Mt. Vernon resident Billie Bullard, who turned 101 on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022, celebrates her (almost) birthday with friends and family at the John Day Senior Center on Monday, Oct. 17, 2022.

JOHN DAY — The week of Aug. 11 through this day was so busy I cannot even remember where I was and when. Was in Boise for doctor appointments and tests. Big day. I tried to see my daughters and grandkids and great-grandkids, and it made me move so fast and then I was late getting home to watch the convention.

I try to keep informed on what is happening in our world. I listen to all sides and make my decisions. It just isn’t right to just listen to one newscaster or read from one author. I feel I need to know the full spectrum of things. However, much of it does not remain in my brain. The memory bank is full, I feel. Ha.

During this last week in my absence, Darlene Nodine filled in some spots for me and others did the rest. It’s good to have a team. We cannot always be everywhere at one time. Our lives are very complex and get more so as time goes on.

This week for our two in-house lunches we had Darlene, Judy Thomas and Sonie Guttu at the desk to greet everyone and keep records and file records after lunch and make bank deposits for all the donations that came in.

The Cornerstone Church was represented by Carolyn Stout and Leslie; and the Redeemer Lutheran church was represented by Buzz and Bobbie Gilmore and their two grandsons, Blaine and Landon, and Anna Hartwood. Our volunteers are very special people. We could not operate our center without them. I am so proud to be one of them.

A total of 169 meals were delivered to residents of our community by Blue Mountain Hospital Auxiliary; Kathy McPheeters, Maurita Coombs, Sherry Joslin, McKayla Audis, and Peggy Molnar and her friend Theresa, whose last name I do not know. A big thanks to all our volunteer drivers who give their time, car, fuel, and of themselves to all the recipients of these meals. Each one has a heart of gold and of love for other people. I feel it is a God-given gift to have this kind of love. There were 20 takeout meals this week, and there were approximately 60 in-house diners. All these meals made a total of 249 meals our chef, Shay, prepared from our kitchen last week. Wow!

The Grant County Jammers play and sing for us every Monday morning from 10 to noon, which is so awesome we cannot thank them enough. They brought in a newsletter from the Blue Mountain Old Time Fiddlers for us to be able to see what they do, etc. It is on our bulletin board if you are interested. There is extra if you want to take one.

Kerman Kennedy brought two large watermelons for our kitchen the other day. Shay is grateful. Thank you, Kerman. Joe Phippen brought in produce from his garden; cucumbers, beets and zucchini. There was some yellow squash — anyway, we thought it was squash; someone said it tastes like a cross between cantaloupe and muskmelon, and Joe said it was sort of sweet. I took one home and cut it up and peeled it. It was crisper than muskmelon, sweet like watermelon, white in color, tasted a bit like a pear and mixed melon. It was really good. Thank you, Joe.

The meals this week were so very good, I heard a couple people say: The meals here are really good. Shay, if you are reading this, just know we all appreciate the great food we are blessed with.

From the fire camps, we were blessed with more leftovers. We are all grateful. First, it helps with our budget; second, they are mostly individually wrapped items and that is great for our delivered meals.

If you have received a Len’s gift card from one of our lunches, please use them. Len’s is feeling like we don’t appreciate getting them, so they are reluctant to continue donating them. Thanks in advance.

David Pasko’s wife was rushed to Bend just a few days after she came home from having surgery, with very low blood pressure. He was going to get her on Thursday the 22nd. Say a prayer that she is recovering as she should be and returns to her normal self. When a spouse is ill, it is also hard on you.

Our newest kitchen assistant, Tammy, is also dealing with helping her husband after a shoulder surgery. Keep these two families in mind and give a shout out to our Heavenly Father to keep them in good health.

Shirley Dinsmore won the Chester’s card, and Blaine James won the free meal. Congratulations to both of you.

Tomorrow, Monday, Aug. 26, lunch will be American goulash, garlic toast, veggies with green salad, fruit, fruit salad. Thursday, Aug. 29, we will dine on pot roast, roasted potatoes and carrots, fruit, cookies. Yum.

Proverbs 16:16 How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding than silver?

MONUMENT — Our cooks Carrie Jewell and Christy Howell made us baked beef nachos with all the fixings, a fresh green salad, and pudding with whipped cream for our dessert. It was a nice, filling meal and of course I had to have lots of jalapenos with it! LOL. We thank our cooks for their hard labor in cooking up this meal for all of us.

Our greeters at the table were Bob Cockrell and Sue Cavender. They checked in all the guests, collected and counted up the money. Jan Ensign filled out the paperwork. Bob led us in the flag salute and made the announcements. Yours truly prayed the blessing over the meal. The winner of the free meal ticket was Sue Cavender.

