Will I ever get it unloaded?

Maybe the birds know about the weekend forecast of rain, because they ate 2/3 of the seeds in the feeder in 6 hours!  Vera said it looked like a feeding frenzy!

We made a mail run about 4 and afterwards drove around checking things out.  No fishing across from Lions Park today as their parking spot is under water.  I did more organizing and checking out the stuff from Bill, it looks like another day before the motor home is empty.  I got some new Blue Ray recordings of model events in the mail and watched the first one this evening.  The day sure seemed to fly by and before I knew it, it was bed time.

Well, do I look any different?

No walk this morning, it was a little too wet!  About 9 we headed down to the Vancouver Costco, Vera had a few things to pick up and we did a little Christmas shopping.  After we had a couple of their foot long hot dogs, it was off to Harbor Freight, I wanted to look for some batteries there and found what I wanted.  We wandered around a little, but because we were there a couple of weeks ago, we cut it short and went to the Dollar Tree.  I picked up some glue they have that I really like and we headed home.  After unloading, wrapping the Christmas presents, I did some more sorting of Bill's stuff.  I almost have the motor home emptied, one more day should do it.  Since I had so much stuff stacked on the freezer we decided to do BK for dinner, then I came in and did this.  Oh, we also picked up my new glasses at Costco.

Off to Pe Ell!

No walk today, it was 28 when we got up.  About 9 we headed for Pe Ell to pick up the last of Bill's stuff.  This picture is just past the high school on the West Side Hwy.

We had decided to take the Wildwood Road to Pe Ell and the fog cleared up when we went over the first hill on the Wildwood Road.  There was still frost on the grass and ice on the pond when we came to this farm part way between Ryderwood and Boistford.  If you have never taken this route, it is a nice drive, and very little traffic.

This is where we stopped for our mid-morning snack, then it was on to Donna's place at Pe Ell.  Her living room was about half full of planes and equipment and she was sure it would take 2 trips.  By doing some careful packing, I got it all into one load.  I did notice the motor home bottomed out on a couple of bumps as we went home.

There are several large farms in the Boistford valley, we drove through here several years ago after the flood and it was nice to see them all cleaned up.  The ride home was nice and sunny, we stopped on the hill where the fog ended and had lunch before going on to Castle Rock.  We parked at the North end  of the river trail and walked down to get the mail, it felt good to stretch after the ride.  I started unloading when we got home, then when I brought the garbage can back up from the road, I noticed the wind storm debris looked pretty dry, so I got the mower out and cleaned off the driveway.  When I finished that, I still had gas and daylight, so I cleaned the leaves off of the lawn.  That was pretty much it for the day, I watched Monday Night football and hit the hay.

It won't start and It flies!

After our walk this morning I went over to get the motor home and load it with the new planes for some test flying at Toledo.  There was only one problem, it would not start!  After I pulled the engine cover, I checked the spark and it was good, there seemed to be gas getting to the carburetor, then I noticed the chock was stuck open.  It fired right up after that and I moved it around to load up.

That was good, Vera just came in and mentioned she had some of the pie Mik sent home yesterday, it sounded so good, that I took a break from this and polished off the rest of it.

Back to flying, there were two other flyers, Stafford and Larry were there when we finally got to the field, not long after we arrived, Leonard and Audrey showed up, followed shortly by Ken.  The first plane I flew today was the Bonanza, I had to make a couple of minor trim adjustments and it flew fine.

Then it was Turbo Bee's turn, talk about easy, I threw it and away it went, I did not have to do anything until it was up to speed, then just a couple of clicks of aileron and elevator trim.

It is great fun to fly, I made 3 flights on it and would have probably flew a forth except I forgot to put Velcro on one battery.  I forgot my cameras today, but I carry my old Canon in the motor home, I want to thank Vera and Audrey for taking these pictures of the Turbo Bee with it.  We had a great day, the longer we flew, the better the weather got.  I was going to fly the Bonanza again, but I could not get the radio to work, after I got home and unloaded, I discovered the switch had gotten bumped off, one thing I did do after I got it working was set the fail safe system up.  I spent the rest of the afternoon unloading and taking the garbage down.

