I stayed home and played with monster mutt and also caught up on my taped races. She also went shopping (Walmart) and got a few things for the week. Nothing else going on today except lounging around and relaxing. I decided that tomorrow was a good day to go fishing!  So, I got out my tackle and loaded it in my truck so I could get up and going early.  

Monday, July 23rd, 2018……  I always have trouble sleeping the night before a fishing trip!  Last night I don’t think I slept an hour!  I got up at 4:00am and got going. I had packed a lunch the night before but I don’t know if I’ll be out that long. I headed for gas in my truck and then on to Foster Lake. There is a channel that comes in from the lakes and streams above and I heard it was a good spot. Plus, there is parking close by. When I was there a few months ago, the water was way down and I could see the channel. But now the repair on the dam is completed and the water is back to normal and all that I saw before was now 100 feet away. So, I found parking in the boat lot and walked past it to a nice flat area and set up. It was a short walk and I was able to bring one of our folding rv chairs so it was nice and comfortable. I had the place to myself until an elderly lady walked up with her rolling cart full of gear. Her friend showed up but we still had plenty of room each. It was wonderful just to get out and fish again after so long. The weather was perfect and the lake is beautiful!

(not me! This was taken on the other side of the lake from where I was fishing.) 

I had a spot in the shadow of a large pine tree that kept the sun off the beach for an extra hour. I found out that my technique for trout works in Oregon! I caught one right away and then another. Before the morning was over, I had caught five and lost one. Plus, I caught my first steelhead!  It was great!  The problem came later when the locals came to claim the area for their beach party. There were two teenage girls and their mom first. The girls got all of their lotions on then walked out close to my lines to swim. That was it for me! A few minutes later, the rest of the family (around ten in total) showed up with floaties but by then I was already half packed up. I guess I can’t complain – the lake is so nice and the shoreline beach is very limited so it was bound to happen. And I was there maybe four hours so no worries. At least I know a decent place to go back to. But I think my next venture will be just up the road from Foster – Green Peter lake. I scouted a place I want to try. Maybe that one will be just as good for fishing as this one is!  I got back home and rested from the day. Lydia already walked Rylee so I just kicked back for the day.    

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #95 – Bad Dog & Yardwork

Friday, July 20th, 2018……  My sister came over today to walk Quincy.  Rylee is in lockdown for running away on us yesterday. Ollie was again on his walk and she went out the back door and Lydia couldn’t stop her from running around the house and out into the street to see her buddy.  So, since I had to go out and put a leash on her just to drag her home, I’m pretty upset with her right now. Lydia had her outside this morning and since she wouldn’t ‘come’, she put the leash on just to let her walk around the yard.

After Penny left, I got out the mowers and we started in on the grass.  We were only going to do just the lawn but I went ahead and started in on the field and between both of us, we got it all done in about 90 minutes. I got the mowers cleaned up and gassed up and left the Husqvarna out. Kirk came by about noon and took it for his now-regular job. He’ll come get it on Fridays and return it when he comes to work on our flowerbeds on Tuesdays. Only this week he’s going to check to see if he can get it in for the service I have been wanting to do on it. It’s important now that Kirk will be using it weekly. Tomorrow I will use the catcher on my tractor and run over the grass again to get the clippings. But that only takes about ½ an hour or so.   We did let Rylee out later in the evening on her own and she’s minding a bit better now. We’ll see how that goes…  

Saturday, July 21st, 2018……  After our walk, I headed off to get breakfast and Lydia’s chai latte tea. I’m not much into coffee now that it’s warmer, so I skip that for the most part. I’d rather wait to drink iced tea or have a Mountain Dew or a Dr. Pepper later when it’s hot out! I watched a bit of the Tour de France (day 14) and then went out and put the catcher on the mower and got the excess grass picked up. After that it was a bit of rest. Penny came over to drop off Quincy for the day.  She has a sprinkler crew coming today. She has really low water pressure for her sprinklers (only started this season) and I haven’t been able to find out why so she’s called in the experts. Quincy would be a nervous wreck so she’s coming to her ‘other’ house.

