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 — On Monday, Sept. 16, 30 diners enjoyed teriyaki pork loin, vegetables, key lime tarts, and great music by the Blue Mountain Old-Time Fiddlers. Darlene Nodine and Dave Pasko worked the front desk. Volunteers from Living Word Christian Center and Blue Mountain Hospital helped serve and clean up after the meals.

Carol Claire offered the prayer and thanked God for the much-needed rain. Millie Lysne and Flora Cheadle delivered 61 hot meals to seniors in John Day, Canyon City and Mt. Vernon. Monday’s meals were sponsored by the John Day Senior Center bingo group.

On Thursday, Sept. 19, front desk greeters Judy Thomas and Sonie Guttu welcomed 25 in-house diners. Volunteers from the Methodist Church served, cleaned up, and delivered 61 fresh and 54 frozen meals to local seniors. Many thanks to Brian Hubbard, owner of the Grubsteak Restaurant, for his donation of a turkey and a box of apples, and to Chester’s for its donation of delightful treats from its bakery.

Reminder: The John Day Senior Center will hold its first annual bingo fundraiser and spaghetti feed on Oct. 12 starting at 5 p.m. Come join the fun!

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 out the paperwork. Bob led us in the flag salute and made the announcements. Yours truly prayed the blessing over the meal. Ellie Lucas was the winner of the free meal ticket.

Our cooks, Carrie Jewell and Christy Howell, made us chili dogs with all the fixings, curly fries, a fresh green salad, and cheesecake for dessert. I chose the spicy jalapeno dog for me and it was good. The cheesecake was super yummy as well. We all enjoyed the lunch and thank our cooks for all their hard work! We appreciate them.

When you read this, the biggest event of the year for the Monument Senior/Community Center will have already happened. Ellie gave an emotionally charged address to all the volunteers who have come together and given many hours of service to ensure the success of this event.

So many have tirelessly given of their time, energy, work, and sweat to the Buckaroo Festival. There is still more work that they will put in during the event that has yet to occur but will have occurred when you read this. Ha. A great shout of thanks to all who have put in hours of work for the Buckaroo event!

We also want to thank all the businesses and vendors out there who have generously donated auction items, goods and services for the Buckaroo. Without the help and support of our local businesses, the Buckaroo would not be such a wonderful family event. So, again, we want to thank all of our local businesses for their awesome support to help make the Buckaroo a success.

We all celebrated and sang the happy birthday song to three Judys, for they all had birthdays this week. They were Judi Bustardo of Service Creek, Judy Cavender and Judy Harris of Monument. Hope they all had a wonderful birthday!

The Monument/Dayville sports program is in need of people to help join their committee. So if anyone is interested, please contact the schools.

Can you smell the change in the weather yet? I just realized that I have not been paying enough close attention to the leaves of trees. That will definitely be an indicator that fall is in the air. We have all noticed that the mornings are pretty cool, down to the 40s, and even into the 30s, brr!

This cooler weather is definitely helping the firefighters out there in putting out the fires, thank the good Lord. We have been seeing a lot of wildlife close to the house because of the fires that burned a month ago. There is not much out there for the critters to eat and so they have encroached closer to our house.

A couple of my grape plants were decimated of their leaves by some deer or deers. Our neighbor caught a picture of some big tom cougar on their game camera. So the predators are definitely following the trail of their prey. Hopefully this tomcat will steer clear of my goats.

I think we will be taking a bunch of the goats out to market for sale. They are definitely pigs. Seriously, if we don’t give them enough (or what they think is enough) they will cry and whine. I am talking crying and whining super loud and obnoxiously! LOL.

James 5:15-16 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the LORD will raise him up, and if he have committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

PRAIRIE CITY — So the question of the day is did the snow on Strawberry last until last weekend’s rainstorm? I saw snow before the rain came and did not see any after the rain. Of course, in Grant County that snow may have come during the summer months! (Ahem.) We are very thankful for the rain, anyway. That’s what we were praying for, right? Thank you, Lord.

Debra led the flag salute; the discounted haircut donated by Katrina’s Barber Shop went to ME! Have an appointment for next month, so this will come in very handy. Tom asked the blessing. Our volunteers included Mary, Sharon, Gwynne, Pam, Teresa, Natalie and Tom. Thank you so much for all you do.

We dined on sweet and sour chicken over rice, mixed vegetables, Jell-O salad with fruit, and a chocolate cream pie that was 3 inches high! I measured it!! And there weren’t any leftovers of it! I must confess that I had never seen a pie that high. Looked like a wedding cake, not a pie. Our sponsor for this meal was Brenda Kehrberg.

Tom found some birthdays for this week: In 1098, Hildegard, the original singing nun, was born; in 1387, Henry V, a king of France and England (they had quite a time with that situation back then); James Cash Penney was born in 1875 (wonder how many of the young people of today know what he started); and in 1925 B. B. King. Quite a variety, hmmm?

Tom brought in a bunch of houseplant starts to give away, and they all went out to new homes. I really don’t have a place to put any plants in my house, so I was not tempted. (Ahem.) I do have one plant that is growing well in the sunny south-facing window. Going to have to re-pot it soon. Think I’ll take it over to Tom’s wife. She’s got a green thumb …

We were informed that we have a candidate for the next Prairie City mayor in our midst. Board Member Colin Kolb is waging a write-in campaign for the position. And since I’m not online, I have no way of obtaining any news about other candidates for the other political races that will be on the ballot. (I sure miss learning about the other senior centers’ activities, too.)

The carrot harvest is progressing. Pulled two rows today and cleaned them and gave them away. Still have three rows to go! Do you know what you get when you don’t thin carrot seedlings? Curvy carrots!! But I just hate to pull up a plant that germinated.

Anyway, there were some crazy-shaped carrots. And two of the plants went to seed, so I’m protecting their stalks. If I’m lucky, I can save the seed and won’t have to buy any next year! By the time you read this summer will be over, and only three months until Christmas. I think I’ll be able to supply a yellow vegetable for dinner for the holiday meal …

James 1:19, 21 Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger … Therefore … humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.