New Bridge

Not sure what happened here, but I got a nice picture of the cat tracks.


I went down to the creek today to check on the new bridge. They were in the final stages of welding it down. That first picture must have happened when I got the camera out.

The North side of the bridge.

I rode the Quad on down to the kids favorite spot and decided to take some pictures and look for a monster agate. The camera battery died after one picture, then it started to rain, so that was the end of my big adventure.

Hobbies

I love my hobbies! Today I spent most of the afternoon making an exhaust pipe for the dummy motor on my new Stearman. It needs another coat of paint and then the plane should be ready for it's first flight this weekend (weather permitting). I enjoy rainy days just for things like this. It will be interesting to see if I get all the projects I have planned done this winter. I have never done it yet.

Hope you had a relaxing day also, Alan.

More flying at Toledo

We went flying at Toledo again today. I had a good time, did lots of flying and there were 7 other flyer's to visit with. Lunch was good, we had left over Papa Pete's Pizza from last night. In fact, there was enough left that it was dinner tonight also. This T-28 flew in just before we left so I stopped and took a picture of it over at the airport. We did not get to bed quite a soon as planned last night, but the boys had fun. I managed to make it through the day without a nap but I will probably hit the hay early tonight.

Keeping up with 12 year olds

James brought his friends up here to celebrate his birthday. He did it a couple of years ago and had a great time, so here they are again. A little football and then Papa Pete's Pizza was requested.


After a little Xbox it was off to the creek. They had a good time down there exploring the new bridge that is going in.

After we got back, they ran around with the Quad and trailer for awhile. Then it was time for more Xbox until dark. Then it was outside for a game of flashlight hide and seek. Being kids they wanted an adult along, so off I went. I was it the first game, thought I had found them once when I saw all these eyes, turned out to be three deer. The second game was much easier, I laid under a bush until James found me. Now it is more Xbox for them. James and two of his friends are spending the night, but have to be up early for games so we should get to bed at our normal time.

Get out and play a little, keeps you young.

Alan

The View from up Here

This morning I blew off the roof and cleaned the gutters. It always amazes me how different things look from up there. The first picture is looking North towards the pond.


This is looking North East towards my shop.


Looking South we see a clean roof! Sure glad I got it done before it got hot. This afternoon we went to town and did some shopping. We had an early dinner at Applebee's. No picture of that, unless I go take a picture of the leftovers in the fridge.

Alan

Flying and Working

We went up to Toledo today to fly and treat the tables with Thompsons Water Seal. It was a great day for flying and a little warm for working. A fellow club member showed up with his new Edge 540. Great flying aircraft that reminded us of the Red Bull Air Races we are watching on FSN. The majority of the Red Bull pilots fly Edge's.


My Cobra is not in the picture, but this is what else I flew today. I managed 5 flights between working, visiting and eating lunch.



The tables now have a Cedar color that was in the Thompsons. I did not like it on our deck, hopefully it will wear off there soon. After we were done there, we came home and cleaned our decks and treated them with clear Thompsons. The evening went well when the Colts won.

Hope you were able to get out and enjoy the sun, Alan

Owl

James and I made a trip to the creek after school today. The first thing we saw was an owl flying across in front of us. It landed in a maple tree about 30 feet away from us. James stopped the 4 wheeler and turned off the motor and we sat and watched it. I took a couple of pictures with the cell phone, one of which is below. Not great, but you can see it sitting on the limb. After going to the creek, it was still there when we came back so we ran home to get a better camera. Wouldn't you know it, the owl flew off just as we got back down there. It sure made this trip to the creek special.

Alan

Sunrise over my Shop

Morning can be really pretty, too bad they come so darn early. It took several years after retirement to be able to sleep past 6 AM, but I have no problem now.

I woke up about 5:30 last Tuesday and noticed the sky getting red. I spent about 10 minutes taking pictures and watching. It sure was a nice way to start the day.

Alan

Time Flies

Time sure flies, it has been 6 days since I posted here. Football games (both James and the Seahawks), Flying and Parties kept us pretty busy. I filled in between things with several naps.





Sunday was the club Electric Fly In and Tail Gate Swap Meet. I was happy to get rid of almost everything I took up there. James and Michelle came up and had lunch with us, afterwards James got in some flying.


After the Fly In we had a Pizza Party for Jackie before she left for the Moses Lake Job Corps. We had a great time and everyone was in a good mood.
Barry and Mona had brought down the two rabbits Bev is bunny sitting with so the exchange took place in Papa Pete's parking lot.


Is it time for a nap yet?
Alan

Flying 9-10-2009

Nothing else going on today so we went flying at Toledo. I have been wanting to test fly James new plane. He won it in the raffle at the last club picnic. I made a few modifications to it and converted it to electric power. I am happy to report that it flew great! We had a nice day flying and visiting with our friends.

Alan

Soccer

This afternoon we went to our granddaughter Debbie's soccer game at Kelso. She is the Goalie for RAL varsity squad. That is her with the orange goalie shirt on defending a corner kick. It was a tough practice game against a bigger school. Debbie made some good saves, but they lost. It was a nice afternoon for watching and taking pictures, the sun was at our back and the temperature was very comfortable.

Hope you enjoyed the afternoon as much as we did.

Alan

Better late than Never

I never seemed to have time to do this over the Labor Day Weekend.
Plenty of rain made for an indoor weekend. I did get two bench's cleaned to where I can see most of the top.


James spent Sunday night and we got the Xbox hooked up online for him. He spent several hours playing online with his friend Joey.


Of course they destroyed millions of dollars worth of equipment during their campaigns.
We did make a trip to the creek right during a rain shower, our timing is great! We all had to change into dry things after that.
All in all the weekend flew by and we had a good time.

Alan

Finally some flying weather

The forecast looked good so we loaded up early, stopped at Subway for sandwiches for lunch and headed for the flying field at Toledo.

It turned out to be perfect flying weather today, except for the bees. The Threshing Bee with its food vendors attracts bees every year. They come back afterwards looking for it and are pretty aggressive. Five other flyer's showed up also and we had a really nice day. I got in 11 flights before it started sprinkling

As always, Mt Rainier provided a beautiful sight in the distance. It had its cap today which some say means rain is coming.

We went home on the West Side Hwy and we spotted these two dead trees. They looked so eerie we had to turn around and come back and take a couple of pictures.

I was out taking pictures of the full moon and took this one of my shop. I am pretty proud of the way it turned out so I had to include it here.

Have a safe Labor Day Weekend.

Alan

Birds

The bird feeder is sure fun to watch. Lots of activity this afternoon, I counted 13 birds out there once. I swear the ones on the feeder are throwing seeds down to the ones on the ground. We stopped and picked up another 100 pounds of black sunflower seed today so we should be good for a while.


These birds are enjoying the seeds dropped from above. I looked all through our bird book and still can not figure out what the dark colored bird is.

This one sat over by the pond and ignored the feeding frenzy. Maybe he was above that kind of thing.

After we got up to rain showers we changed our plans from flying to puttering around home. I got a call from a friend and sold another plane today. At this rate, I may not have any left for the tail gate swap meet.

Hope you had as nice a nap as I did, Alan.