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 — No column this week.

MONUMENT — Wow, winter is just around the corner! How can this be? I feel like I blinked and summer was over. So much has happened this summer that has caught many off guard, including me. The fires were the worst distractions, if I can make light of it just so that I am not in fear, and I learned invaluable lessons from that event! That is for sure. Like never putting off something till tomorrow when you can do it today.

Here is an example that I can share. We all lost power on Monday around 5 p.m. until Tuesday morning (we all thought we might not have Tuesday lunch). I had a nudging from the Holy Spirit to pickle my cucumbers the night before, but I was being lazy and then we had no power! I should have listened to the Lord. Now those cucumbers are going to be mushy. See? If you feel a nudge to take care of something, just do it, don’t put it off.

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

Our cooks, Carrie Jewell and Christy Howell, faithfully made our lunch for us. We want to thank them profusely for they received word that lunch was on at the last minute when all our power came back on around 8:30 that morning! They made us a hearty meal of spaghetti, garlic bread, a fresh green salad, and chocolate cookies for our dessert. We thank them for our delicious meal and for their hard work and dedication. We appreciate them very much.

We want to thank David and Karen Stubblefield for their very generous donations to the Monument Senior/Community Center. All those items will be used to help bring in funds for our organization. We appreciate their wonderful support!

We also want to thank and recognize Robert Blue. He donated $1,500 to the upcoming Buckaroo Fall/Harvest Festival event. We thank you, Robert, for your generous support and we appreciate you very much.

Don’t forget that the Buckaroo is Saturday, Sept. 21. There will be lots of activities going on before the dinner. There will be a lunch available for purchase that will be sold by the EMTs of Monument, games, rock painting for the kids, live music, and registration for the live and silent auctions.

If anyone out there can help support the dessert auction during the Buckaroo dinner by donating desserts, it would be much appreciated. There are going to be lots of items that many of the local businesses have generously donated to support us which will be in the live and silent auctions. We want to thank all those businesses who have supported us and we appreciate them all!

Psalms 32:7 Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble, Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.

PRAIRIE CITY — I suppose that most of us can remember what we were doing 23 years ago …

Tom told a few stories of people who did not die because they were detained for some reason or other. We were remodeling the bathroom at the ranch house and were camping in the driveway in the little RV. In one of those odd quirks of electrons, we were able to receive the PBS TV signal from Boise in the RV and that’s how we learned about the events of the day. I went ahead and went to school wondering what I could say to my kindergarteners and older about the tragedy.

I like the philosophy of Mallard Fillmore in the East Oregonian: “It’s been 23 years since … 9/11 … which is apparently how long it takes for some of us to forget that radical Islamist terrorism is a bad thing.” ‘Nuff said.

We celebrated a special birthday with our meal today. Faithful supporter Delores Scott requested that the meal today be chicken fajitas in honor of her 96th birthday. And the cooks said sure! And then head cook Pam said that anyone can request a special meal within reason for a special day. So lots of heads began planning …

Along with the entree, we had lots of fruits and vegetables, plus cottage cheese. For dessert there were some more banana bread brownies and some cookies. For your drinking pleasure, we had water, juice, tea and milk. The fajitas were a little hot for my sensitive tissues, so I was glad for the milk and cottage cheese!

Chris C. led the flag salute, and Tom asked the blessing. The free meal went to Cam Wishart. Our volunteers included Sharon, Mary, Carla, Gwynne, Teresa, Tom and Natalie. Thank you much, people. Your service is appreciated.

Ah, the rains came. Hope it helped put out the fire around Dayville. We are all praying to that end.

I harvested a cantaloupe! It doesn’t seem to be as sweet as I remember the one tasted that I got the seeds from, but maybe that is because I just picked it and immediately cut it open to eat. Didn’t let it “rest” and ripen off the vine. Hmmm. Oh, well.

Have started harvesting the carrot crop. That is the one vegetable that grew extremely well this year. I had 11 2-foot rows in the two bathtubs. Have 12 quarts in the freezer now. And that is only from three rows! Wow.

The peas have finally decided that they can grow. Have gone past 3 feet. And a volunteer sunflower has six blooms on it. It is on the east side of the house, so doesn’t get all the sunshine it would like. Nice to see it, though. The grasshoppers seem to have disappeared, and a frog is sounding off under the house. I don’t think those two items are related, however …

We didn’t have to use the swamp cooler today, but did turn the heat up. Had to find a heavier shirt today! But we are all good Boy Scouts, right? Always prepared!

1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.