Caleb did a super herculian job on the trees! The neighbor's roof is no longer in danger of being damaged by falling limbs, sunlight streams through to my flower beds, and all the debris is hauled off to the dump!

Jack and Caleb worked together with ropes, power and hand saws to get the over hanging limbs off the trees we wanted to keep. Then Caleb went to work on the the saplings. Saplings sounds small but most of them were 30 or more feet tall! We got the elms and birch done Thursday. We planned on attacking the willow Friday morning with hopes that it would only take another 2 or 3 hours.

Friday morning plans changed drastically when Caleb got a call from Portland that his roommate was in ICU at OHSU! Tim had been involved in some kind of accident and had suffered brain trama. While I fixed Caleb food for the road he went up in the willow tree and knocked what he could out and then was on his way back to Portland check on Tim in the hospital. The good news is that Tim was released Saturday and it looks like he's going to be ok.

We enjoyed having Hank and Jasmine as much as seeing Caleb! Hank and Mike seemed to remember each other. They wrestled and raced around the yard. Shilo and Jasmine are the same size and temperment - both love to fetch and are mild mannered. I got to take "the pack" for a walk in the Klamath Falls hills and it was a hoot! I'm easily entertained these days!!! Four big dogs streached out on our livingroom floor was a great sight. We had a full house!

Today I got the ground ready for rasberry plants that I'm getting from Fort Klamath tomorrow. Gifts from Leo and Signe. They have a huge rasberry patch at their cabin and are letting me dig up enough to start my own patch! They'll set roots this fall and may even produce berries next July! I'll have strawberries, blueberries and rasberries all from my own back yard next year! So cool!

Waiting now to find out "the rest of the story" from Thailand on stitches either Maya or Brett received Saturday, the 20th...

Talked to Mom and she asked for pictures of the backyard so here they are. The wildflower section is really in all it's glory! We have two pears on our pear tree and one apple on the apple tree this year! Although some of the vegetables in the raised garden have been bitten by the frost I'm still getting lots of kale, swiss chard, zuchinni, yellow squash and carrots! Brussel sprouts and pear tomatoes are still ripening too.

The sunflowers and hollyhocks made a good showing this year and will be even thicker next year. Neighbors, Dan and Bev, told me today I can dig up all the lambs ears I want from their front walkway... they were going to just toss them! I'm excited about that ... it will line the grass "walkway" from the south side yard to the back wonderfully.

This is how it looks this year.

What have we been doing lately? Logging! Really only trimming the trees around our house before winter hits. The frosts have already bitten the squash and pumpkin leaves in my garden so we know that fall is not far away. Here is our current project!

We were happy to say we have managed to miss the roof, rain gutters and MY CAR! Sometimes only by inches!

We have called in the calvery. Getting that group trimmed down and hauled off took Jack and I three days!

I was feeling pretty embarassed at being so "out of shape" until I remembered we returned from Mexico on August 14th. We were down for 8 more days with dengue fever. So we have only been on our feet for alittle over 2 weeks. That is not very far in to the 12 week recovery period the doctor said we'd experience. I've marked my calendar for the remaining 10 weeks so I won't forget again!

Caleb is coming to help us get the rest of the tree work done! The 6 chinese elm's between our house and the neighbors have to be trimmed so they don't lay on their roof and thinned so the suckers don't break this winter. The willow tree is the really BIG project. Several dead sections need to be cut out!

Prior to the tree project I drove over to Coos Bay and spent a couple days running around Coos County with my sister, Diane. She drove us up to Powers to visit Aunt Nita and Uncle Jimmy. I haven't been on the Powers road for many years... I still don't like it! The visit with Aunt Nita and Uncle Jimmy was great with the added bonus of seeing our cousins Linda and Debbie, who just happened to be there too. Years go by between seeing my Dad's side of the family and I don't even realize it until we get together and catch-up!

