Birds

There was flock of birds behind the house this afternoon. One was sitting on the railing of the deck but by the time I got the camera I had to settle for this picture of them on a pile of wood in the vacant lot behind the house.

Christmas 2009 II

Just wanted to give you proof that the little boys were not the only riders I do have a picture of one other rider but there were others too. I just did not get photos of them.

Christmas 2009

Christmas morning did not start as early as it used to. The grandsons were not the first ones up. Actually it was me and that is very different than it has been in the past. The boys did get up shortly after mom and I were up. They sent a text message to their sister to get her up but I beat them to it by using the old fashioned method, I opened her door.

It was fun having grandchildren at home because it kept some of the magic in Christmas that seems to diminsh with older children. We got the grandsons the little coaster cars so we had to take them out to the driveway to give them a test run. The little boys were not the only ones who rode them.

Icicles

As you may remember we put up rain gutter this fall with chain downspouts. It is neat to watch the rain following the links of the chain as it flows down into the rain barrell. I have tried to photograph that but it is not near as graphic as the ice that has formed on the chain with the thawing and freezing conditions that we have experienced over the past day or two. It makes a very interesting pattern on the chain. There are many interesting and beautiful things in the winter. Of course this has to be in opposition to the downsides like slick roads but that seems to be how life goes, everything has its up and down. Perhap, as I look at this, I should have posted the close up picture as one of those, "Can you guess what this is?" But it is too late now that I have given it away.

New Granddaughter

Chloe was born today.

Eric's Public Service Announcement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY-4l0dxc1c

Another Weekend Project

Teri repainted the boys' room now that they are both away at school. In redesigning the room we decided that the bed needed a headboard so, using flooring left over from the living room floor that we re-did about 2 and a half years ago we created the headboard shown here. The idea came from http://lowescreativeideas.com/

Because we already had the flooring the total cost of the project was under $50 and I got to use my tools that don't seem to get enough use lately.

Old Del Monte Video

This link will send you to a video from 1939 that shows how peas were grown and processed back then. Hope you find it interesting. It takes about 20 minutes to watch.

http://www.archive.org/details/Pickofth1939

More Rain Gutter Photos

As you can see the water does not all get onto the chain but at least the majority of it does and it does disperse it out so you do not get a gully washer at the end of your down spout which is the general idea for using the chain. Besides it is kind of neat to watch the rain water follow the links of the chain.

Rain Gutters Done Just in Time

Remember the blue sky from yesterdays post? Well, no more blue sky today. In fact I got to try out the rain gutter with real rain today instead of water poured on the roof.

The top left picture shows the front of the house. I also put rain gutter up across the porch and garage.

The other pictures are of the rain gutter I installed over the bay window yesterday. I just wanted to be able to show the installation of the chain down spout.

Vacation Days

I have arrived at the point where I need to take some of my vacation days or forfeit them. I do not wish to give away my hard earned vacation so I have decided to take today and tomorrow off work. Today is a very nice day as you can see from the photos on this post. The sky is really as blue as it looks. I took the opportunity today to install a little bit of rain gutter over the bay window. The design of the house is such that when it rains or snow melts from the roof it drips onto the bay window. We have talked about how to fix this for some time as there is not a good way to get the rain water down to the ground because of the location of the deck. Hopefully we have come up with a possible solution. You can see the red colored pot on the deck. We plan to use that as a "rain barrel". When the rain barrel gets full we will just dump it out, or more likely with the small amount of rain we get here it will just evaporate. The only question remaining is how to get the water from the downspout into the pot. We have seen a log chain used to direct rain water from a rain gutter and we are going to give that a try. I just wanted to get the rain gutter in place so I would know how to work with the log chain.

Fall Update

Pack is over. I have spent the last week in California for work. Everything went well until the last leg of the flight home was delayed so it was after one in the morning when I finally got to put my head into my wee bed.

The Yakima Stake is 50 years old this year. It was formed from the Richland Stake in 1959. Twenty years later it was divided into the Yakima and Selah Stakes. This past weekend the stake had a celebration. Saturday was a fun day with hamburgers and hot dogs behind the stake center and displays in the cultural hall. On Sunday evening the stake held a fireside where the previous stake presidents who are living and the current stake president and their wives spoke.

Family Reunion-Day 2

On the second day of the reunion we went to Glendale Reservoir. Most everyone had a good time. I am not so sure about Sheila and Nonavee on the tube behind to boat.

Family Reunion

Here are a few photos from Friday's visit to Franklin. We had a weiner roast in the park, shared memories from grade school days, and visited the Pioneer Relic Hall.

July 4th II

Heather and family came for the Fourth of July Parade in Toppenish. I think the parade was a bit smaller this year. For the second year in a row there is no Pow Wow Rodeo so that may have been part of the reason. Still it was fun having family here for the 4th.

July 4th

I have been very lax in posting lately. Maybe it is because nothing exciting happens or maybe it is because when it does I am too busy with it to get a post done.

With it being Independence Day weekend I have been thinking a bit about patriotism. You know how we learned the Pledge of Allegience in school and recited it everyday in grade school and then when we got older we said it less and less. Now there are only a few occassions we attend, usually associated with Scouting or a Patriotic Program that the church does, where we have the chance to say the Pledge of Allegience. As far as singing the national anthem it seems that it is only a prelude to an athletic event. Still we are able to do these things and reaffirm our patriotism. I have been out of the United States a few times in my life and while I liked the people of these other countries I was glad to return to the Good Ole USA because of the basic freedoms which we take for granted.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable Independence Day.

After the breakfast we had a lot of fun playing at the park and then coming home to play in the swimming pool. We also played a little baseball, basketball, and tennis but those were very short games as Vance could not seem to concetrate on any one game for very long. We also had hot dogs for lunch. They were large Costco hot dogs which we grilled. Nearly all of the family was here for the day. We only were missing Sean and we wished he could have been here too.

Our ward had a Memorial Day Breakfast this morning. The one flag alone, however, is flying at our house. The four young men in the ward who are graduating from high school this year and have finished their Eagle Scout requirements are doing the flag ceremony at the memorial day breakfast.

A member of the ward shared rememberances of his father who was a veteran of World War II. There was also patriotic music and readings. The ward activities committee served pancakes, waffles, eggs, saugsage, and juice.

Because of the number of people, Glen's basketball court was pressed into service for a dining area.

Drama, Drama, Drama

Drama has been a tradition in our family for many years. Beginning with Holly our family has had at least one child in a Z-Center Stage Production for the last 14 years with the exception of one year when we had no children in high school. There were two productions a year for all of those years so I cannot even begin to remember all of the plays that the kids have been in. This years production was "Once Upon a Mattress". Glen was the mute king and Rose was one of the ladys' in waiting. All of the older kids came to the final performance on Saturday night and got together with the director, Lynn Brandt, who has directed all of the shows the kids have been in for this photo. It has been a lot of fun being involved in these shows with our kids. At times we have volunteered as parents to assist in some aspect. Teri has done more than I have. She choreographed the dancing one year and has sewn costumes on numerous occasions and has sold tickets and water at the door. My volunteer work has been more along the lines of ushering and ticket taking. We have also video taped many of the plays.

Happy Bassoonist

The concert is over and the scholarship is in hand. The doors of the Capitol Theater open and out walks a happy bassoonist.