Sleeping in is good!

After the busy weekend, I slept in until about 9, no walk this morning, it was raining pretty good then.  I checked my emails and the fans for my helicopter speed control were in, so we made a run down to pick them up.  I puttered in the shop with the fans and a clock movement I got on the same order to replace one that quit.

We were looking at all the things that are blooming and from the bedroom window the lilac and apple tree looked great so I took a few pictures.  Later we were trying to figure out different types of dogwood trees, there is a dogwood along our walk that stays in bloom all summer, ours just blooms in the spring, I took some pictures of our dogwood tree and also the magnolia which has gotten big enough to look really nice.

I have been noticing my P-51 would not stay in trim on the elevator, which is important when you are making 100+ mph passes 3 or 4 feet off the runway.  I took it in from the motor home, opened it up and found the elevator servo was worn with quite a bit of slop.  I ordered some new ones this afternoon with ball bearing shafts and digital amplifiers.  They are coming priority mail, so I will be able to check it out next weekend.  I also ordered some LED tail lights for the trailer, because I noticed when we were hauling the mower last week that they were a little dim.  There is lots of wire between them and the motor home, so the lower current of the LED's should help.  Funny weather again today, rain, wind and sunshine if you had a little patience.

Toledo Flying

We headed up to Toledo for some flying today.  It was cool again today and we wore a jacket most of the day.  We had 12 club members there today, 3 of them had the same plane, so during one flight it turned into an informal race.  It was lots of fun to watch.  I had a good time, but after two days of flying, I was ready to quit a little earlier today.  We came home and I relaxed in front of the computer, checking emails and editing pictures for my blog and the club forums.

Goble Flying

Vera and I headed down to Goble this morning for a fun fly at the Cowlitz Valley RC Flyers field.  As you can see, it was a little cool when we first got to the field.  There was a small turn out and several people left early to attend club member Rich Davis's funeral.  There ended up being 4 of us flying in the contest.  They had a spot landing marked out, none of us could hit it during the contest, but as soon as it was over, we all hit it.

Vera helped out during the contest by reading the maneuvers each of us had to do.  The rings on the ground are the spot landing area none of us could hit.  We had a good time and flew until about 5.  Here is a link to a video of the red triplane flying. https://vimeo.com/41223642

 After leaving the field we went to the upper viewpoint on Hwy. 30 West of the bridge, had dinner and enjoyed the view.  Then after a stop at Fred Meyer for groceries for tomorrows flying and gas, we saw Bev and Debbie, who were getting ready to go pick up Debbie's Jeep.

Flowers and mowing

After our walk this morning we went over to 4 Corners for something to put on the fruit trees.  We came home with a spray for the trees and a box of flowers for the deck.  After arranging them where we wanted them, we went back and got another box as we only had about half enough to do the job.  We had a great time potting them and can hardly wait for them to fill out.  We had a few things to get at the store, that made 3 trips to Castle Rock today, but we only traveled about 12 miles, less than one way to Longview.

It was my week to mow at the Toledo field, so I loaded up the mower and away we went.  When we got there, Leonard and Audrey were flying.  Leonard offered to mow the parking area while I mowed the runway.  Audrey, Vera and another modeler who was there moved all the tables so they could be mowed under.  The field looked great when we got done.  I spent the evening loading planes, charging batteries for our next big adventure.

Baseball

We had a good walk this morning, No Rain!  By the time I showered, had breakfast and checked my emails it was lunch time, so I had some of the delicious apple pie Vera made yesterday.  I decided to order the fan I needed for my Jet Ranger, the speed control has been a little warm after each flight, so I am going to put a fan on it.  That ended up taking most of the afternoon when I looked at just about everything on the Allelectronics website.
We left early for James' baseball game so I could buy a new pair of shoes for walking.  Then I had to get my monthly blood test, that went great, no one in the waiting area, showed them my card and they said "don't sit down, go in and find a booth",  I was so used to waiting that I was headed for a chair already and she had to call me back.

