At the Beach in December

Click on the above photos to see additional pictures.

We have been at the beach in Seaside Oregon for almost a week now. We are parked at the Leisure Time Resort there and will be heading back to the Willamette Valley on Friday. Last Saturday afternoon we attended Barb's sister's daughter's wedding at the Masonic Lodge in Astoria Oregon.

It was a bit of a hassle getting the coach ready to go after sitting through the ice and snow storm. I had to deice all 4 slides before we could get them pulled in.

Because of the snow in the pass's we ended up going to Lincoln City to connect with Hwy 101 and then North to Seaside. We still had a lot of snow to deal with even on that route. Karen followed us in her car, while Christopher and Jessica road in the coach with us. Carole, Rich and Family were suppose to arrive late evening, but we got a call about 8 PM that the transmission had quit working and they were stranded along side the road in the rain. Since there were 6 of them both Karen and I went to pick them up in our cars, and then had AAA tow their van to AAMCO in Astoria where the transmission is being rebuilt.

Since the van wouldn't be ready to travel with for several days, Rich checked out the cost of a rental van to get home. After finding that out, we decided that it would be more cost effective for Karen and I to shuttle them back to Stayton. We left Sunday about 10 AM and I was back in Seaside about 6:30 PM. Other than that, we have been having a great time swimming and hot tubing.

Red Lion Man

We attend Kristin and John's wedding

Click on Kristin's picture to see a slide show of her wedding.

Snow In Albany

Dick and Barb Ring the Bells

Barb and I signed up to be bell ringers from 10 AM to noon today. Immediately thereafter, we went to our grandchildrens school program. Click on the this link to see a slideshow of the event.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail at this address.

November 29th 2008 - Kristin's Wedding Shower

Friday after having Thanksgiving dinner with our son's family in Salem, along with our daughter's family from from Stayton, we headed for a motel in Seaside so that Barb could go to her niece Kristin's wedding shower. Kristin gets married on the 27Th of December in Astoria. Click on the below picture to see a slideshow of the shower.

Red Lion Man

E-mail us at this address.

Monday November 3rd 2008

Click on the above photos to see todays slide shows.

When we were leaving breakfast at the Flying J on Sunday morning, Barb casually said goodmorning to a couple as they were comming in. Then some 5 hours later as we were leaving the registration at the camp ground, they were just checking in, and we really were able to get acquinted with Judy and Vern. We sat around the coaches and compared RVing stories and also went out to dinner together this evening before we went to the Bobby Vinton show.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail at this link.

Sunday November 2nd 2008 - Onward to Branson

Click on the above photo to see slide show.

We pretty much had every thing loaded Friday night so that we could be on the road as soon as it was light Saturday morning. When Barb went to pull in the drivers side living room slide, it wouldn't close properly, and on closer inspection, the awning over the slide had frozen the water on it, and it was not rolling up. Next step was to get the ladder and a hair dryer and proceed to melt the ice. By the time we got the slide in, fueled up and a senior coffee at McDonald's, it was almost 10 AM.

When we got down to the Michigan border, we decided to go South on US 421 for about 50 miles and then cut back West to I-57 so that we would not have to deal with the Chicago traffic, even though it was Saturday. We traveled just short of 500 miles and spent Saturday night in a rest area about 25 miles East of Saint Louis, Missouri. We crossed into Central time and also changed to Standard time, so we actually gained 2 hours. That meant we were wide awake a little after 4 am, so we just got up and headed on to Branson.

We stopped for breakfast and coffee at a Flying J truck stop on the West side of Saint Louis. There was this awesome boat in the lot that I had Barb take my picture beside it. I think that she thought I wanted to trade the Motor Coach in on it, but it wouldn't have really suited our needs.

Somewhere before we got to Springfield, a group of three vehicles lost part of their load on the freeway just before we got there, and Barb very hastily advised me that I needed to slow down quickly to avoid hitting all the stuff in the freeway.

We arrived in Branson just before noon and were checked in and set up before 2 PM. Now it is time to relax for a few days and take in a few shows.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail at this link.

Friday October 31st 2008 - Finishing Up

Click on above picture to see final days slide show.

