...Flying Higher...

California 2010 Day 10

2010-07-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

The morning dawned clear and perfect. We loaded up the loaner Jeep with our gear and headed into Yosemite National Park, staying on the upper road to Tuolumne Meadows. We were in the mood to do some hiking! The scenery is breathtaking as you climb above 8000 feet.

We reached the Tuolumne Meadows Campground and drove back in to the trailhead for Elizabeth Lake. The hike would not be too long. Just a bit over 2 miles and an altitude change of 900ft. The lake is at 9,500ft with higher peaks around it. The first part was the steepest and we soon found ourselves looking for a place to take a break, catch our breath, and eat lunch.

It was SO green. Absolutely beautiful. It sprinkled on us off and on the first hour, the temps were very pleasant. A buck, used to people, kept his distance but allowed us to enjoy his company.

The crystal clear creek was filled with trout that could see you coming. We got a few hits on our flies, but only if we snuck up on the wary trout.

There were a few people on the trail and at the lake, but, for the most part, we felt like the mountains were ours.

Naturally, the hike downhill was a breeze, making us feel like we were in incredible shape! We hopped in the car and spotted a clash of bucks out in Tuolumne Meadows. Becky thought I was joking when I said I wanted to turn around and go get a better shot...you decide.

Next stop was the west end of Tenaya Lake. Talk about picturesque. Wow.

At Olmstead Point, we got out and enjoyed the view of the backside of Half Dome. A Pika was out running around making quite a racket and posing for a multitude of viewers.

This pic tickled me. Although it meant well, I just wondered why the bears don't slow down...

The end of our day found us buying Pizza for our hosts and relaxing back at the cabin. A young doe and her baby hoped to join us. After a good night's rest, we loaded up the plane and headed home. The density altitude at 10am was 4600ft (physical elevation of Pine Mountain E45 2900ft) but the little Cessna ("that could") lifted off easily and took us to lunch with friends in Redding. From Redding, we found another tail wind and rode it home, although not without a good share of mild turbulence along the way that kept it exciting.

What a great trip. Nothing like making memories.

California 2010 Day 8 & 9

2010-07-25T16:38:00.000-07:00

Day eight was a little more relaxed. Becky spent much of the day with my sister browsing the shops in Exeter while my Brother-in-law and I babysat the TV. Soon, before we started getting sore, he and I went out and hooked up about 800 feet of firehose to a pump to pull water out of a canal and get it to their humungous yard of grass. Later, the rest of their family came by for a BBQ and swim.

Day nine started a little earlier. We loaded up the car and took off for the airport. We made it almost to the road before I realized I forgot a box of plums I'd picked for our host and hostess at our next stop. Back to the house for the fruit. Finally, on our way, we'd gone about 3 miles and almost made it to the freeway when Becky realized she'd left her phone in the bathroom. Back to the house for the communicator. Our third attempt at getting to the airport was successful and soon we were on our way north for Pine Mountain.

The airport (http://www.airnav.com/airport/E45) is at 2900 ft and the heat created a density altitude of 5,600ft. The landing was unremarkable - we get to use the plane again.

Our hostess and her canine escort from the Cub Inn (http://www.thecubinn.com/) picked us up in her Jeep and took us to our lodging. Since we were a bit early, we brought our bags in and borrowed their car to go looking for a fishing license for our trip tomorrow into Yosemite. We're debating Saddlebag Lake at 10,000ft or May Lake at 9,000ft. Tomorrow's post will show that we did neither!

We got back to the Inn and immediately ended up back in the car and going to the lake for some swimming. Pine Mountain Lake is private. You have to know the right person to get in. The water was wonderful!

Back at the house we were greeted by the local Buck, known as "Robert". A beautiful animal.

Then there's the other animal. We were greeted by a Bull Terrier named Zoe. Becky learned in the car from the airport that this wonderful animal prefers humans to keep their distance! The nip on the side of her nose healed quickly. That evening at the house, she nearly wore the dog out. Our host had to carry it to bed - walking was not gonna happen. Let's just say that they quickly became buddies!

Oh! Then there's Elvis the Jack Rabbit! Becky's never seen one up close, so when I saw him feeding on some carrot pieces that the deer had left behind, I quietly slipped inside, yelled for Becky and grabbed my camera. Well, it was not to be. All I got was a blurry pic of a Elvis running into the brush, never to be seen again that weekend. Drat. Becky missed one again.

california 2010 Day 7

2010-07-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

I awakened to the sound of a small dog trying to claw it's way into our bedroom. Time to get up.

Forgetting about the high concentrations of "stuff" in my sister's well water, I washed the windows of her Tahoe, but let them air-dry. Soon, I found the windows in worse condition than they were when they were dirty. Great.

Wanting to have lunch with Becky's niece and nephew at Hume Lake Christian Camp (where he works), we departed and took the most direct route (which we've done several times before). Highway 245 winds it's way through the foothills to where it joins Hwy 180 just a few miles below the entrance to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. Hwy 245 is 30 miles of corners. Bad move. Becky didn't feel well so I had to take it slower than I ever had. IF YOU have a bumper sticker that says "I Survived The Road To Hana" (Maui), then you need to step up to the 245. The road to Hana has nothing on this road.

We arrived a little late and found them and their kids in the camper's dining area. After lunch we mosied on over to their house for a cappuccino. Because of the size of their family, they were upgraded to a wonderful house on the creek, right below the Zipline!

After a good visit, we headed for the deeper hills. One of the major attractions in this area are the Big Trees. We didn't stop in Grant Grove, otherwise I'd have a pic of the General Grant tree (sequoia gigantea). This tree is 32 feet across at the base (diameter, NOT circumference). We managed to find a good specimen in the Boulder Creek Grove that posed long enough for us to get a few good pics.

Boulder Creek is a special spot for me. I've shed many a tear at Boulder Creek. I must've been all of ten or so when my dad took me there. Fishing rods in hand, he found a pool behind this huge rock where he kept hooking fish. I was too small and unable to get to the hotspot. "Brucie! I caught another one!" I burst into tears and bawled while he laughed and caught another one. Nine to be exact. I (somehow) managed to catch one.

Today, the water felt great. Very refreshing. The scenery was beautiful. What a great day!

California 2010 Day 6

2010-07-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

The fog broke and Becky flew us over the Carrizo Plain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrizo_Plain) and the fine town of Taft on the way to Visalia. Soda Lake is at the north end of the plain and the San Andreas fault runs the length of the valley on it's eastern side.

After crossing the coastal mountains (sure ain't ANYTHING like the Oregon Coast Range!!). We felt the heat of the Valley seep in through the many cracks and pores of the 31 year old Cessna. Looking at the outside air temperature indicator, I saw that it was 68 degrees at 7,500ft. Perfect! Soon, we'd be descending into 90 degrees. Looking down, we saw fields of oil pumping stations and a processing plant. Then, a prison followed by a golf course.

Ahead of us the Sierra Nevada mountains peeked out above the valley smog.

Soon, the runway at Visalia was before us; Becky flew us gracefully down the old long military runway until she was ready to land.

California 2010 Day 5

2010-07-21T18:23:00.000-07:00

Today was an educational day. We drove the 40 miles north on Hwy 101 to the town of Templeton where we jumped off the freeway and headed west. There must be 200 vineyards scattered across the hills around Paso Robles. Little ones producing a few thousand cases of wine each year and big ones producing 10's of thousands of cases. Lots of the wineries have "clubs" where they sell the wine at a discount as long as you purchase a few bottles a year. One of the smaller ones we visited relies on selling their wine mostly to their members. The pics below are somewhat random. What struck me most was some of the beautiful homes that this little piece of fruit has provided to the owners. Some of the vines were over 100 years old!

PS: The Hot Tub was fantastic this evening! The sky was filled with stars as the fog rolled in above us.

California 2010 Day 4

2010-07-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

I won't even show how fogged in we were the first few hours of awakening.

The place we're staying has an outdoor hot tub. It's been a wonderful part of our experience on this little yearly getaway for the last 5 yrs (or more?). The last few years we've found that the tub wants to cook us, it's temperature climbing higher and higher no matter what the setting. So, we would turn it off to keep the temp down. This was doable, but nonetheless we knew there had to be a way to fix it.

Enter Luke.

Finally, the local expert showed up before our arrival this year but couldn't get it to overheat. Without doing a thing (his words, this morning to me) it mysteriously has repaired itself. Sorta. Now, it heats up about 2.78 degrees per day. We flipped the switch 4 days ago and we're up to 89. It just ain't heating up as fast as we'd like. I no longer worry about the temp getting too high. Now, I'm thinking it won't ever get to the temp to enjoy the tub before we leave.

We had a second issue. We were dying to use it, so, last night, even tho' it said 87 degrees, we got in. The amount of bromine in the tub was so high we found ourselves choking. We got out.

Today I emptied more than half the water to remove the excess chemicals. Being very brilliant, I decided to use water directly from the hot water tank to fill the beast. This method, sound in it's design, proved to be another small disaster as fine particles of rust shot out of the hose turning the water sorta reddish. Ugh. I'm on it tho' - we're determined to enjoy it tomorrow night before we head to the bone-searing warmth of the San Joaquin Valley on Thursday.

We took off around noon and went into downtown Arroyo Grande, picking up some olive oil from Verena's (http://www.verenagogourmet.com/). She always has the best stuff to taste. I visited my most favorite guitar store (http://lightningjoes.com/). Believe it or not, they remembered me. Wow. I found a case for my Mandolin, which in it's many decades of life, I don't think it's ever had.

Wandering northward, we dropped down to the Pier at Pismo Beach to watch the surfers, fisherpeople and wildlife.

Having our fill of Pelicans, Smelt & Herring, we loaded back in the car and drove to Morro Bay where we visited with some friends from decades past. After winning the bet as to who pays for dinner, we drove out to Morro rock (oops, camera was in the wrong car) then through the golf course where wild Turkeys were keeping bugs off the fairways. Warning: They will multiply and not be so cute anymore!

Returning home, we were treated to a pretty cool sunset. The fog was still out over the ocean, and these cloud formations were above the fog. Tomorrow: Wine country.

PS: We've been encouraged by the Honey Bees we've seen. Whether harvesting pollen from flowers or making hives in the wrong places (inside the walls of a cafe in Santa Barbara!), we've seen the little guys busy at work each day we've been here.

California 2010 Day 3

2010-07-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

The morning dawned foggy. The day ended foggy. Somewhere in between we did a road trip down to Santa Barbara. Our route took us from the hills above town where we enjoyed a walk thru the Botanical Gardens...

The Botanical Gardens are located in Mission Canyon. It's name comes from the 1786 Santa Barbara Mission, the 10th established mission in California. The mission created water ducts to get water from the canyon above to the mission below. These water ways run right through the center of the Gardens. The carved animal face is thought to be the oldest known carving in the state. The structure it's attached to is a 30ft long rectangular shallow pool used for washing clothes.

Now that we'd worked up an appetite, we got on State street and drove thru the center of town. The lower end is filled with small shops and worth the visit. The end of State St is the wharf. We parked and walked out on the pier, looking for a good seafood lunch. Thinking we'd come millions of miles and gotten away from it all, we thought a quite meal at the Moby Dick restaurant would be just the ticket. We found a nice quiet table - well, that didn't last long! It turned out that my niece and her hubby were celebrating their 6th anniversary and were seated 3 tables away! We had a wonderful time getting caught up on life. What a surprise.

The drive back was just as enjoyable as the drive down. The last pic is the wonderful sunny sunset as viewed from my sister's place on the hillside above Oceano and Pismo Beach. Yeah, right.

California 2010 Day 1 & 2

2010-07-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

We left Saturday morning (yesterday) at 8:45 for San Luis Obispo, with a stop in Redding for fuel and food. No turbulence, and, a tail wind the entire way! It was encouraging to see Shasta Lake so full. We like Redding because of an excellent restaurant in the main terminal known as Peter Chu's Skyroom. The food is excellent and the price is right. We can never eat it all, so it ends up traveling the rest of the way with us!

We landed with a stiff headwind (19kts)at San Luis Obispo and were escorted to a parking spot. Our rental car was delivered to us at the plane. Wow. To quote a friend of mine, they "must've thought" we "were somebody else". Well, at least they liked whoever they thought we were!

