Road Trip

Tuesday I worked on the pond and the B-36.  My timing was bad, the one time I took a break and went to see what the twins were doing, the babies sleeping sign was up.

Wednesday I headed North for lunch with Barry.  I printed out my blog for Marie and stopped by and saw her on the way up.  I was running late, so we had a short visit, but she was in a good mood.  Barry and Mona were doing some trimming around the rental when I got there.  Their new furniture and floor look really good together.

 After lunch we came back and sat in the backyard watching golfers and talking.  This is the view to the left from their deck.

The view to the right of the deck.  It is like sitting in front of a giant wide screen TV and watching America's Funniest Home Video's as the golfers go by.  Balls into the trees, in the sand trap, clubs getting banged on the ground, it just went on and on the whole time we were out there.  When I got back to Chehalis, I was ready for a break, so I stopped and visited Bob and Nancy for a while.  It is always pleasant stopping there, plus they have Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!

I stopped by the Toledo flying field on the way home and there was just one combine out in the field.  It looks like we will be flying there this weekend.

It is getting close!

I want to have the B-36 done for the club's electric fly in on September 11!  If I spend a couple of days on it, I think it will be ready to test fly.

I got the aileron servo covers made this evening and installed the lower nacelles on the right side of the wing.  Since I have had so much practice, I think the left side will go faster.  I did some work on the pond today, rearranging some of the liner and sealing it.  I put the first spillway back in and got it leveled while the waterfall foam cured.  I have high hopes of finishing that tomorrow.  There has always been a problem with the rocks sliding off the liner where it is on a slope.  This time I am going to try gluing the rocks down, because the waterfall foam really sticks to the liner and rock.

Flying at Goble

I was down at the Cowlitz Valley Radio Control Flyers field at 8 AM this morning for their Fun Fly and Picnic.  It was a little cool for awhile, but the sun came out about 10 and it turned into a nice day.

This what it looked like at 10:30, Audrey flying and if you look close, you will see my new chair down at the next flying station.  The chair worked great, I could swivel it to where ever I needed and the music from the built in speakers was really relaxing!

I put the camera plane up twice and this picture is a screen capture from the second flight.  The camera plane is facing North and Gary has just taken his Cub off.  I counted 26 people total, 19 of whom flew during the day.  Mike did a great job of cooking hamburgers and hot dogs at noon, there was an awesome potato salad, some great beans and a plate of delicious cookies for dessert.  I packed up and headed home about 5:30 after a great day of flying.

Garage Sales

Friday it was off to some more garage sales.  One was an estate sale with lots of interesting memorabilia.  We did not buy much today, but had a good time.  I spent the rest of the day getting ready for the family garage sale on Saturday.

 This is how things looked at about 8 AM Saturday morning.  Shoppers started showing up 20 minutes before the official opening of 8 AM.  There was a steady stream of customers all day and most of the stuff we took down was sold by the end of the day.  We did have some excitement, we were down getting our mail and we heard the ambulance dispatched to our nephew's house.  We ran back to the garage sale to see what was wrong.  He had suddenly developed pain and swelling in his leg and could not walk on it.  They took him to the hospital for tests and so far everything came back negative.  He is back home resting and will see an orthopedic surgeon on Monday.  I spent part of the afternoon getting ready for flying at Goble Sunday and then watched the Seahawks. 

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday I worked on the B-36 until Vera got back from bible study, then we went to Longview for my blood test.  Wednesday sure seemed like a good day for blood tests as there was no one waiting and I got right in.  I mentioned to Vera that I was thinking about getting a hair cut, and she said she had just been thinking the same thing.  Our luck held there also as we got right in, I never got past the index of Car and Driver before they called me.  After our haircuts, we decided to wander around Fred Meyer for a bit.  We found plenty of stuff and had a pretty good cart load when we left.  I made a trip over to watch the twins for awhile and then spent the rest of the day messing with the B-36.