After a quick bite to eat, we headed for Roy Morse Park to watch James.  Boy was it cold out there, luckily I had brought along my heavy coat.  The other team scored a bunch of runs in the middle of the game, and had some good pitching early that kept us from getting any hits.  Later in the game, we got some hits and scored a few times so it was not a shut out.  The picture is James coming into third on a passed ball.  James pitched the last inning and did great, getting 3 strike outs.

Muck Buster

Last night when I checked the tracking, I discovered the Pond Vacuum was at the Post Office.  This morning, Vera and I left at about the same time, her to bible study and me to the Post Office.

I started assembling it right away as there was lots of algae in the pond and bottom was covered with decayed material, as you can see in this before picture. I also could not wait to try it out!

This picture is after the first cleaning, you can see rocks on the bottom now and it sucked up most of the algae.  I gave it another treatment of algaecide when I finished and I will clean it again soon.  After lunch, I made a trip over to the Robinson's, lots of activity there, the twins, Rielee, Auna and David all made for a fun visit.  I heard from Jackie today, she has developed preeclampsia and she is going to be hospitalized at the UW until she delivers.  Vera mentioned that the vacuum looks kind of like R2D2!

More Flowers

On the way home from our walk this morning, we stopped at the nursery on Buland Drive and got a flat of petunias and a couple of azaleas.  Vera liked the purple petunias and a red azalea, I picked out a light purple azalea.  When we got home, Vera dug up the Rhubarb that was where she wanted to put her red azalea and I started planting the petunias in the bed we had prepared yesterday.  Then we planted the two azalea's and split the rhubarb into 3 pieces and replanted it.

I got my next project out, a bigger pond liner so I could tell where to plant the rhubarb, it is a last summer yard sale find, $35 with pump, filter and hoses.  We were really lucky, it started to rain just as we finished.

Another Beautiful Day!

It was a great morning for a walk, by the time we got to Front Ave., I had my jacket off.  The cherry trees in bloom along Front Ave look great, I ended up taking several pictures of them.  When we got home, I boxed up my transmitter to send it off for repair.  After we took it to UPS, we went back home for lunch, Vera had made a great batch of soup for lunch.  Just as we sat down there was a little knock on the door and we had two of the cutest little visitors.  They showed us their sparkly shoes and were proud of the pockets in their shorts.  After lunch, I went over and had a nice visit with them while they ate lunch, I also got to hear all about the tree incident from Steve and Dianne.

After the visit to Dianne's, I mowed the lawn, hauled a load of compost over to this flower bed and rototilled it and put some fertilizer in.  Now we are all ready to plant some flowers there.

This evening we went for a little walk, it started when I noticed the clouds looked unusual and got the camera to take a picture, then we wandered around while I took pictures of all the flowers that are in bloom.  I love the Easter Lilies when they turn purple and found this nice one to take a picture of.  I talked to Pam this evening, Evelyn is 7 pounds and it sounds like she will be going home tomorrow, that was the best news I have heard for a long time!

Flying and Flag Football

I was the first one to the field this morning, but it wasn't long until others started showing up, by the time I left, most of the tables were being shared.  Right off the bat, one of my transmitters quit working, I checked the batteries and they were OK, so I put it and the planes I fly with it away for the day and flew others that I had with me.  The picture is of my friend Horty and his new plane which I test flew for him.  He had a friend airbrush the finish for him and it got lots of compliments.  After some adjustments after the first flight, it flew great on it's second flight and Horty got to take the controls for awhile.  I left at 2 so I could go to James' flag football game.

Flag football sure is fun to watch, we had a great time watching James.  After the game, we went to Izzy's with Michelle and James for dinner and had a nice visit. After we got home, I did some checking on my transmitter and it looks like I will have to send it in for repair.  I talked to Barry tonight and it looks like if things go right down there, he will be headed home next week.  It was 103 down there today!

Work Party

The Cowlitz Valley R/C club had a work party today, so Vera and I were up early and started our walk at about 7.  We ended up walking a little over 2.5 miles, we had to slow down about 3/4 of the way so I could stretch out a cramp, but it was gone before we finished.  It was sure a beautiful day to be outside, the work party was over about 1 PM and we started flying.  I got in 8 flights before we headed home.