Today we drove out to Oso Flaco. It's a little state park and game preserve on the beach south of Arroyo Grande. After parking your car, you walk down a tree-covered gravel lane, then on a suspended boardwalk across a small lake where Swallows and Terns are tearing up the sky. Then, the trail leads through the rolling low dunes to the beach. Walking up the beach, we found a place to sit and eat some ribs we picked up at a local grocery store. What a relaxing day!

The Bugscreen

2010-07-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

Becky and Jen decided to block the bugs from entering the hangar when we happen to be there in the evenings. I wanted nothing to do with their idea. It sounded wastefully expensive and I knew I was going to end up having to come up with the rigging to make their idea work. A royal pain and a waste of my time. I was totally wrong! Our 2 hangars are the coolest hangars at the airport! The screen keeps the bugs out and allows circulation. No rigging was necessary. All I need to do is enjoy it. The screen rolls up and attaches with Bungees to the base of the door. Using it is way too simple. Becky and Jen put in many hours sewing it all together. Thanks ladies!

Parts

2010-07-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

I guess it would be appropriate to show a piece of the plans and some of the parts we have to generate. We decided to look at current seaplanes (floatplanes) to see what the attachments look like and what we would need to construct to handle both floats and traditional landing gear. A friend has a Piper Cub on floats that we used as a guide. We also looked at a DeHavilland Beaver and Glastar. Once cut, a jig was assembled to hold the pieces in alignment so that Becky could tack them. We'll weld them later when the landing gear is assembled. This assures a good fit and makes it easier to remove the gear and install the floats.

Kitplanes & Indiana Jones

2010-07-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

In May I received a phonecall from our EAA technical advisor saying a photographer from Kitplanes was in town to take photos of builder's welding methods. These photos are to be a part of an article to be published in the Fall of 2010. Becky spent about 2hrs with the photographer taking pics from every angle. He showed up with everything: all kinds of fancy lights and paraphernalia. Becky was one of 3 builders photographed before he returned to Los Angeles.

While he was there, we were treated by a visit by the Waco used in the 1st Indiana Jones movie. In the movie, the plane was grey and on floats. Now, it's a gorgeous red and owned by a gentleman in central Oregon

Visitors

2010-07-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

April was an interesting month in that the local Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 902 Builder's Group wanted to pay a visit to Becky's project. For the fun of it, we moved the Cessna out of the hangar and suspended the fuselage from the hangar ceiling. We assembled the ribs onto the spars and hung the wings as well. It provided a lot of space to walk around and visualize what the finished project will look like. These meetings are helpful in that ideas are shared and errors can be found before they become major repairs.

Horizontally Stabilized

2010-07-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

Back to the Christavia...

The horizontal Stabilizer is built in halves. The inner leading edge has a bend about a foot from it's attachment at the fuselage. There is an additional tube support piece inserted and welded in place to strengthen the area. The end is welded shut and the bend point is heated with the torch and bent to the correct angle. I used little pieces of scrap to orient the inner tube with the outer tube.

Rae Ann and the kids showed up from Baltimore and came out to the hangar. Stella and Ivy showed us what a cool Jungle Gym the plane would make if it were set up in our back yard. On Saturday morning we took off for the monthly Twin Oaks breakfast. Rae Ann got it right when she commented how smooth the air is in the morning! The kids had a good time, eating, spilling, looking at planes.

Becky had to weld up a dozen little engine mounts. She loves this kind of welding! Eventually, 4 of them found their way onto the nose of the fuselage. The others will be used to make the actual mounting bracket to attach the engine to the fuselage.

To Mt. Rainier with Love

2010-07-18T07:42:00.000-07:00

Back in February, we were treated to a wonderful stay at the National Park Inn at Mt. Rainier. On our way, we stopped for Dinner at the Hobo Inn in Elbe Washington. This place is worth looking at in street level mode on Google Maps. Just plug in Elbe Hobo Inn and you'll get an eyeful. The owners purchased a bunch of railroad cars and turned them into rooms you rent for the night. There's a couple options for dinner, one of which is a takeout pizza/burger car. We went into the main dining car. It was the 14th. Valentine's day. In the boonies. "Do you have a reservation?" the aging waitress asked. "No. There's 4 of us for dinner if there's room". Of the 20 tables, maybe 3 were taken. "Let me check" and she wandered off, leaving us to take in the interior decor of the train. Shortly she returned, "I'm sorry, but we're full in the dining car and you'll have to eat in the bar". Well, shucks, that's where the Dart game was anyway, so off we went. Through one car to the next, we found ourselves having a decent dinner, yet giggling at the back-woods feel to the place. I don't remember who won at darts.

After dinner, we cruised on up the National Park Highway to the Inn where a friendly Federal employee greeted us and sent us to our rooms. The next morning we wandered downstairs to the restaurant (breakfast was included in the night's rental). We could have anything off the breakfast menu - no limit! The same guy that checked us in was our waiter. What-the? About 45 minutes later, just before our stomachs began ingesting themselves, the food arrived. Happy again, we rented some snowshoes and headed up the road to Paradise. This is a major snow play area. No ski lifts. If you want to ski, you X-country. You snowshoe up high, put the skis on and down you go. This is serious exercise. The day was beautiful! What a workout.

Dinner was back at the National Park Inn restaurant to see if the same guy was still working. Nope. We got another victim of Federal training. These souls are not trained in what customer service is outside the Government. The gals had ordered a special Valentine's Day drink that was advertised. The waitress came back. "Can't have it. Here's your options". They chose wisely. The waitress returned again. "Sorry, can't have those either." She then informed them that they could get what they had originally ordered. Strange. The funniest part was when our fearless hostess asked if the "fish was fresh". The response: "Well, it was when we got it!" If I remember right, she ordered it anyway. The food was good, the interactions with the staff were a new experience for the four of us!

Thanks guys, we had an awesome time!

Fifty Years

2010-07-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

Back in March, I celebrated my 50th in style: Grandkids thinking they can eat an entire fourth of a three layer German Chocolate cake, having "happy birthday" sung to me at 34,000ft aboard SouthWest airlines enroute to Las Vegas by the passengers, watching the water show at the Bellagio from our room on the 16th floor, and finally, a nice quiet walk below sea level at Death Valley. What a weekend!

I had to throw in the old family shot from 1968 (or was it 1969?). Dad used to judge the fiddling contest at the annual Death Valley 49ers celebration held in November each year at Furnace Creek Ranch. I believe we went 3 times. For some reason (litigation), the burro races are no longer a part of the festivities. Now, they push a wheelbarrow.

The Big Bend

2010-02-01T21:34:00.001-08:00

For the most part, the pictures speak for themselves on this post. So...

Today's assignments involved tapering the front of the aircraft by bending the nose in by 3 inches on a side and bringing the back 8 ft together at the tailpost. To protect the wooden table, soaking wet rags were laid down and covered with a sheet of steel.

Becky got to learn (me too) what a "Rosebud" is in the world of torches. Lets just accept the fact that these tips burn a lot of fuel - really fast! Joints were heated as a little pressure was applied to bring the sides in a bit both fore and aft.

After it was done, we went to work placing crossmembers in between the sides to hold them in place. Care was taken to keep the sides equidistant from the midline of the plane. Try to build it as "true" as possible!

Plans Coming Together

2010-01-26T07:33:00.000-08:00

One of the things we've learned is that you need to reward yourself once in a while. These ribs were as good as they look!

After finishing the left side of the plane, we went to work on the right side where the door is. Entry into the aircraft is through one large door to access both the front and back seats. We looked into modifying the door and it's design, but, after comparing the two options, it seemed best to stay with the plans.

After the right hand side was completed, we built a framework of 2x4's to support and square up both sides. This allowed Becky "easy" access to tack weld the 7 crossmembers.

Now, we're getting an idea as to the real size and spaciousness of the aircraft! Plenty of room to set up a chair and make airplane noises.

Christavia MK-1

2010-01-12T08:33:00.000-08:00

Time for a Christavia update. Becky blogged "It All Started With An Engine" on March 15, 2009. Lot's has happened since then. The first thing we did was order Spruce wood from a local aircraft restoration business in Scappoose. Once received, we went to work on building a jig to turn out identical ribs for the wings. I'll report more completely on that process later. The ribs are completed, but attaching them to the spars is yet to come.

A project such as this needs one really long table. Scrounging up what we had and adding to it a table given to us by some hangar friends, we were up and running. The table is roughly 17 feet long.

Aircraft Spruce in Southern California deals in just about everything you need to build an airplane. After a LOT of research, they were also the best deal in purchasing the steel for the tubular fuselage. The 4130 steel is more commonly known as Chromoly and is used where strength and light weight are important. It is used in high performance bikes, dune buggies, and other race machines. The 24 foot lengths showed up on a huge truck, loaded in a long cardboard tube, along with the aluminum sheeting we need for the leading edges to the wings and some areas of the body of the plane.

We asked a few local builders for some Chromoly scrap. Becky went to work practicing her welding with a couple different TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) machines as well as using her OxyAcetylene system.

The first piece cut was the longerons. These are the longitudinal pipes that the other pipes are fit up against. The pipes are laid out and a line is drawn down the length of the tube, marking the center.
Measurements are taken and the appropriate lengths are cut. After cutting, some needed to be bent in a few spots. This was done by using the torch to heat the area red-hot and applying mild pressure to get the shape we wanted.

After we drew the picture of the fuselage on the table, we measured exactly how long each pipe needed to be. She ran these measurements through a program that told her how long to cut each pipe and exactly where and at what angle to notch the ends so that there was as little gap between the fitted pipes as possible. Each cut was fine tuned with a bench grinder.

Once assembled on the table, the ends of each piece were cleaned and a #40 hole was drilled on the mated pipe. Now comes the fun part. After trying a couple different TIG welders, we decided she needed one to call her own. The new machine with it's newer technology proved to be a good move. She laid down small tack welds - just enough to hold the pieces of Chromoly all together until the next step. After the left side of the fuselage was completed, we started placing the pieces for the right side into the jig. When it's done, both sides will be mated and it'll start to look like an airplane!

This is a bit to grasp, but once the entire welding process is done, we are going to run Boiled Linseed Oil into the inside of every tube, then drain it out. These little holes allow the oil to run throughout the framework, coating the inside to prevent breakdown over the decades.

Christmas Tree Hunt

2009-12-18T12:33:00.000-08:00

The weather had been chilly for our area. On this particular day it was below 30 when Becky and I left the house to pick up our daughter and her one year old to go look for a herd of Nobles and maybe take out a couple of the younger bulls (a lead bull would simply be too big). Winds in Eastern Oregon were blowing dust over the Cascades and the temps were in the low 20's when we reached our destination more than an hour up Hwy 224 into the upper reaches of the Clackamas River drainage system. Fresh snow was everywhere, but not difficult to get around in. We all worked up a sweat as we pushed through the brush and up the hillside through the Douglas Firs and Hemlocks. The younger ones headed back to the truck to get out of the quickening breeze and snow that had begun to fall.

Pretty soon Becky shouted that she thought she saw a few Nobles heading over the next ravine and into the thickets beyond. I followed Becky's voice and sure enough! There they were. Becky had snuck up and caught them off their guards. They couldn't move. I dispatched two and we drug them down the hill by their extremities.

Oct/Nov Update

2009-12-18T11:13:00.000-08:00

Discus. Genus Symphysodon. Found in Brazil and Peru. Four main strains with a bunch more created by breeders. A pair just laid eggs about a week ago, followed by the parents eating them when they didn't hatch. Beautiful fish with lots of color variations.

Our eldest and her two kids stayed with us for short time while all their belongings were being trucked across the Continent to dad's new job on the Eastern Coast. They moved into a home with a HUGE back yard that doesn't seem to end. It's so big, you could almost launch model rockets and not bother the neighbors. Well, sorta.

Our oldest granddaughter hit the ripe age of five. Becky was there to help celebrate the event.

Our youngest granddaughter celebrated one year of being the youngest. She wasn't too sure about the taste of sugar; this was her first experience with this basic food group. We all figure she'll get used to it - it's not really an acquired taste!

September Update

2009-12-17T07:34:00.000-08:00

Fall is Becky's favorite time of year and she really gets into decorating. I liked this pic, not only 'cuz it has great fall color, but I sorta miss the two youngun's who've moved on to check out what life is like outside of Oregon. I bet they come back...

