SNOW

We recently had two weeks of snow on the ground in the air - everywhere. I think the final measurement was 8 inches of snow followed by 1/2 an inch of ice and another 6 inches of snow on top. If I ever see a snowflake again it may be too soon. This is very uncharacteristic for the Willamette Valley. It started on Saturday December 13th and finally started to warm on Saturday December 27th. So on the 13th we turned the water off to the barn and cared for the horses the Amish way. The pictures speak for themselves. Though it was very pretty it was also very treacherous, and the 5 hour round trip to the airport to get Sam and Rachel was one if not the scariest drives ever in the snow.
We had to "plow" with the tractor just to get hay into the barn and to clean the stalls. We all worked very hard so at times it was difficult to enjoy the sheer beauty of the snow.




Finally my little Gnome started to see a thaw.

Willie G - The ChiWiener

I am sure no one will be surprised that my new addition looks a lot like my other favorite Chihuahua type dog, Laurie and Tom's Woody, who they took with them when they moved to South Carolina. Here he is at his new SC home.
Since I absolutely adore having a little dog friend I told Laurits that is what I wanted for my birthday. After much complaining about how we have so many dogs already I told him he could be with me or against me, but I was going to get a little dog. I searched on Pet Finder and even emailed on a few doggers that looked promising. Many pet adoption places require a criminal history background check (not really) and a home inspection. My word! All I wanted to do was give a good home to a little canine friend. Then I saw Willie at Rescued Paws; Willie Adoption Page so I filled out the application and gave them my life history, all the while thinking that I would not hear anything back. But hear I did and in fact about an hour after I sent my email I got one back saying we would be perfect for him. So the following Saturday we left for Longview and now Wild Wille G is part of the Osterud pack.


They said he didn't know how to play, but in less then 5 minutes he was running through the house with his favorite toy "BoBo"

Adventures in South Carolina - Part 3

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to Brattonsville; which was a 775 acre plantation owned by the Bratton family during the American Revolution. In fact much of the movie "The Patriot" was filmed on location. All the animals were dependants of the original livestock, so the pigs were Spanish and the horses were Belgiums
I think Tom is a bit too tall to live comfortably in the slave house.
The plantation owners homes were quite lavish and they had done a fabulous job of restoring them. There is one old brick house on the plantation that is in disarray but I hope someday they will restore it as well.


This is a place one could spend a lot of time exploring and well worth the short drive from Laurie and Tom's house.

Adventures in South Carolina - Part 2

What time can be spent with Laurie and Tom without a few games. I believe Team DeBoard won most of the competitions, but hey they had home court advantage. I think Laurie threw the dart on the dart, very impressive. Take notice of the blurry bowling though....I had the high point female; and I did it again when the SC DeBoards were in Oregon for Christmas.













Tom and Laurie's house is very nice and while we were there we were able to enjoy the fall colors. FYI - I think the doggers were hoping to come back to Oregon; in fact I am sure they were waiting at the door just hoping to hop into a Osterud suitcase.

Adventures in South Carolina - Part 1

In November we made our escape to see Laurie and Tom in their new home in South Carolina. The same nursing student looked after my mom so again we were able to relax on that end. The first day there we had the typical southern rain fall - no dodging drops of rain there. We wanted to find something to do indoors so after some discussion I suggested the Catawba Cultural Center since the Catawba Tribe is famous for their pottery. Well lets just say the center was interesting - empty, but interesting. I snapped a picture of the group outside the entrance, but Tom was a bit nervous since the parking lot was empty.
The ancient bead work is very interesting and so time consuming. I just never knew Sesame Street dated back to tribal times.
To finish the day we were looking for some information on the Anne Springs Close Greenway. Laurie being a brave soul walked right into some ones front door. Actually it was part of the office for the Greenway, but we were not sure and it was hilariously funny.

Octoberfest with Kathy and Ian

Laurits and I were able to sneak away for a much needed weekend to visit Kathy and Ian. We had a wonderful nursing student from George Fox come and help my mom so I was able to relax knowing she was well cared for.
While we were there we enjoyed a fabulous day in Levenworth. It was their Octoberfest weekend so it was crowded but we enjoyed the whole atmosphere. I think we eat our way from one end of the town to the other. Kathy has all the pictures in her camera sooooooooo I have nothing to show - (Kathy I thought you were sharing some pictures).
On our way out of town we stopped at the Stocker Farms Corn Maze and deceided to try our skills at navigating the puzzle. This was a big risk because if we had gotten hopelessly lost it would have made us very late getting home. We asked some people how long it took and the average seemed to be about 30 minutes. We set a goal of 15 minutes - and thanks to Ian's and my excellent map reading skills we made it in 18 minutes. Had we not made on wrong turn (I am sure it was at Laurits or Kathy's suggestion) we would have made it in 15 minutes.

What a Difference a Year Makes; or Not

November 16th 2007 my Mom's life as well as Laurits and mine changed forever. Mom was in a head on collision that at the time threatened her life. She has a determination and a will to live that served her well and today she continues to enjoy much of the things she used to do. Thankfully painting which gives her the most enjoyment is something she is still able to do today.

So here she was August 2007 in front of the Woodburn Art Center.

Here she is in her studio after the accident still painting

She even won honerable mention in a juried show at the art center; and what makes that award even sweeter is the painting she entered were ones she had done after the accident.