James and Strawberries

 

I was up before six again today to water as over a hundred was forecast for today and it was already seventy when I got up.  As I came out the door a little after six the sun was starting to hit the driveway.  After watering I started clipping some of the grass around the shop.  Vera came out a few minutes later to pick blueberries so I stopped and helped her do that.  We didn't get as many as yesterday so we will wait two days and see what we get then.

When I took some weeds to the compost pile I thought this angle would make a nice picture of the house with the trees highlighted by the sunrise.

James came up this afternoon and brought us birthday and Father's Day cards.  Michelle had sent along strawberries she had gotten from a farm in Rainier.  We had a nice visit with James and heard all about his new job.  James wanted to visit Dianne so I went with him.  They were happy to see him and my cheeks hurt from laughing at some of the stories that were told.  After James left we had dinner and the strawberries over ice cream for dessert.  Boy was that good!  This evening I got the Corsair loaded into the motor home and did some rearranging of the planes I had in there.  All of our thermometers were reading over one hundred this afternoon.  The two in the shade were reading 103° and 104° so I am pretty sure that is pretty close to what it was.  I finished off the strawberries with some ice cream tonight, a nice end to a good day.

James, Sunrise, Blueberries and the Corsair

 

I had planned on putting this selfie of James in his flagging gear in Wednesday's blog but forgot.  He was working at Rush Road in Chehalis that day.

I was up early this morning to water since the forecast was for near one hundred degrees.  I took this picture just before I started watering and planned on getting one of the sun as it came up.  Looking at this picture I can see the sunlight in the trees so I guess it was already coming up.

After watering I got the string trimmer out and cleared out around the three blueberry bushes South of my shop.  Lots had ripened since yesterday so Vera and I ended up picking them.  We had already picked them when I took this picture so I had to hunt for a ripe one and I believe I ate it right after the picture.  Then we had breakfast on the deck which was really pleasant.

I finished putting the marking on the right side of the Corsair this afternoon.

New markings, retracts, landing gears and wheels, it is ready to go in the motor home and get flown the next time we go out.

I talked to Barry this afternoon and he sent me this picture of their Polaris parked under an outcropping in Utah.  They are over five thousand feet and he said it is really pretty there with the red rock formations and green vegetation.  I did some cleanup in the shop and put away tools this evening getting ready for the next project.  It was a great day and it did hit one hundred degrees!

Corsair

 

I was up fairly early today to beat the heat again and get the plants watered.  After I finished with that I sprayed for weeds.  I was going to pull the mower deck off the lawn mower so I could check the drive belt but discovered an ant nest where I was going to work.  I also discovered the blueberries are ripe and they taste great.  The new servos for the Corsair showed up a day early so I got them installed this afternoon.  After a great dinner of ground sirloin, four cheese mashed potatoes, biscuits and mixed vegetables, I went out and started putting the vinyl transfer markings on the Corsair.  I used the laser level to get them aligned and they turned out pretty good.  Now if I can get the right side done the same tomorrow I will be very happy.  The day was really made perfect when Vera made Cocoa Mounds tonight.

Beating the Heat again!

 

We headed up to the field early again today to beat the heat.  There was even a fine mist hitting the windshield on the way up and my hoodie stayed on until the clouds burned off.  Then it got hot fast!  I decided to just fly relaxing planes today, the Bird of Time is great for that.  I put in two flights with it and found some thermals both times.  The first flight was twenty plus minutes and I ran the motor for three minutes.  The second flight was after the sun came out and it was thirty minutes with a motor run of two minutes.  I also flew the Skylane and the little Edge.

By one it was uncomfortable sitting in the sun flying so I loaded up and we were on the road about one thirty.  UPS brought a couple of new batteries I had ordered so I spent the afternoon installing new plugs on them and charging them.

Vera's Birthday

 

One of the treats Vera brought home from her birthday celebration at bible study, it is sure cute.

The napkin is what they had at the party also and the little blue berry muffins are really good.  I picked up Polo Loco at the El Compadre for Vera's birthday lunch.  As we were sitting out on the deck eating it Laury and Josie stopped by for a couple of minutes.

They didn't stay long because Josie wanted to be on the move all the time.  Laury commented on the pansies in the hanging basket so I took a picture of them later.

I used the Blazer to pick up lunch and when I put it away I noticed the roses were blooming over by the carport.  It was a nice relaxing day for both of us, I even got the Corsair's cowl painted for the third time.  It looks pretty good so the third time was a charm.

Beating the Heat

 

We got up early today and headed to the flying to hopefully get in some flying before it got hot.  I made my first flight a few minutes after eight.  There was a small turnout today, only four other flyers.  By one I had gotten in quite a few flights and it was starting to warm up so I started loading the planes up.  We were on the way home at one thirty enjoying the motor home's air conditioning.  I puttered on the Corsair the rest of the day and discovered the aileron servos were not returning to center fast enough so I ordered a new pair this evening.