Fritz and Loran left for the Chicago airport early Sunday morning to fly back to Oregon. We had been assured by Chase farms that Monday would be the last day that they would be running the squash seeds. Up to this time, Chase farms had been shutting down between midnight and 6 AM. We got up as usual Monday morning and I made my noon run to hopefully pickup the last load of seeds. It turns out they had a little more seed than they had anticipated, so they decided to run 24 hours a day till they were finished. This meant that I had to pick up every 6 hours. Tuesday night at 6 PM I finally picked up the last load of 2 totes as well as 6 empty ones to bring back and clean up for next year. This also meant that we were working 24 hours a day to keep up, so between the time we go up Monday morning and when we finished on Wednesday morning about 8 AM. we each got about 2 or 3 hours of sleep.


Then it was cleanup time. I had to make one more trip to the cannery to dump off all the remaining sluff that we collected from the cleaners. This is given to the farmers to feed their livestock. There was also one more empty tote to pick up, and a chance to say good by to Pedro my forklift driver and Claudia the scale house attendant.


We had not anticipated that we would have more than a couple of bags of seed to send back to Oregon, so Howard was going to have it picked up at a later time by a truck that was returning from the East as fill in, but since we had a half load, Greg ordered a half container to pick up the 7 and 1/2 bags that we had on the floor. This arrived on Friday morning and when I tried to load the first bag, found out that our fork lift would not fit through the opening. Barb checked with Jim at Tri Berrys next door and determined that their old fork lift was about 10 inches shorter than ours and probably had less than an inch of clearance going through the opening. I tried to operate it, but it was a manual rather than an automatic, and the brakes didn't work very good, so I went and asked Jim to come and load for me, which he graciously did.


By 6 PM Friday evening, we had everything cleaned up and we were able to start packing the motor coach for the trip back to Oregon with a stop in Branson for a few days.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail at this link.

Saturday October 25th 2008

Fritz and Loran finished up the Friday noon load before 10 PM and since there was no 6 PM load to wait on, they had some time to relax an catch a few winks. The cannery called and said the midnight load would not be ready till about 3 AM, so we were able to get an extra hour of sleep, as it was almost 3:45 before they got back with 4 totes. These were off the dryers around 2 PM Saturday.

Since this was the last day that Fritz and Loran were going to be here, Howard had advised us to all go out for dinner on his dime. Thanks Howard! We had a great time. The guys knew of a great Chinese Restaurant in Muskegon that we decided to go to, so we left about 4 PM for the 35 mile trip. Fritz had advised us earlier that he would have dessert for us when we returned.

Yesterday, I mentioned that the loading of the seeds next year would be a "Piece of Cake." From the day that Loran got here, that was his catch phrase, a dozen times a day, as he explained to us what we had to do. Barb would say, " you keep talking about a piece of cake, but I never see one." We finished off the evening with a "Piece of Cake".

Click on the above photo to see today's slide show.

Red Lion Man

Leave us an E-mail at this Link.

Monday October 24th 2008

Click on the above photo to see today's slide show.

The truck that was suppose to be here at 10 AM for our 3rd load of seeds, actually arrived by 8:45 AM. Since this was the last full load that we will be sending back to Oregon, I needed to do the loading so that next year I would be comfortable with it. Fritz and Loran had their alarms set for 10 AM, so when the truck was actually ready to be loaded, we woke them up. With a little final instructions from Fritz, I started the loading process. I must say that it can be a little disconcerting to be headed up a ramp that is only a foot or so wider than your forklift, knowing that you have almost 2000 pounds of seeds way up in the air ahead of you and you have to look at the 4 inches of edge between you and the ramp to keep it straight. Needless to say, everything went smoothly, and I think that it will be "a piece of cake" next year.

In the picture link to the slide show you will see that Loran had a meeting with the forklift and the forklift won. Also in the slide show you will see a picture of the new sling that Barb designed to make it easier to vacuum up the seeds off the dryer.

There were only two totes of seeds at noon today, and when Loran went out at 6 PM there were no seeds at all to bring back. We have delivered back to the cannery about 11 bags of sluff and fluff that we have collected from the cleaners. This will be given to the farmers to feed to their pigs. We will have about 3 more bags to take out when we are all done.

Things are winding down and we have been told that Monday is the last day, which hopefully it will be, as Loran and Fritz are flying back to Oregon on Sunday, and we will be on our own till all the rest of the seed is dried.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail at this link.

Friday October 24th 2008 - We Start Cleanup

Click on the above photo to see slide show of the start of cleanup.

