Labor Day 2010: Sept 6, 2010

We had a wonderful Labor Day. The weather predictions were for mostly cloudy with the possibility of showers - but it was almost cloudless all day, temperature in the low 70's, no sign of rain, and NO MOSQUITOS. Mitch and Jennifer Neilson brought up the idea of a block party and everyone on SE Sturgeon was for it, so we had a big neighborhood get together at our end of the street. Mitch rented a bounce house which went up around 2 PM at the dead end of the street in front of our house, and tables, food and two BBQ grills magically appeared shortly after.


The Korenthals - Amber, Chris, Isaac and Abigail - came over from Beaverton to join in the fun. Their friends John and Beth Opferman, with Johnny - 4 and Kayla - 2, were supposed to come with them. But, Beth's water broke in the very early AM so John and Beth decided to go to the hospital to have a baby instead of coming to Scappoose, but Johnny and Kayla came with the Korens. After the Korens arrived with the four kids, the kids had a "picnic" lunch on the kitchen floor, then went out front where all four kids took turns driving the jeep, riding bikes, trikes and scooters. Brandon Nielson, Isaac, and Johnny played trains on our garage floor with some of my old O-guage track and a couple of train cars (perfect cars for the kids: White Owl Cigars and Mogen David Wine).

By 3 PM the crowd had grown and our lawn and what little of the street was open between the curb and our side of the bounce house was full of chairs and people.

Attending were: from our side of Sturgeon St - DeeDee, Amber, Chris, Isaac, Abigail, Johnny, Kayla and me; Lindsey, Kevin, AJ and Shelby Mitcham; Michelle, Patrick, Kaitlin, Madison and Cassidy Smith; Denise, Jason, and Cameron Pisha; and Keri, Mike, Madalynn, Morgan, and Courtney Hall.

From the other side of Sturgeon St - Becky and Jason Lower; Nate, Eileen and Kaitlyn Kolb; Jennifer, Mitch, Brandon, and Matthew Nielson; and Donna, Greg, and Emily Hutson.

Representing the 8th St neighbors were Jennifer, Nick, Kaitlyn and Jonathan Wood.

And representing the Snowgoose St neighbors were Cheryl, Mike and Lauren Miller.

The food was unending and SOOOOO delicious. I think everyone over ate, I know I did - the most amazing part of the day was that with all the food consumed, that there were no "accidents" in the bounce house, other than occasional head bonking, etc, but nothing that had to be wiped up or cleaned up. A food delivery truck was in the neighborhood dropping off stuff at a couple of the houses. When he saw the group at our end of the street he drove down and handed out ice cream bars to anyone who wanted one (note: I said anyone who wanted one, not needed one - no one needed one), and in return we gave him a big plate of food to eat, so everyone was full and happy. It was a really fun day, with all the kids playing well together and only a few, "he pushed me", "it was my turn", etc, and just a few tears - but no blood, fights, or arguments. With the total number of parents around, everyone got a chance to visit and have fun without having to monitor their kids all the time. For the most part, the bounce house was constantly in use by the kids, although a couple of the BIG BOYS (Kevin and Mitch) figured out how to climb in and really bounced the kids around. A few moms got in also for a few minutes and even DeeDee got in with Abigail for a little while.

The party broke up as it got dark. After coming inside the four little ones had baths and got in to PJs and ready for the ride home to Beaverton. They spent a few minutes settling down by watching the Sprout Channel on the TV.

We are truly blessed with wonderful, caring, and giving neighbors. Dee Dee and I are so happy to be living in our dream house, surrounded by such great neighbors and friends, with family close enough to be here often.

Tree Removal - July 2010

Our home sits at the dead end of our street and is bordered on the west by some undeveloped woods, owned by the folks who live on the property on the west side of our development. In 2007, during construction, we had asked the builder to cut back the limbs of the trees that were overhanging our property, and to also ask the owner if they would allow a few of the trees right on their side of the property line to be cut out - the answer from the owner was that overhanging limbs could be cut to the property line, but nothing on his side could be removed or taken down. We took occupancy of the house in October 2007 and in the Spring of 2008, we asked the owner about cutting out a few of the trees we felt could be a danger to the house - again the same answer, that we could trim back to the property line, but that was all. Looking down the property line, it was obvious that if we cut back to the line on our side, a couple of the trees would only be left with about six feet of trunk, because from six feet up, the rest of those trees were on our side. So, we put up with it, including being deluged with non-edible cherrys from three of the cherry trees and some weird seeds from another of the trees that were all at the edge of the property and which constantly fell into our front and side yards.

