Mittens

I'd like you to meet Mittens, beloved cat of Gary and Cecile. They left her in our care while they went to Portland to be with grandchild number three. Mittens has become quite attached to us in the three days of their absence. The first day she sat on top of their mid-size truck, the second day we didn't see much of her at all, and today she's been pretty much a stay-at-home cat needing lots of love and attention. She has quite a loud purr which makes me happy since I think that's the sign of contentment. Not growing up with cats I've been slowly getting to know they are oh-so-different than dogs in that they can take you or leave you at the drop of a hat. Once they're fed, they basically have not much to do with you at all until it's time to eat again. But we've enjoyed caring for this pretty kitty.

Today she needed lots of snuggles.

There are stories to go along with this "Mittens" post.

The other day she had been secured in their rig for the night and somehow she would escaped . . . several times. Nobody could figure out how she did it since her "kitty door" was closed and the screen door was latched. Cecile went inside for something, closing the screen door behind her, and literally watched Mittens hop onto the arm of the couch, with her paw she slid open the slide door and unlatched the screen door . . . just like you or I would. She's probably seen it done a million times. So much for needing a kitty door!

It takes her quite a while to get comfy because she's always on the watch for anything . . . be it a critter, the sound of a bird, a leaf falling . . . or her ears are just twitching listening for various unknown sounds.

She has just recently become an outdoor cat after a year being only kept inside the rig. Camp Cascadia is certainly country living at its finest. Mittens came home one morning soaking wet with a bit of moss hanging on her tail. She seemed a bit embarrassed. The only thing we could figure out is that she may have seen a fish in Karen's pond next door and decided to "get it" not knowing she couldn't walk on water! Hmmmm . . . a bit of a learning curve . . . but she hasn't tried it again.

As seen from our deck, this is the trail which she favors to go to the pond, one of her favorite paths to adventure.

I received this picture in an email the other day and can imagine Mittens leaping into the pond to catch whatever she may have seen.

Life is good!

Guys Take a Day Off

Yesterday, Ken and Gary left early in the morning and headed to the Eugene Yacht Club. It is located on Fern Ridge Lake just 12 miles from downtown Eugene, Oregon. Now stop laughing, I know, being a native Southern California girl, that it sounds funny to imagine a yacht club any other place than along the Pacific Ocean. NOT! Since retiring my narrow mind has expanded to know that yacht clubs can be connected to, I guess, any body of water where there is boating involved.

Ken has been planning for years to, some day, build his own boat. He's gone from itty-bitty boats to boats of a more grand scale. I think he's decided for his first boat (he plans on building three, if the first one goes well) he will build what is called a PDR (Puddle Duck Racer). A class boat, which means you have to build it to certain specifications so that they can all race together.

It's a small world! While volunteering at the Ford House in Mendocino, Gary met a fellow named Jim Cooper. Jim was wearing a t-shirt that said on it something about wooden boats. Gary mentioned that he has a friend who is very interested in building a wooden boat. After chatting a bit, Jim told Gary to let Ken know about his club called COOTS. (Come to find out, Jim is from Albany, Oregon which is only about 30 miles from Sweet Home!) After Ken got Gary's email, he got online and researched all about COOTS (which has no membership, no leadership, and no rules). He even chatted with various members online. That's how he found out about the Eugene Yacht Club and the Wooden Boat Show held August 16th.

They had a good time, met members of the COOTS, even contributed three bags of chips to the potluck, and saw lots of wooden boats!

Here is a PDR with a junk rig sail, the type found on a Chinese Junk (boat).

Here is a Bolger Teal, a small one-person sailboat.

Here is Jim Cooper's Red Wing design boat. The funny thing about Jim is that he loves to build boats, but he doesn't like the water. He unloaded his boat and brought it over to the dock and said "That's about all the distance I like to go, I hate being out on the water!" Pretty funny, eh?

Life is good . . .
especially having a day off our busy schedule to enjoy something like a wooden boat show at a yacht club!

Pegs and Jokers Newbies

Our friends, Lou and Judy, came for a visit to Camp Cascadia. They are members of Park Sierra also. We enjoyed a nice happy hour getting caught up with each other's lives, followed by dinner and dessert. Then we asked if they'd like to learn to play Pegs and Jokers. Judy immediately said "Yes!" . . . Lou hemmed and haw'd (later we found out he isn't a game player) but after a little coaxing (twisting his arm) he agreed to play. I'm pretty sure they enjoyed the game and had a good time (I know Judy liked it). They'll be back tomorrow to see how we make the boards, and share a meal. Maybe they'll want to play again!

Gary teaching a bit of strategy to Judy and Lou.

Judy is taking home a copy of the rules to study for tomorrow's game.

Life is Good!

Our first custom order!

Pegs-and-Jokers.com received their first custom order, and we've been having fun the last couple days designing and producing it. The group, "Pink Phoenix", is a group of women who have survived breast cancer. But that's not their whole claim to fame . . . each is a member of a racing scull team based in Oregon.

