One Raccoon, 50 lbs of salt

So, Jackson received a tip that there was a road kill he might enjoy bringing home. Off he went to retrieve it. He did all this without talking to his mother, I'm sure worried it would get nixed, correct assumption. Jackson is planning on making a raccoon hat of some sort. We'll have to wait and see what becomes of this adventure.

Choir concert

This was a very enjoyable evening. Jefferson sang a scat solo during one of the jazz choir's numbers. That was fun.

Jefferson was able to accompany the concert choir on the piano on a few songs. His friend, Tyler, was able to be a guest director for one of the numbers also. Everyone did a wonderful job and Tyler was absolutely delightful to watch direct. He made the greatest funny faces and other overly dramatic faces to get the choir to smile and come in at appropriate times. Very entertaining.

Here are the senior boys in the Jazz choir that sang "For the Longest Time" a capella. It was great.

A big, muddy, fun time

The cross-country meet was a muddy mess. Runners slipping and sliding everywhere. As a mom I didn't like it one bit, as a runner it did look like fun as long as you didn't go down. Jefferson was sick today but still ran his usual pace, 17:38.

Burning Season is Open

Gobble Gobble

The boys are starting to look the part. Sure to be a tasty treat next month. While we do enjoy the docile Turkey-lurkey and Bronzer, we hope to be enjoying them on Thanksgiving.

CRANBERRY FESTIVAL

The elusive cranberry plant. It is beautiful really, with it's enormous red berries juxtaposed against it's dainty branches and leaves. I am debating where I will be planting my own cranberry field, doesn't everyone need one?

Below is Mister Cranberry Farmer demonstrating the manual tool they used to use for picking the cranberries before they motorized. This is also where Mister Farmer informed us that although 95% of the cranberries harvested in the USA are harvested by flooding the fields. The remaining 5% are harvested using the dry method. You guessed it, they use the dry method. Oh, the disappointment. I wanted to see the wet method. When I plant my cranberry field, it will be set up to be wet harvested.

Below is Harrison trying out the manual method of picking cranberries. See, Harrison will be ready to help me harvest our cranberries.

Here is that motorized picker they use now. It rakes the cranberries and moves them up the rotating shelves and dumps them into a large burlap bag that hangs on the back. Meanwhile, the clippers in the front trim the plants so the vines don't get too unruly.

Before we move on to the next step in the cranberry harvest, we have to take a moment to hear a little bit about the question answer part of Mister Farmer's presentation. Before we moved in to the barn, Mister Farmer asked if anyone had any questions. One of the group asked what kind of pests the cranberries had to worry about. Mister Farmer had just finished telling us that the biggest pest they had were large elk that came into the cranberry fields and left large holes where their large feet had been and they also took their large elk bodies and rolled them around the field. It was at this point that I fell through a rotten board that was housing some of the irrigation and made quite a noisy crashing splash. Me, like a large elk, tromping through the cranberry field. My family was very amused, first, that it wasn't Harrison, but his mother, and second, well, I'm no large elk.

Here's the hole I made:

Here is the muddy bog on my shoe:

Here is the bruise, day 3:

Now back to the cranberry tour. The cranberries are then taken to the separator:

The vines go one way and the berries go another way

Then they are put into their crates to be trucked to the Ocean Spray Factory just down the road.

The girls admiring the beautiful sour berries

Oh, those beautiful berries.

We checked out the beach and found hundreds of beautiful sand dollars or as Grace likes to call them, flower shells. I have never seen so many. We came home with literally bags and bags of them. Very exciting.

Cute girls on their way to the beach!

The girls found lots of shells and rocks

I saw this plaque on a bench along the path to the beach, it made me laugh!





It was a lovely sunset to end our day with.


After dinner we enjoyed an illuminated parade (I hope Micah got pictures) Harrison was a candy hog, spooked a horse, was grabbed by a boogey man, and had a fire truck honk at him. You would think that his mother giving him the what for, would slow him down a bit, I guess not. Sorry.

Sunday morning Sarah ran in the Bog Jog. She ran the 10k distance and won the entire race. Way to go Sarah! (Again, I hope Micah got pictures)

Next year, I will be hunting down a cranberry bog that they flood to harvest and I hope to have my own little patch at my house.

Oh, I can dream.

Portland bike adventure

Kennedy and Harrison had the day off today so we thought we would go for a bike ride with Aunt Sarah in Portland. We met Sarah at her office in Portland and then we were off.



We did the loop at Waterfront Park and then across the Morrison Bridge (I think) to the Promenade by OMSI and then back over to Waterfront Park.


We headed up to Pioneer Court House for lunch and look what we found... 

The Court House

KGW's Studio on the Square

And the Burgerville cart.  

Harrison enjoyed his fries.


We went through the Park blocks  

past the Portland Art Museum (3 foxes ;0) 

and through PSU back to Sarah's office.

Thanks for a very fun adventure Sarah!  We couldn't have picked a better guide or better weather.

Soccer

Kennedy and Harrison are both playing soccer this season. This morning, Harrison got to play goalie for his team for half of the game. Here he is sporting the goalie shirt. Very exciting!




Here is some action on the field (that's Harry with the ball, getting kicked by the other team):



While Harrison did start the game by making a goal for the opponents, he redeemed himself with this awesome block of a penalty shot. He jumped into the air to block this shot. Way to go Harrison!

Cross country

Jefferson ran really well. He ran a 17:40 and finished fourth on his team, ninth overall. Yes, that is Jefferson with the pink armband and elastic in his hair. It's a varsity boy thing.




This is yet another failed attempt at getting a decent photo of Jackson.