Thursday, after Vera finished her walk, we went to a garage sale on Pleasant Hill Road.  That turned into an adventure, a narrow overgrown driveway and lots of items sitting in a yard that had not been mowed for a long time.  One of those places where a person does not feel comfortable.  We did not stay there long!  Then we decided to look for one that was advertised on Holcomb Rd, we went up, and up. and up until we got to the top and then started down towards Kelso.  We saw a sign that said "Almost There", we kind of think that means half way there!  We finally came to East Rd and found the sale, prices were high and it looked more like a business than a garage sale.  One $2 knife and we were out of there.  On the way back, we spotted a sign for a sale on Ostrander Rd, that turned into another adventure!  I did not know it went so far up into the hills, we found a county park we did not know existed, finally after going to the end of the road and coming back we found the sale.  It had been going on since Monday and we did not see enough left to warrant getting out of the car for.  It was a nice ride into a new area for us.  After a stop for the mail, we headed home and I worked on the B-36 some more.  We got a call from Mik inviting us to dinner which we accepted.  On the way back to the shop, I saw the twins had just been in the shop for a visit and I wasn't there.  I followed them over to the wading pool and as soon she saw me Ava jumped onto the slide and went into the pool.  I guess she had not wanted to do it earlier.  Harper made several trips down it before she started watering the clover.  When they headed for the big pool, I went and worked on the bomber and our pond until it was time to leave for dinner.

Mik turned out another wonderful meal on the Traeger, we had brisket, asparagus  done the way I have grown to love and a corn casserole that was great.  It is great sitting around visiting with family after a good meal.

Monday and Tuesday

I was a slow starter on Monday, it had to be around noon before I headed out to the shop.  I noticed the twins out playing, so I detoured over there and visited for a while.  I noticed the pond was losing water, so I tore into it.  I finally found the leak by the little waterfall.  The rock around it had caused the soil to settle creating a leak.  I opened up the liner and pad so I could put more dirt under them.  James called Monday night while I was watching football and we made arrangements for him to come up and mow on Tuesday.

Tuesday

Michelle dropped James off at 7:30 and we settled in for a little Xbox.  Later we went over to Dianne's to visit and Harper put on a real show for us.  She was running around throwing herself on the floor, doing everything she could think of to show off.  We were laughing so hard!  In the afternoon, James, Parker and Auna wanted to go to the creek and build a dam.

They stacked rocks, chunks of wood and gravel to improve on a dam Parker and his friends had made.  James and Auna spent quite a bit of their time hunting agates and found some nice ones.

While I was waiting for them on the bridge, I noticed the reflection of myself and the sky in the water, so I took this picture.  When they got done there, we went for a ride on a couple of trails and then headed to the other creek spot to look around.

Later the twins were outside and we went over to watch.  Ava was sitting on the teeter totter wanting a ride so James went down to give her one.  She would not look at him, she just sat there without moving, head down, Harper had let him pack her earlier and even talked to him.

Harper was putting sand on the seat and then sweeping it off, she was told not to put it outside the sandbox, but she would say "No".  I think it was when Auna told her not to that she answered "No Way".  Those girls crack me up at times!  James and I played some more Xbox until it was time to run him home, I lost at Madden Football again!

Flying at Brady

I spent most of Saturday getting the motor home loaded for a trip on Sunday to fly at Brady.  I also started filling the new tool box with my building equipment.  Once when I came out of the motor home, Lindsey asked me if I lived in it.  I told her "No, I keep my airplanes in it", she looked really confused, so I gave her and Rielee the grand tour of it.  They had lots of questions and as they were leaving they asked to see the bathroom.  After looking in it, they wanted to know if it had a shower.  I told them about the portable one that hooked to the sink faucet and was hand held. They wrinkled up their noses at that.  Their visit was the high light of my day.

Sunday morning we took off as soon as I was done watering the flowers.  Traffic was light and we were at the Brady flying field at 9:00.

Our host Audrey was flying when we got there.  Eleven of the LCRC members showed up before the day was over.  We had a great time flying and Leonard and
Audrey provided a nice lunch.

The Grays Harbor RC Club president, Mark, put on a nice display of 3D flying with his plane.  It has a 28 inch prop and 102 inch wing span.  The motor is a  120 cc two stroke opposed twin.  It was amazing how quiet it was.  We finally headed home at 6 PM and took the slow way home via Dairy Queen.  The new Nutter Butter Blizzard is great!

