Rocky Point – Page 12 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

First Snow!

I thought I had nothing to really talk about, and promised myself I wouldn’t get caught up in trying to blog every day. But then it snowed last night, and this morning it was just too gorgeous to miss. Especially since my last conversation involved the very same trees. This morning the snow is frozen solid and weighing down the young ones. Our back yard maple is just 8 years old and with the extensive shade, it doesn’t grow as quickly as it might in a warmer, sunnier climate. It really lights up the forest at this time of year, and again in the spring. Hopefully the weight of the snow won’t break any branches. The little fern leaf maple is under the fir canopy and with it’s small leaves, a bit more resilient to the snows.

Jeremy knows better, but doesn’t he make a great still-life?

Hopefully this late fall storm will pass. Monday is our day to get the MoHo out of snow country, driving west to Medford over Highway 140 and a fairly high pass. Either way out of Klamath Basin involves crossing a pass, so we are really hoping that the snow melts over the weekend and we can get her safely south without having to drive on icy roads. Can’t leave till the kayaks get here, anyway. Seems we are cutting things a bit close for this year if the snow really is coming to stay this early in the season. Often it doesn’t really hang around on the ground until after Thanksgiving.

Jeremy is quite content to sit inside when it’s cold. Of course, on the table is a serious no-no, but does he look troubled at all? The “still life with cat” was too much fun to miss before I scolded him and he ambled off to a more appropriate cat resting place.

It’s Saturday!

I had to run outside when the sun broke through the rain to catch the last of the fall colors in our yard

The rains are coming, with forecasts for high winds tonight, and it was a dark day at Rocky Point. I have had an absolutely fabulous day doing absolutely nothing. Well, almost nothing. I made a killer good navy bean soup. I also managed to download and read Rick’s blogging tips file, and have been buried in Picasa most of the day tagging photos and organizing. It’s easy to get sidetracked when doing this, especially when I find old scans of my children from the 60’s.

Welcome to the Bayfield Bunch, it’s nice to be followed! Thank you, although the blogging responsibility is starting to feel a bit bigger. I still really don’t plan to blog daily, but do hope to pay more attention to participating in this great community instead of just lurking around reading everything. After seeing all the photos of Al’s yard, I was inspired. Once or twice the sun tried to peak through the clouds and I ran outside to get some photos of the leaves turning before the winds blow them all away tonight. Of course, I had to try out the Picasa collage tool. I used this in the past, but had completely forgotten about it. I also had a ton of fun erasing telephone lines from some of my photos with the retouch tool. I can’t believe I never even saw that one before, since I used to use Photoshop a lot. I had no idea it was the same thing.

This morning we also had great fun planning a possible route for our California coastal trip commencing on November 1st. We are using the CampClub USA card and trying to find parks that will accept the discount. It’s not a small task with so many restrictions, especially on weekends and months other than January. Also, it seems that many of the campgrounds in the California state parks are closed after October. Somehow our trip is now scheduled with reservations and plans. I don’t know quite how that one happens, since I keep thinking we can just wander off and land where we land. But of course, that could put us in an unfriendly Wal-Mart with parking lot cops knocking on our doors in the middle of the night, so we opted for plans. While planning, I got lost in Google Earth, cruising around the estuaries on the coast. Our new Canadian made Swift kayaks should be here any day now, and we are excited about trying them out on the upcoming trip.

Winter is coming

Winter is coming to Rocky Point, and to the entire Northwest, maybe even this weekend according to the current weather forecast! We are in a La Nina year, and that portends a cold winter for the northern part of the country and a warm dry winter for the southern portion. Probably great for all the snowbirds heading south right now, and good as well for the Klamath Basin which has been struggling with drought this year. Hopefully a good snow pack will alleviate the situation a bit and our lakes and rivers will be full again in the coming season.

However, a cold winter in the northwest means deep snow at Rocky Point. The last few years I was working in California, with a convenient place to keep the MoHo during the winter. We didn’t have to winterize it and could take off on a spring time trip whenever the notion hit. Of course, I was working full time, so that often meant Mo took off without me. This year, since I am mostly retired, we now want to be sure that we can head for the beaches or the desert or southern mountains whenever we want.

I do love winter, though, especially when I know that I can escape when it drags on too long. Winter in late December in Rocky Point is gorgeous, with deep snows to sled with my grandkids, and a warm fire to accompany my knitting. It’s baking and soup time as well, my favorite kind of cooking. We spent the early part of last summer putting up 7 more cords of good dry firewood, so should be well equipped for whatever cold Old Man Winter sends our way.

After some looking around, we came up with a plan. We are taking the MoHo to Redding for the winter, about 2.5 hours south over I-5 and Mt Shasta, and out of snow country. I don’t really want to shovel a few feet of snow and put chains on that rig during a winter storm.

The enclosed storage facility is just at the northern edge of Redding, an easy jaunt even in a snow storm with the Tracker. We are excited about this plan, and the extra cost of winter rent seems a small price to pay for the delight of February wildflowers in California and the Oregon Coast during spring storms. Last year was an exception, but the photo below shows just what Rocky Point can look like sometimes in March! With La Nina waiting, I have a feeling this could be the case this year as well. Redding only gets very occasional snows and rarely has temperatures below 30 degrees F.

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Of course, now that we have a plan, and the rent is paid on the storage facility, we have to go there! Yaay! Another trip is in the making, and we will head south during the first couple weeks of November. Right now we are planning to use our CampClub USA pass for a park in Crescent City, and then will amble down the coast for a few days before traveling inland. My lifetime friend and her husband live in Oroville, so we will visit there, and my once upon a time mom-in-law is in Red Bluff. It’s a perfect travel loop from here to the Redding storage facility, just a bit of meandering and a couple hundred extra miles along the way.

