The last day of the year

I slept great again last night. I did my exercises first thing, boy was it cold on the way to the shop. I checked the outdoor temperature when I got out there and it was 17! The front half of the shop where my weight machine is was darn cold. I opened the door to the back and turned on the electric heater and turned the pellet stove up to high. I exercised in the back first and by the time I went in to the weight machine it wasn't too bad. After breakfast, emails, icing the knee and a shower I started getting things ready for my annual New Years Day flying.One thing I wanted to do was mow the flying field. Because the clubs mower was broken down I loaded mine on the trailer and headed up. When I got there several people were flying and the club president was right behind me with the part to repair the mower.

After visiting with everyone I unloaded the mower, hooked on the club's roller and started mowing. It was a beautiful day and the mountains with their new snow really showed up.

I stopped about half through and took a break while they put in a couple more flights. After I got done it was off to home to finish loading. I picked up a Papa Pete's pizza for our lunch tomorrow. There is not much left to do in the morning, just load one propane heater and head out. Hope you have or had a Happy New Year!

Beautiful Sad Day

I was up early again today. I did my exercises after bundling up to go to the shop as it was 23 out. I had the 49er omelet for breakfast and that really filled me up. I checked and the new radio was on the Brown truck headed our way. I wanted to visit the twins early as I did not know when they were headed home. Just before I left we got a call that a close friend has cancer and not long to live. We made arrangements to visit him later in the day and then I headed over to see the twins. I made sure that I had the Easyshare Picture Viewer as I got chewed out good by Ava yesterday when it wasn't in my pocket. I don't know what she was saying but it was in a deep voice, she stomped her foot and slapped her leg, then gave me a couple of swats on the knee for good measure. I had a great time over there again today.

They are still liking the phones that they got for Christmas.

When I got home James called and said they would be picking up sleds on the way to the mountain. While we were waiting the radio showed up and I started programing it. The first attempt did not go well so I did a reset to the factory defaults. Then everyone showed up on the way to the mountain. After they left we headed out to visit Bill.

I couldn't resist stopping and taking a couple of pictures from the Hwy 30 upper view point.

I could see that they were going to have a great day at the mountain. We went on to Bill's and visited for an hour or so. He is pretty weak and in pain at times, but we had a nice time. After running an errand for them we stopped at Arby's for dinner and headed home. The programming went better after that and I was done in short order.

Here is a picture of a sled Dad towed behind the tractor to haul wood, and it appears kids. Cathy, Barry and myself enjoying the ride.

A Fun Day

I was wide awake at 6AM this morning and feeling great so I got up and did my exercises, had breakfast and checked email. Vera had bible study today so I worked on the B-36 until she got back. I had a visit from the twins which is always fun, they really study the P-51 hanging from the ceiling. After Vera got home we decided to go out for lunch and ended up at the 49er. I had their 49er omelet and could only eat half of it. It looks like I will have a good breakfast tomorrow. After picking up the mail and a quick stop at Sentry we headed home. I went out to work on the planes and see if the twins were awake. They were napping so I got my Cub and a transmitter out of the motor home to work on.

The next time I checked the babies sleeping sign was down so I went to visit for a while. Harper put the doll into the stroller all by herself and then took it for a ride to the bedroom door and back.

Once Ava went over and flopped down on the floor with her legs kicked up looking just like a teenager. I had a great time watching them and visiting.

I made good headway on the B-36 today. I got the wing mount trued and horizontal stabilizers lined up and mounted. I put the wing tips on for a picture, but they will come right off as I have to duck under them to go anywhere.

I got the new Go Pro camera mounted on the Cub and programed the radio for the Piper PA-12 (the red one) tonight.

To go along with last nights picture here is some of the logs Dad hauled out with the tractor. He would roll them onto the ramp. When he had a load he would have them hauled to the mill. They did all the loading by hand with cant hooks. That is Dad on the ground, I don't remember the name of the guy who hauled the logs, but he used the same guy every time.

Now or never!

