Wednesday, June 30th., 2021…...
Wow, time flies when you’re havin’ fun!
I know that because I have been so busy these days that I haven’t been doing
well in keeping my blog up to date. I find if I don’t sit down and do each day
as it happens, the days run together and I forget a lot. That’s happened this
past week! So here goes….
Mostly this week has been all
about dealing with the heat and trying to get things done at 1) her old house,
2) her new trailer remodel, 3) my haying and mowing and flowerbed prep, and 4) dealing
with the holiday. We have been back and forth many, many times to her house. It
goes on the market on Friday so we are trying to tidy it up for the walk-thrus
coming. Her contractor is still AWOL due to his new baby and wife’s health
issues and the upcoming holiday weekend. So, nothing new to report on the
trailer. Cathye is planning on taking her vintage Shasta camping trailer out
for the 4th of July weekend. Plus, there have been various folks
communicating with her about buying items before the sale and also about coming
to take the foundry out. It’s all piling up for her and she’s told me many
times she’s glad I’m around to help out and to help keep her sanity! So, we bounce around trying to get things
done. Meals are mostly lighter fare and done way later than normal. Relaxing
time is less and less as this goes on. But they are going in the right
direction and I think we have things in sight and are moving forward smoothly
(for the most part!). As for me, Chuck brought his buyers for the hay (turns
out they are family members) over with their trailers and they loaded up all of
the hay bales.
So that’s done! He leaves for a trip to Montana tomorrow so
he’s glad it’s done and he can go rest!
I found out that with the price of hay down, with his time and equipment
costs, he won’t make much on this deal at all.
He says this is his last year doing haying. Can’t say as I blame him!
Thursday, July 1st., 2021…… Today the weather was actually
nice! The heatwave that hit us last week
is a distant memory. Temps are still in the 80s but that is ok for us up here.
There is, however, a lot of dust in the air as millions of acres of crops are
being cut, furrowed, seeds harvested, baled, and loaded for transport. You can see dots of dust storms all around the
valley as the farmers are out early and stay late to bring in their crops. I
still am fascinated by it all! Today we had afternoon plans. This morning,
though, was open, so I drove us down to Eugene for lunch. I remembered going to
the Eugene Rose Garden and I was able to surprise her with a visit there before
we ate. It turned out to be a perfect day and the roses were looking good!
After that, I took us to Fisherman’s Market, a local eatery in Eugene. She had never been and we had a very nice lunch. We headed back home and rested up before the next half of the day. For Cathye, today was prep day. Both she and Lona are hooking up their trailers so they can get out early in the morning. Pioneer Park in Brownsville, has camping only on the weekends. They do not have spaces and it’s: get there, claim a nice spot, and spread out so you have room for the others coming later. Meanwhile, back at the house, the trailers are under a covered pole barn and were easily accessed. I was there to help them hook up and they left their trucks, ready to pull out tomorrow morning. After everything was set, I drove Cathye back to my place and Lona and her daughter Misty went home. We will all meet there at the trailers at 9:00am. We stopped and got take-out and went home to eat and relax.
Friday, July 2nd., 2021…… Today was a comedy of
errors! We got up and walked the digs
and had breakfast. When we drove back to meet up with the girls at the house, Cathye
discovered that she had left her purse – with the truck keys – at my place! I went back and got them while they got all
of the watering done for the day. When I returned, we all got everything loaded
and headed off together. When we got to the park, we found that we were early arrivals
and had our choice of sites and they chose their favorite. It was right next to
the ball field. The fire department does a big fireworks show every year and
they all line up in the field and watch. They tell me it is right out in front
and above them! When we got set up, we discovered that we needed one more stabilizer
so I went back to Cathye’s (8 miles) to get it. Robin had arrived and dropped
off her pop-up trailer and wouldn’t be back until later but it wasn’t sitting
on proper support so I found a bottle jack at Cathye’s and brought that back.
We got everything leveled on all three rigs and we rested for a while. I headed
back home to do laundry and relax with Rylee. I got a text saying the girls
were headed off to the local bar and grill for dinner. Now, if you are familiar
at all with the movie, Stand By Me, Brownsville and the surrounding areas were
sites for a lot of the scenes. This bar (outside and around back) was seen in
the beginning of the movie. Pioneer Park was also the scene of the pie-eating
contest, which was hilarious! When they
got back to the trailers, she texted me that her key would turn the lock but
the bolt wouldn’t move. So, I grabbed some tools and lubricants and headed back
over. I worked at it for some time and so did one of the local campers. We
finally made the decision to drill out the lock so she was able to get in.
