June 30 ~ Leaving on a jet plane

Nancy and I are packing for the next adventure starting July 2. We were offered a house sitting gig for most of July, so we will be out of town. We planned to stay home this summer and harvest the garden, but even the best laid plans need to revised when opportunity knocks. I must say it did not take us long to call back after the phone rang about 3 weeks ago. Sharon and Bill will be vacationing in Hawaii and we will be relaxing in La Paz BCS.
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No se deje engañar. Puedo pedir una cerveza y encontrar el baño.
Do not be fooled. I can order a beer and find the bathroom.

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Bueno adiós mis Amigos. Puede a dios está con usted. Copy the sentence and translate here.

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More from La Paz

June 28

Life is returning to normal for the next couple of days, then we start our next adventure on Thursday. More on that later.
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The garden is starting to produce. We have pulled radishes, dug and drying our garlic and Nancy is picking peas. The first tomato is starting to turn red, the beets are flourishing, the carrots thriving, the onions languishing under the peas, the spinach stubbornly pushing up with their first leaves, the broccoli in its puerile stage, the peppers profuse and the second crop of radishes in the first stages of germination.


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On our trip to Coquille last week, we stopped at the local "What do I do with this old boat?" Starbucks and ordered the catch of the day. It was cute, but the coffee was anemic and torpid.

June 27 ~ Home

Doug, Pam, Nancy and I really enjoyed our little visit to paradise on the Oregon coast. Nancy and I traveled up 101 to Lincoln City to drop off the boat and headed for the barn. The washer is finishing the last load of bedding and I will be on folding duty soon.

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I visited David and the dogs last night in Canby. He is part of a "Relay For Life" team and was walking some of the late night shifts. This weekend, Sherry is supervising moving her companies computers and offices to a new location. Busy, Busy, Busy

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I borrowed this picture from last year.

June 24 Low Tide

You can see the difference in the water levels. The first picture is today's -2.2 and the second is a today's high tide. A minus tide like this will not happen in Bandon until 2013. It was a lot fun wandering around the tide pools and going out to rocks that you have to swim through surf to touch. .






Coquille (co-key-eel) River Lighthouse just across the from downtown Bandon. We were dropping crab pots just to the right of the lighthouse.




Dog Rock - You can see the size of these rock formations comparing them to the lady walking on the beach. You can see Dog Rock from a different angle in one of the sunset pictures on June 19th.

June 23

The tides are very low today and tomorrow. You can walk out serveral hundred yards to see critters that are usually under 3 to 6 feet of water.









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We also made a trip to Coquille to visit the graves of Don and Ann Smith (Nancy and Pam's parents) and see the old Smith homestead.

June 22

Nora helppppinnnng pAppAAA wiiith ththe blooogg.

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Pam's birthday. More cake and ice cream, yummmmm. Doug and I went crabbing and caught four nice ones and everyone else shopped in downtown Bandon.

Cleaning more crabs.

June 22 Father's Day

. . . . . . . . . . . . Left to Right . . . . . . . . Katie, Matt, Ginger, Bud, Nancy, Nora, Pam, Beth, Doug and Emily

Matt, Katie, Nora and Ginger explore the tide pools just north of the cabin.


It was a great day.

June 21

38 years ago today, Nancy let me cut in line behind her at registration for summer school in college.

Matt, Doug and I went crabbing and caught 5 legal dungeness crabs. The fun part is out on the water and cracking the crab is a bit messy.

June 20

Uncle Doug and Nora admiring the sunset.

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Auntie Pam, Beth, Emily and Nora through the window

June 19 Bandon

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Face Rock (top)


We have been going to Bandon for 21 years. Now that the children are older and have other obligations, they may be here for the full week, a couple of days or try to make it next year.

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This year David and Sherry could not make it. We did have Doug, Pam ( Nancy's sister), Beth, Emily, Matt, Katie, Nora, Nancy and yours truly. This place is beautiful.



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Dog Rock (below)

June 18

Nancy and I were getting ready to head down to Bandon, Oregon Friday.

David and Sherry invited us up to Scappoose for an early Father's Day dinner and to share their pictures from their trip to Mexico.

June 16

The day to day activities have been pretty mundane. Adjusting the irrigation system, mowing the lawn, weeding the garden ......






Today my friend Mark and I went back to the Columbia Gorge to take some pictures.

Mark's web site

We had a great field trip! I tried some new settings on my camera. A couple were even successful.

June 5

It has been an interesting week for weather. Monday and Tuesday we were on slow roast in the low 90's. The dogs spent most of the day laying in the shade and getting up to bark at the squirrels. I enjoyed the mornings for coffee on the Casa de Patio and for outside work. Nancy and I did errands or something inside the remainder of the day. Wednesday, the rain started. Thursday afternoon a weather alert was issued for high winds (60mph) and possible large hail. The main storm front moved just north of Milwaukie, but we received a good dose of weather. Winds about 30 to 40 mph, thunder and lighting (rare in these parts) and rain by the buckets. It was a very lively show from inside the house.

