A New Dogwood

 5-29-2022

Saturday James came up and we changed the oil in his car, he did all the work while I worked on putting a new seat on the mower.  He had packed it out to the mower because it was really heavy.  He also filled up my pellet cart.  We had a great time working out there together.  Today I got the seat finished up after a run to Harbor Freight and Wilco for parts and decided to give it a try.  Just before I finished up mowing Vera took this picture of me.  The new seat works great, the back's angle adjusts and the arm rests are just the right height.

I have been wanting a picture of the shop's rhodendrons so I took Vera's camera and took this picture. 

Harper came by heading for the fort and Vera asked her to smile and pose for a picture.

Ava was right behind her and Vera made the same request.  They have sure grown up!  It just seems like yesterday that I used to walk over to Dianne's to play with the babies for exercise after my knee replacement.

5-30-2022

Yesterday while getting parts at Wilco I saw that they had dogwood trees.  We were looking for one a couple of day ago and there were none in Castle Rock.  We went down today and picked up this one to fill in the gap in our lilac row.

After I took the picture of the new dogwood I turned and took this picture of the rhodendron and pink dogwood.

Then I took this picture of our other pink dogwood.  Vera always remembers that Michelle and Coleen brought it to her.

There are still lots of flowers to open up.

I spent quite a while getting the picture of a bee in a rhodendron that I liked.  They are really enjoying it, while I was taking the pictures there was the constant drone of the bee's wings.

We have quite a few columbine in bloom.  This is the ones that are by my shop.

The iris seem to be doing great without any care.  We have lots of this color.

I don't know what this iris is called but it sure is pretty!  It was a good day, we got lots of things done and I am feeling great.

Flying

The Toledo weather forecast called for light winds all day so we headed up there this morning.  The forecast also called for a chance of rain at four in the afternoon.  If I had set my watch to four when I heard the first rain drops it would have been right on.  They are getting pretty good with some of their predictions.  The door is open because I heard the water pump running and found a plug had came out.  I jury rigged a repair and made a permanent repair when we got home.

As usual the Skylane was the first plane I flew today.  I love to shoot touch and goes with it.

I also flew the Electra, Extra 300BP and the Corsair.  I either landed the Corsair hard or hit a hole because the left landing gear was broken after it's flight.  On the way home we stopped for Deluxe hamburgers at Betty's and ate them at the South Lewis County Park.  It sure feels good to be flying again.  

58 Years

 58th Anniversary

Boy time flies when you are happy.  We celebrated our 58th wedding anniversary today.  We didn't do a lot because we are both still not 100 percent.  We went down to the river and ate lunch while enjoying the view.  Other than that we stuck pretty close to home.  We do plan on doing something special when we both feel good and the weather is better.  We are really blessed to have such a long and happy marriage.

Flying at Faro Field

I felt really good this morning so I did some quick battery charging and we headed up to Faro Field to do a little flying.  There were ten of us there when I took this picture.
 

I got both the Skylane and the Kitfox loaded in the Mitsubishi along with a few batteries and tools.  I ended up flying each of them twice and had a great time.

They have a control line circle set up, this is Tina flying her Buster.

They also have a radio controlled truck track set up.  Later there were four trucks racing together which was fun to watch.

We stopped in the middle of the covered bridge on the way out and took this picture.  On the way home we stopped at Betty's in Toledo and got their hamburger deluxe for dinner.  Then we sat by the river and ate them while enjoying the view.

I was still feeling good when we got home so I got the mower out and ran over the lawn.

After putting the mower away and locking up the shop I came across this little rabbit eating where I had mowed by the house.  I started talking to it and it went back to eating.  After a bit it went over on the border, picked out one of Vera's flowers and nipped the top off.  I kept talking while it ate, I got my phone out and got this picture of it.  It was still sitting there eating when I went into the house.  That was a perfect end to a great day!

Working outside in beautiful weather

I woke up feeling great today after the first night in bed for quite a while.  I had been sleeping in my chair because I was having trouble breathing lying down.  Once it warmed up a little I mixed up a couple of gallons of weed spray and sprayed the dandelions.  It was so nice we had lunch out on the deck.

My next project was cleaning up the dogwood tree top that the snow had knocked down.  Dogwood branches are terrible to work with, they have limbs going in all kinds of crazy patterns.