Becky and I didn't do the big garden thing this year. Too much other stuff. The raspberries and blackberries didn't know this tho', so they went ahead and produced. So, we picked. And picked. Becky makes some killer jam. Had some this morning in fact!

Most grandchildren enjoying helping in the kitchen, especially when it comes down to organizing the recipes that have been collected over the years from other family members and old recipe books long since forgotten. Thanks young lady for all your help.

With the Great Opossum Scare of 2009 behind us, one of the three rabbits got out. We set a live trap. Sure doesn't look like a rabbit.

Our annual September camping trip took us back to our favorite little lake in Eastern Oregon for 8 days. The weather was perfect. My hunting partner came back after a 5 yr break. It was good to have him back - he's quite a woodsman.

We ran into elk almost every day we were out. My son-in-law got an up close and personal experience with a very larg Bull Elk. We didn't get to bring home any deer or elk. Nor did Becky blast any Grouse this year. The Grouse population seemed really low.

There's a restaurant in Prairie City that has changed hands. I don't remember the new name, but it used to be called Shoshoni Winds. The walls were covered with taxidermy - record sized animals of all kinds. The current owners left most of it up, but where a moose was removed there now hangs a quilt. It's just not the same. The Buffalo Burger was no longer on the menu. Drat. Times change.

The one thing we must do each time is make it up the 4x4 road to the top of Lake Butte. The view is incredible providing visibility isn't hampered by forest fires. The smoke does make for a beautiful sunset! The dogs love climbing all over the rocks.

August Update

2009-12-17T07:23:00.000-08:00

Ok, now last night was really strange. T'was a cool December evening when I got home to the smell of smoky butter mixed with something slightly familiar. I stepped into the kitchen and my bride was just pulling two lobster tails out of the oven! Wahoo! Amidst the ringing of our telephones, we tried to eat in peace. The third call could not be ignored and we hurried through our awesome dinner. Back into the truck and we drove south 40 minutes to take some pics and video of a nearly completed aircraft fuselage of the same model Becky is about to start welding. We came up with some questions over the weekend and seeing the real thing would give us the answers. Back home and finally able to relax, we put on one of our favorite Christmas shows, Die Hard. Lots of good Christmas music and decor throughout the film.

About 11:15, we shut down the entertainment and attempted to go to bed. First, the dogs had to be let out for one final time. As soon as they were out the back door, they went berserk. An Opossum was in the yard! Well, Opossums and Raccoons don't do well with Chickens. At least, the Chickens don't think so. After about 20 minutes, the situation had been neutralized and we were able to get a good nights rest. Sheesh.

Now about the pics, which have nothing to do with Christmas. Becky's Mom's side of the family held their annual reunion at our place. We had a wonderful time getting caught up on who's doing what. The weather was fantastic and the yard looked great with nary an Opossum to be found.

Also in August, Becky helped coordinate the wedding of a couple really cool people we know. The event was held at our little airport. Coordination involves things like having someone ride their bike up and down the runway with an aviation radio in hand and talking to pilots of incoming aircraft instructing them to go somewhere else for an hour or so! It involves setting up yellow jacket traps everywhere, trying to create a safe environment. Yes, Becky got bit by one of the little buggers.

A wedding platform thingy was built by the impending groom across the runway where the back drop was perfect - a nursery with lots of trees and Mt. Hood off in the background. Just before the wedding, the owner pulled out all the trees. Now, the backdrop was dirt. Lots of brown dirt. It sure didn't stop them from getting married!

The reception was held back on the hangar side of the runway. At about 10:30pm, a helicopter landed to pick up the newly married couple and whisk them away! Very exciting way to see them off.

No pics of the wedding or the couple. Just the planes I was offered the opportunity to decorate. Lot's of little white lights. They looked great at night! I would've liked to have seen them from the helicopter.

July Update

2009-12-12T10:56:00.000-08:00

Here I sit on a Saturday morning in December with a cold cup of coffee, trying to get the blog a little caught up. It was supposed to snow last night for about 6hrs. Nothing. Even the pond is starting to melt. The closest we got to anything white is fog - visibility is about half a mile.

For myself, one of the most exciting things in July had a lot to do with visibility! I had the privilege of taking a test. An examination of my ability to safely get our airplane from one point to another without looking out the window. AKA the Instrument Rating. It was quite the windy day, which made the event a bit more of a challenge, but I passed on July 1st. On the 4th, we headed off for our annual California trip, this time better prepared for the coastal low clouds that California Summers are known for.

Becky flew us down to Redding where we stopped for fuel. Both the plane and our bodies needed it. I can't say how much I enjoyed the food at Peter Chu's restaurant just above the commercial terminal at the Redding Airport (http://www.peterchu.741.com/). Huge windows for watching planes come and go. There was quite a fire to the NW of Redding (somewhere near Trinity), so the fire fighting planes were constantly on the go. After lunch, I flew us into Pine Mountain Lake Airport (http://www.airnav.com/airport/E45) just outside of Groveland. This little community is about 30 miles NW of the NW corner of Yosemite and has an absolutely beautiful Golf Course and possibly the best Bed & Breakfast we've ever been to. The Cub Inn (http://www.thecubinn.com/) is brand new and has 3 guest rooms, each with it's own bath. The owners, Joe Riley and Charleen Beam picked us up after we landed and treated us to three wonderful nights. Strange, the only pics we took were of the home and a couple of deer. Just too busy I guess. The day we arrived, we went to the lake that evening for an incredible fireworks show over the water. Beautiful against the clear Sierra Nevada Mountain Sky!

The town of Groveland is known for having the oldest operating Saloon in the country. Well, of course, we had to go for a steak and a little Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

We drove up into Yosemite for a day. Controlled (?) fires were burning near the SW entrance (Hwy 41) and the westerly winds were blowing the smoke into the upper reaches of the valley. This sorta ruined the view. The top of Half Dome actually disappeared at times due to the smoke. We hiked up to the base of Vernal Falls. The trail is practically paved so that anybody can get to a fantastic view point a couple miles up river. At that point, the trail is for the strong and courageous only. Becky drug me up the hill to a point where the mist from the falls was making the trail a bit to slick, so we enjoyed the moment and headed back down.

There's basically three main roads into Yosemite. The one from the east is from Lee Vining, hwy 120. In 2002, we came in this way from Hwy 395 out of Reno and loved the high country scenery as we made our way down into the Yosemite Valley. This trip, we headed east on 120 to a point where we could get out and stretch our legs and meander amongst the granite slabs.

After a good day's hiking, it's always nice to find a frigid mountain stream to cool off in. It wasn't too bad! The sun was intense and dried us off quickly.

After the three nights, Becky flew us to San Luis Obispo to stay at my sister's place in Arroyo Grande for several nights. This is always a treat. We have a wonderful relaxing time whenever we go. While we were there, we took the road north to Carmel. On the way, we stopped at the Mission in San Miguel, which is under a complete renovation. They have a long way to go, but we were free to wander around a in small areas and look at the old architecture.

Upon entering the east end of Carmel, we visited the mission there as well. It was established in 1770 and completely restored in 1931.

I filed for an IFR departure out of San Luis to go down to Oxnard to visit some cousins. The morning dawned sunny and clear! No clouds except over the coast south of San Luis Obispo. Drat. So, we flew VFR instead and had a nice lunch next to the docks in Oxnard. Quite the place. Channels have been built throughout the area, allowing homes to be built along the waterways. Boats everywhere.

The rest of the trip was spent exploring the beach or sitting in the hot tub watching the sun go down. Of course, on our way home, we had to have lunch at Peter Chu's again! The winds were quite strong - 25 knots or so - directly down the runway. Becky's comment as we landing in Redding was that she felt like a helicopter! Looking forward to 2010!

Deer Fun

2009-06-10T19:26:00.001-07:00

So one day, Becky asks me "who's been eating all the new growth on the raspberries?" Naturally, we all know that this year's new vines are next year's producers, so this is sortofa big deal. I got out the 'ol trail cam and set it up to take pics that night. I caught the tail end of a deer, just lurking outside the flash zone.

It must've spooked when the flash went off seein's how it was about 10pm. I set up the camera again the next night. When I went out to retrieve the memory card, there she was. Just relaxing about 30ft away, wondering what I was up to. I went back in the house and got the good camera. She posed for quite a while. Tired of taking pics, I left. She remained content in her choice of spot.

Later that day, Becky called me at work and told me to check my email. It seems she had discovered what was making this momma deer hang around!

I moved the trail cam to a different location and kept my fingers crossed for a pic of one of the little guys. Well, I got one. Junior came by for a good sniff of the camera early in the morning when the lens was covered with dew. Drat. This would've been a great shot.

Today I got another pic that was a little better. We'll keep at it and see what we can catch. It helps that Becky's got the dogs and is camping at the coast this week. When the little guys come out in the daytime, the pics are all that much better!

June 25th: Finally! One of the little raspberry plant eating machines came out for a morning photo! Looks like the little tike's doing well. The raspberries are just getting ripe. Guess I better eat some before they're gone...

The View From My Window.

2009-03-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures one winter day from various windows in my house.I really enjoy the bird life in my yard. It is amazing to me that delicate creatures, like these, can endure freezing temperatures, snow and winds continuously for days.

It all started with an engine.

2009-03-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

For those of you who check in on the building of our RV-10 (I know you are out there, I see you on site meter), you have seen that we have been slow in reporting anything new. That is because Bruce has put aside the project for months now so as to concentrate on acquiring his instrument rating. Well, now there is a new twist. I (Becky) have been given an aircraft engine from my friend T. (who I helped with his annual on his Common Wealth) who has given me 11 hours flying his taildragger plane. Crazy I know. It is not everyday that a girl can say that she has been given an engine. It is a Continental 80hp, which is a good engine. So what does one do with an engine like that? Build a plane around it! My friend T. has said he will lend his expertise because he has built many an airplane in his time and of course Bruce is all over it too. But it will be my project and my plane... my own plane! What this does is prolong even longer the RV-10 build, Bruce gets his instrument rating, we build my plane, we bow out of 2/5ths of the Cessna ownership and finish the RV-10. It is what we wanted in the end but it happened a bit different than we planned.

Do I hear you asking "Just what plane is Becky going to build?"

I just received the plans for a Christavia MK1. It was originally designed in 1981 as a missionary aircraft.

Here are some of the specs:
Overall length.....20' 8"
Overall height.....7'
Wing span..........32' 6"
Empty weight.......750 lbs
Gross weight.......1500 lbs
Fuel capacity......15 gals
Stall speed........35 mph
Cruise speed.......105 mph
Best rate of climb.....850 fpm
Range..................315 miles
Take off ground roll...350 ft
Landing distance.......650 ft
Seating................2 tandem

My first big job will be to weld the fuselage tubing together (I told all you guys in welding class that I would weld my own plane... and you just laughed) while Bruce works on the wood wings. The whole plane will be covered in fabric (plasticized).

This plane will take us into places that we can't land the Cessna; like little back country runways, and it is capable of light aerobatics. It will be our valley hopper while the RV-10 will be our long distance plane.

I better go and get building... there is a lot to be done... but oh, so much fun!

Snowmobiling

2009-02-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

Owned by the Mt. Hood Snowmobiling Club, "Skyline" is a facility where you park your rig and take off with your snowmobile on the forest service roads rendered inaccessible by cars due to snow. A friend of ours has 4 snowmobiles - this guarantees him a good time as long as he can find willing souls to join him! I found the cost to be minimal - about $20 per sled for a hard day of tearing up the snow. With tight curves and plenty of straightaways, you can really get the speed up on these sometimes-squirrelly machines. I managed to hit 90+mph on 2 different occasions. It was our first time doing it, so we were well worn by the end of the day! Can't wait to do it again! Tracks crossing Timothy Lake made me think of all the crazy people out there - then I learned that you can cross open water on a snowmobile. Just do a search on YouTube and you'll see what I mean. What an amazing machine.

Baby

2009-01-19T18:34:00.000-08:00

Me and my baby, with her baby

28 years

2009-01-11T19:47:00.001-08:00

The Chairs In My Life

2009-01-10T11:01:00.001-08:00

I love my chair in the morning, where I sit with my cup of coffee in hand watching the morning news. Dakota (our Australian Shepherd) laying at my feet and Brody (our Lhasa Apso) sharing my chair, which is the only time he is allowed, and then only by invitation. It is where the fog clears from my head and I figure out what my day will actually look like.

