Year 8 - 2017

Winter 2017

Oregon has been blasted with some real winter weather this year.  Here are a few pictures of the snow at the farm, January and February 2017.

Most of the footprints are from Mom's visits, but on one occasion the alarm tripped and the Umatilla County Sheriff's office responded quickly and checked things out.  Everything was A-OK.
Thanks Guys.

Almost March

It's almost March and the snow is finally melting.  Here are a few pictures from Mom's recent visit.  She was surprised to see the big truck tracks beside the garage. Soon after UEC replaced the power pole, transformer, and security light in the back, it snowed. If fact I think it started to snow the day before. This was the first time that area wasn't covered with snow all winter.

Spring Trip 2017

I'm posting some pictures from my Spring trip.

FLYING OVER THE PENDLETON AREA

WIND FARM NEAR TRI-CITIES

DAVE AND TRIXIE

MOM AND TRIXIE

MOM HARD AT WORK ON HER COMPUTER

UMATILLA ELECTRIC COOP INSTALLED A NEW POLE THIS WINTER

TO INCLUDE A NEW TRANSFORMER

MY NEIGHBOR WAS INSTALLING A NEW IRRIGATION SYSTEM

I WAS ABLE TO USE HIS DITCH TO INSTALL A LINE TO THE HID SYSTEM

HERE THE END OF MY NEW SUPPLY LINE FOR NOW

THE NEIGHBOR FILLED IN THE DITCH BEFORE MY TRIP WAS OVER

THIS IS THE OTHER END OF THE 1400 FOOT RUN

LAST DAY OF THE TRIP AND GETTING READY TO HEAD FOR THE AIRPORT.

Fall Trip 2017

Sunday – October 8^th

I arrived at the farm just before noon.  Other than a lot of weeds in the yard, everything looked just about as I had expected.  A few trees down. The wishing well broken, the owl box laying on the ground, and the skunk hole still just about how I left it in the Spring.

Got the car going and I went into to town to pick up a few groceries.

Took the trail camera down and moved the pictures to my computer for review.

Monday – October 9th

Spend the morning washing windows, cleaning the cobwebs off the front of the house, and pulling weeds.  Got one half of the weeds pulled today.  Also cleaned the garden bed beside the garage and washed off the back patio.

I had the leaky tired fixed and the tires rotated on the car.  Also got the rear view mirror glued back on. Funny thing was, neither the tire shop or the glass shop charged me a dime.

Had a nice dinner with Mom.

Tuesday/Wednesday – October 10^th & 11^th

Spend both days working out in the yard pulling weeds and cleaning up debris in the yard.

Found a mini blind I liked and bought two for the kitchen bedroom.  The windows are different widths so I had one cut at the store.  Installation was easy and they work just fine. I also installed a new roller blind in the kitchen. The old one didn’t roll anymore and was beginning to crack like the ones in the kitchen bedroom were doing.

A nice visit and a wonderful dinner with Mom this evening.

Thursday/Friday – October 12^th & 13^th

The fellow who wanted the locust wood from the downed tree was here bright and early and had the downed tree in the pasture cut and loaded within an hour. It was a wet and rainy day today. Perfect for burning so I gathered up the debris from the downed tree and a bunch of the tree limbs in the back pasture and got them burned up. 

Another nice visit and a wonderful dinner with Mom this evening. She fusses about what she is cooking but everything is always terrific, and always way more than I can eat.

Saturday/Sunday – October 14^th & 15th

The fellow who cut the tree came back and cut some more downed trees in the back pasture. 

Chatted with the family I temporally transferred my water right to for this irrigation season and decided to go another year with a temporary water transfer. They still don’t have a water right purchased.  He showed me his system and we had a good visit.

Worked on the attic floor today.  I added some new floor boards so it’s easier to get back to the heating/cooling unit.  I guess I had repaired the roof rafter board in the roof when I put in the outside TV antenna.  I was glad I had already fixed that. It was something I thought I still had to do.  Decided not to put in a new door this time around but I did reinforce the current door and latching mechanism.

Got the lawn tractor running and the gas weed eater running and started charging the lawn tractor battery in the garage.

I purchased some pipe insulation and installed it on all of the water pipes in the attic that I could locate without digging up too much insulation.  I wasn’t able to salvage any of the newspaper wrapped on the pipe.  They just crumbled when I took it off the pipes. I was hoping to see when it was installed on the pipe.

Another nice visit and a wonderful dinner with Mom this evening. Everything was just terrific, and always way more than I can eat

Monday – October 16^th

I spent the entire day in the back pasture.  I cleaned up the area where the two trees that had fallen had been cut up.  Then I burned up the big pile the neighbor's piled up in the back pasture. They did that so they could put their horses there last spring.  It took a little while to move it piece by piece to the burn area I was using, but I got it done.

I took the lumber out of the big old tree. 
Somebody had tried to build a tree house in the tree at one time.

Tuesday – October 17^th

Gordon’s came and serviced the heat pump today. They said the new floor in the attic worked out just fine. They also helped me figure out a way to install the dryer vent.  I worked on the dryer vent all afternoon. 

Another nice visit and a wonderful dinner with Mom tonight. Everything was just terrific, and always way more than I can eat.

Thursday – October 19^th

Got the owl box remounted in the tree. A big wind storm had blown it down.

Caulked the dryer vent and worked in the garage today. I also picked up the white and gray paint for the outdoors painting on Friday. 

Insurance inspector came by today.  I was able to talk with him this time around.  I think everything should work out fine with no major problems found.

I covered the attic walkway with insulation for the winter months and buttoned up the attic for one more winter.

I filled up the latest skunk hole.  Placed moth balls every foot in the ground all around the house.

After some nightly trail camera pictures I've decided that an opossum was try to enter the skunk hole and build a winter home.

The pictures are hard to see so I'm not going to post them.  The opossum was carrying nesting material under it's tail.  It tried to get into the hole but since is was filled in, seemed confused and just ran away.

Hopefully it will take up residence out in the back where we opened up a den hole that we covered a year or so ago.   


Saturday – October 21^st

Finished up with the painting today.  I think I got more on me than I did the house.

  

Got the outside locks sprayed with WD-40 and things locked up for the winter.

I moved the location of the trail camera on this trip. Did a test run to ensure the coverage was what I expected. That worked out well so I'm hoping for some good trail camera pictures over the winter months.

Another nice visit and a wonderful dinner with Mom tonight. Everything was just terrific, and always way more than I can eat.

Sunday – October 22^nd

Headed back home today.  The plane leaves at 1100.  Should be in Mesa by 1330 and back on the road by 1400.  Should be back home 1800.

THE PETS WERE GLAD I WAS HOME. THEY TOOK RIGHT TO THE BED AS SOON AS I OPENED THE DOOR.