October time

I love October for many reasons, not the least of which is Halloween. There is something about the decorations and colors that just make me smile inside. I grew up in Southern California in the 50’s during a time when neighborhood trick-or-treating was safe and fun, where we all stayed out without our parents hovering late into the night. That time of year in California is often punctuated by Santa Ana winds, clearing out the smog and bringing the smell of smoke from the wildland fires. As a kid, though, the smoke just smelled like campfires and scented the moonlit nights and hayrides along the dry riverbeds with a pungent sweetness.

For me, Halloween decorating is one of the delights of this last month before the frosty gray and brown days of November come to the basin. Walking through Fred Meyer, affectionately known as Freddies, (our local mini-mega grocery store) was tempting me at every turn with orange lights and black spiders, but I promised myself that this year, before buying anything, I would take down the bins and put up what I already have.

This is the first year Mo and I have actually shared a home, and this is a bit of a change for her. Mo is a very practical person, not particularly prone to collecting random “stuff” and she has just a few simple decorations for fall. Mo just shakes her head at my colored bins of holiday decor, and patiently builds more shelves in the garage. I put up the little village on the side table, hang the witch curtain on the patio doors, and drape all sorts of orange and purple lights on the porch. I don’t even live in a town where kids might show up for trick-or-treat. My daughter is on the way to visit this afternoon with my grandkids, and a neighbor might drop in now and then, but mostly it’s just for my own pleasure.

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Here in Rocky Point, the colors of the aspens down by the lake are turning gold, but in the yard our maples have a way to go. While we were traveling last month, I must have received two dozen “weather warnings” for hard frost and freezing temperatures in this part of the world, and yet the impatiens under the trees are still blooming as if it were high summer. I have been spending some time in the gardens, pulling the random grass that insists on taking over the flower beds, enjoying the slanting fall light and crisp air.

In the cool mornings, Mo builds a fire and we watch the news, amazing how things haven’t changed much after six weeks on the road without much television.

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Life is good!

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Bear in the yard

Rocky Point is nestled in between the east facing slope of the Cascades and the Upper Klamath Lake National Wildlife Refuge. We are on what is known in Oregon as “the east side”, with sunny skies and much less rainfall than the western part of Oregon. In fact, much of the landscape east of the Cascades is considered desert, high desert, and dominated by sage and juniper. If you look at a map of Oregon, you will see that the moist and rainy west side is only about a third of the state. The major population centers of Oregon, however, are on the west side, the rainy side, and most people who don’t know the state well think of Oregon as green, lush, and rainy.

I happen to think that I have the best of both worlds here in Rocky Point. We have the brilliant sunny skies of the east side, but since we are right at the base of the Cascades, we have enough rainfall to support a beautiful white fir/ponderosa pine/sugar pine forest. We also have snow in the winter, much more than the western part of Oregon, in fact, Crater Lake, just a short drive from here has some of the deepest snow packs in the country.

With beautiful forests comes the added benefit of lots of wildlife. No matter how frustrating it is to see my roses chewed down to the ground, I still enjoy seeing the doe and her fawns slipping around in the woods near the house. Mo built this house in 2002, and in all that time has never seen a bear on the property, although there have been rumors of bears roaming the neighborhoods now and then.

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While we were away, our neighbor reported that bears were finding the garbage cans, and roaming about. Our can was basically empty since we weren’t here, but when we returned home I found a large pile of bear scat in the yard. I know, of course, that this is the number one rule of living in the woods. Your garbage MUST be secured against wildlife intrusion. Instead, we thoughtlessly left the large can out in the yard, forgetting that a bear was possibly roaming about.

Sure enough, last weekend when I was unloading the MoHo, I turned around to see a very large black Newfoundland in the yard, and wondered who in the world had a dog that big around here. I looked into his face, maybe 10 feet away, and looked again suddenly realizing I was looking right into the eyes of a very shiny, very pretty, young black bear. He looked back at me, and I tried to figure out how to yell for Mo, who was around in the front of the house, without bringing the dog or scaring off the bear. I got way too excited, and by the time Mo got around the house and I found the camera, Mr. Bear was gone.

I do hate to admit that we neglected to bring in the garbage can right away, but planned to take care of it this weekend. Yesterday, while I was at work, Mo called to say she had a surprise. Mr. Bear had returned, again in broad daylight in mid afternoon, and was happily nosing around in the dumped over can. Mo had time to find the camera, get the dog inside and then go back to shoo the bear away. She told me she went out there with a broom. “A broom??!!” I said. “You were going to fight off a bear with a broom?!”. “Well, he was just little and cute and didn’t seem very scary at all”.

First she threw a couple of rocks to get his attention, and he stamped his foot and woofed at her a little, saying “Don’t bother me”. She waved the broom at him and he ambled off, not too disturbed by her, even stopping to take a nice long drink from the bird bath before walking off into the forest. And Mo got photos. I think she may not be quite as excitable as I am. Ha!

Needless to say, we did the responsible thing and put the garbage in the shop, locked up tight. The sweet little bear is probably a 2 year old, just recently sent off by his mother, and is trying to find his way in the world. He will grow up into a nice big bear, and hopefully other folks around here will also keep their garbage put away and he will go off into the woods to make his living. Sweet little bears that get too used to people turn into not so sweet big bears that can be a problem. I hope he stays wild and forgets that this yard once had a tasty morsel lying around.