After Vera's walk this morning we made a mail run. We went for a ride afterwards to look at the river and take a different way home.

We went by this building and today I had the camera so I got the picture I have been wanting for a long time. Then we drove out the Old Pacific Hwy and took some pictures of another building and the Toutle.

Parts for my planes had came in the mail, so I went out to the shop and worked on the planes. I used the ball I got yesterday as a form. I clamped the plastic between two pieces of plywood with holes in them and warmed it with the heat gun in the background. Then I pulled it down over the ball to make my windows for the B-36. I heard noises outside and I knew it was the twins so I headed out.

They were headed over to Parker's house to play. Parker pushed them over to see the cat and they were all excited.

There were several balls out in the field and the girls rounded them up to play with.

Then it was off to the swings and slides to play for a bit. When they headed in I went back to show Vera my pictures and then work on the planes some more. I spent a little time with the new video editor, but have a ways to go before I master it.

Rain Rain go away!

I was off early for a vision field test this morning. After the test, I stopped at Micheal's to see if I could find something to use for observation windows on the B-36. I did not find anything that would work so I bought some wooden balls to mold them around. Of course by the time I left there was a number of other things in my basket. After I got home I molded a couple of windows by heating plastic and pulling it around the balls. The wood grain showed so I gave them a couple of coats of epoxy, we will see how it goes tomorrow. I worked on the glider for a while and then went over to play at Dianne's, no one was in the house so I was headed back to the shop when I heard someone calling. The girls had been out for a walk picking Easter Lilies. I went in with them to visit and play a little.

Harper gave me a big smile as she posed.

I took a picture of the dog and showed the girls, they were all excited about it.

Then I took a picture of Harper's hand and showed her, Ava wanted hers done also. Then I took a picture of Harper and my hand to show them. Really fun watching their reaction.

As they were getting ready to leave Ava was watching TV and looked darn cute with her leg propped on her knee.

The rest of the afternoon and early evening was spent on the glider. It is basically finished now, it just needs the receiver plugged in. I weighed it and it weighs 9 oz., not bad for something with a 60 inch wingspan. It is almost all Kevlar and carbon fiber so it should stand up to daily use pretty well. Back to the B-36 tomorrow.

Bunnys, Birds, Squirrels and Twins

Just as I was getting ready to head for the shop this morning I spotted a bunny North of the house. I got the camera and snuck out on the back porch. I did pretty good getting pictures of the bunny, birds and squirrel.

The rabbit was happily munching on grass.

Lots of variety on the bird feeder and now that we have two more feeders they last several days between fillings.

The squirrels and chipmunks do a good job of keeping the sunflower seeds the birds drop cleaned up. I painted the tail cone of the B-36 this morning and got one air intake shaped, only 5 more to do. While I was waiting on the glue and paint to dry I started putting the motor in a small glider. I used a contour copier to shape the firewall and the first one I cut out fit perfectly. I did a few modifications to the speed control and tested it out. While I was mounting the motor I had to hunt all over for the right sized screws. I had screws in three different places. I decided it was time to organize so I got Vera and we headed down to Bredfield's. They had just what I wanted, a 24 compartment box with a lid. We stopped at BK and had a couple of burgers for lunch and watched cars come and go while we ate. There is lots of activity there at lunch time. I wonder what they pay a month to have their flower beds done? There was not a weed anywhere.

I kept an eye on the baby sleeping sign this afternoon and headed over when I noticed it was down. Harper had two dogs she was playing with, sitting on big dog playing with little dog.

Ava had something on the bottom of her foot that was bugging her. Dianne tried to find it a couple of times, so I tried the next time. I had her lay on her back on the rug and stick her foot up to me. I checked it all over, brushed it off and checked between her toes, I didn't find anything either! She got up and Harper wanted hers checked, so I did. Then Steve came by and they wanted him to check them also. Lots of fun to watch. OK, I'm back, the cookies Vera made last night were calling me so I had two. After the visit I worked on the little glider some more and got the controls figured out before coming in for the evening. Hope you stayed dry today!

The Easter Tree is up!