Ok, the guys have come and gone from her place. They did some digging and found another shutoff valve. I don’t know if I had mentioned this before but when the previous owner was prepping his house for sale, he covered the flowerbeds in weed control material and then ground mulch.  Problem was that they covered the sprinkler shutoffs with both the ground cloth and the mulch and hid those controls! We found one and the guys found another today so at least that’s done - but it doesn’t affect the water pressure.  She will have to have them do some more tests on the system to try to isolate where the water pressure is dropping. Meanwhile, we just hung around the house and rested for the day.  Lydia made a chicken/green bean casserole and that was tasty. Plus, we will have enough for leftovers tomorrow! I finished watching my bike race then watched the Nascar Xfinity race and then some of our taped shows before calling it a night.  Rylee's doing better listening to us but we haven't encountered Ollie yet!  

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #94 – Touring and Shopping

Wednesday, July 18th, 2018……   For the past few weeks, Rylee has been sleeping on the floor in front of the sliding door next to our bed. We leave the slider open but drop the blinds down to about 10 inches off the floor. That way we get the dark, and she gets the air coming in. But usually about 4 or 5am she wants up on the bed. She’s trained pretty well and won’t just jump up there on top of us. This morning she stands up and gets her paws going, like ‘are you up yet? Can I get up there now?  For us it was sleep time but for her it was play time. But she also wanted one of us to get up and let her out. Lydia was awake early so she got up and let her out and I got another hour’s sleep!  Yaay! Plans today centered around sis. She asked us to go to breakfast with them at Elmer’s and we can’t say no to Elmer’s!  They came over and we took two cars and drove into Albany and I bought all of us breakfast. It was a nice meal.  I left Lydia with them and they headed off to show Lori Corvallis.

While in Albany, I headed over to GNC and got a few things and then came home. We met up later at the house so we could go over to Sweet Home to show Lori Foster Lake and to eat dinner at Skyline.  We always try to bring folks there.  The meals are simple but tasty and they give you good portions. After a nice dinner, thanks sis!, we toured around the area a bit then went back to our house to sit out and have some wine and/or Fireball and wait to see if the deer would pay us a visit. We've got three that have been around here lately. One of them is a really nice buck and the other two are smaller males.  But before it got dark, we let Rylee out to play on the grass - until Ollie came out for his walk – then it was runaway dog! We finally got her back home and harnessed her to a tree. She’s in need of some discipline and I’m ready to take it to another level. No deer tonight so later, we said our goodbyes and they left to go get some sleep. Lori’s flight leaves Eugene at 5 something am! We went in and watched tv until bedtime. I think Lori liked Oregon. She definitely enjoyed spending time with her good friend and Penny likes having visitors!

    

Thursday, July 19^th, 2018……  We got up – ok Rylee got us up – around 5:30am – she’s sleeping in longer now. Our plan today was to go into Albany and recycle our plastic bottles and glass bottles and aluminum cans. We had five bags. My sister wanted to go so we waited for her to call us after she had rested a bit from her early morning airport run. She came over around 10:00am and we took two cars over and got started with the recycling machines. We ended up with $74.90 and I think Penny got $29.90 for hers. She went home to catch up on her rest while we went to the local car wash. Albany has one full service car wash. They only do full service washes on Thurs-Sun. so we decided to go for it today.  I even had them do a wax job on my truck.  It really needed some love!  I did take about an hour but we decided to wait there for it. After that, we went over to Costco to get a few things. Among getting stocked up on meat, we found a carry-on piece of luggage that we liked so now Lydia can use that for her trip to Vegas next month. Once we got back home, we prepped the lawn for mowing. I planned on doing that today but we got lazy and quit for the day. It’s on the list now for tomorrow. The rest of the day was spent resting and watching tv until bedtime. We did catch up on some of our backog of Guy’s Grocery Games before watching our own taped programs until bedtime.   

