James' Volleyball

Mark Morris and R A Long boys had a volleyball game tonight as a fund raiser for their senior graduation parties.  The picture of James setting was taken during warm up.

During  the introductions I would have liked to hear what was cracking the boys up so much.

For having his wisdom teeth pulled yesterday, James played pretty darn good.

R A Long won the first game, Mark Morris won the second one and R A Long won the last one.  After the game James was getting his picture taken with a couple of friends, so I took one also.  We had a really good time and the boys on both teams played great!

Off to Arizona

Bright and early this morning Barry and Mona headed out.  They were planning on making it to Mona's sister's place in Medford today.  I fooled around with the old Sony laptop most of the day, the update to Windows 10 failed so I hunted for the cause.  I had it running really good on Windows 7 by the end of the day and that is where I may leave it.  Of course I may feel different in the morning and try again.  I also got a canopy latch put on the Extra 300 and I made a set of wing bags for it while I was waiting for downloads so the day wasn't a total loss.

Barry

I was just hooking up the battery on my racing quad for a second flight when I heard a familiar sound, Barry and Mona had arrived.   They are headed back to Arizona and this was their first stop.  After we got power hooked up to the motor home, Barry, Mona, Vera and I went down to Papa Pete's.  Barry was treating me to my birthday pizza.  We had a really nice visit with them there and at home afterwards.  They were tired from a big day of loading so it was an early night for them.  Vera got my Mom's Cocoa Mounds recipe out and made a copy for Mona.  Then she made a batch of Cocoa Mounds for their trip home.

Marie's Phone

We made a couple of trips up to Marie's today, her phone only had 6 more days of service and I had picked up a new Tracfone for her.  When we arrived the first time these four deer were walking past her window.  I had taken my laptop along and with it tethered to my phone, I tried to switch her old number to the new phone.  The program wanted some information I couldn't find, so I gave up and asked her if she could get along without it while I took it home and tried.  Before we left, we got a list of things she needed, then we stopped at Walmart and picked them up on our way home.  When I finally got the service set up, it turned out they would have to send a new sim card which might not get here before her current service ended.  I got her 30 days more service on the old phone and we ran it back up to her along with her supplies.  The weather was terrible the first trip, the second trip up was better and when we came home it was great.  I had to make one more trip tonight, I had a club meeting at Stuffy's.  I had missed the last meeting, so I felt that I should go to this one.  I couldn't find anything on the menu I wanted, so I ordered their carrot cake, except I ended up with German chocolate cake, I had eaten most of it before I realized it was wrong, but Great!

Seahawks Win

Here I am with my new Russell Wilson jersey on ready to root for the Seahawks.  Mik, Michelle and James gave it to me for Christmas, I love it!

I had a couple of Debbie's cinnamon rolls for a snack before we went to church.

It started snowing this morning about 9:30, so there was not a large turn out for church.  There was a piano duet this morning of the Three Wise Men that sounded great.

This is how it looked when we got home.  I settled in and started watching football, the Seahawks win sure made my day!  The new jersey must have helped, because the Seahawks played great today!  It snowed off and on all day, when I came in from the shop this evening, there was about and inch and a half.

Moon

James was stopping by early to leave his car while he went fishing, so I went out early to check the pellets in the shop stove.  On the way back I noticed the moon was showing up really clear so I went and got the camera.  I took a couple of pictures that looked pretty good with the camera on automatic.  I went in, downloaded them onto the computer and I could see they were over exposed.  I went back out and took a couple one stop under exposed and one at two stops under exposed.  This picture is the two stop under exposed one.  It would be a little sharper if I put the camera on the tripod, but it was cold out there and I didn't want to mess around any longer than I had to.  I had a nice visit with James and Dalton until Chris showed up to take them fishing.  I went online later and got a printed hard cover book of my 2015 blogs ordered.

I worked on the Lancaster bomber today, when landing it wants to drop a wing really bad.  Both wing tips are angled up which causes wash in instead of wash out making the tips stall first.  After checking out how other people corrected it, I decided to cut a vee groove in the bottom of the wing and bend the tip down in front to close it and create washout.

This is after I glued it and filled a few spots, most of the groove turned out about like the left end looks.

I was careful not to cut through the top of the wing, with the light hitting it right, you can see how it tipped the leading edge down.  When James, Dalton and Chris got back from fishing we visited for a while and before the boys left, they packed six bags of pellets in for me.  I have been going through them pretty fast during this cold weather.

New Years Day Flying!

This is just as the sun came up New Years morning, I had the motor home all loaded yesterday, ready to head for the field today.

On the way up Jackson Hwy. there was no traffic, so I stopped and took a picture of the barn with the Dr Pierce's ad on it.

Then I turned around and took this picture of the trees, the frost was really pretty!

Mt Rainier looked nice with all the snow on it.  Seeing this and Mt St Helens as you are flying is sure a bonus.

Once I had both of my propane heaters set up, I got the planes out and started flying.  First I flew the MXS-R on the left to warm up my thumbs.  Then I put the first flight on the Extra 300 on the right, it flew great!  The maiden flight of the little purple and yellow Mustang was next, it took some trimming but it was flying fairly well by the end of the flight and even with the small wheels I taxied back after the landing.  Not too bad for a fifty dollar plane.

May brought fresh, still warm cinnamon rolls she had made.  Boy were they good, the first layer disappeared in a big hurry.

In the afternoon, it looked almost like any other day of flying except for the coats and frost on the ground.  We had twelve club members show up during the day and ten of them flew.  There were also five family members with the flyers so it was a nice turn out.

There were skydivers and this ultra light flying today.  Both look like cold things to do when it is freezing.

The jumpers did look like they were dressed a little warmer than usual.  At least we had very little wind on the ground and heaters to stand by.