Yesterday we got the word that we will be done hauling seed probably by the beginning of next week some time, and since the loads have only been 2 to 3 totes at a time, we started cleanup on dryers 5 and 6, which were only used 3 or 4 times, and won't be needed again.

Loran and Fritz had tickets to fly out of Chicago on the 2nd of November, but wanted to change it to the 26th of October, if we felt that we could finish up by ourselves. We assured them that we could handle it, as it may be a couple of loads on Monday, and then cleanup. They will be flying out of Chicago Sunday PM at 7 o'clock. This means that we could be on our way to Branson by the middle of next week.

The Oakridge Boys start their Christmas tour on Tuesday the 4th of November, which we are very anxious to see. Then it's back to Oregon and trying to avoid any snow storms. The nice thing about the coach is it is fully self contained with an eight KW generator, and we can just pull over and wait out any bad roads. We will try and stay on the Interstate system, which should be pretty well maintained. Hopefully we will be back in Oregon by the 15th of November.

Our third load of seeds will be picked up today about 10 AM in a cargo container. Then it will be dropped off at the train depot in Chicago and shipped to Portland. Another truck will then deliver it to the Albany plant. It has been a poor season and we had hoped to have at least 4 full loads. Howard will have a local Oregon trucking company pick up any remaining bags, as a fill in, when returning to Oregon at some time in the future.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail with this link.

Snow Predicted

Click on the above image to see full size.

Dried meat in the seeds. - Temperature is 29.5 degrees outside, 90.1 inside. - Barb vacuuming the seeds.

Sunday
10/26/2008
Hi: 49°
Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of rain showers. Highs in the upper 40s.
Lo: 38°
Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of rain and snow showers. Lows in the mid 30s.
Monday
10/27/2008
Hi: 45°
Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of rain and snow showers. Highs in the mid 40s.
Lo: 33°
Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of light snow showers. Lows in the lower 30s.

About half the nights in the last two weeks have been frosting up the windows on the cars. A couple nights ago we had an assume lightning and thunder storm along with some rain.

The weather man is advising that we may possibly have some snow Sunday night, Monday, or Monday night. One thing I have found here is that the forecast doesn't come true that often. The other night the Grand Rapids TV station advised that we would have the coldest night yet getting into the mid 20's, and I think it maybe got down to 39. I did a quick check of the Grand Rapids weather and they also had about 40 degrees.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail at this link.

10-20-08 A Trip to the Cannery

On Monday mornings our first scheduled work is to make the first pickup of the week. The cannery shuts down at midnight and doesn't start up again till 6 AM. On Mondays, that means we get to sleep in a little longer, since they do not run over the weekend. Normally we have to go to work at 3 AM. The first load of the day is not till noon. Frequently on Mondays then, Barb will travel with me to the cannery. Click here to see a slide show of our trip to the cannery.


Click on above photo to see full size.

This week we decided to leave a little early and stop at one of the many local farms to pick up some vegetables. When we got there, they had a couple of boxes of seconds, and were able to get a big box of potatoes for $1.25, and an even bigger box of assorted squash for $3.50. The veggies were not very big, but still tasty.


Click on above photo to see full size.

At the cannery, Pedro is most often the fork lift driver that loads me, and when we weigh out, Claudia is the daytime keeper of the scales. Claudia's husband, Yo Yo, is in charge of all the fields that Chase Farms draws it's vegetables from. Yo Yo is also a Peewee league football coach, and their 7 year old son is in his 3rd year of playing. They played in Hart the other night and we were going to try and get to the game, but some other things came up and we didn't make it. We told them that maybe next year, we will be better organized, and be able to make a game.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail at this link.

Saturday October 18th 2008

These photos show where a fire was between the two center dryers.


Note the mist in the air from the wet seed on the left dryer.

The fluff burns, but then quickly goes out.














This is where we spend our time while waiting for the seeds to dry.


Week 4 is just about wrapped up and was a rather slow week. We were only able to pick up 37 totes of seed this week as compared to 56 last week. Barb and I had half a dozen or so fires to contend with just this week, while Loran and Fritz just had their first one.

The seasons are changing rapidly and the colors change from day to day. There is a slide show running on the left side bar that is showing some of the colors of Fall. If you click on it, you can view the pictures in a larger size.

