JP's Visit

We went to church this morning, then went home to wait until it was time to meet JP, John and Anne at Papa Pete's.  James showed up during the afternoon to mow their rental lawn.  It wasn't long after he finished that Michelle texted me and said that JP, John, Anne, Mik and her were at Papa Pete's.

We had a great time watching and taking pictures of John Patrik while we waited for our pizzas.

He was having a great time dipping the straw in a water glass and then flicking it at Michelle.

JP is the third generation to use this rocker!  He kept Vera busy setting some things up a little higher.

When we went out to the shop so I could show them my latest planes, JP spotted the hose reel and it wasn't long until he figured out the wand.  He managed to get Vera's flip flops wet.

He had a great time cranking the hose reel.  I took them in the shop to see the night flying plane, he really paid attention to those bright lights.  Then I flew the quad and he really liked it.  It was a great day, we really enjoyed the visit with them.

Wow those are bright!

It was raining this morning, so we decided not to do any garage sales.  Vera read and I puttered on the computer most of the morning.  James, Joey and Conner showed up with our football program card.  Just as they were thinking about leaving, Vera offered them cake and ice cream.  That stopped them in their tracks and they came in and watched American Ninja Warrior while they ate.  Later Mik stopped by with a question and visited for a while, he got the cake treatment also.  I gave him a short demonstration flight with the quad before he left.

I had worked most of the afternoon on the Alienator, finishing up the light installation.  Boy are they bright, I will not have any trouble seeing these at night.  I am busily sending pictures that I took on the cell phone to my email.

 This is one of the pictures I took with the cell phone showing the bottom.  I also got the plane programmed in the radio, so it is all ready for a test flight in the daylight before I try it at night.

I thought I was higher than that!

Not many garage sales today, we ended up going to three.  I found a couple of things and so did Vera.  We picked up the mail, picked up some groceries and headed home.  Vera made some great turkey, tomato and avocado on sourdough sandwiches for lunch.  I worked on the Suzuki this afternoon and I made great headway.  I got the rear rack and fenders off, then pressure washed it.  Vera took some pictures of her Moss Rose, it sure likes that spot, it has bloomed all summer.

Later this afternoon, I decided to fly the Champ, I had flown 10 minutes shooting touch and goes when I thought it would be a good idea to test the glide.  I took it up a couple of hundred feet and shut down the motor and started gliding down.  I took a little different route into the yard and I will be darned if I didn't put it right in the top of the oak tree.  I got my 24 foot extension pole and it did not even come close to reaching it.  I got the ladder out and got up on the carport roof and I was still way short of reaching it.

I moved the ladder over to the tree and extended up to a good solid looking limb.  After I got up and hooked up my safety line, I extended the pole and I was just able to touch the Champ with it.

It only took a couple of wiggles of the limbs and the Champ started falling.  It ended up about 4 feet above me, after lowering the extension pole, I went up a couple more rungs on the ladder and I was able to reach it.  After all that, there was not a mark on the Champ.  That was enough fun for the day, I came in and got caught up on my blog while watching the Steelers.

Bye Barry

Barry walked with us this morning, the biggest group since I have walked, six of us.  After the walk, Barry went to visit Barby, then came home and hooked up the Jeep getting ready to head out.

He got going a little later than he had planned, but I called him later and he had gotten to Walla Walla about 5:30.  I did a little work on the Suzuki and the lights for the night flying plane.  Vera reminded me about the windfalls that were blocking one of our trails.  I charged up the cordless chain saw and cleared that trail this afternoon. I got one flight on the quad this evening and then I settled in to watch the Seahawks.

Wednesday

Barry and I went to the 49er for breakfast this morning, then it was back home, him to wash his motor home, me to water the flowers.  Barry worked on cleaning up and stocking the motor home for the trip home, I just puttered around and visited with him several times.  We took Barry to Papa Pete's for dinner and met Cathy and Bob there.  As always, the pizza was great and we had a good time visiting.

Lots of fun visiting!

We walked this morning and it was getting pretty warm before we finished.  I watered the flowers first thing when we got home, it is a good thing I did as it got over 90 here.  I got the new bulb for the overhead projector this morning, so I had to go try it after the watering, I am happy to report that it worked fine.  I had a call from Barry that he was heading our way today, so I made sure the power cord was laid out.  After lunch, I did some more work on the Suzuki, I got the front mud guards pulled off and started pulling the rear rack off until it got too hot in the car port.  I went in and started getting the seat ready for the new cover when Vera reminded me it was almost 2 when cousin Arnold Reinikka was supposed to be at cousin Sandi's house.  We headed down and it turned out that Arnold was delayed and would not be there until 6 or after.  We had a nice visit with Bob and Sandi before we ran home to see if Barry had shown up.