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #93 – Dogsitting and Haircuts

Monday, July 16th, 2018……   This morning I did my usual walk with Rylee. My sister came by to walk Quincy.  They were way out in the field so we did our thing. Rylee got to play with Quincy once we got back and they got finished with their walk.  We let them cool down for a while after Rylee ran her around the yard, pestering her to play. I took off to get some breakfast and a cold drink and then headed off to the Home Depot. I wanted to get some brackets so I could hang my new ladder on the rv garage inside wall. I also wanted to pick up some sprinklers to place inline out by the fruit trees/bushes. I bought three sprinkler units and two short six-foot garden hoses connected them all together. And they fit perfectly in that spot. I think I’ll get another timer so I don’t forget to water out there.  I also hooked up the two timers I did have to the two island sprinkler systems in the front and back yards. Kirk still needs to clean those up. He is due tomorrow. I also bought and installed some more of those broom hanger attachments in the car garage. Walt had one in there and I was able to find the exact match and bought two more so now we can keep all of that stuff just outside in the garage. Meanwhile, Lydia decided to go out and work on those never-ending pesky weeds in the front yard flower bed. She worked almost all day and got rid of a bunch, while pruning and shaping some of the plants out there at the same time. I’m glad to see her out and getting some exercise but I need to make sure she doesn’t overdo it. I think tomorrow we won’t start until after dinner. There’s plenty of light (doesn’t get dark up here until 10:00pm!) plus it’s a lot cooler. Plus, they say tomorrow it is supposed to start cooling down. We ate a light dinner and started in outside again. I went out later and picked up all of her cuttings and we called it a day.

Tuesday, July 17^th, 2018……   This morning super mutt and I had our normal play/pee/poop/play/eat/walk/treats/sleep time. My sister has a friend up staying with her for a couple of days.  They are going wine tasting today so she wanted to bring Quincy over here to stay. Quincy is nervous at their house. She says it’s because the house makes noises (settling/a/c vents/ghosts?). So, she thought it was better to leave her here with the big white terror who will probably not bother her at all. Yeah, right! I spent some time watching the Tour de France (taped from early this am) and then the girls showed up. Quincy actually did ok all day. They played a bit. Ok, when I say play, it’s always Rylee nipping at Quincy’s face, saying, ‘play with me, play with me, play with me’, and Quincy is going, ‘no, get away from me, get away from me’.  But Quincy is extremely patient and they really do ok with each other. I’m waiting for Q to seriously snap at her. That will get her attention and maybe she’ll back off a bit. We’ll see…

Penny gave Laurie a tour of our place and they took off for the day. Kirk and Caleb came over today, first to drop off the tractor and second, to work on the front right-side island.  It’s always hard to see the progress at first since the island beds are so overgrown with weeds. But Lydia said they made good progress. We also got away for a bit and went and got our hair cut. We found a place we like and she has $10. Tuesdays so we get to drop in. Today the wait wasn’t too long plus we were able to visit a bit. Teri’s new shop has living quarters so she now has her   fifth wheel up for sale. It’s been sitting at a dealership in Junction City on consignment. She says the deal is anything over 22k is theirs to keep. I think they have it priced too high to attract offers. I offered up a space at our place to keep it and told her I would help her list it and would show it for her. She’s got one guy who’s showed interest so she’s gotta call him back before she takes me up on my offer.

The rest of the day was spent doing a few odd jobs around the house. Wilco had a 10-20-25% off sale and that’s where we get Rylee’s new dog food so we got a super-sized bag this time. Later, I wanted to kick myself for not buying two! Lydia bought some plants for the front porch so I then had to buy paint for the two little tables to match the chairs out there. I’ve got one done and the other has a first coat. We finished up the day getting dinner at Taco Bell and then going off to watch our programs. I watched the All-Star Game and she slept during her shows.               

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #92 – Keeping Cool and Visiting Friends

Saturday, July 14th, 2018……    Saturdays are typical for us now – we still try not to go out to the big box stores – let the working folks go on the weekends – we’d rather go during the week when it’s not so crowded. Of course, Oregon doesn’t have the major population so it’s not really bad even on a weekend. That said, we decided to go to Walmart! We needed a few things so we headed out. Not much else going on. It’s been hot so we’ve stayed inside and tried to stay cool. But of course, we have to take super pooper out to her pool! She also likes to run around the grapevines and apple trees when I run the water in there. Anything to stay cool! But most of the day was spent lounging around the house and taking it easy.   

