A busy week in Canby

It was a pretty busy week in Canby. The weather was a little wetter than normal so the garden and lawn got a good soaking for a couple of days.

The boys came out for "Opah Omy" day on Wednesday. Last week Marlene asked Ryder whether he would rather have Wednesday or Thursday for "Opah Omy" day. He asked, "Which one comes sooner"? So, we had Wednesday as the day they spent with us.

Ryder spent part of the day using the sewing machine to make his Papa a birthday present. He also learned how to sew on buttons. Omy is preparing him for college.

Later in the week Marlene made a batch of crackers. She's using her desem starter, kind of like a sour dough, just rolled flat with salt and seeds sprinkled on top and baked.

While Marlene was baking, I was installing the antique wall phone on the wall in our kitchen area. Both Marlene and I had this kind of phone on the wall of our farm house when we were growing up in Wisconsin. So, when we were back there a couple of weeks ago, we bought an original Kellog wall phone from Phoneco Inc. It's a company in Galesville, Wisconsin, that buys and sells old phones.

Later in the day we met our friends at the Canby Cruise in. Hundreds of cars gathered around the park and adjoining streets which were blocked off for the event. It's a free show held annually and it's fun to go down, walk around and remember the cars we used to drive. These happen to be modified, but about half the cars are stock, restored cars from the 50's.

The weather was perfect for flying so late in the afternoon I launched the Aeronca and flew up the Willamette River. I wanted to take some pictures of friend's houses so I could give them as gifts. Before I landed, I took a shot of our own house and property.
That evening, we gathered for dinner and a game of Sequence with Paul and Debbie and Richard and Patricia.



We finished the week with a visit to the antique street fair in Oregon City. Marlene found a couple of things we could use.

Returning to Oregon living

It didn't take long to get back to doing the things we do on a regular basis. About 2 miles from our house is a peach orchard which allows "you pick". Every year we get our 30 pounds or so. It takes about 15 minutes of picking. We allow the peaches to ripen in our hanger and each morning we take a couple of the ripest ones and have them with our cereal or toast.










Laurie and Odel who had been watching our house and tending our garden moved their motor home back a little so I could pull the plane from the hanger and go out for a half an hour and knock the rust off my landings.

On Saturday Odel and I flew to McMinnville to check out the annual antique airplane gathering.




We had a special evening reuniting with Steve and Diana to celebrate their 9th anniversary. Of course this gave us a chance to see our grandsons, Ryder,











Phelan












and Casey, who is now 8 weeks old.

A mini reunion

This is posted after we have returned to Oregon. We got so busy the last few days we were in Wisconsin and since we returned that I didn't have time to post. I told some of the Schmidts that they could go to this blog to see the pictures of the family gathering.


Harlan and Beth arrived in their 1938 Chevy.

The brothers and sisters, Don, Jean, Marlene, and Harlan stopped visiting long enough for a group picture.






It was threatening rain, so most of the day was spent in the house.


The cousins were captured before everyone had to go their separtate ways.

The celebration ends

It's time for family pictures. It's Sunday and everyone is heading home. We all gather again at the farm to say good bye.

John, Caroll, Joyce and I are of the oldest generation.






John and Ann were gracious hosts on the family farm.








The Oliver family is getting ready to leave.









It's quiet again on the family farm.

The Celebration of Vince's life

Vince and Caroll had decided to have their remains interred at the Galesville cemetery, Pine Cliff. The Dopp family beginning with our Great Grandfather Johann Joachim Dopp, Grandfather, John C. Dopp, and our parents Herman and Irene, are all buried in this plot.

Jim, Kathy, Devin, and Matthew are talking with Pastor, Mike, before the service. The family had gathered including a cousin of Vince along with school classmates of Vince and Caroll and cousins on the Dopp and Ryder side of our family. Storm clouds were gathering and the minister began the service by saying that he thought God would give us about one hour without rain. Debbie followed with an inspirational remembrance of her father along with a reading that had all of us in tears. Jim Oliver followed by reminiscing about his father's life, Vince's childhood, his school days, military service in the Marines and his business career and what he was like as a father to the 7 kids. Others added memories of Vince and inspirational readings. Pastor Mike closed with a benediction just as the rain drops began to fall. After the celebration in the cemetery, we returned to the farm to continue the party. It was a time for remembering and sharing for an extended family that loves to come together for food and drinks. The siblings shared family stories, the cousins listened in awe and the young cousins played in the swimming pool.

New Arrivals

On Friday, people began to gather on the farm for Vince's memorial service. Caroll, Linda, and Cynthia arrived from Michigan followed by Janet and Debbie with Gerd and George who had stopped to pick up Barbara at Midway in Chicago. Barb had flown there from New York. Next to arrive was sister Joyce. John had driven her from Iowa. Joyce and Caroll had not seen each other since Beanie's funeral a year earlier. The farm is a wonderful place to gather. It's classified as a Century farm because our Grandfather purchased it in 1894. I was born when my parents lived here and it is now owned by my Brother's daughter, Kathy and her husband, Jim. By the end of the day all of Vince and Caroll's kids along with their families were gathered in the yard on a warm and sunny afternoon. The only one missing was Diane, from New York. She was unable to get time off from her job.

All of this took place the day prior to the service. The minister, Pastor Mike, came up to meet with the family and to make arrangements for the next day.

Near The Mississippi

This is the Mississippi River near our condo in Holman, Wisconsin

Of course, there is also the extreme to go with the beautiful.

Meeting and Eating

This has been a wonderful week of dining with friends and relatives. Here we are at the historic Trempealeau hotel built in 1871. The have have a vegetarian walnut burger and and meatless sauce for pasta that Marlene really liked.












We met our friends the Chalsma's here.







The next night we were in North Bend, Wisconsin at the River Bend restaurant with Marlene's brother Don and His wife Elisabeth.





The view was great, the Walley Pike dinner was very tasty and I even got to perform with Elvis when he made a surprise appearance.







The restaurant is a block down the street from the house and harness shop my grandparents owned in the late 1800's.

Marlene's view

This is the area where I, Marlene, grew up. Across this cornfield is the one room country school I attended for 7 years before the new Jr. High was built in the big town of Melrose, population 500. Of course 60 years ago the only building you would see would be the school itself, not the silo or other buildings there now.
This is the farm I grew up on. The barn is essentially the same. This now sophisticataed dairy farm is operated by my brother and his son.

This is a photo of my older brother Don Schmidt in the milkhouse.

Back to the town of LaCrosse, Wisconsin where this 540-foot-high bluff overlooks the city and where you can view the Mississippi Valley. I graduated from Nursing School here in 1961

Some Pictures from Wisconsin

The condo we have use of while we are here is really nice. Our friends the Chalsma's have left it well stocked with food, drink and books. The bed is wonderful.
It's located in a small town of 7700 people on the high ground above the Mississippi river. The neighborhood is so quiet! The car we have for our use is the convertible on the left.

This is the farm I, Richard, lived on when I was 5, 6, and 7. I started school in this community in a small one room school with 7 other students, one of whom was my brother, John. We walked about a mile down the road to school each day.