My latest project

 So I took my old hand plow and sanded it down to get rid of all the rust.

 Then gave it a new paint job and highlighted its features.

Trips to the beach

I was able to put a third bike together so on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Marie, Mary and myself made trips to the beach.  The weather was nice and the view was clear as you can see the Islands in the back.

 We watched some sea lions play on the buoy.

 Watching the waves and surfers from the pier

and just resting the backside for a few minutes.

An easier job this year.

The day after Thanksgiving I was going to put up the Christmas lights.  It ended up that I had lots of help.  It went a lot easier than the last few years  besides being a lot earlier than the last few years.
Here's the official light tester.

Official light licker.

The officeal light installer.

Not sure what this person is doing; my guess is that she is the official overseer.

The finished product with one new added fixture.

Thanksgiving Dinner

 Thursday Mom, Marie, and myself had dinner at Grandma Mike's house with Lloyd and his friend.
Lloyd said that was the first dinner he'd been to with the Becks that there was only three of them.
Then Saturday we had dinner at our house.
Here are the preparers of dinner hard at work.

 The set table

 The official watcher, clean up crew, and taste tester.
Could not believe that I had a senior moment and forgot to take a picture with everyone around the table of delicous food.

But here's most of the gang at Nik's football game later that evening.

Thanksgiving Week

 Well, I know you guys were expecting this to happen soon.  Now it's official: I HAVE GONE INSANE.    Mom and I  made our Thaksgiving turkeys.

 I had to have a two-sided turkey: a John Deere side and a regular side.
Mom was in book form:*my faith and the faith of those before me; *that my childern are wonderful people; *for my beautiful home that we can share; *for bike rides and walks with John  (Not sure who that guy is.)
Dad's J.D. side: *heritage; *immediate and extended family; * spouse; *lifes lessons.  Reg. side: *bike rides, *walks at park and beach; *garage sales, *antiquing and collecting.

 So some of my thoughts and stories as Thanksgiving is coming: I always remember as the days  approached that it was always good that most of the farmwork was done.  You would always hope that the snow held off so that you could feed with the truck and not have to take the time to hook up the horses 'cause we could be home sooner to enjoy all the great aromas of cooking and vists of family.

So it's  fun now to think I can just sit back and watch my strawberries grow.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!!

Our last trip out

 So this past Saturday I was off work so we hit the road, checked out some garage sales, then headed for Woodland Hills.  We stopped in Calabasas and checked out the colorful trees (Yeah, they have colorful trees in California, too.)

 Then we went to an Arts and Crafts fair in a park at Woodland Hills. We saw some awesome things and paintings; we then checked out the antique stores.   We rode on their bike path for an hour, went to dinner and back home.( My bad; I didn't take pictures at the art fair or downtown; just Mom on the bike path.)

Another Saturday Adventure

 On Saturday after a day of garage sales we went to the beach off 5th Street and parked and unloaded the bikes.

 We rode to Channel Island Harbor and walked out to the end of the harbor.

 Watched the sail boats as they were heading out; it was nice weather and a beautiful sight.

 We got a big kick out of this lady pedaling by on her surf board with her dog (waiting to see Sid, Shaun or Bella on one)

Then we rode back, had lunch at Mrs. Olsen's and made it back to the truck where mom tried out our purchase at a garage sale for a dollar while I loaded the bikes.  Then we went to Nik's game and took all out for ice cream and called it a day.

A funny story, but true

 Saturday we were out doing our garage sale hunts. Mom was giving me directions to one in Spanish Hills when we came to an intersection and mom said 'It's over there where all the cars are parked."  As we drove by looking for a place to park I started to say that's a Bently and another and another on and on.  I said I couldn't believe these cars were here for a garage sale.  We parked and got out to walk to the house and finnaly realized it was the wrong address.

 More of the Bentlys

 Even more

An old Houston Healey; it must of been some big party or activty but sure glad we didn't walk in looking for a good bargain!!!

Our Saturday

 Saturday we hit a couple of garage sales then headed to Carpinteria to their big Flea Market. We saw a lot of neat things. Then took our bikes and rode around town and to the beach.

 Rode to the seal sanctuary...very few seals

We went on down the beach and saw 4 dolphins going by.

 Then rode down the trail along the tracks; we actualy missed the trail back to the main road and just kept going.

Then we exhausted ourselves by pushing our bikes up this steep trail and road a couple of miles back to town. It was a beautiful weekend and a lot of fun.  We were surprised at the Carpeteria campgrounds how many campers had pumpkins and Halloween decorations . Afterwards we went to lunch and dessert in Ventura thanks to Joey and Sujin.

The Change

 We have watched the neighbors all replace their water heaters and knew that it was going to happen sometime.  Then mom told me it had started to leak out of the bottom so I hoped that it would be ok till I had a day off.

 It lasted the next three days. Iif you look close the date is 1988...that's 23 years! That is pretty unheard of.  I think it's a blessing that it has lasted our family that long.

So after a few hours here is our new water heater.