Rocky Point – Page 5 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

A snowy, happy day in Rocky Point

When they say White Christmas, I think this is what they mean. Not only was the ground covered in deep snow, it was coming down in big fat, thick flakes, frosting hats and fur and eyelashes with cold white stuff.

I think the daily hours of shoveling and lifting have been good for me. Kinda like the gym without the boring weights. I lost almost five pounds in the two weeks before Christmas, in spite of the baking. I don’t think I can remember that happening ever. Go figure. Kevin was incredibly tickled that I managed to keep some beer from the Deschutes Brewery for an entire year. Something called the Abyss that was intense enough that I poured my glass full right back into Kevin’s glass. Whew!

Do you think that maybe cash was a good choice for the grandchildren this year? the propert response

I do think that Jeremy and Abby know an animal lover when they see one. My granddaughter Axel is amazing with both of them.

Xavier loves Mo’s rug, ever since he was very little he would immediately head for the rug to hang out. Is he actually napping with that cash in his hand?

I am pretty sure Kevin liked his fancy probe BBQ fork, in spite of the face, and you can see that Jeremy really loves having company, all those great laps to try out! I am pretty sure he likes it

Melody got a kick out her giraffes, a sweet little treasure I found at the jewelry store where she works, of course she was in on the surprise because I let her pick her favorites.

This time I set the table and was actually able to hang around and enjoy it, unlike the previous time I set a Christmas table at the Rocky Point luncheon and lasted less than five minutes before running back home sick. Soooo glad that is over, and in answer to a commenter’s question, the vertigo really has passed for now.

Sledding with the family is a tradition, so it was good that mother nature cooperated. Sledding on gravel would be uncomfortable.

We have an old sled with runners, a cheapy plastic thingy that is close to worthless, and another cheapy foamy thingy with fluorescent green something or other on it that I bought for kid sledding last year. I think I used the green thingy more than anyone. The big plastic yellow inner tubes we use for the water just don’t move on snow, so we no longer try them.

Favorite memories include big black inner tubes going down Tubbs Hill in Couer d Alene sliding into the baseball field from the steep mountain and getting bounced off those inner tubes some rather impressive distances. Too many trees on this little sledding hill to try that even if we DID have inner tubes.

Managed to sneak this photo of Melody and Kevin out in the hot tub, soaking away any kind of sledding muscle aches. Oh wait, Kevin was taking photos, not sledding. Still, not a bad way to end a family Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas

In spite of our slow start to the season this year, Christmas has arrived in full force and I am all the way in the mood. Something about deep snows and bright bluebird skies does a lot toward making things seem all as they should. Mo is finally over her cold and I am over the dizzies for the most part. I decorated the house, put up the outside lights and the snow started falling ten days ago and hasn’t stopped since. We get a little break now and then, but Mo has plowed every single day but one and we have been shoveling the driveway and snow-blowing the pathways every day as well.

Somehow the snows make me feel all is right with the world. Climate change is real. Call it global warming, global weirding, blame it on whatever makes you happy, (I have no idea why this science is colored by politics, but that is another story and I’ll save the arguments for elsewhere) but the real part about climate change is that things will get weird. Things are weird. We didn’t have any snow at Rocky Point for most of December, and it just felt weird. Now, finally, on schedule, the big snows have arrived. And somehow it makes me feel that the climate is giving me a bit of a reprieve. Things are normal. It is cold. It is snowing. I am shoveling and Mo is plowing. It is a good thing. The weather, at least for the moment, and at least here in the West, is doing what it is supposed to be doing.

I worked last week, and still managed to get presents ordered and shipped for the great grandchildren scattered around the country. Presents for my daughters were already taken care of in Prague, gifts to kids and grandkids in the mail. I don’t do as much as I would like to to, but as much as I can manage, and it is enough. This week I started cooking and baking, with a few treasures that Mo and I will never be able to eat, so of course we will share with kids and neighbors. The smell of baking makes things seem all right with the world as well. It has been a quiet time, and a good time.

