| Oct. 20 2002 Hello All, Well, Fall was in the air for a couple of weeks, then wham, it turned back into Summer! No rain for several weeks now. Things are really dry. The temps have been in the upper 40�s at night at in the 70�s during the day! We have yet to build our first fire of the season in the wood stove. Projects going on are numerous. Our friend and neighbor Gary, from down the road has a concrete pumping business. Occasionally someone in the area orders too much concrete. He has a standing order for the concrete company to call him and ask if he needs any extra they have on a truck. Last Friday he called and said �we got mud coming up the hill�, the boys and I got the tools ready, and when Gary and the truck showed up, we dumped it�s contents into forms for a floor for a new 8� x 10� pump house! This was about 5 p.m., Gary expertly floated, and cared for the �green� concrete. The boys and I fetched and cleaned tools. Now it�s 7 p.m. and the slab is looking pretty good. Gary says �I figure I have about an hour before we need to finish it up, I am going down to clean my pump truck, and I will be back�, I say �Gary it�s just a floor for a pump house, it looks great�, Gary says �No I will be back� So I grab a bite to eat and set up some lights so we can see. Gary comes back about 8 p.m. and meticulously hand trowels every little flaw out of the slab until almost 10 p.m.! What a great guy! Now all we need is lumber and pipe and valves and electrical wire and roofing and �� Oh well at least the slab is done! Other projects, we are building an additional animal shelter for the dog and ducks. We will have dry storage for some additional things also, as well as a place for the chick brooder. We got a load of gravel (13 tons!). We are attempting to make a better turn around spot in our driveway. Jon and I last night used the truck to pull two rocks from our driveway. They probably weigh 3-4 hundred pounds each! Oh my back hurts! We have had more time for projects this Fall because neither of the boys are playing sports. Adam will start basketball soon, and Jon�s soccer team split up because most of the boys are playing football this year. It has been a nice break, but I miss watching them out on the field. Jon and I went Salmon fishing last Friday. We hiked in to our favorite hole. We had been fishing about an hour when I cast out and counted to five before beginning my retrieve. As soon as I started reeling my lure stopped. I instinctively reared back, and thought oh great, I am snagged. Then the snag began to move! I hollered to Jon �fish on�. The Salmon came straight to the surface and jumped. It was obviously the biggest Salmon that I have ever hooked! It was huge! Jon�s eyes lit up, and then the Salmon jumped again, which was not a good sign. Not a good sign because these big fish rarely jump, unless they are foul hooked (not in the mouth). The huge fish now headed for the bottom. I told Jon that I thought he must be foul hooked. Normally if there were a lot of people around and you foul hook a fish, you just put your thumb on the spool and break him off, so you don�t interfere with others fishing time with a fish you will have to release anyway. But since no one was around, and we had only brought 6 lures, 1 of which was now stuck in a giant Salmon, we decided to fight the fish. We traded off battling the fish for most of a half hour. Jon finally waded part way in the water and grabbed the monster and drug him to shore! I estimate he was between 35 and 40 pounds. We stood in amazement for a few moments and then removed the lure from his tail and slid him back into the water. What a great time we had! The boys are all doing fine. Cody is growing up so fast. Our neighbors who supply us with lot�s of hand me down boy stuff for Cody, brought us a bicycle that needs repair. Well I finally got it in the shop and have taken the tires off and patched them. The chain and training wheels still need some work so it has remained on the workbench for several weeks now. Cody and I were putting some tools away last weekend and Cody looked up at his bike and says �hey Dad when are you going to fix my bike� I said �we will finish it up soon� Cody looks puzzled and asks �Dad, what day is that�. The boys and I were out working on the animal shelter one evening. Cody brings his tricycle down near where we were working. We had been mixing bags of cement for a walk way. Cody spies the hose and decides to wash his trike. Now this is in the evening and it can�t be over 60 degrees out. I saw what Cody was doing and figured it was OK, that he would not get too wet. I go back to work and a few minutes later I look over and Cody had finished spraying his trike and decided he needed to dry it. Since there was no towels available, he takes off his sweat shirt and is using that! There he stands no shirt, not thinking any thing of it. Adam and Jon are doing great in school. Jon is in 5th grade this year, which means Amity Grade School, Outdoor School. They went on their two-day outing to the coast, week before last. They had a great time. The next outing will be in the Spring, 4 days in eastern Oregon. Lorelei and I plan on attending. Adam has straight A�s for the first reporting period. Chess season has begun, so we must get ready for that. We are still battling gophers and moles in the yard. We had two underground yellow jacket nests near the house this year. Jon was stung once, in one of our assaults on the nests. We have been overrun by Box Elder Bugs this fall. We have done some studying and now we are Box Elder Bug experts. The tree house has been getting some use. We have a plethora of games and fun stuff up there now. We need to get some good steps built going up the hill, before it rains too much. We found a new place for apples this year. We went and picked 55lbs. of Jonagolds. The cost .20 cents per pound! We have eaten nearly all of them, and will be going back soon for some more. The place where we buy them is right down the road. You bring your own boxes. There is a scale. You wander through the orchard and pick, weigh your apples and put the money in a box that is next to the scale. A sign posted on the Amity community bulletin board at the Post Office: For sale, trampoline, good condition. $100 dollars, or trade for game meat. Well that�s about it for this time. I am working on the website when I get a chance. So you may see some new pics there. http://geocities.com/glynnpennington/index.html Bye for now, keep those cards and letters coming! Glynn Jr. |