One more picture, I borrowed/stole one that Audrey took with her camera and put on the club forum, Thank You Audrey!

One for Mik, one for James, two for me!

We were invited down to Mik, Michelle and James' for a turkey dinner and pumpkin pie today.  The turkey was great, cooked on the Traeger along with our favorite asparagus.  Mik  had made mashed potatoes and gravy, the best I have had for a while.  When it came time for the pie, I ended up having two of the four pieces that are missing.  We had a nice time, visiting and watching football.  When we left, Mik sent two pieces of pie home with me, Yum!  Earlier in the day, I made a trip over to Steve and Dianne's and heard all about their computer adventure this weekend, Funny!  I spent the rest of the day  working on planes and did some cleaning in the shop.

Black Friday

Every Black Friday for many years, I have met Mik, Michelle and James for breakfast and to rescue James from the rest of Black Friday Shopping.  We met at Shari's this morning and I got to hear all about their shopping adventure.  Then James and I came home and settled into the computer room for a day of Xbox.  As is normal for me, I did terrible the few games I played, about 11:30 we went down and rented the new Black Ops game.  James had a great time playing it with his buddies.  We took one break and went over to  Steve and Dianne so James could visit.  You can see in the picture James is multitasking, Xbox, phone handy for texts and wireless head set so he could talk to his friends.

Thanksgiving

We went to the Rutherglen Mansion for our Thanksgiving dinner today.  It was great being with the family.

Here are my favorite girls.

Mik had a great time with his nephews and niece.

Michelle, Bev, Debbie and James, Look who is tallest now!

I had a great time sitting next to James.  The food today was great, I started my meal with pumpkin pie and ended it with pumpkin pie.  After we got home, I went out to the shop and worked on planes some more because I knew if I stopped after that big meal it would be nap time.

Christmas List

Yep, I started making a Christmas list this morning and I am not going to buy anything on it until after Christmas!  Both Vera and I have noticed one gutter overflowing when ever it rains hard.  The sun came out this afternoon, so after much searching I found the ladder, cleaned the gutter and I got 2 1/2 gallons of junk out of it.  I found a few more things to do on the Bonanza today, I wanted to add a spinner and found one that was just the right size in the spinner drawer, funny how that works if you organize things.  It turned in to a little longer job than I expected, I had the cowl on and off about 6 times setting the down thrust and spinner spacing.

Here it is with the landing gear retracted, it is going to look good making a low pass!

I also worked on the wiring, getting it fastened down so it did not look like so much of a rats nest.  There are lots of wires, 2 aileron servos, 2 flap servos, the rudder servo, the elevator servo, 3 retract gear leads and a speed control lead going to the receiver, I put narrow strips of Velcro down and fastened the wires to them.  I also ran the motor today and it is putting out 375 watts.  While I was waiting for glue to dry, I started on the Mario flying car, making a couple of reinforcements.  Boy you should have seen how many catalogs came in the mail today, we just get done with the election and they hammer us a different way.

Back to walking!

We walked this morning without getting wet, I could tell it had been a week since I walked, but I made it.  This is how the driveway looked this morning, would you believe I cleaned the leaves off it last week.  After I finished my emails, I made a trip over to Dianne's, I got invited right into the bedroom to play again, kind of neat because Dianne said I am the only adult they invite.  I laid down on the floor and said I needed a nap and covered myself with Ava's blanket, that didn't last long, she took it back.  Harper ran right over and grabbed her blanket and covered me up, then when Grandma said I needed a pillow, she gave me hers.  Before I left, the girls directed everyone to their chairs and put on a show, boy are they fun to watch!  I spent most of the day working on the Bonanza and had it all done by the time I called it a day.

Wood heat sure feels good today!

Lots of wind and rain this morning, we ended up with 2.05 inches of rain today.  I had just finished breakfast and was about half done with my emails when the power went out.  When it didn't come back on after an hour or so, Vera wanted the stove started.

It has been quite a while since there has been smoke coming out of the chimney!  Since it was too dark to work on anything, I made a trip over to Dianne's.  Right away I was invited/ordered to come in the bedroom and play with the girls.  I got down on the floor and played with them, they are not always happy when I write my name on their magnetic drawing boards and usually erase it right away.  They were really shocked when I put Harper's lip gloss on, Harper said "You are not a girl Alan!", then she put the cap on and said "No Again".  I chuckled all day about that.