I don't know why, but chairs have always played a significant role in my life. When I was in Jr. high school my dad married my step mom and they immediately began refinishing antique furniture that they had acquired; some in the past and other pieces together. One day this rocking chair showed up in our living room and became my favorite chair to sit in. It's rock was long and smooth. I would rock, for what seems hours in it. This particular rocker was acquired from the church that we attended when I was growing up. It was used in the nursery for years and years. The next Christmas came and I sat in the rocker while my brothers and I opened our gifts. We seemed to have finished and my dad said there was one gift left for me and he told me to read the tag that I had not noticed hanging on the bottom rung of the rocking chair. The tag read that the chair now belonged to me. I still remember how how happy that made me as I now see it sitting in our nursery for our grandchildren.

The red chair was given to me by my great aunt, in not so good shape, and we used it in our early married years, with kids, until it broke down so much that it was retired to storage. We had a small white terrier dog at one point that would drape himself across the top of it to watch our front yard through the window that it was near. I never got rid of it because it was old and from a family member. My husband got tired of it taking up space in our present garage so he told me to do something with it (I think he regrets those words). I took it to an upholstery shop that also refurbishes furniture. I chose the fabrics and wanted it redone as close to it's original design as possible. The cushion is filled with down and the beige fabric is camel hair, like the original had. The fabric colors are different than the original but I wanted something more whimsical and fun.

This chair was, also from my dad and it reminds me of my bedroom that got refurbished to look a little more feminine after my step mom entered our house. My dad, three brothers and I lived at the house for three years before he remarried. My bedroom and its decor were never a priority before she came to live with us. This chair was my desk chair in my college dorm room and it now graces my present bedroom. It originally was a high back but a previous owner cropped off the chair back and left it short.

This chair is just fun to look at, I love the form and the dark stain. This came to us from, I believe, my husbands dad's family, it may have been my husband's grandmother's chair.

I call the collection of six of this chair my "Dr. Seussian" chairs. I wanted to replace our old kitchen table chairs because they were wobbly and creaky and ready to collapse at any moment. My daughter, Robin, and I were at an antique store one day and she pointed these chairs out to me. At first I was unsure as to whether they would work in our farm house of antiques but she talked them up real big to me and we carted them off. Getting them home and around the table they grew on me. They are so sturdy that the grand kids can climb all over them and they don't fall over. Yes, Robin, you will inherit them someday (her finders fee that she determined while getting them home)!

And this little beauty was in storage for years and years. It was in the barn at Bruce's family fruit ranch in central California for as long as he could remember. When the family moved to Oregon in 1975 the chair came with and was put in storage. Bruce's dad passed in 2006 and in cleaning out his stuff we came across this rocking chair. But, alas, it was in bad, bad shape. The leather seat was shredded with the straw stuffing coming out and the wood was horribly weathered. So we hauled it off to the upholstery shop for a total overhaul and this is what graces our living room. We went to the leather shop in downtown and chose this motorcycle, flat black leather. It is sumptuous to the touch!

This chair we found in Sisters, Oregon on a road trip. It is a log chair with a carved seat and back that is very comfy despite it's hard surface. I like the rusticness of this one.

In growing up I was frequently at my grandparent's farm where my two aunts and their families lived on or near the property. My parents had divorced and my dad moved back to the farm, where he had spent his childhood. I was in a foster home at this time and my brothers were living with my mom. My dad had permission to visit me and take me to the farm for weekends and a couple weeks at a time during summers. I would bounce from one aunts house to the other and then back to my grandmother's when I wasn't out playing with cows, dogs, pigs, kittens or whatever animal I could find. For some reason I was always welcomed into their homes at a moment's notice and offered tea and cookies or even lunch if my spontaneous intrusion was timed correctly. I can still remember the smell of my aunt's houses; not bad smells, just the way that particular buildings take on a familiar scent. This child's rocking chair came from my aunt who lived on the east perimeter of the farm: The one who always had the huge vegetable garden in the summer with berry vines that produced amazing boysen berries. This rocker was hers when she was a child. My aunt passed a few years ago and her granddaughter was left with it but did not have room for it and wondered (I think with the suggestion from her mother, my cousin) if I might want it. I have never turned down anything with history from a family member (as the previous pictures depict) so I accepted it. And it was red! Apparently my aunt reacquired it as an adult and the chair was painted white and she had remembered it being red when she was young so she repainted it back to red.

I know there is futility in owning things but I have to say that I have always treasured a place to sit in the morning and contemplate my life and my day. As a child, a place to gather my meaningful possessions (note the Uncle Wiggly board game under my chair) and sit and think about what is really important. I still appreciate a good chair - a good chair with history.

The Tree

2008-12-21T16:44:00.001-08:00

We've got this great big old Black Cottonwood in our backyard. A few years ago, before our youngest daughter's wedding, we built a deck around the tree and have enjoyed it's ambiance during weddings, reunions, and just kicking back.

The tree's wood is not as springy as an evergreen; in fact, it's quite brittle when it's covered with an inch of ice. Limbs tend to fall in the wintertime, especially if you add a little wind to the ice.

Well, today, I decided to rescue the "light balls" that hang from the lower branches and illuminate our deck.

Naturally, this was after Hummingbird Rescue, which was after last night's freezing rain. As I was under the tree, a horrific crack shot thru the air above me. Knowing exactly what it was, I raced across the deck and dove out into the snow, covering my head (sorry, no video...). Becky ran outside as I was getting up. We both looked at the deck (well, this 1200sq ft thing covered with snow and ice), then looked at our house.

The main limb at the top of the tree had broken under the weight of the ice and had fallen towards the house. The tip plunged into the snowy ground, and, like a pole vault, the base of the limb was propelled into Becky's tool shed (she's always wanted a bigger and better one). One small limb ripped into the greenhouses. Seein's how this was Sunday and we hadn't adventured out to church, I was wondering what I was to do with all my time today. So, I got out the chainsaw and kept my eyes on the tree as I cleared out some of the larger limbs.

Near Tragedy

2008-12-21T08:33:00.000-08:00

Becky's got a ton of blogging to do to get us caught up. In the meantime, we've had an unusual snow storm around here. She'll have tons of photos of that, I'm sure. One of the things she loves to do is see the local birdlife. To lure them in, she's got feeders. We see all kinds of cool little birds in our back yard. She has a couple hummingbird feeders, one of which she's tried to keep unfrozen throughout the day so the four little birds that frequent it can get some sustenance. Well, last night, with the ground and all the trees at 17 degrees, it started to rain. When the raindrops hit anything that cold, they freeze. Hence, freezing rain. When one of the little hummingbirds showed up, he landed on the limb next to the feeder and immediately froze to it. I saw him dangling from the limb this morning when I looked out. He appears to have broken at least one leg. I cut the limb, bringing him inside where the ice thawed and he came undone. He didn't argue at all, being held in my warm hand. He's in the garage now. We'll see if he makes it. I'd just taken this photo of him yesterday.

Becky woke up to the challenge of Hummingbird Recovery and answered it's call. The little guy was keeping warm in one of our little portable dog kennels. She moved him to a shoebox in the house and proceeded to feed him! Looks like he'll be ok. We'll keep him inside tonight and let him go tomorrow after breakfast. Whew!

The TV is blaring in the background and the local news people are discussing our "Arctic Blast" that's made a real mess of Portland. I guess our little hummingbird got the worst of it. In the video, there's a center segment where she rolls him over and checks his little legs. One leg doesn't seem to be working like the other. I was amazed he didn't jump up and fly away when she openly lays him in the palm of her hand to feed. One encouraging thing is that he's been sitting on a small limb that Becky placed inside the box. After a night in the garage and a quick breakfast, he was anxious to get back outside and enjoy the winter blast of ice and cold.

I'm in love.

2008-11-04T18:43:00.001-08:00

Commonwealth 185 Skyranger, 1946

I (Becky) spent the weekend helping my friend T. do the annual on his Commonwealth. So I got to know his plane from the inside out. He found this plane wrecked from a landing "incident" in CA and bought it and refurbished the whole thing as authentically true to the factory plane as he could. He did an amazing job. This also included the engine (it only has 260 some hours on it). The authenticity is down to the unseen, minute details. The wood ribs in the wings are reinforced with a tape/cloth that is tied in a particular manner to hold everything together but also allow flex in the wings. These are small ties not large ones and we're talking hundreds of them. There is a lot to say about taking pride in your work even when it goes unseen.

Specifications:
Wingspan: 34'
Length: 21' 9"
Engine: 85hp Continental
Top Speed: 110 mph
Weight: 1022 lbs

At the end of World War Two, Commonwealth Aircraft of Kansas City, began the construction of a small civil aircraft at their plant for just one year, 1946. The ‘Skyranger' seats two, and features a steel tube fuselage and wooden wing, both fabric covered. As the anticipated post-war boom in civil aviation never occurred, Commonwealth went bankrupt in 1947. In all, 275 Skyrangers were built and about 100 exist today.

As you can see it is a tail-dragger and it is capable of aerobatics. I have been up with T. in it once and he has promised a ride when it gets out of annual. I am hoping he will let me taxi it and figure out what that is like since our Cessna does not have a tail wheel. There is an art to operating these beauties. I love aviation and I love history. When they come together it makes my heart happy.

Hangar fun

2008-10-20T11:35:00.000-07:00

When we have put our flight bags back on the shelf, logged our day's hours of flight, nestled our plane back in the hangar and have closed the big folding door, we kick back and find entertainment in small and furry ways.

We love this little guy!

Tomatoes are my life.

2008-10-14T22:07:00.000-07:00

If you would search the archives of this blog somewhere back in early Spring you would read that I germinated and grew organic tomato plants in my greenhouse and now I reap the bounty from my garden! I ended up with 30 plants and have spent the last month putting the beauties up. This is one of three of my methods of storing tomatoes. This is simple tomato sauce that can be frozen.

This soft fruit/vegetable peeler is the best tool in my kitchen. It has saved me time and hassle countless times.

The most time consuming deed is to seed all of these before cooking.

Add a bunch of fresh basil, garlic, olive oil and a touch of sugar and bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer.

The sauce has cooked down for a couple of hours simmering off all the water from the tomatoes. The result is so very tasty and will be used in all kinds of dishes this winter.

My ever attentive audience...

Another cool flight

2008-10-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

A friend (K.) took me up in his Ryan, PT-22. These were built in the mid 40's as primary trainers for WWII. The open cockpit, inhaling exhaust and the clackaty-clack of the radial engine was eventful. The engine has such a distinct sound that when you are on the ground and it is flying you can hear it approaching from miles away and know which plane it is.

Specifications (PT-22):
Engine: One 160-hp Kinner R-540-1 five-cylinder radial engine
Weight: Empty 1,313 lbs., Max Takeoff 1,860 lbs.
Wing Span: 30ft. 1in.
Length: 22ft. 5in.
Height: 6ft. 10in.
Performance:
Maximum Speed: 131 mph
Ceiling: 15,000 ft.
Range: 352 miles
Armament: None

Number Built: ~1273

Number Still Airworthy: 85+

Getting geared up for a chilly ride.
K. flies, for employment, the Erikson air crane used for heavy lifting and fighting fires. He is sent all over the world for jobs.

K. flies it from the back and needless to say he can never see over the nose, even in landing. He let me take the controls for awhile and then he pulled some light aerobatics. Another great war bird!

Landing Is Always Good

2008-07-23T17:54:00.000-07:00

They call the airport at Sedona the USS Sedona. It sits on its own plateau at about 4,000 ft. elevation with winds to boot. It seems as though you are landing on an aircraft carrier.
This is Bruce landing at Sedona, AZ with winds 170 to 230 degrees, at 09 kts., gusting 19 kts.

This is not an example of unsteady piloting, it is that pesky wind battering us around. You may hear me say while on final, "Go around?" because we are so high, not for Bruce, he pretty much dove us in. Did you see my hand holding onto the dash as though that will steady the plane? Ha! You may, also, hear me say once on the ground "Holy crap!". What is it that pilots say... at least the instructors... "The wind is our friend". Again, ha!
This is me, glad to be on the ground again!