No Easter Lilies today, just the Easter Tree we decorated. It is a nice tree because we don't have to water it! This is getting to be our normal Monday, after our morning routine we head down for my blood test. Then we check our list, if we remembered it, today we did so it was off to the Dollar Store. They did not have what I wanted but I managed to find some glue to buy. Vera was interested in the Easter Tree and with a little help from a clerk we found it. Then it was off to Lowe's to order vinyl windows for the North side of the house. I found a new light for the shop computer/radio room also. Our list included some things from Fred Meyer so that was the next stop. We only forgot one thing from the list while we were there. Bev found us as we were checking out so we visited for a few minutes. After all this shopping, we were hungry and it was lunch time so we went to Freddie's for Fish and Chips.

After we got home I assembled the Easter Tree, not sure what it will grow into.

I got the new light installed after we got unloaded. Boy is it a lot brighter in there now! I did some research on the B-36 air intakes and called it a day. Time to go, I hear Vera in the kitchen and something smells darn good! Maybe I will get to lick the bowl!

Spring Cleaning

I got up with intentions of doing plenty of work on the B-36 today. When I got to the shop after walking the trails I noticed there was no place to cut the covering to size. I started cleaning the East work bench as that is where my cutting mat is buried. To make room for stuff I had to clean the old drawing table as well. Big surprise, I found a tail boom for my helicopter there. I had forgotten I had it when I needed one last month, probably because it has been buried for the last couple of years also. The job took a little longer than I had planned on, like all day!

After dinner I took another walk and found this Easter Lily that was all bloomed out. I also went further down the hill on the second walk and made it back to the top again with no trouble.

After the walk I finished up the reorganizing of stuff and gave the nose of the plane another coat of paint. I can still see a few small flaws so I will probably end up giving another sanding and repaint. I did not get much done on the b-36, but I had a pretty productive day.

Things are starting to Bloom!

I forgot to mention my Eurofighter on Wednesday! I put the batteries in it and hooked them up, put it on the runway and taxied out. I gave it the throttle and it went about 10 feet when there was a big bang. The fan had blown up, Bill and I went out to get it and picked up a few blades on the ground behind it. I took the batteries out and set it by the motor home for the day. When I picked it up to go home I tilted it up on it's tail and it sounded like a dump truck dumping gravel. The rest of the fan came out the tail pipe. I spent the morning today researching and finally ordering a new fan that is much stronger. When I got done I went for my walk on the trails, it looks like this is going to be a daily thing. I noticed some elk tracks on the trails. I went down the hill toward the creek today, coming back is much easier with the new knee

I also noticed the flowers are starting to bloom so I walked around taking a few pictures of them.


The glue on the Eurofighter pilot was dry so I put the canopy on. Now all I need is the new fan and it will be ready to go again.

I did a bunch of sanding on the B-36 wing, I hate sanding! Hopefully it will go fast and I can get to the covering.

Friday

It was a pretty laid back day! Just as I was thinking about going to the shop DT TV called to schedule a check up on the HDTV. They had an appointment open at 11 so I took it. Nothing was wrong with the TV, they just cleaned it and checked the operation. It must have been my day for making appointments because Kaiser called to schedule a vision field test. I took an early one next week so if it is nice, I could fly afterwards!

I took another walk on our trails today. There are lots of Easter Lilies coming up along the trails.

This is a bunch that grow in front of my shop. We never pick any Easter Lilies so the clumps are getting pretty dense. It was a nice afternoon with lots of sunshine. I got feeling ambitious so I got the hedge trimmer out and cut some of the ferns back. I got part of them loaded into the trailer before it started raining. Later I got the pilot installed in the Eurofighter. Then I sanded and painted the nose section of the B-36. Now I am watching Top Gear as I do this. They are riding the length of Vietnam on motorcycles, a pretty funny episode.

Monday

I did not do a whole lot Thursday, just rested up from the flying session Wednesday. I did take a walk on our trails later in the day and ran across Dianne's fire pit party and visited there for a little while. The pilot for my Eurofighter came in the mail today, so I did a little detailing on him. While I was out in the shop I heard the twins, so I headed out to play.

Ava decided she was going to push her car.

OK, I'm stuck, now what? She ended up pushing it clear up to Dianne's with a little help!

Then it was off to the swings for a session.

