Estate Sale

Saturday I spotted an estate sale on the way to get the mail, on the way home I had a sudden urge to stop.  I ended up finding a box of radio control car stuff for ten dollars.  After I got it home I discovered it is a four wheel drive car in fairly good condition.  I am not sure about the radio yet as there were some leaking batteries in the transmitter.

I got the cooling duct work all done on the Pitts, now it is time to fit the cowl which I did Sunday after church.

Monday we made a mail run, this is the weekend mail for Marie.  She got on lists of people who donate and all of these were requests for money.  Later I went out and tried the motor in the Pitts only to discover it would not generate enough power on four cells to fly the plane.  I immediately began searching online for one that would work.  After I figured out the KV I needed I found one in my motor drawer that should be fine.

Rainy Day

It was a rainy day so I spent a good part of it working on the Pitts and resting up for a busy three days.  I feel like the cold is still hanging in there so I have been taking it pretty easy.

Debbie, Jordon and Bev went up to celebrate Cora's birthday and Jackie posted some pictures of Cora and Jordon in what looks like a new wagon.

Jordon sure looked cute with these sandals on in a picture Debbie posted when they went to the zoo.

Vera was out taking pictures of the flowers today, this is our first rhododendron bloom of the year.  I am not sure why but this plant is the first one to bloom every spring.

Mowing and Flying

We were up early and at the flying field about eight thirty.  I tipped the tables up so I could mow under them and started mowing.  Steve showed up just a little later and went over to mow Mrs. Herren's lawn.  When he finished he mowed the area between the gate and barn where we drive in.  He also brought a dozen donuts from the Castle Rock Bakery for the crew and they were really good.

Doug showed up next and took over from me to finish the runway and mow over by the barn.

It got up to eighty three degrees today so there were quite a few sun shades set up.  I spent a fair amount of time under ours.  We had a pretty good turn out, I counted twelve members there today.

Up early

I was up early this morning and after breakfast decided to wash the car so Vera would have a clean one to drive down to bible study in. The pollen has been covering everything and it does not just rinse off, it has to be scrubbed. Since I had everything out we ended up washing the Blazer and motor home also. While Vera was at bible study I did a mail and recycling run. After lunch we ended up cleaning the ponds before I headed down to the 4H robotics class. Now the girls are getting interested in it and we had a pretty big group in that little room before it was all over with today.

Vera had the camera out while I was gone and took a bunch of pictures around the yard.  The magnolia is sure nice but I wish they lasted longer.

It is going to smell good North of the house pretty soon since the Lilacs are starting to bloom.

This one really puzzled me as I had no idea where this was.  I finally found it in another picture so I know now it is on the South side of the house and I have walked right by it many times.

Flying

I felt like I was all over the cold so we went flying today at Toledo.  It got up to 79 degrees before the day was over.  It wasn't long before everyone was wearing tee shirts.  Of course most of us had on black ones which was not the smartest move.

We had twelve flyers out today, this is Leonard shooting a touch and go.

Today I got a picture of the White-tailed Kite that all the bird watchers were looking for a couple of weeks ago.

Vera and Audrey saw it dive down into the field across the road and then fly off.  I tried to get a picture while it was flying but couldn't get focused on it.  It landed in a fir tree over by the airport and had it's lunch.

Audrey had told Vera about Chester's fried chicken so we stopped, got some and then went down to the South Lewis County Park to eat.  We sat on the bank eating while watching the ducks, geese and fishermen.  The family on the dock near us caught a fish so they must stock the lake.

Mowing and Shorts

After it warmed up and the grass dried out I decided to mow the lawn.  It had been a while so it took several hours.

By the time I finished it was pretty warm so I took a quick shower and put on my shorts for the first time this year.

When we were wandering around looking at the flowers I took this picture of Vera with the Magnolia in the background.