We fully recommend the Sedona Pines Resort because it is cheaper than a pristine palace setting and the accomadations were perfect for us.

We went with our friends Randy and Cheryl. They ended up flying their RV-10 with us through the weather part of our trip and claimed to have had to "wallow" to fly as slow as our Cessna 172. Bruce, where's our RV-10?

Yes, this is what people come to Sedona to see, the red rocks. And at sunset they are a sight.

The sleepy town of Sedona.

The prickly pear cactus grows every where in the area.

We took a day trip to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. I never know what to expect when I go to a place like this, will it look like the pictures I have seen all my life? Will it live up to my expectations? So what I do is clear my mind of all that stuff and just take it in as I experience it. Lets just say, it is the biggest hole in the ground I have ever seen! Oh, yeah, it was beautiful too!

This was a pleasant surprise for us, seeing the California condors up close. There is a condor refuge between the San Jaoquin Valley and the CA coast that is marked on the navigational charts that we fly with. So one time while at the coast we went to find the condors and ended up at a fire watch tower in the hills with a lady that was tracking them with radar. We spent most the afternoon up there not knowing if what we were seeing with binoculars was really a condor. To see them this close was amazing for us. I think there are just a handful that live at the south rim that are highly protected. They have a 9 ft. wing span. The thing that is killing them is the fact that most hunters use shot that contains lead and the game that they end up losing die without being found and the condor feeds on it picking up the lead.

We visited the American Indian ruins and petroglyphs just outside of Sedona. The first markings, scratches in the rock, date way back to about 5,000 years. The second picture shows pictorial markings of 2,000 years ago.

These are indian ruins built to protect from the elements and were used for 200 years.

This was a caucasian gentleman's homestead built under a rock cleft in the 1800's. He lived here until he was able to build a house. The blackened wall to the left is where his fire burned for cooking and warmth. I am standing in the front door, yes, he actually had a door with a knob on it.

He worked the valley below this cave developing an orchard that supplied apples to the nearby copper mining town of Jerome.

Just some random shots.

Another great trip shared with this goofy guy that I live with... not really... I mean the goofy part... it was a great trip... really!

Farewell Old Friend

2008-07-16T21:26:00.001-07:00

We loved your personality (that was bigger than your stature), your talking back and your loyalty.

We will remember you with great affection.

Marko Rameus Macintosh
April 1993 - July 14, 2008

Thar' B' Pippin'

2008-06-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

I am replenishing my layer flock of chickens. I have put layer hen's eggs under my Bantam hens because they are great setters.

The eggs have been fertilized by this guy.

I have a small Wyondotte (who, by the way, is very veracious in her duties. She draws blood when she pecks me when I mess with her nest), now setting and the chicks are pipping and hatching as I write.

So far out of 6 eggs, I have hatched two chicks, one is pipping (to pip means that the chick has started chipping at the shell from the inside to get out) and the other three are still brewing. Oh my goodness, there is nothing cuter than a chick that has just hatched hours ago!!

The genealogy trail of these chicks sounds like a soap opera. So many individuals involved in the making of a new life.
So here is the final result of hatching...

Travelin'

2008-06-02T15:46:00.001-07:00

We flew our Cessna 172 to Sedona, AZ via the Siskyou pass, Merced, CA and Bakersfield, CA. We attempted to leave the Willamette Valley and got as far as Eugene and turned back home. The next day we made it out and got caught by clouds at the Siskyou pass. We waited it out for a few hours and tried going under the clouds and were blocked so came back out and went above the clouds and broke free of clouds at the south end of Lake Shasta. Spent the night in Merced and got as far as Bakersfield before being blocked once again by IFR skies. We spent the night at a friends house,thanks Greg and Denise!

The next day we flew between cloud layers and broke out past the Gorman Pass.
Below are the various clouds that we experienced. Bruce, where is that IFR certificate!?

This is me really glad to leave the clouds behind and get to our destination with clear skies

We did this trip with our friends Randy and Cheryl who built their RV-10 a couple of years ago. Randy had to "wallow" in the air to stay slow enough to fly with us. The engine is bigger than ours which allows you to get higher when you need to and it is twice as fast as our Cessna. Bruce, where's our RV-10!?

It took us four days instead of two to get to Sedona, but we did it!

We took in, among other things, some ruins (dated at 1100 to 1300 A.D.)and cave drawings (about 3,000 years old).

Here is my favorite part of the trip...spending it with him.

RV-10 Navigation Lights

2008-04-15T20:48:00.000-07:00

While scrounging around the many websites created by fellow RV-10 builders, I came across a different way to install navigation lights. NAV lights allow other pilots in other aircraft to determine whether you are going away, coming towards, or passing across their flight track at night. There are specifications regarding these lights, but mostly they need to be bright and visible, yet not obnoxious to the pilot and passengers in the plane. The tips of the wings are made of fiberglass and have a cutout area to mount the lights.

Jeff Bordelon (www.jeffsrv-7a.com/LEDPROJECT1.htm) created a simple and clean installation. Very impressive. I placed my order just before he decided to pack up his house, build a new one, and move. I had plenty of other things to do, so I patiently paced the hangar. Upon their arrival we tore open the boxes and laid out the parts. After a little figuring, I couldn't see why we couldn't give them a little test.

"Jim" from a few doors down showed up (finishing an RV-9a) and with Becky's supervision they "lit" one up with a 12v source set to deliver less than 2 amps. The lights themselves draw less than 1 amp per assembly!! This pic is taken with all the hangar's 8ft fluorescent lights on!

There's basically a strobe plate and a NAV plate assembly consisting of an aluminum base plate with the LED's, an attached heat sink, and all the electrical wires. Over the base plate a mirrored piece of Plexiglas is placed with cutouts that line up with the LED's on the aluminum plate. Each plate is trimmed to not interfere with the lens which is placed over the lights to protect them.

The wingtip is cut to accept the mounting of the two plates.

After being satisfied with the placement of the plates, the lens is trimmed to fit the wingtip and taped in place.

Now, just for kicks, we turn off all the hangar lights and turn on the Cessna's NAV lights. Then, without looking at the LED's, we light up the Bordelon Beauties and compare the outputs. NO COMPARISON! Clean, simple and bright installation. Very impressive.

Life is a Potpouri

2008-04-13T17:15:00.000-07:00

We have always had an aquarium in our house. Our first one was next to our bed in our first home together, a single bedroom apartment. We housed "Perry" the piranha. Bruce worked graveyard and would feed Perry live goldfish as he left the apartment each night. Perry feasted well into the nights, often waking me up with his crunching the little orange tasty bites. Perry has since left our lives and we have moved onto many other aquatic friends. Of late we have purchased and enjoyed the many colors of discus. The big ol' girl in the middle is the last left of the three we originally had. She used to pick on one runt quite ferociously but now there are so many others that she doesn't know what to do. I can call her "she" confidently because she lays eggs just about every time I clean the tank. Hopefully she will find a mate in this bunch of young ins.

The greenhouse is bulging with growth. These pictures were taken a couple weeks ago.

I now digress...

We had dinner with Robin and Nate where they announced that we will, once again, be grandparents. I thought my husband was just being sweet in wanting to cook me a romantic meal when Robin bounced into the house, and a pre-planned, although, unbeknownst, to me (is that a word?) celebratory dinner ensued.
By the way that is not an alcoholic beverage in her hand, she indulged with sparkling cider.

I am now utilizing both green houses because I have had to re-pot to bigger pots that take up more room.

A mere bunny trail...

Susan and Karina came up from CA for four days of pure unadulterated scrap booking. It was a cutting, gluing, creative frenzy.

This weekend we installed bathroom vents in each green house to move out the 120 degree heat since the sun is coming out more. The outside soil is probably within a week and a half of tilling so the end is in sight. I am interested to see if germinating so early is going to cause some twist in the productivity of the plants. So far the plants themselves look really healthy. I had to take great care in replanting into bigger pots because the base of the stem on some plants are very fragile.

I noticed that some creature liked the tomato plants when they were quite small...slugs and snails were the culprits. So far the "organic" slug bait isn't working, so I turn to my trusty friend the salt shaker and hunt after dark.

And now a parting shot...

A Sunday Evening at Lenhardt

2008-04-07T09:57:00.001-07:00

The weather has been cold, windy and rainy this weekend. I have not gotten a flight in at all. I enjoy weather watching, waiting for that window to open. This is what I saw while contemplating "go" or "no go". A step out the hangar door shows me some promise. Although, I don't care for the dark clouds.

The windsock doesn't look too bad, winds out of the west at about 5 to 8 knots.

A glance down runway 20, a squall to the south and dark clouds.

Looking down runway 02, shear beauty!

(I sent Jack Lenhardt these same pictures and this was his response concerning the photo above: "This is what I pictured 50 years ago that the airport could look like. I am thinking it may be a good cover for the next printing of my book if that's OK with you. Thank you, Becky")

I choose "no go" and to stay and enjoy my surroundings.

So, back in the hangar I find Bruce testing and installing the navigational lights on the wing tips of our RV-10. The right wing tip needs to have green lights and the left needs to be red. I think we will be visible to the space station with how bright they are.

The nav lights that we chose are made up of a bunch of small LED bulbs. Usually there is just one small bulb in the wingtip that doesn't throw light very far.

The area that houses the light fixture is all aluminum so that the light reflects radially.

During the annual check of our Cessna 172 we decided to replace the original (1978) pressed vinyl interior panels with upholstery. Being the only female in the group I got to choose the fabric. What you see on the door is black vinyl and a printed fabric that pretty much matches all, and I mean all, the different beige's in the cockpit. There must be 6 shades in various places.

Later this week I will update our burgeoning greenhouses. I sure wish the weather would warm up so I could put the plants into the ground.

Organic Gardening

2008-03-12T18:55:00.000-07:00

I love productivity! And there's no better way to watch it than to plant a bunch of seeds and watch them turn into plants right before your eyes. I can hardly contain the anticipation I feel at growing all of my vegetables organically and feeding my family these wonderfully healthy products.

I ordered certified organic seeds and bought certified organic germination soil. I love it when my UPS driver, Terry, delivers big excitement in small packages. By the way, ask any UPS driver the name of someone you know (in the same geographical area) and they will tell you their street address. I have had success twice.

I usually don't start my garden until May, sometimes reaching into June . But this year I have these handy little greenhouses so I have started germinating my seeds.

There is control of temperature to be considered because different seeds germinate at different temperatures. So I sorted the seeds according to their temperature requirements for germination.

The seeds that need it cool to sprout I left outside in the elements.

We bought these spiffy heated mats that you lay under the trays containing the soil and seeds. For the seeds requiring 80 degrees and up I laid stone tile pieces under the heated mats to help retain the heat even more. At night I cover the trays with towels to help because it dips into the 30's and 40's for night temperatures still. Controlling the air temperature (done with heat lamps), the soil temperature and the humidity level makes for successful germination and plant growth.

The temperature this day is 55 degrees. You can see the warmer temp in the greenhouse.

By the time the outdoor temperatures are good for planting the garden my plants will be well on their way and able to be transplanted into the ground.

The two things that will potentially determine my crop is if the mice eat my sprouts when the lids come off the trays (this happened a couple years ago when I had less elaborate equipment) and if the temperature plummets, which today it has. It is 44 degrees at 3:30 p.m. The soil temp of the trays that need to be over 80 degrees dropped to 60 degrees. I may be reseeding my peppers and tomatoes.

Happy gardening!

Mountain Flying

2008-03-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

When I have not flown in awhile I get a hankering to get up and fly around Mt. Hood (over 11,000 ft. elevation) and back, especially when it has gotten a fresh blanket of snow. So I piloted and Bruce took the pictures. Our friend John flew his plane with us.

I have been told that my grandmother, Martha and my grandfather, Chester packed their buckboard in the late 1800's and journeyed from Milwaukie to Government Camp (on the south side) with their friends and camped.

In all the trip took 2 weeks. Our trip took an hour.

This is the west side.

We were flying at 9,500 ft. and 6 to 7 miles away from the mountain on the north side.

Often times one needs to worry about flying around a mountain if it is windy at all. This day was calm with just a few bumps on the backside as the wind became an downdraft.

