Labor Day---for real!

Labor Day is a holiday, right? Thankfully, by the time this water leak was discovered almost everyone was 'home' from their relaxing day and ready to get dirty! Steve had just gotten in from working on my car and a guy drove past and said, "Hey, do you know you have water bubbling up from under your fence?" (I always wonder WHY people ask questions like this. I mean, really!) At any rate, we called some people and after some frantic calls by them, they got to work trying to stop the new stream in town.

Rod and Dorothy came down for dinner--we didn't realise we were going to give them a yard show, too! Rod seemed to enjoy all the commotion and company. At one point there were at least 7 people who stopped by to visit at one time. We had visits from the city policeman, the guy from the gas company, city workers who were retired, and a lot of neighbors who wondered why the water was off or wondered what was going on.
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As you can see, when the hole was dug the pipe was eventually found and yup, a stream of water was shooting out of the pipe. They put what is called a band aid on it (metal clamp) and left it to dry out. The problem was believed to have been caused by a giant poplar tree. It's roots appeared to have broken new ground as well as pipes. When they 'found' the root, the workers were not sure if it was the pipe or a gas line. The man pictured was on his tummy in the muck with his arm buried in muddy water and he had grabbed something, another man went down and scratched the thing and discovered he had bark under his nails. Until then, work slowed and the watchers moved further across the street. Which, in retrospect, was sort of silly. If a gas line was struck, being 20 feet or more away was not going to help!

The creek moved rather fast and flowed from the top of the fence (by the barricades) to the end of the fence down the hill. (Jon took a video, I'll see if I can add it in later) There, it vanished into a run off drain. When they were done with the digging and the fix, they stuck barricades in the mud and called it good. The next day they checked it again..and discovered it was still seeping. It is a very old pipe as you can see....

Thankfully, we have a chicken wire fence in the corner of the yard (the people before us said they had kept chickens in that area--) and since we use it once in a while for the dog, it made a 'fence' for us when we took the wooden one down. The city finally filled in the hole on Thursday. The main water guy told me, as he moved dirt, that the leak appeared to be ok now (I had looked at it Thursday morning and the pipe was still wet under the clamp!!) and if it wasn't they'd be back. (!!!!!!!)

All in all, it was an interesting experience and I am just very thankful OUR water was never bothered by the line breakage. Even if it was in our yard!

Scout Camp-2

This is NOT fair--so much of our technology is backwards in time. I thought I had beat the system by posting the second half first, but alas....I had also started with the first one (makes sense, doesn't it???). Thus, starting with the first one, even if it was posted second still put it behind the rest of the story of camp. Does that confuse you? Well, it confuses me as well. We can all be confused together! Piffle.

To read the first part of camp, scroll down.....and then scroll back up for the conclusion. Thank you.

Jon would ask, "Mom, why did you choose these photos?" Well, there were so many to choose from, I just had to make a stab at it! This top picture was a poster on the swim bus (they took a bus to a lake for swimming and even for a hike).

One of the merit badges Jon did this year was climbing--the boy on the other end was a bit small and the video Jon has of his wall climb is pretty amusing.
I love it when people borrow Jon's camera-candids!

The camp, Camp Fife, has an lovely scenery. It is not the Oregon coast, but it is just as beautiful!
One of the Scouts found a baby chipmunk. (not of our unit, I don't believe) It was in the middle of the road and wouldn't stop running out into it. So, the boy decided to adopt it (he had adopted several critters before). I am sure this is what spurred Jonathan to acquire Archibald. (a vole he found while helping a friend do major yard work.)
A couple of nights were devoted to flag retirements. In this one they cut the flag into all its pieces and burned each one separately. Jon said it took a very long time!

Later, Jonathan took photos of glow sticks. Here the Scouts stuck all the sticks together and made a huge rope. Then, the boys twirled it and played with it. Jon has some super amazing photos of this.

All ready to go home! Jon enjoyed his last year of Scout camp, although he did say that being an SPL was a bit like being a parent!