I love a good Garage Sale!

Vera had printed a list of garage sales and we were off to them right after her walk.  The first one on South Silver Lake Rd. had lots of stuff, but aside from one old book Vera's mother had liked, we did not find anything.  The second one on the Spirit Lake Hwy about a mile from our place was a gold mine.  Right away I found two parts cabinets full of screws and parts, then I spotted this and could hardly believe the price!

I got this Tool Chest for $30 dollars and it was full of tools and stuff.  The box in front of it is part of what I found.  There were Craftsman, Proto and Stanley wrenches and screwdrivers, plus a bunch of cheaper tools.  I picked out the best tools and I will probably put the rest in the garage sale next week.  After we hit the rest of the sales on our list, I spent the afternoon sorting the tools and then washed up the Tool Chest.  As I write this, I am trying Zucchini Bread with ice cream on it, Yum!

I solved my Healthy/Unhealthy meal problem

It came to me this morning, eat the grapes first, then the Cream Horn!  How easy is that!  They were my afternoon snack.

I checked on the new chair several times today, I finally found out it will be here Tuesday.  We made a mail and banana run today, then we spotted the sign at Sentry with sirloin steak on sale, so we came home with much more than the bananas.

The kids were outside when we got home, so I helped put things away and went over to visit for a little while.  Rielee is really getting up high!

This is the overhead storage area in the motor home that I have been working on the last couple of days!  I got non slip shelf liners at a couple of garage sales and they were a prefect size.  I got the planes stored better and more of them in there.  I think there are 10 planes, 2 helicopters and the sky diver in there.

I barbecued the sirloin steaks tonight and they turned out great!  It is almost time to watch Wipeout, hope you had a good day.

Found One!

I have looked for a swiveling chair for flying for a long time.  I had one, but the seat ripped out of it, plus it sat low to the ground.  I made a stand to set it on that raised it up to a level that I could get out of without rolling around on the ground.

Yesterday I got my Good Sam Highways magazine and found the rEvolve swiveling chair in the product testing section.  I looked it up online and ended up ordering one after I finished my blog last night.  It swivels 360 degrees, has an amplifier and speakers mounted in the sides of the back, a cup holder and it is rated for 300 pounds, so hopefully it will not rip out.  The old neck is not as limber as it once was, so this will make flying much more enjoyable.  I did not do much today except work on the B-36, fitting those six cowls is sure time consuming!  I got 24 mounting blocks installed and one cowl mounted.  I also got my nose gear steering figured out, now I just have to make up a piece out of aluminum.  I had a healthy/unhealthy lunch, a cream horn and grapes.  The grapes seemed pretty sour compared to the cream horn.

Another beautiful Day!

I was up early again today, on the way to do my exercises I took a few pictures of the sun hitting the tops of the trees and working it's way down to the house.

You can also see the big window on the end of the house that I washed this morning.  When I finished with that, we made a mail, gas and grocery run.  On the way out of town I noticed the bakery had Cream Horns, buy two, get one free.  I ended up turning around and going back to get some.  I worked on the B-36 all afternoon, UPS delivered the capacitors for the motor wiring and I got them installed.  Then I started putting in the mounts for the engine cowls.  After dinner, I needed a break from the B-36, so I spent the rest of the evening cleaning and rearranging in the motor home.

The weather man was wrong!

It was a great day, the weather man was wrong again!  I got up at six and went out to do my exercises, the sun was just coming up and the sky was clear.  I went back in to get my camera, on the way, I noticed the moon was full in the Western sky.  I tried taking a couple of pictures of it, but they were not clear enough.

A little later, Vera took me out to see our best smelling rose, it is just like sniffing a perfume bottle.

I made it over to see the twins just before they had to go home.  They love it outside, hiking all over the place, sometimes like Ava is doing, right through the flower beds.

Harper climbed up into the swing, Ava was with her for a few minutes then got down, so Harper called Steve over to join her.  They looked so cute in their little tennis shoes!

I sent quite a bit of my time today working on the B-36's landing gear.  I got the second main gear truck done.