I either write something down now or I will forget what I did and it will never get on here. One thing I have not done is take any pictures. I have about 65,000 old ones to choose from, but that is a decision I am not making tonight. Sunday was a do nothing except watch football day and rest up from Christmas. I did sleep in until after 9 so I was feeling pretty good, just unmotivated.

Monday I slept in again and started doing my exercises again, just less of them and less weight on the quad exercise. I don't want to pull the quad again. We did our after Christmas cleanup and have just about everything put away. Monday Night football finished off our day.

Today I slept in until around 9 again, did my exercises again and ran an errand for Mik before breakfast. Then I finished up a project for Debbie and it was nearly 2 PM already. I puttered in the shop for a while on our 2 Meter transmitter for the car. The display quit working, no luck so I decided to order a new one as that one was 16 years old. Sunday Night Football on Tuesday night finished off another day. Good ending as the team we liked won.

Well, after posting I looked at a couple of old pictures and ran across this one of my Dad with his tractor. So I am adding it on the end. I can remember him going down to Vancouver in a borrowed dump truck where he got it from his Dad. He did a lot of clearing, plowing and logging with it as I was growing up. It sat beside the garage for years and I am not sure when he finally sold it. I believe it had a 4 cylinder Chevy engine that went into 2 transmissions hooked end to end. With both in low it was pretty slow and if it couldn't move what Dad had it hooked to it would bury itself.

Christmas Day

Our Christmas day was spent at Mik, Michelle and James' house. We snacked and visited until it was time to eat. James' new Xbox got a workout also. There was a jigsaw puzzle contest to see who could finish it in under 5 minutes.

Mik had cooked his normal great prime rib.

It tasted awesome! There was lots of side dishes and desserts from everybody there. All in all it was quite a feast. After eating the kids passed out the presents and then we watched everyone open them. Everyone was so generous with the gifts they gave. Bev took on the task of assembling the Barbie Boat, only 8 pages of instructions. After a little more visiting and a photo session in front of the tree everyone headed home. It was a very nice day!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was great! Lots of family to visit with, great food to eat and lots of things to take pictures of. I felt privileged to have the twins come sit on my lap and play. Ava came first and indicated she wanted up. She would get down and cruise for a minute then come back and want up again. I guess Harper noticed and wanted some time also as Dianne brought her over also and I had them both for awhile which is more than I can say for them sitting on Santa's lap. They were having none of that.

The gift exchange was fun this year and one of the longest we have had. After it and some more dessert we headed home. Vera and I exchanged gifts later and was I surprised, the number one thing on my list was my present.

It is a HD video camera in a waterproof, shockproof housing. It is used to video extreme sports and I wanted one to mount on my planes. I can hardly wait for the New Years Day flying.

Christmas Lights

No, I didn't put any lights up this year! I thought about it, then overdid on the exercises and pulled a muscle in my knee, then caught the cold. We had a good day, I did a few chores, worked on the B-36 (almost done with the elevator assembly) and made a run over to Steve and Dianne's to see the disaster. As luck would have it, I had a dehumidifier I could loan them. Vera did most of her cooking preparations for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We decided to go out for dinner rather than mess up the kitchen again. We ate at the 49er and went looking at Christmas lights afterwards.

This was Vera's favorite up on North Street. Of course I had forgotten a camera so these were taken with my cell phone.

This is Dennis Moore's place on 3rd Ave. with the animated lights.

The three Snowmen on 4Th Ave. were my favorite. We also went out to Green Acres, but there was not much there. Gassman Rd. had some as did Quick Rd., Ph 10 did not have many so we headed on home for Thursday Night Football.

OOPS

Wednesday, finally something interesting happened today! Vera had went to bible study and I was working in the house when I heard a knock on the door. By the time I got there, the driver was in the truck and starting to back out. Maybe she did not want to hear any comments about the package.