Daughter Deborah sent oranges and lemons from Texas to brighten my winter days. Daughter number two and her husband are doing Christmas in Mazatlan this year, a last minute decision for a much needed vacation. Son John in Missouri is enjoying his extended family there and we had a nice long conversation the other day. Thank goodness for telephones and email with family scattered all over the country. I hope that someday I can get everyone together in one place at one time, but for now I’ll be grateful for what I have.

Mo gets dozens and dozens of cards from old friends and family. I know I have friends, I know I do. But I think I get about 4 cards. My friend Jeanne never lets me down and always sends an amazing photo of herself somewhere in the world. This year her photo was lovely and full of tropical flowers, even though she is now back home in Vermont. Some of the young soil scientists I have had on my crews are now having families of their own, and I get a few lovely cards with wonderful photos of their babies and families. I really treasure them.

The rest of my friends are just as wonderful as Mo’s friends, but they are all on the internet, hooked up to facebook, and GPlus, and Christmas cards seem to have gone the way of the handwritten letter. I gave up this year and only sent cards to the folks who sent them to me. Is that petty or what?! I had an excuse. I was dizzy. I didn’t even send out the Christmas letter. I resort to the new standby…”want to know what I have been doing? Go read my blog.”

It is Christmas Eve. Tomorrow Melody and her family will be here to spend the day eating, laughing, and sledding in all the wonderful snow. Last year we went for a walk in the woods without a speck of snow to play in, so we are all looking forward to it. I’ll have ham, a great one from the local “real” meat store, and I made a luscious peach pie from the Sunset peaches I froze late last summer.

Mo has been building a big fire in the cabin to try to get the snow to slide off the roof. Tonight we decided to “go to the cabin” for our Christmas Eve traditional clam chowder supper. Instead of a long drive to the mountains, we just had to walk down the steps and across the driveway. I carried our little back porch fiber optic Christmas tree and we opened a great bottle of dry Riesling to accompany our meal. The cabin was so warm we had to leave the door open. Turned on the radio for some Christmas music and reminisced about the past year. It has been a good one with lots of travels and friends, and projects started and finished. Another year gone by. I am truly truly blessed.

September – a Chatty Catch-up

Being the month of my birth, I am somewhat partial to September. Here in Rocky Point, and in this part of Oregon in general, September can be the very best time of year in so many ways. The mosquito population has finally decided to disappear to wherever they go, the midges are at least confined to places you don’t want to be anyway, the skies are blue and bright, the days warm, the nights cool. Several bloggers that I read regularly have found out just how delightful this part of Oregon can be, with RV Sue hanging around just over our hill on the Rogue River, and Paul and Nina up at Diamond Lake.

Mo and I have spent some quality camping time in both those places and it’s fun to read about folks finding out just how wonderful this part of Oregon can be. Everyone seems to know the coast part, and lots of folks travel there, but fewer have found the wonders of the Cascades waterfalls, magical lakes, beautiful forests and SUNSHINE. Welcome to my world.

Once again, Mo and I planned to travel a couple of hours south to camp at our favorite Medicine Lake, and once again we were thwarted. In the midst of extra work hours for me, some other business needs for two of us, and the smoky skies from California fires, we put off our planned mid-month camping trip for another time. The month was anything but quiet however, with visiting friends, Rocky Point get-togethers, and of course, my birthday!

It started off with a visit from Jeanne, long time friend I once worked with here in the basin who has returned to her native New England for good. Everyone needs a friend like Jeanne, probably the most amazing athletic woman I have had the pleasure of knowing. Jeanne treks Nepal, climbs the second highest mountain in the word, does back country skiing down the cliffs at Crater Lake, jumps out of helicopters to ski in British Columbia back country, launches her tiny white water kayak over 23 foot waterfalls in Costa Rica. Yeah, I could go on and on. She runs and rides her bikes for hundreds of miles and travels the world. How did I get a friend like Jeanne, you might ask?