Scout Camp--Part1

This is a very small bit of Jon's last Scout Camp as a Boy Scout. He may someday go again, but it will be as an adult leader. Jon made this sign for their Troop--it did crack, but it looks pretty nifty for spur of the moment!

Jon always takes car photos--I am pretty sure this is Mt. St. Helens (and how come it is a Mountain AND a Saint?).
The boys arrive at Camp Fife. They all packed in tents, so it was a lot of work to get organised to camp for the week. Jon took over 500 photos--and a metal works merit badge as well as a sailing one. He now wants to set up a forge and get a sailboat!

One of the things Scouts do at camp are cheers. This is a toss that was a part of the Troop's Spirit cheer. (Jon will correct me if I am wrong on that!) They won the Spirit award a couple of times.

The area had been logged and when you put lots of little log pieces together with boys (and I am sure girls), you most likely will end up with a pyramid! They posed on the structure for a photo before they took it back apart.

One of the more interesting things was snow. Yes, snow on the mountains. I was traveling with a friend to Portland and we noticed Hood had a lot, but this is just above the camp! No wonder the days were hot and the nights cool (50s)! The layout of the camp is beautiful.

Boys and leaders at Camp Fife July 2011.

Visit from the kids

Tony spent part of his visit playing cards with Grandpa. Here we have, in succession, the deal with the thrill of a good hand, and the drama of dropping the wrong card.

Oh, and Grandpa winning--again!

Kim's photographs of 'life in the country' include Jon showing off the torso of the deer he is making for Steve, Steve perusing a manual for Jon's Bronco, and the harvesting of the field next to Rod and Dorothy's.

Gotta love a Deere!
Then, we did a bit of a photo shoot.

Kim held Dorothy's hoe for her, while she photographed Grandma and Tony--I couldn't resist taking Kim's photo. It reminded me a bit of Green Acres (although, I am positive Kim would be more resourceful than Eva!)

It started to rain saber tooth tigers and giant wolves, so we retired inside (for the most part!). Tony and Grandpa played a game Rod learned at the care center with dice. I think his score interpretation was sometimes, well, a bit dicey!

Jon borrowed my camera (his was in the Bronco and it was raining pretty hard!) for a while. I loved his raindrops and the English Walnut leaf (I took the pinks picture!).

4th of July Weekend--2011

Happy Birthday, Tony!!! We went out to a sub shop for his birthday and Jon just had to take a photo of 'The Destroyer'. It was VERY large!

We also had a huge tree limb that was working on falling off one of our locust trees. (it finally fell on its own, but it was sort of scary!) We had it tied to the two locust trees to keep it where we wanted to~

For Tony's birthday, Jon finished my Mother's Day present! A loverly metal dragonfly. I am so proud of Jon and I just love Scooter!

We had been asked to visit with the kids on the coast for Tony's birthday, but we were super busy this weekend. One of the things we did was celebrate the Fourth of July at Pioneer Park in Walla Walla. Jon, as a part of the band, needed to be there on Sunday to practice. http://www.youtube.com/user/WWValleyBands#p/c/476E369E17C5CFD3

I think you can click this site and listen to them for yourself! The last concert online is the Jazz one from March. If you get a chance, you really need to listen to the one from Halloween called Trick or Treat.

The birds in the park are as amazing as always! I love the aviary and I am glad it is still there.

4th of July we started the day hearing a short concert by Chris August. He did sing Starry Night and 70 times 7, so that was very exciting!
Then the Walla Walla Valley Band played. What an amazing group of performers they have! All ages and all talents make up one of the best bands I have ever heard. This band has 3 people from our town in it. Jon is a part of an awesome bass section. He has learned a lot from these people.
After the shows, we visited around the area and this blacksmith was very captivating. We saw all kinds of stuff and I learned that those bricks of curly fries are VERY greasy. Steve and Jon thought they were just yummy. (I only shared part of a brick.)
We closed our Monday evening at the Theatre's in College Place-It was a spectacular show! This year, however, we did manage to get ash on us from the explosions. (the guys also took part of the afternoon to watch the latest Transformers movie and I read a 'new' to me Brian Jacques book.)