Week 47 - Oregon City - November 18 - November 24, 2024

The six new Marvin windows we ordered for upstairs arrived on Thursday.  First thing I did was set up three tables, two sawhorses, two desks, and a set of drawers, and placed the window parts on the.

FRIDAY - I stained all of the parts of the windows.

SATURDAY - I brushed on the first coat of Verathane polyurethan

SUNDAY - I applied the second coat,

MONDAY - I'll do the third and final coat of polyurethane and started to paint the brown pieces for the outside installation.

                      

The cats wanted to go into the upstairs bedrooms so badly..

They are patiently waiting to sneak into one of the rooms.

Sunday was Abby's first performance of Mary Poppins with the Oregon City Children's Theater.  She did very very well as Mrs Bates.  Everyone was excited because she got a good role at her first audition for any drama role.

 Week 46 - Oregon City, November 11- November17, 2024

Slow week this time around - cloudy....rainy...cold....cloudy...rainy....cold...dark

On Sunday we had birthday cake for Travis and Gretchen!

The weather forecast for next week is the same....cold,....rainy....

 Week 45-November 4- November 10, 2024

Our Zelensky overfloweth!

Our quince tree is finally big enough to produce fruit! It is a bit taller than I am. Dad replanted it several years ago after it died under the shade of the Douglas fir trees that our neighbor to the west planted -basically- on the property.  

Dad picked all of the quince, and we spent all day Monday making quince jam which is impressively delicious.

Here's more than a year's worth of jam.

Wait - there's more.  Warren wanted to make apple juice - he found a source of apples, at the Powell's, up the road.  Along with our apples out in the orchard and with a small press he rented, we made apple juice.

Warren canned 55 quarts and we did 16!

Jane, Holland, and Copeland came over one day and played "Bunnies".

Haley had an appointment to get her cut and brought Jamie over.  He loves crawling and cruising all around.  He is just tall enough to get into a lot of mischief!

Over the summer Dad did amazing things in the flower beds around the perimeter of the house. One of the beds, closet to the southern end of greenhouse #8, had expanded over the years and needed a reduction.  He cleaned it up really nicely, planted grass seed, and now there are results.

The Primary Sacrament Presentation was today - a lot of enthusiastic singing.

What better way to end a blog than with cat photos.

Jack likes to go into the woods with me and is always very helpful.

He also likes to cuddle in anyone's lap.

Week 44 - Oregon City - October 28 to November3, 2024

I've been taking guitar lessons at Guitar Center since October 1st...and I'm taking a guitar class (Guitar Ensemble) at CCC which stared four weeks ago.  This keeps me super busy because the music is really hard, and I have to practice a lot.  The CCC music is especially difficult because it is way above my skill level, but with practice I can now play everything but not up to tempo.  Steven at Guitar Center wants me to play in a recital, and so we're doing a duet of What Child Is This.  I can play this Christmas music just fine except that I seem to be unable to do it without mistakes.

I worked a lot in the woods each day...when it wasn't raining....digging up blackberries, ivy, nettles and so forth.  It will be a never ending project, which when I am no longer able to do it, the woods will revert to how it was five years ago....kinda grim.

Halloween was on Thursday.  All of the grand kids cam at the same time and in the process of looking at costumes and complementing them on their creativity, I did not take any photos.  But - Malcolm and Haley brought Jamie later in the evening, and I got a great photo of him as a pumpkin.

The weather changing to be very cold and rainy had change the cats' behavior -  they stay inside most of the time.  When they come inside, we have to wipe them off with a towel.

Abby's birthday cake celebration was Sunday night - she is the magic age of 12.