We kept hearing mysterious popping sounds all through the day and night this week and finally found out that apparently the grapes are ripe around Dayton and they are using small 'canons' to deterr the birds that are trying to eat them!

First thing we did this week was setting up an appointment to get the truck repaired! We couldn’t take much more of this ding-dong-ing!

The truck shop close by in Amity can’t help us en sents us to Portland. I follow James in a car we borrow from Doug in which I, thank heavens, cannot hear the alarm and we drop it off to be worked on.

The good news turns out to be that the alarm is just a sensor gone wild and they show us how to turn the thing off (hallelujah!) but the bad news is that they find a leaking water pump which needs to be replaced. In addition to a tune up, oil change and new oil filter that sets us back, gulp…, $1500!

To make matters worse James computer crashes again (every year around Thanksgiving, what’s up with that?) Ca-ching! New hard drive please! There goes another $300!

It never rains but it pours they say and this sure is a soaker!

I decided to cheer myself up a bit and go to the pumpkin patch and farmers market next to the campground.

Looking at the riot of colors and wonderful fresh products sure brighten things up a little don’t you think? I would have taken a hay ride too but there was a whole grade school taking turns so I passed. Darn, I never have been on one!

Back at the ranch we decided to wash the RV (again) since the weather is beautiful these days and than proceeded to, finally, treat it with the sealer we pick up from Doug’s where UPS had delivered it by mistake 3 weeks ago.

While we were at it we polished the aluminum stairs on the back and attached the new storage skirt we got at Camping world to the front.

James started his work in Doug’s backyard this week. He layed out the new ‘plan’ with boards and started digging trenches for drainage pipes. Its hard work since the soil is very wet and basically heavy clay.

He started working on the new shed and the small greenhouse on the side of the house and made a lot of Home Depot, lumberyard and rock-yard runs.

I made a start at being trained by Doug’s office manager Katie to fill in for her when she goes on maternity leave somewhere around the 13^th of December.

Since I only work in the mornings and we just sold our 2^nd car (not so smart!), Doug is letting me borrow one of his cars, that’s up for sale anyways, to commute to work.

Something funny happened (yeh, they do too sometimes). Two spaces away from us a Dutch guy and his Mam pulled in with a 5^th wheel. It turns out we lived about 30 miles away from each other in Holland! Small world huh!

He’s a dairy farmer and is trying to come to America and set up a farm. He’s looking at several properties around here and hopes to be able to buy one after getting his green card.