Not only did Sue win the free meal ticket, she was also the recipient of happy birthday wishes and of course we had to sing to her the “happy birthday” song! Her birthday was the day prior, and we all hoped she had a wonderful day.

The Monument Senior/Community Center is receiving at this time any donations for the upcoming rummage sale on the Labor Day weekend. The only items that they don’t need are big items such as beds. Gently used and clean clothing is welcomed. The rummage sale will be on Friday, Aug. 30, and Saturday, Aug. 31. There will be a bag sale on Sunday, Sept. 1. Sylvia Cockrell is heading up this event and has asked if there are any volunteers willing to help set up on the 28th and 29th of August. It would be much appreciated.

Dennis Abraham has made and donated a beautiful gimbal clock for the upcoming Buckaroo event for live auction. This is a one-of-a-kind item. There will be other wonderful items that will be up for auction as well at the Buckaroo on Sept. 21. Hope you all can make it!

There will be bingo at the Monument Senior/Community Center on Saturday, Aug. 31. The start time is 6 p.m. and they share a potluck dinner. They play 10 games, share the potluck dinner, and then play 10 more games. So come on out for some good, clean family fun!

Continued from the previous week: So our county trapper, Nolan Riis, came out early the next morning and set up traps and had his hounds sniffing around. But the weather started getting warm, and the dogs lost the scent. My hubby and I were chatting with him and his wife about the incident and I thought that the cougar did not get its meal since that goat was able to get away. Nolan did not think cougars would, though, and said he saw some drag marks outside of the goat pen and some white fur on the fence. My hubby asked if I did a head count of the goats, and I realized there was a white goat that might be missing. I went down to look for her and sure enough, she was not among the goats.

I came back over to Nolan and informed him that we are missing a white adolescent goat, and he thought that made more sense. The cougar tried to get the one with the lost jaw, could not get it and then went after another goat. Nolan then went out to the pasture and walked around and, sure enough, found the white goat, or what was left of her. That cougar had hidden it in the nice little thicket. So Nolan set up the traps around that goat and said he would come back early the next day and was pretty confident that the cougar would come back for the rest of the goat. To be continued …

Lamentations 3:22 It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.

PRAIRIE CITY — Augh! This 21st century and all its electronic devices! (Now what brought all that on?) Tried to make telephone contact with two different cellphone owners and could not even leave a message because “the mailbox is full.” And when I finally got someone to answer, they were surprised to hear that that was the reason I kept calling. I’m so glad that I have a land line and an old-fashioned answering machine.

Then when I went to the bank to make the deposit, their internet system was down. They had to resort to counting by hand and writing by hand a receipt. Just extrapolate that to our infrastructure that deals with our food, clothing and shelter. What’s gonna happen when the whole system is down? Everyone will be “back to basics.” OK, enough of that …

On to our normal activities: Delores led the flag salute, Del Lake was awarded the gift certificate from Katrina’s Barber Shop for $10 off a haircut, and Tom asked the blessing.

Ginger announced that there will be a “Medicare Changes for 2025” informational forum here on Oct. 2 at 1 p.m. after the meal. So mark your calendar. The changes are very significant, so you need to be up to speed. If you want to come to dinner before, be sure to let the cooks know so there will be enough food for all.

And speaking of food: If you missed today’s meal, you certainly missed a fantastic meal! We had an extremely delicious roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, veggie tray, fruit, Jell-O salad (the green kind with carrots in it) and lots of different desserts. Mmmm, it was ever so yummy! Good job, Pam and Pam.

And we also thank our volunteers: Mary, Sharon, Teresa, Brenda, Tom and the other Pam. We appreciate all you do.

And we especially appreciate those who came to dine with us today: the Camarenas and two ladies from the school summer work crew. Very nice to see you.

The biggest topic of discussion is the sidewalk renovation’s progress. I just keep wondering if they are doing this in places like Austin, Drewsey, Unity … hmm.

The garden report: Not much to report. If you had a good garden year, count yourself blessed. The peas that were over 5 feet tall last year barely got to 1 foot this year. And I never got a beet to germinate even after trying three times! The seeds from the cantaloupe I bought at the store last year all germinated, but there are only 10 little melons growing fatter. Am slowly harvesting the cucumbers. Again, lots of blossoms, but not many fruits. Strange garden year. Think I’ll go pull up a few carrots for dinner …

Genesis 1:11-13 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds. And it was so. The land produced … and God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and … morning — the third day.