Shasta sells vintage parts so that will go on the list for next week! I didn’t mention this until now, but imagine
all of this going on and at the same time, your house hits the multiples and is
officially on the market! The pics make
it very desirable in these parts so we were happy they came out so well…
She’s already heard from the realtor that there are at least 4 showings from today til Sunday! She’s hoping for a bunch of offers and maybe a bidding war but we’ll see… I headed back home and took Rylee out to the new pool that I had just set up in the yard. I ran the water hose in it to fill it while Rylee chased it around in the pool like one of those old Wham-O Water Wiggles we had when we were kids. She had fun and got cooled off! It was a quiet night with tv alone and I turned in early.
Saturday, July 3rd., 2021…… No plans to go anywhere today. I got caught up on my
Tour de France races I had taped and watched motocross and Nascar races as
well. I don’t think I left the house all day! When I took Rylee out to let her
back in the pool, I discovered that it was empty! Turns out with all of her exuberance
yesterday chasing the hose, she managed to either bite or claw numerous holes
in the bottom liner! I can’t patch that
many holes but I may be able to throw a tarp in to hold the water until I can
go get a hard plastic pool (which, by the way, are hard to come by up here with
the heat!) to replace it. Heck of a lesson but nice to know for the future! Cathye and I talked before she went to bed. We
planned our day tomorrow.
Sunday, July 4th., 2021…… Happy 4th of July! Sis was coming this evening with Quincy, to spend
the night. Fireworks are supposedly banned up here but she isn’t taking any
chances (plus illegal mortars and bottlerockets are easily obtained in these
parts!). So, she doesn’t want to expose Q to their neighborhood activities. My
house is pretty well insulated and quieter here, with little activity on the
street. We made plans for dinner so I passed on C’s offer to come for their bbq.
My plan was to go later for the fireworks show. I relaxed and again, caught up
on my races. Sis brought dinner and we ate and visited for a bit. I left the
house around 6:30pm and headed over. I managed to find a parking space and
settled in with her and her friends and family. It doesn’t get dark up here
until 10:00pm so we had a few hours to wait.
The field and surrounding area got pretty crowded and everyone was
waiting patiently for the show. Boy, they were right! They launch the fireworks less than 200 yards
from that field! You can see hot embers
raining down but this year the wind was perfect and they landed in the river
and not on anyone where we were. It was a good show and lasted 20-25 min. After
that, I made my way thru the crowds leaving and got home around 11:00pm. Penny
was asleep but Rylee was a little wound up. I heard booms and such long after
that but I guess we both settled down and slept well through whatever was left.
Monday, July 5th., 2021…… After a nice walk with Rylee, I headed off to
my early morning dental appointment. It was a routine cleaning and checkup and
I was out of there pretty quickly. I stopped and got breakfast and then went to
Walmart for a few things before heading back home. I have been tracking down
prices for another carport for my property. I want one that is more of a triple
wide, meaning it will hold more than two vehicles. The plan is to store Cathye’s
trailer under cover. The carport won’t be enclosed, but she has already ordered
a custom made fitted rv cover for it, so I think it will be pretty well
protected from the elements. I went back and forth with the sales rep. and got
all of my questions asked and answered and he got all of my specs so he could give
me a quote. I have already done this with several other manufacturers and have
a variety of ranging numbers, some reasonable and some ridiculous. I like the
fact that these guys are in Tigard, which is only 100 miles so from me so that
will be a plus in delivery time and setup. My last one the company was based in
Utah and had to schedule a ‘bundled install-route’ for the installers to follow
to make it cost efficient. They might be able to send a small crew down her and
back for less than a half day trip. Still, it’s estimated to take 10-12 weeks. Maybe
I’ll get lucky! Later in the day, I drove back to Crawfordsville where we met
up with Justin and his two brothers. They had offered to buy the scrap metal
that Jim had stockpiled over the years. It was worth it to give them a good
price because one of the brothers will be using it for welding school practice
so she felt good about that. Plus, they loaded up everything so that’s one less
task to do in the future! We closed up the house and left shortly after they
did. We dropped Jama back at home then took off together to go to Albany so she
could drop off her stepson’s rent for him and give him some weekly spending money
from his account (which she maintains for him). We decided to have a late
sit-down dinner and went to Elmer’s and ate. Once we got back home, we were
tuckered out and quickly called it a night.
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