THREE CHEERS FOR AUGUST 8/1-31/2013

August everywhere is a busy month!  But on the Southern Oregon Coast with Wayne and Ann it was busy AND exciting AND interesting AND warmer than we are accustomed to here where the weather is usually wet, mild and windy.  We have no air conditioning here, most people don't.  If it gets too warm, just open the windows and let the air crush through.  Bobby, our dog, likes the front door opened so he can lay in front of his gate and watch the deer, skunks and neighbors stroll by, so...... we have other visitors come in the house occasionally, uninvited.  One such visitor was a little hummingbird that needed to be caught and freed.  It was interesting watching Wayne on a ladder chasing it.

We spent Wayne's birthday just relaxing and exploring the beaches and forests between Gold Beach and Brookings, having lunch and dinner where and when we wanted and then catching a movie in Brookings.  It was a fun way for Wayne to turn 61. Quietly and just us two.

On August 9 we went out to dinner at the Black Forest Dinner House in Ophir, Oregon.  This is a fun place in the Honey Bear Campground that serves very good German food family style with a German floor show.

We were accompanied by our good friends, the Kieffers.  They are currently serving a full time mission here in our area.  We have grown fond of them and enjoy being able to spend time with them when they can work us in to their busy schedule.

  The food was delicious!

 The entertainment was much less than we expected.  But we still had fun!

We picked lots of blackberries and froze them for later jam making and then Wayne fulfilled an assignment to add to the podium and sacrament table in our church.  There was a great cabinet builder and his family that was living for the summer in our area that Wayne worked with to add sides to our podium, changing it from this........

 .....to this.  We were quite pleased with Marshall's talent!

 Our Sacrament table was just that....a table!  So Marshall added a front and side to it that matched the podium.  It turned out beautiful, but Wayne did not take a picture of it.  You can see the sode pieces in the background.

 We learned that our renters in our home in Medford were breaking their lease and were moving out half way through August.  We went over to deal with that and found the house had been left in less than good condition.  The flooring in the dining room and bedrooms required replacement due to animal urine smell.  While we were at it we replaced the kitchen floor too.  The lawns were all brown and overgrown and the house was filthy.  We spent over a week over there dealing with all the issues.  Here is the end result of the kitchen, dining room and laundry room.

 The living room hard wood floors were very dirty and in need of refinishing.  It was not in the budget to refinish them, so cleaning was all that was done.

 Here's just the dining room floor.

 Here is the carpet we put down in one bedroom and.....

 ...master bedroom.

 Across the dining room into the kitchen.

 The sprinkler system had been used correctly and as I said, the lawns were all brown.  We got the system up and running again and after tons of water and a great thunderstorm, they began to green up.

 While we were in Medford, we were lucky enough to be able to stay at Wayne's brother and his wife's house.  We share August as our wedding anniversary, one day apart, so we spent our anniversaries together and went out to dinner at the beautiful Bell Di's on the Rogue River in Shady Cove.
We always have fun spending time with Cliff and Linda and the food wasn't too bad either!

Then after working in Medford on the house, we went back to Gold Beach and began processing some fruit.  We bought a 40 lb. box of pears earlier in the month and by now they were ready to process. 
We also went out to a friend's house and picked plums, pears and apples off her tree, which we processed too!   Plus we harvested Asian Pears and apples off our own trees.

 All this we dried, canned, juiced and made sauces and jams so our larder would be well fruited for the winter.  It was a lot of work for a couple weeks, but the end result was well worth it!

 We used the heck out of our long neglected dehydrator....

...processing a dozen or so batches of dried fruit.

 This dried fruit, after it cooled.....

  ...was vacuumed sealed and then frozen for snacks while we watch TV this winter

Our kitchen turned into a fruit canning factory during this time.  Seemed like the canner was running full steam for a couple weeks!

 Apple sauce, pear sauce, apple butter, pear butter, plum butter and jam also were made.

 Then we learned that a fishing boat was docked in port here in Gold Beach that was selling its catch of albacore tuna.  We and our neighbor, Alan, went down to the boat basin and each bought three fish.  Ann and I were able to glean 31 pounds of tuna steaks, which we vacuum sealed and froze for the winter.  While we were down at the basin a local fisherman came in with his two very beautiful salmon he had just caught in the Rogue River.  He filleted them and as he was about to throw away the head and bones, Wayne asked him if he could have them.  We took them home and made 1 1/2 gallons of salmon chowder which we ate, froze for winter and gave away some.

And the month of repairs and harvest ended!  A good month it was!