Cora has arrived!

Our newest great granddaughter was born at 12:08 PM today, 5 pounds 15.2 oz and 18.5 inches long.  Both Cora and Jackie are doing fine.

I started a rearrangement in the motor home carport today.  Boy was I stiff and sore by the end of the day but I do have a plan now of what I am going to do.

Choir

James was at state with the choir today.  His comment on Instagram was "Last state trip for choir was a good one!"  They will not know until next week how they placed.  This afternoon I had a visit from a long time friend and modeler Dennis.  It had been about a year since I last saw him so it was nice to get caught up.

I got the vertical and horizontal stabilizers glued on today there is not much more to do before the covering starts on the Ford Trimotor.

Flying the quad

Vera's Iris are starting to bloom and we love this purple one.  I worked on the lawn today, last summer's heat caused some bare patches so I worked them up by running the aerator over them.  Then I spread grass seed and went over it again with the aerator before packing it down.  Rain is forecast for tomorrow so hopefully we will see some new grass in a couple of weeks.

I look pretty serious, it is because I am concentrating on the TV screen that is showing me where the quad is going.  There is no depth perception so I ran into lots of bushes and limbs while I was learning.  I also went through quite a few propellers.

That little camera on the front is how I see, the video transmitter is the rectangular thing with the funny antenna mounted on it.  It transmits on 5.8 GHz which acts a lot like light so if trees and brush block the signal it gives me a snowy picture.  So far about 400 to 500 feet away in the woods is as far as I can get.

James Baseball

I got a couple of flights on the little quad while Vera was at bible study.  When she got home, she made a trip out with the camera taking flower pictures.  This Columbine tucked in among the roses caught my eye so I am using it here today.

The pitcher made several attempts to pick off this base runner at first, James does a good job catching the throws because they are not all right on target.

James is rounding first after a hit that drove in two runs.  They won the game 3 to 1, in the top of the seventh James made an unassisted double play at first to end the game.  We stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home for dinner and I got my favorite treat, a Turtle Pecan Blizzard.

Landing Gear

I got the landing gear for the Ford Trimotor all figured out today and have one dummy shock absorber made up.  Now to take it back off and use it as a pattern for the other side.

This picture is from a few days ago when I was working on the cockpit/battery hatch.  I have the bottom magnets installed for the rear fairing, once it is covered I will epoxy in the upper ones.  If I don't do it that way the thickness of the covering will keep the magnets from making good contact.

This afternoon we went to Longview for James' game but we could not find it anywhere!  After going to Mark Morris and LCC fields we ran over to RA Long field and thought we had found it only to discover after watching for a few minutes that it was the JV game.  We went back to Mark Morris and LCC again and found nothing so we headed home via Safeway.  Just as we got home Michelle texted me that the game was at LCC at 6 PM,  We didn't feel like running back to town so we settled in for the night.

Sunday we went to church and I was able to deliver the videos of the talent show.  I worked on them Saturday evening and then finished up the editing Sunday morning and burned the DVDs just before leaving for church.

Buff Puff

I was working on pictures when Vera said the girls were flying a kite.  I grabbed the camera and went out to watch, it turned out Rielee was flying the kite and the twins were watching.

I can remember when Steve would be out there for hours pushing the girls as they swung.  Now they can get pretty high all by themselves.  After the kite flying and swinging was over all three girls had a snowball fight with blossoms off of Dianne's bush.

James was playing in the Buff  Puff volleyball game tonight, the game was a fund raiser for a safe graduation party for the seniors.  Michelle is in the gray sweater taking a group picture of the Mark Morris team.

James and most of the team has been practicing for about a month and they played pretty good.  They won their first match against Kelso in two games.

James looked like he was having a good time, laughing and joking with his and the other teams.  They ended up playing in the championship game and it was close all the way but they lost the third game 15 to 12!

Michelle used my camera to take a couple of pictures of James, Vera and I, it was a fun evening!

Timber!!

I started out taking a picture of the Calla Lily and ended up taking pictures of a whole bunch of flowers this morning.  This azalea blossom with rain drops on it turned out to be my favorite.  Then I spent some time in the shop working on the Ford Trimotor.