Apparently time was on our side, as a little over two years later, on Sunday July 18th ,2010, when we got home from church, we heard the neighbor, Terry, talking in his yard. We walked around the End of Road barrier into his yard and mentioned we were concerned about several of the trees that were leaning into our yard and that they might fall on the house during a heavy storm. He said that we could go ahead and cut down any trees we felt were a danger to our house and he even said he would talk to a neighbor of his, Jerry, to come over and help me. We wasted no time making plans. Jerry arrived in about an hour with three chain saws, a quad with a trailer to move cut firewood, and ready to work.

Jerry, Linda (Terry's wife) and I cut out two trees directly behind the End of Road barrier, that were the cause of all the little berry seeds and which over hung not only part of our yard, but into the end of the street. All the branches went into Terry's burn pile and what ever was useful for firewood was cut into 16" or so logs for Terry to use. It took us three afternoons, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday to do all the cutting , moving branches to the burn pile, and cleaning up the debris.

I had also told Terry that I would pay for any professional tree trimming that needed to be done. Jerry and I decided that we would not even think about tackling any of the trees that could fall toward our house, including a large 15" diameter cherry (most of the trees were at least 40 feet or more tall). I contacted David Greenleaf of Greenleaf Tree Relief and he came out to survey what needed to be removed. We selected between 10 and 12 trees (cherry, hawthorn, and oak) that were suspect and David gave me a not to exceed $200 to cut them down - Jerry and I were to be the ground-crew and would take care of cutting off branches and cutting trunks into firewood.

On Wednesday, July 28th David arrived and in two and a half hours had the trees down. Of course Amber brought Isaac and Abigail over so they could watch David climbing, cutting, and felling the trees. We also invited neighbor kids Brandon, AJ and Shelby to join the kids, and some mom's showed up also, so we had quite a large support crew on the lawn watching us. Every time a big tree came down, Isaac and Brandon had to come over to inspect everything and give their approval. DeeDee took a couple of videos from the safety of her 2nd story quilt room of me standing in the woods pulling on a rope to guide one of the cherries so it would not go into our yard. After David left, Jerry and I got really busy. Terry's burn pile was maxed out and since he will not be able to burn until the Fall when it is wet, we could not take any of these branches or leaves to the pile. Jerry said we could take any wood we were not going to save for firewood to Beaver Bark in Scappoose for free, as long as we stripped the leaves off the branches. So, we spent the rest of Wednesday, all Thursday and Friday cutting branches off trunks, cutting trunks into firewood for Terry, and stripping leaves off branches so Jerry could make about 10 runs to Beaver Bark in his pick up and trailer. I found out that both the cherry and especially the hawthorn had thorns. We ended up only having to make one pay-trip to Beaver Bark with the final two cubic yard load of leaves and little twigs ($12). Now we feel much safer in our house and also have a set-back from the rest of the trees in case of a fire in the woods.

Washington County (OR) Fair, 7/31/10

Amber invited us to go with her, Isaac, and Abigail to the Washington County Fair in Hillsboro. The best part aside from spending time with the family was that IT WAS FREE TO GET IN. The Fair is pretty big. We got there early to beat the crowds, drove right in and parked with no problem. We all had a great time. Both Isaac (as a cowboy) and Abigail (as a sheep) got to be in a production of a Western Show. Then they played on some rocking toys, went to a hands on exhibit - where they got to milk a pretend cow, pump water with old fashioned hand pumps, and just had fun being kids at the Fair. We left just around lunch time and were we ever so happy we went early, as by that time the line of cars to get in stretched for about a mile down the road from the entrance to the Fairgrounds. These kids sure know how to play to the camera.