Oregon City, Oregon - Week 42 - October 21 - October 27, 2019

More beautiful fall colors this week - we are thinking that this Fall may be the best colors we've ever seen.  But, then, perhaps in the past we have been too busy with work to have the time to notice leaf
colors.











Dad (with a little help from Jude) started working on the banana trees which haven't been  cared for for two years.









I spent a lot of time this week blowing leaves - the Copper Beech is almost finished dropping its leaves but the walnut and maples just are beginning.  We're doing a big push to get the weeds out of the greenhouses.  Of course, we can work on them anytime because the area is covered, but we really want to be able to burn them while burn Season lasts...but wait, Burn Season goes until December 15th, so there really shouldn't be such a hurry.





Warren helped us pick up piles of weeds.



We harvested a bunch of figs.  The were a lot this year - more fell on than ground that we used.



On Tuesday we went to Kathy Rhodes' home to help her with her Family History.  As a treat, she took us to Mike's Drive In





I've been going to Seattle every Thursday with Vannessah Morss.  I go along to provide moral support, lively conversation, and assistance with her very very cold caps which help her retain her hair even though she  has chemo every week.  There are four caps which have been chilling for 24 hours in a cooler filled with pelleted dry ice.  Each one is used for only 30 minutes.  They are so cold that Vannessah kinda goes into a cold induced sleep survival mode.  I put them on for her and "rouse" every 30 minutes to replace the cap.  At the end of two hours I say, "okay, we're done", and she really isn't aware that the time has passed.



This week was the next to the last week of trout season on the Clackamas.  We started out at the food cart in Estacada and then went to the confluence of the Collawash and Clackamas Rivers, like we did last week, but fished on the Collawash side.  From our perspective, it was a perfect place to fish, and I am sure there were fish there, but not even one tickled my line.  But it was a beautiful day and a beautiful place to sit for a couple of hours...the rocks were quite slippery when I 'free soloed" down to the waters edge.









Abby's birthday is on this coming Monday the 28th, but her party was held Saturday afternoon.  All of her friends came (all of her cousins, that is).  We had pizza, another of Warrens creative cakes - a unicorn cake, and then a unicorn pinata (which I think really is a horse with a golden cone on its forehead....but I didn't tell Abby that....  Paul says it was okay because the golden hooves matched the horn....













The next picture Dad got off the internet, but I like it anyway - even though we didn't take the photo ourselves from an airplane.

L to R - St Helens, Ranier, Adams.  Top to Bottom - Hood, Jefferson.

Oregon City, Oregon - Week 41 - October 14 - October 20, 2019

Fall colors are definitely showing this autumn.  Beginning the show is the orange chrysanthemum, Pumpkin, which is adorning the flower bed on the north side of the house.  Just the beginning of the blooming season, so a more magnificent photo will be coming in the following weeks.



The maples on either side of the driveway are very showy this year.





Leaves are starting to fall like they are in  a hurry for the first snowfall.  The Copper Beach on the west side of the house continually drops its copper colored leaves....so beautiful on the ground



After a Herculean effort to remove "junk", I can even blow away leaves in the area between the parked tractor and the big maple tree that is threatening to crack someday..  "Before and after" the leaf removal activity.





Clean up in the greenhouses continues....may continue for months, actually.

Almost all of the weeds in #1 have be "whacked" and removed.  After the weeds are gone, we need to organize the miscellaneous bit of greenhouse construction supplies that have lain here since 2008-09.





Dad is valiantly cleaning out the valleys/alleys between the greenhouses where the blackberries are continuing the quest to take over the world.  We're trying to get the shade cloth up and back on to the greenhouses since the twine that held them in place has rotted away over the years.  It is pure awfulness to be between the greenhouse and, once again, I apologize for strongly lobbying for a space of only two feet between houses........it just worked on the graph paper where I drew the houses.....but for humans, it doesn't work!  Besides the close space and slippery shade cloth. and the fact that the blackberry roots had grown through the shade cloth, it was wet.....and I was reminded why I am glad we don't have to do this as a business anymore.



And blackberries on the inside of the greenhouse.  These stems are all connected to roots which originate in the area between the houses.  Yes - blackberries are the worst plant in the world.



I wanted to go fishing again - the season closes on October 31st.  Gold 'ole Dad went with me again - I think he is afraid I will do something rash and be unable to do any more projects around the farm.  Our destination was the Riverford Campground....who needs to travel to New Hampshire to enjoy the colors of autumn.







This was our favorite campsite at Riverford



And, of course, the campground is gated shut so we parked alongside the road, walked into the campground and then under the bridge to the "perfect" place to fish.



Clackamas to the left. Collawash to the right.





It's pumpkin carving time!  Even though we had a garden, no one, apparently, planted seeds for large pumpkins, so they were mostly bought at Winco.





Jude was in his element because he was being encouraged to cut something with a knife





Bev still has the small pumpkins we got from the garden.  They are beautifying her front steps along with the newest member of the family.....this stray cat who showed up one day.....Jessica found her upstairs in the storage room over the garage (the cat scared the bejebers out of her).  She was put outside, immediately, and later showed up at Bev's.  Warren and Whitney have since adopted her (new baby coming in January equals needing new cat in October) and named her Caramel.  Reports say that Carmel is camping under Warren's bed while Mishka patrols the hallway outside.  Holland loves Caramel, and Caramel apparently loves being laid upon by a cuddly Holland who literally smothers her with affection. As a side note - Mishka does not like to be body crushed or even cuddled.

S

Saturday was Whitney's birthday - Whitney is 31.....seven months younger than Malcolm.  We went to Cheesecake Factory in Washington Square for lunch.





Why, you ask, did we go clear to Washington Square????...because it is close to the new cookie store in Beaverton.





Good grief, you'd think we'd never eaten a cookie before...but, as an explanation, the Crumbl franchise is a Utah phenomena which has made its way to Oregon.





To finish the birthday festivities we had a sports themed cake and ice cream event which featured one of Warren's newest creations.  Holland, when she saw it, said, "Cake?  Ball?"  Everyone wore something which alluded to sports of some kind.



Bev is helping Dad scan and digitally save tons of photos.  Here is one they drug up -- my graduation from OSU in 1968.  The photo was taken behind the pink house on King's Blvd where we had a basement apartment.  Hmmm - it was in color but now is black and white.  Tassel is yellow for School of Science.