New Years Eve

 

We stopped and checked the river level at Lions Pride Park when we made our mail run today.  It was still pretty high and I didn't see any fishermen.

We had decided to have Polo Loco from the El Compadre for our New Years eve dinner.  They brought is out to the car for us and we headed straight home to enjoy it.  It was great as always and we had enough leftovers for another meal.  We had a quiet New Years Eve, I worked on the Corsair while Vera read and watched TV.  The fireworks started early and went all evening with a lot of them going off at midnight.  I didn't notice them after that as I was asleep resting up for a day of flying New Years day.

Loading Parker's Logs

 

I was working in the shop on the new Corsair when I heard a motor sound I didn't recognize.  I went out and they were just getting setup to load the trees Parker had fallen.  I told Vera so she could watch and went out to watch and take pictures.  These self loading trucks are sure neat.

This is Steve helping him get turned around with the first load.

He was back a while later and loaded the rest of the logs.  There was one log they didn't take, it had lots of big knots and the mill will not take them.  It sure made the day go by fast watching them, lots of fun!

Flying

 

I tried out my new hooded gaiter for flying today and it was really comfortable and warm.

It was a little foggy to start with but I put the first flight on my new little Ultrix delta.  It is easy to launch with the flight stabilizer turned on, it is amazing how small the electronics have gotten.

The afternoon turned out really nice and I got the first test flight on the repaired F-18 that I used as a lawn dart.  It is now named Old Yellow Nose and flies great!  I put the weather station readout where Vera could see it and she sure enjoyed knowing what it was doing outside the motor home.

Heading Home

 

This is Vera and Cora discussing lunch.

There was still plenty of room in the driveway.

Cora made several trips up and down the driveway to Steve and Dianne's giving her doll a ride in the stroller.

Vera came out and got them to pose for another groups photo.

All hooked up and they are heading home.  I got a text from Jackie later and they made it home earlier than expected, apparently the traffic was pretty light.

Vera noticed the moon was bright this evening and said I should take a picture of it.  I haven't posted a moon picture for awhile so here it is.

Christmas Day

 

This morning Cora dressed her dad up in the Princess outfit she got for Christmas.

Then he helped her put everything on.

Then I got them to pose for a family picture.

Cora was really happy with the coloring set she got from Aunt Michelle and Mik.  Vera made them scrambled eggs for breakfast.  Later they went up to Debbie's for dinner before driving to Portland to see Bev.

I puttered in the shop while Vera made dinner which was delicious.  Then I got to try the pecan pie which was great!  This picture is when I went for the second piece.  Of course the picture of it ended up on Facebook.

This is our great grandson John Patrik and his sister Chloe with the Christmas presents we sent them.  It was another good day, a lot different from most years but just as nice.
 

Christmas Eve

 

There was a slight change in plans today, Jackie, Chris and Cora were going to be at Debbie's for Christmas but Chris did not want to drive up the hills to Toutle so they setup their travel trailer in our driveway.  They connected up to the RV hookup I added and got it leveled up.  Cora got settled in playing with the toys and we visited with Jackie while Chris took a nap as they had been on the road since five.

We had planned on going to look at lights in Longview and Kelso and have dinner this evening.  Jackie, Chris and Cora settled into the trailer for the night as Cora was getting a little tired after being up since five also.  This house by the Barnes Elementary school in Kelso was our favorite.  The animated one over on Allen St was just a little too busy for us.  After dinner we drove to Longview the lights at the Civic Center and Lake Sacajawea were really nice.  It was a good day even if it was a little different than we had planned on.

Christmas Prep

We were up early and headed down to Fred Meyer for our Christmas food order.  It was a little foggy as we went down the Pleasant Hill Rd.  It cleared up once we got in town and the traffic was light.  I also ran into Safeway and picked up a few things.

I had ordered two of my favorite pies, Pecan and Dutch Apple.  The apple got baked right away and I made good use of the pictures on Facebook.
 

LED Headlights

 

UPS deliveries have been brought by a pickup lately, today he brought my new LED headlights for the motor home along with some servos for the Corsair.  It was a nice warm day so I started right in making the change.  This picture is after I got the right side done.  The camera made the left ones look better than they were as they were quite yellow compared to the bright white of the LEDs.

The job went pretty good except for one screw on the left side.  I ended up taking the whole headlight assembly out so I could get the Channel Locks on the screw head.  I used all stainless steel screws when I put it back together, I may have take the right side apart and do the same thing.  After I was done I checked the water level in the radiator and it was low but the coolant recovery tank level had not changed.  I did some checking and found a bad hose connection and a missing dip tube in the coolant recovery tank.  As I was looking for something to repair it with I came across a quarter inch aluminum pipe and hose I had made up for another job.  It turned out the pipe was a perfect length and the tubing the right size to hook to the radiator.  I am excited to take it for a drive and see if it works right.

After dinner and a short nap in front of the computer I went out to see how the lights looked in the dark.  Boy do they make a difference!  This is a picture of the moon and them.  They are on low beam, they have a very clean line so they are not shining into oncoming traffic, on high beam they light up the trees on the other side of the neighbors place.  After cleaning the shop stove and filling it with pellets I called it a night and came in to do this.  It was a great day, nice weather, Vera made a couple of delicious meals and I got several thing fixed.