Only a month now till we should be back in Oregon. We have already been gone for nearly 2 months. It will be good to once more see family and friends, but we have really been enjoying our time here in Hart and are already looking foreword to coming back next year.

Barb and I have been experimenting with Face book, which can be frustrating at times. Barb, I think is about ready to give it up, but I guess we will just have to wait and see. I'm not into all the games and things that people are trying to do, but have enjoyed what I have done so far.

I'm not sure what we will do this weekend. Depending on when the season is over, this may be the next to last weekend we will be here. We're expecting to be done by the 1st, but there will be a lot of cleanup before we leave.

Red Lion Man

Tuesday October 14th 2008

Click on picture for slide show of our visit to Grand Haven and Muskegon.

Yesterday the cannery was not going to be running any squash seeds, so it was another opportunity to do a little exploring. We joined Fritz and Loran for breakfast and then headed south on US 31 towards Grand Haven and Muskegon to see what we could see. I won't bore you with a slide show of the pictures at the naval museum, but if you want to see the inner works of a submarine and Coast Guard ship, here is the link.

We spent a little time on the beach where I let Barb play in the sand for a bit. I think that she is missing the grandchildren.

Red Lion man

Drop us an E-mail

Monday October 13th 2008

Click on the above picture to see Sundays Slide Show.

Yesterday morning we enjoyed the leftovers from Saturday evenings dining out at the local gulf club. We have also had to resort to a new style of making coffee as our carafe broke the other morning.

After church and lunch we headed to Baldwin, MI where we had read about the "Shrine of the Pine" memorial to the White Pine, which is the Michigan State tree. Bernie and Brenda are the manager of the Memorial and Brenda does the tour in the lodge about twice an hour. If you are ever in the area, you may want to take this in.

We had spotted an outdoor BBQ on our way through Baldwin and decided to return there for dinner. We then wandered back to Hart on the back roads and drove around Big Star Lake.

It was a very relaxing day, and since we also have today off will probably make our way to Muskegon and check it out.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail

Sunday October 12th 2008

Click on the above photo to see today's slide show

It's Sunday morning and we have completed our third week at Autumn Seed drying plant in Hart Michigan. Theoretically we only have three weeks till it will be time to work our way back to Oregon.

Production wise, this was our best week so far. We produced 15 1/3 bags of seed, so with the 4 that were left over from last weeks shipment, we will have our 2nd load on the way to Oregon next week.

Friday morning early, the part for our dryer came in. We were able to get the electrician here within an hour. It really helps to have 4 dryers together in one warehouse.

The Friday midnight pickup was not ready till about 1:30 Saturday morning, and there were 6 totes to bring back. Because there was so much pulp and string the seeds had to be washed, so when we started at 3 AM Saturday morning, the four of us worked together till all the seeds were on the dryers, which was close to 4 AM. Barb spent several hours during the early morning hours pulling weeds and doing some extra cleaning by vacuuming up the sluff between the dryers and wall, and between the two center dryers. We smelled smoke from under the dryers at least 3 times during the night and once was able to see the sparks and sluff burning between the two center dryer. This time it did not get onto the seed bed like it did the last two times.


A little after 2 PM Saturday we started taking off the next to last dryer and about 2:45 PM the last dryer. Loran and Fritz came on about 3 PM and watched the bagger, while we continued to vacuum up the seeds into the cleaner and clean up the warehouse for the weekend. We checked out about 3:45 PM and Loran and Fritz were done with the bagging before 5 PM.

Loran had a friend, who was having a 3 day weekend, drive up from Nebraska for the weekend. Loran had worked with him when he was working for a federal campground in Washington State some time back.


Till next time.


Red Lion Man


Drop us an E-mail

Thursday October 9th 2008

A morning sunrise over the Autumn Seed Warehouse. The Lions converged on Barb this morning to help her place the finishing pieces on the puzzle.

Although the cannery does not appear to have fixed the shaker that is not working, the last 2 loads have been 5 totes each. We are still waiting for a new control box for one of the dryers and are not sure when it will arrive. We understand that the factory had to assemble one for us.

We have 4 of the 5 remaining dryers operation at this time and should have one cleared before I pick up the noon load. If there are 5 on this load, we will probably have 5 dryers going at once.

Follow this link if you would like to see a slide show of some of the carrots that are stacked at the cannery.

Red Lion Man

E-mail us with this link if you care to make a comment.

