September/October the Quiet Months

Well, not much to post for September, just working on cleaning out the garden and catching up on yard work. Actually I gave up on the flower bed and just used the weed trimmer on it last week, can't keep it up like I should. Cleaned up the asparagus bed-with the weed trimmer, too.  
Towards the end of the month it was time to start getting ready for the trip, which meant getting rid of the horse trailer. It worked just fine, but wanted to go lighter. And since we are going the California route this year, we would need a camper with 'facilities'. So, first off, empty, clean and sell the horse trailer. Didn't take long on craigslist. Put it up in the afternoon, got a call that they would be here in the morning. They came, gave us the money, returned in the afternoon and picked it up. Hey, that was nice. Then we decided to go pickup camper shopping, after scanning craigslist for couple weeks. Either they were too heavy, or no bathroom, or too old (gotta upgrade, not get older stuff). So, we went to Superior, then Kerrick, where we found a new one that would do. Price wasn't too bad, except they were going to give us next to nothing for our pop-up camper we have now. So, back home, fix up, cleanup and put the Northstar popup camper for sale. Saturday afternoon, put it on craigslist, got a call that evening, they wanted to come Sunday a.m.. I told them we go to church, could they come later. Nope, they would come early so we could still go to church, and they did.  Bought it, loaded it up, pretty fast. So, Monday we called the dealer said we'd take the 2011 Travel Lite Camper model 800x that was on closeout. The X stands for the bed running lengthwise, instead of side to side.  It's an 8' model, only weighs 200 pounds more than our popup camper did. Here's a few pics:

The inside:

Kitchen



Dining Room/Living Room/Bedroom

Dining Room-like the crazy print?

4.0 cu ft 3-way fridge



The Bathroom-no wasted space, barely enough actually.

Well, that's about it. Caught up to date. Still working on getting the yard ready for winter, sheds and get all the veggies taken care of. Potatoes are dug, but still have a squash use up. Made two pies today from two of the winter squash I got from Lucille, Impossible pie. Will try to post again before January, would be easier to keep up without doing it a few months at a time. ttfn



July & August Summary

I'm going to try to remember what happened this summer so I can catch my blog up to date. Here's what I remember of July/August.
July-Garden and VBS. The garden was needing water & weeding, I got some of it but not all, it was pretty jungle-like by the time I started harvesting most of it. Kevin, Wendey, Mikaela Davis and Jacob Davis visited for a few days in July. The guys did lots of fishing and Jacob came to VBS the first night before they had to leave. It was nice to get to know two more of Kevin/Wendeys grandkids and I'm glad the guys fished so much, we got to eat Northern Pike for quite a few meals.

VBS is always a busy time- planning, decorating, lots of time spent figuring out crafts, what works and what doesn't. Our VBS was July 17th-21st in the evenings. I blew up hundreds of ballons with prize numbers in them, using our little portable compressor. The week went very well, so many people pitch in and we really enjoyed the fellowship with all our crew.
August is the time for harvesting- zucchini by the wheel barrow load, summer squash, beans, peas, broccoli, etc. It was a pretty good year, but some critter was eating my cucumbers and no trap caught it, and I had several traps set for him. Also ate some peas and nibbled on other stuff. Hopefully he won't be back next year.
First part of August went to the St. Louis County Fair with Lucille- saw Dave/Jody & twins there. It was about the same as usual,  I really enjoy looking at the quilts and 4-H stuff each year, it's always different.
Dave/Jody/Jacob/Nathan/Arte/Meriden came for a barbeque about mid/August, celebrating Arte and Meriden coming up for a visit. I think Meriden enjoyed being the 'information giver' for the boys, they are always asking questions and she was happy to give them answers. They all enjoyed playing on our decrepit old swing set. Steaks on the grill turned out great, enjoyed the meal and the company.
Took Meriden fishing for sunnies, here's a pic of one of her 'catch':

After the biggest bulk of the garden was over, we decided on another trip to Oregon. Mom was having an 85th birthday party and Art had some project to do for Doreen. Gloria and Renee needed to go too, so we rode together, which saved on gas expenses. Renee went to paint Davy/Adriels house and Gloria wanted to check on her folks, who had health issues going on. That was a fun trip, drove all day, all night, into the afternoon to get there.
We had a few days to regroup before Mom's birthday celebration. Verns' son & wife, Vernon Jr & Tara were there with their two kids and many people showed up at the church Saturday, it was good to see everyone again.

The next day Judi, Mom & I took off camping with Judis' van & Winnebago trailer and tried Beverly Beach campground.  First night was tough, we got in late, plug ins didn't seem to work, couldn't figure it out. But we managed without 110 that night. Next day, Art came down and helped us figure out the electrical situation and we moved down to South Beach Campground. I was moving better by this time, still not healing from my surgery/broken foot like I thought I should. We walked on the beach and I managed the sand hill much better than my beach trip in May.

Back to Willamina Tuesday, then off to the Oregon State Fair on Wednesday, Moms' actual birthday. I love to see the flowers and all the quilts and exhibits, we listened to guitar music and enjoyed the whole day.
We headed east on Saturday. Picked up Gloria (Renee had flown home to be back for some school business) and drove all day/night/day again to get back to home.
And that was August.

May & June 2011 Summary

My last post was in May, guess Judi's right, gotta get caught up. Just seems like there's so much to do, getting ready for winter, hunting and a trip all at once.
Back to catching up.....
May was so crazy. Art & I decided to go back to Oregon, collect our car and get back here for our garage sale June 3rd. In the meantime, my knee is still hurting from when I stepped out of the horse trailer wrong. Doc Schnell took x-rays, found the problem and says to me, you want surgery on May 10th. I told him we were flying to Oregon on the 17th, he says, "You'll be fine." Day surgery, not bad, recovery seems a little slow, since he had to do more than he figured on. But, tickets are bought already.  So, we hitched a ride with Jody to David/Glorias may 16th. They took us to Hinckley where Arte picked us up and took us to our motel. Took a shuttle in the morning to airport, flew to Oregon. Visit, camp at the beach, reunion with Arts & my family at Corvallis Park. Took Mom and Aunt Jo around to put flowers on family gravesites. I was still hobbling around, not able to bend my knee very far.



Camping at South Beach S.P.

We did bring the 95 bonneville home. Good thing, since the Impala needed some work this summer. Got back home, preparing for the garage sale, still hobbling, fell down on the stairs and wrenched my bad knee all the way closed, oww did that hurt, caught my foot in between the rungs and broke 3 bones on the top of my foot. Who does that after they had surgery? At least it was the same leg, so when they gave me the 5 lb brace to drag around, it was on my bad leg. Well, the show must go on! Jody and I did have our garage sale and I spent a lot of time in the camper laying down, trying to stop the pain in my leg/foot. After our sale, Art took me to Urgent care where I got a foot brace. Then Doc Cardwell put the 5-pounder on later in the week, boy, what a summer. I did get a garden, thanks to Jody. Did some planting myself, she did the plants, which is hard, you have to get down on your hands & knees for that, it was great she could come help me. So went June, me hobbling and whining and complaining the whole time. That cast was a pain when my leg hurt already.
Two very busy months, everything I did took twice as long, or I had to prevail on someone else to help me.


Family Reunion Avery Park



Mom & Aunt Jo-Car is Loaded with Flowers



Wearing my Foot Brace-Jody/Daves' Deck