I had just mixed up a batch of epoxy when Steve came over to ask about falling the dying tree we had offered them.  When I got the epoxy applied we went out to check where to fall it.  There was a pretty clear shot right down one of the trails, Steve rigged up ropes and a come-a-long to make sure it went the right way.

Steve is making the undercut in this picture.

After he got the undercut made, he put some more tension on the rope.

Then he started sawing!

Steve had put wedges in the cut and drove them in several times, as he was pounding them in this time the tree started falling.

It is about half way down in this picture, Vera said it shook the house when it hit the ground.

Those darker areas might be why it was dying.  The tree falling sure made for and interesting afternoon.

Catching up!

Boy was I stiff and sore this morning from working on the mower the last two days.  I skipped my exercises this morning and decided to catch up on my blog.  I have been making a draft each day and I used the new computer last night to make its first post to the blog.  I went to the shop for the Nikon P7000 for some pictures that were on it.  On the way back I took some pictures of the flowers, this one of the azalea turned out very nice.

Vera mentioned to me that my favorite rhododendron was in bloom so I took a whole bunch of pictures of it.

On the way to the shop with some stuff tonight the moon was looking neat through the trees and clouds so I went back for the camera.  This is the picture I liked best.  I did some work on the Ford Trimotor while I was out there and the battery hatch is almost done.  A lot of the stiffness is gone this evening so my day of rest helped.

Mower

The last parts for the mower came Monday, Tuesday morning I started on putting it back together only to discover another problem that needed fixing before I could continue.  That ended up taking all day and I didn't get to start on it until today.  I also got a hard disk duplicator Tuesday and I cloned a larger hard drive for the new computer.  It worked great, so I did one for the old computer and it seems to be working OK so it will go to the shop to replace the really old one there.  I did get the new computer all hooked up on my desk and working Tuesday evening.  Things went much better with the mower today.  By the time Vera got home from bible study I had the drive belt installed and the electric deck clutch mounted.  I found another problem with the steering and it took a trip to town for more spacers to cure that.  I finally got all the belts on with a little help from Vera and got the yard mowed before it rained.  I also got the computers switched in the shop.  It has been a busy couple of days, but I think everything is done.

Monday baseball

James is making a catch at first for the out, then he ran toward home and kept that Washougal runner at third.  It was the warmest day of the year today, every thermometer we saw was reading 90 or above!

James really has to stretch out to make some of the outs at first!  Mark Morris won this game 11 to 1 in 5 innings via the mercy rule again.  We headed home after the game to the air conditioning and dry clothes.

Quad Flying

I had a great time at church today, I got to visit with several people.  After we got home I did some work on the Trimotor, then Vera said it was real calm on the south side of the house.  I went out and by the time the day was over I had put eight flights on the little quad.  Going around the trails is getting much easier.  The three azaleas North of the house are really bloomed out, I am not sure who took the picture Vera or I as Vera is outside with the camera taking lots of pictures.

Lots of Flying Today

Yesterday James had a game in Woodland, we were tired from the big day of flying so we didn't go.  Mik sent me this picture of James hitting a triple, he also had a double and was hit by a pitch so he was on base a lot.  They won the game 9 to 7!

It was the best day for flying we have had this year!  74 degrees and the wind never got over 1 1/2 mph.  This is Leonard making a low pass, it was a small turn out, I counted five flyers during the course of the day.

I got in eighteen flights and we were there for ten hours.  We stopped at Betty's for dinner and got to watch someone get stopped right in front of us while we ate.  They didn't get a ticket, just a short talking to as the officer just ran his license and handed it back to him.  It is the first time in quite a while that we have driven home in the dark.

Marie's Phone

The big news today is I got Marie's replacement phone all set up.  She had left her old one in a pocket when the clothes went out for washing, need I say it didn't work when it came back.  I picked one up yesterday and started the number changing process.  When I say process, it is a long one, I went through several steps yesterday but it never did activate.  Today I called in and an automated voice talked me through putting in codes on the phone, as soon as I finished and hit the power button it started working!  Boy was I glad to see that, the last time it took several weeks and they sent me 4 SIM cards before they got it right!

