And you believe that? Nothing is really free, of course, even if it seems it might be. We only paid what the acre would have been worth even without the house on it in order to build the MoHo shed, so technically the cottage was free. Until we decided that maybe putting a roof on it might be a good idea since it was leaking. We really didn’t plan to stay in the house at all when we bought it, but somehow it just seems to work out that it is fun, kind of like camping with water and heat, and the funky little cottage has something about it that feels really good. Maybe it is the light. Maybe it is the fact that it was built in 1926, and even though small and funky, there are big strong beautiful fir beams in the ceiling that haven’t warped in nearly 90 years.
But a free house definitely must have some “issues”, and of course we found them. The kitchen wall had some mold in it where the roof had leaked. We replaced the roof and decided it was time to take out the moldy kitchen wall. Uhoh. Mo took a sledge hammer to the wall (aka HGTV style) and what should come pouring out but ants! yup, ants. Bazillions of ants. I think the entire ant population of Grants Pass was living in that wall. Needless to say, a simple job of just starting on the wall turned into a must do project of getting it out of there. In the process, we found that what was a kitchen wall had once been an exterior wall, complete with cedar shingles, even an old window, all covered up by several layers of varying wall types. Needless to say, it was a mess. 
We had spent the previous two days at the cottage burning some huge debris piles left over from the previous shed and roofing projects. Burn days in Grants Pass are rare, and involve calling at 6am to see if it is indeed a burn day. We haven’t had much luck lately so on Friday morning when the phone call gave us a resounding yes, we jumped into the pickup and made it to the cottage in less than 2 hours from waking up. We had two gorgeous burn days in a row before the inversion set in once again and no more burning was allowed. I raked and hauled leaves for two days straight while Mo managed the burn pile. There is a price to pay for those gorgeous huge oaks, and I never had a chance to get it all finished last fall. We don’t actually LIVE here, remember?! We were a bit worn out, and on Sunday morning Mo said, “Let’s just enjoy a nice easy day relaxing here before we head home”. Great idea. But that was before the ant wall was discovered.
Late on Sunday afternoon we celebrated with another great Abby’s pizza before we headed back over the mountain to our snowy home with the ice covered road up to the house. There is something about being able to leave, to actually get out of the funky cottage and back to our beautiful beautiful well water and warm wood stove and roomy bathrooms and all the goodies of living in a “real” house that make it all fun instead of depressing. The woman who lived in the cottage before us raised many sons there in the 60’s. We still can’t figure out where everyone slept, unless she sent the boys outside to the even funkier bunkhouse. Who knows. People did live differently then I guess. I know I did. 
The cottage has a well, but the water has some salts in it, and it only gives about 2.5 gallons a minute. We had a long hose from the well house to the fire and after running it for about 20 minutes, we suddenly had no more water. Uhoh again. Neither of us has a clue how to prime a well pump, so had to go to the internet to discover that we probably had a submersible pump that didn’t need priming anyway. Just turn it off and wait two hours and see if it recovers.
We went inside, and waited, then back out to start up the water and uhoh again, no water at all. As Mo was walking back to the pump house, she discovered what we had missed earlier…a kink in the hose…can you believe that?!?! We never really ran the well dry at all. It was such a relief that we were all excited again about having 2.5 gallons a minute after all. We do bring drinking water from home, though, and there is no way we will put that salty water in our MoHo tanks. Guess we can’t ever really ‘move’ over to the cottage even when we get too old to shovel snow and haul wood at home in Rocky Point.
Ah well, we are home again, and I am working this week, but next week we will go back to the cottage. Only this time it will be what it was supposed to be, just a little stopover place for us to relax a bit before we load up the MoHo and head for the beach. Brookings here we come! Rain or shine. Rumor has it there might be at least a couple of days of sunshine at the ocean and we are going to make sure we find it.
Snow in November Snow in March
Home in Rocky Point Oregon: current temperature 36 Degrees F high 43 low 25 partly sunny
Winter is long in this part of Oregon. The snows start in earnest in November, with a few skiffs sometimes showing up in October. The snow can be deep, and while we can get down to zero F for a week or so, the winters aren’t nearly as bad as places like Minnesota or the Dakotas. Still, they are long. I love winter at Christmas time. I love winter in January when I can enjoy it and then take off for California. I love winter in February least of all, and ever since I moved from California to snow country in Northern Idaho back in the early 70’s I have done everything possible to get out of winter in February.
But winter in March is different. Even though it is cold and the snow is really tiresome by now, it feels different. The days are getting longer, just a bit, but it isn’t dark any more at 4:30 in the afternoon. When it snows, it is usually a bit wetter, and there are patches of blue amid the fluff of snowy clouds. The air feels different. And the birds are back. 
