Good Luck, stay safe and keep your head above water!


0800 appointment at the Salem VA went well yesterday. Was out of there by 0915. Instead of waiting for Costco to open in Salem we headed out for Bravo. Stopped at the Eugene Costco for a few supplies before getting of Oregon's strange Hippy#1-Liberal City #2 and continuing on up the mountain. Eugene is (or used to be) the home of the Rainbow group. Doctors, Lawyers and other professionals' groups along with U of O college students and others that would have annual summer gatherings in the Mountains. I had to cover a few of these gatherings when they had them in Douglas County, Umpqua National Forest. You knew the want a be Woodstock Festival was on when you saw a Mercedes or BMW with bare arse naked people wearing nothing but a headband, heading into the mountains trailed by a funny acrid smelling smoke trail.}>:-missingt

Elk came for a visit last night at Bravo. That young bull was back to playing with the camera. Doesn't appear to have caused any trouble with it this time. They stuck around for most of the night. I had to turn the Stealth Cam App alert tones off last night so we could get some sleep.

Warden and I took advantage of the nice weather here at Bravo and walked out to the Highway (1/2 mile) from the house and around the property. Had to go around some down at the river. Snow melt is filling up the spring channels and since it is snow melt, the Warden felt it was too cold to go wading in. The 4 wild Canadian Honkers flew in making a landing in the pond and after a swim, went browsing and grazing around the pond and the SE section of the meadow as if they owned the place. Two of them are plucking grass shoots now while two of them are over under Lone Pine in the shade taking a nap.

Did some sightseeing on the way back to Bravo Compound. Covered Bridge, Salt Creek Falls, Odell Lake. Trapper Creek and Princess Creek Campgrounds are all still closed. Trapper Creek still has a good layer of snow, as does everything on the NW side of the Lake. Sunset Cove campground and the boat ramp there is open. These places for the most part are within 10 to 40 minutes from the house. The exception being Diamond Peak and Summit Lake. The roads to Summit Lake are not friendly to cars. Diamond Peak is Wilderness Area and takes a very long hike. You can get close with horses, but the last section up to the peak is a bit of a hump on foot.
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The top of Salt Creek Falls near the top of the Willamette pass.
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At 286 feet, Salt Creek Falls is the second tallest falls in Oregon.
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Diamond Peak and the Diamond Peak Wilderness
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Odell Lake Lodge Marina
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Warden and I spent yesterday evening doing biscuits. Kept a few out for dinner and vacuum packed a bunch for the freezer and later.

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Area map putting our location in perspective to some of the pictures and local area endless and unlimited activity potential.

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This young bull and a couple of the cows have seemed to have found their favorite play toy.
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Yep....it's still there.
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Snow Cap Mountain through the trees
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All the Astar helicopters are inspected, repaired and ready for contracts.
now we are tractor mechanics!
Phil and I are now doing the inspections and engine change on the Bell 206 Jetranger aka the tractor. It is the spray / ag ship.
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As a former Aviation Structural & Hydraulics Mechanic as well as Flight Engineer might I suggest you use Gorilla Tape to hold that sign on there?:-missingt

It will increase in value no doubt!

We are loaded! Headed out in the morning Oo.

Have a safe trip Andre, great pics Jim n all ...........

Good evening Gents. The weekend is upon us! We are still getting rain up here in beautiful OliverSprings, Tn. Home of Windrock Off-road Park. Should ne named Rainy Rock instead. We finally got to ride about it noon today. Well, actually we met up at noon and by the time the plan changed back and forth for about an hour we took off on the original route. Go figure. Anyway, we rode blue trails today but I swear their blue trails are more like black trails. Especially with the rain and mud making everything super slick. Seen a few folks getting winched out of a jam today. We had a good group and had no issues other than getting the crap beat out of us and slipping and sliding all over the place. These trails were extremely rocky. Rocks in all shapes and sizes. Some piled thick and high for a quarter mile. Uphill and downhill. Today was a really good time. We only covered about 21 miles in about 4-1/2 hours. Slow going.
Can,t post pics here. Internet service sucks. We are in the sticks!
Dang S-Don, I hope you don’t have a replay of the camper fiasco with those winds. Batten down the hatches. At least it will blow some of those mosquitoes out of there for a couple hours. I used to have hat with a mosquito on it that had the caption: “Louisiana State Bird.” At the same time I had one with the saying “Stolen From Mabel’s *****house.” I alternated wearing them. They were my favorite hats. Seems they went missing prematurely. I am sure they still had some wear left in them. Kind of like buying new tires when you still have tread left on the old ones.
I hope everyone has a great weekend. We were originally supposed to leave here on Monday but I think I’ll load up tomorrow afternoon and head out Sunday AM. Catch you ‘uns later,

My busted up right arm, works well enough in the brace to run the skid loader, So I brought the dump trailer home and will make 3 or 4 trips to the dumps with Horse Manure today. Clean out the corral from a winter of pile up.