This last Saturday we attended the 1st Annual Blues Festival at Veterans Park in Klamath Falls! Can you believe it? Klamath Falls! It was a great day and I was there from 11:30 am to 7 pm! The day could not have been better - blue skies and not to warm! Tommy Castro was the big name band of the day but my favorite, of the 4 bluegrass bands, was the Craig Allen Band - local KF guys.

Bangkok Thailand in "State of Emergency" is the headline. I'd been watching the hurricaine news with an eye on Vero Beach but now I'm all over the net looking for all the news I can on what is going on in Bangkok and find that the protesters shut down airports in Krabi and Phuket in Southern Thailand as well. Irish newpapers state that the International Schools have shut down for the week and Thai schools will be closed for three days.

Brett teaches at one of the International Schools in Bangkok and Maya teaches in one of the local schools so I'm assuming they have a few days off. Sounds like the trains aren't running, also due to the protesters, so they may not be able to do much with the unexpected free time. I'm anxiously awaiting a reply to my email to Brett asking how this is all effecting them.

When I hadn't gotten a reply by this evening I attempted to make a telephone call to Thailand. All three attempts ended with busy signals. Are they on the phone or am I dialing incorrectly or are the unions doing as the reports stated and disrupting utilities?

Mike had shared with me this weekend that he has called Brett a few times so I called Mike to inquire as to how one correctly dials Thailand. Whew! He'd read a post from Maya this morning on Facebook that they were ok and not in any danger from the protesters.

Now I need to learn how to do Facebook. Or is that another site that parents aren't expected to be on? Like MySpace.com.

Learning is a lifelong task.

Oh, it is official. The tests came back positive. Jack and I had dengue fever. Did I post that? We found out our liver enzymes are about 3 times higher than normal and at this point that is the only remnant of having the fever. That and having low energy levels still. So we will be very choosy where we travel and when. It's the second bout that can be life threatening! Tests will be run on our blood counts and liver enzymes in 3 months to make sure everything goes back to normal.

Jack, Mike and I enjoyed my 52nd birthday on Sunday! First was the 5 hour, 13 river miles trip down the Upper Klamath River!

It was awesome! The rapids were Class 4+ because only one turbine released water Sunday. When the John C Boyle Dam releases two turbines some of those Class 4+ rapids become 5's and there are different routes that can be taken. It was all fine with me. I had a great time and got to work my muscles plenty. The pictures don't do the rapids justice but I'll post a few.

One memory is of our 10 ft raft going sideways down into the trough of a wave and the wave breaking right over Mike's helmet, our raft filled up to our knees with water and the guide was yelling "Paddle forward!" How did they do it before self bailing rafts! I didn't get a picture of that... I was otherwise occupied! It was a thrill a minute for about seven miles! We were soaked to the bone and a bit chilled because it only got up into the low 70's that day. The water was pretty warm but the wind kept us chilled.

I was really pleased with Noah's Rafting Tours (http://www.noahsrafting.com/klamath-river-whitewater-rafting.php )and two of the couples that were on the trip were repeat customers with nothing but praise for the outfit for all the rivers they run. Our guide, Clayton, did an excellent job of letting us have lots of action but not ever making us fear for our lives. The safety talk on the bus on the way up to the launch site was the scarest part of our trip.

Paco put "the fear" into us with what to do "in the unlikely event". And then we saw the streacher board strapped to the tree at the end of Hell's Half Mile of rapids and we got a little sobered up again.

Then when Mike and I got back to Klamath Falls Jack had the worlds best barbaqued rib steak dinner ready for us! After that he brought out my birthday "cake" - Strawberry Cheesecake! Jack and I were asleep by 9:30 pm!

I don't know how long Mike stayed up Sunday but he slept in until 11:30 Monday morning. I had been up since 7:30 but had also taken three "naps" by then! I roused myself up to eat brunch and then napped some more. Mike was fine watching TV, reading some of the stuff we brought back from the Yucatan, looking a pictures of the trip and generally just relaxing with Jack as I dosed off and on. I really used ALL my energy on Sunday! Labor Day did not have any in it at our house!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Labor Day weekend!