Happy Tuesday, Logs and First Flight

1-28-2023

Our neighbor Jim got the trees he had fallen for me hauled out today.  I heard the loader running but I was not up to walking down there yet so Vera went down and took these pictures for me.

They had them all piled down by the fence line when Vera took the pictures.  Several logs were in good shape and Jim was going to take them down to Bob Roller's saw mill to be sawed into lumber.

1-31-2023

Just about every Tuesday Laury sends me a Happy Tuesday picture.  This is today's and Josie looks like she is having a great time.  These pictures sure get my day off to a good start!

I have been feeling good, sleeping eight hours every night so I decided to fly the helicopter today.  I had a good flight and I was really tickled when Vera came out and took pictures. 

It was only about thirty five out and I could definitely feel the cold air around that open toes shoe they have me wearing.

As I went out to take the helicopter battery off charge and lock the shop the moon was shining through the cedar tree so I took a picture with my phone.  I was really happy with how well it turned out.

Toe Surgery, Blazer, James and Josie

 1-26-2023

This is the X-ray after my surgery today on my toe.  I had a 9:30 check in time, then lots of checks and prep.  I went in for the surgery about 10:00.  After recovery I got out to the car around 11:30.  Our first stop was at the Kelso Dairy Queen for lunch as I hadn't eaten since 11:00 last night.

This is Vera as we left Dairy Queen, she gets to do all the driving for a few days.

Riding in the right seat meant I could look at a lot of things I don't normally see.  It wasn't long before I had Vera's phone out taking pictures.  This picture is taken from Pleasant Hill Rd looking towards Headquarters Rd.

We have been seeing lots of railroad equipment down by Kelso and today they were working on the tracks next to Pleasant Hill Rd.

1-27-2023

I had lots of bleeding from the portion of the toenail they removed yesterday.  I was changing soaked up pads all afternoon and through the night.  I might have gotten one or two hours of sleep.  I decided I needed to go back to see the doctor again so I got online and messaged them about the bleeding and took a picture to send along.  That picture is too gross to share here.  They called me at 8:30AM and asked if I could come in at 10:00AM, of course I said not a problem.  They were amazed at the amount of blood soaked by the pads in the forty five minutes since I had changed them.  They got the bleeding stopped and did a procedure that they didn't have the materials for at the hospital and this is how it looked when I got home.  The nice thing about all of this is I have never had any pain.

Vera made deviled eggs this afternoon they were delicious.  I only planned on having one but ended up eating three.  I have a guy who is going to buy the Blazer so James came up today and helped Vera clean our stuff out of it.

While James was here Laury sent me this picture of Josie enjoying her picnic and hot chocolate.  A great picture that cheered me up some more.

A Busy Week so far!

1-23-2023 

I had a Covid test scheduled at Peace Health this morning.  It was pretty easy, drive up to the sign, call the posted number to check in, then wait for the two cars ahead of us.  The nurse came out and checked my ID, swabbed my nose and we were free to go.  This afternoon I got ambitious and cleared one trail where a bunch of fir limbs had came down during the storms.

1-24-2023

I had a follow up dermatology appointment this morning for the blisters on my leg.  There have been no new blisters since my last appointment so the doctor feels the BULLOUS PEMPHIGOID is in remission and I can stop taking the antibiotics.  After my appointment we stopped at Safeway for some Pepsi and managed to spend over two hundred dollars.  I am well stocked up with snacks now.  I found out this evening that my Covid test is negative so I am good to go for surgery Thursday.

OK, I didn't take a picture today so I went back and got one from ten years ago of Ava, Harper and Rielee playing with magnets out in my shop.

Vera's new phone and MRRCS

1-13-2023

I had to include this picture Laury sent me of Josie, it is so darn cute!
 

1-16-2023

I had my Pre-Op appointment today at St John's, then we stopped at T-Mobile to get an issue with my phone straightened out, funny how one setting can make a difference.  After our favorite Roast Beef and Swiss Sandwiches for lunch at Arby's we headed home.  Not long after we got home James came up with a load of pellets for me.  We had a great visit with him before he unloaded the pellets.  I got the new T-Mobile cell phone that Vera will be using pretty well set up today.

1-19-2023

I went out and took some pictures with Vera's new phone today.  This is the one I set up for the wallpaper.

1-20-2023

James stopped by to visit today and ended up showing Vera how to work some features on her new phone.

