Oregon City, Oregon - Week 47 - November 25 - December 1, 2019

We got a phone call from Jessica saying her mower had "just stopped" while she was mowing.  So we jumped on our steeds and went over to help her.  I think we are going to make this photo be our 2019 Christmas Card.





We finished cutting and training the marionberries.

 

We were ready to start working on the Boysenberries and decided that the plants we have growing here are, quite possibly, wild blackberries.  They certainly do not look like the clumps of canes that I remember from 35+ years ago.  So, we decided that we will dig them out and get new starts from a more modern boysenberry - possibly thorn less and with improved berry size.  Here the bushes are pulled back and ready for us to start digging.



We started to clean out greenhouse #4 which was horribly choked with dried up weeds - mostly clumps of clover.











Raked, swept, all done!









Dad finally got the parts he needed for the pilot light assembly for the fireplace insert.  He successfully put everything back together and then..............it still wouldn't work because...maybe something is wrong with a valve thingy.



Of course, the big activity of the week was Thanksgiving Day.  Dad and I made a creamy cranberry sauce, Grandma Bunke Beans, limeade, smoked (on the Traeger) pork tenderloin, and chocolate tapioca pudding ---which we (mostly me) ate before we got to Jessica's house.  There were 25 people in attendance. Grays, Scotts, Travis Grays Warren Grays,  Malcolm Grays, Danielsons and Grandma, Gary Scotts, and Marci/Darren.





Getting everything ready





Seating for everyone





Abby was providing foot massages for one cent per minute.  I gave her a dime and got a ten cent foot rub.



Tyler is becoming a Rubix Cube specialist - he is obsessed by Rubix Cubes.  He's good at solving them and fast!  For Christmas he is asking for an even 'neater' and more complex cube.





Dad and I, as FH Specialists, helped Marci set up a FamilySearch account.



It took a couple of tries, but we finally got everyone together at the same time  for a photo.

f

We cleaned up the last bit of "stuff" that was laying around under a big maple tree by the barn. The concrete blocks, propane tanks, buckets, and tires have been piled there for a couple of years.



Now, when I look out my bedroom window I see "nothing" out of place.



Saturday was the Oregon vs Oregon State football game.  This week we just lost .. period...just lost.  It wasn't even an exciting game like last week had been when we'd lost by one point to Washington State.  Oregon is number one in the conference....and our starting quarterback was injured, so the outcome was not a surprise.

Brenden, Pamela, and Sloan were in town for the holiday, and they came over to visit.







We worked on and finished a puzzle at Jessica's Sunday night.



I think next week there is going to be one day of impeachment hearings.........

Oregon City, Oregon - Week 46 - November 18 - November 24

It has finally gotten cold; our first hard frost was on Tuesday - no more photos of beautiful orange leaves until next October.





The cold weather continues to make it necessary to cut back/dig out/clean up plants.....as happened to the banana trees with the help of Dad's newest landscaping assistant, Jude.  To make sure this was a safe activity, Jude only 'sawed' with the machete, he never 'hacked'with it.







The Impeachment Hearings continued this week - for three whole days, and I pretty much watched the whole shebang. I thought it was fascinating!  In my opinion Trump abused his presidential power....but was it impeachable?  We'll have to wait and see.  People think that the House will indite him but that the Senate will find him not guilty.  This photo is of  Lt Colonel Alex Vindman and the counsel for the Republicans.



Jessica is experimenting with little pumpkin pies, and we were the beneficiaries of her efforts.





With the cold weather Dad wanted to start the gas fireplace insert, but it wouldn't work!!   So frustrating, especially since we had it totally serviced last fall - that $300.00 should last for more than just one season.  So Dad went to work and replaced one of two things that may be broken  The replacement of the first "thingy" didn't solve the problem.  The second "thingy" wasn't in stock at HD, so now we have to wait until it will be delivered by Amazon.





Guess who is going to be Santa Claus at the Ward Christmas Party this year.









I have joined Planet Fitness and have been going there 3-4 times per week.  I usually do 30 min on a rowing machine, then 30 minutes on various weight machines and end with 30 minutes on an ARC elliptical.  Every day I have sore muscles....so I must be doing something right.







The Stake Christmas Concert will be on December 15th, and the first orchestra rehearsal was today. Five members of our family are in the orchestra.



If the frost on the car window wasn't a sure sign that the cold season was upon us, then surely the retraction of our shade cloth was.  Camille was Dad's ladder assistant.










Saturday night we watched the Oregon State vs Washington State football game.  It was a GREAT game- which we lost by only one point in the last five minutes-so that was sad.  But the action was great and the leading score switched back and forth for the whole game.  For both teams, winning this game meant a bowl game.  The big game is next week between Oregon and Oregon State.  Oregon is the Pac 12 leader and goes to a bowl game regardless of the outcome of the civil war game.  But I am militarily optimistic that Oregon State will beat Oregon.  The photo is of the OSU quarterback



I have started  to take Holland to Nursery because Waren has to go to work and Whitney is the Primary Chorister.   Holland DOES NOT want to be separated from her mom or her dad and heartily cries. So, I had to take her out of the nursery and we sat in the foyer on a couch until she cried herself out and fell asleep.



Sunday night we celebrated Gretchen's 8th birthday with a pumpkin pie.  Her actual birthday is on Wednesday.