I also know that Martha never traveled in an airplane of any kind in her 100 years of life because she was afraid of flying in them. She did not trust that something man-made could carry one so high and not break.

This is the east side.

All in all, it was a great flight. Some clouds, blue skies and a view that leaves one speechless. This one was for you Grandma Mac!

What We Do On Monday Mornings

2008-03-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

There is an airport SW of us that has a restaurant on the field that we like to visit every Monday morning. It is a 20 min. flight for us to get to Independence and enjoy an amazing breakfast. This particular morning there were a couple layers of clouds. They are fun to navigate around. We use our Monday flights to get in the air no matter what the weather looks like from the ground (except when we have fog) just to experience it knowing we can always turn back and land.

Here is the lower layer of clouds at about 2,000 ft. from the surface

Parked at Independence.

These are clouds around 5,000 ft. I love to fly when we have clouds hanging around. In fact if you talk to just about any pilot they will all agree with me. There's just something amazing about motoring around things floating in the air and the realization of how big they really are.

The hole that leads to home.

First Things First

2008-03-01T08:30:00.000-08:00

You've probably noticed that the pieces of aluminum are covered with a blue plastic. There's a history to this stuff: The kits were originally shipped as bare aluminum, but the pieces got all scuffed up as the building proceeded. Some builders had no interest in painting their aircraft and wished instead to have polished aluminum, and scratched skins just weren't gonna work. There was enough verbiage on the subject that Van's started using the coated materials. To remove the plastic isn't a big deal, it's just a pain on the bigger pieces since it really sticks good. After a couple skin pieces, I started using my shop broom to roll the plastic off. Works like a charm! The only problem is now my shop broom has a big, beefy, sticky handle.

Back in the Saddle

2008-02-24T18:36:00.000-08:00

Finally, our plane is done with it's annual check and Bruce is done at the office for the weekend (it's Sunday) until Tues. morning. Our plane was down for 92 days, 21hours, 10 minutes and 15 seconds (but who was paying attention...I was!). It had even been two months longer for Bruce since he had flown so we gratefully shared this flight.

The weather was not clear but it was beautiful for flying as we flew away from our home airport.

We just did a short jaunt north to Scapoose (KSPB), "threading the needle" over Cornelius Pass. That means we shot between the small area between Hillsboro and Portland airspace, which allowed us to not have to communicate with either tower. We always monitor PDX's though in order to stay out of the way of departing jet traffic. For anyone who might recognize Portland from the air, this is looking east at the west side of the West Hills with the "antenna farm" (that's what the airliners call it when they call Portland approach) on the top. Downtown Portland would be just on the other side of the hills.

All in all, it was great to shake the rust off (pilot talk for getting rusty from not flying for awhile).

I am really appreciative of the fact that I have the freedom to fly and do it safely. I will never take a good trip with a good landing for granted. One week ago, yesterday, a small plane went down at Portland International. We have a radio in our hangar that we use to listen to local aircraft traffic, including Portland approach. I was listening while reading news online. I listened as Portland was talking to a pilot of a small plane (towers identify you on radar by your aircraft type and your "N number", usually on the tail of the plane), so I actually heard a couple of this pilot's calls. Then I started hearing Portland (PDX) telling the big airliners, that were approaching to land, to divert to the Newberg VOR at 10,000 feet MSL, instead of giving them permission to land. One airliner pilot asked what was going on down there and approach said that they had lost a small plane (and he said the type, so I knew who he was talking about) on radar and were waiting for it to show back up on final or taxing on the ground. My heart stopped. Granted, the fog was thick and PDX was giving RVR's ("runway visual range" - how far down the runway you can see) to approaching traffic. One airliner that was taxing responded to PDX telling him where to turn off the runway, with "I would if I could see it". All in all this poor pilot was trying to land in category 3 IFR conditions, with 600 ft. visibility on the ground. Vertical visibilty was 100 ft. and this plane and pilot required a 200 ft. vertical visibility in order to see the runway before touchdown. The tower couldn't see that the small private plane coming in on final, on a missed approach, had stalled at about 500 ft. and hit the ground and burst into flames. There was nothing, I mean nothing left of the plane. The airport was shut down until emergency vehicles could locate the dust of the debris. A sad, sad loss. Without being disrespectful to the pilot, because I don't know what was going on in the cockpit or his head, there are so many other things that could have been done, outwardly, to avoid this tragedy. I know the pilot's name and where he lived and I heard his final words before he crashed and my heart aches for the wife and family he left behind. Rest in peace Richard, and may God comfort those you left behind.

RV-10 Airplane Build Update

2008-02-18T20:41:00.000-08:00

First off, (this is Becky speaking) here it is a beautiful February day, the airport is buzzing with aircraft activity ... and we can not join in the fun. Our Cessna is still in annual, in our hangar, just sitting there teasing us!
I have not been in the air for two months. A pilot is kind of like a drug addict, you have to get the high from mastering and commanding the skies and returning to the earth safely at least once a week. Our neighbor was kind enough to help calm the withdrawls by taking me up in his Glastar and allowing me to pilot it for a good amount of time on Sat. Jack Lenhardt was also kind enough to fly me to Independence for lunch on Mon., in his light sport plane. He has a Garmin 496, GPS with satelite so we listened to his music on the way to lunch (the kind you hear in elevators). On the way home he allowed me to pick the music, so I introduced '70's rock to him (he is around 70 years of age, or so). We landed at Lenhardt's with him singing "... sexy lady ...". Maybe I should have started with '50's rock! Thanks John and Jack for the flights!

Getting Caught Up
It's been way too long since I've (this is Bruce speaking) posted any RV-10 progress, so I'm gonna go way back! Almost 3 years ago (May '05), Rob Hickman (yes, the famous Rob Hickman of www.advanced-flight-systems.com) and I were emailing back and forth and realized we were both picking up our wing kits in mid June '05. It was agreed that we would get together and design our electronic fuel-level system since Van's didn't offer one for our planes. Strange - they offer a "capacitive" kit for the other models (except the RV-3), but not the biggest and beastliest kit of them all! The advantage of a capacitive system versus a mechanical fuel float is accuracy (maybe) and no moving parts to come undone. Well, to be a good neighbor, I jumped ahead in the plans to the fuel tank section and spent days, weekends and months getting the tanks to the point that I was ready for Rob's call. Every few months I'd email to see where he was at, meanwhile going back to the beginning and starting on the wings where everyone else does. Being a business owner of an avionics company, he was against the wall with projects that had to be completed or he was going to get buried by his competitors. Alas, the RV-10 project gathered dust (rumor has it that his wife REALLY wants the RV-10 so the whole family can travel together. Makes perfect sense to us) as he worked to get his new products up and running. After a full year of construction, I was at the point in the manual where it was time to get the tanks done. I emailed Rob. His response blew me away; he had decided to go with mechanical floats! Aghh!! He had a good reason: Another RV-10 builder had passed away and Rob had purchased his project which was closer to completion, so there was no reason to rebuild what the other guy had already done. Ok. Now I'm on my own. A quick email to my EAA Tech Counselor (Experimental Aircraft Association), Dan Benua and I was back in the saddle! Dan had also done capacitive senders,
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/9030616@N02/sets/72157603781952661/),
so with his words of wisdom, to the design board I went. Van's support people told me that I needed 70 square inches of aluminum (per 2 plates) per tank to pull it off. With a little math, and way too much aluminum, I had designed a plate that I thought might work. Dan pointed out that a capacitive sending unit looks to see how much fluid is between it and what it's attached to. Being that the plates were attached to ribs, there were holes, lumps and bumps that would make the distance between the plate and the rib vary as the fuel level dropped. Not accurate. So, I decided to build a second plate (with all that extra purchased aluminum) that attached directly to the rib, giving it a smooth surface. This assured that as the fuel level dropped, the rate of fuel exhaustion would be constant on the gauges and not seem to go fast at one point and slow at another.

Here's a shot of the inside of the tank showing the installed rib with the wired capacitive plate. Note the white wire. Believe it or not, this was the source of the last little tiny leak I found when testing the completed tanks. Air was able to travel the inside of the wire and get out of the tank through the center post of the electrical BNC connector I had mounted to the outside of the tank!

After assembling the tank with FlameMaster (http://www.flamemaster.com/sealants.html), I plugged all the holes and added a little air pressure. Using warm water and a little dishwashing soap, I brushed the solution around joints and every rivet to see if it had truly sealed or not. NOT! Found some beautiful bubbles that needed to go away.

When all was said and done, I inflated the tanks just enough to fill a couple balloons. The balloons held their shape long enough to convince me that the tanks had sealed. I could find no more leaks on either assembly. Wahoo!

The next step involved mounting the tanks to the main spar of the wing. Using screws dipped in a non-hardening fuel-proof product (Fuel Lube), it went together beautifully.

Now, in February '08, we're working on the bottom skins. I'll drill, dimple and prime them, but not rivet them to the wing assembly 'til I'm certain that we have no good reason to get back into the wings. The aforementioned "Rob" has an Angle of Attack product that needs to go in, and, the wing servo for our auto-pilot (http://www.trutrakflightsystems.com/) also needs to be mounted before closure.

Months ago, I had built a wing cradle. What a space-saver! It holds both wings, protects them, and allows us the freedom to move them around the hangar with ease.

Stella

2008-02-11T20:38:00.000-08:00

Can't resist blogging this pic of the eldest grandchild. How could a face be any more perfect?

Travels with Sunshine, Friends and Surf.

2008-01-29T20:27:00.000-08:00

I love continuing education! Once again it took us to Maui, Hawaii.

We have it down: land at the airport, rent convertible jeep, rent snorkel gear, throw our bags in our condo in Wailea, tear off our Northwest winter attire and put on shorts, flip flops and tank top and begin the ten day feasting at Buzz's Wharf (mmm... steak and lobster).

When you travel (share the cost of the condo) with our friends Tim and Sarah...

you find yourself eating your way around the island as opposed to sunning yourself on beaches around the island, or shopping your way around the island.

Tim and Sarah are wonderful tourists, and if you think we have it down to a system you should see their travel approach. First, talk about what to do the next day but don't really plan because you don't want to lock yourself into one thing and miss an opportunity to do something else. Second, leave the floor wide open for everyone's ideas and opinions about doing everything imaginable the next day. The one person that talks the loudest commands the most floor time. Third, (two hours later and taking your fingers out of your ears) never resolve anything absolutely about plans for the next day. Fourth, on the next day embark on an idea from an unknown "friend" on the island that leads you to a promising snorkel spot (if indeed you can manage to hike the mile across a lava field to said promising snorkel spot).

And fifth, after the 12 year old son of Tim and Sarah slips and gashes his knees and hands on the lava...

decide to snorkel in the bay that you always have on previous trips (which happens to be a reserve for wild fish so you know you won't lose going there). I can speak this way of Tim and Sarah only because we have known them for so many years. Our friendship began when Bruce and Tim were roommates in college.

Bruce and I like spending a good portion of the trip in Hana, on the East side of the island, because his conference is over and this is where we really relax in the less hectic area of the island.

The housing is always a surprise in Hana.

Did I mention the view from our cottage?

The outside wall that looked out at the ocean (50 feet from the house) was all window. So the "Oh"s and "Ah"s upon first entering the abode were quieted when we realized we were looking through the equivalent of shower scum on the window. There was no overhang that protected the glass from the Pacific's rage as the wind blew the surf's mist all over the glass. The furnishings looked so comfortable and cozy-tropical and then Bruce sat down on the wicker couch and it swallowed him. All I could see of my fine mate were his hands and feet groping for something life-saving above him, which was me. The bed was quite comfortable, and then the winds started. This year our little getaway goodie came with a roof that lifted and slammed back down when the gale force winds blew just right. Sleep evaded us. And what does that little electronic box do, in the kitchen, that is labeled "Rodent Ex"? We turned it on and were surprised that the little red light came on. Nothing ever looks as good as it does on those tiny pictures they use to advertise on the internet.
The plant life on Maui has always interested me.

The flowers are big, waxy and brilliantly colored.

