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July 14, 2017

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

All the family has left from the 4th of July holiday. The last of them, Lara and two of her girls, Jaysa and Jordan left on Saturday morning. They had to pick up Jadyn, who was at dance camp in Forest Grove on their way home. It was sure nice to have them stay last week and the weather was perfect. We have been collecting bottles and cans for Jadyn's trip back to the Orange Bowl in December. Her dance group is going to entertain during the half-time and she is saving up for the trip. We have a friend who cleans vacation rental homes down here and she has been donating her cans and bottles to us to give to Jadyn. Some of the clients fill two to three plastic bags of empty bottles and cans during their stay (these green bags are from just one week) so if this happens all summer, she should have a nice bit of cash towards her trip.

We had a pleasant visit from Dave's cousin, Marta and her husband Gene on Friday. They have a beach house near Pacific City where they try to get away when the city gets too hot for them. Even though it is an hour's drive from Pacific City to our place, it was nice of them to take the time to drop by.

We decided to take a drive to Salem on Sunday. Dave had ordered a piece of metal to replace one that had blown off the garage next door during a wind storm and we need to replace it before the sale of that place is complete. Our son-in-law Jason was kind enough to pick it up as it was made in Hubbard. We took the big trailer to Salem because the metal is so long. While we were there, Leslie encouraged us to pick up the cedar siding that we are going to use on the outside of the old church. We were going to have to make another trip to Salem to pick up that stuff and she said that it made sense to do it that day since we had the trailer. The lumber yard was open, so the guys drove over and bought 700 feet of siding. So, I guess we are now beginning Phase III on that project. With the nice weather, we are working on the outside now.

We have been working most of the week carefully removing old 70-year cedar shakes from the back side of the church so we can reuse them on the side that is missing shakes. We think that most of the shakes were handmade because they are odd thicknesses. Some are half an inch thick and you can't buy this kind anymore - at least not without having to take out a loan! We have some other shakes but they are newer and thinner. It is a very time consuming job and we decided to do it ourselves instead of paying someone else. After we get the shakes off, Dave wants to put in another sliding door in the back so he can get equipment out to work in that area easier. It's too tight to get the tractor into that space. We won't put shakes back there - we will just put the new cedar siding on the back.

I worked at the Waterfront Park with the girls on Wednesday. It was another beautiful day and we managed to get in a couple of hours. The park is now done and it looks great. We will move onto the small pocket park next week. It is in poor shape - especially when a well-meaning citizen of our fair town decided he would be helpful and took a weed eater to it, mowing down the weeds but unfortunately he took out most of the flowers as well. It has been a few weeks since this was done so we will try to rescue what we can.

I have tomatoes! The Cherry tomatoes are tasting really good. My other two plants have green tomatoes on them. The lettuce survived the slugs and the green beans are going to make it, but they will be late this year.

We have had a few mole hills in our lawn for the past few weeks so the other day, we called the "mole" guy over to see what he could do. Sure enough, after he set his trap, he caught the little critter the next day! Carl really knows how to catch them and he is really busy this time of year. Speaking of moles, the timber company who owns the forest behind us had cut the trees and then had planted some seedlings. The Mountain Beavers and moles were killing the trees so the timber company put poison down their holes. We have seen several dead moles along the road, so I guess it worked.

I thought I was done with this week's entry, but after I wrote it, I hurt myself. I went to Seaside to claim a birthday gift I had coming from 7 Dee's Nursery but I decided to go grab a few things at Safeway first. As I was walking across the parking lot, I apparently got my feet tangled with each other and did a classic face plant - head first right into the pavement. I lost a tooth, messed up my glasses and suffered a lot of cuts and abrasions. The worst of it was my lips which were pretty badly cut up. I drove myself to the optician where they cleaned up my glasses and bent them back into shape. They I drove to Manzanita to the Urgent Care facility where I wound up with nine stitches in my lips. My knee and shoulder are sore but apparently not seriously damaged. The scratches on my face will heal - as will the lips once the swelling goes down. I have an appointment to see the dentist on Tuesday to deal with the missing tooth and I get new glasses in a week - they were still under warranty! In spite of the way I start my journal, I'm not sure this Friday will be one of my favorite days. I've got a feeling I'm going to be pretty sore by then! I'll update you next week.

Meanwhile, I hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather and are having a nice summer.