Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #110 – Rylee’s Good and Bad Four Legged Visitors

Monday, August 20^th, 2018……   Rylee has been in trouble the last few days. She now looks for neighbors to go see and when they are out, she’s off to the races!  Also, she likes to explore where Quincy explores, so now she’s heading out to the flower bed islands way out in the back yard. Problem is, we have spotted coyotes out there. She even chased one the other day. I got her back just in time to see a second one coming in behind her. They hunt in groups and she wouldn’t have a chance if they can get to her. So, we have been watching and now have a leash ready when she goes out.   Kirk came over today just to pick up the mower for his Monday mowing job. He will be here tomorrow to work and we’ve asked him to weed whack the grass out in the back past the creek bed. That’s where the coyotes come and go from so we need that gone! He’s got that terminator blade that will go through that stuff in no time! Today I caught up on some bills and filled in my bill spreadsheet. Lydia made some calls and got a credit card replaced that she accidently cut in half. She thought I told her the one I gave her was a replacement and cut up the one she had. It wasn’t the same card! She also called and made an appointment to get the carpets cleaned. We had leftovers for dinner and watched tv until bedtime.        

      

Tuesday, August 21^st, 2018……  Rylee got up and on the bed around 5:30am but slept in with us until after 6:30am. That’s a record for her!  We’ve had the bedroom slider open and the blind dropped to about a foot off of the floor. That’s where she sleeps so that gives her a nice window for cool air to come in on her at night. The weather here has been getting warmer and warmer each day. We are now up into the mid 90s. There is very little wind so the smoke here is pretty thick. They say we are getting all of it from Canada. The Portland news station this morning showed video from Seattle where they can just barely see the space needle. It’s supposed to be like this for a few more days when offshore winds are predicted to help blow away most of the smoke. Kirk came by and, as requested, cut back the weeds on the back of our property, just over the creek bed. It makes it nicer to look at now plus we can see if there are coyotes sneaking around out there. I worked a bit in the house garage today. I wanted to hang my step ladder off the wall which makes for a cleaner look out there. I also hung some plastic boxes for balls and poop bags and leashes. Lydia went out early to play pickleball and got back in time to see Rylee and her new friend playing in the front yard. Camo, an eight-month-old English bulldog is our neighbor’s dog. They were out walking him up our street this morning and, of course, Rylee saw them and went out to investigate. Where was that leash!  Good thing he was friendly!  We took them into the yard so they could play on the grass. They played for a good long time. Camo has as much energy as monster mutt so it was great for both of them! Camo recently got fixed but his instincts kicked in when he smelled Ms. Rylee. He behaved himself pretty much though!  Later, after I hosed all of the mud and mulch off her and toweled her off and brought her in, she was able to sleep for a good long time! Sabrina and I plan on more ‘play dates’ now that we know they are friends.  We ended up staying in most of the day, what with the smoke and the heat. But later, Lydia did go out to get her hair cut ($it’s $10.00 Tuesday!). On the way back, she picked up dinner from Jack in the Box and we ate early. Later, when it was cooler, I went out and started the water on the fruit trees/grapes/blueberries. We’ve picked about 90% of the blueberries. The grapes are looking good. I think they have another month and they will be ready. The apples are getting ripe but most of them have a ton of bird bites and some bug holes. They are so heavy with fruit that they are almost on the ground! The grapevines have creeped over to the apples and attached to them so they are now 20 feet long and bigger and growing through to the tops of the trees!  Walt screwed up when he planted everything so close together, with the three apple trees in the middle.  We may get some useable apples but I’m thinking more seriously now about cutting down all three trees and just keeping the grapes and the blueberries. But none of that will happen until all of the harvest is over.    

After a bit, I went out and shut off the water and put the truck in the shop garage. I also moved the trailer in next to the rv garage so I can start dismantling it. I hope to get all of the old wood off, then get Scott, my welder friend, over to reinforce the front section. Then I can paint it and rewire it, and then put new wood on it.