Jordon's Visit

I was doing more work on the motor home today when Jordon stopped by, well Josh and Debbie were there also.  Vera was really getting a kick out of holding him, he smiles so easily.  I had fun holding him as well, I was standing by the door and he was swinging it back and forth.

We had to make a run to town later for some parts and Vera pointed out this sign at the Mt. St. Helens Motel.  I turned around and came back for a couple of pictures.

I took this one in case the text didn't show up on the first picture, our niece Auna won the State Javelin with a personal best throw of 137 feet 2 inches.  It was a great day, I got two new antennas installed, the radios have not worked this well in a long time.  I still have a little work to do as the right speaker in the cab is not working.

Memorial Day Flying

I had a great time flying today at Toledo.  There was a good turn out at the field, I counted 18 people who were there during the day.  I got in sixteen flights with the eight planes I got out today.  The solar panels worked great, both coach batteries were full when we left

I ran out of fingers!

I forgot a cute story from yesterday's blog, during one of my many trips between the shop and motor home I saw Dianne and the twins at the play fort so I walked over to say Hi,  right away Harper asked me how old I was, I told her "I was born in 1939 you figure it out".  She gave up right away but Ava was really concentrating and counting on her fingers, she said 78.  Dianne and I both complimented her and said she was one year off.  Her answer was, I ran out of fingers!

I went out to get a picture of the solar panels for this blog post, I started to climb up on the porch rail but it did not seem very steady so I got the eight foot step ladder and took this picture.  I spent the day cleaning and charging my airplane batteries.

This is the panel I built for the charge controllers and battery monitor.

I have not had the Corsair out all winter so I loaded it up today, this is how I transport it, the tail wheel is fastened to the oven door handle.

I will probably never take the Pitts apart unless something fails, all the wires, struts and linkages make it a big job to disassemble so I strap it to the dinette table.  We still have a little room to get by with both of them in there.

It was really pleasant when I came in from taking the pictures, the sun was just setting but the picture with the tree tops showing did not turn out.

Solar Panels and a garage sale

The fuchsia that Mik, Michelle and James gave Vera is sure an interesting shape as the flowers open up. 

Thursday the twenty fourth we went to a garage sale being put on by one of our church members.  I ended up with a Craftsmen belt and disk sander for ten dollars.  Vera bought some Christmas angels and some wooden dolls.  When we got home I started putting a pair of hundred watt solar panels on the motor home.  There have been a couple of butterflys flitting around here for a few days.  Once as I was going into the shop for tools this one flew right in front of me and landed on the flowers.  By the end of the day I had things planned out, the wiring ran and one panel sitting on the roof.

Friday we made a mail run that ended up in Toutle for lunch at the diner, then a garage sale where Vera got this plant stand.  Then it was back to work on the solar panels.  I made up, stained and mounted a panel for the charge controllers and battery monitor.  I had it all wired up before the day was over.

This morning as Vera was looking out the North window, she noticed this bright yellow lily, so she had to take a picture of it.  Today I moved the motor home out in front of the shop and started cleaning things up and reorganizing my planes.  All day long the battery monitor showed the voltage but never showed any current draw.  I finally pulled it out and sure enough I had the gray and black wires reversed.  After correcting that it started showing the amps being used.  I also discovered that one florescent light draws more current than a sixteen foot LED strip.  It took a little longer than I had planned on but I am really happy with the results. 

54 Years sure went by fast!

Vera heading to bible study this morning.

We went to the Masthead Castaways after Vera's bible study to celebrate our fifty fourth wedding anniversary.  Vera's view out the window included these clouds.

My view looked like this, either way is was a beautiful day.  The years have sure flown by fast but they always do when you are happy.  It has been a great marriage.  We did a little shopping after that at Fred Meyer, then we stopped by Mik and Michelle's and had a nice visit.  We spent the rest of the day at home relaxing.

Fingernail Polish

Sunday we went to church, the bell choir played and they always sound so nice.  In the afternoon I worked on the new MXS, it is going faster than the Pitts as I have a pattern and I finally found the CD with the instructions on it.

Monday we hauled two or three loads of limbs from the oak tree to the burn pile.  Then I was finally able to cut it into a couple of logs.  I am going to see if I can get them cut into some planks.

Just as we finished up the last load Vera asked if we could cut down the small dead fir by the driveway.  We did and it wasn't rotten as I had expected so we limbed it and left the trunk for Steve and Dianne to use for firewood.  Then I used the lawn mower to blow the debris off the driveway and Vera got this picture.  I measured the dead fir tree today and it was 109 feet tall.

These wild roses come up all over the place and are kind of pretty.

Quite a few years ago we found a branch that had rooted on my favorite rhododendron.  We cut if off and transplanted it by an old stump.  This is the first year it has bloomed.

Vera was taking pictures while I mowed and found that our Clematis was in bloom.

