Oregon City, Oregon - Week 19 - May 10 - May 16, 2021

Gutters were installed this week....well, two thirds of them were.  The gutter guy came and installed the front side of the barn, the lean-to, and was working on the back side when he found some "rot" in the area where he would be pounding in long nails.  Rather than simply installing them and not telling us about the damage, the gutter guy told us and said he'd come back after we had the area repaired.  I was impressed at his integrity as he could have installed them, and we'd never  have known.  I contacted Quaid Housekeeper (the construction guy I really like) and he said "he would take care of us" and come and repair the roof at his earliest chance.  Quaid said he would do it before the rains come.....doesn't really matter all that much because he gutters on the south side of the barn have been non functional for years.  Just have to be patient now.

On Monday Jane and Ruby were over visiting and ended up "exploring" in the barn.  Guess what they found?  Yep, the hopper containing all of the Styrofoam peanuts we had used when we were shipping mums.  All children do this - they squeeze the handle and get a peanut surprise!  I wasn't angry, but they did clean up "all" of the peanuts.

I worked in Sector 2 most of the week - having the help from Jessica and Bev on Saturday really helped my progress.  I have cleaned up everything - "except" some branches at the top of the "bowl" by the corner of the barn and the area where the Vine Leaf Maple was.  Notice I said "was".  It was a beautiful Acer circinatum, right next to the creek at the bottom of Sectors 1 and 2.  The trunk is about 12 inches in diameter and the branch canopy was wide and spacious and filled up the whole sky.  That is...until.. some Big Leaf Maple branches cracked off and flattened the smaller tree into the ground.  The tree is still alive - the leaves green and growing.  But the base of the trunk was bent to ninety degrees.  I am planning to leave it as it is and hope that some shoots grow up from the base of the trunk.  In the meantime, I carefully removed all of the Big Leaf  Maple debris without damaging the Vine Maple.  Fingers crossed.

I finished cleaning up Sector 2 just in time!!!  Because Travis showed up about 4:00 Friday afternoon with his camping gear and three children and drove his Lexus down the hill and set up camp.  Ended up that all the Louthan kids came over and all the Scott kids - five tents in all.  They had a great time and ended up staying until Saturday afternoon playing in the woods the whole time.  My plans and vision have come to fruition.

On the weekend, I switched back to working in Sector 1 with the goal to clear out to Malcolm's Bridge so that the ATV trail is reestablished.  I was successful!  I had hoped to clean out more of the area on the edges but need to concentrate on recovering the trails.  Here is a photo of a double bundle of branches.  Double the fun and enhanced efficiency.

Bev bought more caterpillars and they are doing their metamorphosis thing!

This was Ruby's last week of Home School with me.  The topic was 'money".

We celebrated both Ruby's and Jane's birthday Sunday night - one is on the 25th and the other on the 26th.  Warren made a "Under the Sea" themed cake.

Next week my plan is to cross Malcolm's Bridge and work at the bottom of Sectors 4 and 5 with the ultimate goal of working up the hill to where Mr Majestic dropped his massive branch on top of the ATV trail.  Who am I going to get to use a big chain saw and cut that massive chunk of branch so a pathway can be made through to the other side?