June 3

Nothing like the smell of coffee. Nothing! I love to set it in the morning, so that when I wake up, I'm met with that wonderful smell that draws me out of bed. Remember that commercial, "The best thing about waking up, is Folgers in your cup?" Well, same thing here, but not Folgers, thanks. It's Pete's for me. Or, some other hand ground deliciousness. I could not go back to Folgers, or even Yuban! Although sometimes I buy Yuban and add just a bit of the good stuff to make it smell better. :) What am I talking about? Nothing! I need to drink some of that deliciousness, rather than just smell it! Speaking of smells...
Bill and I signed up for Bounty on the Bay! Why don't you? It's an awesome way to learn to fish Springers on the coast, or, just join in with your own boat, and enter the contest! You can sign up, here. By the way, the food is delicious!
A friend of mine sent a video of lucky fisher people's successful limits of sturgeon from the East Mooring Basin in Astoria. So, there's that! :)
OK, this is gross, but it's a first, and I have to tell someone! I'm not much into potty jokes, but this is no joke.
I just must share this! I'm sorry if you are eating. If you are, just go to the discussion board. You don't want to read this!
I was at the puppy park. Or, almost there. There is a distance at Wesley Lynn City Park in Oregon City from the parking lot, until you get to the leash free dog park area.
Of course, the doggy bag area, is located at the puppy park. I had forgotten my extra bags in the car, and was halfway to the puppy area, when of course, Willie decided he simply must go. He couldn't wait! Agh. It was either back to the car, for me, or to the dog area. Regardless, it would leave me in the uncomfortable position of leaving the debris for someone to step in, or for someone to eye me, thinking I wasn't going to clean up my responsibility. I don't like that! I'm a responsible owner. Not quite responsible enough to remember my own bags, but pretty responsible!
When I started back to my car, I spotted a nice lady with her husband and two little dog-ettes. You know, those little toy animals that are almost dogs, but not quite? I won't be mean. They are small dogs.
So, I approached her and asked kindly if she had a spare doggy bag. She did! She said to me, "Mine have already gone, so I think I can spare this!" I was so appreciative, and thanked her kindly, and went to pick up my "responsibility".
This is the first time in my life I have learned to do this, as I've always lived in places where I pick up the messes with a shovel at home, or my animals are out in the woods where I live, where the matter doesn't matter. I must say, I have gotten pretty good at it!
The bag she gave me was tightly twisted and I untwisted it and placed my hand in the bag, so I could pick up the mess without it touching my hand. It's the way it is done, and I have gotten very used to it.
As I placed my hand inside the bag, I felt a very small item. A dog treat?
I thought, "Oh! What a cute idea! She puts a small dog treat in each bag, so that when they go, she gives her little ones a treat, and then picks up the mess!
Nope. It was NOT a treat! Nope. Not at all.
It was her dog-ettes "responsibility"!
OH_MY_WORD.
I was holding a small dog-ette doodoo in my hand!!!
By that point, I was in utter shock. I went ahead and turned the bag inside out and added Willie's responsibility to the already used bag, and rushed to the rest room.
SOAP!!! SOAP! Give me SOAP!
I don't do well with poop. I never have, even with two little boys in diapers. I hold an unnatural aversion to feces. Maybe it's natural, but mine is way strong aversion!
I was breathless, couldn't wait to get to the wash room and there, inside the washroom was NO SOAP whatsoever. Just water!
I scrubbed my hands under the water as best I could, and left. It would have to do!
God bless the woman that I met afterwards, who had a little boy and a container of hand sanitizer!
Then, I called a girlfriend, who told me that 20/20 had just had an episode on, where they said that hand sanitizer wasn't "all that" and really doesn't kill germs as well as people think. I didn't need to know that!
I mean, isn't this story a first? I have never heard of such a thing, and I'm still rocking in horror at my experience.
I don't understand why I feel the need to tell people about it, but I just do. And I just did.
So.... there's that.
Have a great Sunday! It's absolutely beautiful out there!
Teehee....

June 1st

Ah, the rain! The rain! I love the rain! It sounded so awesome on the roof, last night! At one point, it really poured!
I can't wait to get back to the greenhouse at Tillamook, and see what is going on. Plus, it's hard for me to rely on someone else to water and care for my babies. Isn't that strange, though? That when our children grow up, we turn to plants to nurture? I think it was Pete that first made me aware of this, and it's so true!
I still have one 28 year old "plant" that is planted in my home at Oregon City. I can't seem to make him grow on his own... if you know what I mean. :)
His name is David...
That's another story. Poor kid, though. I came home and began to throw a fit about the messy house, before I realized that he was very ill. So, I got to play Mom again for the first time in a long time. I mean, the Mom that gets to love and care for their son, instead of the Mom that wonders when he'll ever move out. :) It was kind of fun. I made him chicken noodle soup and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, just like I always ate when I was young and had the virus of the week. It's a tradition in our home. Campbells chicken noodle soup and a PBJ. If you have a sore throat, you dip it in the soup till it's all soggy and salty. :) Yum.
Sometimes, even when I'm not sick I'll have this just to take me home.
I'm off to water my plants here at the Oregon City home. I don't think we got enough rain to really do the job. I think I'll head back to Tillamook in the next few days.
Bill- no offense. I know you are watering the plants. Aren't you!?!?! :)

