Star Party

Last night up at Timberline they had a Star Party put on by the Forest Service and an Astronomer and a couple of his students. It started at 9:00 pm with a mini-lecture and then everyone was able to go look at the moon through two different types of telescopes.

It was pretty cool. You could clearly see the craters on the surface and the different variations of the moon.


We then waited for the moon to set at 10:20. During that time they showed us different stars in the sky, Big Dipper, Scorpion, Teapot, Northern Cross, Summer Triangle, North Star, Andromeda, and then as it became darker the Milky Way, which was totally amazing. The Milky
Way stretched across the whole sky from horizon to horizon. Beautiful.

We now know that the North Star is 45 degrees on the horizon. That it does change and we had a mini lesson about the Egyptian Pyramid's and how the peaks lined up with the North Start at the time they were built. We learned that when looking at the stars you are looking back in time, which is a difficult concept to get. That planets and explode but we won't know about it until sometime in the future when we can actually see that it has happened.



Did you know that "Shooting Stars" are really specs of dust that are hitting our atmosphere at a high speed and burning up.

I tried to take pictures of my own, but they didn't turn out. Also Jupiter came out later in the evening. It was amazing that you could see the rings around the planet.

It made for a very long day as we were up at 5:00 am with Lacey, picked blueberries came home did a few things, had dinner and then turned around and headed back up to the mountain.

If you ever want to go star gazing, head up to Timberline. It is absolutely stunning!

Blueberry Hill

Several years ago we decided it would be great fun to go huckleberry picking. I think that perhaps we found a small handful, but on the way home we did find a wonderful little blueberry place in Dee, Oregon. We have been going back every year since then.

There's nothing quite like blueberries, and it's always a nice trip around the mountain. Our goal was to pick 4 buckets of berries, and perhaps have a taste or two.

Every time I turned around someone was munching away, or as he says just sampling to make sure we were picking the right berries :-)

The berries are big and juicy and it only took about 1.5 hours to pick our 4 buckets. Once we were finished it was off to the shed to weigh, sort and pack the berries for the trip home. Gloria the owner of the field is quite interesting and is always available to help with suggestions on how to make the process more efficient. The grand total this year was 25 pounds....not bad for 1.5 hours worth of work.

After working up an appetite in the fields we always stop in Parkdale for an ice cream . If you are ever in Parkdale be sure to stop for a cone or dish...Oregon ice cream...yum....you can't beat it!

It's hard to believe that we live in such a beautiful place. Mt Hood is beautiful no matter what time of year.

What is 13.1?

This may mean absolutely nothing to one person, but to us it is a goal that has been conquered.

In 2002 Bill and I ran a 10K run from Women’s Forum State Park to Multnomah Falls. Ever since then he has mentioned that he would like to run a Half Marathon and wanted me to do it with him. I poo pooed that idea because it wasn’t me.

A few years ago Bill said that he would really like to run a Half Marathon for his 60th Birthday. So I started putting my thinking cap on, and earlier this year opportunity knocked and I grabbed it to help make Bill’s dream come true.

I won a membership to Portland Fit, which is a running group that trains people to run the Portland Marathon in October, and Con-way offered 50% discount for employee’s and their spouses. So, I signed us up and Bill and I agreed to stick to the schedule, make the commitment, and accomplish his goal.

The first weekend in April was the first meeting of Portland Fit and it was a 3 mile run to identify which pace group people were placed in. Our pace was slow but steady and we were given a schedule of three runs each week for a specified period of time with a long run on Saturday morning.

We have been very committed to the schedule and unfortunately we both got sick in early June which threw us off the Portland Fit training schedule as that group ran their Half Marathon on June 13. As a result we backed up their schedule found, another Half Marathon to run on July 4th and have been training on our own since then.

As the run grew near our excitement started to grow. The weather unfortunately wasn’t cooperating this week as the temp has been in the 90’s but a goal is a goal. We were up at 04:00 AM this morning and out of the house at 05:00 driving through town to Sauvies Island. The route was 13.1 miles around the island. The organization is a fabulous job of supporting the event as water, etc were available every couple of miles.

