Birthday/dinner Party

To begin with I was going to have a dinner party for some old friends. Peggy and Bob Hershey and Janet Morris. I worked with Bob while I was in Salem and have the honor of being The Godfather of their two lovely daughters. I worked with Janet's husband when we were in high school. We worked on a twenty five man fire crew out of Camas Valley OR. in 1951. Gordon and I volunteered to cook for the crew when the cooks quit. We did this for two weeks using a wood fired stove. Never heard any complaints.

However I was so busy getting everything ready and serving dinner I forgot to get any photos of the meal and my guest. Take my word for it every thing was good. Table looks good! I served a fancy tomato and cheese salad with sweet Basil and olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing, steak (cooked to perfection), oven baked potatoes and steamed broccoli.

The other day I took an hour to pick some black berries that I am taking to Delaney for a pie.
That is a one gallon of berries.

On Sunday I went to Nancy and Randy Gower's home for a birthday party they were having for Randy's dad. This is Nancy putting the smoked barbecued chicken on the table.

Randy is opening another bottle of wine. They were great host and have a very nice home in south Salem.

This was taken through the door of their family room that they just finished. It has two open walls. One opening is like a garage door, but no door. The other one is smaller but it also has no door. They must believe that the warming of the earth is here. But winter is coming also.

This is Nancy Gower who has more grand children than the rest of the family combined.

The ladies are discussing grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Nancy, Joann and Rick with the mother of Nova Ann's great grand children. Leslie. She is a lovely lady and likes having babies.

This is probably the best BBQ chicken I have ever had.

There was plenty of food and it was all good. Hard to keep my weight down with all this going on.

The birthday boy. This was Larry's 70+ birthday. They saved time by having an ice cream cake.

Renee and Nancy checking out the cards.

Grandpa Jeff with his pride and joy. His third grand child and at last a girl.

It is 3:30 AM and I am in the La Grand OR. Safe way parking lot. Thirty feet from the rail road tracks. I went to bed early and it is a good thing as for the last hour there has been a train every ten minuets or so it seems. I only have fifty miles to go in the morning, so I can get in a nap.

A DAY OF NOSTALGIA

This young man is Colin Rabe. I worked with Colin for about fifteen years in Salem. We went on many fires together. I visited him and his wife on Saturday. His wife left after I got there as there was a womans group meeting next door. Colin and I had a three hour gab fest talking about our co-workers that had died. It was a good time.

Then I went to our home site on Baxter Road. This is where we raised our family. Not a good time. This is the Pink Dogwood we planted in the mid 60's. It was in the center of the yard then. They have widened the road made it a paved two lane street with a center line, taking half the yard.

The lot is a three acre weed patch. The trees we planted are very big. When we planted them they were about a foot tall.

This tree is the one Bob Anderson shot the top out of trying out my new shot gun. It was about fifteen ft. tall at that time.

Mr. Hastay, the man we bought the place from, had no children and went to the Lutheran Church. He died in 1979 a year after we moved to a smaller home. He must have left his place to the church . They built this very large church next to our place.

The building is so large I couldn't get it in one shot. In the background you can see the Hastay home. Across the street from our place there is a subdivision with about twenty homes. Where I used to hunt.

I then went out to my brother's place in Stayton for a party they were having for his wife's family. The lady with her back to us is Doris. An old neighbor and the only name I can remember as it was my Mothers name. The man with his back is my brother-in-law Larry.

My sister Nova Ann. Nova Ann and Larry live next door to Rick and Joann.

My brother Rick. He is three years younger than I. He has lost a lot of weight this year. I also noticed he has lost a lot of hair.

This is Joann, Rick's wife. She is sitting in a Corvette that one of the guest came in. She and Rick have a collection of cars but no Corvettes. Yet.

Rick tried it on also.

Treading time

I am just sitting around waiting. Since I have retired I have learned to hate week ends and holidays. It seems that if something breaks it is on a weekend and or holiday and you can't get it fixed. Although this week end I got it done. My phone decided it didn't want to work today. The track ball would go up, right and left but not down. If I wanted to find a number I had to type in the whole name. Mary and her friend Millie were doing a rapid trip from Portland to Golden Colorado. Over a very windy mountain road and I couldn't be sure my phone would work. I did finely get it fixed after spending two hours with Sprint tech. service and then waiting another hour for the local technician to return from a trip to Redmond.

Mary got back to Golden safe and sound. Thanks Millie.

The photo above is my herb garden. I have always had a herb garden. I just didn't have to use them. Now that I am chief cook and bottle washer I am learning how to use them. I have Chives, Sweet Basil and Parley. I have used them all. I am a little concerned about the Chives they don't seem to be growing very well. Basil is a weed. I bought it in Colorado and the way it is growing I may have to use a machete to prune it.


For dinner tonight I fixed a salad of Tomato, Sweet Basil and Trader Joe's Mozzarella cheese. With olive Oil and Balsam vinegar dressing. Two Chicken and Artichoke Heart sausages, covered with sautéed Zucchini, tomato's and Mushrooms. Unfortunately I didn't have any shredded Parmesan to put on it. The wine was a rare bottle of Charles Shaw Pinot Grigio. The meal was very good and healthy. In the morning I am going to have blood test early as I forgot them last week. Then take the coach in for it's five hundred dollar service. Then on to Wilsonville to have an automatic HDTV satellite installed. Will spend time in the valley with friends and family. Before heading to Denver and New Mexico. My refrigerator is full of licorice for Mary and Delaney, Ruby Red for Kris and nuts for Steve. I hope to pick black berries to take South with me while in the valley.

GREEN ACRES aka THE RESERVATION

This sweet heart is Jessi. Today she is a "Princess" They do their shopping at Goodwill for play clothes.

The reason I call this park the reservation is because most the the vehicles in these pictures are dead. Even the RVs. Obama should see how his economic program is working here.

The rig in the center has no water or furnace. No one knows why. They can't even find the hook ups. It is a 50's era unit.

If you click on this photo you will see a very young lady (smoking). She just turned 21 has two boys 5 and 3. Her husband beat her and the boys, so she is here. Her sister bring food for them. I didn't want to get a close up as she is shy. She is also very attractive.

This is the other end of the park. All of these rigs are permanent tenants. Some of them have jobs.

This is a better photo of the boys mother. Smoking again. She also has a pit bull cross in that trailer. Her hair is purple in the back and she has a post in her lip.

This is James and Hanna. James is Jessie's twin brother. Hanna is the older sister. These three children were all born in the California prison system. Yesterday their grandparents were told their mother had some spots in her lung. They were found at the prison clinic. Jessie and James twins. Get it?

This fine lady (I mean it) is their grandmother. (They call her mom.) She and her husband do the best the can. He has an annuity that pays the rent and a little more. They have four rigs and the trailer they live in and a motorcycle. Two of the cars run.

On a brighter note, this is Gloria's last project. She couldn't finish it and she asked for help. Some of the ladies at Hospice finished it for her and I picked it up this week. This blanket is for Taylor's first born.

This is the steak dinner I prepared for myself. Steak, baked potato and steamed broccoli. Eat your heart out Mary. You have to put up with cruise ship food. This was to test my new teeth
They worked just fine. To night I am going to the Elks for dinner and dancing.