Sunday, July 15th, 2018……  This morning I walked Rylee out on the street route. I am noticing that since I have been taking Bio-Flex (Costco) for the past week, my joints don’t feel as sore. I still have problems with that knee I popped several weeks ago, but it’s not swollen anymore and I have better range now.  The kneecap is the part that hurts when I put too much pressure on it, but I am noticing a big improvement. It’s hell getting old!

We had been invited to Jason & Aimee’s open house but we were in Hawaii so we had to pass. Aimee’s our realtor and I had sent her a text last week asking if she could believe it had been a whole year since we had moved in.  We got the keys on July 6^th and moved in after the pods were delivered (while we were in Las Vegas for Jeff’s wedding) on July 11^th. By this time last year, we were moved in!  Aimee had invited us and Penny over for dinner tonight so we get our own private open house.  They moved to a brand new house in Millersburg, which is a tiny town just north of Albany. Their place is really nice.  Aimee had commented that the kitchen/dining room/living room area was arranged very similar to ours.  She was right! I’m glad they could get both of their previous homes sold and could get a nice start with this beautiful new home.  We took over a combined fruit medley that each of us added to beforehand plus we each brought over a housewarming gift. Now it’s their turn to come back and see the new rv garage and Rylee again. They plan to bring their two dogs, who, they say, will get along well with our pup. Of course, Rylee loves everyone!     

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #91 – Dealing With the Hotter Weather and a New Ladder

Thursday, July 12th, 2018……    After our walk (butthead is doing real nice now on the leash), we settled in for the day. Lydia was headed off to meet up with Penny. They were going for their first pickleball intro here in town.  Penny has played before and has a racket. Lydia borrowed one so she could see if she liked the activity.  They may go back on Sunday.  If she continues, I guess we have to go shopping! I went out and got some breakfast and a nice cold beverage and brought it home. I still want to change out that security light on the shop.  But it gets the morning sun so I’ll wait until this evening.  It’s also time to mow the lawn again! Plus, we need to do some more weeding.  Again, we’ll wait until the evenings for all of those things. So, I took off to head to Xfinity to sign up for their service again.  My intro year is over and they want me to upgrade (and add tv) at a much higher cost.  I’m happy with what I have so I went in trying to keep the same package. The flyer I got showed a deal with tv was only $10. more a month and I figured I’d hook it up to my laptop. But they would have to run another modem and I would pay for that per month plus the service charges and fees weren’t added on. So, long story short – I kept what I had and will now pay the normal monthly fees (an added $30.).

When I got home, I went out and put water in the pool for Rylee.  The weather is getting warmer now! Today it was in the 90’s. We turned on the a/c for the second day this season. 
Here is a picture of Rylee, sitting, - you guessed it! - right on the a/c vent. She's no dummy!

She has been playing in both her inside and outside drinking water bowls so it’s about time for the pool!  She likes the running water more than the pool water! She jumps in and out of the pool chasing it. But it sure helps cool her off!  Later, when it got cooler, I backed my truck up partially in the shop door so I could set up my step ladder in the bed to reach the security light so I could replace it. It didn’t go up high enough to make me want to climb up there so I abandoned that idea.  I need a bigger ladder.   

Friday, July 13th, 2018……  Plans today was for Kirk to come over to work a bit in the yard.  He also plans to take the Husqvarna tractor to one of his new larger clients.  I was watching the Tour de France and surfing on Craig’s List for an extension ladder. I found a 24 ft aluminum extension ladder I liked and called the guy and left a voicemail asking if he still had it.  He called me back about an hour later and so Lydia and I drove up to Dallas (just west of Salem) to go look at it.  He is a retired contractor so it was really well used and covered with paint but it worked well and was only $50. so I bought it and loaded it up and we drove back home. After a short rest, I backed the truck up again and this time had enough ladder to get the job done. I now have two bright lights out there that come on at dusk and off at dawn.  I’m not leaving them on right now but it’s nice to know they are new and bright and will work whenever I need them. Lydia made salmon and rice for dinner and we ended our day relaxing and watching our programs until bedtime. It’s cooled down a bit at night so we’re glad for that. I leave the slider in our room open and we get a nice breeze right over the bed. Rylee lays on the floor by the slider until it gets nice and cool and later (about 2:00am or whenever I get up to pee) she wants up on the bed with us and stays up there the rest of the night.  