Steve bailed out, but the swing did not let go of him right away. After Steve was done, Harper insisted Grandma take a turn on it. Then I took a couple of swings before Harper tried out the middle swing. She did pretty good, holding on really tight. This was the highlight of my day!

Flying at Toledo

I was up early this morning, all excited about going flying. After a quick breakfast and email check I was headed out shortly after 8:00. I managed to flood the motor home and it took about 5 minutes to get it restarted. Then it was off to Subway to get a sandwich for lunch and I was at the field about 9:00. There was still a little frost around but I got in 3 or 4 flights before anyone else showed up.

My second flight of the day was with the camera plane. Today I remembered to put it into the photo mode where it takes a picture every 5 seconds. I was surprised how far the plane travels in 5 seconds so I will probably set it for 2 seconds next time. The picture above was taken as I was flying West back towards the field.

This is later in the day, Audrey is shooting a touch n go and I was following her trying to get a picture.

I am not sure what this hill or mountain is, we are going to take some maps and a compass with us next time to find out.

This is some of what I flew today. The wind came up suddenly while I was flying the camera plane and blew that white Sukoi off the table and broke the prop. I ended up getting 12 flights on 6 different airplanes today, plus some club members we had not seen for a while showed up. After I got home and unloaded, James called and wanted me to get on Xbox so I could talk to and listen to them play their new game. I played one of the games that is here and did a little practicing while I listened. When James had leave for practice I quit also and came in to do this.

I hope you got to enjoy a little of that sunshine we had today.

Tuesday

Tuesday is off to a great start! First thing this morning I got yesterday's blog done. Then I finished turning a bird feeder into a decoration. I repaired another bird feeder, put one of the new receivers in the helicopter to replace the one I robbed and tore the mower deck apart to see why it is making noises. It turned out two of the blades and one pulley had bad bearings. It was fairly clean as I ran it into a ditch full of water at the flying field to clean it. It will blow water a long ways.

This afternoon I ordered the parts for that and a couple of other things that need attention. Right in the middle of ordering Vera said the twins were outside so I took a break to see them. Harper gave me a rock and she was carrying a piece of black top. I asked her if she was going to take it in the house and she did! Steve pitched it back out! I went in and colored for a little while with them and then headed back to finish my order. I now have the order to Sears made, it ended up being 12 items and $300. I have had the mower 12 years so I can't complain.

Evening now, Vera and I made a run to town for a can of paint to use on the nose of the B-36. The can I had was nearly empty! No one in town had that color so I got one that looked close. When I got back I discovered there was one more step to do before I could paint. I sheeted the wheel well and then tried the paint I bought. It did not look right until I sprayed it on a piece of scrap metal and compared it to the covering I am using. It looks like it will be OK! Now I don't have to run all over Longview trying to find the other type. It worked pretty good making entries several times during the day, I didn't forget what I had done.

Monday

We headed out to Kaiser right after Vera's walk this morning to get my Monday blood test out of the way. We were in and out quicker today than ever before, I only got one article read on my Droid before I was called.

Mik, Michelle and James had given me a Lowe's gift card on my birthday. After Kaiser we headed over to Lowe's. I ended up getting two new bird feeders to replace damaged ones we could no longer use. We love watching the birds. We also cruised the tool section and ended up with a bunch of miscellaneous small stuff. We made a short stop at Fred Meyer for a few things and filled up with gas. My new receivers were at the Post Office when we picked up the mail, so I had something to play with this afternoon. I got them bound to the transmitter and checked them out. I also found time to visit Dianne and play with the twins for a little while.

We had some nice sunny periods, but the wind was cold today. As I was coming in for the night, I noticed this sunset. I spent most of the evening fighting with the Blogger, it did not want to publish the Sunday post. I finally got it posted and saw a mistake, when I had corrected it I could not publish it again. After much messing around, I shut down Explorer and opened up Mozilla Firefox and then everything worked great! In fact Firefox is what I am using this morning!

Sunday

Not much went on here Sunday, we slept in, Vera read and I puttered in the shop most of the day. Last night when I went out to lock up the shop the moon was out, but it did not look all that big to me. I got the camera and tried to get a picture of it, but the clouds kept drifting across it.

This is the best one I got!

