This shows the latest picture I have. I really have progressed to the wood on the back of the body and the panels for attaching the upolstry. I am using 1/8 inch tempered hard board, one of my cousin's friends had manufactured a complete cowling using hardboard and it seemed  better than Henry Ford used common cardboard. I am improving on the original design???

We are finally upgrading to windows 7 on the laptop anyway and 7 does not support Microsoft outlook express so I am changing my e-mail to hotmail. Our (jack & Joyce) e-mail address will be and already is j_jgates@hotmail.com. Seems a simple move but I am sure I will find some twist that will make things more difficult.

AMERICANA ART

Scott Borello  has been a leather customer and a friend for many years at least 20. We have ridden the Pacific Crest trail together, traded and been friends all this time. Scott has always been talented doing Civil War re-emcatments and been an outdoorsman as long as I have known him. Lived in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains and explored, camped, worked and played in the forests of Eldorado National Forest. Scott has a God given talent for art and things of nature. We all call him a "woodsman" and no one fits the title better than he. Scott is now coming into the art world with his civil war and Americana art. He does pen and ink shetches, wood carving, and painting, he will do custom work or has cards and paintings for sale Call him 530-886-8822 or e-mail civilwarskott@yahoo.com

These are some samples. Consider the quality yourself these are for sale in card fromat with an envelope fro $2.50 each beautiful work!

We are home

This story is pretty upside down good luck navigating through the pictures and verbage. Jack

plus as usual some spelling problems

So she painted a winter scene on the tarp!!

What a woman!

I was up stairs thinking I had a job well done and the wood would be dry this winter and looked out the window and there was Joyce with paint bucket brush and some rags making scenery on the old brown tarp. I just laughed and laughed, that's my Joyce.

I built a wood shed very soon after we returned home. Sort of used a couple of trees that God had provide in a nearly square pattern and some poles . I have hundreds of these little poles that will be eliminated when the forestry thinning happens so I might as well use them for something creative and guess what they made a not pretty but practial dry place to store our winters wood. Joyce said it looked good when this look was presented, but the front was open so I put a big brown tarp up and then she DID NOT like the brown tarp.

these pictures get all tangled up you have to do your own detective work to get this blog together, it is beyond me.

They love these quilts. Joyce was very happy to give them to the ladies as they refused any payment. and we were very pleased with their care of our place.

Brenda and Denise watched our house while we were away and spoiled our horses grooming them every day and caring for them. Joyce made them each a frilly quilt and they were so excited.

I brought the rear seat metal home with me for the Model T. I found this part in the hay loft of the Gates barn and again Wes gave it to me. I have the plans to build the wood frame, that was how they were built but after 90 years the old model t body is almost all gone and for sure the wood. I have a friend who has a sawmill and he is going to mill some Black Oak lumber for me and I already have the plans . At my age I need to get started on this project. Joyce and I normally don't buy green bananas.

My cousin Wes Gates gave me this tool box while we were in Hillsboro visiting them. I put a new bottom on it and painted it and now it is my special tool box. My tools which were scattered all over the barn now have a place to live. Thanks Wes.

Model T oregon visit

We are home from our Oregon visit. had a great time visiting with all the Oregon relatives. Cottage Grove looked at homes to buy, Hillsboro, visited the Gates farm and Red Vandehey who I had not seen in years. There we, Wes and I and with help from the younger generation got the model T on four good tires. 

I found a back seat in the hay loft of the barn and Wes said I was welcome to it. I was able to disassemble it and get all the parts in the rear storage area of the motor home and brought it home with me. Now I will be working on the back seat and seat cushions. A backwards approach but then I never have been to conventional.

                                                

Then we went to Vernonia for the Webb visits enjoyed their company and hospitality for a week or so.

                                                

This is Don Tiffany a life long friend of mine. This Don actually caught the fish, while he and Don Webb were fishing together near Clatsknie Oregon in Th e Columbia River.