Early in the morning I can hear them down by the lake, but they are out on the water in places we can’t get to yet with the snow and ice all around. Still, we walked down there this morning to get the mail. Gingerly picking our way through the re-frozen slush in the driveway and hoping our boots didn’t crash through the crusty snow banks down by the water. When I went in to town yesterday, in the midst of a blustery snow storm, I saw open water along the edges of the lake, and saw that the swans had returned. I only had the iPad with me, and there was traffic and snow, so it was a quick photo, but it still made me really feel the difference between the deepening winter feeling of December and the promise of winter eventually ending. Maybe not in March, but still eventually it will end.
There is an aerial survey of the birds in Klamath Basin that is updated regularly, and even back on January 30, we had almost 44,000 tundra swans in the refuge complex. I love the swans especially, and the snow geese, they look like flapping sheets in the wind when they fly in unison and rise and fall over the landscape.
I am still having a bit of trouble writing about Florida. My friend Bel, in my life for 19 years, passed away while I was there. I was with her when she passed, probably the hardest thing I have ever done, and yet a gift I will always be grateful for. If you read my blog in the past, you know about Bel and my visits to her, my worries over her access to health care, some of her life difficulties. This is our happy fun travel blog, how in the world do I talk about this here? I guess I just can’t. Up close family, up close friends, real words coming out of real mouths with sound, seem to be the only appropriate way for the moment. I didn’t plan to say anything at all when I started this blog, and yet some of you are those real friends with real words who were there for me on the phone and on Facebook, of all places, as I was going through it. So I needed to acknowledge that somehow after all and thank you. Enough for now.
On the way home from Florida I was so happy to have almost three full days in San Antonio with my daughter Deborah. She took off work on Thursday and Friday and we spent our time together driving around to places she loved in her new home, seeing where she worked, eating great Texas food that her sweetie prepared for us. I ate ribs and cole slaw and Texas beans and cheese bread and brisket and omigosh…the heartburn! I am not used to eating like that, but it sure was fun to let go for a few days in spite of the heartburn.
We checked out some quilt shops and picked out fabrics for the quilt I will make for her someday, we wandered off to Palmetto State Park and Lyndon B Johnson State Park, and spent a night in lovely Fredericksburg. It was cool and breezy while I was there, but the sun was brilliant and gorgeous. South Texas is a great place this time of year, even though the blue bonnets have yet to burst. The grasses are greening up, and did I mention that sunshine? Ahhhh. It was so healing to be with Deborah, who knew and loved Bel, to have her to talk with about it. I was blessed by two daughters on this trip actually, with Deanna re-routing a Tampa load to go through Ocala, where she met me for a long breakfast full of big hugs. Daughter Melody stayed with me on the phone a lot and son John called a few times as well, and of course Mo and Maryruth and my long time friend Laura from Coeur d Alene, a respiratory RN. It was wonderful to have so much support and understanding.
It was good to get back home. I did a deep clean on the house before I left, and Mo was away at her brother’s while I was gone, so we came home to a cozy, clean, wonderful home. Mo beat me home by a day, so when I returned the house was still sparkly but was WARM with a nice big fire going. Snow still on the ground, but sunshine and blue skies were wonderful. And silence. The nights are so dark and starry under the hot tub and the silence is just so SILENT! No street lights, no traffic, no trains, all the stuff of towns and cities are absent here in the forest.
We are settling in, enjoying home a bit before we decide just when to wander off to the cottage in Grants Pass and maybe get some beach time. Here at home I have a big quilt to finish binding, and fabric to play with, soil survey work waiting and all sorts of “retirement” projects that I still have yet to get to after three years as a retiree. I am never, never bored. Ever.
A Tribute to Bel
I am adjusting to the thought of Bel being gone, little by little. Al said to talk about my feelings, Nina said the same, and others have echoed that sentiment. Many suggested that I write some stories about Bel, and I am doing that. I have so many years of photos, a digitizing project I had hoped to tackle when I retired. Yeah, right, who has any time after retirement anyway. I think that is somewhat of a fantasy. Still, I pulled out the old boxes, the old journals from the early 90’s when Bel and I first met, and eventually I’ll get out all those VHS videos that I want to put on DVD’s.
I look at the photos and remember just what a very different kind of human Bel was, and I remember just how crazy-making she could be. It was that very difference that made her life so hard and yet was such an amazing blessing to so many people. When she went to work for me she had six cats, and was nearly homeless. She worked in my flower shop, then she had nowhere to go so she moved in with me, and in the process brought all her stuff and all her cats and all her craziness. I was a neat freak, healthy food, new-agey kind of person and she was a hoarder, wildly disordered and incredibly creative. She smoked and drank Mountain Dew and talked in rambling circles that never seemed to stop or start in the same place.