The first thing I did was take it in and take a couple of pictures of it. Then I opened it up and everything was fine. Horizon Hobby packs things pretty darn good! It was a spinner and display prop for my new Mustang. I have everything to finish it now, but I told myself that I was finishing the B-36 before I build anything else! Not much else has went on around here this week. Monday I puttered on the B-36 all day, took the garbage down to the road and watched Monday Night Football. Tuesday was bring the empty garbage can up, more work on the B-36. Vera had coffee and cookies with Bev at the bakery. Later we went down to Lacey Rae's for lunch. They have a tomato soup that is great! Another place where you don't want to be in a hurry. All three days have been restful and relaxing. In the evenings we had recordings to watch of the Red Bull Air Races and the World Rally Championships.

Saturday and Sunday

I guess Saturday could be called Xbox day. James and I played together most of the morning, then when he went to play with the kids I ended up playing it by myself (practicing) until they came back. I did get in a little work on Michelle's project later. I got the nose and tail pieces attached to the B-36 fuselage and shaped.

The last thing I did before going in was glass the nose piece.

Sunday while watching football I finished shaping the tail and did some sanding on the nose. The last thing today was a layer of filler on the nose piece, then it was in to watch some Red Bull Air Races.

Xbox is back!

The darn cold woke me up at 3 AM! I got up used some Afrin and decided to try sleeping in my recliner. That worked and I got about 3 more hours of sleep. After breakfast and emails I started finishing up the Christmas cards, I got a call from Dianne that she needed a baby sitter for a few minutes while she picked up Auna and Parker. I was glad to do it as I had just been thinking it was time for a visit over there. After that we made a run to town and mailed the Christmas cards. That's done for another year. I went out and worked on the B-36 some and started shaping the nose. Michelle came up to work on a project and James came along to spend the night as the repaired Xbox came back today.

He had a great time playing it this evening.

Up Early

Well, early for me. I was fixing breakfast and noticed the sunrise, I grabbed the camera and headed outside. It looked really nice over the shop. After breakfast, I started working on this years Christmas cards, that took care of the morning. I took a break to go visit at Dianne's, but the "Babies Sleeping Sign" was up so I went to the shop and did a little work on the B-36.

After a little while, the sign was down so I went over and had a nice visit. Talk about having energy, I wish I had half of what the twins have. As I was getting ready to go Dianne told the twins they could go outside. Boy were they excited! Steve and I took them over to see Vera. They had never been in our house before and were pretty shy. Steve took them out to the pond and showed them the duck and they loved it.

After they left, Vera and I made a quick run down for stamps and made a stop at the grocery store. We got a call from James later asking if we wanted to have pizza with them after they get their Christmas tree and show the little blue house. Of course we said "Yes", Papa Pete's is always great. UPS just showed up, they are running little late this time of year, could it be someone's Christmas present showed up.

Getting caught up!

Time to get caught up here!

Sunday was pretty uneventful, football and airplanes for me, TV and knitting for Vera.

Monday seemed fairly busy, but I never took any pictures. I wasted away most of the morning right here. I made one quick run over to see the twins. They were on the computer with Papa so they could care less that I was there. We left early for the model club meeting in Centralia so we could stop and see Vera's sister and do some shopping. We had a nice visit with Marie and then got all the shopping done with lots of time for dinner before the meeting. The meeting went good with no major issues. We donated our BBQ to the club, theirs is in bad shape and we never use ours. I got reelected as Safety Officer, in fact everyone got reelected. Seems no one else volunteered. Then we headed home and relaxed while watching the recording of Monday Night Football.

Tuesday I did it again, never got anything done except play on the computer and watch Junkyard Wars until it was time to head to Longview to do some shopping. Our trip went great and we got everything done we wanted to. We stopped by Kaiser and made appointments for checkups. We went to lunch at Lynn's Ice Cream Yogurt and More. The food was great, my Hamburger was a monster and I could only eat half the fries. Vera's cup of soup must have been two cups. Orders take awhile as the burger is so thick it takes a long time to cook. Only go there if you have lots of time. We made one more stop and then headed home.

After we got home I went out and finished the Piper PA-12. Everything is done except putting the prop on and programming the radio. It may get test flown the next really nice day.

