It's the last day of August and nature, as well as myself, seems to be gearing up for Fall!
Temperatures, especially in the mornings, have come down considerably over the last week. On my walks I've noticed a faint crispness in the air, the soil is starting to give off that 'earthy' smell and some of the trees are beginning to show their golden fall-colors.

(They've started to turn for a few weeks already but most of that had to do with the drought we were experiencing, like the ashes in the picture above)

A couple of days ago we woke up to fog and a slight drizzle and today, believe it or not, after a lull of 2.5 months (!), it is actually raining!

The first wild berries are appearing alongside the roads .. I think these are Choke-cherries. They're very bitter but 'edible' (as in non-toxic):

In the orchard more apples, besides the earlier Gravensteins, are ripening and one of the pear trees is ready to be harvested as well ..

                                                                         

The grapes I worked so hard at to untangle and string up this Spring are pretty much ready. They're small and there aren't that many of them but they taste great!

The Red Clover in the field behind us has been harvested. It was a very dusty affair again!
I'm not sure what they do with that .. animal feed?

 

 

                                                       

We're a little bit in a lull considering the work that needs to be done for our rent/barter. The busy summer chores of mowing, weeding and vegetable harvesting are coming to an end and the fall/winter cleaning up has not yet begun.

Which gave us time to work a little more on settling down in our new spot, tidying up around the RV and putting things away ..
We put up our 'skirt' in the front once again which acts as a little shed/storage and pantry-area for miscellaneous tubs and boxes and our small chest freezer.
James also rebuild our front porch:

Since we now have two sitting areas, one being our happy-hour place in the lawn behind the RV and one at said front-porch, we needed another set of chairs.
We found two cheap Adirondack-chairs at Bi-mart during their end-of-the-season-sale. Perfect!

And although the mornings have been a lot cooler, the evenings are still warm enough to have dinner outside ...

               

                                                          

                                         Yup! Life could be worse!

Well, there we are! Finally in our beautiful 'permanent' spot!
For now, I'll say, cause you never know with us, we'll move whenever the fancy strikes us ..

We got approved on Monday morning and moved that same afternoon. No reason to wait any longer. Like I said, 3 months 'in limbo' is a loooong time waiting.

Our happy hour spot there in the pic above is now a lot closer and we placed a picnic table next to the RV on that side as well. It's a lovely shady spot for bot lunch and dinner.
The site came with an older wooden picnic table that we have moved to the other site and towards the back where it will catch either sun or shade depending on the time of the day.
It might move around a little when we find out when we'll use it most:

                         

Look at all those trees! Most of them are maples but there's also a (weeping) birch, an Oregon ash and a mountain ash, some wild cherry trees and a red Prunus/Plum.
All that wonderful shade, I love it!

I've laid our mat under the awning in front of the door.
Soon, we'll re-build the little porch-floor like we had at our previous place in Newberg from which we brought the pallets with us.
But before we do that we want to spread a layer of wood-chips under and around the RV which hopefully will even out some of the bumps and holes, cover the concrete slabs, discourage weeds from growing and make everything look a little prettier as well.
We've given our phone number to some tree-removing guys that are cutting and shredding trees around town and hopefully they'll bring us a truck or two in the near future.

This is the view from my desk out of the side-window, and the one below is from the back-window.
Could be worse ...

So .. that was our big event this week.
And there even was a second one ... our 23d wedding-anniversary on Saturday!

We didn't 'do' anything special this year, we decided our time was better spent preparing for the upcoming move, but we did go for dinner to Earth & Sea in Carlton, a tiny town about 15 minutes from us:

     

The restaurant is housed in an old fire-station, which is probably the reason the ambiance could be a little warmer as there’s lots of hard surfaces that sound enjoys bouncing off.
The service was great though and the food (besides the under-cooked Brussels sprouts) very good and we enjoyed our special meal celebrating another year together.

And that's about it for this week I think.
I only managed to go for 2 walks and only shot some pics of our local swallow and pigeon population ..

       

Who don't let me come too close before they all take off in a flurry of wings ..

                                                         

These little brown birds on a wire (house-finches?) let me come closer.
I guess they trust me not be able to climb in a telephone pole. Which would be true ..

       

There you go .. 'that's all folks'!

(I had to look that up, not having grown up with this saying but having heard about it, and it turns out that
.. at the ending of many Looney Tunes cartoons, Porky Pig bursts through a bass drum head, and his attempt to close the show with "The End" becomes "Th-Th-The, Th-Th-The, Th-Th... That's all, folks!")

It's been another busy week at casa Hess. I've barely any time to go for walks these days and it has actually been way too warm to do much walking to begin with (103-105F!!), but I managed to pay the cemetery down the road another visit.
It's just such a pretty, and very peaceful (ha), place to be and nice and shady as well. Just look at that gorgeous and enormous tree up above.
That's Oregon for you, trees, trees and more trees!

                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                     
I spotted this (male) quail in one of them, this is most likely the look-out scout, but I couldn't find the rest of them ...

Like I said, we've been very busy this week. Still getting ready for 'the move' ..
James has been working on getting the electric ready:

                                                 

Since the  initial work has been inspected and approved, the trenches could, partially, be filled in again:

           

Pipes have also been laid for electric, water, internet, cable and sewer ..

