Catching Up

Hello!  I hope your weekend was good.  I missed posting on Friday as I took Dayle to the hospital for another cortisone injection into his back to see if it would help with his pain.  My cousins from Oklahoma arrived back while we were gone and my 2 sisters came out to visit with them and keep them company until we returned home.  So.. too busy to post.  The wooden bowl of pears below are from our tree in the pasture.  We don't spray our trees so they aren't pretty but they sure taste good!  Dayle lifted our son up into the top of the tree in his tractor bucket to pick them.  :-)

Kristi made a fantastic dinner on Friday to celebrate my cousin's Mark and Karen's anniversary and her birthday.  She made home made lasagna, Italian salad with artichoke hearts, kalamata olives and Parmesan cheese and homemade Southern Style butter yeast rolls!

And for dessert she made homemade zucchini cake with cream cheese frosting, using Fiori di Sicilia flavoring, made with citrus, flower essences and vanilla.  YUM!!

I realized I hadn't taken a photo of my delightful cousins, Mark and Karen, so we got this photo before they headed to bed after a weeklong cruise to Alaska and the drive from Seattle to our house.  They had left their 5th wheel trailer here during the cruise.  They are now in the Redwood Forest in California. :-)  They live in Watonga, Oklahoma, where I was born and my parents were born.  We moved here when I was 4 1/2.

On Saturday morning I watched as Dayle used his tractor and Travis and Kristi to move the old gazebo off the deck so they could finish re-decking in that area.

They placed it in the middle of our horseshoe shaped driveway - we call it "the circle".  By the time I got out there to see where they put it, I said.. "the pretty side is on the wrong side."  So, they turned it.  Caleb said.. "really, Grandma?".  :-)  We are thinking of putting a fire circle there.

Here it is in it's new spot.  Do you think we should paint it white or leave it natural?  We've ordered a new gazebo from Costco which has a metal roof and is a bit bigger that will go on the deck.

Kristi single-handedly removed all these deck boards so Travis could add the new ones today as he has Labor Day off work.  

My younger sister Denise just got home from a 3 week photo safari in Africa.  She is so sweet and always brings me a few mementos from her trip.  This is a beaded key ring from Kenya, I adore it!

The colorfully beaded bracelet she got in a real Masai village and it's made by the native people there.  Isn't it neat?

A flock of Goldfinches arrived to feast at our thistle socks.  I think they are almost all juvenile males that have not turned the brilliant yellow that the mature males usually sport.

They are very cute to watch as they bicker and fight over their space at the feeder.

I counted 20ish of them at one time!

I took this photo last night, the moon is almost full.  With the smoke in the air some images of the moon are orange.

On Hayden's second day of school and Caleb's first day they both were excited and were drawing.  Hayden drew this picture of the moon.  Isn't it great!  I'm so proud of his artistic skills.

We are a bit edgy over the last few days.  Our beloved Cascade Locks area is on fire, so far 3000 acres has burned and it's no where near contained as yet.  Many homes have been evacuated.  The smoke in the air here is awful.  And if the wind gets bad the fire could blow our way.  I've already thought of what needs to be packed in our cars if we have to be evacuated.  It will kill me if our house and all our antique treasures burn to ashes.  But as long as we can get our family and our dogs out, that is the most important thing.

I'll update you on Wednesday.  I'm so glad that much of the flood waters have receded in Houston and the clean up has begun.  But so many people have lost their homes and everything they owned.  I do hope that they are helped to relocate and rebuild their lives.  Also - our leader has decided to end DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) - putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of "Dreamers" - to be deported to Mexico although they've lived their entire lives here.  I'm so crushed that this might happen.  I hope they can be saved.  They live here, have jobs and go to school and pay taxes.  

We all need to stand up for those in danger and need help.  I pledge to be one of them.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)