Saturday

Well, it was back to the exercises for me this morning. I worked out for 40 minutes and it went pretty good considering I hadn't done any for a couple of weeks because of the cold. Afterwards I came in and iced the knee while eating breakfast. We spent the day taking it easy around home and didn't even make our normal mail run. I worked on the Piper PA-12 most of the day and made good headway. It is upside down while the glue on the tail dries.

This evening we watched some Rodeo and then a couple of episodes of Pass Time. Vera still has a little cough so she decided skip church one more time tomorrow and rest.

Friday

I got settled in watching TV last night and never got up enough ambition to do this. We made a quick mail run and present delivery in the morning. After I let the carpet cleaner into the blue house I went over for a quick twins visit while he was working. I remembered the Easyshare this time. They still like it, but put it down sooner now.

After the visit at Dianne's I went back and worked on the B-36. I now have it all covered so it looks kind of like a 6 inch diameter 5 foot long balsa log. The last piece of sheeting was probably the best fit of any, I guess practice does make perfect.

After the carpet cleaner was done and we had dinner I went out and worked on the planes some more. I sanded on the B-36 and got the aileron servos and hinges installed on the PA-12.

After watching a couple of episodes of Ultimate Car Build Off we called it a night.

Another good day!

Another good day, I woke up feeling great again today. First thing I checked was the rain gauge, as I heard it pounding on the roof a couple of times, we had .89 inches of rain in between Midnight and 7 AM. After breakfast and emails I went out and worked on the B-36. By the time the day was over I finally had all the sheeting on the fuselage. I also worked on the PA-12 painting the inside structure black with model airplane dope. That gave me a headache as the fumes it gives off are pretty strong, so I went in and had lunch before going over to Dianne's.

The twins are strong enough to break the tape Steve had holding these doors shut. They had a great time taking stuff out, putting it back in, opening and closing the doors. This evening I watched Thursday Night Football and then went out and put that last piece of sheeting on. Now to settle in with a couple of recorded shows.

16 days until Christmas

Vera was feeling good enough this morning to go to her Wednesday bible study. When she got home the sun was out and it was fairly warm so we headed off to do some Christmas shopping.

First thing in the door at Penny's was Seahawks apparel on sale. I ended up with two new hats. I have a problem finding hats to fit my 7 3/4 head. These also were fitted hats so there is no opening in the back. The back of my bald head won't get sunburned wearing them. Vera found the presents she was looking for and we headed out. My feet and knees were killing me because I had worn an old pair of shoes, so it was back to Big Five and I bought a new pair of shoes. By the time we were done my feet and knees felt fine. We had a good day and found most of our presents. Then we went home and got them wrapped.

I got two pieces of balsa on the B-36 today, with any luck I may be done with that part of it tomorrow. By the time most of you read this it will only be 370 hours give or take a few until Christmas.

Only 409 Hours until Christmas!

I woke up feeling great again today. I spent the morning working on the B-36 putting the last of the sheeting on the rear of the fuselage. After that I made my daily trip to Dianne's for some twins time. James had a wrestling match at Mt Solo after school. Vera felt well enough today that she wanted to go also. After we got there James told us that there was no match for him. We stayed and watched anyway as we know who the kids are now and enjoy watching. We watched until we got hungry and then went to Freddie's for fish and chips.

After we got home I went out and worked on the B-36 some more until I had to wait for things to dry and then I did some work on a new Piper PA-12. I had already added some reinforcements to the motor mount so tonight I added the landing gear. I spent some time this evening researching Christmas presents on the computer. My exchange gift for Christmas Eve showed up in the mail today, one less thing to worry about! Only 17 days left!

Great Day!

I woke up feeling great! I just laid there for about a half hour enjoying no stuffiness and no aches. I got lots accomplished today, washed three loads of clothes, got the mail, took the recycling to town, cleaned and filled the pellet stove, mowed (picked up leaves), got a load of pellets, took a ride to the creek and pipe line on the Quad and watched Monday Night Football.

The lawn looks pretty good now, no leaves left on the trees so it should stay this way for awhile. Vera is feeling better again today, still coughs some and has a little ear ache.