I finally got a halter on the new filly, Only 15 days to get that done, But didn't dare fight with her with my arm.

Almost done sheet rocking the school. Painters have another two weeks, Flooring guys will be showing up monday to start. Site work guys are starting Monday to prep for sidewalks, curbs and grading for asphalt. Completion date August 1st is coming fast.

Have a great weekend

Howdy to all the fine Patriots..... :-wink

Sailor Jim, those are nice photos you shared..... :)

Hurricane Don..... Maybe you need to build a solid steel reinforced concrete hanger for the RV.

Yesterday we had 30 - 40 mph winds all day. Not a problem, just not the day to be roofing.
I did spend some time at the Peak (Health Club). I need to get back to workouts at least twice a week. As active as I am, I still loose strength if I don't exercise at the Peak.

Great day for outside work..... 43°F and 40% humidity. 15 - 20 mph winds. Sun and clouds share the sky.

Time for another mug of Cowboy Coffee and get my butt in gear. I want to finish the bedroom project this weekend..... :-X22

Have fun ...... :)

No kidding! I'm having my house renovated, started back in Feb, and will hopefully have it wrapped up by the end of this month. The contractor and crew are doing all the major work, but I decided I wanted to tile two of the bedrooms they worked in. I do a little work every so often in the evenins after they leave so as not to get in their way. I check in here on Saturday morning and have to spend about half an hour catching up on you guys!

Here is the kitchen. It's been like this since I bought the house back in 1995.
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Before
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During. Note the funky wiring on the right that goes to the stove. A bent pipe held in place with bent nails!
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After. Yes, a wall was moved.

The PO had moved the master bath wall 2' into the master bedroom, then removed the wall between the master bedroom and the next bedroom to make the master very large. But this turned my 4/2 into a 3/2. As previously mentioned, the kitchen wall was moved as again, the PO enlarged the utility room by moving the wall into the kitchen, making the utility room a 12 x 10 (bed)room. So the kitchen is back to its original size, the utility room is back and the 4 bedrooms, well the master is not quite as big as it originally was but its still pretty big at 13 x 16, and the re-created bedroom next to it is 12 x 7. Kinda small but it does have a real closet (not included in the measurements) and will work great as a home office with a futon in it.

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Cut a hole in the hallway for a door, very close to where the original door was. PO closed it up when they took down the wall to make the master bigger.
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Built a wall. The original wall was a couple of feet closer to the window, but I did not want to make the master bedroom too small.
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Almost finished small room. Its only 7' wide but its 12' deep with a standard size closet on the right. The wood looking ceramic tile is my work. Boy are my hands sore!

And then there is the master bath, but I'll save that for another post. I hope everyone enjoys their weekend.

Here ya go David, This could be your next Mustang!

2025 Ford Mustang® GTD Performance Supercar | Ford.com

Did you notice the sign on the drivers door........ "Arrest me, I'm speeding"

Howdy all. Had to take care of a few trespassing Sage Rats yesterday. I'm going to have to pick up some sulfur the next time I'm at Farm and Ranch, put it in their holes and hit it with the weed burner. They are creating some serious problems in one area. They don't stick their head above ground enough to make shooting them a real viable way of pest control.

Finally got to try out the 54" Zero Turn out yesterday afternoon. Drove it around the paddock for a bit getting used to it and controlling the steering and trying to back up in a straight line. Ran it up and down 1/2 mile lane and didn't run off the pavement. So, then it came time to drop the deck, engage the blades and put it to the test. I just did one little section, but it went fast. About 10 minutes did what would have probably taken me an hour to do with the walk behind Honda. That 54" cut makes one pass out of two and a half - three passes with the 24" Honda and it has some real speed to it as well. So far so good.

I think I have discovered that I will need to get the mulching kit for it and I'm going to have to get a tow behind dethatcher which also means a pull behind lawn sweeper. 4 acres is an awful lot of raking. I thought I could mow, and the Warden could rake. I have been advised in no uncertain terms that as to the raking part of my plan, my thought processes are completely warped.:-missingt

Good afternoon crew!

Sounds good Jim!

Lunch time view today…
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