When I finished the landing gear, I went out and started cleaning and rearranging the motor home overhead storage area.  I worked at it until Monday Night Football came on.  It was a good day, I got lots done and had fun.

Work Party

I went up to Toledo this morning for our annual "Tear Down" work party.  Every year we take everything down to make way for the Threshing Bee the weekend of the 27th.  We have gone to it quite a few times and it is interesting looking at the old time farm equipment.

Nine members showed up for the work party, so we were all done in an hour.  We load everything on that trailer and hide it behind a tree out in the field.  We loaded the mower, roller and sun shade in my trailer and I will service them before taking them back.

I got in a couple hours of flying before I headed home at Noon.  I unloaded and did some airplane maintenance this afternoon.  Since it is not as handy to go flying for a couple of weeks,  I have several things that I want to finish, like the B-36!

Flying at Toledo

Vera had her last day of Vacation Bible School Friday, I went over and visited at the Robinson's while she was gone.  Dianne was a little put out by my "Push Overs" statement yesterday, we had a good laugh over that.  I made a list of Garage Sales in the Castle Rock area and when Vera got home we headed out to do a little bargain hunting.  We had a great time, Vera found some nice stained glass Christmas ornaments and I got a parts box I looked at yesterday.  I spent the rest of the day loading the motor home for Saturday flying and watching football.

Saturday morning we headed for the field after stops at the credit union, the gas station and Subway.  The first thing we noticed at the flying field was a piece of farm machinery sitting in the middle of the runway.  There was plenty of room for me to fly, so I got in a couple of flights before anyone got there.  It bothered the others, so we pushed it out of the way and had a great day of flying.

Again today, we had some excitement in the afternoon.  The sky divers were jumping and one had to cut away their chute again and use their reserve chute.

This is the fouled chute and harness coming down.  It turned out it was a tandem jump, two people on one chute.

That guy is getting his money's on his tandem jump, it was probably pretty exciting when they had to release the fouled chute.

They landed just South of us in the oat field.  It sure got everyone's attention, the people from the airport were over there in nothing flat to pick them up and then go find the main chute.

Lots of Fun today!

It seemed like lots went on today.  I felt great once I got woke up, eight hours of sleep will do that for you.  I checked emails and had breakfast before doing my exercises today, just the opposite of my normal routine.  The girls were out early playing, so every time I heard them, I went out to watch.

When I made my second trip over, Harper had a sliver in her foot and was not going to let anyone mess with it.  I don't think she even felt it get pulled out.  A little while later, she hopped down and took off when she saw Auna and Laury coming up the driveway.

They are excited because they just conned Papa out of going to get Bum!  It seems that when they get in the fort they expect gum, Steve and Dianne are real push over's.

Auna got gum also and they were trying to pop the bubbles she blew.  This was one of those days when there were all kinds of photo opportunities.  I ended up taking about 80 pictures and it was darn hard picking out which ones to use here. 

I got the last two nacelles done today.  I made a little mistake on the last one, I forgot to put the Saran Wrap on it to protect the form from the epoxy.  Tomorrow when it has cured, I will melt the foam form out with thinner.  I needed some washers for the landing gear, so Vera and I made a trip to Bredfield's.  We checked for garage sale signs and found one South of town.  Vera being the last of the big spenders, spent 15 cents and I spent 10 times as much for some steel leader. One of the neighbors told us some history of a nice pond across the road.   Cheap fun, the people were nice and we had a good time there.

Here is a link to the kids playing in the pool today.

http://www.vimeo.com/27610227

Wednesday

While Vera was at Vacation Bible School, I started shaping the last two nacelles for the B-36.  By the time the day was over I had one set done, but I will let them cure over night before taking them off the forms.  I went over and watched the twins play, always fun.  When I was watering the flowers and garden, I noticed a big zucchini, we got to looking and ended up with beets, carrots and a tomato also.  We ended up making our entire dinner out of the garden, a first this year.

I did not take any pictures today so I will use this one from last weekend.