There was a lot of ambivalence in our friendship. When she left for Florida, I was incredibly relieved, I could finally clean my house and have two cats instead of dozens. But because we shared so much of life and work and silly stuff I missed her terribly. Somehow she became someone I knew I was supposed to take care of, and yet she took care of me too. I wrote a eulogy for her that we passed out at her memorial, and thought maybe it would be OK to put it here, as a start at least, just a way to share a tiny bit of Bel with the bigger world.
born on February 1, 1947 died on February 25, 2013
Bel came into the world in a Wisconsin snowstorm and left us on a warm Florida day. Her life was a blessing to anyone who came in contact with her. You may not have understood her, but if you were in her line of vision, you usually became a recipient of her care. She cared about people, especially those that others might have never noticed. Stray cats by the dozens have felt that love. Homeless people have felt her generosity, and we all have listened to her rambling conversations filled with tidbits of wisdom and counsel. If you were lucky enough to be on the receiving end, over the years you probably received what my entire family refers to as “a Bel Box”, random collections of small things wrapped lovingly and creatively in ways that could bring a smile to your face no matter how gray the day. Monthly Bel Boxes were sent to my grandsons in Iraq to bring a little bit of joy as they fought for our country.
Bel never had children of her own, but she knew how to get right down with kids on their level and communicate with them, and play with them, and say things to them that would pump up their self-esteem, and make them laugh. My grandchildren all knew this loving, funny, caring, wonderful side of Bel and treasure their memories of her presence in their lives, even though they are now adults.
All of us have remnants of Bel around to remind us of her creativity, her caring, her eccentricities. We all know Bel was eccentric in the way the most beautiful souls can be. There are bird houses in yards, little cat and dog steps for elderly animals that could no longer reach the bed, little packages of talking stuffed animals sent to ailing hearts that would say “I Love You’. My family has been the recipient of untold dozens of home baked tiny cookies wrapped individually in perfect little papers. After long, long days working long hard jobs, my feet have felt the kindness of her touch as she rubbed out the knots and pain.
People she has cared for will never forget her. If you never felt the full force of her love and care, you might only think of the crazy cat woman down the street who was maybe difficult now and then, or maybe you didn’t understand her. If you never got close enough, maybe you didn’t get it. But those of us who did, will forever be touched by this incredible, loving, creative, magical, and yes…very different human being who touched our lives. There has never been and will never be another one like Bel in this world. We were blessed with her for far too short a time. All the humans and cats that she nurtured into old age I am sure met her when she crossed to the other side, and I can’t help wondering if the angels will take some lessons from her. 
Two sides of life
At the moment I am sitting in the ICU with my friend Bel. When I timed this visit, she was home, but before I left I got the call from her sister that she was back in the hospital. It isn’t easy being here, and it isn’t easy being Bel right now. We are staying here during the day and as much of the night as they will let us.
We have great nurses and nurses from hell. Doctors that all say something different. It is exhausting and frustrating.
Yet in the midst of it, I took a break and went to see Alison about an hour east of here. New life, precious and sweet. A new mom falling in love with her newborn. Sunny warm skies as we ate lunch on the shores of Lake Dora, and I got to learn how to do the new fangled stroller, car seat, everything carrier technology.
The drive through the Ocala forest was healing, and reminded me of all the lovely times i have shared with Bel since she moved here in the year 2000.
a life beginning and a life winding down. It is all a circle
Posted with BlogsyFebruary This n That
Home in Rocky Point, Oregon Sunshine and 49 degrees, low tonight 27 
We returned home from our January travels just in time to get the last of the Christmas lights down and the Valentine decorations up. I know, I am a little bit crazy that way. I love to do seasonal decorations.
Besides, it gave me a chance to get out my first little quilt table topper
that I made last year as a very tentative, brand new quilter. Funny how the imperfections become a bit endearing after a bit of time has passed. No one really cares but me anyway, and it is fun to see my progress.
Leaving sunny California behind, we drove once again into another cloudy inversion over the Rogue Valley. The little cottage was waiting, all proud and excited to show off her brand new hat. The roofing job was completed with just a few glitches and a little bit over bid, but Mo is happy with it. There was a lot of repair involved, and several layers of roofing, dating all the way back to 1926 had to be removed. Someone asked me to show a photo of the cottage, so here it is again, with the new roof of course.
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We put the MoHo to bed and traveled back over the pass to Rocky Point, relieved that there wasn’t much new snow since we left in mid January. Everything was in good order, with the driveway accessible, the house warmed to a balmy 55 degrees by the backup electric heaters, and everything in good shape.