Flying, Mountains and Jumpers

 

I hadn't had my MXS-R out for quite a while so I loaded it into the motor home yesterday.  It flies just as good as I remember.  It was overcast to start the day but then it cleared off and was really nice.

I was taking a picture of Mt St Helens when I noticed Jim's little jet coming and ended up getting a good picture of it.  There was a small turn out today, just six of us flying.

Mt Rainier was showing up very nicely today.

The jump plane was really busy today.  We were debating about if they were going up with the door open.  In this picture I took just before we left it looks like there is a transparent roll up door of some kind. 

There were lots of tandem jumps today.

I got a little close to the grass at the end of the runway on my last landing today and picked up a souvenir.  No damage but I had to take it around and show everyone.  My goal today was to leave about two before it got too hot.  I did pretty good as we headed home about two thirty.

Chips and another tree

 

We have been working on spreading the chips from the tree falling around the lilacs.  They should keep the weeds down and hold some moisture in the ground.  We have been doing it first thing in the morning to beat the heat.

After we were done with the chips and had our breakfast, Vera mentioned she heard chainsaws over towards Steve and Dianne's as Chippen Tree Service was taking down another tree for them.  So I headed over to help Steve supervise.  They had a few limbs off when I got there and were part way up the cedar tree.

They took all the limbs off and then started falling the tops.  This is the second top to go.

After the tops were off he came down cutting sixteen inch pieces off until it was short enough to fall.

After all the excitement was over I went to the shop and worked on the Corsair.  I put different retracts into it and had to move the wheel well to a more scale location.  I also worked on the Dish DVR, it was completely full of recordings so I have been moving them to the external hard drive.

Chippen Tree Service

 

We had Chippen Tree Service come in today to take out the maple trees West of the lawn.  They have been shading the other plants and putting lots of debris in the gutters.  I discovered today that the Southwest gutter is plugged up with leaves from them.

This is the first tree they fell.

They set the chipper up on the trail into the Northwest corner of the lawn.  It sure makes short work of those maple limbs.

This is the first big maple they fell, Vera said it shook the house.

This is not a job I would like and he was working with sore ribs after a run in with his dad's cow as they were loading it into a trailer.  They mentioned that they are getting his dad a cattle prod for Father's day.

It didn't look like a lot of fun leaning over to cut limbs off so the tree would fall the right direction.

There was quite a bit of firewood from the trees they fell to the North.

This is the biggest tree going down after having the limbs trimmed off on the house side of it.

Here is the first load of chipped up limbs, we are going to use them on the trails and flower beds.

After dumping the truck they moved the chipper to the East side of the house.

All the maples are down in this picture and they are doing the final cleanup and cutting up the firewood.  They put in a long day, they got here about eight thirty and it was close to three when they left.  They did a great job and were very friendly people to talk to.

Weathervane

 

Vera got me an all copper weathervane for Father's Day.  I got it up today and also moved the wind chimes I got with a gift card from Mik, Michelle and James.  I couldn't hear them very well where they were before.  I also rebuilt the other wind chimes I have hanging on the shop.

I moved the weather station I had on the shop to the Northwest corner of the house.  While I was sitting on the rail waiting for Vera to get a screwdriver for me I took this picture of our Japanese maple and the small pond.

I had time before the rain started to get two flights on the Trex 500, it is flying better every time as I make small adjustments to the programming in the transmitter.  This evening I got started on adapters for installing new retracts in the Corsair.  It was a busy day but everything went great!

Flying with James

 

We went flying today, the weather wasn't quite as nice as the long range forecast had predicted but we did lots of flying between showers.  James came up after he was done with a job interview in Vancouver.  He got in a couple of flights before heading home to finish a speech for his LCC class.  I mowed the runway this morning after my first flight and luckily got it done before the biggest rain shower of the day.  I was glad I had the awning out to protect things so I could go sit with Vera and watch the rain.  I put in a little longer day than normal so it was around seven before we got home.

Clouds

We made our weekly run to Fred Meyer this morning.  On the way down it was mostly blue sky from horizon to horizon but on the way home the clouds had started forming.  They looked really nice with the sun shining on the back side so we stopped near the Carnival Market and took some pictures.  I spent the rest of the day doing some helicopter flying and loading the motor home for flying tomorrow.  The Trex 700 seemed to fly way different than the last time I flew it.  When I got back to the shop I discovered the two pound weight I use to make it sit securely on the shelf was still in the battery compartment.  It flew much better during the next flight.

Josie's First Birthday

 

We went to Josie's birthday party on Sunday and had a great time.  There was lots of family there and it was fun catching up on the latest happenings with them.

Josie really had her eye on the cake that Emmy was going to give her.

Josie is a super neat eater I think it is the best I have ever seen a one year old do feeding themselves.

She also did a good job of feeding Dan

and Emmy.

Josie was still eating cake during the family photos.

She had fun with the boys, walking to Tor and giving him a hug.

They had several guessing games set up, this one was really cute.

Dan and Emmy have a very nice home with a good view of the Columbia river.