74 degrees is nice flying weather

What a beautiful day for flying!  As I was getting set up, Ken showed up to mow.  I put the quad up while Ken was mowing and got this picture of him.  You can see the sun shade set up next to the motor home, this is the first time we used it this year.  It was really needed today, everyone had their chairs set up under it.

I had seven aircraft out today and I put in nine flights.  I got the glider out after John hooked a thermal and did a twenty five minute flight with his plane.  I found several nice thermals and I got a forty five minute flight with only six minutes of motor run time.

We stopped at Betty's for burgers and then went to the viewing area in Toledo to eat.  It was sure nice sitting there with the windows down enjoying the view, it was so nice I had the window down all the way home.  After we got home I fixed the landing gear that broke on the foamie, filled the water tank in the motor home and then washed it.  I stood outside in the dark using an app on my phone to try and see a satellite go overhead.  I never found any but I did locate Saturn.

Picking up Barry!

I was up early this morning so I could pick up Barry at the Portland airport.  This is the view of the control tower from the cell phone waiting area.  I kept hoping for a plane to take off or land for my blog picture but it never happened.  After I picked up Barry we headed North and stopped in Centralia at Papa Pete's for lunch.  Their pizza is much better now, they have the regular pizza ovens instead of the broiler type one they had at first.  We had a nice visit during the trip and over lunch.  It was sad to hear that Pooper their rabbit had passed away, they have had him about ten years and he traveled all over the US with them in the motor home.  Once Barry was settled at home and had the PT Cruiser running I headed toward the hobby shop.  I found a few things I needed and one I didn't but I got it any how.  I had a nice time talking with the owner Thom and then I went to Costco.  I picked up a few things there, got gas and headed home.  I stopped in Centralia and visited Marie for a few minutes, she had just had her hair done and was in a good mood.   I spent fifteen or twenty minutes with her before continuing on home.

Windy Weather Flying

The weather forecast showed some wind and it was right!  It was a steady six to ten mph wind all day with gusts to 13 or 14 and I saw a gust of 20 once.

This is Leonard's Ultra Stick shooting a touch and go in the wind.  I got in six flights and Leonard must have gotten in about the same number as we flew together most of the time.  I don't know how many touch and goes we made, but it was lots.

Gene brought out his giant scale Pete that he is taking to Florida for a contest and put a test flight on it.

 It flew great and handled the wind very well.  He did find a couple of minor things to fix before he leaves.

Not only do we have the mountains to look at but behind us is an interesting view also.

The old gas pumps are across the road and the threshing machine is in the same field we use.

We took the long way home along the Cowlitz river and I spotted this field full of geese.  There were so many I couldn't get them all in one picture.

Baseball

We had a busy day, I did my exercises, had breakfast and checked emails.  Then we washed the van and I washed the Blazer.  After letting Sam out and playing with him we took the recycling down to the drop site in town.  We had lunch when we got home, then I cleaned up the ferns South of the shop I had trimmed last Friday.  I just barely got that job done before it was time to go to James' game.  Mark Morris was playing Ridgefield today and it was their first league game.  James played first and is making one of the many outs he got at first.

This is one of his times at bat, he is making contact most of the time but just not the way he wants to.

This was a close one but he got the out!

This is late in the game, James is laying down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runner to third.  The game was tied 3 to 3 going into the 7 inning, Ridgefield scored five runs in the top of the inning and Mark Morris couldn't match it so they lost 8 to 3.

Easter

We had all kinds of plans for going to the Sunrise Service and church breakfast this morning.  I was tired after the big day of flying Saturday so we ended up sleeping in and staying home.  James came up about noon and we changed the oil and filter in the Maxima, then he road down to the Easter party at Bob and Cathy's with us.  There was lots of good food again this year.  After taking the yearly pictures of the cousins, the six young ones had their Easter egg hunt.

Do you think Dad told her to look up?

Gabe really looks like he is enjoying watching the kids hunt for their eggs!

Harper and Ava with their baskets, all the kids were loaded down like this.

Since it was raining out, the kids opened their baskets in the living room.

Then the kids hid eggs for the adults, the eggs were plastic with Scrabble letters in them and the adults had been divided into two teams.

This is team one getting their letters sorted,  then they had five minutes to make words using Scrabble rules with the highest score winning.

Here is team two working on their game, they ended up winning.