It is good to be home, but February is really my least favorite month of winter, and if I didn’t have to be working for a couple of weeks, I think we would have just gone back over the mountain and right on over to the coast! Ah well, that will come next month when I return from Florida in early March.
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In the mean time, the sun has been shining daily and the nights are cold. The snow is still very deep and the driveway is completely frozen into a sheet of solid ice. I can’t stand up on it, and when I tried to move the truck it just slid sideways for a bit before deciding to go forward. The only way to get outside and enjoy the sunshine is in the mid afternoon, when I put on the snow pac’s and trudge up an old side road by our place that isn’t completely iced over. I leave it to Mo to get the mail, which entails walking down the glare ice driveway to the sheet ice road to get to Rocky Point Road, completely bare and dry.
Speaking of mail…it doesn’t seem like there is ever anything in there at all except advertising. Not sure I would miss it if I didn’t have it at all, but I know I won’t miss Saturday mail. We don’t put anything in the box that is worrisome, mailing from town if we need to, and we don’t get anything troubling either, choosing instead to receive almost everything electronically. Packages are usually delivered via FedEx or UPS. Lots safer that way, I guess, unless of course everything gets hacked. UhOh. I hear the mood of February sifting into this journal. I have no right to complain at all, I am sitting here with the glare of brilliant sunshine on snow coming through my window and lighting up this room.
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Lots of RV’rs have been talking about mice lately, so I thought I would add my little story to the conversation. I store bird seed in a big, strong, heavy plastic garbage can. We seem to only have ground feeders around in the winter, so I thought that maybe they would appreciate a bit of seed scattered over the snow. Opened the bin to find several very fat, very dead mice in the bottom of the container. Seems as though they figured out how to chew through the plastic, but then couldn’t get back out of the bin. ugh. I don’t do dead things, so whined for Mo to come and fix it. I would hate to live alone at moments like this. I guess we will have to find something stronger to hold the bird seed when those little guys are winter hungry.
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Within a few days of arriving home, I got a call from Heart to Heart Quilters in Merrill letting me know that my first big project, a queen sized quilt, was ready for pick-up. My daughter Melody had the day off, so I picked her up and we drove the half hour south to Merrill together. In addition to picking up the quilt, which was quilted beautifully, we spent a long time in the quilt shop looking at fabric and patterns and day dreaming about the day when I will again tackle a big project and make a bed quilt for her. She let me know that a lap quilt would be nice…but gee Mom, I would really love a big one. I told her she would be lucky to get it in the next ten years. This last big one only took me a few months to finish, and in all fairness, I certainly wasn’t working on it all the time. 
I also managed to finish the quilting and binding on the baby quilt for Alison’s newborn little boy. Alison is the wonderful soil scientist who worked for me in California who moved to Florida. I am tickled about the chance to visit her next week while I am in Ocala with my friend Bel, and to deliver the quilt in person. I thought frogs and bugs and blue and green would be a great theme for a little boy who lives in Florida, right? 
I will manage to get in a good 80 hours of work before I leave next Thursday for the Sunshine State. Of course, the weather there has been fabulous, with temperatures in the 80’s, and as soon as I get there the highs will be 60 or something. I have no idea why that happens to me when I go to Florida, probably it is because I just don’t get to stay long enough. Mo and I are still having the conversation about next year and my wish for a Florida winter. We will see. In the mean time, we are going to focus this year on getting the cottage in shape and keeping our getaways fairly close to home.
Just thought I would throw in a shot of Jeremy enjoying the lovely new wool hearth rug in front of the fire. I know he is completely sure that I bought it just for him. He is getting so skinny, and of course it shows in the photo. At his prime he was 13 pounds of long limbed lithe beauty and now he is down to less than 8 pounds. He is on special vet food, limited ingredient diet, with a bit of tuna and fresh meat now and then. He is such a sweetie, so personable and loving. At nearly 17, though, it seems that he gets a touch of kitty Alzheimer’s now and then. I read recently about some of the challenges involved with having an “elderly” cat, kind of a bit like an elderly human, I guess. He gets anxious if he can’t see us and they say that is because old cats lose their vision and hearing and that makes them more fearful.
He still loves nothing more than riding on the dash in the MoHo, and waking me up at 4:30 am with a loud purr and that sneaky cat claw chin slap that most cat owners will recognize.
I am excited about my upcoming trip, looking forward to seeing how Bel is doing in person, and most of all looking forward to seeing my daughter Deborah in San Antonio on the way home! I booked a jump flight so I could do both at once, just couldn’t stand the idea of flying over Texas and not getting to see my girl!
The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales 