Small Blessings

 

I was a little over due for a service on the car.  So I took it in and then I walked over to Target.  Not intending to buy anything since I would have to carry it back.  But once there, I could not help my self.  I got me a couple new coffee mugs and one for Rebecca.  Her's says Homebody on it.  Sometimes it is just nice to have a new coffee cup to drink coffee out of.  And the best part is they were only $5 a piece.  

Figures

 I met up with  Brenda and Belinda today at a park.  We had a lovely visit.  Got caught up again.  We are trying to make the best of the nice weather.  

Once I got home, Rebecca's son and his girlfriend came over with her kids.  Tanner moved the guitars and on the bricks around the wood stove was my dragonfly planter. In it were a few tools, including my drill bits.  Absolutely figures.  Oh well, c'est la vie.  

New Things for JJ

 Jodi, Rose and I met up at El Rancho for dinner.  It was JJ's first time there and her second trip to a restaurant.  She is so good.  She tried guacamole.  The expression she made made you think she didn't like it, but she kept opening up her mouth for more.  She has two teeth now.  

Betsy

 Betsy seems to be getting worse with her scratching and her ears.  So I took her to the vet today.  Naturally there are no appointments so you have to pay for an urgent care.  I thought for sure she had a food allergy.  Turns out the poor girl has fleas.  And I looked for fleas.  She has black thick fur and dark skin.  The vet said they had to use their special comb to find the fleas but it was definitely the problem.  So $300 later and ear meds and flea medication we went home.  

She doesn't want to let me put the drops in her ears.  I can see it is going to be a challenging week.  

Another Day at the Farm

 

Since our trip to Vegas was postponed, I spent my Thursday evening at Gather and Feast Farm again.  We pulled brassica and turnips so that part of the field could be planted with field cover. And then we picked more tomatoes.  

I actually got to feed the pigs and the cows today. I still say it is harder work pulling the wheelbarrows to the animals than actually working in the garden.  Both the male and the female Scottish Highland cows have horns.  Rachel said you can easily spot the female because her horns are crooked.  And so they are.  They are really mellow cows and they love their treats on Thursdays.  There are two new kittens on the farm, but only one came to great us.  

Coat Hanger

 I have been looking for the battery charger for mom's cordless drill since I returned from my road trip.  I was just about done searching.  And it turned up under some blankets.  Yeah...I don't know.  Anyway I was able to charge the battery. Naturally then I have no idea where my drill bits went.  Had to buy some new ones because I really want my own. And then I installed my coat hook at the bottom of the stairs.  So happy to have another little project completed.  And now maybe I can get around to putting up my new curtain rod.  

Postponed

 We were to fly to Vegas this week for our cousin weekend next weekend.  I got the call today that the cousins backed out.  They were too worried about Covid and it not being safe.  Okay then.  Since they weren't going, we didn't really want to go either.  That was the reason for the trip and there aren't too many things to do yet there if you just go. 

Luckily I went online and looked and today was the last day I could cancel the hotel and receive my money back.  If I couldn't have I would have been going to Vegas.  The airline gave me an airline credit and Pat got his money  back.  The difference between buying directly from the airline and buying through Expedia.  

It's all good though since I will just apply my credit to my trip to Florida in the winter.  I'm not so worried about Covid.  I take my precautions and choose to live my life.  Many of the different state mandates limit my choices, but I live with that.  I really want to go to Paris, but France isn't letting us in yet.  And that's okay. I'll go when the world opens up more.  

Food Day

 Jodi and I went to the Farmer's Market.  I got apples, beans, kale, and zucchini, Obviously the kale is for the dogs as well as some of the beans.  Got to have their veggies.  

After we were done at the market we hit Mayers on the way home.  We each got some garlic butter marinated chicken.  I also got some bacon and some bones for the girls.  And let me tell you....Betsy chewed on that bone all evening and into the night.  She brought it to bed with us.  

I made us burgers for supper and it timed out that it was ready just as Pat and his boat came home.  He and his friends did not catch any fish but he said they had a good time.  When he parked the boat it is further back and that makes me happy.  I can see out the window better.  ;p

Friday

 Just another Friday.  The dogs are still enjoying their homemade food. Yoda, too.  Poor Yoda though now watches for me to bring him dinner.  Guess Jodi better get on that.

Pat got a freezer ordered and can pick it up on Sunday.

Betty said we could have Norman's recliner and will pick it up on Sunday.  

Pat intends on installing the new front porch light on Sunday and helping Dale with his truck.

I wonder how many of our Sunday plans we are going to get done. 

And the air finally cleared.  So nice to see the sky.  

Potato Party at the Farm

 

I spent my third Thursday in a row up at Gather and Feast Farm.  This week I arrived a little early so I could go out and see the pigs and the dogs.  I missed them the first week I was there.  Today we picked potatoes.  The tractor goes through first and that digs.  Then we got through and pick all the potatoes that have come up.  Mark, the owner, goes over the area a few times with the tractor. My picture doesn't even show half the potatoes we picked up.  

We were all enthralled with a couple of little boys who came out to pick with their parents.  They have yet to discover that it is work and so they had a great time.  Holy moly.  Got to love that.  And they worked pretty hard for little guys.  

We each got a bag of produce again and could pick tomatoes on the way out.  The tomatoes are almost done.  I still managed to get a plastic bag full.  I have been dining on tomatoes since I started doing this.  And I noticed that there are three of us who have been there each of these three weeks.  One is trying to get a job there for next summer. 

Freezer Please

 Looks like it is time for us to invest in a freezer. We fill up both freezer sections in the refrigerators.  Now granted it is not all the time, but it is most of the time.  Between the normal stuff (frozen veggies, etc) we have all of Pat's lunches and his fish.  I want to put some dog food in there so I don't have to make it every other day. 

Poor Pat.  We just keep dragging him into the modern world.  ;p  We picked up a new to us couch last weekend to replace Mom's old one.  It was pretty dilapidated and in need of replacing. I didn't want to buy a new one since Betsy will still be on the couch and she drools.  Now I'm on the lookout for a new recliner and coffee table.  

We got a bid on a new roof and it was expensive.  One of Pat's friends said it is because of the tear off of the two layers of old roofing. Ahhh that makes sense when it was explained.  So Pat has decided that he will do it himself with a couple of friends.  Okay then.  And then we are putting paint on the list for 2021,

Joint Health For Dogs

 Funny little pooches.  They liked the food.  But they didn't really care for the kale.  So they picked the kale out. It is kind of amusing to watch them pick it out and set it aside. I may try it again and cut the kale up even smaller.  

Again I took a container to Yoda and he chowed it down.  Even ate his kale. 

First Foray

 I choose a simple recipe for my first time making dog food in the crockpot.  It is simply chicken, brown rice and veggies.  The most work was cutting up the carrots, sweet potato and the broccoli.  I cooked it on high but got started so late.  A serving is 1/2 cup per 20 pounds of dog, twice a day.  

All three girls chowed.  But by the second serving I noticed they were getting pickier.  They would actually pick out and put aside the pieces they did not want to eat.  Amazing.  Mostly though, they just ate it.  

I took a container over to Jodi's for Yoda to try.  He, too, loved it.  I think it costs more to feed them this way but we shall adapt and see how it goes.  Going to try a different recipe tomorrow.  There is one for  joint health and it will use the kale that I got from Gather and Feast Farm.  Utilizing what we have so as not to waste so much.  

Yuck

 And there is more and more ash in the air. The air quality numbers keep creeping up.  I notice the forecasts keep pushing it out as to when we might get some rain and some relief from the smoke.  Highest air quality number today was 576. The graph only shows to 500 and that is already extremely dangerous.  

I don't know if it is me or what, but it doesn't smell that bad to me.  A few years ago when there was the Gorge fire it smelled so bad, but I don't think the numbers were this bad.  Maybe my sense of smell has gotten worse.  

Dog Food

 So the little dogs don't seem to want to eat.  I think for Monsta it may be her teeth as she is getting old.  I have no clue on Harley. And I have noticed Harley scratching at her ear and Betsy is really licking her paws and scratching her backside on the fence.  I'm wondering about food allergies. So I have been perusing Youtube videos about home made dog food. It may be time to give it a try.  

Smoke

 And the smoke is here more.  We have wildfires in Oregon and just northeast of us.  The smoke comes from the fires in Oregon.  It's a real catch-22.  We need the wind to sweep the smoke out.  Don't want the wind to fan the fires.  Looks like we are staying in this weekend. 

Farming

 

All the ash in the air kept some of the volunteers from coming to the farm today.  Nobody blames them.  Although it wasn't too bad at the farm.  We didn't work over hard.  Just got the job done.  We picked all the peppers and all the summer squash.  Rachel, the farm manager is planning on pulling all those plants and getting ground cover planted.  Then we moved again to tomatoes and picked all that were ripe.  I think we picked more today than last Thursday. 

Again the owner was there and one of the volunteers was picking his brain.  They talked about the various uses for tomatoes and how to preserve them. Sounded like one of his favorite ways was to smoke them and the instill them in olive oil.  Sounded like a lot of work.  

He and I talked about cilantro.  I am one of the 10% of the population who thinks cilantro tastes like soap.  I did comment though that even though my taste buds say that....it still has to be in guacamole and salsa or it tastes wrong.  He commented about adding it to stuff and people like me like it.  We agreed it was the adding it to stuff.  And it has to be the right stuff.  I've had cilantro in stuff and it has still tasted like soap. 

He was telling us more of the history of the farm and the catering business.  I asked him how it went at the Farmer's Market and he said phenomenal.  Said he wished they would have done that all along this season.  Next season I am sure he is hoping to be back to utilizing the farm mostly for his catering business.  

We didn't feed critters this time and boy the cows were unhappy.  Methinks they are used to Thursday being treat day.  They mooed and mooed.

I came home with another big bag of produce.  And a bunch of tomatoes.  :)

Tomato

 

The transitioning from taking the picture with my phone and then uploading it here made it lose something.  When I cut that tomato open it looked like a sunset.  It was vibrant.  And it tasted just as wonderful as it looked.  It was the last tomato from my haul last week from Gather and Feast Farm. 

Maybe I will go volunteer again  tomorrow and get some more tomatoes. 

Last Shelf

 When I moved in to Pat's house I decided to do some reorganization of the kitchen cupboards.  Kitchen stuff I got a lot of and need some of it to live in the kitchen.  I like to use my stuff when I cook and some of my OCD comes through then.  I got all the way to only one shelf done and then I quit.  The last shelf is three cupboard doors long and it is the top shelf.  Easy to put off.

Well Pat commented that we needed more containers for storing leftovers in the frig.  He doesn't like big bowls in there when smaller containers work.  I have lots of containers.  There just wasn't any more room to store them in the kitchen.  He points out that last shelf.  

So that was my to do today.  Pulled all of Mom's old wine glasses out and put them in a Goodwill box.  Found old lids and whatnot that went into the garbage can. Moved stuff around and then there was room for almost all of my containers.  

Now we need to figure out what to do with all the extra appliances.  

Differences

 Pat and I received an equal amount for our inheritance.  And I noticed that the male female trend continues.  Guys seem to splurge on bigger things.  Gals seem to go for smaller things.  I'm not saying that splurging is a bad thing or it works along those male female lines all the time.

But Pat bought a boat and a truck.  I replaced the roof on my rental.  I bought a couple of airline tickets and a used drier.  The roof is a pretty major item, but it really doesn't feel like a splurge.  It was past time and the timing on the money was fortuitous. 

I honestly can't think of anything that I want bad enough to go buy it.  Maybe it is not male female splurging.  Maybe it is I have every thing I need and I don't want things to take care of.  Pat really wanted a boat to go fishing in and it is something he wants to take care of.  

