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 — Every week that goes by seems like faster than the week before. This week was so busy, I forget which day it is. Oh, so you say it isn’t so. Well, we all see things differently and that is OK. Next week I would like to have at least one day that I didn’t need to be somewhere besides home.

Tonight I am in Boise after a big day in John Day. The trip was very nice, no rain or snow and not too hot. Traffic was good too, so the whole trip went well.

On Monday, March 11, at our John Day Senior Center, Darlene and Margie greeted everyone who came by the desk to sign in for lunch and pick up meals. The in-house diners put their names in the drawings for the day and were able to check out all of the information that lives at the desk and the table opposite the desk. The back table near the desk holds goods donated by Chester’s Market, and guests can choose anything to their liking for themselves. Elsie gathered information and did the announcements. Everyone recited the flag salute together.

Fifty-seven fresh meals, 38 frozen meals and 10 takeout meals were delivered throughout the community by Barb Comer, Jeff and Jodi Cyphers, and Carolyn Stout. Thank you all for your service of love for others.

Our servers today were Jack, Sophie, Emile and Robin Jennings, Barb Comer, Marshall, Graham, Cora and Alison McCosker. We were well taken care of by this group. Thank you all. We dined on meatloaf and scalloped potatoes with all the trimmings. Good meal, Shay and Aleesa. We so appreciate Nancy and Valeda and Chris in the kitchen, as they get in and do everything they see needs done. It sure takes the load off of Shay and Aleesa to have these great women helping.

All total we had 130 meals that went out of our kitchen this day. Thanks to Shay and his crew, the kitchen was looking presentable when all was done at the end of this day.

On Thursday, March 14, Veanne and Judy were at the desk, greeting everyone who came by for lunch and meal pickups. They also made sure everyone was signed in and their names were put into the drawings for the day. Elsie gathered the information and did the announcements. We all said the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag together.

Sixty-two fresh meals were delivered into our community by Pati, Jeanette and Rick. Thank you all for your service of love. There were 32 takeout meals and 28 in-house diners. All total, there were 122 meals from our kitchen today and it still looks great. Good job, cooks.

Our meal today was corned beef and cabbage and several trimmings in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. The corned beef was mouthwatering. Good job, Shay. Our servers were Pati, Jeanette and Valeda. All went well and we so appreciate these great servers who even swept up when done.

Laptops are not my favorite way to type, so I am going really slow, with typos and the cursor jumping around on its own. This is so frustrating.

The event to honor the firefighters of Mt. Vernon was a success. Good food, good music, a great crowd, excellent chef and helpers and great organization of the event. The James Gang from this area played many instruments and sang country music. It was terrific. Many comments were made about the food and the music. Some of us could see the handiwork of the organizers of this event. It was great. Thanks to everyone for making this event a pleasure.

The painting class, orchestrated by Angel Carpenter with Painted Sky, was a huge success as well. Even I painted a picture and it was OK as it was a first ever for me. I was impressed and would like to see another class happen in the near future. There were several school students and several seniors together. It was a great experience for everyone. We all got to take our paintings home with us. I will frame my first painting. The students all did very well and even came up with strategies of their own to add to the original painting.

The Spring Fling is coming soon at the Elks Lodge. Prairie City will hold their easter egg hunt soon. The annual OTEC meeting is coming up. Sign up for the bus for OTEC at the desk. May 23 and 24 is a bazaar at our center, so mark your calendar as you will not want to miss it.

Scott Myers won the Chester’s card, and Robert Johnson won the free meal. Dave Pasko won a gift, and Elsie won a gift and regifted it to Bonnie Kocis.

Our center does rent out our building for events, so keep this in mind when you want to give a party, have a celebration or hold a meeting.

It seems I did not tuck a menu in my bag, so I am sorry I don’t have it right now. It is hard to remember everything I need to do a job when I travel.

Ephesians 2:10 KJV For we are HIS workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Which GOD hath ordained that we should walk in them.

MONUMENT — 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 in the paperwork. Bob led us in the flag salute and made the announcements. Yours truly prayed the blessing over the meal. The winner for the free meal ticket was Ted Phelps.

Our cooks Terry Cade and Carrie Jewell made us some yummy chicken enchiladas, rice, beans, all the fixings, and peach cobbler for dessert. We had a feast. We thank our wonderful cooks for our hearty and satisfying meal. I just realized, I forgot to eat my dessert!