Tuesday October 7th 2008

Click on the above photo to see yesterday's slide show.

Our first load went out the door yesterday. The truck arrived from Chicago right on time - 10 AM. From here the truck will go back to Chicago and be loaded onto a train where it will be picked up in Portland, OR, and then delivered to the warehouse in Albany.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail at the following link.

Sunday October 4th 2008

We finished up for the week at about 1 PM yesterday. It felt good to look forward to a day of relaxation. We had our first visitors to our coach in the afternoon. One of the former pastors of the church we attended 2 weeks ago, stopped by with his wife, bringing us a bouquet of flowers and a loaf of home made sweet bread. Howard had suggested that we look them up while we were here. Thank Howard!
After church this morning we dropped by an apple orchard to pick up a few apples and then stopped down by the Hart Dam and City Park.



Pastor Elvin and Elda Ann Harden visit us in our coach.



We join Fritz and Loran at the Open Hearth cafe for dinner. Sorry you couldn't join us Sally and Hilda.

Saturday after work.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail

Saturday October 4th 2008

Click on the above photo to see Fridays slide show

It's 9 AM Saturday morning, and our shift is about half over. The post time will tell you that it is only 6 AM, but I haven't figured out yet how to get the posting time onto Eastern time. Technology wise, I am a much happier camper, as my Canon 1D Mark II came back from Canon Repair Service this week. I've included a few wide angle photos of the complex with today's post.

We still don't know if we are going to have to make another run to the cannery today, as the line shut down close to midnight Friday, and there still was a lot of squash waiting to be processed, and it needs to be finished so that everything can be cleaned up. The story was that one of the auger motors that sends seed and pulp out to the separators had bent a shaft. That being the case, as soon as it is fixed they will finish processing, and then give us a call to pick up the remaining seed.

For some reason the plant shut down Wednesday night and when Loran went in at 6 PM, there were no seeds to pick up, and he came back empty. They said they would not start again till 6 am Thursday morning, so Loran said we could sleep in and be ready to go at 11:30 AM to pick up a load. The seeds we put on at 1 PM came off about 9 PM, so Loran and Fritz were able to get to bed a little after 10 PM. We all got a little extra sleep.

Since we wanted to go to a bakery in Shelby, about 6 mile South of Hart, for breakfast, we decided that Thursday morning would be a good time. They are know for their omelets and baked goods, and we weren't disappointed. We tried to stop their a week ago Sunday morning before church, but they were closed on Sundays.

By the time we finish today, we should have 23 bags ready to ship to Oregon. The truck can only carry 19 at a time, so they are sitting on one side of the warehouse ready to be picked up on Monday morning at 10 AM

Thursday morning we had to scrape ice off the car windows before we could take off. It had rained most of the night, so I think that some of it was freezing rain. This morning there was frost on the car roofs again, and the official temperature was just below freezing at 5 AM

Red Lion Man

If you care to comment on today's post, click on this link, and send us an E-mail.

Thursday October 2nd 2008

Click on the above photo to see Thurdsay's slide show



Click on the above photo to see Wednesdays slide show



Click on the above photo to see Tuesday's slide show

It's a little after 11 AM EDT and Barb and I have been on duty since 3 AM. This is our second full day of getting up at 2:30 and relieving Loran and Fritz. Last Friday one of the relays in the stirring mechanism failed to reverse the motor and the assembly tried to come out the end of the dryer. Barb heard the noise of the first bar and rushed over to shut it down. The bar hit three times and broke one of the welds as well as bending the shaft the chain pulley was attached to.

I just finished (4:55 PM) my daily trip to the cannery. I leave about 11:30 and get back between 12:45 and 1:15 depending on how things go. Then it takes about an hour and a half to get it all processed and on the dryers. The load had so much crud in it that we had to pre wash it before putting in on the dryer.

The cannery has been having trouble with one of the sorters and is trying to force everything onto one and still try to keep up. As a result we are getting material that has too much stringy stuff and squash body in it. One load was so bad that it took over 24 hours to dry. Most loads are around 10 hours.

We called for a truck today to take the 19 bags of seed, that are finished, back to Oregon. There were 20 bags on the floor by 3:30 PM, and should be 21 by the time we start tomorrow morning at 3 AM.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail if you would like to comment on today's post

Monday September 29th 2008

Click on the above photo to see today's slide show.

