Ketchup with the Krecklows

OOOPS, Sorry!  Meant to say “Catch Up”.  Oh well, now that you’re here, you may as well see what we’ve been up to.  I promise to keep it short as we are getting ready to leave again to spend father’s day weekend with the Portland bunch.

We have been BUSY!  Now that we’re retired, I can’t figure out how we ever had time to work.  All the tasks that we normally complete (or think about completing!) in March or April, have been delayed by the nasty wet weather we have been enjoying this spring.  So now we are trying to get some things caught up.

We have been spreading poison in the driveway – Yes!  I do use weed killer to keep the weeds away so if this puts me in the bear pit, so be it.  We have a half acre lot and if I tried to pull all the weeds by hand I would either NEVER get done or I would be dead by the time I finished.  Since the neighbors don’t appreciate weeds that have gone to seed blowing into their yards, I do what I can to kill them suckers before they take over.  In Oregon, with all the rain we have, when the sun comes out EVERYTHING grows.  I also use Preen in the flower beds to try and stay on top of unwanted growth.  This year I used an extra helping as I am holding to my promise to Russ to NOT plant any annuals.  Bare ground = weeds so I do what I have to do to take care of the problem.  Oh yes, I also kill slugs and snails with poison bait…and NO the dogs don’t eat it!!

We have been power washing everything that doesn’t move (RUN Poppy – RUN Rusty!)  We got the patio and the tables done, and yesterday got about half of the pool deck done.  It’s hard work but it sure looks good afterwards.  Moss is a continual problem here so it has to be handled one way or the other.


I also got rid of a couple of house plants that were more trouble than they were worth.  this made Russ very happy!!
















Now we have two less things to worry about when we travel.  No house plants to water!!



We went to another graduation this past Monday.  This was for our granddaughter Cailin who was graduating from fifth grade.  Cailin has attended since kindergarten a Japanese Immersion school here in Eugene.  Her younger sister also attends so they can speak Japanese to each other and no one in the family has idea what they are saying.  It’s a great school and the graduation celebration was both touching and very comical.  The kids had all broken into small groups and made skits about each year of their schooling.  Some of the skits were roll on the floor funny.  It’s amazing the creativity kids have when you turn them loose.  Cailin looked so grown up I could hardly believe it.








Afterward we went to Marie Callendar’s to celebrate.  This photo is Cailin with her parents, Arwen and our son Josh,  and her great grandma Betty.  Grandma Betty is Arwen’s Grandma and we always enjoy her company.  She is fun and lively and loves to play Skip-Bo!!







A couple of weeks ago, I convinced Cailin to play the keyboard and sing for me – well actually, I tried to convince her but nothing worked until I bribed her!!  Anyway, here is a link to her playing and singing “Imagine” by John Lennon.  While the views expressed by this song are not necessarily the views of the owner or management of this blog, I can certainly appreciate my granddaughter’s rendition of the song.  She wouldn’t sing loud enough so I may have to get her on a re-do but I still enjoyed it.  The video takes a while to load...I usually drag the little button back to the beginning and wait for a lot of it to buffer, otherwise it starts and stops a lot.

That’s all for now….gotta go load up the old covered wagon and prepare to hit the trail.