You have to be quick to get a picture sometimes, Harper was in the picture when I pressed the shutter, but all I got was her feet in the mirror!

Ava and Dianne were working on a puzzle as I left.

Steve mentioned having to cut up a tree across the driveway, so I walked down later to look at it, just a small one, then another small one came down later.  After a couple of hours, the power came on, only to go off a little while later, all together, the power was out for 5 hours.  When it finally came on to stay, I worked on the Bonanza a little and then came in and watched Monday Night Football.

Finally!

Yep, the mighty Turbo Bee is ready to test fly!  I got all the linkage hooked up today, programmed the radio and test ran the motor.  I had the motor running backwards at one time and it was blowing out the front.  I know for a fact they don't fly good that way as I did it once at the field.  I watched a football game this afternoon after Vera got home from church, then went out and finished the plane.  I also did some work on the Bonanza, changing servos around and adjusting linkage.  Now for some dinner and then watch the other game I have recorded.  Boy is the wind blowing tonight, hope the lights don't go out!

Time to catch up!

It amazes me how the days blend into one, I know we went to Longview Thursday for an appointment, but what the heck else did I do.  After looking at Wednesday's post, I remembered that I finished up the shop porch, then decided I need to tear it apart again and strengthen one area.  I will wait for another nice day before doing that, the evening was spent watching Thursday Night Football.

Friday, after Fedex came, we decided to run to Costco and order my new glasses.  After I got that taken care of and since we had not walked for several days, we decided to walk every aisle in the store.  Well, we did not hit all of them, the cart got full first!  I spent the rest of the day learning my new camera and watching TV.

Saturday

I love taking pictures of these old buildings, nature is winning again, this barn is on the way to Pe Ell.  We were headed up there because friend and modeler Bill passed away last week and Donna was selling his stuff and wanted it to go to club members.  Leonard and Audrey were there also and we had a nice time looking at things and remembering our times with Bill.

 I ended up buying four planes, the Facetmobile and Mario should really be interesting to get flying right.  Bill brought lots of unusual planes to the field and had me test fly them, but I had never seen these two.  I had test flown both the Bonanza and the Mosquito for him.  After we got home, I spent some time seeing what I needed to do to these new projects and hinging the last elevon on the Turbo Bee.  Vera and I spent the evening watching several recorded programs.

It works!

I wasn't sure last night when I quit if it was working or not, but when I got up this morning, the repeater was working great!  I decided to repair the shop porch this morning, I could see where one side was pulling away from the shop.  I pulled up some of the deck boards and right away discovered a rotten board.  About then Vera came home from bible study, so I showed her what I found.  As I was coming out the door, I slipped and fell into the hole, Vera had to help me up from that one.  The left knee is a little sore, but working fine.  We measured things, I decided what was needed to make the repair and we headed to town.  The van was full of recycling, so we dropped that off on the way.  Home Depot had everything I needed, so it was a fairly short trip, but kind of noisy on the way home with the hatch open for the 12 foot 2 x 10.  The job went better than I expected and I was able to get the decking back on before I quit for the evening.  Vera made some great fried potatoes for dinner, I settled into the recliner afterwards and ended up taking a nice nap before coming in to do this.

We will see if this works!

I had a physical scheduled this morning, so I did not eat breakfast in case they wanted to do fasting blood work, and they did!  The doctor's assistant is the granddaughter of  one of the first radio control flyers I met in the Longview area.  The physical went fine, no real problems.  Breakfast was high on my list when I got done with the blood work, so we went to Jack in the Box.  They have some great breakfast sandwiches.  Since we had nothing else to do, we went to the new farm store in Kelso and looked around.  Then we went to Sears as they are having a inventory liquidation, most things are just marked down 10%, not that great a sale!  The sun was coming out a little when we got home, so I decided to look at the shop roof leak.  I found a lot of moss built up around the chimney flashing, so I cleaned it off and sprayed sealer on.  The moss has started dying on the lower part of the roof from the spraying I did last week.  Now I just have to wait for some heavy rain to test my work.  My WiFi repeater came today while we were in town, so I spent the rest of the day messing with it.

