Camping trip

A couple of weekends ago, Terry was home for 5 days and I took a couple days off work and we went camping / deer hunting.  We camped in the Crane Prairie Campground in the Deschutes National Forest. Terry's hunting buddies were camped about 10 miles away down a very tiny road that our motor home could not go down.  My mornings were spent being very lazy, reading, sleeping late, taking walks along the lake shore, letting our dog Birdie sniff for chipmunks and squirrels. Terry's mornings were spent deer hunting.  I went along on a couple of afternoon hunts.  We saw the backs of 4 elk and Terry saw glimpses of a couple of deer but no one in the party 'got' one.  The manzanita bushes were as high as my shoulders and very thick.  The bitterbrush was up to my waist. It was very hard to walk through because it would tangle up your feet and sometimes there was no nice path around the bushes.  You just had to dive in a go through them.  I fell twice.   Once Terry had to help me up because I fell in such an awkward position.  We took a wrong turn on one of the hikes and ended up walking 6.5 miles total for the day.  I did not panic because thanks to GPS we could see which roads to take to get back to deer camp and after a while our walkie talkies got in range of our hunting buddies and we were able to tell them where we were.  They were able to pick us up before dark.  It was a nice change of pace from working.

Crane Prairie Reservoir - Deschutes NF

a mountain in the Cascade Range - not sure which one

Crane Prairie Reservoir ' beach'

Ducks on Crane Prairie Reservoir

chipmunk

We left a bag of peanuts out and the chipmunks found it.

Another chipmunk we saw while on a walk

Some neat lava rock we saw on a walk

Update on "How my garden grows"

We finally have "happy plants" in our greenhouse garden.  A couple weeks ago, Terry was home and we built planter beds and transplanted most of the plant from pots to the new beds and they plants are much happier now.

I have still been struggling with our old sprinkler system.  The pipes and fittings at the control box keep springing leaks so it seems every few days there is something else that needs replaced.  Right now I have been watering the greenhouse plants by hand every day as the sprinkler system is out of commission.  I need to get it fixed pretty quick though so I can water the lawn.  It is pretty exasperating when everything is starting to look good.

Yellow crook neck squash

Zucchini

Tomato

Jalapeno peppers

Canary melon and peas

green beans

Green beans starting to climb

It's about time I updated my blog!

I haven't been very good about updating my blog lately.  With summer time there is so MUCH to do and places to go.

In June we built a greenhouse and plumbed it myself so that it was connected into the main sprinkler system.  Then I planted lots of different things to experiment and see what would grow.

In June we also went to Minnesota for 10 days and visited our son Eric, his wife Michelle and grandkids Christy, Becca, Sam, Dan, Tom and Troy.  What a fun jam-packed visit.  We went to Duluth and stayed in a cabin that slept all 10 of us nicely.  It was by Lake Superior.  We visited the Glensheen Mansion, Train Museum and took a train ride, Kids museum and played on the beach and lots of miniature golf.

At the kid's house we played games, went to the park and Cabela's and had BBQ's.

Once we got back from the MN trip I headed to Lake Oswego and kid-sit those grandkids for the weekend.  Grandma took Lance, Liam and Shella May to visit the McLoughlin House Museum and The End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.  Liam and Shella May learned how to make homemade candles.  We also took in the Farmer's Market, visited my nephew Brian and his family and watched a couple of movies.

After those trips, it was back to work and yard work and watching my "garden" grow.  Also, slipped in another trip to Lake Oswego and saw Shella May play a game of softball.

I also found in our yard one day a baby snake trying to "eat" a big frog.  They were having a tug-of-war.  I gently pulled the frog to free him from the snake and that action saved both of them.  I don't think the snake knew what he had taken hold of.

This week I had a friend visiting from North Dakota.  It has been a whirlwind of a summer so far and it is very hard to believe it is half over already.  It is definitely summer here though with temps between 95 and 100 every day for the last couple of weeks.  Praise the Lord it gets down in the 50's at night!!!  Below are pictures in random order.

Minnesota kids

Glensheen Mansion in Duluth, MN

Greenhouse plants

Close up of plants (beans, carrots, lettuce)

Lake Oswego kids

baby snake trying to eat big frog

Minnesota grandsons

Greenhouse

Ship on Lake Superior

Knitted gifts

I have been trying to keep my hands busy with knitting at night instead of snacking.  So, for Easter gifts I made Christy and Becca more outfits for their American Girl dolls.  It has been fun making these clothes and I am learning new knitting stitches too.  They sent me a  picture of their dolls in their new outfits.

Central Oregon spring

Just a few days after the "official" day of spring (in March) we had a 16 degree morning and I wrote this poem:

Yup, Spring is here

its 16 degrees

My toes in sandals 

are gonna freeze!

The daytime sun says

"grow plants grow'

but night time brings

its frost and snow.

In Central Oregon 

this could last 'til June.

It's hard to keep singin'

a positive tune.

But in the yard

I'll work and pray

that this Spring will be different

some how, some way.

But now it is almost the end of April and we have rain and wind and even snow just a couple days ago. There are signs of spring, some daffodils and more birds at the bird feeder but not many nice days in a row.   This forecast for next week gives me hope though!!!!

Big snow is gone already

Last weekend we had a big snow storm (for us) and got 12 inches of snow up at our house.  Redmond got 22 inches of snow and Bend got 18.  We have not had this much snow for many years so it was a big deal.  It lasted about 3 days and then another storm from the south came with rain and now this weekend all the snow is gone.  Some spots have mud because the ground is frozen a few inches down and the water has "no where to go".  There was a rock slide on I-84 so the freeway going east was closed when Terry got his load of trucks to take to Ontario, Canada, so he was able to come through Prineville as his alternate route to go east.  It was a nice surprise and we got to have a Valentine's Day breakfast with each other.  Here are some pictures of the snow we had.

6 a.m. Saturday morning

our front yard

flower pot on the front porch

Snow up to the bumper

The snow is higher than Birdie is tall

Sunday morning with some blue patches in the sky

I shoveled a pathway from the garage to the street.  Whew!!

More pictures of vacation

I didn't do very well at keeping my blog up-to-date on my vacation.  Once we got home it was Christmas and after that I got sick and now all of a sudden it is the end of January.  During my home time I figured out how to get my pictures from my cell phone to my laptop.  So here are a few pictures from the rest of the vacation.  We had a GREAT time.

California Adventure at night

Disneyland Christmas Parade

Christmas Tree - Disneyland Main Street

The Capital Building in Legoland.  The parade in front of it actually marches down the "street".

Terry and Becky standing by Paris Hotel and MGM Hotel in Legoland's Las Vegas strip

Legoland's X-Wing Starfighter model made with 3.5 Million Legos