He was all set up when we got there and had been down to get a Papa Pete's pizza as he had not eaten all day.  We visited and watched a little Red Bull Air Racing I had recorded.  I got a call from Sandi that Arnold had arrived and they were going to dinner. Just as I was leaving to join them, Barry came by looking for Bentley, his cat, who had gotten out of the motor home.  I located him right under the middle of the shop and he refused to come out when Barry called him.  Barry left him there and he came out on his own later.

I went down and joined Bob, Sandi, Arnold and his wife at the El Compadre where they were having dinner.  Since I had already eaten, I just had a Flan dessert.  Arnold was interested in knowing all about the Piercy family, so I got him caught up the best I could.  I had a really nice time and as it does when you are enjoying yourself, time went by way too fast.  Arnold and his wife had to get going to Portland to turn in their rental car and spend the night before flying home to Pennsylvania.

The 32 year overhaul

No picture today, I don't think anyone would be too interested in me overhauling the toilet!  I walked in the morning, then picked up everything to rebuild the toilet at Bredfield's.  5 hours later, I was done and that was pretty much it for the day.

Flying with James

James came down and joined me at the flying field today to do some flying.

He got in 5 or 6 nice flights on 3 different planes before he had to head home.  I had rebuilt his favorite plane and put a motor on it with 2 or 3 times the power it used to have, he really enjoyed it!  It was sure nice to have him out there.

A bunch of us were watching Mike and Gary shoot touch and goes when someone noticed this plane hanging in a tree South of the field.  After they were done flying, Mike, Allison and Gary went down to see if they could get it out.

Gary is in the brush knocking it out with the poles.

They were successful, there are 6 or 7 people in the club with that same plane, so they got on their cell phones and finally found the owner.  He came down and picked it up later, he was not sure what went wrong, but it had some kind of control problem and he couldn't control it.

Garage Sales Friday and Saturday

The first garage sale we went to Friday had so much stuff it was overwhelming!  I found a couple of small things to buy and then we were off to a couple more in the Castle Rock area.  We did not find anything we couldn't live without there, so it was off toward Toutle.   The first ones were on McCormick Rd, we found four there and one of them was a former teacher of Michelle's.  The last one on McCormick Rd was a nice setting with this old outbuilding that I just had to take a picture of.  Vera and I both found one thing each at that place.   We found a couple of more garage sales up toward Toutle, at one I found an overhead projector for $2 and a 5 drawer tool chest base for $25.  When I went to pay, they gave me the overhead projector and I just had to pay for the base unit.

This evening I set up a set of solar rock lights I got on McCormick Rd to shine on the roses.

I was wandering around looking for something else to take pictures of when I noticed the birds coming for their evening drink at the pond.  I sat on the little deck there and once they were used to me being there, I got some good pictures.

Saturday we went to a garage sale in Longview that had advertised radio control planes.  The planes matched their surroundings, mostly junk!  We went to a few more in Castle Rock and went back to the one with lots of stuff.  I did not find anything today, but Vera found several items.  I spent the rest of the day getting my planes ready for Sunday flying.  James came up for a while in the evening, his first day of two a day football practices and he was really tired.  He was selling  cards to support the football program, so I bought one.

Harper swimming

After our walk this morning we didn't find any garage sales, so it turned into a stay at home day.  I wandered over to Steve and Dianne's once and the girls were getting ready to go swimming and Harper asked me to come see her put her face in the water.  I went home for the camera and got this picture (and many more) of her swimming, she did a great job of putting her face in the water several times.

Later I saw her riding the scooter, she is getting pretty good on it.  I spent the evening watching the Seahawks, enjoying their win.

Starting on the Suzuki

Tuesday:

We walked this morning, then I did some work cleaning out the carport so I can work on the 4 wheeler.  While I was cleaning where I keep the motor home, I found this little maple (I think).  I showed it to Vera and we ended up planting it in one of our flower beds.  We ran to Longview for dinner, picked up some pop at Safeway and stopped by Mik, Michelle and James' to pick up my hat.  We had a nice visit there before heading home.

Wednesday:

Vera had bible study and a birthday lunch this morning.  I did some more work cleaning the carport.  When I got it opened up enough to get at most of it, I used the leaf blower to clean it up.  A lot of what was in there were leaves from the oak tree which ended up on the lawn.  I got the mower out to clean them up which only took a couple of minutes, then I saw some rhododendron leaves on the lawn and before I knew it, I had mowed most of the lawn.  As you can see in the picture, I got things rearranged and the 4 wheeler pressure washed and up on the lift.  When I get ambitious, I can start tearing it down for the new fenders.  I am also planning on painting the racks and as much of the frame as I can get to and I have several CVJ boots to replace.

