May, 2013
Dear Family,
It is late and I just got home from celebrating recent birthdays with a party at one of our local pizza joints. It was a party for Heather (April 30th), Josh (May 4th),(Star-wars day… May the 4th [force] be with you), Reese (May 13th) and Cort (May 14th). We reserved a room at the place and filled up the entire room. They have pizza (and nice salads) and lots of gaming for the kids, so the kids love going there. And while the kids are “playing” (until the quarters run out) the adults gab (and fuss, pass back and forth, and take care of little babies (Otis & Truman). Fun times.
Reese starting to open her gifts
Got a picture of Cort and Josh in the background, but somehow missed Heather
Left: Cort with Sawyer, cousin Dustin & Finn / Right: Reese w/Josh holding Truman and Jacki
We have been having absolutely perfect weather for the past three weeks. I have my entire garden in and everything (except the corn… must have been some bum seed) is coming up and lookin’ good. In all the years I have lived up here I have never been able to be this far ahead with the garden this time of the year. I have even had to water the garden and lawns already. The other day I went over to the park and cranked up the well over there and started watering the park also. I have always spent my time cranking up the watering system and checking for leaks during the annual park cleanup (which is tomorrow this year). But this year I had to do it a couple of weeks early.
Left: Tomato Plants (Peas climbing the fence in the background)
I decided to plant the radishes a little different this year to see if I can get some. Planted in a
row the bugs get at them and plant their eggs and get to the radishes before they are ready for us to pick.
This way I can treat the plants more openly.
Kelly brought home a grape plant to see if we can get some going.
The last one I tried years ago did not make it!
Okay Brent, the “plant” has made it. What do I do with it now?
(Can’t even remember what it was… Dewberry?)
Yesterday (May 9th) afternoon I went out to Todd’s and run the tractor up and down the rows of our trees with the sub-soil attachment. Todd had already tilled them and they are looking pretty good. I took some pictures and will post them along with this letter on my blog.
The little Kabota tractor Todd Borrowed to do the sub-soil work.
My tractor is too big to get into the rows.
Trees are looking pretty good
We are just hoping that the weather holds for a couple of weeks so we will have good weather for our annual Barton Park outing. Jeff and Becky & Jenn and Taurean are all coming up, so we are hoping the weather will hold. I will report next month how that goes. Aaron said that he was going to try to come,but we have not heard from him lately, so don’t know whether that will happen or not. We are excited to have all (or at least… most) of the family here and all together.
We have been busy getting our motorhome business lined up for the summer rental season and are not doing so well. I have had three motorhome leave the fleet and have been having trouble replacing them. I sold our 31’ Conquest and when I went to replace it, I found out that the company I have been doing business with since starting the business back in 1998 has stopped manufacturing motorized RVs and only sell travel trailers, so I have been trying to establish a relationship with a new company and have not been having a lot of luck. We did have the Phaeton go out this past week on a rental so that always helps getting some revenue coming in to take care of the expenses of getting things going again for the summer.
I have been trying to find a weekend to drive to Idaho to see Mom sometime in May, but have not been able to work that in yet. It is only two weeks until Memorial-Day, so I don’t have a lot more options. It is crazy how time flies and the weeks just seem to fill up. I remember Dad saying how busy he was after he retired and I did not understand that at all… but now I certainly do. I keep thinking things will slow down. I wonder if that will ever happen.
Here are just a few more random pictures that I have collected the past few days/weeks.
The Azaleas and Rodies (Rhododendron) are in bloom.
Lovely!
Back in the early 1970, not long after Judy Lynn and I were married, I got the (not so) bright idea to buy a little motorbike so that I could ride it to work and save some money on gas. At the time I still had my 1965 Buick Skylark Gran Sport (hot-rod) and it used A LOT of gas. So I looked for a long time and finally found this used bike that was relatively new. Loran Hirschi lived up here at the time and lived just through a church-yard away. He also had a motorbike and we worked at the same place (Hyster) which was a 25-mile drive in to Portland. The big day came and we mounted our bikes and took off… and that was a one-time deal. Driving down the Banfield freeway with other cars going 70MPH around me SCARED ME TO DEATH and that was the end of that!
