JOHN DAY — This week our center prepared, packaged, served and delivered a total of 287 meals. Some were delivered throughout the county, and some were partaken of here. Our cooks really do a good job to get this all done nicely and leave their kitchen presentable.

The people who did deliveries were Blue Mountain Auxiliary members, including Ellie Lens and one other lady with her, Becky Reinhart, and the Living Word Church, including Millie Lysne, Carolyn Stout and Flora: Jeanette Julsrud, Peggy Molnar, Cindy Combs and Pati Davis. All of these people use their own vehicles, their own fuel, and their time. This can only be because they have compassion for others. Thank you, each one, for your service of love.

Several people volunteered to do different things for our in-house lunches. They were Elsie Huskey, Gregg Starr, Sherry Feiger and Delores Belden of the Methodist Church, and Judy Thomas, Carol Roe, Darlene Nodine, Carolyn Stout and Chris Robbins.

Monday the 18th we dined on barbecue chicken pizza, green salad, Jell-O and pudding cups for dessert. Then on Thursday the 21st we dined on turkey in gravy over mashed potatoes, veggies, rolls and peach croissants for dessert. Good food, lots of comments, everyone seemed to enjoy the meal and involved themselves in conversation as well.

Margie Conley got a new knee on the 18th, so we missed her on Thursday. Dave Pasko’s wife got a new shoulder on  the 19th, so we wish both ladies a quick and full recovery.

Saturday the 23rd will be a life celebration of Kay Cotham beginning around 11 a.m. at the senior center in John Day. A memorial for Clayton Curtis, sponsored by his son Steve, will be on Friday the 29th. We should know the time by next week.

We are pleased to have a young man from Humbolt School wrapping our dinnerware each Monday for us. He wishes to remain anonymous, so thanks for your service, anyway. We appreciate all you do.

Pacific Choice insurance is providing lunch for all attendees on Thursday, Oct. 5. There will be two sessions for the briefing, 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Our library is actually overstocked with books, puzzles, DVDs, CDs, magazines, craft books, and soft- and hardbound books. Linda has worked hard to keep caught up with all the books, etc., that have been coming in. Stop by and even sit a while in this beautiful library.

This week Elsie won the Len’s card, Joy Caffey won the Chester’s card, and Linda Pifer and Dale Stennett won the free meals.

Congratulations to all of our winners this week.

Thursday, Oct. 28, lunch will be gold miner’s chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, veggies and cook’s choice for dessert. Monday, Oct. 2, will be the next date for lunch. Menus are not ready yet, so come and lunch with us and see what our cooks have in store for us.

Colossians 2:10 I am complete in Him who is the head over all rule and authority of every angelic and earthly power.

MONUMENT — I don’t know about the rest of the country, but here in Monument the weather has changed drastically in the last week, and it is getting quite chilly. We went down to the high 30s a few days ago, and I am seriously thinking of pulling out some of my winter clothes. I even put away a bunch of my tank tops for next summer! I wore a pair of jeans the other day, for I was cold. Well, this change in weather is perfect for ringing in the fall with the Buckaroo Festival and Harvest Auction.

Our cooks, Terry Cade and Carrie Jewell, made us all some very delicious lasagna, garlic bread, fresh green salad, and pear pie tarts for our dessert. It was super-yummy, and I noticed a bunch of people had to go back for seconds. I just mooched off of my hubby’s second helping. LOL. We thank our wonderful cooks for their excellent cooking. We are truly grateful.

Our greeters at the table were Bob Cockrell and Sue Cavender. They greeted all the guests, checked them in, collected and, with the help of Jan Ensign, counted up the money. Bob led us in the flag salute, and Judy Harris made the announcements. Yours truly prayed the blessing over the meal. We thank all our volunteers, who make our senior center run smoothly.

Everything and everyone is abuzz over here preparing for the Buckaroo. Judy Harris, Judy Cavender, Ellie Asher, Brian and Kathy Woodell, along with many others, have spent many hours working and preparing for the upcoming event. We just thank them and everyone who is devoting much love, time and support to make the Buckaroo possible. We hope to see many people attend and just enjoy a simple celebration of the coming change in season. It is a most excellent day to spend with family and friends. I hope many people will make it.

Our senior center received a beautifully made quilt sent in by Terry and Mara Johns of Pendleton, Oregon. It was quilted by someone for there was a label on it but I cannot remember name so I will have to give recognition to the lady who quilted it in my next article. We thank Terry and Mara for their generous donation, and it is much appreciated! The quilt will be a wonderful addition to our auction.

I was looking at my bottle babies while I fed them their hay the other day and noticed that the boys who are intact were growing beards! Oh, my! I got to thinking that it would not be a good thing to have the boys together with the girls. LOL. So I decided to put the intact bottle baby boys with the wild wether boy goats and take the wild girl goats and put them together with my bottle baby girl goats. I only left Tommy and Jimmy with the girls. They are wethers and hopefully won’t bother the girls. I am constantly having to juggle goats around and I am sure it is confusing for my poor hubby and son when they are trying to count heads in every pen to make sure everyone is present. Ha. Let’s see if they notice if something is amiss! Ha.

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned.

PRAIRIE CITY — Wow. Fall really fell, didn’t it?! One day the AC needs to be on, the next one the heater is set on 76 degrees! And I had to put my T-shirt on. But wasn’t the rain lovely? No more irrigating! Got the garden all put to bed before Oct. 1, too. That usually never happens. Watch out for the Indian summer next month.

Tom rang the bell at 12 noon, and Lynn led the flag salute. Ginger gave the announcements, and Ruth Roark was the winner of the free meal. Tom asked the blessing and then did the trivia for the day. In 1934 Sophia Loren was born. She said, “Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.” OK. … In 1973, Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match.

“Remember the banana — when it left the bunch, it got skinned.” Ahem.

Our trivia question had to do with the middle names of some of our presidents. Chester A. Arthur succeeded James A. Garfield in 1881. What did the initial A stand for in their names? Garfield’s was Abram. I said Abraham, and I was close enough! (Arthur’s was Alan.) So our table adjourned to the serving window to pick up our bowl of beef stew and a nice large roll. While we did that, Tom had other initials in president’s names that determined who went next.

The Blue Mountain Care Center got to come to dinner today for the first time since the COVID fiasco. We were very happy to welcome Marilyn, Charlene, Sandra, Bessie and Darien, along with their driver and helper Aries and Jessica. They enjoyed their beef stew along with watermelon, peaches, apricots, Jell-O with strawberries, cottage cheese, and tapioca pudding for dessert. A “welcome to fall” meal with all the harvest fruits in appearance, huh? ’Twas delicious. Thanks to our great cooks, Pam and Pam. We were short on volunteers today, so others stepped into the breach. Thanks to Sharon, Mary, Tom, Pam and Ruth for helping where it was needed.

Ginger announced that we are working on getting a flu clinic here next month. Hopefully. Did I tell you that we have oodles and oodles of Louis L’Amour books in the library? If you like him, we can supply! The jigsaw puzzles I took home have been awaiting my leisure. Finally got the top one onto the table and discovered that there were two different puzzles in the box. One is the picture on the box and the pieces are normal-sized. But the other one is large pieces and definitely not the photo. And I don’t think either one has all the border pieces! Most frustrating!! Just about ready to pitch them both and get another one out. Life is too short to put up with this kind of bafflement!

In the “it’ll be useful someday” department, I was given an almost full box of old computer printer paper that has the little tear-off holes on the sides. Was just recently contemplating having to purchase some printer paper, and now I don’t have to! PTL.

Dan. 10:21 But first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. Rev. 20:12 … and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life ….