  

A utility station has been set up and anchored in concrete:

             


                                         

                    

A separate meter has been installed in the barn:

           

We're now ready for the final inspection, after which we can connect everything and cover all trenches. After that ... we can finally move!
We're hoping for an inspection on Monday and if everything goes well, we'll probably move that afternoon. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Dan, our landlord, keeps us flush with all kinds of produce, especially zucchini, tomatoes  and cucumbers.

             

Perfect for some Gazpacho, especially with this hot weather we're having!!

                                   

It's so scorching hot at the moment that the blackberries are starting to burn.
They're shriveling up before they get a chance to ripen so we're picking any that look even remotely ready ..

Together with some of the fallen apples (Gravensteins) in the orchard which I'm free to pick up and use as I please, I made this delicious apple-blackberry pie:

                                                            

I pre-baked the crust this time, which made for a better bottom-crust, not as soggy as it often comes out when you use soft/wet fruit. Success!

So, hopefully next blog will come to you from our 'new' location. After a 3 month wait I'd say it's about time!

Hybrid Tea rose "Double Delight"

While reading other blogs I've noticed this is an exceptional good year for roses everywhere, everybody talks about amazing growth and profuse flowering!
I'm taking care of the roses on the property here and I'm very happy with how they look as well!

These three are in 'our' section and I tried to find their names but could only identify the Double Delight for sure. It's unique colors make it quite a stunner!

After a hiatus of 2 months the Gallery Theater in Mcminnville started it's 2023/24 season with a performance of Pride and Prejudice.
We'd already secured our tickets earlier in the year and so we set off for our usual choice of a Sunday matinee this week.

As it said on the theaters website 'This isn’t your grandmother’s Austen!' and it sure enough wasn't! 
Kate Hamill’s version of this classic 19th century story centers of course on the underprivileged Bennet family, whose four daughters are in desperate need of an advantageous marriage, while their militant mother is scaring off every notable suitor.



But the script is unique in the comedic way in which it’s written, the rules of manners were pushed nearly over the edge throughout the play, and the way the casting choices are made. There’s a lot of doubling, and it really shows the versatility of the cast members and the talent in the way they play multiple characters.
It freely swaps identities and genders, not just for comedic effect but to make a statement about gender and class norms.
Bennett daughter Mary and Mister Collins were both played by men.

At the right in the picture below, you see 'Mary' aka Sean being fitted for a dress. I guess he had to shave his beard as well:



And this is how he/she appeared on stage, sporting quite the 'Goth'-look I would say:

He/she/they absolutely stole the show with their hilarious sudden intervening into the conversations during which they often scared everybody to death!

But despite this modern take on the play empire waists and lavish Regency-era attire were still abound and the show stayed true to the main themes and plot of the novel.
I of course had read the book but it was all new to James. I think it being a very funny rendition was a good first encounter for him with a more serious (well, normally) play like this.
Anyways .. we had a great time, as usual. This theater never disappoints!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, this was the, very dusty, scene in the rye-grass field on Monday:

Apparently it was dry enough to harvest and somewhere late in the afternoon they came in with a whole army of tractors and machines.
In a matter of only several hours they managed to turn, rake and bale the whole field!

We were having happy hour in the back of the yard but fortunately the wind was away from us for most of the time because the dust was flying everywhere!
Like I said, it was all done lickity split (I looked it up and it is actually 'lickity spit' but nobody uses this) and in the setting sun everything looked as peaceful as if nothing had happened, some tall haystacks the only proof it actually did ...

Talking about dust .. we made some of our own!
On Wednesday James and Dan worked on digging the trenches for all the utilities. A 'trencher' was hired which made work a whole lot easier.

Again, dust was flying everywhere! Halfway through James had the brilliant idea to set up a fan alongside the ditch which helped a lot blowing the dust away from the RV.
Still .. there's dust everywhere .. sigh.

         

Unfortunately, a big Maple tree's roots were smack in the way of the water/electric trench and so, in order to save the tree, parts had to be dug out by hand:

             

Which was not an easy, or fast, feat considering the soil which is a rock-hard, bone-dry, compacted clay!

                                               

When all trenches were done the trencher was returned quickly ($50 hourly rate!) and swapped for a concrete-saw. A BIG concrete saw!
It turned out that the septic pipes had to go to the other site of the RV pad, and to not have to stumble over an exposed pipe all the time the solution was to cut through some concrete slabs that had formed the foundation for the mobile home that used to be there, and lay the pipes underground.

   
James had thought his saw could do the job but the concrete turned out to be much thicker than he could handle, hence the renting of a bigger one.

Which did a great job. 'Like a knife through butter' .. well, almost.

By the end of the day everything was done.
It's up to James now to lay all the pipes which will not happen for a couple of days since he has a golf-tournament going on this weekend and, Murphy's Law, after weeks of very little being offered, the phone has been ringing with job offers!
Oh well, I guess we can wait another week ... can we?

                                                    

Even after all that work James is eager to pick blackberries whenever he can. Here you can see that he's really 'into' the job!
I guess it's my own fault for stating that yes, I would bake something with them, but he has to do the picking!

So, another Blackberry Crisp was created!

Slightly warmed with some ice-cream for James and whipped cream for me.
Yummmm!