May 27 2018

Warning: New toys cause stress.
It's true. I've never been so busy in my entire life! OK, so Bill gave in and bought me the greenhouse of my dreams! I wanted it! I craved it! I couldn't wait! And now I have it! It's so beautiful, you guys! It's the Costco 8 x 12 Palram and I love it!
So, now, since Bill and I couldn't set it up ourselves, we hired a contractor to do it, and ordered the gravel for the base, and bought the potting soil, and then decided we needed shelves for the greenhouse, so I ordered those, and well, there is just a lot to do! I went to the store, and to nurseries, and bought the seeds and the plants and move everything out there, like my lime tree, and my orchids, and busy, busy, busy!
About a year ago, Bill bought a stair lift, which came in very handy when he was ill, and we do use it and love it! It comes in very handy when I can't lift heavy things upstairs, but there is maintenance on this thing. We made an appointment to have the maintenance done, so we have to be home at a certain time, and make lots of phone calls about it. So, there's that.
Busy, busy, busy.
Bill bought me a car! A brand new 2018 Ford Escape and it has so many new techno things on it, that I have been studying, watching videos, and helping Bill to learn his new 2018 truck, as I learn! You know, we have to program buttons so that we can open our garage doors, and program the other buttons so that we can remotely open our car doors. Yesterday was spent with Bill on the ladder pushing the "learn" button, while I sat in the car trying to program the homelink buttons. He yelled at me, when he'd push the button, and I'd yell at him when it didn't work.
Oh. Then the garage door opener broke. We did get it all programmed, though!
Bill? Call the garage door fixit man, OK?
I think by the year 2021 or so, I should have the car thing mastered. It takes time to learn these things! Time that seems to be a rarity, while I learn to use all the other new gadgets in this house!
I can't talk about it, but I was silly enough to think I had time to accept an offer to do a survey on a really cool techno gadget I'll tell you about later. The price on this techno gadget is around $1500.00. I don't get to keep it, but I get to play with it for a while, whilst I video myself doing so.
Hint: It flies. It flies, if you know what you are doing, and have time to learn how to do it!
Insiders secret: It's still in the box!
Oh! Get this! Our Traeger kept getting wet, and thus the pellets got soggy, so what did Bill decide to do? Get an awning from Sunsetter awnings. (Sold at Costco).
I won't even go into detail about how long this has taken out of our lives because I don't have any spare time!
They sent the wrong model, so after we had it custom installed, we had to custom uninstall it, and order the right one! They didn't credit us for the original, so we spent hours and hours and weeks and weeks on the phone, trying to get credited for it. They finally found it, credited us, and shipped out the right one, and we custom installed the right one. However, the motor gave out on the first day, so we had to custom uninstall that motor, and dial up Sunsetter awnings. As soon as they locate that one, they'll send us the new one. Should be a year or so.
They sent the wrong cover for it, too, so that is on the way back, soon, so that we can order the right cover soon, too!
The moral of this story is this. Stick with your old stuff!
It's OK! It works! Even if your old stuff doesn't work, fixing it won't take up as much of your time, as buying new stuff!
Plant your garden in the dirt! Grow things that will grow at the coast! Because not much grows at the coast, it won't take up nearly as much time! Or, any at all!
This way... this "old stuff" way- You can do things like sit out on the deck with a cup of coffee and enjoy the birds that you used to be able to sit and watch! You could even take the day and go fishing!
But, because you bought a bunch of new bird feeders, you are too busy filling them in between phone calls for your broken new stuff, you have lost your entire flock of birds to the neighbors feeders!
It just isn't worth it, no matter if Amazon has new stuff of your dreams on sale!
AGH! I never-ever thought I'd complain about new toys!
Bill was right all along. We are going back to the Bill-way!
For 18 years, he has been very frugal. Very cautious about spending money on anything but our necessities. But, lo...he has regressed and given in to our fancies. He is providing us with all the luxuries we always thought we wanted but didn't.
Well, if UPS or Fed Ex knocks on our door with one more package, I think I'll run screaming!
I want to sit and watch the birds, again!

May 22 2018

I remember back to my childhood when my Mom read my favorite book to me. There was a happy image of a cute little bird, singing his heart out.
Well, that bird has come to life just for me!
Every morning, one of my violet greens (sometimes two, but just one that faces my window) sits less than two feet from where I sit. He rests on the arch of the shepherds hook that holds my feeders, and sings and sings and sings!
I find myself slacking on ifish work, and instead, having my coffee and enjoying the music. I swear that bird is singing just to me! I mean, who else is around?! :)
I searched google to see if I could find the image, and this is as close as I could come.

Bluebird of happiness!

Of course, my little avian soprano looks nothing like the above, but the same childhood peace and happiness happens in my heart!
What a glorious blue-true dream of sky we have this morning! This is my Father's World!
Click here for old pics of my violet greens!

...Continued
June 2018
May 2018


Jennie's Fishing Life, Complete!
Ifish Jennie on Grant's Getaways