A slow start

 

It was ten before I got ambitious this morning then I kept pretty busy the rest of the day.  The first thing I did was get the Blazer out and loaded the recycling into it.  We used it to tow the garbage can down to the road for pickup tomorrow morning.  We stopped at the post office, then did the recycling before heading to Four Corners for some pellets.  I sure wish I could still throw those bags around like this guy did, I can pick them up and move them no problem, just a lot slower than him.  I finished epoxying in the carbon rods in the Corsair wing this afternoon.  This evening I found that I had the correct motor for the Edge 540, I also got all the servos mounted before coming in to watch Monday Night Football.

High Water

This is a cropped picture from yesterday that shows the water level a little better. 

We went down today to see how much different it looked after coming up about two feet.  I parked in the same spot and tried to get the same picture as I did on Saturday.

For a change of pace from Burger King we took the scenic route to the Kelso Dairy Queen and had their Chicken Strip Basket and Blizzards for lunch.  The six piece was enough for lunch and dinner tonight.

After watching my recording of the Seahawks win I went out to the shop to work on the new Corsair wing.  Most of these ARFs (Almost Ready to Fly) I have built are not strong enough in the landing gear area.  I am adding some carbon fiber rods to brace the area that is cut out for the retracts.  I made more progress than I expected and got the first part of them epoxied in.  The rest of the evening was spent writing this and watching Sunday Night Football.

Visitors

 

When I went to the shop this morning, I opened the door and there was this deer over by the storage container looking at me.  I went back in, got the camera, told Vera and it was still there when I got back.  I took several pictures before heading to the shop and it just watched me.  I saw another one over by a rhododendron but it never came out where I could get a picture.  Vera said the one I took the pictures of laid down and rested for a while.  It was nice seeing them because they haven't been around much lately.

We made a run to the post office later and went for a ride afterwards.  As we went by Four Corners Vera said there were geese in this field.  After cruising PH-10 we came back Umiker Rd and I took this picture just as another flock was joining the one already there.

About half of them got scared off by the cars and came around again and I got this picture.

We drove down to Lions Pride Park to check on the river.  It was quite a bit higher and there wasn't much room for the fishermen to park.  I did see one guy fishing up around the bend.  I have started working on the new Corsair planning out some reinforcements to the wings and landing gear.

Santa driving a FedEx truck

 

Santa was driving a FedEx truck today.  I have been looking at this Corsair model for a long time and Tower Hobbies had a really good Cyber Monday price on it and I couldn't resist.

The Edge 540 I bought in Longview was missing the rudder so I built a new one, covered it and got the hinges installed today.

Corsair

 

I had a good day working on the Corsair and F-18.  The F-18 is back in the motor home ready for the next flying weather.  I sanded out the Corsair rudder, covered it, added the graphics and installed the rudder.  I just need to clean the plane up, tighten the covering in a few spots and it will be ready to fly.

An early Christmas present and Airplane repair

 12-9-2020

I saw this Edge 540 advertised on the Facebook Marketplace a couple of days ago.  I contacted the seller and we drove down to check it out.  It looked like a good one to practice aerobatics with so I bought it.  It had only been partly built so I can finish it the way I like.

12-11-2020

Josh and the boys came down today and brought us an early Christmas present that we are going to enjoy!

Jordon and Vera had a nice long session playing with the cars.  Jordon really liked one we have that he can take apart and put back together.  Jacob is starting to talk and was really interested in some color changing decorations we have.  He also discovered the button for changing the light pattern on our little Christmas tree.  The present was pretty cool, I had a good time setting it up and trying it out.

12-13-2020

The last couple of days I have been working on my Corsair, the left landing gear collapsed and it flipped over breaking the vertical fin.  After I got the landing gear repaired I started working on the rudder and found that not only was the vertical fin broken but the rudder was broken in four places.  After taking the covering off and repairing the breaks I added two carbon fiber rods to the vertical fin and one to the rudder.  I don't think it will break now!

I got the F-18 nose sanded to shape and fiberglassed.  Then I gave it a coat of white and three or four coats of yellow.  Hopefully this will help me keep track of it when flying with the other F-18s.

A Very Busy Day!

 

I wandered out and took some pictures of the motor homes this morning, it looks like we could get another one in here without too much trouble.

Barry and Mona left about nine this morning.

I did some sanding on the F-18 nose today and it is getting close to the right shape.

We made a run to the post office because two orders were supposed to be there, but only one was in the box.  We drove over to 4 Corners to try and figure out where a new business was going to be built.  I think we have it located but time will tell.  After that we cruised over the dike then decided to take Headquarters Road home.  I was ready this time and got pulled off the road in the right spot to get a picture of Silver Lake. 

I checked the tracking and it said the second order was available for pickup before our first trip to the post office this morning.  I printed out the page and took it with me and sure enough they had forgot to put out a notice for my box of foam.

I took this picture right after we picked up the package of foam.  Then we went home to eat before going out to look at Christmas lights.

This is the first house we noticed the Christmas decorations on this year on Pleasant Hill Road as we were going down to pick up that order at Fred Meyer when I chose PM instead of AM.

Vera liked this house on Pleasant Hill Road that had the angels.

Next we went into town, this house is a block West of the Methodist church and is decorated nicely every year.

I liked the Bears sitting on the porch of this house across the street from the first one.

It had started to rain lightly when we were on Pleasant Hill Road and the streets were wet by the time we got to town but they sure give a nice effect to the pictures.

This is out on Gassman Road, they decorate this tree every year with lots of lights.

This place on Quick Road had an old truck decorated.

Gateway Park at the North end of town had a bunch of these little elf figures that are really cute.

Our last stop was to get a much better picture of Bob's lights, the rain on the driveway made it even better.  We sure kept busy today but it was all fun.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, this post is a dandy!