I almost didn’t. Anyone from New England knows there is a special New England persona. Anyone from California knows there is also a definite West Coast Persona. Jeanne and I were complete opposites, and on my first day of work in 2002 in Klamath Falls, I met Jeanne, who instantly disliked me. I was all gushy and open and “chattery”, and Jeanne of course, being from New England, was all reserved and “don’t touch me” and would you please just shut up!? I disliked her almost as much as she disliked me! All it took was a long day in the field to discover that even with our different ways of being in the world, we had the makings of something deeper that grew into a great, strong friendship. Of course, I can’t even come close to keeping up with her, but she has a great batch of friends who do that very well.

Jeanne came “home” to Klamath for a long visit with all of us, spending time biking, and hiking, and kayaking, and then came out to Rocky Point for a couple of days. We went kayaking on Recreation Creek, a far cry from the adrenaline pumping kinds of boating she and her friends are used to, but we still had a good time, at least Jeanne and I did. Some of the other friends thought it was great for a one time thing, but too dang boring to do again. Me, I love the slowing down part, I love seeing the birds and the wildlife and the reflections. Adrenaline is not one of my favorite things, and I will avoid it if at all possible!

In between visits and work time, I managed a bit of quilting, working on my queen sized quilt that got started from a single jelly roll of fabric my sister picked up for me because I thought it was pretty. It is kinda scary how a $39.00 jelly roll can morph into a LOT more money by the time all is said and done. I took a break from the big quilt by piecing a bright little table topper that I have yet to actually quilt because I can’t decide just how I want to do it.

Another fun project was completed when Mo and I worked together removing a bazillion staples from my ten year old dining chairs and recovered them with a gorgeous fabric I found after two years of looking for just the right thing.

The greenhouse is a bit later this year, with our tomatoes just barely ripening toward the end of the month, but we have had cute little peppers, lemon cucumbers, lots of green beans and of course lots of good lettuces and greens. I made a trip over the mountain to Medford to buy some gorgeous sweet tree ripened peaches from the local orchards and made peach jam, froze some peach pie filling and experimented with some hot pepper jellies. The Peach Habanero is good but the Pineapple Habanero is fabulous. Some of the Peach Bourbon jam didn’t set up and it is now a quite delicious Peach Bourbon Sauce, ready for waffles or ice cream on a cold winter day.

The very next week I got a call from Maryruth, saying, “Hey, are you and Mo around? I want to come up for a few days for your birthday.” What a treat! She left her husband Gerald at home to take care of everything while she drove the 6 hours north from Oroville for some very much wanted “girl time”. We usually manage this once or twice a year but this one was an unexpected surprise. We filled up three days with lots of laughter, lots of “hand and foot” (a game I can’t get Mo to play with me), and good food. Well almost good food. Sadly the Rocky Point Resort has changed hands since we were there and I would definitely suggest that folks visiting this area avoid the restaurant if at all possible. Or maybe just go in for a drink. The view is gorgeous, the place is historic and charming, it is just the food that is probably the worst I have ever actually paid for.

Maryruth was barely gone when it was time for my ‘real’ birthday. Seems as though I celebrated this one for a very long time and it wasn’t even a biggie. I still have three years to go before I think a birthday is really worth paying attention. Seventy even sounds scary to me, but I have a bit of time yet. On this minor birthday, however, I went off to town to have breakfast with my sister, visited with Melody and the jewelry store where I got a FREE bead for my Pandora bracelet, and came home for a nice bit of quilting time before Mo said, “Let’s go out to dinner at Lake of the Woods”. Whew! Birthday breakfast, and dinner on the same day? Thankfully, our dinner up at the lake was incredible, with the gorgeous view, great service and wonderful food. It may be a 15 minute drive rather than 5, but oh so worth it. Thank you, Mo!!

Then on Sunday, Melody, Kevin and grandson Xavier came out for an afternoon visit bringing even more wondrous presents. I am the lucky beneficiary of a daughter who works in a jewelry store, so I am sure the “giftie bits” she brought to me are something I never would otherwise have. Of course, everyone keeps saying no jewelry when traveling, but this pendant is definitely going on my November cruise even if I can’t wear it to Europe! The diamond hoop earrings however, are small and tasteful, and don’t scream “steal me”! I AM wearing them.

