An accounting of some ventures in the life of grandma and grandpa for the kids, grandkids, friends and those who drop by for a visit.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Bazaar in the Barnyard, Really

The above picture shows the highway side of the "midway" of the Bazaar in the Barnyard. The fall bazaar was dreamed up by my wife and our friend Jerri another retired school teacher. They approached the two men who own the Second Chance store on the corner of our lane and the highway. They thought it was a good idea and put in a quarter acre of grass for the occaision.
The above picture looks down the left side of the "midway" and you can see the red "barn" in the background. That houses the Second Chance store which has been opened a little over a year. The business has flourished and J has contributed many household items for consignment. She says she has made pretty good money. She also buys items from the store. I like the guys who run the store because we had an old sofa/bed that was just really heavy. J decided to try to sell it at Second Chance and I am thinking, "how are we ever going to get that thing out of the house and in the pickup?" Whoa, what's that you said? Oh, yeah. Todd and Darren came to the house with a horse trailer and loaded all of the stuff J wanted sold on consignment. How sweet is that? Another night after closing the store they dropped by the house (we live on the same lane as the store) and delivered this old, old paint chipped interior door. It is a five-paneled door and J has a thing about five-paneled doors. They take it out of their pickup and are walking up the stairs of our front deck when I meet them at the door with, "Who has authorized the delivery of that piece of junk?" That stops them cold for about two seconds, but these guys are very nimble of mind. Darren answers, "The Boss!" Young, smart alecky whipper snappers!


Now this is a seriously good bazaar. Perry Kelley, one of the founding members of the local fly fishing club (Indianhead Fly Fishers Club), manned a booth and tied flies during the day and sold beautifully made flies (he is a true artisan of the craft) for five dollarsf or four flies. The proceeds from the sale of the flies is going toward a kids' fishing pond that the fly club is sponsoring to be dug in the town of Weiser.



The above two pictures are of J's booth. J and Jerri collected $25 from each participant and gave the proceeds to the local Rose Advocates chapter. Rose Advocates helps battered spouses and their children. Unfortunately, there is a need for such a charity in our area. J did not have a real good day of sales, but not bad. Many people did take her card so she may have some custom orders down the line.
The owners of the Second Chance store did not charge anything for the use of their property and coordinated an open house with the bazaar. They had hot coffee, chocolate and several types of cookies for visitors to the store. J reports that Darren and Todd were ecstatic about their sales for the day (Friday). They had a really big day. The bazaar is suppose to continue tomorrow--Saturday, but the forecast is for some really serious storms, rain, and high temperature of 60 degrees with wind. So, the fact is that the bazaar may be rained out. That is too bad, but the first annual bazaar was such a success that it is certainly going to get a rerun next year.
Does spelling really matter? J thinks so. In the first posting of this report I spelled bazaar "bizarre." J thought I should reconsider my usage of bizarre to describe their bazaar. Hey, kind of sounds the same, but I really did not see anything very bizarre today unless I were to count the time I got onto my hands and knees to help Perry set up his canopy and found that under the new grass was a bumper crop of goat's heads. That is a particularly loathesome noxious weed that grows in Southern Idaho. It is also known as puncture vine and the seeds really can puncture about anything. It is death on bicycle tires.
Here is barking in the bazaar to you,
Papa Coyote




Thursday, October 2, 2008

On the Pacific Coast with Grandchildren

The two large light colored buildings at the center of the picture constitute the Rockaway Beach
Resort. We have owned three weeks of time share here since 1983. We have been vacationing there every year or have traded weeks to visit other parts of the U.S. and Canada. We feel that we really have received value for the money we spent on these. The resort is exceptionally well administered by the board of directors and managed by some very dedicated and friendly people. We could not be happier with this resort experence. The pictures show how wide and expansive the beach is. Most of Oregon beaches are very rocky and picturesque, but this is the only beach where one can walk for more than six miles with no obstructions.
This pictures the little village of Rockaway, Oregon.

The ever-present denizens of the beach out catching a late-in-the-day snack.

Picture of Manzanita and Rockaway Beaches taken from Oswald West Park. This is a great vantage point for watching whales swim by in the spring.

The Twin Rocks off the coast of Rockaway.

Looking north on the beach toward Oswald West Park.

M dressed for crabbing at Brighton Marina. Unfortunately, we were unable to catch any legal size crabs. Two years ago at the same time of the year and at the same place, we had great success and fun.

Brighton Marina looking into the Nehalem Bay. Even the salmon fishing was slow that week.

G dressed for crabbing. Children under 12 must wear PFD which the owners of the marina provide free. E is strapped to his mother's back and he really likes life from that position. We had a wet walk on the beach Thursday afternoon and that is the manner in which he walked the beach.

J and I had beautiful weather from the day we arrived (Friday) through Tuesday when S and the grandboys arrived. That Wednesday it rained and we went crabbing. Thursday it rained even harder, then the day we left (Friday) the weather turned beautiful with temperatures even hitting the low 80's Sunday. Wouldn't you know it!! The grandboys had fun each day in the indoors swimming pool at the resort. Oh, yeah, they liked the visit to the Tillamook Cheese factory. Pictures of that visit to follow soon. My daughter and I took off Thursday morning for a breakfast at Nehalem while J and the boys entertained each other. We had fun. Oh, S had just found out that she is pregnant and will have her second natural child making four children in the family. She has two adopted boys.
J and I spent the weekend in Newberg visiting with S, R, the boys and S's in-laws and daughter. The in-laws just returned for a month in Scotland visiting their granddaughter and grandson. More on that visit in the next blog.
Until later,
Papa Coyote