We left about 6:30 AM this morning so that we could have breakfast in Ludington before we dropped Harley off at the ferry. When we got back to Hart we heard that the cannery had called and advised us that they were not going to be doing squash today, so that gave us some extra time to do a little more exploring

We spent most of the day driving along Lake Michigan through the small villages and taking in the sights.

Tomorrow we should be back in full swing again.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail if you care to comment on today's post

Sunday September 28th 2008

Click on the above photo to see today's slide show.

This morning Barb fixed some french toast with some strawberries that we picked up in Luddington for the whole crew. Thanks Barb!

Most of the rest of the day we let Barb do her own thing while Harley and I talked about old times, and then went for a walk to take a closer look at the historic district of Hart.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail if you care to comment on today's post.

Saturday September 27th 2008

Click on the above photo to see todays slide show.

When Loran and I got off at 3 AM this morning, we had 11 bags of seeds on the floor, and by the time Fritz and Barb finished we had a little over 13 bags for the first week. Sometime next week we will be able to send our first truck load to Albany, Oregon. We made 15 trips to the cannery and picked up 44 totes of seeds this week.

Harley, my best friend through high school, is riding the ferry across Lake Michigan from Manitowoc, WI to Ludington, MI today. The ferry will arrive about 7 pm and and we will have to have him back by 8 AM Monday, as the ferry leaves at 9 AM.

A close inspection of our car reveled that it was covered with fluff and was going to require a good scrubbing. Next week it will get parked behind the coach so that hopefully it wont happen again.

We headed into Ludington a little before 2 PM so that we would have a chance to do some shopping and sight seeing before we pick up Harley. After stoping for some groceries and driving around a bit, we realized that the weeks work was catching up with us and that we were a little tired. We then went for a cup of coffee and a place to rest our feet for a bit.

The ferry docked right on time and we headed over to a restaurant to have dinner before we returned to Hart. It was about 9:30 when we got in. Since Harley was going to be sleeping in the apartment, we took him up to meet Loran and Fritz, and show him where his bed was. Barb retired shortly and Harley and I spent another hour or so talking before we headed off to bed.

Red Lion Man

Drop us an E-mail if you care to comment on today's post.

Friday September 26th 2008

Click on the above photo to see today's slide show

We are already finishing up our first week at Autumn Seed drying plant in Hart, Michigan. I think that I can make it to the cannery now without any wrong turns. Things tend to look a little different at midnight then they do when it is light out. Bag nine was sitting on the floor before 1 PM today, and bag ten was there before 4 PM.

This afternoon before starting to work, I made up a TV coax cable and attached it to the outside jack on the coach and ran it up into the apartment, so that Fritz and Loran could watch something more than the single channel that is available over the air here. Their TV is old enough that it only has a manual tuner that you have to rotate by hand. (only the older generation will remember these) By next year, when we lose the analog signals, we will have to find something else. I programed up the satellite to auto tune to the games that Loran and Fritz wanted to watch while we were going to be out tomorrow afternoon. The RF wireless remote will not tune it from up in the apartment.

Today's slide show has some detail on some of the equipment in it.

Red Lion Man

Click on the following link to leave us an E-mail if you care to comment on today's post.

Thursday September 25th 2008

Click on the above photo to see today's slide show

I think that we are starting to get the hang of things and maybe by next week we will be on our own. We have been making a run to the cannery at noon, 6 PM and midnight, give or take a half hour or so. We thought the cannery was going to be running 24 hrs a day, but they are shutting down between midnight and 6 AM at this point. We have been getting between 2 to 4 totes at a time this year where in the past there have been as many as 8. Maybe next week things will get moving a little faster.


I've been running the forklift a little bit more each day and am sort of getting used to it now. I posted a couple of videos that are less than a minute, but are very large if you decide to download it and see us in motion. They are located on the side bar on the left.


We already are seeing some of the trees starting to change colors. It's been almost 40 years since we have been in the Midwest during the Fall season, and you almost forget how beautiful it can be.


We not have 8 bags of seed waiting to be shipped and by Saturday PM should have close to another 6. The cannery shuts down at midnight on Friday and resumes again at 6 AM Monday morning. We should have the midnight pickup finished by early afternoon on Saturday, and will not pick up again till noon on Monday.


