Oregon City, Oregon - Week 4 - January 21 - January 27, 2019

Lots of maintenance work occurred this week.  It was time to cut back, trim, and tie up the Marion berries.  We decided not to do the Boysenberries because their maintenance had been neglected last summer, and there was not chance we could revive them for this season----so Ray cut them down to the ground, and we'll start fresh with this season.  But the Marion Berries are not so thicket-ish, and we started and finished them in the same week!!





Warren and Whitney are ferociously working on their back yard.  They need to replace their concrete slab patio, take out the current retaining wall and replace them with new and better designed  facilities.  One day, with a sledge hammer, Warren reduced the wooden deck off their bedroom sliding door and turned it into (with our help) a burn pile.





We can hardly wait for Burn Season to begin in March!



Monday the 21st was Warren's Birthday, and we celebrated it with a Nacho Dinner.  YUMMY!





Tuesday I took another load of scrap metal to the metal recycling place.  I love the big equipment just as much as I love getting rid of all of the junk metal.



Bev and Jessica went to Columbia Sportswear and came home with four small foxes.



Wednesday was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby.  Much to our happy surprise, it turned out to be a good activity.





Refreshments were cookies and finger foods and a fruit tray and a veggie tray which I got at Costco.

And, while at Costco I bought a new office chair - one that is actually comfortable and supports my lower. back.



Thursday was the day Camille redeemed her Christmas gift/experience.  She chose to go to OMSI. She wanted to go there because there was a traveling King Tut exhibit.....but the exhibit only was lasting one more day, but today (Thursday) was sold out.  She and Dad went anyway, and this is as close as Camille got to the boy king.

 



They went McDonalds on the way and then eagerly enjoyed all that OMSI offers.








Doorway for entering a submarine



Last week Kathy Robertson, a well loved member of our ward, died after a long bout with cancer.  She fought and struggled through a bone marrow transplant, chemotherapy, and long periods of feeling just awful.  She was a good role model for everyone.

Her funeral was, perhaps, the best funeral I have ever attended.  Uplifting and full of love.  I think Kathy planned most of the whole funeral.  She chose her favorite colors - hot pink and turquoise.  The food was her choice - her favorite....... the salad from Cafe Rio.  She loved Schotch-a-roos which were offered to the attendees before the funeral service.   She had a white casket and people could use colored permanent markers  to write a message to her.



Jess, Bev, and I helped with the food for the family dinner ---salads like you get at Cafe Rio.  We helped prepare the meat and then after the funeral helped finalize all the food.



Two of the helpers



The food aftermath - there was so much food left over.  We could eat for a month on it.



On Sunday the Gray siblings were asked to play during Sacrament meeting.  They did a beautiful arrangement of I Believe In Christ by Mack Wilburg.  Whitney did a great job of arranging the music for four violins.  But...we can't ever tell Mack that his arrangement was "arranged" by Whitney.



Dad got his combined Birthday and Father's Day present - special deal at Costco.  Introducing the new member of the family - "The Silverton"





Tonight for dinner, Evan practiced his cooking skills and made oven baked chicken and rice.  Turned out very well.





A good week!

Oregon City, Oregon - Week 3 - January 14 - January 21, 2018

On Tuesday when the kids came after school, we had a different snack for them.  Who would have guessed it, but they loved the steel cut oats with hot fudge sauce, blueberries, and a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar.  We offered it for four days and then quit making it before the novelty wore off.











I spent most of the week clearing out the old shed which is next to where the chicken house used to be....I don't even remember what happened to the chicken house, but it is gone.  The poor shed had been nearly empty when we moved here in 1977, but shortly after we moved to the Manor, Auntie Virginia gifted to Ray much of Uncle Lloyd's woodworking tools and a work bench, and a cabinet with a bunch of little drawers that were full of nuts and bolts. And since the late 70's, additional stuff (aka junk) has been added to the shed until the point when only mice could scurry around inside.  It was time to clean it out - and hopefully make it habitable for Malcolm to use for his plumbing equipment.



One of the sides of the shed is falling off; Malcolm did his best to jack up the side and stabilize it.





You can see - and walk - inside it now, but trust me, there were layers and layers of crud and junk mixed with mouse bedding and other mouse stuff.





There is a real problem with this part of the floor



I must have removed about ten loads of wheelbarrow debris which looked like this





Lots of metal bits and parts and tools and saws - so much metal.  Filled up a trailer



A couple of gems were found.  A clam gun which I'm sure we used at some point or another at Long Beach, Washington, and this cool antique fishing pole which I am sure I will find a good use for.





All the cleaning out is done now; what is left to do can only be done by Dad or Malcolm with the help of.....maybe Val Glenn.

Malcolm bought a trailer to use for his plumbing side jobs.  But we told him it was too big.  And he found something much more useful.





Saturday we went to the first Women's Gymnastics meet for this season.  It was against U of Utah which is ranked 4th - we're 21st, so we were pretty sure we would not win;....and we didn't.



We do like eating in Corvallis.  We went to Shogun Bowl where I got sushi.











It has rained heavily for the last three days, and our basement sprung a leak in the area just to the right of the water softener. Friday night Ray woke up every half hour, all night long, and bailed out about a gallon of water at a time.  Today I stayed home from Stake Conference to bail.



I think Dad has found the problem.  He stuck a hose down the gutter drain by the back door and turned on the water full force.  That caused massive amounts of water to bubble out of the hole.  So he figures the problem is between the gutter down spot.by the back door and the gutter down spout by our bedroom door.  So he hooked up flexible pipe on each gutter downspout and put the free end out into the grass....and,  voila, the water leak stopped.  So now we have to remove part of the deck to find the breach in the drain line and repair it.  Sigh...........





Sunday night we had a nice dinner at Jessica's.  We had a big brisket roast which Dad cooked...he was going to do it in the Traeger, but it is hopelessly broken and rusted -- so he just did it in the oven.  It turned out absolutely delicious - too much fat though, but we will cut that off in the future (when we get more brisket roasts).  Jessica treated us with two International Treat boxes that she has ordered - like the fruit of the month club; but this is a treat of the month.