Another Test

We were up early this morning as I had one more eye test this morning, they wanted to do a Vision Field test as a follow up to my eye test Friday.  I had time for breakfast and emails this morning, but that almost made us late, since we got involved in looking at a story.  After the test, we picked up some leak repair materials at Home Depot and headed home.   I worked on the Turbo Bee until it was time to leave for the model club meeting in Centralia, we left early so we could stop and see Marie.  She was in a great mood so we had a nice long visit until it was time for her dinner.  We had our dinner and then took a drive to kill time until the meeting.  There was a good turn out for the meeting, about 15 people showed up.  It was the nominations meeting and I got nominated for secretary, the present secretary went back to school and needs time to study.

Our friend Bob brought his new model of a Swift to the meeting, he is explaining how the slots in the wing work, Barry had a Swift at one time.  When we got home, I settled in to watch Monday Night Football.

What was that?

The first thing I did this morning was mix up some paint for the canopy of the Turbo Bee, then I spent most of the morning looking for my airbrush, I have two and couldn't find either one!  I noticed the paint I had mixed had seperated into two parts while I was hunting, so I decided to just paint it silver.  I was just finishing covering one of the elevons for the Turbo Bee and I walked over to check the pellet supply in the stove when I got hit on the head by something.  When I found the wet spot on my head, I did some looking around and there was a leak where the stove pipe goes through the roof.  Not wanting to do anything while it was raining, I put a plastic bin under it and finished the elevon.  When I was done, I looked around and found another leak.

I had checked this out while spraying for moss the other day, so I know where it is coming from.  When the rain lets up, you know what I will be doing!  I watched the Seahawks win, then sprayed a coat of clear on the canopy.  By then enough of Sunday Night Football was recorded that I could skip commercials, so I came in and watched it.  I made one more run to the shop to check on how much water was in the bin, there was only a couple of tablespoons, so maybe things swelled up and it quit?

It is Cold!

This is what I saw this morning when I checked!

After breakfast, I went out and took some pictures of the frost, there was lots but the frost on the moss looked the most interesting.  I also tested the deck where we put the Restore, it was much less slick than the untreated deck.  I worked on the Turbo Bee today and put the trim on the fuselage.  I listened to the Mark Morris game on KEDO this afternoon, the first time I have done that in a long time.  I had to use the Ham radio with the big antenna above the shop to get KEDO.  When that was over, I followed the Castle Rock Volleyball Championship game scores on the computer, they ended up getting first place.

Oops, over slept!

I had a 7:35 appointment for an eye exam this morning!  Neither of us heard the alarm so we did not wake up until 6:45!  No breakfast or emails this morning, as we hustled to get there on time.  We were there about 20 minutes early, which is good because they say to be there 15 minutes early to check in.  The problem was, the doors were locked and don't open until 7:30, kind of hard to check in early!  After checking in, I did not have to wait long until my appointment, it went fine and my prescription has changed so I will be getting new glasses.  We only had two stops planned after the appointment, so we were home around 10:00.  I spent part of the day raking leaves, getting all the hose reels put away and spraying the moss on the shop roof.

I made good headway on the Turbo Bee this evening before settling in for some TV.

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday

Vera did not have bible study so we walked in the morning.  Vera made carrot cake afterwards, it turned out great!  The small one was gone except for one small piece by bed time.  I made a trip over to see the twins, boy are they fun to watch.  When I left there, I decided to use the mower on the maple leaves.  There were lots of them, it took me until 5:00 to get done.  I made one trip to the shop after dinner and did a little work on the Super Cub.  I spent the rest of the evening on the computer and watching TV.

Thursday

Boy was it cold on our walk today, gloves and 4 layers felt just right!  Vera made a topping for the big carrot cake this morning, that just made it better, guess what I had for lunch.  I went out to the shop after lunch, I got the Super Cub shocks finished and hung it up.  I finished fixing a dent in the J-3 and took it to the motor home.  Then I started on the Turbo Bee, I got the trim cut for the wings and put it on the right wing before calling it a night.

A big list and a busy day!

