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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 4, 2018)
A6 Seniors Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, July 4, 2018 G RANT C OUNTY S ENIORS John Day Seniors Nicky Essex This was National Catfish Day. I have anticipated this meal for a long time. Monday, June 27, Olivia and I were on the greeter’s desk, and Ra- chel Carpenter and Suzanne Taysom from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did our table service. They also did deliveries to John Day and Canyon City while David Gill and the guys from Step Forward did the Mt. Vernon route. Al- together, 30 regular and 36 frozen meals were delivered to our housebound friends. Suzanne led us in the flag salute, and Rachel gave the blessing on our meal. The catfish was great. I could have eaten the whole bowl of it. Do you have favorites that you never get enough of? I can’t explain it; all I know is I could live on catfish. Shay served hush puppies and fried okra, and for dessert we had chocolate pudding. A very satisfying meal. We had three tables full. We were happy to have Les Church and Allan Macmillan visiting. Wow, we had a larger tai chi group than usual. Tyler Stoneman has such a warm and accepting way of helping us learn the moves. He also has some real tai chi shoes! Thanks, Tyler. Jeanette Julsrud and Ev- erett were greeters on Thurs- day, June 28. They welcomed a larger than usual group, who filled seven tables. I think the menu is the draw. Shay has been putting out some great meals, and today was no different. Thank you to our sponsors, who make it possible for the magic to hap- pen. Twice this month, Boyd and Bonnie Britton have sponsored our meals, and they came to say goodbye, too. Retiring to the wilds of Arizona. They will surely be missed, by the entire commu- nity. St. Elizabeth Catholic Church did our table service with the willing hands of Walt and Agnes Hall, David Turner, Jimmy Maple and Fa- ther Christie. David and Jim- my took out the deliveries to John Day and Canyon City. Altogether, they delivered 34 meals. Thanks so much. Walt gave the salute to the American flag with the Pledge of Allegiance. Virgin- ia Binches won the Chester’s Thriftway gift card, Agnes Hall won the Valley View meal and of course Father Christie gave the blessing. Our meal was beef tamales with refried beans, incredible Spanish rice, a green salad with lots of tomatoes, and our sweet Lisa made us the traditional pie dough cinna- mon and sugar cookies. (I ate too much, but I made room for this!) We enjoyed our guest, Ginger Gragowski, longtime member of the Grant County community. Don’t forget to come on (most) Thursdays and play bingo with us right after lunch! Romans 8:6-8 “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” Monument Seniors Soo Yukawa We had a most excellent meal for our last lunch of June. Our cooks Carrie Jewell and Teawna Jewell made us chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, along with carrots, dinner rolls and vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. Yes, it was quite del- ish. We thank them immensely for their work. Our greeters were Jimmy Cole, Linda Blakeslee and Kristi Guimont. Lonnie Law- rence made the announcements and led us in the flag salute. Yours truly prayed the bless- ing over the meal. Jimmy and Kristi collected and counted the money. There were 55 guests on the books and 14 takeouts. Yes, we had quite a crowd. The winner of the Len’s Drug gift card was Linda Blakeslee. Carrie Jewell and David Stubblefield both won free meals. We thank our generous sponsors. We had a few visitors from different areas join us for lunch. Dick and Pam Wanous, Louise Britt and Jimmy Tankerslee from Spray. We also had Fran- ces Preston from Prairie City, and Chris Labhart, Ron Dowse and his wife from John Day. I hope I got everyone’s names right. There was a free raffle of a beautiful Fourth of July wreath, which was won by Ron, one of the new owners of the Monu- ment RV and Motel. I can’t believe that it is July! Wow. I’ve been pretty busy and haven’t kept track of a lot of things. Did you know that the days are getting shorter al- ready? One of my friends told me that, and I just can’t believe it. I mean, didn’t we just start summer? Speaking of summer, I’ve been picking and picking lots of romaine lettuce. It’s been great. I can just go pick a few for a sandwich or pick a bunch for a nice salad. I’ve been giv- ing tons of it away too, and it just seems never ending. I’ve noticed some others enjoying them too. I found grasshop- pers munching on my lettuce. Well, we just can’t have that ya know? I’ve been catching them, tossing them into an old Parmesan cheese jar (because the lid is easily flipped open and closed) and then feeding them to my chickens. Ha, the best revenge! Yes, I must admit, I do get a certain amount of satisfac- tion when I toss those pesky grasshoppers to the chickens and they get gobbled up. A few manage to get away and oh, that just bugs me. They are kind of hard to see sometimes be- cause they blend so well. Some are just downright sneaky. They move in such a way to hide behind a stem. I think the most I’ve caught at one time were over 50! I would shake the bottle to stun them when I had to open the lid so they couldn’t jump out. Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Fourth of July holiday. Freedom is not free. I thank all the men and women who have sacrificed their lives for our freedoms, and that they did not die in vain. 1 John 5:20 “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understand- ing, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” Prairie City Seniors Rose Coombs We got Derrol’s latest sur- gery done. Hope that is the last for a while. Three surger- ies in nine months is a little much. But when it needs to be done, I’m very thankful that there is professional help only four hours away. (Did you get that? “Only four hours away.”) Which brings up the speed limit between Mt. Vernon and Prineville. Why doesn’t ODOT discover that that stretch is OK for increased mph? We made a tour out to Bear Valley and found that the speed limit south of Canyon City is 65. When did that hap- pen? But across Waterman Flat it’s still 55. Give me a break! OK, so much for that rant. The flag salute was led by Drew Harmer and Jack Reth- erford asked the blessing. This was June birthday recognition day and Karen Barrietua was the winner of the $10 gift cer- tificate donated every month by Huffman’s Market. Lar- ry, Carlos and Ken made the home deliveries, and our sum- mer kitchen volunteer, Ellie Justice, began her duties. Our cooks, Marjean and Joy, are very thankful to have her. The meal: pizza, green salad, cottage cheese with pineapple and “sea foam” for dessert. If you’ve never had sea foam, you have missed a great dish. Starts out with lime Jell-O with walnuts, pineap- ple and coconut added. Then they put a dollop of topping on it. Whew. We were stuffed again. All 69 of us. And there was still room for you! Check us out on July 11, and you can stay for the tai chi class after- wards. What a deal. We were glad to see Jack and Betty Retherford back af- ter their vacation in the south. Also, Pam and Jim Howard after their trip north to Alaska. My, we do get around, don’t we? Lorna and Krystin brought Sandi Burns, Bud Salisbury, Marilyn Randall and Gordon Sindt from the Blue Moun- tain Care Center. And I can tell you, that bunch has been around! Also, if anyone knows what happened to the bright orange cone that we were put- ting out to keep the opening to the emergency ramp clear, please let us know. When we were locking up and wanting to put the cone away, it was not there. Another mystery. Tom’s food for thought: A diamond is a chunk of coal that made good under pres- sure. Right on! Got the garden weeded and discovered that some of the seeds must have blown out of their intended plot. Found car- rots in the beets and broccoli, tomato in the divider between plots and one lone broccoli (or cauliflower — can’t tell at this stage) out by the propane tank, six feet from where it’s sup- posed to be. Yes, I know that they should have started a long time ago in the greenhouse. But I was kind of busy with my housemate and his recov- ery from the shoulder surgery. Maybe I can get Joel to build a greenhouse over the garden plot, hmm? Genesis 2:8, 9 “Now the Lord God had planted a gar- den in the east, in Eden… And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground — trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food…” Church Services In Grant County Come Worship with us at 61005