Oh yeah, here are a couple of pics I forgot to include.  These were taken by our bus driver, Kimo, who stopped at an overlook on the way up to Haleakala.

  

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #90 – Working at My Sister’s and Birthday/Anniversary Wishes

Monday, July 9th, 2018……    This morning I had planned on spending some time at my sister’s house, doing odd jobs.  So, I got up early and did my walk with Rylee and ate breakfast and then headed over. First up was her new front screen door.  That went better than I imagined although I need to make a filler strip for the top section. She will be buying a door sweep for the bottom. The door is actually not square from when it was first installed (these are tract homes) so these items will help. I then worked on her dvr hookup. Got that working but the dvr itself is not working right (the load/eject feature doesn’t work). She will be getting another one soon. I worked a bit on the back door.  She has French doors that look great but don’t line up well so the deadbolt is very hard to operate.  I did the best I could but these doors are entry level and she has to decide whether to deal with it or replace them down the road. Loose window screens were next.  There were several that just needed the screen splines reworked.  That was no problem. Next up was the kitchen faucet. Not much to fix here. Maybe a washer down the road but for now we’re good. Last item was the gutters.  She had some moss growing in the trench but overall not too bad.  She doesn’t want me on the roof so she will hire a neighbor kid to go up there with my pressure washer and knock the moss off the roof and then flush out the dirt in the gutters. After that, I came home and rested for a while. Then it was my turn to work on my place. I got out the bracket for the satellite dish and got that mounted on the rear wall of the rv garage. Then got the dish mounted and then I fixed the end of the coax and got that hooked up. I called Lydia out and we got on our cell phones so she could help me aim the dish. It only took a few minutes to get a good strong signal and we were done. So, with 50 amps and water, and now Directv, we have another room for guests! I still need to get the coach out and over to an RV detailer in Sweet Home to get it washed and waxed.  We will then do the inside ourselves and then have the carpets cleaned when we do the house.   But its nice to have the job now complete!   We relaxed and played with Rylee and ate a light dinner and watched tv until bedtime.

Tuesday, July 10th, 2018……  Nothing on the agenda today. I decided I would work on putting up on the shop the matching security light that’s on the rv garage.  But I started watching the Tour de France and then thought I should wait until the sun got off that part of the building.  Turns out I skipped out on that too!  Maybe tomorrow….    

Lydia made a squiggly noodle casserole for dinner tonight and we sat down and watched two episodes of America’s Got Talent. We’re slowly getting caught up!   

Wednesday, July 11th, 2018……  HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF!!!  We called and spoke with him for a few minutes. He was at work. We’ll call later this evening when they are both home. Today was our appointment for pedicures (both) and manicure (Lydia). That is always relaxing. We came back home and I didn’t want to do anything for the rest of the day! So, I relaxed and watched the Tour de France.  It’s day 5 and it’s getting interesting.   Later, we called and talked with both Jeff and Krista and wished them a HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!  Hard to believe it was a year ago that we met them in Vegas for their wedding day!  Krista wasn’t feeling well (got sick from the plane flight!) so we didn’t keep them too long. We decided that we wouldn’t fix dinner since both of us had late lunches. We loaded up monster puppy and drove over to Sweet Home.  I needed to stop by the Elks lodge.  Seems they still don't have my address right. That completed, we drove into town and got gas and then stopped by the Dairy Queen for dessert. Yummy!  When we got home we did watch the last two Brother vs Brother episodes so that finale is done.   Just a few more shows to get caught up on….      

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #89 – Fireworks and New Porch Chairs

Wednesday, July 4th, 2018……  HAPPY 4^th of JULY!   This morning we decided to do a bit of running around. I took off to Harbor Freight and Home Depot to pick up a couple of things. Lydia went off to Walmart.  Penny was coming over to spend the 4^th with us.  We decided to grill hot dogs and hamburgers. She will spend the night as well because we thought our neighborhood would be a lot quieter for Quincy.  It turned out that although we didn’t have families out in their yards lighting fireworks, we still did get a lot of noise from the surrounding area. They shoot off a lot of rockets around here and they can be heard a good distance away. Quincy ended up on a blanket in the guest closet.