Anyway......now I'm going to look for a used couch.  Since the big dog likes to be on a couch, I don't want to spend a lot of money for something that is going to get drooled on. ;p

New Toy

Since Pat got the boat he has been on a search for a truck that will pull it.  He said his old Dodge would but he wouldn't trust it going down to the coast.  He had a whole criteria of what he was looking for.  Big enough, diesel, preferably manual transmission, old enough but not too old so it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.  He has been watching and looking for several weeks. 
So after we got back from camping he asked if I felt like driving to Longview.  There was a Chevy there that almost met all his criteria....he wanted a Dodge.  But he ended up with a Chevy.  It's a pretty nice truck and now he is happy.  It will take its maiden boat voyage next weekend as Sturgeon fishing is open on Saturday. 

Saturday

Today was filled with Pat playing on the river with his wave runner, fishing with worms since Salmon fishing is closed this weekend, dogs, and motorcycles.  Monte set up the "swing" for the kid from the crane.
It was a somewhat different mix of people this time.  Actually I think it usually is a different mix.  We didn't camp in "our spot", but moved into Cliff's spot since he wasn't camping this weekend.  Nothing wrong with his spot, but we decided we liked ours better.
We suggested to Cassie that they come out next year on David's two week break from work for maintenance and camp with us.  She thought it sounded fun.

Camping

Pat wasn't highly motivated so I went and had my lunch date with Belinda and Brenda.  So good to catch up.  We haven't seen each other since Covid. 
Once I got back we finally loaded up the truck and headed out.  I stopped at the store and got some food.  By the time we got there it was already getting dark.  We set up our tents and it was dark.  So we ate from the big tent. 
Feels really strange to be there without the littles. 

Gather and Feast Urban Farm

An opportunity arrived to go volunteer at an urban farm.  And I thought it sounded kind of fun.  Well it was fun and some work also.  I was part of a group of about ten plus the farm manager and the owner.  We pulled a lot of bolted lettuce and weeds.  We harvested beans and the cherry tomatoes.  I have never seen black cherry tomatoes before.  You knew they were ripe when the bottom was red and they were tasty.  We fed the lettuce to the cows and the pigs.  I never made it over by the pigs but I took two loads over to the Scottish highland cows on the farm.  The farm manager was so happy when the calf started eating the lettuce as thus far she did not eat the produce.  The hardest job was rolling the cart over the field to get to where the cows were.
The owner also owns Crave Catering.  He explained that prior to this year, the farm supplied the catering business and that was pretty much it.  They had 28 employees last year between the two businesses.  This year being 2020 he has four employees.  He said there have only been five events catered since mid March.  So they have a farm stand and doing some farmer's market.  Farming goes on and so the produce needed to be harvested.
It was a good experience and the ten of us all got bags of produce to take home, plus we got to supplement it with what we harvested today.  The best tomatoes are the ones picked yourself. 

Shopping

I've officially started my Christmas shopping.  The way life worked out, most of my shopping is for the household in Indiana with my grandchildren. So I buy online and have it shipped directly.  Or in some cases Cassie has to pick it up for me.  Kohl's does a free ship to store and then she picks up. 
It is just over three months.  If I spread it out, it doesn't hurt the budget too much. ;p

Looks Pretty and New

Stephen from NW Softwash came out himself to see the areas we weren't happy about.  He agreed that one spot was just missed and explained how it could have happened.  He agreed the other area didn't get the job that it should have.  In half an hour he had everything fixed.  He was very personable and didn't make excuses, just fixed it.  You have got to love a company like that.
So it is like I told him.  I would never just trash a company on facebook, like a lot of people do.  I always give them the chance the make it right. He did that in a more timely fashion that I would have expected.  I would definitely recommend his company to anyone wanting a soft wash done on their siding or roof. 
Now I am so happy that the house looks pretty and almost new again. 

Soft Wash

NW Softwash came out this morning and washed the siding.  First I have got to say it looks a lot better.  But there are some issues. There were a couple of areas that looked like they got missed or just gone over so quick that it still looked bad.  So I sent pictures and an email explaining.  Now we will see how long it takes to get a response.
I have been looking forward to this part the most, of all the work done at the rental.  And I never expect perfection.  But it was a bit of a let down.