Harley Englel, one of my classmates in high school is riding the ferry over from Manitowoc, WI to Ludington MI Saturday evening, and we will pick him up about 7 PM. It is a 4 hour ride across Lake Michigan, and this time of the year, it only makes one trip a day. Since it leaves Ludington at 9 AM, we will have Harley back to the ferry on Monday morning. Harley and I were best friend in high school, and both went to the Wadena Area Technical Institute for a 2 year Electronics program. Since then, we have only seen each other half a dozen times, so I am looking foreword to this weekend


Red Lion Man


Drop us an email from the following link if you care to comment on today's post.

Wednesday September 24th 2008

As it turns out, Loran sent me out by myself to the cannery at midnight, I think, just to see if I have been paying attention to all that he has been trying to teach me. I made it there and back with 4 totes of seeds and didn't see any deer to watch out for either.

We actually all 4 worked together from about 1 to 4 today. Sometimes it is just works out that way.

I made the 6 pm run also, and since Barb wasn't ready to go to sleep yet, she rode along with me. It probably was a good thing, as I headed down the wrong road and she had to straighten me out. When am I going to learn not to question her when she tells me I am on the wrong road?

We now have 5 bags ready to ship to Oregon.





Click on the above photo to see today's slide show.


Red Lion Man


Drop us an E-mail with the following link if you care to comment on today's action.

Tuesday September 23rd 2008

To see a slide show of today's pictures, click on the above photo

I got to bed a little after 3 AM this morning and passed Barb as she was getting up. Barb and Fritz worked the 3 AM to 3 PM shift. I got up about 9 AM and drank some coffee and made a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast.


After showering, I decided to walk to the post office and see if our mail had arrived. It was mailed priority mail from Postal Express in Stayton, OR on Friday, and as it turned out, had actually arrived on Monday. I had three weeks of mail to go through.


Fritz headed out at noon to pick up a load of seed and seemed to be a little late getting back. He had a right front tire blow out and had to catch a ride back to Hart. By the time we got a spare installed by the only tire service company in town, it was after 2:30 PM when he finally got back. No one in town had the right size for our 1990 GMC 5 ton truck, so we had to order 2 new tires that should be here tomorrow and we will get them put on.


By the time Loran and I got started it was time to take the next load of seeds off the dryer, so I got an opportunity to try out the Vacuum. A little before 6 PM, Fritz agreed to watch the dryers so that I could go with Loran to pick up a load of seeds. This time I was driving the truck and trying to remember all that I had been taught. When we got back, I also got my first chance to unload the seed and dump on the dryers with the fork lift. Now it is time to sit and watch till Loran comes back with the 1 AM load.


Red Lion Man


Drop us an E-mail from the following link if you care to comment on today's post.

Monday September 22nd, 2008

Click on the above photo to see today's slide show.

Today was the first day of our new adventure. Yesterday we went to church at the First Baptist Church, and when we found out that they were having a picnic in the afternoon, we decided that it might be a good way to meet some of the people there.


Loran and Fritz flew in from Oregon to Chicago late Sunday night, but didn't arrive here till mid morning. By the time we had gone through all the preliminary setup, it was time to head to the cannery for our first load of seed. It seems that they had some delays getting started so all we did was drop off eight totes and came back. By three PM we had most every thing in order for the arrival of the seeds


For the first week, Barb is going to work with Fritz, and I am going to work with Loaran. Then we will be on our own. Since we tend to be morning people, we will work the 3 AM to 3 PM shift, and Fritz and Loran will work the 3 PM to 3 AM shift.


We will be making 3 or 4 trips a day to the cannery to pick up seed. Both Barb and I rode along today so that we could get our orientation of where everything is. We dropped off five more totes but only came back with 3 full ones, which were all put in one dryer. Loran will make another run about midnight and hopefully there will be at least four more or possibly six. We still have three dryers left that can handle up to nine more totes. It takes about ten hours to dry a load, so the object is to always have a dryer available for what you pick up. If it gets too backed up we may have to fire up the dryers in the second building, but then you have to watch between two places.


Red Lion Man


Click on the following link if you care to drop us an E-mail about today's adventure.

Saturday September 20th, 2008

Click on the above photo to see today's slide show

Today we moved from White Cloud, MI to Hart MI. Since we were only moving about 45 miles, We waited till after Barb had a chance to walk with Rose again, and were on the road before noon. Barb has found a favorite log to sit on and read down by the lake, so that is where she was when Rose stopped to see if she was going to walk.