The Cobra and Quad

Here I am getting the Cobra ready for its last flight without the body.  The last couple of flights the new stabilizer has worked great.

I got the body put back on and got in another flight this afternoon, it looks a lot better without the flybar and servo paddles on the rotor head.

I have to really pay attention if I get it very far way, that camouflage makes it hard to see at times.

I put one flight on the quad this evening.  Just as I got it out, I saw Gabe, Des and the kids over picking apples, so I flew it over to where they were and talked to them for a few minutes.  When I got back to the driveway, I asked Vera to take some pictures of it against the sky.  I liked this one best.  I spent the rest of the evening editing pictures for this and Facebook.

CVRCF Picnic

I spent most of Saturday getting ready for the Cowlitz Valley Radio Control Flyers picnic on Sunday.  I took my mower down and mowed the field in the morning.  After I got home, I went to get the motor home's propane cylinders filled and one would not take propane.  I found the safety valve had backed out.  After getting that tightened up, I installed the new hoses and switching unit.

Sunday morning, we were up early and down at the field at 7:30.  Mike was already there with the company he works for trailer mounted big barbecue all set up.  I got my gear unloaded and started flying.  By lunch time we had a pretty good turn out and lots of good food.

I did not remember to take a picture from this spot until after some people had left.

You can see my B-36 in front of the motor home, when I went to fly it later, the right outboard motor would not run.  I messed with it for a few minutes, then decided I had plenty of other planes to fly.

Some of the guys put streamers on their planes and then tried to cut them in the air.  In the picture Gary has cut a streamer but it is stuck on his plane slowing it down and everyone is after him.

Brad put a streamer on his plane and then tried to cut it himself.

It took awhile, but he finally did it!  I had a good day, I got in 18 flights.  We were tired when we got home, it had been a 14 hour day.

Garage Sales

We went to several garage sales in the Castle Rock area this morning, then we picked up the mail and a few groceries.  After a stop at home to put things away, we drove up to Toutle and went to a few more sales.  This picture is the first driveway we went up, it was really a nice setting, plus I found a couple of tools up there.  After going to a couple more sales, we stopped at Drew's store and picked up fried chicken and Jo Jo's for lunch.

We ended up at the motorcross track near Toutle to eat our lunch.  There were several riders practicing and we had a good time watching and talking to them.  Going over this jump, they fly 105 feet!

As we headed back to Toutle, a doe and these two fawns crossed the road in front of us.

We found one more garage sale on the way home, it had a long gravel driveway that was pretty steep in places, they had a sign up recommending 4 wheel drive if you had it.  I took the picture as we went back down the driveway.

This is what I found at that last garage sale, a big bundle of balsa for two dollars!  That piece on top is from my stock, a piece of 3/8 x 3 x 36 that has a price tag of $2.15!  I messed around with the Cobra some more this afternoon, it was not acting right and I finally found a bad tail rotor servo.

Another project!

We stayed around home this morning until UPS delivered the new fenders for the Suzuki, now I have another project!

After the fenders showed up, we made a mail run to pick up the new blades for the Cobra helicopter.  These blades are made with the center of gravity further forward especially for flybarless helicopters.  I got them installed right away and made several flights getting the stabilizer adjusted to the new blades.  While doing this, I discovered one setting that I had wrong.  After changing that, it flew great!

 Vera was out taking a picture of her Moss Rose because the flowers are getting so big.  This evening, I went out and got in one flight with the quad before it got dark.  I am going to have to come up with a cover for the electronics, it was raining lightly and I was a little nervous since the receiver and stabilizer sit right on top in the open.

Bird Bath

This is my best accomplishment today, this bird bath has been crafted out of glass with bubbles in it.  Being hand crafted, it was not symmetrical and did not hang level by its rope.  I turned an adapter on my lathe and used a piece of stainless steel rod to hang it with.  I did some more adjusting on the Cobra flybarless system and I got in a couple of flights with the quad as it was getting dark.

Walking in the Rain!

Wow, what a difference a day makes, it was raining pretty good when we started our walk this morning.  After about a quarter mile, we were able to fold the umbrellas up and the rest of the walk was dry.  I spent some time on a club project and got both parts of it done.  I put in one flight on the Cobra trying out some new settings.  For about 2 hours today, there was continuous thunder and lighting, it has been a long time since I saw a storm like that.