- 11-22-09 Today, it's windy, gray overcast and chilly.
Almost feels like it wants to snow! I certainly hope not. I'm sure at this
time, everyone is getting ready for Thanksgiving. Sharon and I are doing the
same thing. This year, Sharon and I along with her father, will be joining
Sharon's cousins in Central Point, Oregon. Sharon's father hasn't had the
opportunity to get away and visit much in the last fifteen years so it's an
excellent time to go see relatives. He's excited about the visit and so are
we. I have been helping Sharon's dad with a few projects around the ranch.
Sharon's brother Dave, her dad and I finished the parking lot in front of
the shop. Looks pretty nice! Afterwards, we pushed into the shop a 71 Ford
F600 truck which had a bad differential. Sharon's dad found an older used
differential but appears is will work just fine. A few other minor repairs
and the truck will be ready to service again. On the home front, Sharon and
I have been visualizing a few changes we'd like to make to the mobile home.
We'd like to change the master bedroom by taking out a wall or two and
adding a shower. Using Google Sketchup, I've recreated the mobile home and
made a few conceptual changes to the bedroom and laundry nook. Here are some
photos of those concepts. If we keep the mobile we'll make some changes next
year. Also, I've wanted to add a spice rack to the panty door. It was only
natural after finishing the "neo pantry". I created a concept
spice rack in Google Sketchup and is shown in lower left corner of this composite
photo. I finished the spice rack this weekend. Wow! It
worked out fantastic! Sharon is tickled to get all the small bottles off the
shelfs and organized. (smile) The "neo pantry" project is finally
completed! (smile) Sharon and I wish you all a safe and wonderful
Thanksgiving!
- 9-23-09 Time seems to go by so fast when one is busy. This has certainly
been the case the last several weeks. Wheat harvest was completed Aug 18th
without major breakdown, injury or fires. There was a large gathering of
family and friends for Sharon's mother's funeral. After the service, many of the family gathered at the ranch for dinner. Sharon's brother,
Dave and his wife Renee served up an absolutely delicious meal of BBQ beef
tips, cold cuts and veggie plates. It was wonderful to meet many of Sharon's
family for the first time. I've returned to helping my friend finish his three car
garage project. Slowly it's coming along as we finished the roof , installed
windows and man doors along with half the siding. He decided to install a
rock facing to half the building which has delayed the remainder of siding.
Sharon and I attended Janice and Ed's 50th Wedding Anniversary Sept 5th in
Post Falls. It was to good to visit with family and to see all us Bergman
siblings all together again. Sharon got a chance to meet all my family
in one dose. I believe she will eventually survive the event. (chuckling).
At minimum, my brothers will survive meeting Sharon. (grin) Wendel & Bev
invited the immediate family to their home on the Pend Oreille River.
Wendel built a bonfire and we all sat around the fire next to the river
sharing the days gone by. It was quite a hoot! (smiling)
- 8-16-09 Life is back to normal... somewhat. Weather got
to us so harvest is still not completed. Rain last week prevented us from
getting back into the fields. Hopefully this Monday (8/17/09) we'll get
back to harvesting as we only have approximately a day and a half left at
most. Monday, Aug 10th, Sharon's mother passed away. This week the family
has been busy making arrangements and plans for services set for Aug 22nd
at 9am. Sharon requested that I scan photos of her mother and put together
a photo slide show on an LCD display for the family. I've been busy
scanning and digitizing 35mm slides along with many family photos. We
purchased a nice 20" LCD monitor that we will run on Sharon's laptop to
display the slideshow images.
- 7-22-09 Happy Birthday to ME!! (grinning) Yup... I
turned the big 60 today. Not sure why, but it
seems a relief to finally become one of the "old, old farts. The upside is,
I'm happy, in good health, and broke. Why am I happy that I'm broke? Those
greedy buggers in Banking, the Housing Market and Wall Street didn't get
into me. (smiling) Of course, my next older brother's buddy O'bama, is
working hard at eliminating anything us "Baby-Boomer" can look forward to
in the very near future. (shrug) Oh well, my predictions have been near
accurate since arguments in High School Government classes. The only place
to be in this American society is be either filthy ass rich... or dead dog
poor. Anything in between gets the shaft! The highlight of the day? A
BIG hug and kiss from my beautiful, loving wife!!! (smiling happily)
- 7-20-09 Harvest has begun!! Today we started the
ranch's 2009 wheat harvest. Last week, I helped Sharon's dad and brother
with the final servicing of the combines. Sharon's dad has a John Deere
9600 combine and her brother has a Gleaner R72. For this harvest, I got
promoted from a grain truck driver to a combine operator. (chuckling) I
wonder if this has anything to do with almost running over Sharon's other
brother in his car with my grain truck last May. (smiling) Her other
brother is an Oregon State Police officer. I took a few harvest photos while on the go with
the combine. The black and silver machine is the one I operate. The
location is over-looking Columbia River Valley near Wallula, WA looking
towards the Tri-Cities. I couldn't resist getting a photo of such an
interesting view. The wheat fields, windmills and combine in distance.