What I didn’t even know yet was that the plant and twist movement I made jumping out of bed that morning had torn my knee cartilage. In the next couple of days the pain got worse and worse until I couldn’t walk at all, even with a walking stick. Sigh. A trip to the doctor, xrays, MRI, another trip to the orthopedist all confirmed my worst fear. Torn meniscus and a long healing time. Actually it was my second worst fear. Surgery was my worst fear, and so far that one has been avoided. I can’t take pain pills or medication, so surgery isn’t a lot of fun. Anyway, I have been hobbling around on crutches, and graduated to the walking stick and even a bit of hobbling without anything this morning, so am encouraged.

Mo is dealing with yard work and house work all alone right now while I gimp around like a useless piece of moving furniture. Sigh. It is not fun feeling completely useless around here. I can’t even quilt since that requires lots of jumping up and down from the machine to the iron, so instead I got back to knitting. I even finished Deanna’s sweater and have it all wrapped up to mail. Yippee, at last!! I started it back in December of last year. Guess you could say I am not a fast knitter.

A week from Thursday my daughter Melody and I will drive to Portland to board our overnight flight to Amsterdam and then on to Budapest. I have been planning this trip and looking forward to it for soo sooo long, and am excited to see this part of Europe, but even more excited to see it through the eyes of my daughter. It will be her first overseas trip, and I remember how incredible I felt on my first such trip with Mo back in 2005. Everything was so new and exciting for me, as I am sure it will be for Melody. She is beside herself excited right now.

I sent an email to a great photographer (Mark) from Mark and Chris’s Phaeton Place, who knows a LOT about techie stuff and traveling and he kindly wrote some very detailed answers and I learned a lot about traveling with technology. Thank you Mark! I bought an iPad, and ordered the global data features for both the iPad and the iPhone, bought the photo transfer doohickey for the iPad and the camera (no usb on an iPad), and hopefully I’ll be able to carry all this stuff along with my walking sticks which will be going on the trip for sure! Once again, the Cotton Carrier I bought for the camera will likely be a lifesaver when I need both hands to manage the sticks. I will never never never measure up to Erin’s photos, but hopefully I’ll get shots that at least won’t embarrass me. I have learned so much from Erin, from Two to Travel and Two to Travel’s Phaeton Journey about blogging and photography. Thank you, Erin!

And on a final note, I just have to really thank all the blogging friends who saw my post on FaceBook about my knee and sent good wishes. It is amazing to me that people take the time to pay attention and care. So many are dealing with really difficult health issues that are about the internal operating system and mine is merely mechanical. Mechanical issues are a pain but it isn’t life threatening, so I consider myself pretty lucky. Does everyone have to get all silly when they first discover Apple’s crazy photo stuff?

May at Home in Rocky Point

(Remember to hover your mouse over photos for captions or click on them for the larger version)

I love May. It seems that no matter where I live, or where I am, May is the month that brings out the best in me. October is probably a close second. When I make travel plans for the best time to be just about anywhere, it is usually May or October. Sometimes, though, here in the Klamath Basin, May can be a mixed blessing. This year we had beautiful days early in the month, and of course, when Memorial Day rolled around, it decided to snow. I laughed and thought, “What’s new?” Snow in the basin on Memorial Day is only a touch more predictable than snow on the Fourth of July.

Once we arrived home with the MoHo after our meandering Covered Bridge Tour, life just settled in to a daily routine of gardening, cleaning up “stuff”, and working at my “real” job. (I may not have that real job much longer after the end of the fiscal year September 30, so I am trying to appreciate it instead of complaining about having to go to work all the time). How dare I complain anyway!? The job is something I love to do and I get to do it from home in my jammies if I want to most of the time.