I always buy an armload of them on "The Road to Hana" for only $7. As I rinsed them, placing them into the automatic blender contaniner (the house did not have a vase big enough) I suddenly become aware of the inch long, shinny black, earwigs slithering from the flower's pockets, that catch water when it rains in the wild. I look a bit closer and see the other little blessed creatures I have released in the house, miniscule ants that look like mites, at first glance. So now, my gaze moves down the blender jar to the counter top where I find that my small infestation is nothing compared to what is emerging out of cracks in the counter top.
Speaking of "The Road to Hana", it is 30 miles of one lane, hairpin turns on bridges. The year we took our children I felt it was a smart idea to give them over-the-counter, anti-nausea medication so they would not be miserable on the drive. All our photos of them in front of the picturesque places along the road find them with their eyes half shut and barely able to stand on their own. Hmm, sweet family memories. We claimed that we drugged and dragged 'em to Hana. Presently, on our journey back to the populated side of the island, we set out to see how fast we could make the 30 miles without making ourselves sick (if you ever have the pleasure of meeting Tim and Sarah, ask them how long it takes to drive the 30 miles, in a rush to a very important engagement of which they were honored guests, with a vomiting child in the back seat). We are pleased to report that it takes us one hour and 15 minutes in the torrential rain, while encountering other drivers far less civilized than anyone we have seen driving on the Mainland. Upon approaching one of the hairpin turns on a one lane bridge I look ahead for oncoming traffic and see a small sized pickup approaching us. We proceed knowing we will make it to the two lane portion of the road by the time the truck reaches the bridge. The truck all the sudden speeds up and meets us head on on the bridge and the male driver gives us a brushing aside hand motion telling us to back up to allow him by. By this time my road rage knows no bounds, but my sweet, patient and kind husband backs up while the truck remains on our nose. Now in observing this couple in the truck, as we viewed them as gold fish in a fish bowl, I was trying to determine why they felt more entitled than us to cross that bridge first. He, tall, blonde curly headed with blue eyes (that's how close we were). And she, with her perfect sophisticated facial features, with harvest gold hair that flowed and shimmered in the jungle light, also, with blue eyes, seemed to me that they had mistakenly escaped the outlandishly ornate world of a resort and somehow ventured onto this road with no idea of what was ahead of them. I could only wish for them, that they too would enjoy a lovely little cottage like ours (with bugs, the promise of rodents and a wavering roof to keep them awake all night) when they arrived in Hana.
We visited the Red Sand Beach, as we had years ago with Tim and Sarah and our girls. On our past trip, I was looking at the travel brochure that described how it was a great snorkel spot with a nice gentle slop of sand to slip into the sea on. Instead of clamering over rocks while walking backwards so as to not trip in you fins. It was the teeny tiny little sentence at the bottom that caught my eye: "Clothing is optional". So, I pointed this out to Tim and he remarked that in all his time there in the past he had never noticed any nudity on that beach.

So trusting him, we paraded our chilldren with all our snorkel gear on the trail to the beach. Rounding the last corner we looked at this promising piece of paradise and see that, indeed, it looks like a well populated garden of Eden before Adam and Eve felt it necessary to wear fig leaves. We walked, with eyes turned downward, to the less populated part of the beach and I tell the girls to get in the water, convinced this would be a far better option for their viewing. I was wrong. I think every male on Maui decided to enter the water at just that time to allow my children their first glimpses of the male anatomy, as gravity and floatation played a big part in this underwater extravaganza. Fast forward to our present trip ... I insisted that we expose Tim and Sarah's little darlings to this rite of passage as they did ours and they vehemently disagreed. Tim and Sarah left Hana earlier than us to come home (or to protect their children from us). So, when we did visit Red Sand Beach it was done without minors. On the hike in we viewed the bay from above and noticed that if anyone was in the water they were being pummeled and thrashed upon the rocks, for the surf was sending in 20 foot swells that boiled and brewed in this serene snorkel (all that is required attire) haven.

I did, however find a calm tide pool to float in as the sea belched and churned around me.

We pride ourselves in the fact that we don't require picture perfect accommodations that make us feel comfortable or make us feel good about ourselves that we can spend oodles of money on a pristine palace with marbled floors and open lanais that lead to the outside where there is a pool, with a jacuzzi, that look as if they run right into the ocean . We rather enjoyed the primitive and eccentric air of a less grandiose cottage. I will stop short, however, of recommending this little love nest to any of you, or of booking it again.

How to alienate your grandchild at an early age

2008-01-02T17:19:00.000-08:00

When we went Christmas tree cutting with our adult children and their family I, in true and pure playfulness, started lobbing snowballs at Stella. By this time the little girl had found her affection for eating snow. Having grown up with four brothers I learned that when someone does not participate in play you keep pestering them until they do. So lobbing (as opposed to throwing) another one at her she bent down for another lick of the white stuff and on the way down she received my little gift to her ... in the face! Oh, man ... I felt terrible. She didn't cry or anything, just stood there looking a bit shocked. Apparently, I did not feel terrible enough to stop. I tried to engage her with another lob and wouldn't you know she was either on her way down or up from grabbing herself another fist full of snow and bam! Right in the face a second time. I hurried over to her as she was shrieking this time and helped her clean up and reassured her that I was done. Man, I can't wait until she is bigger, maybe then she'll want to play ... if she is still speaking to me ... if she is allowed in my presence anymore ... if I am not disowned by her parents by then ... Rae Ann? Tom?

The cordial invitation...

The challenge...

Just seconds before the ill placed lob.

Christmas Day Snow

2007-12-25T12:23:00.000-08:00

I love it when it snows! The statistics are less than 1% chance of snow, even a trace, in our area on Christmas day. The last time this happened was in 1937. What a wonderful surprise.

A parting shot of Robin and Ivy looking for something under the chair at the time we had our family Christmas together. Ha! I love this picture!

Welcome

2007-12-20T20:44:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Flying Higher, for those that may be visiting for the first time.

If you are interested in what has been happening in our lives or the lives of Rae Ann and Robin peruse our Previous Posts and Archives, located to the right. Choose one and read on. You will learn of our flying adventures, the building of our airplane, our home and garden endeavors and our grandchildren.

You will also notice, on the right, links to other blogger sites. Robin's ("Nate and Robbie") and Rae Ann's ("Stella and Ivy") are both there. We often update our blog so bookmark it and re-visit as often as you like. You will find at the bottom of each entry that there is a comment icon. Use this if you want to say howdy or just comment on the entry.

Hope to see you here often! Merry Christmas to all!

Various happenings

2007-11-24T20:45:00.000-08:00

Our oldest grandkid turns 3 and her sister and Poppa enjoy the birthday cupcakes.

It is once again time for our plane's annual check. Dakota claimed her seat during the breakdown.

Becky getting a flight in a BT-13 (basic trainer), post WWII.

This plane was so smooth and stable that I did not feel uncomfortable at all viewing the earth upside down in it.

Rameus enjoying the last warm sun of the year in the middle of the taxiway at the airport.

Fall time sunrise over the runway.

It's a RV-10 wing!

This is what happens to a propeller when it hits the ground and the engine is still running. This was taken here at our airport.

Reno Air Races

2007-11-24T18:01:00.000-08:00

In July, talk around local airports was that the Oregon Pilots Association would be chartering their own Horizon flight to the 2007 Reno Air Races (http://www.airrace.org/indexJS.php). I wanted to be on that flight of 85 but knew it probably was not going to happen...nothing more was said. Then, in September Bruce told me to pack my bags for a surprise trip to Reno! Boy, we had a good time with friends, strangers and lots of very noisy aircraft. You could hear the roar of the speeding engines (speeds of 150 to 500 mph) before you got through the gate. The pace jet, the aircraft that would organize all the aircraft in the next race, miles behind us, would release the racers and do a loop to position himself above the race to spot for problems...what a job! The Reno Air Races started 44 years ago and Bob Hoover used to do the pacing and spotting in a twin engine plane, but now it is a jet because the racing air crafts are so much faster.

This is part of our group with identifying yellow caps.

The race course had pylons spaced in an oval course that the planes stayed to the outside of having to fly a certain amount of miles depending on what types of planes were in each race.

This is the jet race.

This is the mother load of all races, the Unlimited Gold. In the pits area these planes were static with draping over the engines so no one could see how they had been modified.

This plane fit into the Formula One class of racing, nothing but speed.

One formula one team got carried away and had the engine block airbrushed - it looked really cool.

In all, this year, there were three pilots that lost their lives doing what they loved. This Formula One plane was going to race in memory of another Formula One plane and pilot that crashed the day before.

The Canadian Snowbirds showed us their stuff.

Two close passing Snowbirds.

Bruce's dad worked at Lockheed,in L.A., during WW II making P-38s for the war. This one is "Glacier Girl" (http://p38assn.org/glacier-girl.htm). It's crew was lost in the Arctic for two weeks before being found and flown out, leaving the P-38 behind to be buried in 265 ft. of ice until the early 1990's when a group of aviation enthusiasts went back and dug her up and reassembled her...here she is...only one of four P-38's still flying.

This is what they call the "Heritage Flight", consisting of the P-38, the A-10 Warthog, the AD-1 and the F-16. All representing different eras of wartime aircraft.

What a great trip! With many memories to share with Bruce.

The Yealry Onslaught on Pumpkins

2007-11-07T15:37:00.000-08:00

We have had an annual event with Becky's side of the family for as many years as we have grown our own pumpkins...The Mac's Pumpkin Carving.

Visiting around the fire with cups of cider...

This year we were happy to have Becky's nephew and wife, Chester and Elysa, here to join us from California.

The results...

What's up with Blogger?

2007-11-06T19:18:00.000-08:00

I have attempted three times to update this blog with pictures in the last four days...blah, blah, blah...someday, maybe someday you will again have a window into my tiny corner of the world.

Mmmm...Fall...

2007-10-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

Can I just say, I love Falltime, it is my favorite season nestling my favorite holiday within it...Thanksgiving. I enjoy growing my own decorations for this season (except for the crysanthemums).

I feel it appropriate to add an update on the fowls in our yard knowing that most of the blog readers are not into animal husbandry or hatchery practices. Speaking of which, are there any relatives or friends out there, the local ones, that would want to buy fresh eggs for $3.25 a dozen before I put my sign out by the road advertising such?
New to the yard are three Bantams, a male Sebright, a female Silky and a female Blue Wyandotte.

I like how the silky looks fury instead of feathery and her coloring is nice with blue ears.

I also added the Rhode Island Red rooster.

The colors on the Sex Links that I have are brillant.

So, enjoy your Autumn months that come with brisk air, lots of falling leaves (to rake) and a sip of fresh apple cider.

Our Grandson

2007-10-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

It has been a long week, exactly a week. My daughter, Robin, and I went in last Tues. for a routine check of her pregnancy, of which she was in her fourth month, and found that there was no heart beat. She was hospitalized and over the course of the next 56 hours she delivered. Today we buried the little guy, Nathaniel Micheal. All a mom can do is hope that her baby is okay and that life hasn't dealt such a hard blow that she will be eternally sad. In the course of all this we have rubbed shoulders with others that have had my daughters best interest always in the forefront and I thank them for their strength and speaking into her life only adding to all my well wishes for her. And my son-in-law...Wow! Thanks Nate for loving and supporting her, please continue to take care of her and cherishing her. My husband and I will never forget little Nathaniel and the place he will always have in our family.

Another great ride.

2007-09-08T19:11:00.000-07:00

I caught a ride with a pilot at our air park who is a retired United pilot with 22,000 hours logged. His choice of ride is the Beech Texan-34 which was a trainer in the 40's or 50's. So it is aerobatic worthy! What a ride!

We were out east over the Cascade foothills doing steep turns and some "whifferdills". I have pulled rolls and loops in other planes and have not felt queasy but the T-34 was just right for making one sick. As you can see it is tandem seating and it feels squirrelier in the back seat. We got pummelled on the low pass fly-by (at 185 mph) by the winds that were gusting 20 to 25 knots. Here's a more complete 2 minute video. You'll want to let click "play", then "pause" to let it load, then "play".

Of course the pass was authorized by someone on the ground with a radio(...hmmm...I wonder who?) but it was much enjoyed by Jack Lenhardt, owner of said air park. It took a while for my stomach to recover, but I did not get sick, just nauseous. After our flight pilot Ron confessed that even though he had all those hours under his belt he could still go down just like anybody else. Keep vigilant in flight!

