Blacksmithing intro

Today I took a 2 hour intro to blacksmithing class a place in town called the DIY cave. We have been there a few times before including one of hunters birthday building camp chairs (https://blog.donaldsoncrew.org/hunters-13th-birthday-party) and an intro  to welding (https://blog.donaldsoncrew.org/diy-cave-welding-class) class with the boys. 

The project today to get is started in learning different hammer techniques was a bottle opener.

Here is a picture of me with my two other classmates and a video of the opener in action. 

  


Family Rafting: Lower Deschutes (June 2023)

We just completed a super fun and leisurely 3 day raft trip on the lower Deschutes River, north of Bend putting in at Buckhollow (just outside of Maupin) and taking out at Mack’s Canyon.  It was only about 20 miles making for shorter days on the river and lots of fun at camp.   This trip was with the Lovejoy family as usual and the Starlings, (Chris, Hattie and their 3 girls) who we have known for years but never had the opportunity to boat together. 

We drove north to Maupin and we were on the river around 10:30 on Friday morning.


Camp on night 1 (Friday) 

Warm day so the river and the shade along the shore was greatly appreciated. 

Starlings hosted dinner the first night. They served flatiron steaks, smashed pesto potatoes with a wedge salad.  Chris is a great cook and the presentation was phenomenal.

Classic Donaldson/Lovejoy camp shenanigans.
 
As the trip was only 2 nights and 3 families, we hosted breakfast Saturday morning since there were only 2 dinner meals. We did up spicy sweet potato hash and scrambled eggs along with fruit salad and OJ + mimosas for the adults. 


Camp night 2 (Saturday)

Saturday target was a camp that Chris (has done this stretch of river a number of times) said was the best site by far. We ended up getting the site and it did not disappoint. An A++ site for sure. Big sandy beach, rapids and a great eddy to swim in and park/launch boats.  Lovejoys hosted dinner Saturday and made pulled pork tacos which were delish. Mark got things rolling early with the margaritas which made for a fun afternoon. 


Sunday was a short 4 miles to the take out.  A great weekend trip that was too short. 

North Fork John Day River

This was our second annual year end boys bible study raft trip.  My neighbor and friend Mark hosts a boys bible study weekly through the school year and the raft trip is the year end capstone.  

https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/view/river-detail/1519/main

We actually put in about 4-5 miles upriver from the states start at tollgate campground as there was a place to park our rigs. This upper section of the river was narrow and filled with excitement.  It was actually our favorite segment of the entire trip. 

This made our trip approx 47 ish miles for the weekend putting in Friday at mid day and taking out Sunday at mid day.  Friday we did about 12.  Saturday was our long day at over 25 miles and then Sunday was about 10 miles to the take out in monument. 

The put in

Fun on the river

Backyard Expansion - 2023

Over the last two months, I have been working on a backyard expansion.   I started the first week of April and just finished (end of May).  

Left (south) side of the back yard

Before: In 2018 we put in the first stage of the backyard in April of that year and I also built a garden off to the left side completed in June of that year.    You can see what was left natural.  




Here is the new expanded south side completed.

Right (North) side of the backyard

Before: We had a small rustic fire pit with log that got overgrown as you can see in the second picture




Here is the new right/north side of the backyard:


Some pictures of the project at various stagesÂ