Visit to Debbie and Josh's

We ran up to Debbie and Josh's about noon today.  Josh showed us what he is doing to his race car until Debbie got home from work.  Vera hadn't been there before so Debbie gave her a tour.

Debbie's baby chicks are getting pretty big now, she has twelve of the them plus six or eight full grown ones a friend gave them when they couldn't keep them any longer.  Josh looked around the pen and found four eggs while I was with him.

These are the feeders Debbie made out of PVC pipe.

Vera thought this tree looked impressive so she took a picture of it.  Just sticking into the picture on the left side is the root ball of a fifty foot fir that blew over a couple of days ago.

Steve's brush pile burned pretty good.  I picked up one load of limbs from the lawn and along the driveway to add to the fire before we went up to Debbie and Josh's

We were sitting North of the house enjoying the warm weather and I took these pictures of the apple and lilac blossoms.

Flying

Normally the two model clubs I belong to meet on different weekends.  Because of Mother's Day, this weekend they were both on the first Sunday.  One was drive 36 miles, a work party and meeting then flying, the other was drive 16 miles, flying, a meeting and more flying, flying won out so we went to Toledo.  It was a little windy, but right down the runway most of the time.  I got the heavy planes out and flew them all day.  After we got home Debbie and Josh stopped by, I got to show them the Mitsubishi, the tree Steve fell and have a nice visit.

The great tire adventure

We were up early this morning to head down to the free tire recycling event.  The Washington State Dept of Ecology and Cowlitz County were taking old tires and rims at the old dump site.  I had the old 16.5 inch wheels and tires from the motor home to get rid of.  We got there right at nine when it opened and the line was already clear out the gate.  When we finally got up to where they checked to make sure you lived in Cowlitz County they mentioned the trailer tire was flat and looked about ready to come off the rim.  After they unloaded the tires the trailer tire sprung back in to shape and we were able to drive slowly to Les Schwab and have two new tires put on.  While that was being done, we went to Walmart and picked up a new set of floor mats for the Blazer.  When they finished the trailer we went to Home Depot and picked up some materials for hand rails on the shop porch.  Our quick run to town turned into four hours.

Barry had taken the Mitsubishi and stayed Friday night at Cathy and Bob's.  He came up in the afternoon and we watched the Reno Air Races I had recorded, then Vera wanted a picture of the two of us with the car.

 While we were out there we heard the twins at the fort and walked over to visit.  They were showing off for Grandma and they can go really high.  I can remember when they had to be pushed all the time.

Gabe, Des, Parker and his friend stopped by on the way to the prom for pictures with grandma.  All the kids are sure growing up fast.  Not long after this we left to take Barry to PDX for his flight back to Arizona.  By the time we got there I was feeling a little more comfortable driving the Mitsubishi.  On the way home we stopped at Safeway to pick up things for lunch Sunday at the flying field.  By the time we left the cart had $119 worth of stuff in it.  We will eat good this week!  It was a fun day that just seemed to fly by.  The last thing we did was take a drive after dark in the new car so we could look at the moon and clouds through the sun roof.

Outlander

Today we bought Barry and Mona's Mitsubishi Outlander.  Barry had driven it up from Arizona earlier this week and has been taking care of some things in Olympia.   He came down this afternoon and we got everything taken care of at the Credit Union.  We had a nice visit over birthday pizza while they finished up the paperwork.  The manual is a pretty good sized book and I have a few things to get used to.  I turned on the wipers twice while trying to put it into gear.  It had been a while since we had a vehicle with selector on the console.  It sure looks and drives nice, we will really enjoy it.

Mowing and Thunder

I wanted to get the mowing done today while it was nice.  It had been put off several times because of the weather and it was getting pretty tall, almost ready to go to seed.

The magnolia tree is in full bloom now.  The trees and plants in this area will be getting more sunlight now with the cascara tree being knocked down by the snow and Steve falling the fir tree.

The huckleberry bush by the deck looks really healthy this year.  It's kind of nice being able to walk out and eat them.

Our biggest azalea is almost in full bloom just a few more days of warm weather should do it.

The pansies we put out have made it through some hail and rain storms, they looked a little droopy for a while but have recovered nicely.

 This is the only picture I took today, Vera took all the rest.  Just after I finished mowing and we were sitting down for dinner the thunder started, followed shortly by a really heavy rainstorm.  Not long after dinner a new member of the club stopped by to get a servo.  He had one fail and wouldn't be able to fly this weekend without a new retract servo.  Luckily I found a new one I had stashed in a drawer, it is a style I don't plan on using again.  My new digital picture frame showed up today.  I added a couple of hundred new pictures to the SD card and got it hung up in the shop.  I also got the trailing edge sheeting glued on the right wing of the P-39.

Flying and Falling

The warmest day of the year was forecast for today so we were up early and ready to leave before nine.  Vera took these pictures of these Hyacinth before we left, it looks like spring is slowly getting here.

I was all set up and ready to start flying by ten.  I had a great day, I lost track of how many flights I made but it was lots.

The moon was out today so I asked my friend Steve to fly around it and I would try and get a picture.  This is the one that turned out best, it looks like the plane is balanced on the moon.  It was up to 77 degrees by then and I started loading up.

As soon as we got home Steve showed up ready to fall the tree South of the house that had cracks in it and I was worried about it falling during a wind storm.

The tree didn't go down easily, Steve had a rope rigged to it that we tightened up several times until I couldn't pull the cable winch any tighter.  Steve had five wedges and two hydraulic jacks in it and it still wouldn't go down.  He finally got Parker's tractor and got it pushed over with it.  I had planned on getting more pictures as it went down but I got excited watching Steve push with the tractor and was not ready when it fell.

After we looked it over Steve started cutting the limbs off.

A couple of before and after pictures.  It was a big day but lots of fun!

Auna's Birthday

Here I am playing catch up again!  Sunday we went to church, then I wasted a lot of the day on the computer surfing.  I finally went to the shop and worked on the P-39 making up the wing sheeting for the left wing and gluing it onto the wing later.  Of course as I was fitting it I managed to push my thumb thru it.  Luckily it is in an area that will be covered by the fuselage but the repair turned out pretty good.

Monday I started getting the ailerons sanded to shape.  We made a mail and grocery run and there was a letter from Marie, she needed some supplies so it looks like Tuesday we will be shopping for her.  After a run up to let Sam and Mozzie out, I did some more sanding on the P-39.

Monday evening they were having a 17th birthday party for Auna.  I took this picture of our first rhododendron to bloom as we were going to the Blazer to drive up.

Then I took a picture of this azalea that is blooming, no leaves yet, but several blooms.

The one plant that is really blooming is the magnolia.

It was lots of fun watching the kids play tonight, they were having a good time with Emmy.

They were all over Auna as well.

By the time David got all the candles lit it was turning into a pretty big blaze.

 They couldn't wait long to sing "Happy Birthday" or all the candles would have been melted.

Jillian sure surprised Auna by leaning in and blowing out about half the candles before Auna blew.  It was a fun evening visiting with the family that was there.

Today we did the shopping for Marie and made a run up to deliver the stuff.  Her digital picture frame had quit working so I took mine up and swapped with her.  I also loaded a hundred or so pictures from the last six months on the card for her, now she had over a thousand on the SD card.  She was in a great mood and we had a really nice visit.  Every time we had gone up she mentions a lady in the pictures she doesn't recognize.  After I got the picture frame running one of the first pictures to come up was Pam holding Cora, so now she knows.