Dad’s Weekly Report

Dear Family,

Today it feels like winter outside. It is cold and windy. Actually it is only 50ºF but it feels much colder. The weather report says that it is supposed to start raining the day after tomorrow and stay raining for the foreseeable future. In this country that means that it will stop raining about the 4^th of July.

Sandy left me for a couple of weeks. So Allen and Izzie and I are suffering, having to take care of ourselves. I stayed home because I want to be here if I get opportunities for job interviews. I hope that I get some. There is a possibility for one in Portland, but it is a small chance. I got a message from the windmill company in Flagstaff that they chose someone else for the job. That was disappointing. I had a second interview with a company in Issaquah, WA, which is just east of Seattle on Wednesday of this past week. The interviews went well, but it was only for an hour. I don’t know why but I get the feeling that I am not the top candidate for that job. Oh well, I will keep trying.

I got an oak board and started work on a rack to display a quilt, that Sandy wants me to build. We have a beautiful quilt that was made by my Grandma Christiansen. Sandy wants to display it and therefore needs this rack. We saw such a rack in a furniture store a couple of weeks ago. Sandy and I discussed how to decorate the rack so that it wouldn’t be so plain. She suggested I cut out some musical notes in the side of it since Grandma Christiansen played the organ so well. I made some templates for my router to make the musical notes in the oak boards. So far I have cut out one note. Here is a picture of it. (Sandy took the camera, so I had to make this picture with the scanner.) My plan is to cut out three notes on both sides of the rack. If I take my time and be careful it should turn out pretty well.

At the blacksmith shop the last couple of weeks I built a pair of tongs. There seems to be a shortage of tongs to hold ⅜ inch square stock. Every time I need a pair of tongs like that I have to search through the racks so I decided to make one and put it next to my forge. It turned out pretty well. There are a couple of young fellows who have been coming in the shop when I am there and that really helps because I can ask them to strike for me. Sometimes you need three hands and I just got two.

There is one type of weld called a “drop tongs weld”, used when you are attaching one end of bar to another. Here is how it is supposed to work. You bring both pieces up to welding heat with flux on them. Then you pull both out of the fire with tongs one in each hand. You put the ends together that are to be welded. You lay them on the anvil with the right hand piece on bottom, holding it down on the anvil with the left hand piece. You drop the tongs in your right hand, pick up the hammer and pound the joint. It has to be done in few seconds or the pieces will cool and won’t weld.  What usually happens is that the right hand piece falls off the anvil as you try to hold it down with the left hand piece and pick up your hammer. It is a lot easier if you have someone else standing there to pound the joint as you hold the two pieces together.

Anyway when making tongs you use this type of weld to weld longer handles on. It really helped that there was someone there to help.

Tomorrow is Allen’s 25^th birthday. I told him that I would take him out to dinner. Maybe we will go to a German restaurant. I hope that all is well with you. Please call when you can.

Love,

John

Dear Family,

Well I have lots to report since my last letter. This past week I traveled to Flagstaff, AZ on a job interview. I visited a small company that makes small windmills. I interviewed with most of the management staff. My interview started a t 9:30AM and didn’t end until after 6PM. The job would be very interesting, a lot of work, probably long hours. My concerns are if I would have the resources to do a good job, and they have almost no benefits. For example my health insurance with my HP retirement is less expensive than their company supplied health insurance. I expect that I will hear back from them this week. I was also able to visit with two people from another company for about an hour concerning another job while I was in Flagstaff. I have another job interview this coming Wednesday with a company near Seattle. So pretty good activity on the job search.

The past three weeks Sandy and I have gone on hikes. The first was climbing Hamilton Mountain. The hike starts near Beacon Rock in the Columbia Gorge. It is about 7 ½ miles up and back and we climbed about 2100 feet. Here is a picture of Sandy at the top. It was a pretty hard hike. There was really a lot of beautiful views of the Columbia Gorge.

The next week we drove out to Astoria and hiked from Fort Clatsop to the beach. Fort Clatsop is where Lewis & Clark spent the winter before they started back to the East on their exploring trip. The hike is about 6 to 7 miles. Here is a picture of me where we crossed under highway 101. The hikes started out in a forest then after crossing the highway the trail goes through some cow pastures. While we were hiking along the cow pastures we saw one of the windmills that are made by the company in Flagstaff. It was exciting to find it. Allen drove out with us and drove our car to pick us up at the end of the trail.

Yesterday we went out to Washougal and hiked along the dike next to the Columbia River. We hiked about 8 ½ miles. There is a wildlife refuge there and we saw a large white swan in the water.

Sandy is really trying to get me in shape. She takes me on her walk in the morning 6 days a week. We walk about 4 miles a day. Issie our dog goes with us. She is pretty peppy at the start of the walk but by the end she is dragging behind. In dog years she is about 90 years old so I guess she is showing her age.

It seems like winter is here. It is rainy and cold today and we had to turn the heater on in the house. We picked Ruth’s big pumpkin in the garden because the vines had pretty much died. Its final weight is 64 ½ pounds. I think that is less than Wes’s pumpkin so I guess we lost the contest.

Well that is all the news for this week. I hope that all is well with you.

Love,

John