The foxglove, bachelor buttons and fern make a nice little setting by the back deck.

Just as I was finishing up the mowing Vera noticed our favorite rose had it's first bloom of the year.

This is a picture Jackie sent me today of Cora right after getting her nails painted and she looks really happy with the result.  Today I worked on putting a couple of solar panels on the motor home.

Debbie and Faro Field

Our big surprise today was when Debbie texted me a picture of her Bachelor of Science in Nursing.  Boy are we proud grandparents.

We stopped at Toledo for one flight on the Pitts and then we went to Faro Field on the Pleasant Valley Rd. near Napavine.  We had seen on Facebook that they were going to be out there for some test flying of a new plane.

It is a great place to fly, there is lots of wide open space.  This is another of those pictures that suddenly appeared on the camera.  I am not sure if Jeff or Tina took it but it was a pleasant surprise.  My Pitts is in the upper left hand corner and Sonny's plane is the lower one.

This is Sonny getting ready for one of his flights today.  The safety rope and stake is always a good idea when starting these bigger gas engines.

I flew four out of the five today, I didn't fly the yellow Mustang because the grass was a little long for it.

This is the T-34 that Bob B. test flew today.

This is the first takeoff, he was really happy with the way it flew.

This is the landing after the second flight.

This is something you don't see at the field everyday, a 1938 Plymouth.  It belongs to the property owner and he asked Bob to exercise it a little so he ran up and down the runway for a while with it.  It was a good day, when we got home we washed all the rigs before going in for the night.

Marie's Wheelchair

We made a run up to Centralia and delivered Marie's wheelchair to her.  She asked about it last week when we where there.  Her digital picture frame had quit working so we took her a new one also.  Marie's friend Signora was there when we arrived.  She told several stories that were really funny and Marie sure got a big kick out of them.  We found out today the Signora is a pastor, a surprise since we have know her for years.  Marie was in a great mood and told a story also.  We had lunch at the new Arby's in Napavine on the way home and then explored a new way out of Napavine we have never tried before, it worked fine and we ended up at Highway 12.

After we got home Vera made a trip around the yard taking pictures of flowers.  This is the flower Mik got Vera for Mother's Day.  We found the perfect place for it that I will have to photograph soon.

This is one of our favorite Iris, we have some others with purple in them but they did not have a good background for pictures.

Steve and Dianne have sure done a lot of work on the tree.

Flowers and the Golden Palace

Vera was out this morning taking pictures of the flowers, these columbines are really pretty this year.

All the ferns are coming up now these lacy ones by the bird bath are my favorites.

This evening the family got together at the Golden Palace for a late Mother's day dinner.  In this picture Bev has just discovered that Jordon had somehow gotten into the settings on her phone which were password protected.

Jordon was sure fun to watch, he has grown so much!

We got pictures of all the moms after dinner.

Mik was playing with Jordon while we were taking the pictures.

Debbie wanted a selfie with everyone in it.  James was moving the car with Vera's present so he was not there when we did it.  Jordon started pulling Bev's hair just as the picture was taken.

Mik had picked up an extra gift for Vera on the way through Portland.

The sunset was looking pretty good on the way home so we swung by Lions Pride Park for pictures.

I hung up the fuchsia that Mik, Michelle and James gave Vera.  She watered it and we settled in for the night.  Spending time with family is always so nice.

Falling the tree and Flying

Yesterday I got a message from Mark wondering if they could fall the tree early today.  I said sure and we agreed on eight this morning.  In this picture Roberto is about half way up the dead tree.

He climbed up and put a line around all three so they could pull them in the right direction.

Mark was up the other tree cutting off the dead limbs that hung over the driveway.

This is how the line was rigged.

In this shot Roberto has made the undercut and is falling the tree.

It went down quicker than I expected, I was going to do a five shot burst but I didn't get the camera set in time so I only got this one picture.

When the tree hit the ground a lot of the dead limbs broke off.

This is how the skyline looks now.

While the tree falling was going on Steve went down to rent a stump grinder.  He and Parker are building a wood shed on Parker's property and there was a stump right where they wanted one corner to be.

That grinder doesn't look big enough to do much but it was grinding right through the stump and it is easy to operate.

They were done with the tree by 10:00 so we headed up to the flying field.  Doug had bought this ultralight at a swap meet a couple of weeks ago.  Leonard has a full sized one like it and was all excited by it.  Steve donated a speed control to the project and it was all ready for a test flight today.  Doug had Leonard check it out, test fly and trim it out.  After the flight Doug gave it to Leonard.

We had a nice afternoon sitting in the shade visiting.  I did some more trimming on the Pitts and after an adjustment to the aileron differential it is really flying good.  When the temperature got into the eighties we packed up and headed home to the air conditioning.  I ended up mowing the lawn this evening when it had cooled off a little.