The Best Tomatoes in the U.S.A.

Esther has 3 tomato plants, in pots, staked, tied and 4 feet tall! We have even had several nice bright red tomatoes about the size of a tennis ball! They also grow great tomatoes in Texas. I suppose Ashley & Zack are growing some in their raised bed garden. But Roly's have really entered the tomato competition in Corsicana, Texas. On Father's Day they sent me a box full of ripe tomatoes all properly hybrid labeled! We even rated them according to taste!!! What a treat!

Then I received a photo this Indiana tomato grown by our friend, Dan Monroe, who now lives near Indianapolis. He finally had to pick this 1 pound 14 ounce tomato before it broke his plant! I can almost taste it - it's been a long time since I've seen one this large! And I have to say to all you tomato growers, your as good as the best and better than the rest!!!!

Costa Rico at Age 11

Brady, just finished the 5th grade and at the Spanish/English school he attends, they earn the right to take a trip to Costa Rico just before they enter 6th grade. Jana & Paul worked all year getting him ready for his BIG trip this June! Brady flew from Portland and stayed the first week with local folks and had to use his Spanish!! Brady was assigned to a young family with a restaurant!!! How lucky can you be??? Their last 4 days were spent having fun as you can see. Brady says it was a blast!!! and he met many new friends. He was glad to get back to familiar surroundings with a new appreciation for home!!

Clipped in Eugene

Clipping is usually a football term but Derrick decided he needed a head clip! Long curls were too much for a growing boy headed into 3rd grade this fall! Very carefully, Jana & Paul started whacking off the curls! What a change! Congratulations, Derrick! You have grown up a bunch by giving up something you lived with so long!! The short of it is, you look Great!

Texas Cabbage Heads!

Joel, Holly & Joe's son, must have been visiting grandpa & grandma (Roly & Candy) cause I'm quite sure they are the big Texas growers! I understand they go to market in Mildred every Saturday with their fresh produce. I even got a box of wonderful tomatoes for father's day. . .and all 9 in excellent shape from Texas to Oregon all marked by hybrid names! We all agreed that Superfantistic was the best!

Joel got to learn his arithmetic or math as they now call it and I suppose grandpa made him figure how many square inches and of course how much this beautiful cabbage weighed. Needless to say their garden is growing like mad! Wish we were closer or there were more father's days!!

Tough ReHab

Thought you should see all the rough & tough rehab they are putting me thru at the hospital in Medford. All the nurses insist on 15 minutes on the tread mill with an incline of 4 degrees and a speed of nearly 2.5 - which is almost running!!! I can hardly keep up. . .that's when the whip comes out! After this workout, it's the arm/peddle to the metal. . .another 15 minutes! Of course they make me stretch before and after - and if there's time, I must do 1 or 2 complete arm lifts with 3 pound barbells and that means 15 lifts per exercise!!!! After all this and a viciden, I'm ready to be wheeled out the door! It's a tough life and I say avoid surgery if you can! And besides, I have to pay for all this attention!!! Oh well, I'm just resigned to it by now!

Sailing over Applegate Valley

Parasailing has come to our area!!! The largest gathering of parasailors, on the west coast, took off and landed in the Applegate Valley, about 25 miles from Ashland, near Jacksonville, Oregon. Nearly 175 jumpers from around the world, competed here. Points were achieved for their world standings! We decided to investigate this past Friday. Entering the Applegate Valley from Jacksonville, we were greeted by at least 40 parasailors at about 2000 ft. It was a spectacular sight and almost impossible to photograph with 24X! We eventually found that their assignment for the day was to catch a thermal and fly from Ruch, Oregon to Talent, Oregon, about 15 miles! using only wind currents!!! Since Talent is only about 5 miles from Ashland, we headed home, hoping to find their landing sight!!! Taking back roads thru orchards and staying as close to the mountains as possible, we began seeing 2 to 4 parasailors appearing in the sky searching for their landing spot. We finally found a road that took us to within 1/4 mile and several folks had gathered shooting photos from long distance!!! What a sight as we watched about 20 chutes glide in for a smooth landing!!

Morels in June

I decided to take one last look for morels today, June 20! Absolutely, the latest I have ever hunted mushrooms that I remember. All I had to do was call Will, our granddaughter, Amanda's boyfriend and they were both willing to go with me!!! We headed up the mountain to our favorite places to make one last check, since everything has been late this year and only a week ago, there was snow at one of these places. The snow was gone but we only found 5 morels. It is now about 4:30 in the afternoon on a beautiful, warm day even at 5000 ft. We decided to hit one more place close to Hyatt Lake where we always found morels in years past. We parked and headed up the hill. A half hour later, with empty hands we decided to call it quits and headed back to the truck. We knew finally that the season was almost over . . .lots of green growth and insects everywhere! I was on the road when Amanda hollered!!! One, two, three, four, . .hurry you gotta see this!!! Will and I hurried and within sight of the truck, there was a patch of 15 beautiful fresh morels. . .those you see in the photo weighing nearly 2 pounds!!! We couldn't believe it. . .that close to the truck and we had already given up our search for the year!!! And behold!!!!! Amanda saved the day and our last outing for the year gave us a send off for next year!!! Mushrooms in June!