I haven’t made any mention on the rv garage status but I am pleased to report that we are 100% complete! Only a few things to do inside. I bought a cover plate for the satellite coax and got that mounted and the line is now routed under the coach out to the front. I do need to install the dish and make the connection on the coach.  Then I just need to aim it and get the signal. 

Thursday, July 5th, 2018…… After a nice restful night’s sleep (once the late revelers quieted down!) we awoke early and I got Rylee out and Penny got Quincy and we walked them up our street. I don’t go past Main St. (at the end of our block) so the walk is only about ½ mile. They did well together on the leashes. Later, I took off and ran some more errands. We are weaning Rylee off her (expensive!) prescription dog food and I had a recommendation from the vet for a newer small company brand food.  They sell it at the vet’s office but it is also sold at Wilco, so I went there. I stopped first at Coast Farm and Ranch, to check there (no luck).  Lydia had seen some rockers for the porch at Coastal so I went to check those while I was there. Nice. I got everything I needed and headed home. Meanwhile, Lydia went off to Corvallis and to our B of A branch. We pay our car and homeowners insurance once a year and she wanted to make sure she transferred funds into the account in time. Once we were both home and rested, we took off again to go look at more lounge chairs. We ended up at Coastal and bought the three-piece set (@ 20% off). Coastal is cool – when you buy something big, you drive around and through their loading area inside the building.  They loaded up our purchase and we drove out and home. I decided to wait until tomorrow to assemble the chairs. We ate an early dinner and called it a day. 

          

Friday, July 6th, 2018……  I got up and did the usual routine – let Rylee out to pee, play with Rylee, feed Rylee, shower, get dressed, walk Rylee, and eat breakfast (this time at home). Then I went out and started putting the pair of chairs and the table together.  Once we got them set up on one side of the door on the front porch, Lydia decided that we needed a matching set for the other side of the porch. So, we headed back to Coastal and got the second set. I got those done and set up and, she’s right, it does look better!

After that, I rested for the afternoon. We ate lunch and so neither of us wanted dinner later.     

Saturday, July 7th, 2018……  This morning Penny came by to get the truck.  She was going to Home Depot to buy a screen door for her front door.  We decided last night that we would go to the Farmer’s Market in Corvallis to pick up some fresh fruit and veggies. It was a familiar site for Rylee, having been there back in May. It was the same thing again – we couldn’t go more than a few feet before someone wanted to pet her! But she had fun and visited with other dogs there. We got everything we were looking for and headed back home to rest and kick back for the day. I’m still trying to catch up on all of the things I taped while we were in Maui. I’m making headway but still have a lot to go!  

Sunday, July 8th, 2018……  I ran into our neighbor, Lou, while I was out walking Rylee. He has two little older dogs and Rylee eventually got to know them and they were good. It was nice we met up because I have wanted to ask Lou about my apple trees. He has about 20 fruit trees on his property and a lot of them are apple trees. First off, I wanted to know what kind of apples I have. He doesn’t know but they are still small and green. Next question was why they are so wrinkly and prone to bugs. First off, I need to water them more. Then I need to spray them. Funny, Walt ran irrigation out past the grapevines and the apple trees to get to the blueberry bushes. You’d think he would have done all of them! So, I got out my whirlybird sprinkler and set it up out there. He said it was too late to spray so we’ll see what we get this year!  I also don’t know why Walt planted the grapes, apples, and blueberries so close together.  We had great blueberries and grapes last year so if the apples (in the middle) don’t work out this year, I’m going to cut them down and ease the space for the grapevines.   

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #88 – Time With Daisy, Getting Back to Normal and Yard Work

 

Friday, June 29th, 2018……  Now that we have sort of caught up on our sleep, we finished up a few things around the house. Daisy and Penny came by and we spent time playing with Rylee.  Daisy and her got along so well.  We drove up to Silverton to see the Oregon Gardens.  I've talked about this place before, but if you didn't know, it's a large complex, owned by the city of Silverton, designed to control water distribution to the valley. It has has massive areas covered with hundreds and hundreds of different specimens of trees and plants. We took the tram tour then walked around the place for a bit.  