James' Baseball

James had a game today, so we left early so we could get a parking place by the fence to watch as it was pretty cold and windy, you can see Vera and Michelle in the background.  James played good and it was a close game 1 to 1, then Mark Morris got a couple of runs and I think it was 4 to 1.  Hockinson changed pitchers and the new pitcher hit several batters and walked a bunch more until the game was ended in the fifth inning by the mercy rule at 11 to 1.

After the game we went to Applebee's and had dinner with Mik and Michelle.  James and the entire team showed up there also for a team meeting.

New Computer

This patch of Easter Lilies grows right in the middle of the lawn South of my shop.  We mow around it all summer and then mow the whole thing down in the fall.  It must like it because they come up and bloom every year.  The new computer showed up today so I spent a good part of the day setting it up.  The first thing that happened was Windows 10 started updating itself.  That took most of the afternoon and evening, but everything worked great when it finished.

We found this glass jar, that we think was a pickle jar, out on the trails when we were moving a fallen alder.  I cleaned it up and ordered a cheap solar color changing LED light from amazon that looked like it would sit on top.  It came today also and it was a perfect fit on the jar, it puts a really nice pattern of light on the table.

Flying the quad

I had a great day!  I got a flight on the little helicopter and one on the quad before church.  Our magnolias are fully bloomed out so I took a bunch of pictures of them after church.  This afternoon I put three flights on the quad flying in the trails South of the house.  I put the batteries back on charge and got the fairings for the Ford Trimotor's tail done.

First I made up two pieces of balsa the same thickness as the tail assembly.

This is after I tack glued the dummy pieces to the fuselage, added the pieces that will be the fairings, sanded everything to shape and broke all the temporary glue joints.  Next I will mount the tail and put the fairings in place.  After dinner I put in three more flights on the quad flying the trails and trying some new routes where there is no trail.  I am going to hook up a video recorder so I can put a link to one of the flights here in a day or so.

Talent Show

I was asked to video the church talent show tonight. I worked on the Trimotor until it was time to go to the church.  We went down an hour early so I would have plenty to time to get set up.   Vera kept an eye on the Sony video recorder and I used the new Nikon to video from the other side of the church.

The show was great, lots of laughter and good music.  I have been having problems with the computer for several weeks and it did not want to boot up tonight.  I decided that rather than get in the middle of the editing job and have it quit that I would just order a new one.  After several hours of research I ordered a new Lenovo from Costco.  I have a Lenovo laptop and it has been a great computer so I thought I would try their desktop.

Indoor flying

The Lewis county club had indoor flying scheduled tonight at the Centralia Middle School.  We left early and took Jackson Hwy to Toledo, then we crossed over and took the Military Road to Napavine.  From Napavine we cut across to Jackson Hwy again and went through Chehalis and Centralia on the way to the school.  This picture is of Ken's plane, he is the one on the right in the picture below.

There was a small turn out this time, only four of us there.  I had a great time and I only ran into two walls and one basketball backboard.

86 Degrees

Today was forecast to be in the mid eighties, I had thought about going flying but decided to stay home.  Vera took this picture of a flower arrangement I got her, it is artificial and has color changing LEDs in it that come on at night.

I did some yard work in the morning, trimming and tying up these roses.

It was nice enough that we had our lunch out on the deck.

After lunch we made a mail run and then drove around town, Front Street sure looks good with the cherry blossoms all opened up.

Then we went to Lions Pride Park to watch the river and fishermen, just as we were getting ready to go a couple came down the river in kayaks.

I flew the quad this afternoon and ended up with it upside down on the shop roof.

It flew fine after I got it down!  Later in the day I flew the Revo (little helicopter) when the wind calmed down.

We also took a walk in the woods and got some nice pictures.  I think this is the prefect Easter Lily!

It was Cathy's birthday today so I made a card with this picture in it and took it down to her.  We had a nice visit and it was fun watching Jillian, Bridget and Tor play.