This is how it looked after hauling off a couple of loads of debris.  I also cleaned up a couple of other trails that just had a few branches on them.

I have been working on the P-40 when I felt good.  Some nights I would just look at it and head back in.  Yesterday it got the wing mounted and the fairing installed.  The canopy is not glued on yet but I wanted a picture of it sitting on it's wheels for the first time so I packed it outside and took a few pictures.  My treat tonight was ice cream with rhubarb topping.  Vera picked a stock of rhubarb and boiled it down into a syrup to pour over the ice cream.  Boy was it good and it was gone before I thought about taking a picture of it.  Two more doses of antibiotics and I am done with that.  It sure has got me feeling good again.  Two firsts today, when we went down to get the ice cream I had to turn the air conditioner on in the car.  A little later I had to set the house thermostat down to cool it off.  I am looking forward to many more days like this.

 There is going to be a bunch of catching up for the next couple of posts.  I had a really bad cold and I ended up with pneumonia by the time it was all over.  I had a doctor's appointment scheduled before it started, when I went in for it Vera insisted I have the doctor check my lungs.  They sounded ok but she ordered a chest X-ray for me which I had last Monday.  It showed I had pneumonia in the lower part of the right lung.  My doctor ordered antibiotics for me and I have been getting better every day.

5-7-2022

Jordon had a T-Ball game today at the Y.  Jacob's shirt says it all, "I Love to Cuddle".  He is just as much fun to watch as the game.

Jordon is on first after batting.  It was fun to watch the kids with their mitts, one girl on the other team was wearing hers as a hat.

Jordon is practicing his dance moves at third.

Jacob is playing with the cars we got them for Easter.

It is fun watching the coaches get the kids lined up for the hand slaps after the game.

Surprise Party

In the afternoon we went up to Debbie and Josh's for a surprise 75th birthday party for Josh's Grandma Anita.  Josh's mom had planned the party and it worked out great as Anita didn't have a clue.

 

Jordon is on his great grandma Anita's lap.

The boys had a great time playing with everyone there.

Josh sat in the kid's rocker for a little while.  That rocker was Beverly's when she was little.

I talked with the two friends Anita was visiting with and it turned out they were both named Genivieve which was my mom's name so we had a good discussion about that.

Jordon had insisted they get flowers for all the mothers so Vera came home with a nice bunch of roses.

5-8-2022

James brought up a Mother's day gift for Vera a couple of days early.  Michelle's friend Colleen always lets her know when they are in at 4-Corners.

Mik, Michelle and James took us to breakfast at the 49er and we had a great time.

Both Vera and I had enough for another meal to take home with us.

I should have gotten Mik into this picture.

It was a great way to start our Sunday!

5-9-2022

Three hundred feet in elevation sure makes a difference with the plants blooming.  This is by the post office, ours at home have not even started to bloom.

We got a little of everything weather wise today except for snow!

We had a pretty nice sunset to finish off the day.

5-11-2022

Vera is really excited that her Camas Lilies are starting to bloom.

It was a nice sunny day and I felt pretty good so I did a few things outside.  The Mitsubishi has been missing under a load so I changed the spark plugs today.

This is the easiest car I have changed spark plugs in since I had my 1960 MGA.  Each spark plug has it's own coil like the one that I am holding in this picture. 

There is a lot of difference between the old and new ones.  The car ran much better after the change.

I ran the mower over the lawn before calling it a day.

5-15-2022

I was not feeling good this weekend so I didn't go to Jordon's T-ball game Saturday or Jacob's 3rd birthday party on Sunday.  Debbie and Michelle sent me the pictures I am using here.

I like the look he is giving Michelle.

He is blowing out the candles

Jacob sure looks happy coming down the inflatable slide they had set up in the shop.

Jordon and Paxton are about ready to go down the slide.

Jacob is opening one of his presents.

Jacob looks pretty happy with the bubble train we got him.

Jacob is trying out the backhoe he got today.

It looks like Jacob and Jordon had all the toys set up in their room that evening.

5-19-2022

I felt much better today!  I got out in the shop and worked on the P-40 a little.  There are only a couple of more things to finish and it will be ready for a test flight.  My lungs have cleared up a lot, I don't get short of breath like I was earlier in the week.  Two more days of antibiotics and I will be done with that, boy keeping track of when to take everything was almost a full time job.  The phone helps by giving me reminders.