A Memorial Day Project

I keep telling myself that if I had a comfortable chair, I would spend more time outside reading a good book, then inside watching summer reruns on TV.  For a while, I have been wanting to get an Adirondack chair for our front porch.  We don't have many options in our town for shopping for one of these.  I found this one online at Cost Plus World Market:

I think it's what I want, but not seeing it in person makes me a little hesitant.  The nearest Cost Plus is three hours away, which means that if I wanted it anytime soon, I would have to order it online, pay extra for shipping, and cross my fingers that it's perfect.   The chair itself is $99.00, not including shipping.

On Saturday of the three-day Memorial weekend, I made it a mission to find this chair.  I went to the local Fred Meyer, but they were $149.00, and still not exactly what I wanted.

My next stop was Home Depot.  Jackpot!  They had exactly what I was looking for!  But…and you knew this was coming… it was a "Do It Yourself" project.  So excited about the find, I didn't care.  Plus, I thought it would make a great weekend project.  So I picked up a few things to complete the project.

Then I recruited my husband to help out.  Notice the instructions he threw off to the side immediately upon opening the box.

He laid out all the parts, then looked at me like I knew what to do with them.

I knew exactly what to do.  I picked up the instructions, laid out all of the nuts and bolts, and started giving directions.

This was a pretty easy put together project, but even Mack wasn't sure about getting too close.

While sitting out in the yard, we were reminded of how lucky we are to enjoy the freedom and the peace of living in this country.  

It's pretty amazing to look up and see the jets fly over.  Something that we will never get used to.

When I looked back down, I was surprised to see that Scott had the chair almost put together.

The came the discussion of what I bought to paint the chair with.  The lady at Home Depot not only talked me into spray paint, but she assured me that one can would do.  My husband assured me that one can would not be enough, and then asked where the cans of primer were.  Primer, what's that?  Insert second trip to Home Depot here.  Primer and more spray paint later we were back.

Ahhh another step in the project to add start with primer, but I still had full faith that this project would be completed by the end of the day.

Daisy and I patiently waited for the primer to set.  It's true what they say, watching paint dry can be very boring.

First coat of Colonial Red.  Yes, I said first coat.  It would end up taking four coats by the time we were done.  Insert third trip to Home Depot here.  

Four coats of paint, and three days later, the project was finally done and I had my Adirondack chair!

Best part, for the same price as one of the Cost Plus chairs, we were able to do two chairs!!!

Plus, we can take pride in knowing we put them together and finished them ourselves.  That's what I kept telling myself after every coat of paint.

Enjoying Local History

I think it's interesting how we don't take advantage of the beauty and history that is so close to our home, yet we are willing to travel 4,000 miles to find it.

We decided to spend our Memorial Day weekend staying close to home and taking advantage of that history.  Being the first official weekend of summer, the outlying museums in the county finally opened after a long winter.  Not only did they open, they hosted a "living history" weekend.

We started by driving up to Rocky Point to have a wonderful breakfast, enjoying a breathtaking view.

While eating our breakfast we saw canoes, kayaks, row boats, paddle boats, and families out fishing.  I could see this becoming a regular breakfast spot.

We then drove up the road toward Fort Klamath.  Most of us know Fort Klamath as a pit-stop on the way to Crater Lake National Park.  But this is no longer the case, since the only place to stop, the Fort Klamath Grocery Store, has closed it's doors. The area around Fort Klamath has always been one of my favorites in this county.  You can almost see the way it would have looked 150+ years ago when the settlers came here.  Farming and ranching is still dominant in this area.

It's pretty common to see a cowboy rounding up cattle, with his trusty side-kick.

I knew the that local Civil War Society was participating in the "living history" at the Fort Klamath museum, but I debated about telling Scott about it.  This is the kind of thing that he loves.  I knew that once he knew, there would be no going back.  In the end, I broke down and told him before we left home. 

In all the times that we have driven past here, we have never stopped.  It's a single building, on the side of the highway.  But the history here is overwhelming, and thanks to the Civil War re-enactors, we were able to learn even more.

These "soldiers" demonstrated how this canon was loaded and fired.

This kid knew what was coming.

I'm not sure this old guy could even hear what was coming.  (He was quite cute!)

Inside the museum is a small display of artifacts and history. 

The original building here caught fire in 2001 and most of the artifacts were destroyed.  The buildings here aren't original, but have been made to look like they are.

Fort Klamath is most historic for the four Modoc Indian Chiefs who were brought here at the end of the Modoc war.  These chiefs, including Captain Jack, were tried and hanged here.  Their graves are the only original markings left on-site.

Speaking of graves, Scott and I are suckers for an old graveyard.  After leaving the Fort Klamath Museum, we drove a few hundred yards down the road the Fort Klamath Historic Cemetery.

Many of the people buried in this cemetery are people that came here as pioneers.  They crossed the Oregon Trail in wagons, most of them walking the entire 2,000+ miles.  Nobody famous is buried here, but these people are the ancestors to many of the families that still farm this land.

The Internet is an amazing tool.  I googled this guy:

I discovered that, not only did he come across on the Oregon Trail, he first fought for the Union Army in the Civil War!  Now, 150 years later, he quietly resides in Fort Klamath.  I wonder how many people who walk past his grave know this about him?  Someone did, since they placed the flag her in honor of Memorial Day.