Probably 3 miles into the run there was a big sign posted that said “There are many obstacles in Life…..This is not one of them!” Yes we can!

It was pretty inspirational and several times during the run we both said….yes we can….to encourage the other to keep going.

We held hands as we crossed the finish line, we each received a medal as a “finisher” and what had originally been Bills goal to do a Half Marathon, also turned into mine. Not only was this my gift to him, to support him through training and help it success, but somewhere along the way it also became my goal.

Goals are amazing things….they take time, commitment and result in a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

Ahhhhh Finally A Dog Show :-)

After months and months of no dogs shows, we FINALLY got to go to a specialty and an all-breed dog show.

The Willamette Valley Saluki Club held their annual Specialty show on June 19, 2009. As we helped with the show, the weekend really began on Thursday evening with a drive out to Canby to help set up the specialty rings.

We only had Katie entered at the specialty as I was involved in to many of the show activities. Katie showed really well and at the end of the day, she was Best in Specialty Show. Katie is Bill's first champion, and now she is his first Specialty winner. The win was under a breeder judge which makes it even more special.

We took Saturday off for a few non-doggy items and we were back at the show bright and early Sunday Morning. This time we had Kayla entered too and brought Lacey along for the ride so that she wouldn't be lonely at home by her self.

Since Kayla never wants to let Katie have the last word, she marched out and won Best of Breed also under a breeder judge.

It has been 10 months since our last shows, we were only entered for two of the days and walked home with two very nice wins....

I think I have my dog show fix for a bit....but I'm sure it won't last for long!

The Mosaic

Last summer I took a mosaic class and loved it and came up with the great idea of putting a mosaic on the porch. I haunted the Rebuilding Center and the Restore (Habitat for Humanity) looking for just the right tiles to use for the mosaic. A friend even gave me some left over tiles. After all of my searches and purchasing I had everything I needed to begin the project. Well by then the flowers in that bed were too tall and I couldn't do the mosaic.

I was sure first thing this spring that I would start my project, but I had other excuses and didn't get around to it. So yesterday I decided that this was the time. I got out the glue gun and the tiles I selected for the base layer and began the project. As you can see I waited just a bit long and now have to deal with the dahlia's that are already starting to grow.

This is going to be a learning experience so I decided to the heck with straight lines, let's just jump in and get going. I have begun the project and can't wait to get going on it.

Of course today it's raining so the project is on hold.

Bicycle Donation Program

About a month or so ago Bill came up with a community service idea of helping to provide bicycle to some needy kids. He is working with an organization called "Rita's Place". Rita's Place assists families in need and Bill has been gathering used bicycles and working to clean them up and in some cases combining parts from several of them to make a single bicycle. We spent part of yesterday washing, drying, waxing and putting together bikes. We bought the little blue frame in this picture for $1.00 at a garage sale, took the wheels off of another bike that was beyond repair and went out and purchased new tires for the rims.

This has been quite a project gathering the bikes, some have been nice and some not so nice. There are bikes in the shed, on the patio, and in the living room.

All of the recipients of the bikes need to have a helmet and he is working with the Sandy Fire Department as they have people who can fit the helmets. Also everyone will be provided with a lock for their new bikes.

Looking forward to the day when the bikes will be given to their new owners.

Portland Fit Half Marathon Goal

Bill brought home a nasty bug and was sick in bed for 5 days a couple of days after that I ended up with the same thing. Whatever it was, it was nasty and really put us off our run schedule Bill ended up missing 5 scheduled runs and I missed 6, which totally fouled up the planned Helvatia Half Marathon. So being the creative people that we are, we found another half marathon to shoot for and have adjusted the run schedule back a couple of weeks so that we can continue to train. Yesterday we ran 7 miles and actually used the new roads by our house rather than getting in the car and driving to our start spot. It worked out quite nicely other than trying to dodge the construction trucks that were on 172nd. We are back on target and looking forward to our scheduled half marathon.