Summer Is Here --And So Are We!

We got our wish and had two nice, warm days this week and Neil was able to get more word done in the garage and some in the garden as well.  He mowed the lawn before the rain came today (Friday), and Pamela spent time planning for the wedding shower of Lindsay, who is marrying Pamela's nephew Samuel Finney this summer.  They are having a "Napa Valley" themed shower on Sunday, and everyone is hoping that warmer and dryer weather is going to prevail.

Oregon DMV - Our Monday Afternoon Adventure!

We finally got around to visiting Oregon DMV to register our vehicles and to give up our Alaska drivers licenses for Oregon licenses.  We did not get to the Gladstone, Oregon DMV office until after noon and almost did not find a place to park, and the waiting room was packed.  Nevertheless, we signed in and were actually out of there within an hour with two new vehicle registrations, plates for Neil (Pamela is springing for a vanity plate), and new temporary licenses.  

We then went to Lowes and Neil picked up a new air compressor.  He worked with Pamela's cousin Gordon to try to get an used one to work, but it did not work, so he decided to get a new one with a warranty and all.  It is a Porter-Cable 150 psi, six gallon model.  He had compressor-envy in Juneau since Sam had one and he did not, but Sam's is still bigger.  But this one is a lot easier to transport.

Neil's New Compressor

Another big event this week occurred when our good friend Dave Harris got married to Isobel in North Carolina.  They are two great people and we wish them nothing but the very best.  Best wishes, Dave and Isobel!

Dave and Isobel are Married!

Our anniversary is tomorrow, and we are going to take in the River Days celebration in West Linn, and to spend some non-house time together.  Next week, Neil hopes to move some boxes to get the VW into the garage--it is nice to have goals.  We also need to do some more pruning and mulch spreading in the garden.  There are enough projects around the house and garden to keep us busy for the rest of the year.

We hope that you are enjoying the start of summer where ever you are.  Thanks for visiting.  

Neil and Pamela

June in Oregon - Still Waiting for Warmer Weather

We had a great open house a couple of weekends ago, with about thirty five people in attendance.  The weather turned out great, so most of the folks were on the deck and under the wisteria arbor.  The roses were in full bloom, so it even looked like we knew what we were doing.

Finney Family Enjoying the Garden at the Open House

Nearly everyone commented on the new filbert shell mulch, that we really like.  We have been told that it is "squirrel purgatory", which sound good to us.  The idea is that they can spend an eternity looking for nuts in the mulch.  We don't feel too sorry for them, and at least we are not launching them into the next block like some of the videos like this one on You Tube:  Squirrel Launching Video  But it doesn't mean that Neil would not like to do so.

One of Our Resident (and lucky) Squirrels

Last weekend, we drove up to Silverdale to visit Neil's Dad and Neta for Father's Day.  At 92 years of age, he is doing pretty well.  He still gets around well and still has a good memory.  We enjoyed our visit and will plan on visiting again in July.

Neil is Still Finding Room for Tools on His Workbench

Neil has been working on house and garden projects over the past month, and there are plenty more to be done.  There is a lot of pruning and weeding and spreading of bark mulch and filbert shells to be done.  Neil also wants to get a load of gravel to top dress the garden paths and where he parks his pickup truck.  We also plan to have the truck and VW registered in Oregon this month, and are studying the Oregon DMV guide in case we have to take a written test.

Neil's Pickup Truck Bed without Hitch and RV Box

With the size of the large lawn and number of trees, we usually fill the lawn recycling bin to the top, so Neil uses the pickup to take yard waste to recycling or out to Molalla to be burned at Seth Finney's.  The pickup will also hold a yard and a half of filbert shells, and nearly a ton of gravel. 

Neil's Dad Looking at Our RV Book During Our Visit in Silverdale

We put out our fish kites and pagoda garden lights, and it is nice to have them swimming and lighting our new garden.  Neil mowed the lawn today and it always looks good after mowing.  Neil considers it part of his exercise program, since it is an hour of pushing the electric mower around and emptying the clippings.  

Thanks for visiting.

Neil and Pamela

Getting Ready for Open House

We have had a busy week around the house.  We have been installing shelves, opening boxes in the garage, and finding places to put things, as well as doing some work in the garden.  We decided that we wanted to use filbert shells as mulch around the rose garden.  We have heard that slugs commit suicide on the sharp shells, and that sounds good to us.

We spread one and a half yards of the shells today (about 800 pounds) and it really looks good.  We also spread some regular bark mulch in some other parts of the yard.

Hazelnut/Filbert Shells Mulch

Neil has spend some time building more shelves in the garage and mounting one of the large "Closets to Go" shelf high in the garage.  We now have about a half of a parking spot free in the garage, and are nibbling away at the edges.  Neil has most of his tools unpacked and mounted on the pegboard above the work bench.

We also had DirecTV come this week and install the High Definition TV antennae that Pamela's cousin Gordon found for us in Arizona.  We can now watch and record  HD programs as God intended.

Neil has also been doing some "power gardening" with his Ryobi sawsall.  This thing is the best thing going for light and heavy pruning.  He has been taking out the dead branches and doing heavy duty pruning on all sides of the house.

Neil's Power Pruner

This Sunday, we are hosting an Open House at our place for friends, family and neighbors; we are expecting about thirty-five people between 1-5 PM.  It has made it a busy week, but we always work better under deadlines.  It will be fun to show the house to friends and family.  It is even supposed to be sunny on Sunday.