Since we did not do much I am including some pictures from Saturday.

Me mowing, it was nice up there for awhile, then some clouds came in and it got pretty windy.

One of our members crashed his P-51 last week, this is the divot he created. I have never seen one hit hard enough to leave wing marks in the ground. The motor was in the ground quite a ways. Not sure what caused it, but the antennas for the radio were not installed right.

Flying at Toledo

It was a quick breakfast and email session this morning. Then I got the trailer hooked up and the mower loaded. The club mower is broke so I decided to take mine up and mow. It took about an hour to get most of the runway mowed. Our friends Leonard and Audrey showed up just as I finished so it was time for some flying. The first flight of the day was on the Eurofighter, it does the nicest flat spins. I got one of my nicer landings with it today. After that success I was ready to try the new camera plane. I test flew it with a weighted cowl replacing the camera. The first flight went great so I landed and put the camera on.

This is a screen capture from the video as the plane comes in for a landing from the North.

This screen capture is from the South end of the field. I put 3 flights on the camera plane, 2 on my SU-29 and one on the Eurofighter.

All loaded and ready to head home!

Shortly after we got home it hailed, it was the weirdest hail. On the deck it kind of mushed into piles of ice.

Out in the grass it bounced like we are used to seeing hail do. Bev came by and picked up her computer and we had a nice visit. The moon is supposed to be big tonight, but my first trip outside all I saw were clouds.

Friday

OK, I put off doing Friday until Saturday, I was tired from getting ready to fly today.

The first thing we did was go down and check the mail, my receivers did not come so I robbed one out of another model. I put it into the new camera plane and set it up. Then I spent the rest of day loading the motor home, charging batteries and I made a trip over to see the girls. Rielee was making them laugh by falling down and dancing around. Ava is getting a big kick out of Rielee in the picture.

Birthday Pizza

I had a call from Barry this morning, he wanted to come down and have our annual birthday pizza. After we got that arranged I went out to the shop to work on the camera plane. The twins were outside so I never made it into the shop. After Harper led us over to the Dolan's (no one was home) we walked back and they explored around Dianne's yard. Steve called them over to see the fish.

It was easy to see, floating on top like that.

Barry and I went to Papa Pete's for lunch and had a nice visit. Afterwards I went out to the shop and finished up the camera plane. All it needs now is the receiver. The weather is still looking good for Sunday, so I am planning on a test flight then.

How long to adjust?

Well, I am not adjusted to Daylight Saving Time yet! I had a hard time going to sleep last night, the clock said 12, but my body said 11. Then my head was sore on the left side and that is how I like to go to sleep. I finally went to sleep on my right side, but woke up about 5:30 and could not go back to sleep. I went in to my recliner and put the heat pad on the sore spots and covered up. I might have dozed off once for a little while. Then I got hungry so I gave it up and made breakfast, checked my emails and looked at the news. Vera was off for her walk, then came home, got her stuff and headed out to bible study. I went to the shop and started making the dummy nose piece for when the camera is not on the plane.

When I had to wait for epoxy to cure I started building the cowl for the motor. I came up with a plan that worked great! It is all done and tomorrow I will cover it with some white Monokote. The camera plane is sitting on the B-36 wing center section, it looks small when they are side by side. The forecast for Sunday looks pretty good, with any luck I may get to test fly it then. I forgot to mention that I had a nice phone call from Jackie on Monday. She was in a good mood and things seem to be going OK up there.

I was a slow starter today.

I was a little stiff and sore this morning from the fall yesterday. I never got away from the computer until 11. I finally made it out to the shop and got a few things done on the camera plane and hooked up a shop vacuum to my power tools. Once today the rain was going sideways and coming down in torrents. I was looking at old pictures and came across these early ones of the folks house.

This is the original torn and spotted picture.

I did as much to it as I could in Photoshop. It is Dad laying out the foundation blocks for the 601 Spirit Lake Hwy. house. It doesn't look like Cathy and I are much help.

Here is Dad framing up walls on the Northwest corner of the house. I can remember Veys Lumber delivering loads of materials for the house. It is sure neat what can be done with the old pictures now. I got good news today, now I only have to go in once a week for the blood test instead of twice a week.

I hope you stayed dry today.