After I had unloaded everything and put my batteries on charge, we had time to sit out on the deck and enjoy the fire bowl for the first time this year.  It was a nice way to end the day.

Walking in the Rain

Yep, it was raining this morning and it was just Vera and I, at my request, we just did the short route.  When we made our mail and grocery run, the new case for my cell phone showed up, I was glad to see that as the back of the old one would fall off at times.

This is my new label maker, I actually read the manual before trying to use it, that sure made it easy.

This picture shows some of the labels I have put on, TAPE was my first one and I see it is off center a little.  I did not do a lot today, just got some things ready for the club work party.

Two days again!

Wednesday

Yep, two days in one post again.  Wednesday I got on the phone with Samsung support about Vera's laptop and that is where I spent most of the day.  I have to say one thing, both times I called, I got to talk to a live person right way.  The first time the guy had me do a complete restore back to the manufacture date.  When I started installing software, it went to the blue screen again and died.  The second time I called, a different guy had me do the same thing and it died  part way through the restore, so he had me try a BIOS update or something like that, then it died part way through that.  Did I mention we had a lot of noise on the line, plus he had an accent, so things were not going very smoothly!  When he said the noise was on my end, I told him it was fine until they transferred me to him.  After the BIOS failure, he said it needed to be sent in for service, transferred me to  guy number three and now the line was really noisy!  We finally got things arranged and they sent me a prepaid UPS label, but my address was listed as 114 Wisteria Rd Duffle Rock!  Then I could not find a box big enough to ship it in, so it was off to town, and there were none big enough there either.  So we are going to run to Longview tomorrow and do it.

Thursday

We walked this morning and after we got home, I went over to see the twins for a little while before we ran to Longview.  They were just finishing their bath when I got there.  When they were dressed, they turned on the music and started dancing, it was so much fun to watch!  Their marching song came on and they marched during the whole thing, I videoed it, when I get a chance I will try and get it on Vimeo.  It took a couple of stops before we found a box big enough at Office Max, while we were in there, I ended up buying a label maker.  We parked under the bridge to Kelso so I could assemble the box and pack the laptop into it with out getting wet.  After dropping it off at UPS, we had lunch at Dairy Queen and headed home.  After paying bills online, I went out and played with my new label maker and got some of my drawers labeled.  I did a little work on the kitchen counter this evening, one more step done!

Lazy Monday and busy Tuesday

Monday

Monday, I never moved from in front of the computer until noon, the big weekend got to me.  At noon, we went down to get the mail and have lunch at BK, the Whopper Jr must have energized me, because I got out and did some cleaning on the trails, checked out, repaired and threw away any non-repairable solar lights before taking the garbage can down.  The walking is helping, coming back up the driveway is much easier now.

Tuesday

The weather forecast for today was dry in the morning, so I decided to go down to the Cowlitz Valley Radio Control Flyers field and treat the moss after our walk.  The field had not been mowed for awhile and the instructions for the moss killer say it should be mowed to expose the moss.  I spent the first two hours mowing the runway, then I put the hitch on so I could spread the ferrous sulphate.

About half way through the job, it started to rain, so I had to cover the spreader to keep the granules dry.  I had planned on spraying for weeds also, but the rain put an end to that!  The other day I was looking at my blogs and realized there were pictures from my cell phone, Nikon, Canon, GoPro and Olympus, now I can add the Konica Minolta to the list.  I forgot to take a camera with us today, so Vera used the old Minolta that is in the motor home for emergencies.  When we got back to Castle Rock, some things for the pond and some new LED lights were at the Post Office, so I had something to play with for a little while.  After some great spaghetti for dinner, we settled in for the evening.

Sunday Flying, Spreading and Spraying

I was all loaded this morning, so I got a fairly early start to go flying at Toledo and I was the first one there.  I was all setup and had a flight on the Cessna before anyone arrived.

I got to test fly Bob's Spitfire today, it looks and flew great!