This is the blow torch I bought at the Terry/Taylor garage sale, because it reminded me of the one dad had when I was a kid.  I can remember him using it to thaw pipes in the winter.  The torch works by filling the base with gas, pumping up pressure with the pump and then opening the valve to let some gas into the tray under the head of the torch.  Then, you lit the gas and let it burn to heat up the head until it would vaporize the gas so the torch would burn.  The hook on top is to hold a soldering iron in the flame to heat it up.  I can remember playing with it in the garage and not getting it hot enough before turning on the gas and shooting a stream of flaming gas onto the garage floor.  It is a wonder I did not burn the garage down.  I also had a jet engine that was supposed to work on the same principle.  I would mount it on a stick and suspend it from the rafters in the garage with a string.  After lighting the gas in it's tray, I would wait for it to start spinning around.  I can never remember it working very well, maybe that is why it  only cost $1.95 in Mechanics Illustrated. 

It showed up!

I did my exercises today after skipping them for a few days because my back had been hurting.  Funny thing, after doing them it quit hurting, now I wish that I had not skipped them over the weekend.  Vera has vacation bible school all week, so I decided to do laundry this morning and see if the oil spot from the cleanup yesterday would come out of my favorite shorts.  I had sprayed the spot several times with K2R and it looked like most of it had came out, but I wanted to wash them to be sure.  They ended up looking pretty good!  I was also watching for the UPS driver with my backorder.

He finally showed up and it is a beauty!  It is a new Super Cub, what Eflite calls their Platinum Edition.  It has lots of extra details, like the operating doors, provisions for lights, scale landing gear and much more.  Now I am really wanting to get the B-36 done so I can work on it.  I am sticking to the resolution that I would finish the B-36 before starting anything else.  While waiting for the wash and UPS, I edited some video I shot at the Cowlitz Valley RC Flyers Warbird Fly In and put it on Vimeo.  Here is the link if you are interested in seeing the field at Goble OR.  http://www.vimeo.com/27504917  Vera made Cheese Biscuits and hamburger gravy for dinner and it was Delicious  !

What is that smell?

After I got home from flying Sunday, I went into the shop and thought I smelled something, but was too tired to investigate.   This morning while I was doing e-mails, Vera called from Vacation Bible School and said one of the church members wanted to borrow our dehumidifier.  I headed right out to get it ready and when I found it, I also found the smell.  When I was loading the motor home Saturday night I must have knocked over a quart of gear oil.  Boy does it stink!  I spent the rest of the morning cleaning up that mess, one good thing came out of it, my floor in now a lot cleaner.  After Vera got home, we made a run to Michael's to get a piece of plywood I needed for the B-36.  While we were down there we had lunch at KFC.  I made a visit later to see the twins and had my normal great time watching them.  I charged some of the batteries I used Sunday, worked on the B-36, took out trash and mopped the floor again as I could still detect a faint smell.

As I was coming in this evening, there was a deer eating fire weed across the driveway.  That was the second time I had seen it today, it is not too scared of me as it stayed right there as I locked the door and went over to the motor home.  When I came back it was still there eating.

When I took the garbage can down to the road, I noticed this rose and after I tried to get more pictures of the deer, having no luck, I took this picture of the rose.

The sunset looked like it might be pretty, so I spent some time outside waiting and watching, but it never got any better than my first picture.  It was a good day even if it was a little stinky for a while.

Flying Sunday 8 7 2011

I loaded the motor home last night, so I was all ready for a day of flying this morning.   I got started for the field shortly after 8, a quick stop at Subway and I was at Toledo at 8:45.  I was unloaded and had several flights in before anyone else showed up.

About 1:30 someone noticed a jet coming in low, everyone was scrambling for camera's and a place to see it.

It turned out to be a NASA DC-8 Airborne Lab from Dryden Flight Research Center.

We had a good turn out today, I counted 12 club members flying.  Steve showed up on his scooter to watch for a while, that was a pleasant surprise.   I had a good day of flying and flew a couple that have not been out for a while.  There were 3 crashes today, one unexplained, the plane just rolled over and dove straight into the ground.  Another was lost when the pilot lost sight of it, he was looking for it up in the sky and someone pointed out the wreck way out in the field.  The third one a new flyer turned the wrong way coming in for a landing, over corrected and ended up behind a tree.  You can't control them when you can't see them.