(sigh) Beautiful scenery to share while working. What an "office view"! The
lower-right image is our new desktop image. Cool photo! We got in a half
day cutting on the 20th and a full day the 21st. 12 cutting days left.
(smile)
- 7-8-09 Hope everyone had a great July 4th. Sharon and I
slipped away to the Oregon and Washington coast and did a bit of "car
camping". There were the usual millions of people gathered on the coast. We
drove over to Seaside, OR Friday afternoon, then drove up to Astoria, OR
and spent the night. The next morning, we headed across the big bridge over
the Columbia into Washington and up to Long Beach, WA and drove around on
the beach. What fun!! We stopped at the Norh Head Lighthouse and took a few photos. Gorgeous coastline. We
sit and watched the thousands of people driving up and down the beach while
waiting for the sunset. Unfortunately.. the low lying fog prevented getting
a good sunset photo. Prior to going to the coast... we helped Sharon's dad
celebrate his 84th birthday June 26. This week. I'm back to helping a
friend build his three car garage. We took a month break from building so
no progress was made in June. I keep a photo record of progress since the
first of March. I've created a photo
composite of progress so far. Weather is getting much hotter so we
start as early as possible. We're not looking forward to installing
composite shingles next week. Gonna be HOT!
- 6-25-09 "We" got married!! Sharon and I tied the knot.(smiling) We
got married at the Hitching Post in Coeur d Alene, ID. We stopped to visit
and have a toast with Ed & Janice.
- 6-15-09 It's been two months... my "kitchen project" is slowly
coming together. New stove and microwave/range hood installed,(Sharon
didn't care for my 30yr old oldfaithful stove) I finished my drawer and
door stripping, restaining, resealing phase yesterday. Last night I
reinstalled the doors on the sink cabinet. WOW! With new handles, they
turned out far better than I expected. They have an interesting "golden"
hue to them. Sharon is tickled with the way the cabinets turned out. I have
included a group of photos which
include a drawing of my objective for final kitchen arrangement. Next phase
is removing cabinets between kitchen and living room and building new
cabinets with angled sink and breakfest counter attached to wall next to
refer and new floor tile.
- 6-13-09 Sharon and I took a drive today to a piece of ranch
property that might be an ideal home just a short mile north of the main
ranch house. The property has a main
house, large barn, storage shed with garage and another outbuilding. This
trip was to view the large barn and seriously consider restoring it into a
home. Neither the main house or nor the barn have adaquate foundations
under them. The main house is much too close to the road and sits in a hole
where drainage from the surrounding fields ruined the lower structure of
the building. The large barn, although it doesn't appear so, was well built
and is in fair condition. The foundation has deteriorated, particularly on
the west side where snow slide-off and melt has sunk the foundation. The
lumber in structure is in reasonably good condition, however some boards
will require replacing as well as several lower timbers near foundation.
Will this come about? Who knows but it would surely be a fun project to do.
Imagine it...three 48'x50' levels with a drive-thru garage! (grinning) Not
sure we have that many good years left in us... to see a project like this
to completion.(smile),
- 6-09-09 Helped Sharon's dad spray roadside weeds this
morning. The outfit who will be providing concrete for the windtowers, came
today and poured the final sections of a 60'x17' "test pour" slab in front
of the shop, also a 3'x20' sidewalk. This "test pour" is a test to insure
proper computer mixing of concrete for tower bases after assembling their
concrete plant prior to windtower project near the ranch. Sharon's dad is
really tickled to finally have a nice concrete slab to work on in front of
the shop, and not mud and gravel as in the past.
- 6-06-09 Sharon's brother and I have been driving 18 wheel
grain trucks trying to get last years wheat grain into Pendleton Flour
Mill. Yesterday, I hauled in the last load of wheat grain into the mill one
hour before the mill shut us down completely. It was quite a struggle over
the last four weeks amid the break-downs and mill closures. Sharon and I
are hiding out this weekend!(smiling)
- 5-02-09 Created this new website "n7kmj.com" because my
orednet.org, oregonvos.net, dialoregon.net site will be closing June 30 due
to Oregon State budget cuts. I had that account for over 15 years. I'm now
playing "webpage creating" catchup after letting my college learned webpage
HTML editing knowledge laps for 10 years. Thank goodness there's a mountain
of "HTML how-to" books available. As time allows... I'm slowly catching
up.(smile)