We had 19 flyers and lots of people watching today.  I kind of lost count of how many times I flew.

After the flying was over, I spread moss killer on the runway and then sprayed the runway and parking lot for weeds.  It was a long day, but I sure enjoyed it.

Walking on the Beach.

We took a longer than usual walk today, from the church we headed South to Lions Pride Park.

This picture is looking upstream from Lions Pride Park, you could sure tell there were salmon in the river, there were fishermen everywhere.  When we got to where we had planned on going back to the church, I suggested we take the long way back along the dike as my knee was feeling fine.  This is my eighth day of walking and I can sure tell a difference.  Part way along the dike, we decided to see if we could get down by the river.  We found all kinds of places to get down and ended up walking on the beach clear around the dredge spoils pile.

The longer we walked, the better the weather got, at this point we are just before the curve below the PH-10 bridge and the clouds had almost all burned off.

When we came around the curve, there were lots of fishermen on the bank below the fairgrounds, from where I took this picture, I counted 14 vehicles on the other side.  This setup was the most impressive, they have their shack built out of tarps, a deck with railing and steps down to the bank.  When I took the picture there was a guy on our side just upstream from me tugging on his line, it was hooked up on a branch with a Pepsi bottle on it.  He said that he also had a fish on, another guy was trying to help him, I don't know if they ever landed it.  From there, we followed the bank until we were even with the bicycle park and then headed back toward the church.  After picking up the mail, we went home and I started mowing the lawn really short so I could put the Moss Out on.  Boy did I bag lots of grass and debris.  After I got the Moss Out spread, we went out and cleaned up some blown down limbs and then cleaned the trails.  I got the motor home out, hooked up the trailer and loaded the tractor, spreader, sprayer and water so I can do the same thing to the club field.  I spent a little time rearranging the planes in the motor home so I could start carrying the club trainer.  After the great avocado salad and salmon burgers Vera made for dinner, I did the last of the loading for tomorrow at the field. 

Look Out Moss!

After our walk today, we headed to Longview, I wanted to get some moss killer for the lawn and both flying fields.  We went over the Delameter Valley Road and started pricing it at Walmart and worked our way East.  After lunch at Fred Meyer, they have great paninis, we found a good price on Moss Out at Lowe's, so we bought a couple of bags.

Then it was off to the Country Village for some vitamins.  I had been looking for a camouflage paint for my new Mustang, we stopped at Evergreen Paint and they had just what I wanted.  The only thing I couldn't find today was a new case for my cell phone, the old one keeps falling off.

When we got home, UPS had delivered our new solar motion sensing lamp.  I have been wanting one on a post like that for a long time.

After I took the picture of the lamp, Vera noticed the Johnny Jump Ups were in bloom and wanted a picture.  By the time I was done I had taken a picture of almost all the flowers that are in bloom.  I took 50 pictures before I was done, digital cameras are great!

Just as we finished putting up the lamp, the clouds started getting dark and threatening and there was a big clap of thunder just after we went in the house.

It was a little foggy for our walk this morning, plus everyone's watch must have been a little different.  One lady's car was there when we got to the church, but she was gone, I got out in the middle of the street and caught a glimpse of her going up onto the dike.  We never did catch up with her, I am not too fast!  I had a good time taking some pictures of the Rock and the ferns on the North side.  When we got back to the car, the first lady was gone, but another's car was there, she called Vera later, she had walked, but did not catch up with us.  Maybe I am not that slow!  I worked on the helicopter this afternoon installing a safety switch and changing the radio as the other radio had acted funny last weekend.

Vera came out to the shop this afternoon and told me the small pond was low.  I thought it was raining out, but it was beautiful.  After I filled the pond, I wandered around taking pictures of flowers, until I got around to the area of the bird bath, it was really dirty!  I got the hose reel out, got it hooked up and cleaned the birdbath, hosed off the deck and steps.  Some clouds moved in and it got cool, so it was back to the shop to work on the AT-6 some more, it is one I am fixing up to sell at the next swap meet.

Surprise!

