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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (June 7, 2017)
A6 Seniors Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, June 7, 2017 G RANT C OUNTY S ENIORS John Day Seniors Nicky Essex We missed our gang here on Memorial Day weekend. It is good to be back. We are try- ing a new check-in “system” for a while. Let us know what you think. We like it so far. You have to come for lunch Mon- day or Thursday to find out what it is. A big thanks to Darlene at Key Farm & Nursery for the donation of a variety of garden starts; Linda Stoltz also brought in some plants for us, and the Grant High Nursery donated some as well. I know I will enjoy watching a few of them grow in my garden. Thursday, the first day of June, found Jeanette Julsrud and Drew Harmer at the greet- er’s desk. We will be missing Bonnie Kocis for a while; they are doing a “drive about.” Trav- el safely, friends. Our regulars from the Church of the Nazarene were serving us, led by Trace An- drew, Duane Andrew, Vickie Harrison, Dale Stinnett and Ev- erett King. Joan and Joe Tayles did the Meals on Wheels deliv- eries in John Day and Canyon City, and the Step Forward gang, Amber Wright, Michael Hagopian and Rodney Bruser, took care of the Mt. Vernon route. A total of 35 meals deliv- ered in all. I wonder how they liked them. I sure gobbled mine up. We’re pretty spoiled here. Everett King led us in a very meaningful flag salute. Our drawing produced some special winners: Bonnie Pick- le won the Valley View gift certificate for a free meal, and Greg Valentine won the Chester’s Thriftway gift certif- icate. Dale Stinnett prayed the blessing over our meal and our country. Veanne told us there will be two Alzheimer’s classes at the Department of Human Ser- vices building, behind NAPA, tomorrow, June 8, beginning at 10 a.m. Call for other times. NORCO is advising everyone who is on oxygen to stock up on bottles for the eclipse. Those who usually deliver could have trouble getting them to you. Don’t forget the health fair, June 16. Veanne said there are still plenty of scholarships for seniors who need blood tests — pre-regis- ter. We dined on sweet and sour chicken, steamed rice and egg rolls and luscious birthday cake to celebrate June birth- days for dessert. It was a real treat to see Stephen and Jan- et Pang, who joined us at our table. I tried to get Stephen to put on an apron and go help in the kitchen, but he said, “I’m retired now.” They said it was very good, and they will be back. Helen Bogart’s daughter Susan and her husband (AKA ornery) Jim Kirkwood joined her for lunch as they usually do when they come through town. It is so nice to come here and be loved by our gang. Don’t be shy; come make some great friends. We play bingo every Thurs- day after lunch, at 1 p.m. Come and join us. Shay is still looking for vol- unteers to serve for the three days of our eclipse breakfasts. Sign up for one, two or three. The sun is out. I need to go get some. See you on Mon- day and Thursday for lunch. Be here by 11:45 a.m. so our servers can start lunch on time. On June 8, we’ll have spaghet- ti and baguettes. On June 12, we’ll have Polish sausage and kraut. Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his pur- pose.” Monument Seniors Soo Yukawa Can’t believe we are now in the month of June. Yes, really. Weather has been better, that it has been possible to transplant some tomatoes and pepper plants. I got lucky and got a cou- ple of plants each of Armenian cucumber, yellow straightneck squash and a couple of Kore- an melon that came up from seeds. Many, including myself, have had issues and difficulties germinating and starting plants from seeds this year. It probably had to do with the weird weather and sudden fluctuations in tem- perature changes. Our last meal of May was prepared by our dedicated cooks Terry Cade and Carrie Jewell. They made us a new item of Ha- waiian barbecue chicken over rice, a very fresh and green salad and birthday cake for dessert. I think it was a hit. Our greeters were Bob Blakeslee, Bodean Andersen and Marva Walker. Bob led us in the flag salute. Bodean made the announcements and prayed the blessing over our meal. Mar- va collected and counted the money. Mary Cade and the kids of Monument school planted pumpkins and sunflowers in the garden behind the food bank. Their plan is to have pumpkins for sale in the fall for Halloween. Both Judy Cavendar and Jimmy Cole won free meals. We had a total of 48 meals served and six