Our final excitement was a Sky Diver having a fouled chute and having to release it.  The chute with it's pack and harness sure looked like a person until it got lower.  It was a good day, I got lots of flying in, test flew a couple of planes for other flyers and gave a couple of lessons.

Here we go again!

 Here we go again, trying to remember what the heck I did Friday!

I headed out to the shop once and heard noises, the twins were outside and so much fun to watch.  Nothing else of any importance happened, messed in the shop, ordered some props and spinners for the B-36.

Today was a different story, we were up early for the Terry/Taylor garage sales.  We got there a little before the official opening time of 8 AM and there were cars and people everywhere.  We were lucky that we could park in Jim and Kim's backyard, which was only a block from Terry Ave.  If we had to park in the street, I am sure we would have had to walk a half mile or more.

This what it looked like at 8:39 AM on Taylor Ave, lots of people and sales.  We did not find much we were interested in.  Vera got some books, some dark purple Iris and a picture frame.  I got a blow torch like my dad used to have.  We saw Steve and Dianne and met up with Mik, Michelle and James several times.  My knee started getting tired after 2 1/2 hours of walking, so James and I headed back to the car.  2 1/2 hours of walking and we probably only went to half of the garage sales!  When Vera, Mik and Michelle got done, we all went to Quizno's for lunch.   James came home with us to spend the afternoon.

James and I made a trip to the creek on the 4 wheeler.  We hadn't been there 2 or 3 minutes when he found the first agate.  Then he spotted one 15 or 20 feet away on the other side of the creek, I never did find one.  We took a ride up to the pipe line and then down the steepest hill, he did great going down the 24 degree grade.  After we got back, we played some Xbox.  I am getting better at racing cars, but I got beat big time playing the wrestling game.

None for Me!

Exercises, shower, breakfast, e-mails, water the flowers, fill the ponds, that pretty much took care of my morning.  When I made my cereal, I discovered we had very little milk!  I looked around for something that would go good with granola, bananas and a little milk, I finally spotted the ice cream in the freezer.  I have to tell you, it tasted pretty darn good!  While Vera was down decorating for Vacation Bible School, I filled the ponds and checked our little garden.  Surprise, surprise the carrots were big enough to eat so I had several.  After lunch, We made a run to the post office, and all the mail was for Vera, I think that was a first, nothing for me!  We made a quick stop for some groceries and then headed home before it got too hot.

I worked on the B-36 this afternoon, making the under the wing airscoops.  This is my third try and the first one turned out great, only 5 more to go!  I did not take any pictures today, so here is a picture of the real B-36, all 230 feet of it.  David borrowed the 4 wheeler to take the kids to the creek this afternoon, while I was checking the oil I discovered I can get up off the ground with my left leg.  It has been a long time since I could do that!  Writing about the ice cream sounded so good that I had to go slice up a banana and put chocolate peanut butter ice cream on it for a snack.  It is sitting here waiting for me to finish, so I will have Vera proof read it and I am done.



Love this weather!

After my normal morning, I was planning on mowing the lawn, until I looked at my cell phone and saw James had texted me wanting to know if I wanted him to mow today.  Sounded good to me, so we got it set up that I would picked him up later in Kelso.  I heard noises while I was waiting for him to call me that it was time to get him,  It turned out to the be the kids in the wading pool.

Ava was WaWa'ing grandma's flowers with the watering can while Harper packed water in a cup across the road to water plants over by the fort.

I think Harper was liking the noise it made when it hit the rim of the pool.

After I picked up James and we had lunch, I suggested he visit for a while before mowing as there were lots of kids around.

The lawn looked great after he finished.  The new blades kick up lots of dust, so he was ready to hit the pool when he finished.  Later we played Madden Football on the Xbox, I lost big time.  Then we did some truck racing and I lost again.  Mik picked up pizza for dinner when he came to get James and watched some of our truck racing after we ate.

 Vera and I spent the evening on the deck talking over the day.

While James was mowing, I took this picture of our favorite Rose.