Quads

I sure slept good last night but I was still stuffed up and had a mild headache so I stayed home while Vera went to church.  We had signed up to be acolytes today so she did it by her self.  I spent the whole time right here in front of the computer, in fact this is where I spent most of the afternoon.  I started feeling better so I did a little painting on the Pitts and messed with the ponds a little.  I am going to have to clean them next week.  We ran to BK for dinner and ate at Lions Pride Park while watching the river, it was nice sitting there with the windows down.  After we got home I did some more work on the Pitts, when I quit I discovered a charged up battery for the quad I have been flying so I went out and put in one flight.  I stopped in the spot where it was against the sky and took this picture of it with my phone.

I had so much fun with it I got another one out that sends pictures back to the phone and took this selfie while I was flying it.  It is sure nice to be getting over this cold because there is some great weather forecast for this week.

The Pitts, Moon and Solar Lights

Well, there was not much improvement in the cold overnight but I slept good.  I was out in the shop early working on the Pitts pilot.  Around eleven we made a mail and pop run to town.  We had seen a garage sale advertised on Facebook so we stopped to look around there first.  We were big spenders today, it cost us two dollars and seventy five cents.  A dollar of that was cookies for me.  The mail was next, then the grocery store, two cases of pop and then we wandered around picking up some things, it cost us sixty five dollars to get out of there.

I had planned out the cooling for the Pitts so today I started building it, this is the start of the duct work.

My plan is to close off all the holes except the big oval one.  Then the air that comes into the cowl will have to go through that hole where the speed control will be located and cool it.  Then it will turn 180 degrees and come over the battery and out the duct I made.

Here I have added the small door that the real plane has there to let the air out.  I will also have two dummy exhaust pipe sticking out there.

This is how it will look with the cowl on.  The white square area will be repainted and have a vee running towards the outlet.

It is starting to look better with the cowl and canopy on.  I tried to get a better picture of the pilot but the glare from the lights was always blocking him out.

On the way into the house I noticed the moon again tonight so I came back out with the camera and took some more pictures.

After the moon pictures the solar lights caught my eye, they are sure bright with all the sunshine we have been getting.

The Birds are back

I still didn't have too much energy today but I heard a helicopter coming and that got me out of the house again.

I started looking for other things to photograph and spotted the sun on the flower Mona had given Vera.  It and the parrot made a nice scene.

Vera had been telling me about the Purple Finches on the feeder, this Chestnut-backed Chickadee was on it when I checked, then it flew up into the vine maple and I took this picture of it.

The Purple Finches came back right after that, they sure like the black sunflower seeds.

I didn't know what it was but I got a good picture of it while it was hopping around in the grass.  Then we looked it up on Google and it is a White Crowned Sparrow

Later I went out and my favorites the Gold Finches were at the feeder.  I sure like the 2000 mm lens as I got a pretty good picture after they flew into the bushes.

This Robin landed on the deck by the pond and stood really still for this picture before taking a bath in the upper pond.

These Pine Siskins sure don't share the feeder very well with others of the same type.  They spend more time chasing others off than they do eating.  I finally made it to the shop for a little while this evening and got the radio all programmed for the Pitts.

Cold!

Well I made it almost all the way through the winter before I caught a cold. Tuesday night I had to get up and sleep in my recliner when I had some charlie horses in my leg and I was all stuffed up.  The heat pad took care of the cramps and I just have a head cold so far, I am getting lots of rest so hopefully it wouldn't get any worse.  I spent most of Wednesday in the recliner.

I was up pretty early this morning and puttered on the computer most of the morning.  Then I went in to watch Let's Make a Deal and promptly slept through the whole show.  I managed to stay awake during the Price is Right.  After lunch I was back on the computer when I heard a helicopter coming so I grabbed the camera and got several pictures of a Chinook flying over.  When I looked at the pictures later I thought there was dirt on the lens because of the two specks on the right side.  When I zoomed in on the picture they turned out to be two bald eagles.