Don caught a 40 pound salmon while we were there and fillet it and sent some home with us. We then went back to Hillsboro for a bit more model t work .

Then on to Cottage Grove for more house hunting and mostly getting to know the areas and how it could work for us when we moved there.

Hally and nick have a Tortoise Robin found on the street. It was a rare African variety and eventually was given to a person who would take good care of it. We thought it was a turtle and put it in water and left it outside. Being a Tortoise it was so cold it would not eat, so it was a good thing Robin found and expert. The Great Grandchildren were not so sure about it.

Robins quilting room, which is a remodeled double garage attached to their house in Cottage Grove

Last but not least we visited with our grand adults, they are not children, Mike and Rebecca Fouquette, in Concord Ca .
Our lace was well taken care of by Brenda and Denise they took care of the horses and kept order while we were gone.

MODEL T

We have just arrived back from a 5 week trip to Oregon. It was a great trip had a small Reunion with the Webb family visited our daughter in Cottage Grove. then on to the Portland area Hillsboro to be exact to visit the cousins at the Gates century farm. I enjoy my cousin Wes he is my age and retired so he is available when ever you might say. A few years ago my wife bought me a Model "T" ford from Wes and it is still on the farm, we work on it each time I go up there. this year we put new tires on the front wheels, installed two back fenders cleaned up a few details and towed it around the barn yard, in hopes it would start, however it was reluctant and did not start up.It did pop a couple of times which is encouraging. We may go north and pick it up but our house is for sale and it seems unreasonable to trailer it down here when we plan on moving to Oregon when we sell.

Harvesting for winter

Joyce has zucchini plants to end all Zucchini plants the leaves are more than a foot wide and they have Zucchini's by the bunch. We are picking and storing, now we will make that wonderful relish, with green  peppers and  red  peppers, just for color  I think.  We  have been to town gathering various spices and we are going for the grinding soon as we get done helping the neighbors and wall papering a friend's just acquired trailer he lives in it so it should be nice we think. Then there is the winter wood, we have two cords split and stacked, but there is more, from the National Forest and then a blow down in our woods we need to harvest plus a couple of trees our son Tim had fell for us before he passed away. The harvest also include the flowers. I like the lilies and they are all finished blooming now but the wild flowers are in their glory and soon the marigolds will bloom and it will be football season, since I am not a football fan the flowers let me know from high school days marigolds recall the memories of the fall football games. That does not seem to make any sense as I read it back but sometimes I don't make much sense, but I enjoy life and the blessing of the Lord every day. The Lord works in wondrous ways and continues to bless us each day. I think we will done with phase one of the wood harvest in a couple of days. We do want to go on  vacation one of these days and so must have the har vest finished before we leave. Our friend is watching our house this year as we have our vacation, she says "it will be like camping in the woods" and it is in the woods. I must be off on today's project helping Joyce wall paper a trailer. then there is church tomorrow. Bless all of you. Jack and Joyce 

Joyce's 80th Birthday

Last Saturday we had a birthday party for Joyce. I have said over and over you only get to be 80 once in your life and we need to celebrate Joyce's birthday, also she has said "I never had a party before, so I believed it was time, and we did it. Some comments were you only have each year once in your life, my answer is "But we all don't make it for 80 years so let's celebrate"A party we did have. With the help of many friends, Beverly Hobbs, Patti Smith, Hazel fixed food. Rob Odom and John Hobbs plus Paul East supplied music during the entire time, more than four hours we celebrated. We borrowed chairs and tables from churches and also American River Inn furnished some chairs. We are grateful for all of the help and support we received from the friends neighbors and acquaintances. The estimates of attendance are somewhere between 175 and 200 people wished Joyce a happy birthday at that celebration. Our thanks to all who came and all who worked to accomplish such a wonderful time for Joyce. As a complete surprise Joyce's two younger sisters came from Oregon and Washington state and really surprised her. Our house was so full of fun and sister to sister visiting I had to leave the house a couple of times to collect my wits. But it was wonderful