Pegs and Jokers Up to Our Ears

The shop was whirring with activity today. Gary was busy cutting the boards out of 1x12s while K was tending to the routing, sanding, and drilling end of the project. They work well together and together as a team they're able to finish about ten sets of boards per day. Cecile and I were in the studio staffing the finishing department. We were busy choosing the palettes of colors to be used on the various boards. We'll have six designs from which to choose (using decals): Grapes, Light Houses, Violets, Pansies, and Fishes— in addition to our "standard" set, which is hand-painted. She and I almost finished three complete standard sets. We need to kick it up a notch in order to meet our self-set quota before we head over to Winchester Bay next month. We'd like to have at least 20-30 sets to send them off with—all produced from their work in Camp Cascadia.

Gary is quite skilled at using the band saw.

My husband loves his new shop —having easy access to the tools.

And Cecile, the perfectionist that she is, is enjoying the finishing department.

You'd think after spending all day working on the Pegs and Jokers games we'd not want to look at another board? No way, we love playing the game!

Life is good . . . working and playing with friends!

Another Busy Day

The "ladies" of the church (five of us showed up today) met as we do every Wednesday morning to work on the Card Boxes to be filled with cookies and candy and given to the local "shut-ins" and others in Sweet Home for Christmas. When I volunteered to help them in June we were going to make 30-40 boxes. Now the count is up to 100! But we've got a pretty good system going, with each of us taking on a particular part of the construction. I was in charge of the fences. My neighbor, KC (as shown in the pictures) worked on the snow, along with a couple of others. And then one person attached the final decorations bringing the box to completion. It's a fun project and a social event at the same time, as we giggle and chat the morning away. With the progress we make each week, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, however it'll probably take us through October to finish!

Here is KC gluing quilt batting all around the base for the card house.

Trying to let go of the snow so it will dry with glue sticking to her fingers.

These houses are waiting for me to put the fences all around.

And here are the twelve I worked on with fences glued and held together with pins waiting to dry.

Fresh and Feisty

That's the description on the box that Cecile brought home, which was referring to the live Maine lobster inside. And man-oh-man did they make a yummy dinner!

The ice packs were still frozen after thirty hours travel time. The lobster were nestled in a bunch of seaweed.

Here are the guys with our neighbor enjoying a glass of wine waiting for the pot of water to boil.

Ready to take a nice hot bath!

Make room for me!

Isn't it amazing how they change color!

It is so good to have Cecile back "home"—we've all missed her. We celebrated our 44th anniversary (August 24) and Cecile's homecoming with a nice bottle of champagne.

Life is Good . . .
especially enjoying it with friends!

The Rescue of the Basil Plants

We were sitting out on the deck enjoying our Happy Hour with Gary. We had all just finished checking in on "Kitty" . . . you remember, the caterpillar which changed into the chrysalis and is now hanging on the twig in the jar just waiting to change into a beautiful butterfly. Well, K and I thought Kitty looked a bit fatter however, Gary couldn't see the change. Anyway, out of the corner of my eye I could see something moving over by the herb garden.


Lo and behold it was another caterpillar! A different looking caterpillar than Kitty. I so wished CD was here to enjoy watching her. This caterpillar moved ever-so-fast! By the time I ran in to get the camera she had circled the pot twice and wouldn't hold still enough to get a good clear picture. She was really traveling fast, trying to figure out how to get onto the plant . . . one of my three basil plants which are just about ready to harvest to make my annual batch of pesto. I'm so glad we saw her when we did. How dare her even think she was going to get away with that! She looked like she was mighty interested in munching those beautiful basil leaves.



I think the flash of the camera startled her so she held still enough to get this shot. You can imagine her porcupine-like hairs moving as she took each step! I carefully took a stick and released her grip so I could give her a good fling. We don't have time to "mother" two caterpillars.

Life is good . . . when you can make your own pesto!

Production Under Way

The Camp Cascadia P&J Production House is a busy place these days. Gary is in charge of cutting the "roughs" out on the band saw. K's job is figuring out any jigs to be made and make them. Then he smooths out the game boards using the table router and finishes the ends up with a drum sander. Tomorrow's job he will be drilling the holes and then pass them over to Gary for a final sanding. At that time they will be ready for the "Finishing Department," which is Cecile and me. (But since Cecile is on a life-of-leisure vacation in Maine, (enjoying a massage, pedicure, manicure plus a lobster dinner topped off with home-made blueberry pie) it'll be just me until her return!

I couldn't get a picture of Gary at the saw but here is the fruit of his labor. We are currently waiting for a new saw blade which should be here tomorrow.

Using the router table and the template, he cleans up the roughs which Gary has cut, and makes the edges smooth and uniform.

Carefully smoothing out the curve on the ends.

This is a cool jig K made to make drilling the holes perfectly spaced in a straight line.

And this is a cheese board I painted while teaching Cecile to paint. Now my brushes are all warmed up for the Pegs and Jokers games. Actually this week I've been painting Christmas projects, so I can't show them yet!

Gary's Turn

Cecile has been gone for three days. She'll be gone a bit over a week while visiting a good friend in Maine. When she is here at Camp Cascadia we take turns "hosting" the evening meal.

The first night we provided dinner.

Last night we were all too full from a late lunch while on a field trip hunting for bargain wood. Tonight was Gary's turn . . . filling in for his wife. And he did a fine job. He stopped off on his way home from errands in town and picked up fixin's for grilled brats with bell pepper and onions (which he cooked in a hand-made-from-foil container on the grill).



We provided corn on the cob given to us by our neighbor, and a various assortment of yummy string beans we picked this afternoon from the hoop house. Oh, to top it all off, yours truly made a nice apple crisp made from apples picked over at our cute little church on Sunday.