Another interesting encounter this week happened on the day before the T-34 ride. I was pre-flighting in preparation to take my brother, Tim, flying and a man and his wife sauntered up to me in our hangar and asked how I liked driving my MINI Cooper (which was parked under the wing of our Cessna) all the while explaining that they owned one as well. The man was Jerry VanGrunsven, the brother of Richard who invented the RV airplanes, one of which we are building.

Of course I recognized him and proceeded to confirm that he was the brother Van who lives at a local air park. There had been an article written about him in the Portland Tribune (Portland Life section B, Tues., July 17, 2007, "Aloft Living") which I found on-line. A gentleman left a comment to the article stating that general aviation pilots cause global warming by flying their aircraft. I responded to him stating how fuel efficient it is flying a small plane versus flying commercial or driving because of the performance of the aircrafts. Jerry had read both comments on-line and wondered who it was that argued pro aviation since I had posted anonymously. He suddenly put it together in our conversation and thanked me profusely for the positive words supporting general aviation. All the while looking past me with craning neck at our RV-10 project. I invited him in for a look and he explained how he helped Richard build his own personal RV-10 and all he got for it was the key to the plane he carries with him in his pocket. The only thing missing to the whole encounter was my husband who would have stood proudly by our project knowing that Jerry is also a true builder at heart.

My nemesis.

2007-08-14T17:37:00.000-07:00

All during my flight training I had always wanted to land at Nehalem Bay's runway (runways 33/15, 2350' in length, traffic pattern altitude 1000' MSL). The first time I attempted it, with a previous trainer, I had to give the controls up because she fixated on the treetops below us as we came in from the north. I then acquired a new instructor...he allowed me to call the shots on my attempts at Nehalem. I would always give up controls and let him land. One time we headed to the coast for a lesson with the intention to see what the wind sock was doing there. When I flew over there was a Cessna on its top at the end of the runway. The turbulence and winds were quit significant that day. My instructor and I returned at a later date and he let me go around and around in the pattern to land as many times as I wanted to so as to become comfortable with it. So now you may understand why I have always had a burning desire to conquer the wind, water and narrow runway at Nehalem completely solo. One day Bruce emailed me a picture of he and the plane parked at Nehalem. Boy, he did not see, my rather immature, reaction coming to his adventure he had had on his way to work in Salem. I was upset that he had done it alone before I had landed there. Well, my time finally came the other day. It was sunny all around the state of Oregon but not hot enough to create turbulence. The winds were minimal getting over the coast range. So I thought I would take the 45 minute run there and check the conditions out with no huge expectations. The winds were from the north/northwest but only at 5 to 8 knots. Not a big deal. I set up to make the approach from the south over the bay. I made the landing on my first attempt! Wahoo! I then spent 45 minutes walking out to the beach and back, enjoying the fresh ocean air. Part of the runway is shielded from the wind so you arrange to be off the pavement before the trees break or it can get dicey. Once off the ground it was smooth. When arriving back to my home airport I was able to set up for a straight in landing, a 4 mile final, without having to do the normal rectangular pattern over the strip. That was the icing on the cake! So, finally, I can close this chapter in my flying adventures, but I will always have great respect for the elements that make Nehalem Bay so exciting to land on.

The coast range at 6500'.

Nehalem Bay. The little spot of brown in the center of picture is the runway (looks like a backward lower case "r").

The approach over the bay. The runway is in the reflection of the planes' window.

Downwind leg.

The winds when landing.

Tied down.

The beach.

Wide open waters.

Rivets,clecos and skin, oh my!

2007-08-05T20:53:00.000-07:00

An update on the RV-10 building project.

This is the inside of a wing looking through all the ribs.

This is the end of an aileron clecoed together.

Lots of rivets of different sizes.

Here is the skin of the wing (the blue is plastic sheeting for protection while working on it)with clecos (pins) holding everything together with rivets installed next to clecos. To get the rivets flush with the skin's surface we dimpled the skin to allow the rivet to set deeper.

Another skin shot.

Bruce is using the rivet gun (you know, like "Rosie the Riveter")on the aileron.

Ah, Lenhardt Airpark (http://www.infoviva.com/lenhardt/Default.htm)...

Runway 02.

Runway 20. Notice the "V" in the tress right of the center line on the runway, you have to dog leg it through that gap to clear the trees before landing.

Hangar 52, hangar dog.

Oh, a quick look at our burgeoning garden. There hasn't been enough sun to ripen all the green tomato's hanging on the bushes.

Memories of Martha and Lorraine

2007-06-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

I spent a good amount of time on my grandparents dairy farm while growing up. My grandmother, Martha was 71 years of age when I was born yet I knew her for 30 years due to her longevity of life. When you do the math, she was 100 when she passed in her rocking chair (at home) while reading either the Milwaukie Journal or the Oregonian newspaper. Her yard was always an inspiration to me. As long as she had mobility she kept it immaculate. Nary a weed was found! She had beds of bushy, blooming perennials and a couple rows of pink fragrant rose bushes. Along the side of the sleeping porch she had a small tree that when you rubbed the large teardrop shaped leaves they smelled like peanut butter. In the back she had Bing and Royal Ann cherry trees. At her back porch she had bushy fig tree that she would pick and eat the figs right off the tree.

Another inspiration to my gardening interests was my Mother-in-law, Lorraine. Before she moved to Portland from the San Joaquin Valley I have heard that she doned a garden wherever she was living no matter how hard and dry the soil was. She always leaned to vegetable gardening, although she did have flower beds. When I met her, after her move North, she loved to grow things that provided her somthing tasty. She was especially fond of raspberries of which she never had in the South. She was completely giddy with excitement when the first berry was red enough to pick and eat. She loved to share her berries with my daughters when the were toddlers. They would arrive at her house and run to the back door, which was always kept locked, and wait with great anticipation until she arrived to unlock the door with explicit instructions of where to pick so as to not disturb tomorrow's picking.

Now I am left in the absence of these two great women, left to struggle on my own without their wisdom and instruction on how they did what they did with soil to create the small miracles of growth and production every Spring and Summer. Why is it that by the time I want to learn something from my elders they are gone? All I have is my memory of how their hands moved through the soil or how they would rise up and stretch when having leaned over for so long while weeding, and wiping their brow as they glanced at their progress. Memories that become more cherished the older I become.

Bag-O-Bones

2007-06-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

The other day I wanted to keep our older dog interested in life, with a new twist. I put on the floor the bag of bones that was half full. Before I knew it I heard the rustling of the plastic bag in the back hall and then for the next two hours the quiet onslaught and transporting of the treasure to his favorite rug led to sheer exhaustion over his conquest.

Nervous Expectations

2007-06-13T20:46:00.001-07:00

The human body can be perplexing. My feet were a little sore back in January and I was sure I needed some new shoes. My cheap work shoes had cracks in the bottom and I figured they were the cause of my discomfort. Then, on Thursday morning and again on Friday morning the bottoms of my feet really hurt when I got out of bed, but only for about 10 minutes. Now I knew I needed new shoes! Well, the weekend seemed to give me a break. Then on Monday afternoon, I developed a fever of 101 that lasted for about 6 hours. On Tuesday I awakened to two large swollen ankles. Very puffy. No pain. I decided this was a good day to see a doctor. So started my search to meet as many physicians as possible in 5 months!

My general practicioner had lots of blood drawn to see if I was fighting an infection. Sure enough, there were indications that I was. On the outside of my left leg, just above my ankle, there were two red patches, just barely visible. After Googling my symptoms we thought a dermatologist was then next step. My visit with him came a few weeks later and he ordered a chest X-ray. The interpreter of the X-ray thought he saw some enlarged lymph nodes in my chest, just under my sternum. At this point, my GP ordered some more blood drawn and a CT scan of my lungs. The CT interpreter concurred and my next visit was with a Pulmonologist. Now it’s getting a little scary. I’m visiting with doctors who spend much of their days with victims of lung cancer. The pulmonologist couldn’t help a whole lot because my X-ray and scans didn’t show up for their appointment with me and the doctor. Two days later he called. The only way to know for sure what’s going on is to see a surgeon who would perform a Medial Stenoscopy under general anesthesia.

Yesterday, I went under the knife. The surgeon made an incision at the top of my sternum and went in underneath 6 inches to a point where he could clip out a few of the inflamed lymph nodes and send them to a lab for analysis. Now, we wait a few days to find out what the cause of the inflammation is….

***********************

June 15th 11:30am. Got the results, and it's sarcoidosis. Whew! Could've been much worse. We'll watch and see how it plays out. It could choose to affect me in a multitude of ways, or never rear it's ugly head again. I like the latter.

2007-05-24T16:04:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more shots of our Bend trip and Doug's party. He bought all his decor items at Party City and asked me to put it all up. Talk about cheesy luau decorum. That's Doug though...he pulls cheesy off well. I did get to add a touch of class with a smattering of orchids in small vases.

We made 2 1/2 gals. of Mai Tai and served it out of a punch bowl. We found a great recipe. We had three tables full playing Texas Hold'em. I watched Bruce hang around for awhile and I figured he would scoot out and go back to our room. Instead, I saw him make a second trip back to the Mai Tai and then take a place at one of the poker tables. As far as I know he has not played before. At 1:15 a.m. I came back to give him our room key to let himself in later. He sauntered in around 2 a.m. He did so well that I wished they had played for money instead of for fun!

From dogs, to airplane, to president.

2007-05-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

We have of the last couple years, used a mobile pet groomer instead of taking the dogs in and having them caged up for the day while they wait their turn to be shorn. It is so much less stressful on them. Dakota was faced with a dilemma this last go around, she was tied to the inside of the truck (which she is not happy about) and her lead would not allow the distance of a jump out of the truck to escape the horrors housed therein. But she is so beautiful when it is all over.

This weekend we flew to Bend for an optometric conference for continuing ed and the inauguration of Bruce's business partner as the president of the Oregon Optometric Assosciation. It was the first year the guys invited their staff to come along. Of course you will see more pictures of the flight over than of the events of the conference! It was a very smooth flight with the exception of Bruce's landing. Man, it is hard to judge how high off the runway you are when you flare, or stall the airplane to land. We are both guilty of flaring with two feet to drop to the runway.

Hey, Rae Ann and Robin, recognize this lake? Marion Lake. They were ages 3 and 4 when they had their first backpacking experience into this lake. They carried their necessities of a dolly and a blankey in their packs.

Mt. Jefferson.

The town of Sisters below the Three Sister mountains.

Doug and Bruce's support staff.

The flight home has no pictures (which was Becky's leg) because it was so bumpy (winds were out of the southwest at 25 knots, and we were flying west, northwest) and it was all I could do to keep a steady heading and altitude. The clouds were lower than the mountain tops so I tried to maintain 6,000 ft. and fly the valleys through the pass. Why is it that I always get the difficult legs?

Breaking it in.

2007-05-10T20:02:00.000-07:00

Robin and I broke the Mini in with a trip to the beach. We kept the roof down on the way to the beach (even though it was in the 50's...a bit cool!) and then when we arrived back in Portland (it was in the 60's, just right) we made a detour through Washington Park on the way home. The roads are perfect for sports cars; tightly cornered roads meandering through a canopy of trees. Lets just say I need a little practice in my down shifting skills. There can be some hazards when motoring with the top down...

It's funny, when you drive a convertible you are so much more accessible to people and conversations. People walking by just feel free to chat (mainly about cars and performance) because there is no foreseeable wall between us.

The day we picked the car up we headed to the Canby fair grounds to visit some friends that had a booth at a plant fair/sale (top down of course). Bruce was behind me while I waited for ten cars to come through the gate before I could squeeze in. Three of them stopped beside me and made a comment about my car. Bruce later asked what they had said and I replied that they were stating that they liked the Mini. From his perspective it looked as though they were yelling at me about entering through this chosen gate. They were just being nice!

Mini!

2007-05-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

I had a great weekend. First we flew into Starks Twin Oaks air field for their monthly pancake breakfast, picked up a Mini Cooper (BMW) and flew (our plane, not the Mini)to the Coast in the evening and walked the dog. We also flew to Independence for lunch on Sunday. A girl can't ask for much more!
The Mini was a gift from my husband because I am getting older. We picked the one I wanted in Dec. '06 and waited for five months for it to be built and shipped. Bruce added a ton of packages to it without my knowing. It is a blast to drive!