That got me started and I was filling the little pond when I noticed the wild strawberries were in bloom.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the sunshine, it was close to seventy out there and really felt good.

The sunshine perked me up so I took a short walk looking for a purple Easter lily, this was the nicest one I found.

Some of our patches of lilies have them at several stages of their blooming cycle.

After I took the pictures I edited some of them on the computer, when I finished that I decided to go out to the shop and refill the stove.  When I came through the kitchen I discovered Vera had made a batch of Cocoa Mounds and boy are they good.

When I came in from the shop I noticed the moon was out, this is the best picture I got of it.  Well, I hope I can sleep tonight because I am pretty stuffed up.

We got some new solar lights that I really like so I took a short video of one after I took the pictures of the moon.

Old Buildings

Sunday we went to church, it was good until the announcement that the pastor was leaving in July.  There were a lot of unhappy looking people after that.  I did some research online and figured out how I am going to modify the Pitts' cowling to provide an air outlet.  I also did some sorting of the robotics stuff.

Today we made an early run to Harbor Freight for some parts boxes to put the robotic parts in.  When we got home Vera saw on Facebook that the new restaurant Big D and LuLu’s Burger Shack in Toutle was open, they were quick with the orders and the food was good.  We headed up shortly after that and both of us had Lulu's Special which was a bacon, cheese burger with fries and we really enjoyed it.  After we were done we drove out towards Debbie and Josh's and gave them a call but they were both working.  We had never been to the end of South Toutle road so we went for a drive.  We checked out the drifting track and continued on, this building was one of the first interesting ones we saw.

They were all built pretty close to the road.

This one looks like it was built out of railroad ties or big timbers.

Not far from the Spirit Lake Hwy is this building that was buried when Mt St Helens erupted.

We had a little bit of every kind of weather today, sun, rain and hail.  I worked on the robotic parts and got one bag separated into a parts box.  I also got the beacon light installed on the Pitts and started constructing the air outlet.

The Paint didn't match!

Friday I had coffee at the vault with the church group, got a hair cut, got the mail, went to the 4-H garage sale at the church and then picked up the robotics stuff from the county extension office to check it out.  As I was coming out with the last load of stuff I met Pattie McVey and her sister Sally.  I hadn't seen them for a long time so after putting the stuff in the car I went back to the garage sale to visit with them.  It has probably been forty or more years since I had seen Sally so that was fun.  When I put the landing gear fairings on, the paint match was terrible so after I unloaded the robotics stuff we headed to town for more paint.  Our first stop was Evergreen Paint, I had a piece of the covering with me and they said they could mix paint to match so I had them do it.  They needed a couple of hours to make the paint so we went to the Masthead Castaways again for lunch.  I had Fettuccine Alfredo with scrimp and Vera had their loaded baked potato and clam chowder.  Once again everything was great!  After that we did some shopping until the paint was done and then headed home.  After I wet sanded the parts all down I started looking for my air brush to do the painting.  Many hours later I gave up and ordered a new one from Amazon with expedited shipping so it will be here Monday.  I sure hope I don't stumble across the old one this weekend.

Well I didn't see anything of the air brush while I was in the shop today checking out the Lego NXT robotics stuff.  I downloaded the software for it and got the batteries charged enough to find out how they worked.  There was a whole bunch of built things in the first box and I spent a good part of the day taking them apart.  One looked almost complete so I made a mount for the controller and tried it out.  I put the controller in the Demo mode, hit enter and it took off, ran a little ways, turned around, came back, turned around again, then the screen displayed a message to push the orange button to run the motor connected to A.  I didn't have a motor connected there so I canceled the Demo.  Now I have to learn how to program it.  Messing with it was a good rainy day project.

While I was working on the Lego stuff Debbie sent me some pictures of Jordon playing with the Thomas the Train we got him for Easter on ramps they had just gotten for him.  He is so darn cute.