I did not take a picture today, so I will use this one of the lenticular clouds over Mt. Rainier yesterday.  I had a doctor appointment this morning for my annual physical, but they called this morning and cancelled it as the doctor was called to the hospital.  We decided to walk and then go to town and do the things on our list.  I did not eat breakfast this morning thinking they might want to do fasting blood work.  I was really hungry by the time we were done with the walk, so we headed for the Pancake House.  I had their Chicken Fried Steak with hash browns, two eggs and toast, boy was I full when we left there.  Then it was time for our haircuts, from there we went to Fred Meyer and ended up getting six of the items on our list.  After getting a battery for Vera's watch at Radio Shack, we went to Micheal's to look for some elastic cord for the shocks on the Super Cub, I got one size there, then went to Joann's and found a little bigger size.  While we were in the Athletes Corner getting me some new walking shoes I remembered I was supposed to get a blood test today, so it was off to Kaiser from there.  After we unloaded at home, we started setting up the plastic boxes we had picked up for Vera's new shelves.  I had to modify one set a little, then everything went great.  I had a club meeting in Longview tonight, I had a good time visiting and it was a nice short meeting.  I was still full from the late breakfast, so I did not have the carrot cake tonight, I had a chocolate shake instead.  I am sure glad I have lots of recordings to watch tonight, the network over analyzing everything gets really tiring!

A Sunny Monday!

It was a great morning for our walk, I was trailing behind again taking pictures and got a good picture of Joanne, Vera, Vonda and the dogs.  After our walk, Vera made sandwiches and I loaded the motor home for a day of flying at Toledo.

This picture was taken right after we got set up, there were some clouds at first, but they burned off and it was a great afternoon.

I got to test fly Ken's new Astro Hog, after a few minor adjustments it flew great. We ended up having 7 club members flying today and everyone did lots of flying. I played too long one flight and had to walk out into the field to get my Cub after the battery ran down and I could not make it back to the runway, there was nothing damaged except my pride.  By 4:00 it had started cooling off, so we headed home, I unloaded the motor home and put it away, took the garbage down and came in to do this.  Now I am off to watch Monday Night Football.

The first day of standard time!

I slept until my normal get up time, which was fairly late on standard time.  I puttered away most of the morning right here on the computer before going out to work on the Turbo Bee.  The round fuselage that is tapered on both ends took quite a while to cover.  Now I just have to cover the elevons, paint the canopy, install the motor and radio, a nice rainy day may do it.  I watched a couple of football games today before coming in to do this.

A Restful Day

It was kind of a lazy day around here today, I spent the morning catching up on my blog.  Then I went to the shop and got both wings, the rudder and the bottom of the Turbo Bee covered.  We hit BK for dinner and later I got all the clocks set back to standard time.  I looked at the Hunt for Red October for a minute and I was hooked, I watched the whole thing again.  We went to bed at our normal time on Standard time.

MM Football

This is James and I just after the Mark Morris game against W. F. West, they won 35 to 14.  It was an exciting game, W. F. West had an excellent passing quarterback, but MM intercepted him 4 times, scoring 21 points off them.  The game was close enough that none of the subs were used, so James did not get to play.  After the game we went to Dairy Queen for a treat and a chance to talk over the game.  This morning, it was nice enough to walk, then I spent the day in the shop doing more cleaning and I got one wing of the Turbo Bee half covered.

Our Newest Member and the All American Breakfast

I forgot to mention the newest member of our pond family, last Friday after our walk we saw a sign for a garage sale on Studebaker Rd, this frog is the only thing we got, but we had a good time looking around.  I had the All American Breakfast this morning, organic granola with raisins and milk, a Kit Kat candy bar left over from Halloween and a Pepsi.  I made a trip over to see the twins right after breakfast.  Harper was drawing on green paper and cutting it with scissors, I took one of the pieces she cut off and drew a face on it, then I sat it on her picture.  She took it right off and sat it face down back in front of me.  Dianne told her I was helping her, she raised her eyebrows at that, then Dianne asked her if I was good help, she shook her head no.  I spent most of the day cleaning in the shop, I had not seen the floor in one area for a couple of years.  I spent the evening watching Thursday Night Football.