A NEW YEAR

Hello, 2026! Larry and I celebrated the newest year in the traditional way, with a party at the Ball’s home in Black Butte Ranch. Historically, we play a game in which, on arrival, Robb sticks a name on the guests’ backs. This will be the name of someone who has made some history in the preceding year, and the job is to guess who you are. You’re probably familiar with this idea, and it’s a form of torture to anyone who hasn’t been reading the Times or WaPo all year. Then after dinner, we count down and raise the glasses on New York time, that being 9:00 pm Oregon time.

This year, Robb announced that the usual guests had aged out of the game, but the next generation, kids who had come for a pre-dinner glass of wine, had to play. However, they revolted and the game has, one hopes, disappeared into the mists of.

So, in our motel bed later that night, we missed the actual transition. (Oh yeah, sleeping at a motel because our own Black Butte home is still buried in the chaos of new roof and refinished floors.) But wishing to miss the other celebrants in the town and the threatened snow in the mountain pass, we got on the way very early in the morning of the 1st, and succeeded in getting home right at kick-off of the Orange Bowl and the Oregon Ducks. Whew.

A day of football, a nice fire, some left-over tater tots from an earlier lunch? It’s good to be home.

There’s not much going on per the actual farm these rainy, cold days. But there was a bucket of apples keeping cool on the porch, so we got out the device which peels and cores the fruit, and set to work making a couple of batches of mincemeat and some applesauce. Then there’s always more football to watch.

The pick-up truck has been having one of its tantrums, the battery refusing to stay charged. Larry bought a device which enables him to unplug the battery while standing idle, and hopes this will solve the problem. But. The ATV is huddled in the barn, blocking the door with its dead battery (?). The outlet from which we originally purchased the machine, I-5 Sports, is now out of business. The machine is too heavy for our combined might to push the thing onto a trailer. Larry found an outlet in Eugene who will send someone to collect it, take it to the shop and, we hope, repair the problem in time for spring.

Meanwhile, we’ve tried to establish the custom of a Saturday morning walk through town along the river. This Saturday we planned, instead, to park at the library, then walk through the OSU campus. The reason being the need to return a book the library had placed on hold for me. A volume featuring “Strong Men – from Mussolini to Stalin” which Larry had picked up for me a day ago. You do know me enough to wonder why I had asked for this book. Well, correct. I didn’t. Somewhere a patron was waiting for this title to show up on the shelf under his name, and I felt obliged to get it back in circulation ASAP. You would of course do the same.

The campus is huge, lots of grassy fields, impressive buildings, and a sweet little campus area with appealing shops — “warm cookies delivered!” We determined to explore the campus and the actual town of Corvallis more completely on succeeding Saturday mornings. This will probably disappear in our usual fashion. “Let’s try that some time!” We never do.

The chickens are well, thanks for asking. Their lives are fairly narrow, being spent in the run only, not allowed out into the orchard. One egg a day seems about right for us, though production will increase when the light has fully returned. They seem adjusted to one another, and all are shy of us. No flapping to greet us with scratch in the little green cup. Okay fine. I don’t want to pick them up and smooth their feathers, but this does remove an important tool that allows me to move them about, should I want to. Now I have to scare them into compliance.

Resolutions? Nah. Any good books? I’m reading one I picked up at the Paulina Springs Books in Sisters, Crow Talk, which is off to a good start. I hope the Comments box is working now, and if you have a recommendation, I’d like to see it. In the mean time, Happy New Year!