takeouts. Bodean made the announcement that there are many rattlesnakes slithering around so please be very careful out there. Our one mama cat that had kittens caught a furry creature the other day. I didn’t know what it was. It looked like a gi- ant mouse but with a long and furry tail. I asked my hubby to look up the image of a pack rat on the internet. My fears were confirmed. Mei had caught a big fat pack rat. She wanted to feed it to her kittens. They each got a turn to gnaw on the pack rat. I hope they will learn to be good mousers. She’s been bringing them “treats” to try. The other day, it was a fat gopher. Good to know that there is one less gopher that could get in my gar- den. Summer will be in full swing very soon, if it hasn’t already. I figured out how to utilize all those rocks that I dug up. I am going to lay down gardening fabric around my fruit trees and then lay down rocks in a circle around them. I will put down bark inside the circle of rocks to stifle weed growth and promote moisture retention. Now those are the ideas in my head, don’t know if they will work in reality. I will let you know. Monument is still a beautiful green. The grass and other veg- etation are growing like crazy. I actually got to use the weed whacker. Hmm, I think I need to work out my arms. Jude 1:20-21 “But ye, be- loved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, pray- ing in the Holy Ghost. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Prairie City Seniors Rose Coombs Well, looky here. Remember the grape vine that I transplanted from behind the church a few years ago? The vine has started growing again there – out from under the cement. If you want a tough vine, I think that is the one to get. Maybe I can get another start from it and put it on the south (read “sunny”) side of the house so it can cast some shade on the big picture window. OK, back to business. Lon- nie and Naomi Hackler helped Bruce Kaufmann do the set up; Larry, Carlos, Ken and Marjean did the deliveries; and a whole host of people helped with get- ting the dinner on the table and cleaning up afterwards. Thank you all for your service. We’re glad to have Jerry and Evelyn Sheets back with us, so Jerry led the flag salute, and Evelyn helped me count the money. Jack Retherford asked the bless- ing. Frances announced the workshop that the Alzheimer’s Association will be giving on June 8 at the DHS office. There was an eclipse meeting after our meal, too. I could only find two peo- ple who had a birthday in May: Frances Preston and Marilyn Randall. Marilyn had her “but- ton” drawn for the $10 in trade donated by Huffman’s Market. The gift certificate of $5 do- nated by Prairie Hardware & Gifts went to Lonnie Hackler. Assistant cook Tom thought that the big, blank white board should have something written on it, so he found a quote in one of the new cookbooks: “Food for thought: friends are the choc- olate chips in the cookie of life.” That’s a good one. We had 68 names on the reg- istration book. We welcomed a first-timer in the person of Bonnie Taylor to our gathering. Lorna and Shauntele brought Dorothy Blasing, Lois Hill and Marilyn Randall from the Blue Mountain Care Center. We had a picnic for our meal: orange juice, “pre-eclipse” macaroni salad (Tom thought the egg slic- es looked like an eclipse), pork and beans, pulled pork, rolls and a very chocolate brownie. And we were all still eating and visiting at 12:45. Hurray. That’s what this is for. We’re not a fast food joint to just grab, eat and run. Take a break. Have a face- to-face conversation with a real, live human being. Set an exam- ple for the young ones. OK, I’ll get off that soapbox now. The memorial for Buzz Har- ris was uplifting and enlighten- ing. I found out a lot of things that I did not know about our friend. And I was so pleased to hear the “congregation” sing the chosen old hymns with gusto. Good job, people. We have been gifted with a new-to-us 100-gal- lon hot water heater. That should eliminate the problem of run- ning out of hot water. Thanks to the John Day Senior Center for that donation. We are look- ing forward to getting the new exit doors and ramp installed in June. Then we will be ADA and fire code compliant. Hooray. And isn’t it strange that with all the rain we had that the ground is so dry? Went out to dig more in the garden plot and good grief. Where did all the moisture go? Job 37: 11, 13 “He loads the clouds with moisture … to water his earth and show his love.” Church Services In Grant County Come Worship with us at