One more thing I did, eat a half of a package of Nutter Butter Cookies while watching the game.

A Cricket County Christmas Carol

All week long the forecast for Saturday has looked like flying weather. After not flying for a couple of weeks because of my cold, I was ready for some flying! I got up this morning and the airport webcams showed blue sky so I was off. It was freezing, but with my Carhart Arctic Work Suit, insulated boots and hat I was pretty comfortable.

This is some of what I flew today, except the F-4 Phantom, I left the transmitter home. There ended up being 8 other flyers there and everyone had a great time.

Just before I left it cleared around Mt St Helens so I got a couple of pictures of it.

On the way home I had to stop by Exit 57 and take a picture of the sky, it was awesome! After unloading and putting the motor home away Vera and I went to a play at the church. It was a country take on Dickens called "A Cricket County Christmas Carol" and we really enjoyed it.

After we got home I downloaded todays pictures and put some on Facebook and used some here.

Friday

This sheeting the B-36 is taking awhile, I use a slow curing epoxy so I have plenty of time to position the sheets as I put them on. That works great, but most days I only get one piece on.

Dianne got out Elmo while I was over there and the twins love it.

It dances and sings the Hokie Pokie.

They settled down with bottles watching Dora just before I left, darn they are cute!

UPS showed up with the new printer today. That kept me busy most of the afternoon. It works great and I can print directly from my phone via Bluetooth. Mik, Michelle and James came up later with pizza, boy was that good! Vera felt better today, she had her knitting out and worked on it during the day.

OK, a day late again

I settled down to watch Thursday Night football and never did get up enough ambition to do anything the rest of the evening so I am a day late with this entry. Every morning I feel better, slept until almost 9 again Thursday. I did some more work on the B-36 today adding another piece of sheeting. I finally remembered to take a picture without the Ace Bandage.

I made a trip over to Steve and Dianne's to see what was new there.

I've never had this much fun with the Kodak Easyshare before.

The girls love it and run around punching the buttons like crazy.

James had a wrestling match this afternoon at Coweeman. The kid he drew was experienced, looked bigger and older, so the match was pretty short. On the way home I stopped at the store and picked up a few things for dinner before the football game.

Almost back to normal!

Well, as normal as I ever get. I felt great today, slept good last night. After doing the morning stuff I went out to the shop and worked on the B-36 some more. Pretty soon, I heard the UPS truck, headed in to see what toy had shown up today. No box on the porch, I went in and asked Vera if the printer came? NO! secret stuff she had already hid. Back to the B-36 to put on another piece of sheeting. About noon I went in and made us both smoothies for lunch before heading over to see the twins. The babies sleeping sign was in the door window so I went back to the shop. On the way I noticed the sun was out, it was kind of warm and no wind was blowing so I got out the Champ for a flight.

This is the box it comes in and it makes a great place to store it.

There is room for the plane, transmitter, charger and extra batteries. Since the plane is made of foam it is prone to getting dents and this protects it nicely. I put in about a 10 minute flight shooting touch and goes on the driveway and cruising around the neighborhood. A while later I saw the sign was down so I visited with Dianne and the twins for a bit. I puttered on planes a little the rest of the day and Vera and I watched some recorded racing.

It sure is nice to feel good again. Vera felt a little better today also.

Getting Better

My cold has gotten lots better the last two days. I still have a tickle in my throat that causes a cough. Today I started the laundry as soon as I got up, trying to help Vera who is still not feeling very well. Her cold is effecting her ears and she had the volume on the TV up to 18, that is higher than I have to have it. After I put the last load on to dry I made a trip over to see how the twins were doing. It was a little later than yesterday and it showed, they were a little tired and having little (well maybe major) disagreements over toys.

Harper is finding a little comfort in her dog.

Ava was excited and squealing about the TV show.

After I was done with the washing, I went out and worked on the B-36. I added a piece of balsa sheeting to the bottom, I put a thin coat of epoxy on the fuselage and put them together. Then I covered them with waxed paper and wrapped the whole thing with two Ace Bandages to keep pressure on the sheeting until the epoxy sets up.