Nancy and I went to see the new Star Trek movie today. 5 stars

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"White Tulip Close-up"

May 31 "Feed the Hungry"

Ross, Debbie, Nancy and I cooked for about 125 people today for our church's out-reach program for the less advantaged folks in our neighborhoods. 120 pounds of chicken cooked this morning, 26 plus pounds of fresh homemade potato salad, green beans with bacon and various desserts. Our team, which included our children in the early years, has been cooking two or three times a year for over 20 years.
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HOT? It was warm in the kitchen. It was so hot that we would go outside and stand in the sun to cool off.

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After five hours in the kitchen, it was time to relax.

May 29 "The field trip"

The Milwaukie Lanes hosted a little road trip through the Oregon countryside. After leaving Phil and Linda's home we headed for the Canby Ferry ( R. J Lee). This is one of the three ferries that are used to cross the Willamette (Will-am-met) River, so for $2.00 you get to ride across the river and save about 20 miles of driving. I showed the captive audience some of the schools I worked in over my 28 years in Canby. I regaled them with geology facts, local color, pointed out interesting sites and generally spouted out information like a fountain, when a sip might have done the trick. But~~ What fun is it to ride down the road and not know the Canby area has a very large part of its farming acreage in various species of nursery stock that is shipped all over the country.

It was a beautiful drive down country roads with Mt. Hood in the background, by our old house in Oregon City and along the Clackamas (Clack-a-mess) River to the Stone Cliff Inn for lunch overlooking the river. Thanks Bill and Vira for lunch.

Carol had mentioned that she wanted to go to Bob's Red Mill (I think she did.). The main store and packaging plant are within 5 minutes of the house. Carol buys Bob's products back in Virginia. Everyone bought a couple of things. I am not sure how Bill fared with the almond butter on the plane.

Phil and Linda hosted a dinner for everyone in the evening. We had a good time with garden tours to see how much the corn had grown since last Monday, rides in the newest hybrid Lexus and watching the ducks fly in and play in the water feature. It was nice to visit with everyone, eat great food and bid farewell to those leaving Saturday.

Life is good.

May 26 ~~ Cousins Galore

Nancy and I hosted a dinner for Bill, Vira, Phil, Linda and Carol. We all enjoyed the time together.

Memorial Day

Willamette National Cemetery is a few miles from the house. The cemetery has a commanding view of downtown Portland from it mountain side and top location east of the city. Today was my first visit on Memorial Day in many years.

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My schedule is to wake up the birds and nudge the rooster to crow. After 8:00, the cemetery starts filling up with those coming to visit their loved ones. So, with the sun just coming over the hilltops I visited 130,000 plus of my comrades in arms. It is always emotionally hard for me these days, remembering family, friends and comrades who reside on the other side of life. So far, I have found family that has served in the Civil War, WWI, WW ll, Korea, Viet Nam.

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A lot of peace keepers and freedom fighters.

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May 24

The cousins are arriving in Oregon. Today CUZ Carol (from D.C.) came over to visit with CUZ Linda (Wilsonville). Sunny weather and a great lunch. Bill and Vira arrive Monday.

May 23

Task number one~ Nancy and I dropped off David and Sherry at the airport for their trip[to La Paz. The puppies will be staying with us for two weeks while the kids are gone.

Stella and Rockie

Task number two~ Scouting trip. Tough duty, but it has to be done. We joined forces with our friends and headed to Hood River, Oregon to find some wineries for a large group to visit in September. Ross, Debbie, Bruce, Sharon, Nancy and me were very successful in narrowing the list to the three finalists.

The views are awesome. The picture below was taken in the parking lot by one of the places were are going to visit in the fall. Mt. Adams on a clear day.

May times

Days in the garden, errands, and photography classes. Fun times.

A new flagstone path in front of the house.

We went to Lincoln City for a few days. The sun was shinning, the wind on the beach was lite, the tides low and we found found lots of agates. We had a lot of things to undo from winter and get somethings ready for summer. Good news - The windows are clean and the moss will be ready to thatch out the next we go over.

Saturday, we went on a field trip to Newport. The Rogue Brewery had a beer tasting and bring your dog to the brewery. The beer was good, the place was crowded and the dogs well behaved (mostly).

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Sunday was time to finish up and do some serious relaxing. We went up to Pacific City to meet Doug and Roger for diner and a test the hops and malt.

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Surfing in Oregon is not very crowded.
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Monday we toured home the long way and enjoyed some new roads and sights. After unloading the trailer. Nancy and I went up to Scappoose to pick up a few tools David and Sherry used to finish their new hardwood floors. They did a great job. Take a look. http://carpenterlane.blogspot.com/