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.