Just before we left, a big greyhound type bus pulled in with a whole bunch of kids from one of the local churches that was having a camp out for their youth activities kick off for the school year.


After arriving in Hart, most of the rest of the day was spend getting set up and organized. Since we will be here for at least 6 weeks, we tend to do things a little different than when we are moving every few days.


Monday we will begin to find out what we will be doing for the next few weeks.


Red Lion Man (&Lady)


Click on the following link and drop us an E-mail if you care to comment on today's post.

Friday September 19th, 2008

Click on the above picture to see slide show of today's travels.

Tomorrow we are going to move to Hart, MI, where we will be working for the next six weeks or so. I have not been able to resolve the issue with my camera and need to send it back to a Canon Factory Service, so decided to kill two birds with one stone. Since I will need a physical address to have the camera returned to, and wanted to check with the post office about getting some of our mail from Oregon, we decided to drive over to Hart and check out where we will be for the next few weeks. We waited till after Barb had walked with Rose again before we left.

It's a little over 40 miles to Hart from White Cloud, and as the crow flies, Hart is about 6 miles from Lake Michigan. When we arrived in Hart, and finally found where we were going to be working, it was nearly noon. The warehouse was busy with the folks who use it during the 10 months that seeds are not being dried, moving their thing out of the way so that it would be ready to go for seed drying on Monday.

Tri-berry's, Jim, who uses the warehouse for storage directed us to the secretary, Judy, who helped me pack up the camera for UPS to pick up. We were able to get some keys, so that Barb could get into the washer and dryer on Saturday when we get there.

We took a different road part of the way back to White Cloud, and drove by a home that had made a memorial in front of their house for aborted babies. It was very thought provoking. We then went down to the dam that is about 6 miles from the campground. It is interesting to see the difference between what we know as a dam on a mountain river and what we see here.

Sometime shortly after dusk, Barb noticed everyone looking up into the air, and being the curious person that she is, went to check it out. There were a couple of raccoons in the area that were up in a tree and then on the awning of one of the trailers. It was really too dark to get a good picture, but you can sort of make them out.

Red Lion Man (& Lady)

Drop us an E-mail if you care to comment on today's adventure.

Thursday September 18th, 2008

Click on the above photo to see a slideshow of the camping area.

We decided that today was to be a little less strenious, so we used it mostly as a catchup day. Again, my wireless card was not giving too much preformance, due to the distance we were from any populated area. The park does have WiFi, but the only place to access it is at the clubhouse area so I went up to the culbhouse to try and upload some pictures and text. It turns out that the service was just OK, as I typically get about 3 to 4 times the preformance with my Verizon Wireless card as I was getting at the club house.

As we were sitting in the coach looking out, Barb spotted another gal walking with her dog, and told me she was going to go and see if she was looking for a walking companion. I didn't see her for the next 45 minutes or so, as she walked around the lake that we are camped on which is probably a mile and a half or so.

Barb was able to get some pictures of a pair of swans that seem to like the lake, and when she was out early this morning she got some pictures of a muskrat having fun, but due to the earliness of it, the pictures were rather dark.

Red Lion Man (& Lady)

Drop us an E-mail if you care to comment on today's post.

Wednesday September 17th 2008

Click on the above photo to see slideshow of todays adventure.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

It is time to move on to our next stop, but first we must have breakfast at “The Sugar Bowl” that everyone keeps telling us we need to check out. They have a long hall full of pictures dating way back to the beginning of Gaylord, even before the restaurant was built. They have many of the menus from the beginning till now. Full meals were only 25cents.
We stopped across the street at the farmer’s market and got some peaches and sweet corn.

Our neighbors across the road from us were leaving also. They will be at Mears, which is just below Hart, when we get to Hart.

We get to Woodlands on the Lake, just out of White Cloud. This is a Western Horizon Resort. It is the kind of resort I love. We are in the woods and just behind us is the lake we can see through the trees. They also have a swimming pool, mini golf, tennis courts, basketball court, sand volley ball, but it is away from the camping site we chose. I walked down to the lakes edge and saw many frogs. I heard them “plop” into the water also. It sure is peaceful here.

Red Lion Lady (& Man)

Drop us an E-mail if you care to comment on todays adventure.