We hope that you are enjoying a great spring where ever you are.  Thanks for visiting,

Neil and Pamela

Home Safe from Memorial Day Weekend

We returned safely from the Cascade Peaks RV park today after an enjoyable trip there with the Finney Clan and friends.  We traveled up in our Fiver, following Seth and Cathy and got there without any issues.  Once there, we enjoyed some great meals, took in the Packwood flea markets, and even bought some stuff at the auction.

The weather was off and on good, with some isolated showers.  As "camping" goes, the Fiver was a great way to do it.  We were very comfortable and had a great time there.  Today, we left Packwood around 1130 and rolled in to Molalla around 1530 after some stops at rest areas along the way.  It was good to get home to our new place here in West Linn, to our furniture and belongings.

We plan to stay close to home and finish unpacking and organizing--and are actually looking forward to it.

We hope that you had a good Memorial Day, and took some time thinking about the veterans who fought for our freedom.

Thanks for visiting,

Neil and Pamela

Safe Return from Juneau - Traveling to Packwood

We had a great week long visit to Juneau, and enjoyed seeing lots of friends and the sights at our old home.  Neil was able to go fishing for two days and had a good time on the water, but no fish.  The most exciting part of fishing was trolling in three hundred feet of water and having the depth alarm go off at nineteen feet!  A humpback whale was coming up under the boat and popped up about thirty yards away from us.  Many thanks to Sam for taking Neil out on his boat on Friday and Saturday!

Fast Ferry Fairweather Docking in Sitka, Alaska

Pamela had a good trip to Sitka on the fast ferry Fairweather with her Creative Memories team, and overnighted there so had a chance to visit some of her favorite places in Sitka.  She spent some time at the Sitka National Historic Park and saw bears on beach on the way back to Juneau.

Our friend Dave loaned us his spare Ford "Exploder" for the week and we burned over a tank of gas traveling around Juneau.  We had lunch at the Hanger on the Wharf, saw the Avengers movie, and had some good visits with friends and co-workers.  Many thanks to Jim and Judy for putting us up and Dave for the loan of the car while we were there.  The movie was a good one--two thumbs up.

At the Oregon end, Pamela's cousin Gordon took us to to the airport and picked us up on Wednesday night.  Today, we packed for our weekend RV trip to Packwood, Washington with the Finney family and friends.  We are in Molalla tonight staying in our Fiver, and we leave tomorrow morning with Seth and Cathy Finney for the drive up to Packwood.

Packwood is Near Mount Rainer at the 'A'

The weather is supposed to be getting better for the weekend, so we are looking forward to the holiday weekend.  We will return to Molalla on Monday and will then continue our unpacking and work on the house and garden at our new home at Warwick.  We still have lots of work to do inside and the garden needs attention as well.  We hope that we have some sunny but not too hot weather in June.

Thanks for visiting, and we appreciate any and all comments on the Blog--just to let us know that someone out there is listening.  If you are able to post a comment, great.  Otherwise, just send us a note at hagafinn@gmail.com

Fair Winds and Calm Seas,

Neil and Pamela

New Home Update and a Warm Spring

Our New Home -  2825 Warwick Street, West Linn, OR  97068

Wow!  It has been over five weeks since our last post, and there have been a lot of changes since we closed on our house.  There aren't any really good excuses for not posting to this blog, other than that we have been really busy with the house events.  It is ironic that when you don't have much going on, there is more time to put things on the blog.

Over the last five weeks, we have had the house interior painted, had some cabinet work done, had over 420 boxes delivered and have totally moved in.  There are still boxes in the garage (OK--lots of boxes), and we are now finding room for as much of our stuff as we can.  We thought that we had downsized some with what we sold and gave away in Juneau, but it was not enough.

Our Garage Was Pretty Full of Boxes--It is Better Now

One of the things we did was that we cut down the fireplace mantle so that we could mount the TV above it.  Our friend John Young helped Neil cut it down, and it looks great.

Cutting Down the Mantle - Good Weather Helps

Neil bought a TV wall mount bracket, and Pamela's cousin Gordon Kelly came over and helped him mount our 46 inch flat screen TV on the bracket above the fireplace.  It works great, and we are glad to have it up and out of the way.

Our TV Mounted Over the Gas Fireplace

Pamela has been able to get her office set up with new furniture from Ikea, and our marriage survived the trials of putting together several pieces of Ikea furniture.  Maybe not as challenging as wall papering, but it is up there.

Pamela's New Book Cases in Her Office

We had our first dinner party on our deck under the wisteria with the Finney Family last weekend, and it worked out very well.  We have been having some very warm weather here, but when we look at the weather in Juneau, we decided not to complain.  Ninety degrees is a bit much in May, but we are trying to get used to it.

The Wisteria Covers the Deck Arbor

We will try to post to this blog a little more often, but in the meantime, here are some more photos of our new home to show you how it looks with our furniture in it.

Dining Room Ready for Guests

Master Bedroom

Our May is shaping up to be pretty busy, with a trip to Juneau from May 17-23 so that Pamela can take a trip to Sitka with her Creative Memories team, and Neil can do some fishing with Sam Carlson on his old boat.

We then return on Wednesday, and then get our Fifth Wheel trailer ready for a trip to Packwood, Washington over Memorial Day weekend with the Finney clan.  When we get back after Memorial Day, we will have to work on getting the vehicles registered in Oregon, and get our Oregon licenses at DMV.

Thanks for visiting!

Neil and Pamela