The next idea for it’s use was to teach Judy Lynn to ride a motorbike and then purchase another one and “we” could go riding. Grant and Colleen Widmer both had bike and I just thought that would be fun. So one day I took Judy Lynn out in the back of our first home (first mistake) and was going to teach her to ride the bike (second mistake). Although it was a relatively small bike, it was still to heavy for Judy Lynn and when it started to tip, she could not keep it standing up. In the process teaching her in the confines of the back yard, the telephone rang and I left her alone riding while I went inside to answer the telephone (no portable phones back then). While I was answering the telephone, Judy Lynn went to stop and twisted the throttle the wrong way and the bike took off and she and the bike went crashing into the side of the house. Something hit her upper lip and when I got to her she had a nice little cut that was bleeding. Now here is where our stories about the incident part. My story is that I carefully took care of her, loaded her into the car, took her to the hospital where she received a few stitches. Her story differs in that she says I pulled her off the bike and told her not to bleed on my new bike! Then when we got to the hospital and the doctor was stitching… then was when she needed my comfort and concern, and I had to leave to keep from fainting. That last part about the fainting is true, but the rest of it is just a story she like to tell.
We took the bike to Malad with us in the early 80s and used it quite a bit then, but when we moved back to Gresham in 1986 we left the bike there. A few years ago after Jeff purchased his home in Maricopa, we got the bike to him and he is in the process of restoring it. Although it was running when we stored it in Malad, I did not drain the gas, etc., so the carburetor was all gummed up and Jeff has had to do a lot of work to get it going again. But this past week he finally got it going and sent this picture.
Jeff and “my” bike.
Gwen with her new little brother Otis
After Trunan’s blessling in April, the Rickers (Josh and Jay’s Parents) had some family and friends over.
Corinne came and here she is holding Reese with Leslie looking on.
This past week Les and Josh found this play-set on Craig’s List. I hooked John Ricker’s trailer behind my pickup and went with Josh to pick it up one day on his way to work. They put it together yesterday and sent these picture. When I was visiting my Mom in March and Leslie and Kids went with me, one day I was left with the older kids while “the girls” went shopping. Jenn and Taurean have a play-structure similar to this one and the kids played the entire time on that thing, so believe it will be a good investment. Here are a couple of pictures of Reese and her new “play-toy”. Looks happy doesn’t she.
Reese and Finn Playing on their new play-structure.
Yesterday (May11th) was our Mossytree (development we live in) annual cleanup. To keep our homeowners association dues down, we do a lot of the work ourselves. We have five acres, three in one park and two in another. We have a pool and a rec room, a basketball court, horseshoe pits, and pathways all they way through both of them. I do most of the mowing of the lawns year around and the watering (we have our own well) mostly during the summer months. Yesterday I mowed the entire five acres and picked up all the grass and leaves that the folks racked out of the burms and flower-beds. It took me about six-hours to mow and pick it all up. I completely filled that big trailer of mine that we had put some 4′ high temporary sideboards up front and on the sides. But… the parks do look nice. I forgot to take some pictures so you will just have to take my word for it.
John Deere tractor with “Material Collection System”
It work GREAT!
When I got home from the park I got in my pickup and went out to Todd and Jacki’s to help Todd for a while. He also has about five acres and with all that yard and the trees we have growing, he gets a little behind sometimes. So I got on his little JD tractor and mowed his lawns while he tilled the trees where I had sub-soiled earlier in the week.
Todd’s back of his property. I mowed clear back to those trees past the green shed in the background.
I did not “catch” the grass though so that made it go lots quicker.
While I was mowing, Todd was tilling. Here is is turning around and heading back into the rows of trees.
Not much progress with the hot-tub to play-room conversion. Here I started tearing into the side of the wall of the house
where the door into the family room will eventually be.
OOPS, there wasn’t suppose to be an electrical wire there! I was up on a ladder sawing with and it is a wonder I did not get knocked on my tush! I have found where the wire comes from but still have now found what it feeds. All outlets and lights I have tried still seem to have power. I will investigate more as I tear more things apart around this area.
One day when I was going out to the farm store to pick up plants and seeds, I took Gwen with me. Cort had gone with me earlier but he was nearly as “cute” as he looked at the little chickens, ducks, rabbits, etc. that they have for sale there. Gwen was just so fascinated with the little animals.
Gwen looking at the young chicks.
I think that is about it for this update. I hope that this letter finds you all well and happy. But last of all I want to wish all the Mothers out there a very Happy Mother’s Day. Enjoy your special day… and to my Mom, I love you and will be thinking about you all day.
Jeff and Becky sent these flowers to Judy Lynn
Love to you all,
Judy Lynn & Roger