That was fun to say! We finished the work we’d planned on doing with Maranatha on the Walla Walla University dorm. Here are a few more pictures of the campus, as we bid it farewell.
While on the Maranatha project, we had very little extra time, like to see friends for example. So Thursday night was our time to start seeing local friends, Doug and Sue. We originally met them in Tucson during our “wintering” there. We had a delightful dinner at their cute little home, which while small, is surrounded by tons of veggies growing, and many of several types of grapevines. A wonderful evening where I did my all too frequent trick of not taking any pictures.
Friday night was dinner at the home of Dave and Luba. I knew Dave when in high school (Several years ago), and then got to see him a few times in Colorado when he practiced dentistry in the southern part of the state. I’m sure it’s been over 15 years since we’ve seen each other, till bumping into them at church. They welcomed us to their beautiful home, and let us get to know another couple, Scott and Martha. More super nice folks! Really a pleasure to get to know them, and catch up with Dave and Luba!
Sabbath afternoon was another time spent with friends – Dave and Marlene who we also know from Tucson. We remembered that they lived in Oregon… but dismissed that as probably too far from Walla Walla for a short visit. But we were surprised to find out their home is only 15 mins or so from the University. Not sure why we figured it was out west like Portland! So we had fun with them and lots of their friends, and once again, took no photos. Sigh.
Friday morning we were out walking, and watched a combine harvesting wheat. These two were watching also, but looked connected to the process. I asked if they could explain to a “City Boy” what was going on… It looked to me as if the combine was just dumping stuff it cut down out the back in a big cloud of dust. They nicely explained that the grain was going in a hopper on top of the rig, and the chaff was separated out and blown down behind. We chatted a while, and they picked a “Wheat Bouquet” for Cherryl, showing us how it all works.
The combine finished the small plot while we talked, and they said they would now move a few blocks down the street. I said I’d like to capture them with my drone, and they liked that idea. So we quickly walked home and drove to the new location.
I was flabbergasted to find the drone could be legally flown here… right across the street from a little airport!! We have seen small planes use this strip while we’ve been here, so I kept the drone under 35 feet just in case a plane snuck up on us.
I had a great time following the combine, and learned a lot while doing it. They explained how the combine stores some grain in its hopper, then loads it into a “Bank Truck,” or Bank-out Wagon,” which will eventually load that into a big semi, which may not be able to get onto the field. It was fun to watch it all in action. This work was being done by a family with 8 children… they call themselves 10K Harvesting. Some of the time today the bank truck was driven by a 14 year old boy! Such fun!
So if you like this sort of thing, watch the resultant video. See if you can spot the drone in one shot, or its shadow in some others. Hope you have at least some of the fun we had watching it all!