Shooters (or while we were in Portland)

When you leave the kids with their pistol packin' Grandma, you never know what they might pick up! In this case, it was a couple of pistols and some target practice.

As a member of the Sheriff's Posse, Nonnie is an experienced pistol markswoman. Here she is giving Nathan instructions on safe gun handling.


Nonnie leans in to see Nathan's shot.



Nonnie gives aiming instructions to Roberta.




Don't mess with my daughter....

She's packing....................... she's trigger happy




................ and she's lethal!


Note that bull's eye in the last frame above!


Load...........................aim...........................



fire..............................recoil.

Portland Jaunt

Julie and I had to take a little side trip to Portland for business, but we managed to have a little fun as well. On the way we went visited with Kelly, Mike and Megan in Dayton, Oregon. We got to Dayton by way of the Wheatland Ferry on the Willamette River.


We had a gourmet meal cooked by Kelly and Mike and then Breakfast the next morning at Wildewood in McMinnville ( www.el.com/to/mcminnville/ ) and while there was much that was picturesque in these experiences sadly we neglected to document it with photographs.

Once in Portland we found a delightful Peruvian restaurant for our dinner called Andina's. We hit it at "happy hour" and made a meal of the tapas (small plates) our drinks (Piso Sour and Sangeria) and desserts (yum... gotta get the chocolate tort!). Pictured are the empanadas, partially devoured before we thought to take a picture.


Downtown Portland is nicely street-scaped with wide side walks, often with trees lining the streets, and a pedestrian friendly intermixing of green spaces.



We made it to the famous Portland Saturday Market before leaving town and enjoyed the arts and crafts booths. We found some delicious food in the various international food booths (Himalayan and Turkish were our choices, but so many others looked good it was hard to pick!).



A couple of the booths...

Fernwood Scenes

From the back of the property, looking across the neighbor's field and barn to the ridge beyond...



Evening sky at Fernwood...

Back to Oregon!

A little over a year later we have the opportunity to return to Oregon. We will spend most of our time at Fernwood in Sweet Home, but also some time in Portland and Dayton.

We arrived in Sweet Home on Friday, June 25 after our flight from Atlanta to Portland and driving to Sweet Home. So what have we done for the last three days? Enjoy beautiful Oregon blue skies, helped bring in hay, walked about, rode the horse, played tennis, and go to an classic car show (among other things).

Julie - Last Hurrah

Our last non-travel day on vacation was spent in Dayton celebrating the engagement of Chris and Lisa. Chris is my nephew (Kelly's son). Chris and Lisa met at Oregon Institutue of Techonology where Chris will complete his degree one year from now. Lisa has completed a graduate degree in accounting and is working in Klamath Falls while Chris finishes up.

The day was filled with good food and catching up and with meeting new people. This was the first time that we have met Lisa. We are delighted she is becoming part of the family -- hoping she feels the same after seeing us all together!


As you can see, George and Nathan had some bonding time and, yes, the three women in the picture below are related -- that's Nancy, Kelly, and me.

Below is the entire Hotchkiss, Haverkate, and Lantis clan (minus Daniel who had not yet arrived from work).

Julie - Arrival of Lantis Family to Fernwood

My sister, Nancy, and her family arrived at Fernwood on Thursday. Fun was had by all hanging out, riding horses, etc. We haven't seen George since he was immobile; having fun keeping up with him.

Nancy has a new website; very exciting to see all that she's been up to:
http://www.nancylantis.com/

Roberta got to ride on Red bareback -- said her legs are very sore!

Bob and Roberta left us today to do campus visits of Willamette University in Salem (my alma mater) and Reed College in Portland. I am breathlessly awaiting her blog posting describing the visits.

We will be seeing them again Saturday at Chris and Lisa's wedding shower in Dayton.

Julie - It's all about wood

Much of the Oregon economy revolves around wood products. In 2008, employment in wood products manufacturing made up 14% of all manufacturing employment in Oregon. In the U.S., the wood products industry employs only 3.4% of all manufacturing workers.

Wood is apparently also an important part of the maintanance of the Fernwood household. On Wednesday we made a small contribution to earning our keep by helping to haul and burn slash that collects in the forested areas on the property.


Nathan later helped to split some of the larger logs that were gathered. This machine evaporated any hope that Nathan will be building up his upper-body strength while here in Oregon.