1-21-2023

We were up early this morning to head up to Roy for the Mount Rainier Radio Control Society monthly meeting.  I wanted to pick up this year's gate key because we are planning on making more trips up there after my toe heals.  We stopped at Space Age to fill up and right after leaving there we started seeing snow flakes.  We took the old highway most of the way to Costco which was our first stop.  We were greeted with really wet snow when we came out of there and got pretty well soaked unloading the cart.  We went through snow showers all the way to the field but it was nice and warm in the club house.  There were enough members there that the meeting had to be outside where is was pretty cold.

I took this picture after the meeting when the sun came out.  There was a good turn out, Vera and I both thought there were about thirty people there.

A young man made one flight while the sun was out and I stuck around to watch it as the SAAB Gripen is one of my favorite planes.  We had snow hitting the windshield most of the way home.

Sunset

 

Vera called me to the window to see how the sunset was hitting the tops of the trees.  I went out and took this picture of it.

It was so nice out that I put my coat on and got a flight on the FW-450 helicopter.  I tried to get a picture when the strobe light was on but that never showed.  We decided to switch to T Mobile for our home phone and internet.  I got the internet working last night but I could not get the new phone switched to our old number.  We went down first thing this morning and I was their first customer.  It only took them about five minutes to switch it over.  It sure made a difference, our speeds are now 180 Mbps download and 6.78 Mbps upload.  That is much better than the 3 to 5 Mbps download we had before.  I got my toe surgery scheduled for January 26th at St John's.  It is going to be busy for the next week or so with a preop appointment this Monday, Dermatology appointment, Covid test and surgery the next week.

A sunny day

 1-6-2023

I had an appointment with a podiatrist this morning for my ingrown toenail and hammer toe.  After he explained the options to me I decided on the one that requires surgery but is a permanent fix.  Now I just have to wait for Kaiser's approval and get it scheduled.

1-8-2023

I had been watching the weekend's football games on YouTube but I was ready for a break so I went out and got a flight on the helicopter.  After that I went over to Steve and Dianne's to get a battery that needed repair from Steve.  I had a nice visit there and Dianne sent me home with a short story written by Sherry Chastain about growing up on Abalone Hill.  I got the battery repaired for Steve with my new spot welder.  Now I am charging it to make sure it works OK.

1-10-2023

It was a nice sunny day so we went for a ride to get the mail and then hit the A&W at Space Age for a root beer float, root beer shake and I had a burger.  We were both happy with our choices as they tasted great!  I got Steve's battery repaired and returned to him, it took a special charging arrangement to get the new cell balanced to match the others.

About once a week Laury sends a picture of Josie.  Today's picture of her enjoying the sunshine was so cute I had to share it.

Taking down the lights

 1-3-2023  I got my blog book for 2022 made and ordered today.  I remembered this afternoon that I had the game camera set up in the area where the trees fell.  Luckily one tree fell on each side of it.

1-5-2023  James came up today, he brought me some more wood pellets and then took down the Christmas lights.  Taking the lights down sure went fast with him doing most of the work.  While we were visiting before he left I showed him some of the pictures from the game camera and he said I should use them in my blog.

The first good picture on the game camera was Steve going by on his mower.

I got a pretty good one of myself when I was looking at the two dead trees that Jim fell.  That limb sticking into the picture was not there when I set the camera up, the wind must have blown it down.

This is the one good picture of a deer I got.  I have lots of pictures of their backs and such but the camera was aimed too high.

Tree Falling

 
Our neighbor to the South Jim who lives in Eddie Roller's house came over this morning and fell the two dead trees South of the house for me.  By the time I got out there he was in the final stages of falling the first tree.

This is the first tree as it went down.

This is first tree and it's stump.

The second tree leaned a little the wrong way but Jim had no problem getting it to fall the way he wanted it to go.

Tree number two is a little further down in this picture.  I had the camera in the five shot burst mode but the next ones didn't show the tree that great.  I told Jim he was welcome to any of the wood he wanted and it sounds like he will be getting some of it.

I spent the rest of the day puttering on the computer.  Then I went out and made a modification to Steve's Ryobi battery pack.  I took it back and had a nice visit with Dianne before heading in for the night.

New Years Day Flying

I got in my annual New Years Day flight at home this year.  Just getting over a cold and only having a forecast high of 44 helped me decide staying home was a good option.  I had charged three batteries yesterday but after one flight with the FW-450 sitting in front of the stove felt really good!  So I worked on getting all caught up with the blog the rest of the day.  I had a nice call from Pam this afternoon and got all caught up with her.  Our new neighbor Jim came over and is going to fall a couple of dead trees for me tomorrow, so I have that to look forward to and photograph.  I also gave him a tour of the shop.  It is a good feeling to be caught up with the blog, I will try and do better this year!