During the next break in the rain they had the annual egg roll.  I went out on the second throw, not much control when I throw left handed so I can take pictures with my right hand.  That is my story and I am sticking to it!  It came down to Luke and Brock rolling for first place and Brock won.

Since it wasn't raining, we went right down to Dan and Robin's driveway for the raw egg toss.  Cathy is passing out the eggs, there were 14 teams this year.

One of the first throws of the competition everyone is still in it.

This is when Emmy's team went out, James is in the background making his catch.

James with a little egg on his hands, luckily Tierney broke hers also so they had to have a throw off.

Dan and Brock during the throw off, at this point they are throwing the eggs about 80 feet.

On the throw back James caught the egg but Tierney's broke so James and Dan are this year champs.  It was a fun afternoon and we headed home not too long after the egg toss.

Saturday Flying

The weather forecast for today looked pretty good until about 4:00 so we headed up early and got there at 8:30.  Here I am putting the MXS together, it is a great flying plane and I have flown it every time we go out since I got it.

My first flight of the day was with this Sabach 342, another great flying plane and about as different from the MXS and you can get.

I haven't flown this quad since August of last year, so I mounted the GoPro on it and put in a flight.

This is one of the pictures the GoPro took from about a hundred feet up.

This is some of what I flew today, I ended up flying 9 different planes today but I lost count of how many times I flew.

Members Leonard and Audrey were there today also, this is Leonard's Old Timer.  It is a design from the 1930s that was built many years ago and it flies great!

Vera and I had a great time capturing this picture of me launching Sunday (strange name for a plane), it took us 4 tries before we got what I wanted.  Right on schedule it started getting windy this afternoon so we loaded up and headed home.

I got more planes in the bedroom than normal, so Vera suggested a picture so I would know how to do it next time.  Not all of them show but there are twelve in there.

While we were at the field, Jackie sent us some pictures of JP at an Easter celebration, this is my favorite.  We stopped a Betty's for burgers and then parked by the Cowlitz in Toledo to eat.  That was a nice relaxing end to the day.

Catching Up

Wednesday as Vera was leaving for bible study she noticed this daffodil was in bloom.  She almost came back in for the camera, but finally decided to do it when she got back home.

 Then she went over and took a picture of my shop Easter Lilies, they straightened up nicely after I cut the ferns off them.

Thursday Vera was out taking pictures of the azalea that is coming into bloom, there are lots more buds on the bush so it will really look good this year.

Friday afternoon turned out pretty nice so I got the Hughes 500 out and made a flight, while I was doing that Vera noticed and took a couple of pictures.

A little later, I got the hedge clippers out and trimmed the ferns South of the shop since they were overrunning the blueberries.

I am almost done trimming and the picking up the clippings went a lot faster with Vera helping me.  Every morning this week I have gotten up and worked out on the treadmill and weight machine.   Then I go in for breakfast and check my emails.  During the rain storms this week I spent quite a bit of time in the shop working on planes and cleaning up.  After two weeks of exercises I have felt better and I am sure sleeping good.

Palm Sunday

I was a little sore this morning from all the activity yesterday.  I puttered around on the computer until it was time for church and I was feeling pretty good by then.  Today was Palm Sunday, after everyone had put their palm fronds in the vases, that plus the flowers leftover from a memorial service looked so good that I had to take a picture.  It was a nice service and I had a great time visiting with a classmate afterwards.  I finally made it out to the shop late this afternoon and got a couple of things done on the Tri-motor.

Saving the Easter Lilies

Vera took some pictures of this Oregon Grape when she came out to get a couple of pictures for my blog.  It sure has some bright colors!

As I was working on the motor home today, I realized the ferns were covering the Easter Lilies in front of my shop.  After I got done with the wheels, I got the hedge clippers out and cut the ferns back.  The flowers look kind of mashed together but I am hoping that they will straighten up now that they are getting some sun.

I have just dumped the load of ferns and heather I trimmed, the last job of the day.  This morning, I started out pulling the duals off one side of the motor home so I could check a new wheel I got and see i if fit.  It did, so I put the old ones back on until I get the others and new tires.  After trimming the ferns, I changed the oil and filter on the Blazer and lawn mower.  As I was checking for leaks on the Blazer, I noticed one on the supply line to the filter.  This one was on the other end of the line that blew off a couple of weeks ago.  That made the job and hour or so longer, but I got it repaired.

This is how the shop looks with the ferns trimmed and the Easter Lilies showing.  It was a long day, but worth it.  Now that I think about it, I could have probably skipped my exercises this morning!