While Vera was at bible study, I made a run to Safeway for some Pepsi One, I hate it when I run out and can't find any locally!  While I was there, I picked up some chicken and french fries for lunch.  I had a voice module for my Hitec radio show up in the mail today, now I will be able to know what is going on in the plane without having to look at the screen.  I had the chicken and french fries ready before Vera got home, so I could surprise her with lunch.  We had a nice visit this afternoon from Jeff and Tina, new members of the Toledo model club.  This evening, I finished checking out the Cessna so I can fly it this weekend.

Repaired!

I did not take any pictures today, so I thought I would put one here that is relaxing to look at after a day of computers.  I took it a few days ago as I was walking back from the motor home.  After our walk, I started investigating sending Vera's computer in for repair.  I was in the process of filling the forms out online and needed to report what I was seeing and what I had done.  I booted up the computer and noted the symptoms down.  Out of curiosity, I did a search for them online and every result had to do with HP printer software, so I worked at uninstalling it.  It took many tries, but I was finally successful.  After that the computer has not acted up once. I don't think I will reinstall the HP software, the Brother Laser printer does most of what Vera needs.  I did get a little work done on my Skylane and Jet Ranger before I called it a night.  I also got a short visit in with the twins.  Now I am going to settle into the recliner and take it easy the rest of the evening.

Sunshine and Flying

Right after walking this morning, we headed up to Toledo for some flying.  It turned out to be the best day of flying I have had this year, I even had to put on sunscreen!  After 6 hours of flying, we made a couple of stops in Toledo and then went to the Lewis County South Park to eat dinner.

After eating, we went down on a dock and watched the ducks and geese.  The little brown duck swam around right in front of us looking for a hand out.

Boy are geese noisy, finally after much honking back and forth about 6 of them took off and flew away.  It was fairly quiet after that.  After we got settled in at home and were checking emails, Vera's computer suffered the dreaded "Blue Screen"  after I messed with it most of the evening, the diagnostics say there is a hardware problem, so it will probably be going in for repair.

Easter

We started our day at church for Easter services, they had a very nice program.  Everyone was given a flower when they arrived at the church.  The final decorating the cross took place during one song when the members went up and placed their flowers on the cross.  It turned out looking quite nice.  After church we went home and relaxed until the family Easter party at Cathy's.  For the first time in 4 years, we had sunshine, it was great.

Here are the 18 cousins just before the Easter egg hunt, shortly after this it was mayhem, but fun to watch.

Then things calmed down while they checked out their loot.

This is the opening throw of the egg toss, it went on for a long time this year, but Julie and Kevin were the Gold Medal winners.

That was followed by the egg roll, I went out on the second toss, but Vera made it until there were only 6 left.  Luke ended up being the winner.  It was a fun day, with lots of good food, laughter and best of all, Sunshine!

End of the trail!

Well, I made it to the North end of the River Walk Trail today!  When we got home, I could tell we had gone more than yesterday, as I had a couple of sore spots.  Today was Cathy's birthday, so I took a present down and had a nice visit with her and Bob.  When I got back home, I sat down with the heat pad on my calf and promptly fell asleep, the longer walk got me!  I went out and did a little work on the Super Cub's seats and did some research on interior details online.  As I get time, I will add little details inside and make up new seats that are closer to scale.  I waved to Steve on a trip to the shop, he was mowing and that looked like too much work for me today.

The second day of walking

I went a little further on the walk today and when we got back to the church my knee felt about like it did yesterday.  Vera said I wasn't puffing after going under the PH-10 bridge today.  We went to the Post Office and Vera got her new 5 Quart Lodge Dutch Oven to replace one that started chipping.  I got a couple of PCMCIA cards for my new laptop also, so I could read SD cards from the cameras and hook up a vinyl cutter I have.  The vinyl cutter used the old style 9 pin serial connector and only the oldest computer we have would work it.

You can just barely see the connector on the right side.  I spent most of the day getting the two cards set up.  Now that the cutter works, I can start making up the decals for the B-36.  Vera seasoned her new dutch oven by cooking a package of bacon, so we had some great BLTs for lunch and dinner.