We finally got the name of our cedar plant just off the front porch. 

Later, we went out to dinner.  We wanted to do something for Daisy to thank her. We went to The Point just outside of Sweet Home.  It’s one of our favorite places to eat and Daisy liked it as well.  Afterward, we went back to the house and sat out on the porch and relaxed and had a few drinks.  They left and we settled in for the night.  We’re still trying to catch up on our sleep and get back on schedule. I know Rylee misses her Daisy but she sure does love having Grammy and Grampy back home again!     

Saturday, June 30th, 2018……  Today, Daisy had her flight back home.  She lives in La Mirada and flew here from LAX.  Her flight back is straight through and leaves in the afternoon.  So, we left early and drove to Coburg Pizza for lunch.  Daisy liked it and it is our favorite so it was a treat for us too!  We then went over to Walt’s Ice Cream, and Daisy treated us to cones. Thanks Daisy!  We got her to the airport and said our goodbyes and headed back home.  It was a lazy day with nothing much planned.  I know I had stuff taped that I wanted to start on. Lydia lounged around and watched tv as well. We didn’t eat dinner since neither of us was hungry after pizza.

Sunday, July 1st, 2018……  It turned out to be a typical Sunday for us.  Get up, walk Rylee, feed Rylee, play with Rylee, rest, repeat. We found that we really needed a day just to do nothing.  It was nice and quiet.  Plus, Rylee got a lot of play time.

Monday, July 2nd, 2018……  Today we really had to go to grocery shopping.  Prior to leaving on the trip, we had left Daisy with plenty of food to last her through the week. It worked out great and we spent the last few days eating what was left so it was definitely time to hit Walmart.  After getting that done, I went out to clean up some stuff in the shop. I also got out my Stihl and weed whacked some of the area around the grapevines and apple trees. Later, after catching my breath, I got out the gas lawnmower and walked it around the grape stumps and apple trees.  Boy, that’s more than I want to do at a time! I took a break and went out later and raked it up.  I still needed to clean up around the water pipes so I could set up the timer to the irrigation line that goes out to the blueberries. I got that going and was done with yard work for the day.  We worked around the house, just straightening up a little and that was it for the day.  We each ate a late lunch so we didn’t fix dinner tonight. Then it was more catching up on taped programs for each of us.   

Tuesday, July 3rd, 2018……  Today was lawn day! I got up and walked Rylee and checked out the grass.  Unfortunately, I didn’t shut off the sprinklers yesterday so it was still pretty wet and I would have to wait until later. I went out and got breakfast and tea and watched tv for a bit.  Then I went out and got the black tractor started and did the west side of the driveway.  I then made a round trip around the house and parked it and went and got the orange tractor out.  I wanted to try it since the last time we used it, my sister had smoked it out and the belts were slipping.  I started out slowly and everything worked fine. No issues. I kept going and did the outside of the lawn area (out by the street). Lydia jumped on the black mower and finished the lawn.  Then we both set out to do the field grass area out behind the lawn.  It took about 2 hours for both of us to do everything!  Not bad and the tractor worked perfectly!  I’m thinking that my sister just went too fast when she was mowing and got the driveshaft and pulleys and belts too hot.  Going slower worked for me and mows better as well!  I’m still planning on getting the tractor in for service and new belts. We were done for the day and planned on going back over it tomorrow with the catcher to get all of the clippings. Lydia went to pick up a prescription and then we ate a late lunch so we skipped dinner again tonight.       

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #87 – MAUI! Part Two

Monday, June 25th, 2018……  Jeff and Krista decided to go out by themselves for breakfast. The rest of us ate in. We still have a ton of food! Later, Jeff and Krista and Randy and Maryanne walked down to Kihei beach to sun and swim. They said later it was nice but got very windy and they had sand going where they didn’t want it!  

More misc. pics....

We went to a local market style mall with little kiosks to buy souvenirs and then stopped at Foodland for more stuff for dinner. We wanted to clean out the fridge a bit while all eight of us were still here, and we had eggs and bacon so we made breakfast burritos for dinner! We spent the day lounging in and around the pool and spa. Then it was back to the airport. Penny and Randy & Maryanne had 8:45pm and 10:00pm redeye flights back home. We said our goodbyes and then went back home and got back into the spa and had a few more drinks before bed. 

