Week 17 - Oregon City, Oregon - April 17 - April, 24, 2022

It rained a lot this week - - dismal intermittent rain - and it was cold.   There was one good sunrise, however, on Wednesday morning at 6:15.  I was the only one in the family who saw it.

I worked for hours n the two windows.  One window I put the putty in three times before I was satisfied with the results.  The second window I only had to do twice.  It was very frustrating as on the YouTube videos the process seemed to simple, but in reality, it was not.  This photo shows one that is finished.  I had finished swiping the edges with Commercial Whiting which removes the putty smudges.  Then I took it outside and used the blower to blow any residue off.

On Saturday, finally, we took Clara, Gretchen, and Eric to the Museum of the Oregon Territory - it was their Christmas present.  Wonderfully....the museum was  a HIT.  The kids loved it, and Dad and I did too.  The kids loved the morse code exhibit.

I loved the before and after photographs of different parts of Oregon City.  There was a really good film which featured the river and Willamette Falls and the mills - everything.  Eric loved it too - in the photo, you can see his legs underneath the bench.

The museum is situated on the bluff right above the falls and all of the industrial buildings left over from the mills.  You can see the falls behind the kids in this photo.

Afterwards we got  A&W root beer floats and then went to the new Newell Creek Park where we sat in the sun and enjoyed the floats.

In drawing class we talked about texture and started drawing an owl.  Here is my beginning drawing.  I post my final drawing next week.

Surprise - we had another birthday this week.  We celebrated Ann's which was last week - same day as dad's.

 Week 16- April 11 - April 18, 2022

This was a weird week weatherwise.   On Monday there was snow - about three inches of mushy stuff. School was postponed for two hours and then a bit later, canceled for the day.  The rest of the week it was just dang cold!  On Friday at about 10:)) in the morning, I went outside and noticed that dew drops had frozen on the Day Lily leaves.

I was in the woods a lot.  I am now using an hand hoe to pull up (or scrape up) the bed straw.  The one plant that, a few weeks ago, I thought was invasive clematis, isn't clematis at all, but I don't know what it is.  the plant now has entsy weentsy =flower buds, so we'll know soon.

Easter was a big event.  Grandchildren waited patiently for the bunny.

I hid bunnies at both the Scotts and Louthans.  This year I took pictures ahead of time just incase we needed a search and rescue team for find bunnies.

Ray's birthday was on Saturday - 77 years....wow.  Just think, I knew him when he was 20.  On Friday we went to Screen Door for brunch.

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I got ordered a catfish sandwich but got a chicken sandwich instead - it was delicious.

Then on Friday evening everyone, with the exception of the Utah Grays went to a Vietnamese restaurant in West Linn.  I got the combo.

On Saturday I made him biscuits and gravy which is what he had ordered from Screen Door.

And for his gift I gave him a Solo Stove which he had been wanting for some time....okay - I'll be honest...I wanted it...but he never tells anybody about something he wants.

Easter Dinner Sunday night and Warren's hydrangea birthday cake.

Started a fire in the birthday Solo Stove.

 Week 15 - Oregon city - April 4 - April 10, 2022

Poor Jude - he jumped off a trampoline and landed badly.  He could barely walk on his foot.  He didn't go to school on Wednesday - instead stayed with us....and I had him soak his foot three times in an ice bath for 15 min every two hours.  He wasn't happy, but he went back to school the next day, walking pretty well.

On Tuesday I went to a Beaver  baseball game with Warren and Whitney, and Dexter, Alex and Radtha.  It was kinda fun......we were sitting along the first base line and in the third row so we were close to the ground.  If I turned my head sharply to the left - and if Warren didn't lean forward - I could see the batter and the pitcher but not first base....so I missed al lot of action.  the scary part was that there was no screen or fencing between us and a foul ball....which was a bit unnerving.  It was fun talking with Alex - he's really a nice guy.  But....will I go again......

My brother's birthday was on April 8th.  Jan is 79.  I went through my baby book album and took a bunch of photos of the two of us and sent them to him.  Here are a few.

I've been working a lot in the woods.  I've sprayed about eight tanks of herbicide.  I only do it in areas where the bed straw is so thick or it's growing in the midst of a mass of other plants.  Mostly i take a hoe and pluck the plants out of the ground.  I am literally walking every foot of the woods.  There are a ton of flowering plants;  Bleeding Heart, violets, Trillium...so many that we've never seen before because I was killing them with the herbicide.  Here's a bunch of trilliums. You can even see some bed straw in the photo.  There's also a cluster of trilliums on a steep bank by the water fall (just a race, really) by Malcolm's bridge.  but it is too steep and I can't get close to them.

Last fall we planted - maybe 10 or 12 - Oregon White Oak (Quercus oregana) on The Slopes.  I check and all but one or two are STILL growing!!!!

Bev and Paul are working so hard on their place.  they and W & W are working frantically on installing the wooden like flooring.  It is beautiful!  Warren does a lot of the measuring and cutting.

On Saturday, I finally did a job that I have been wanting to do for about three years - put bark nuggets along the east side of the house.  It took me a little more than two hours to do.

Holland loves to draw - -loves to draw and write.  She hold her pencil strangely (actually, incorrectly) but you can't get her to change.  So I bought her a bunch of stubby pencils that are triangular in shape, and they seem to have helped he refine her pencil grip.

I finished painting the frame of one of the four windows.  It was a bit difficult.

Our friend, Dolores, is looking to buy a house in Oregon City.  There was an open house for this house today so we (Malcolm, Ann, Travis, and I) went to meet up with Dolores and look at the house and give her our impression.  It's a great house, a real fireplace, nice big back yard, good location/neighborhood, maybe the street is a bit too busy, but all in all, a good place.  Supposedly, all offers had to be submitted by Sunday evening........

 Week 13 - Seattle and Oregon City - March 28 - April 3, 2022

Once again, signs of spring abound in our little woods.  The big Leaf Maple yellow flowers fill the space.

We went to Seattle for a Regional Gymnastics competition.  The top four teams will go to Nationals.  We headed first to a fan gathering event to wish the team well as they get on the bus.

Unfortunately we did not come in #1 or #2...Stanford beat us out by 0.025 points  Very sad.  But...Jade Carey gets to go and compete as an individual.  We feel Jade has an excellent chance of winning the All Around Award at nationals.

Here are Jade and Maddie waiting at the Bars

Maddie doing a hand stand on the upper bar.

On Friday, we spent the day exploring around the city of Edmonds - nope, never had heard of it before, but the hotels are cheaper there.   sSarted out at a nice bakery.  Then took a ferry to somewhere and back.

Headed back home on Saturday, stopping in Seattle for a bit.

The kids and their parents loved the play structure.

Enjoyed General Conference.  As usual, we had breakfast at Jessica's

My latest drawing. At our class last Tuesday, we chose a stuffie to draw.  I picked Olaf.