One of its members is a friend of Gary and Cecile and asked if we could make them a Pegs and Jokers game with their logo on it. So this is what we came up with . . . I hope they like it as much as we had fun making it for them.

Gary and Ken work in the wood shop where they produce the game boards.

Gary is the team member in charge of rough cutting on the band saw, and then he also does the sanding after the holes are drilled. Then, after the sanding is done, he paints all the little pegs for our standard sets.

Here Ken is drilling out the ends of the boards so they will nest together when the game is played.

Ken is routing the edges to perfect size, using the template he made as a guide. He just informed me that there are seven steps he and Gary do before the boards go out of the shop for sanding. They are a great team!

Cecile and Janice are the sole members of the painting and decorating department. We have also given Cecile the responsibility of quality control,
being the perfectionist she is!

Here I am adding the final touches on these special boards.

Now these boards are just about finished.

Congratulations Pink Phoenix members!

Life is Good!

Let the fun begin!

Cecile and Gary arrived yesterday morning safe and sound. It's always amazing to watch them work as a team maneuvering their rig into our lot for their two-month stay. Their fifth-wheel is nearly 38 feet plus the 18 feet of the truck that hauls it making their total length (counting the fifth-wheel hanging over the truck) is probably close to 50 feet! But they just make it look so easy as Cecile guides Gary with hand signals and they had that thing backed in, keeping an eye on a couple big Doug Firs while making a 90° turn into the level parking area. After setting up "camp" we enjoyed our traditional Happy Hour, a nice dinner of grilled wild salmon, brown rice, and fresh broccoli. After dishes were done we still had time for three games of Pegs and Jokers.

This morning we were up bright and early and went blueberry picking . . . something Cecile had never done before. We each picked a gallon of berries and enjoyed perfect weather along the Santiam River.

Tomorrow we start our summer's project . . . producing 150 sets of Pegs and Jokers . . . so let the fun begin!

I was in the pole barn working on a quilting project but I realized they had arrived when I heard the air brakes released.

They are a good team, each anticipating what the next move should be.

Hardly a word is spoken, just the magic of hand motions!

Ken had an important job, too. Here he is holding up the phone wire with his handy-dandy homemade tool so the phone wire doesn't get snagged on the air conditioner on top of the rig.

One of two trees Gary had to watch out for . . . and he escaped from hitting either one of them!

Voila! Nothing to it! All they have to do now is unhitch, put the slides out, put the awning up and they're set to settle in for the rest of the summer.

We all love blueberries, and we each had one of these one-gallon jugs to fill up. It is the end of the season and the berries were not as plentiful as a couple of weeks ago, but we managed to fill our jugs, plus eat a bunch! And remember, we only had to pay $1.20 a pound . . . each jug cost $6 bucks!

As you can see, her jug (hanging on her waist) is nearly full!

As we walked back to the farmhouse to pay for our berries, we came across this adorable birdhouse.

This cute baby bird (I have no clue as to what kind it is) was peeping at us.

As as if berries weren't enough, we were allowed to pick cherries from the trees, however Gary was really the only one who could reach them.

Life is good !

Happy Hour with a Critter . . .

Most days our routine for "happy hour" starts around 4:30 in the afternoon. We stop what we're doing, go up on the deck, and enjoy a glass of wine and chat about our day. We've been reminded by the blue jays that they like being part of our daily celebration too. In order to make them feel welcome we throw out peanuts and enjoy watching them (there are three of them that come on a regular basis).

Today was no different . . . except apparently it wasn't the blue jays' turn for peanuts. As we sat down to enjoy our drink, I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye. I thought, at first, it was a cat. When I turned my head to get a better look I discovered it was a raccoon! Of course, Ken's first thought was wishing he had his 22 because he's always wanted a "Coon-Skin Hat" . . . was he ever surprised to learn that this raccoon had lost his tail. (He was really just kidding about the 22.)

I know they can be menaces, but they are incredibly cute too! Our neighbor has told us there is a family living in the woods behind us.

We named him Bobby (since he has no tail).
Here is Bobby eyeing a peanut up on the deck . . .
I think he's thinking "Hmmmmm, there's more up there!"

He never did actually get up on the deck, but he was thinkin' about it.

How cute is that?

Life is good . . .
Just enjoying the critters who live in our woods.

In Anticipation . . .

The Thompsons are coming to Camp Cascadia soon. We brought out the fire pit in anticipation of their arrival, because they love campfires . . . especially Cecile. I think I could safely say that she is a master at campfires. When we were in Mendocino visiting them she built a campfire every evening . . . and I mean a big, humongous campfire. However, because Camp Cascadia is basically surrounded by forest, our campfires will be scaled down considerably, but we'll enjoy our evening happy hours around a campfire when the Thompsons are here.

We had a campfire tonight and used the scrap wood from last year's Pegs and Jokers games the four of us made. This year we plan to make five times as many games, so we'll have lots of wood to burn!

Life is good . . .
especially sipping wine with friends around a campfire.