Tuesday, June 26th, 2018……  Jeff and Krista had a snorkeling trip booked this morning so Frances and I drove them over there. We came back and ate breakfast and then the three of us took off to explore more of the island.  We drove back past Lahaina and on to Kaanapali and Napili Beach. We found the Westin Maui where we had stayed before.  They have a new entrance and it looked a bit more exclusive than when we were there. We drove farther north and hit the beach road back to Kaanapali. We stopped at a really pretty park, with actual open parking spaces! We hit the beach, which was not an actual black sand beach, but it did have lava rock mixed in so it was pretty dark. We got in and then walked a bit around the shore.  We saw a giant sea turtle swimming just a few feet offshore.  Pictures looked like seaweed in the water so they are not posted. But we did take some of Frances and us goofing off.

         

After about an hour or so, we rinsed off and cleaned up as best as we could and then headed back to wait for the snorkeling boat to return with Jeff and Krista. Krista said she was terrified but, again, she relaxed and did well and had a great time out there!  She's the best! On the way back, I stopped at Maui Brewing Company, and we sampled and purchased a few beers.  We were all hungry so we ate an early dinner.  We chose Fred’s Mexican Cantina. It was just ok but all of us ate too much anyway! Then it was back to the house for our last night there! We took advantage of the pool and spa once again.  

      

Wednesday, June 27th, 2018……  We had an 11:00am checkout time so we gauged for that and left right at 11. I had to drive over to Greenfield Diamonds, Andre's retail store, in the Wailea Shopping Mall, to return the house key. We had managed to clean up the place and we think we did a pretty good job.  The girls even did the bath towels and all of the beach towels. (We later got a thank you note from Andre.  I’m guessing his maid staff must have given us a thumbs up because he said we left everything as we found it.)

We took Frances to the airport ahead of her 1:25pm flight back home, and, on the way, we even managed to find a couple of street folks with their shopping carts who were really grateful to get the food we had packaged up just for that purpose. We hated to throw anything away so this worked out for everyone! We decided that since we had time (our flights both left later that night) that we would drive the Road to Hana.  We had been before but Jeff and Krista hadn’t.  This was the only time I didn’t want to be driving a big minivan!  It seemed like the vegetation was eating us up as we wound our way toward  Hana.  It is a 40+ mile trip plus time from the airport so we only managed to get about 90% up the road before we needed to turn around to start back.  The traffic was heavy and it was lucky we turned around went we did. We did stop and take pictures of the views and the falls though and it was a fun time. 

On the way back to the airport, we stopped for a quick bite. We chose a highly rated pizza place and went in. Uggh! But we stayed anyway and waited for our orders. It’s a place we would not go back to. But at least we were full for the flight home.  I reversed the process and dropped everyone off and took the car back to Avis (only one question about scratches on the passenger side – which were just marks from plants and came right off with a little rubbing, and they never said anything about the key fob so we were good to go ). I shuttled back and met Lydia and we checked our bags and met the kids and sat with them until their flight left. Then we went to our gate and boarded a few minutes later. Our flight home was 5 hours but we went to SFO and then 1 ½  more to Portland.  With the time change, we got in to PHX at 8:30am. My sister decided that she and Daisy were going to drive up to Portland and pick us up so she cancelled the return shuttle we had booked. 

Thursday, June 28th, 2018……  As mentioned, we didn’t get in until Thursday morning around 8:30am.  We each tried to sleep on the flights but neither of us were successful. I drove us all back to the Hut and we went in to make sure they credited my account since we cancelled.  Penny had dropped off her car there before they came up so they could go to Costco and we could drive straight home.  We did stop and picked up lunch and then made it back to the house about 11:30am. By then, Daisy had packed up and moved over to Penny’s so we had a quiet rest of the day with Rylee.  I unloaded all of the luggage and got that put away and then got caught up on all of the mail.  Lydia managed to take a few catnaps while watching tv (and Rylee). I went in and laid down for a while on the bed. I didn’t get up until 16 hours later the next day!