We all miss Cecile, but we're not going hungry, that's for sure! We're even looking forward to her bringing back fresh Maine lobster!

Life is good!

You Gotta Love Her!

She's been my summer neighbor for eight years. She's been my friend for over thirty years. And she's an amazing woman in so many ways. This is just one of them. She drove the Kubota down to see us in the rain today just to show us that she learned how to drive it—something she has wanted to do since she bought it more than five years ago. Well, she had guests up from California last week and he must have been a really good teacher, because she finally "got it" and is now grinning from ear to ear, as you can see by these pictures. Isn't she adorable!

Tah Daaaaaa!

Oops, don't forget to raise the shovel to back up!

And there she goes.

The end.

Hip Hip Hooray!

The tomatoes are finally starting to turn red. And there must be a couple hundred green ones to follow along, as long as the sun keeps shining brightly upon Camp Cascadia!

Yesterday's harvest . . . which accompanied last night's dinner. Hidden under the giant string beans are the last of the peas. There's nothing better than fresh from the garden. For dessert we enjoyed zucchini bread made from this over-sized treasure from the hoop house!

Well . . . what can I say?

Here are the fishermen showing you how BIG the one that got away was. Plus the one that they hauled in after a mighty fight. (That's the one in K's right hand and the one that we'll enjoy at Happy Hour tonight!) They had a great time under sunny blue skies on a beautiful lake. Better luck next time!

Was it this long?

No, it must have been at least this long!

Just big enough for Gary and Cecile to have a taste of Kokanee!

Life is good . . .they didn't get skunked!

"Ya gotta have the equipment!"

My brother used to always say that with a laugh coming from the depths of his belly and a giant twinkle in his eye! (I sure miss my brother, Bill. He would so much love to be here!)

Having said that reminded me that we say "Ya gotta have the equipment!" often, no matter whether we're tole painting, or working in the shop, or quilting, or cooking, or anything for that matter. But it is so true. Tasks are so much easier to accomplish using the right equipment.

Here is K making his winning lure to catch Kokanee. It is the same one he and JD used in July when they brought home six big ones. So now K and Gary are heading out in the wee hour of tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how they do. Hopefully we'll have a nice grilled Kokanee dinner tomorrow night!

You gotta hold your mouth right, and with a steady twist of the wrist . . . aah heck, what do I know?

But I do like the color choices!

And presto, the perfect lure!

Here it is ready to be tied onto the leader.

Nothing like a cold beer when you're finished!

Good luck guys, bring home a bunch!

Teaching a Friend to Tole Paint

What fun Cecile and I have been having the last two days. Cecile has never tole painted and she's been a quick learner. She picked out a design, put it on a cheese board, and has been learning basic strokes and technique. We fuss a lot and laugh a lot and have a whole lot of fun doing it.

The Studio Got a Facelift Too

Just wanted you to see that the studio got some reorganizing done also. We bought a bookshelf at a garage sale and immediately knew we had to have a few more in order to get rid of those hideous metal shelving units. So we went to Wal-Mart and bought three more. It looks so much better, don't you think? Now all the books are standing upright like books should. And the video collection is all in one unit with a list of each title stored on the computer. I'm going to number them so that they can be cross referenced to make it easy to find a title. Oh, Martha would be so proud!

It's a Shop!

We've been working really hard getting the shop ready. When we started this fulltime RV lifestyle we were in a huge hurry to move out of our house because of the short escrow period. Because of that, we had to make decisions "on the fly" as to what to keep, toss, sell in the garage sale, and what to move to Oregon because we just might need it some day. What we kept and stored in Oregon was way too much stuff, and stuff we realize now that we do not need. So we've been giving away all that we don't need, organizing what we do need, and now we have room to work with all our wood-working equipment. And it's been fun.

We bought three of these great heavy-duty cabinets from Sears, filled them with our "stuff" organized in label plastic containers. We have to be careful of mold and/or rust in this part of the country, so storing in plastic containers seemed to work out well.

Here he is gearing up to make some Pegs and Jokers games with the Thompsons.

In the way of equipment we have a 10" compound miter saw, band saw, Hegner scroll saw, router with router table, an oscillating edge belt/spindle sander, and a vacuum system to equip our wood shop. Our equipment is all on lock-down wheels so each piece can be moved aside while not in use.

We are excited to have our shop!

P.S. Here is the "BEFORE" picture we took as we started our organization project two weeks ago.

Life is good!

Camp Cascadia Welcomes Gary and Cecile

The Thompsons arrived yesterday in full force. Their 38' Montana fifth-wheel, the medium-duty truck that hauls it, plus their van, and new cat "Mittens"— all fit on our little piece of heaven. It's a big rig and we were all anxious to see Gary maneuver their "Montana", with Cecile's guidance of course, up our driveway — having to make a right-angled turn between two very large trees and avoiding hitting another large cedar, the new shed, and the pole barn and, at the same time, park it in place leaving clearance for their three push outs! And they did it so smoothly! With Cecile's experienced hand motions and without a word between them she gave Gary perfect directional hand-signals to slip that giant rig right into its new spot.

When they first pulled up the rig just looked way bigger than I remembered.

Cecile keeping a close eye on the back wheels, a keeping an eye on Gary using the side mirrors, guided Gary into the driveway.

A simple hand signal and a watchful eye.

Ken's job was to raise an overhead wire up above the fifth-wheel!

My job was to keep Gary from hitting the pole barn!

Gary can basically only see what's happening through the use of his mirrors.

Disengaging the fifth-wheel from the truck.

Here's a shot from our deck this morning of our new neighbors. Now it's time to get to work making Pegs and Jokers games besides having a great time with our good friends. It's so good to have them here, finally!

And here they are sitting on our deck. We all look forward to some good times together.