For once, I have no photos of this past exhausting week. Instead I'll copy excerpts of what I sent to a friend in explanation for my long silence...
Sorry we missed the Art Tour. Ian and Kellin had only that weekend to visit. Ian had not been here for a year... not since Johnny's bday in January last year. He is very busy with school and job. I had hoped to take them to the Art Tour... Kellin is an artist. But to my surprise they arrived Friday with Kevin! Turns out it was a surprise birthday/thanksgiving weekend. They brought a ton of food: some desserts from Jessica and a huge turkey with all the trimmings. They cooked spaghetti Friday night and then the turkey dinner on Saturday. We have lots of food frozen from all the leftovers. It was great to see them all. They left Sunday morning to drive back home.
(I did take photos when Kevin and Ian were here so will insert those in this blog post...)
Monday we drove to Gates to pick up 2 1/2 tons of hay from friends who
bought Mom and Dad's ranch. We did not get enough hay put up this dry
summer to last the winter. We had no trouble getting there and back home
in Dad's pickup pulling the flatbed trailer he had built. Tuesday we
unloaded the hay into the shed behind the shop where we store the horse
hay now. That was a chore as the bales weigh 85# each. All I can do is
roll them to the open door and push them in to Johnny. But we did it.
Wednesday it still wasn't raining here but looked iffy in Gates so we
did our Grand Ronde Raptor survey.
(I took photos on the survey so will insert a couple here...)
We had another 2 1/2 tons of hay to
pick up in Gates when the weather looked safe. It did on Thursday so we
went up and they loaded the hay onto Dad's trailer. All went well until
we were at the stop light on 22 by I5. One tank of gas ran out so Johnny
switched to the other tank but the pickup would not start, and no lights
or anything else worked. We could not get out because we were in the
middle lane with cars whizzing past on both sides of us. I called our
insurance company but they were out to lunch or something so I called
911. Very nice lady took all the info and called the police. Eventually
a trooper arrived, assessed the situation, directed traffic around us
(although I think by that time everyone had figured out we weren't able
to go anywhere) and called a towing company. Two tow trucks arrived. One
pulled our truck onto his bed, the other hooked to our hay trailer and
both went to the towing company yard by the airport. Then came a very
long wait while the nice lady at the towing company negotiated with our
insurance company (State Farm) and finally got the go ahead to have us
towed home. So both tow trucks got us and our pickup and trailer with
hay back home. Long, stressful day.
Still nice weather on Friday so we unloaded the 60 bales into the loft
of the goat barn... with great difficulty. I waltzed the bales to the
hay elevator (hope you can visualize what I mean) and Johnny had a
wheeled gizmo that the bales dropped onto and he wheeled to where he
stacked them no more than 2 high because they are so blessed heavy!
Today, as you know, Johnny went to town to do errands. I stayed home to
do chores, clear a fence-line to keep our blasted dog where she belongs,
washed my hair and fell asleep in my chair... was still asleep when
Johnny got home. I woke up in time to do chores and eat supper. And now
I'm going to bed.
So that's what our life has been like recently. Hope it settles down
now. ...... I figure my back will recover in a week or so. I'm
still not back up to 100# and wrestling 85+ pound bales was a bit much.
But we did it!
Looked like from the papers that the art show was a great success. Sorry
I missed it.
Linda
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