I think after our little adventure, we will start making more day trips around this area.  There is so much more to discover here than I can even imagine.

Why Run?

Yesterday Tonja, Scott and I participated in the 2nd Annual Shawn and Tom Firefighter Memorial Run.

This run raises money for the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.  It brings together people from all different realms of firefighting to honor the memory of two of their own, Engine Captain Shawn Price who died of cancer and Apprentice Tom Marovich who died during a repelling accident.

There were two options this year.  Tonja and I chose the easy route.

While Scott went the distance.

It was a beautiful morning at the Lava Beds.  So quiet as we made our way around the course.  But the thing we looked forward to seeing the most…...

The finish line!

Catching Our Breath

The weather around here is finally starting to warm up.  That's given us some time to stop and smell the flowers.

It's also given us some time to plant the newest addition to our yard…raspberry plants.

But the days and nights are about to get CRAZY.  The calendar is filling up fast.  I can't even believe that it's the middle of May!  What happened to the first four months of 2012?

This blog is being cut short due to some technical difficulties (on my part).  Yesterday I came home to a surprise…..

This is a huge learning curve.  I'm not complaining; I am really excited about this.  But, the MacBook for Dummies book can't get here fast enough.

 

Oh I Wish I Were……

The other day we pulled up to the grocery store and there was a large section of the parking lot marked off with caution tape.  Being the frugal consumers that we are, we shop at one of the less expensive grocery stores, which also happens to be in a shady part of town.  Seeing a little bit of caution tape in the parking lot really didn’t make us think twice.

But then……

The music started and the smiles came out!

The Wienermobile was making a stop at our little town grocery store!!!  Did you know:

After standing line line to get a better view, we got our stickers from the Wienermobile driver,

And our picture taken with the guest of honor.

The Wienermobile driver, also known as a “hotdogger” told us that they get to spend one year traveling all over making appearances.  How fun would that be!!!!  Bringing smiles to people all over the country just by driving a vehicle that is a gigantic wiener.  Everyone smiling and waving when you drive by.  Singing a song about wishing you could be a wiener. 

Maybe by the time we retiree, there will be a program for old people to drive the wienermobile around.  I think I could talk Scott into it.

With a New Title Comes New Responsibilities

Not many of us go into our profession having a game plan of how our career will play out.  Most of the time, it’s a matter of chance that we end up where we are.

When I first met my husband, he was a proud firefighter.  About a year after we met, he had the opportunity to test to promote to Captain.  This had always been a goal of his.  He worked really hard and was promoted in 2003.

It took a while, working out of one of the busiest stations, training countless newly hired firefighters, before he ended up with a crew that he really enjoyed.  They trained every day.  They supported each other with personal goals.  They became a second family.

Recently, the opportunity came to test for the next level, a promotion to Battalion Chief.  The last time a Battalion Chief test was held was over a dozen years ago.  This opportunity may come literally once in your career.  After a lot of soul-searching, and countless conversations, Scott had the backing of both his family at home and his family at the Fire District.  He threw himself into studying for the test.  For a full month, he was consumed with studying.  If he was going to test, he was going to give it his all.

Four men went into the first day of testing, a one-hundred question written test.  Three would come out still standing.  The next full day of testing would consist of an oral interview, writing an essay, and running various scenarios.  It would take almost two days to get the final results.

All of the hard work paid off and Scott placed #1 on the promotion list.  It only took about a day for the excitement to wear off and the nervousness to take over.  Instead of being in charge of a crew of five, Scott will now be in charge of a shift of 17.  He also leaves the Union that he has belonged to for 23 years.  He becomes part of the management team, which brings more meetings and paperwork, and a lot less time playing in his turnouts.  And, if the promotion isn’t a big enough change, he is required to change shifts so that he is not supervising the people he has been working with for the last nine years.

To show their support, all of B-Shift came together to send Scott off to the wolves (otherwise known as A-Shift)

I think Scott was surprised that his crew was planning a little sneakiness behind his back.

For one last time, his red Captain’s passport would hang on the passenger door of 3111.  With the promotion, comes the switch to driving the Battalion Chief’s vehicle instead of riding shotgun in a fire engine.

Scott’s official promotion date was Sunday, April 15th, but because of the change in shifts, he actually reported for duty on Monday, April 16th.  There is always a small promotional ceremony the first morning. 

First up is being sworn-in by the Fire Chief.

Then Scott’s previous Battalion Chief pins his new gold badge on him.

As Scott’s “member of the family” in attendance, I had the honor of pinning on his new nametag.

The number of bugles shown on your collar is an easy was to signify what rank you are.  Here, the Operations Chief pins Scott’s new color brass on.

The last step of the ceremony is receiving your new white helmet from the Training Chief.

I think that just about makes it final. 

Oh wait, for the guy who takes everyone else’s picture on their first day, it was time to take his first day picture.

After a few shots, he loosened up and started having some fun.

I am really proud of Scott and how hard he worked for this.  He deserves it, and I am not just saying that because I am his wife. 

I say it because I know how much he loves this job and how much he believes in what he is doing.