We had some new visitors from Spray join us for lunch. We had Judy Fischer, Jody Graham and Christ Marcantonio. I believe they had a wonderful time and so much so that I think they will be back next week and bring along more friends!

The Monument School kids had their bake sale going on and will continue to do so until the end of April. They are heading for Boston in May for the end-of-the-school-year trip.

The city of Monument will be holding its annual community cleanup day, and it is just around the corner. They are going to switch things up a little bit and try and address the areas that are in greater need of cleanup. The city is looking for volunteers to help, and the date for this event is still TBD. If you would like to volunteer, you may call Dorothy at the city office. The phone number is 541-934-2025.

Well, it looks like my goats are going to be having their babies a little sooner than I thought. I have been checking the back ends of Shay and KiKi. They are pretty swollen and have got some big bags on them. I need to hurry and get some shelter ready for them to have their babies and move around some goats. I really need to list them on the internet for sale. I am hoping to sell some of the mama goats and definitely some of the young female pregnant goats. They will be mamas for the first time. I think they may be having triplets, but for sure, they are having twins. They are huge! I guess I won’t be going anywhere for awhile once those babies are here.

Continued from the previous week: I could not believe that I had a flat tire! These tires on my van were new. I checked my records book (smart hubby has a logbook for each of our cars) and we had bought these tires from Costco back in October. Since I had not run the car during the snowy months, the tires only had about 1,400 miles on them. Ms. Jean called her son, Scottie, to come over to change out the tire to the spare, and I called my hubby to ask him to bring over another vehicle.

Scottie changed out the tire and took the flat tire home to blow it up to see where the hole was. He brought it back and it was a big V-shaped gash and you could hear the air leaking out … pppsssssss … really loud, too.

To be continued …

Mark 6:12-13 And they went out, and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

PRAIRIE CITY —

“Never let a dog guard your food.” That is a saying attributed to St. Patrick. No one knows if he actually said it, but it is a good saying. … St. Patrick was born way back there in 387 or 390 A.D. (They didn’t keep as good records as we would desire today. Of course, today some of the records are lost in the “cloud,” never to return.) But we do know that he died in 461, on March 17. So that is why we wear green. Tom’s thought for the day: “May your greengrocer fill your shopping cart with green peppers, green onions, green tea and little green apples.” Hmm. He left out the green cabbage, lettuce, Brussels sprouts, limes, celery, asparagus, peas, cucumbers, parsley, etc., etc., etc. My, there is quite a variety, isn’t there?

On to business: Ginger led the flag salute, Tom asked the blessing, and Colin Kolb was the winner of the free meal. And being as how it was the meal before St. Patrick’s Day, our wonderful cooks, Pam and Pam, prepared a traditional Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and carrots, two kinds of green Jell-O salad, and Irish apple cake. Some lucky people got a strawberry shortcake dessert. Others had tapioca pudding. Hey, we got something for everybody! If you couldn’t have those items, you could have apricots or peaches for dessert. We aim to please. And we don’t charge an arm and a leg, either! (It’s actually a donation.)

Our volunteer helpers to make sure you got this wonderful repast included Tom, Sharon, Mary, Gwynne and Pam. We certainly do appreciate their good work. Misty helped out serving as Pam G. had to be gone today. We ask God to comfort her as her father passed away last week.

The wild roses are beginning to bud, so spring is on the way! In fact, when you get to read this, it will be here! Yay! We made it through winter! And I think I’m finally over the crud. It’s about time. After all, I don’t want to miss spring cleaning! Maybe I’ll get to the attic this year. Having a hard time navigating through all the stuff I’ve just shoved up there. Gonna have to do something about it.

Then there’s the garden … calling … and I have to tell it to wait. This is Grant County, Oregon. Microzone: “Don’t believe the calendar. It’s not time to plant.” Sure, down in the valley, the flowers are blooming. Here, they are still getting snowed on at 3 inches out of the ground. Then there is that strange plant that appeared that I thought was a cantaloupe or squash or even a hollyhock. It did not die over winter. Still proudly green out there all by itself. Do I pull it up or see what happens this year? I see that all the little violet seeds have germinated. They make good ground cover! But I really don’t want them in the garden! Hmmm. Wonder if they can crowd out the puncture vine?

Ps 23: 1, 2, 3 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. … He restores my soul.