The problem with not keeping current on the BLOG is that you have allot of backtracking to do to figure out what has been going on during the time the last post was done. Fortunately we do put most of our activities on the calendar so I will just look all the way back to May. Don't panic I will not put every little detail, just try and do the highlights.
June was spent getting ready for the annual Amateur Radio Field Day held the last weekend of the month where as many contacts are made to other amateurs on the air as possible. This year the club decided to also sponsor the Kids Day event and invited young people to come out to the club and get on the air talking to other young people around the country. We had one Cub Scout troop attend and several members kids. Not many contacts were made, conditions were not that good. We had several other club events the past months. We put on a Central Counties Illinois Hamfest, August 26th. The club used to do this every year but it was last done in 2002. We held it at the Vermilion County Fair Grounds. It went real well for the amount of time we had to put it together. Then October 6th several members participated in the 1st annual Space Jamboree at the Camp Drake Scout Camp, Oakwood IL. The event included contacts made with both NASA and the International Space Station. I gave seven sessions covering some of the information the scouts needed to get their Radio Merit Badge, Other members helped the Scouts get their "hands on" Radio contact experience.
We had several visits from Bob's family this summer. Both Vicki and Ginny (Bob's daughters who live in Illinois) visited with their husbands and we had several other get together's with Vicki and Mark in Urbana. One of the highlights of the summer was our trip to Chicago to see the Blue Man Group. Vickie, Mark, Bob and I stayed with Ginny and Morgan and we all went into Chicago for the production. Really enjoyed the show and dinner after. Just this month we had a real treat with Bob's daughter Robin and her son Jason stopping by on their way from Florida to Colorado. Jason had just graduated from school learning to do stage sound and lighting. It was a great visit. My son Mike is doing well, he lives with us and works at a machine shop in Indiana. The Tucker's are all busy and doing well.
We had the motorhome out for several outings at our friends at Morning Wood (Tom and Claudia). They had parties in June, July and October. Some folks come out and camp at the area that is set aside for this purpose on the property (seventeen acres of woods) and others just come out for the day. We usually take the motorhome out on Friday for the weekend. As usual a good time was had by all.
Speaking of the motorhome it is in the repair shop. You know the saying "if it rains it pours". The refrigerator stopped working and we had to get a new one, the microwave smoked so we are trying to find out if it can be repaired and the TV's are both out. After the new refrigerator is installed we will be taking it to the glass repair place to have the front passenger window replaced, the window was cracked several years ago.
Bob continues to volunteer at the VA every month and I am still volunteering for the Red Cross. Some of our Red Cross members went to Wisconsin for the floods and California for the fires. I continue to be on call, after hours, for part of each month for any emergency calls that come in for Vermilion County. I have given assistance for several house fires this summer.
We are getting ready for the winter. Had the chimney sweep guy out, not to sure how much we will burn in the fireplace because the fire place is in the basement and the wood has to go down the stairs and the ashes up the stairs. Bob finished painting the horse barn doors and has been working on putting plastic framed coverings on the outside of the basement windows. Kickapoo Landing ended for the season this past weekend and brought six trailers of canoes, a bus, and three vans out today and they are in our pole barn for the winter. Dyna likes having company.
As you can see from the picture of the "farm" the leaves are starting to fall and along with that it's getting colder. The time changes this weekend, before you know it the snow will fall.