I think it took the two of us the better part of a week to get the MoHo completely cleaned up after all our winter travels. It was nice to get her back home where I could really vacuum and scrub and clean the cupboards out, while Mo washed and shined the outside. She looks beautiful, (the MoHo) although now the spring pollen is coming and I see a light film of yellow on that shiny exterior, even with her tucked away in her shed.

In spite of the sketchy weather, May is the month when Mo and I spend most of our time cleaning up what is left of winter and getting ready for the prettiest time of year. We live in a beautiful forest, and that beautiful forest means we have beautiful (or not so beautiful) pine needles everywhere. Lots of them. It seems we are raking pine needles year round and my least favorite job is picking pine needles out of the rocky paths that meander around the property under the trees.

In the midst of chores, we took some time off for a little Mom’s day celebration at my daughter’s home. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday and it was wonderful to be treated to a lovely brunch and some delightful family time. The following weekend we attended the annual Taste of Klamath celebration. Our little town has a lovely theater, and each year the “Taste” benefits the Ross Ragland and we get to amble around eating amazing little bites of various restaurant tastings and drinking our ten tickets worth of wine. It is always fun, and as often happens, the sun left and the skies clouded up for the event. Thankfully, most of the food is now inside the theater and under big tents.

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The days flew by, faster than we could track, with lots of time spent each day working away in the gardens, raking, digging, planting, cleaning, more raking and more cleaning. In between, when the skies were rainy, I took some time to quilt and to knit, and even managed to finish a little blanket for an as yet unborn baby girl coming to Mo’s family.

We traveled back over to Grants Pass one day to look around at some ideas for winter storage for the MoHo and pick up some plants from my favorite nursery, and discovered a magnificent restaurant on the banks of the Rogue River. The morning we left, the snow was coming down at home, but Grants Pass was sunny and gorgeous and it was a great respite from the cold. I had no idea there was such a beautiful park right on the north bank of the river and the Taprock Northwest Grill was incredibly beautiful. I could see why the town is touted as the “Best River Town in America”.

Finally, as the month drew to a close, the weather started to warm up for real, and on June 1st, the morning dawned sunny and bright with daytime temperatures expected to be in the 80’s. Plants were waiting to be planted, mulch was waiting to be spread, more needles were waiting to be picked out of the rocks and instead we just said, “It is TIME!”

There is nothing quite as wonderful as getting out on the water so close to home. So little effort, really, just the ability to walk away from the chores and take advantage of our beautiful location minutes from Pelican Bay on Klamath Lake. The snow on Mt McLoughlin was brilliant, the water was clear and the lake is up and the wocus had just started to bloom.

We heard more birds than we saw, with blue herons, great egrets, and sandhill cranes all calling in the tall bulrushes but staying well hidden except for a single heron feeding along the edge of the marsh. I saw at least 50 white pelicans soaring high in the distance toward the north but none where we were paddling on this sunny morning. It was a perfect time on the water and once back home I happily finished up a few garden chores before relaxing into the evening.

This morning we woke to weather alerts saying that the snow level is dropping to 4500 feet on Tuesday morning and the temperatures are dropping to 28 degrees. Sigh. I have just finished planting a ridiculous number of tender annuals in my flower beds and tomatoes and beans are in the greenhouse. The hot tub needed her bi annual cleaning and we thought it might be nice to get it done before the snow hits again. Mo repaired and painted the garden furniture while I finished scrubbing out the tub.

It seems as though I have traveled to town entirely too many times this month, especially with gasoline still running 4.29 per gallon for regular here in Klamath. What’s with that?!? Only in the east has the price actually been falling but the news keeps saying how great it is that gas is going down. Down? not here! I still have been driving in to work a couple of times a week, and then having to make a few additional trips with the small trailer to pick up loads of nice fine bark mulch for the flower beds.

On the way home yesterday, I stopped to check out the new interpretive signs installed along Highway 140 on Doak Mountain, my route to and from town. We do live in a magical area, and the signs reminded me again how special this part of the world really is. When driving that route so often, sometimes I just wish I lived closer to town and forget just how many folks would come to drive the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway for recreation. Even as many times as I drive this road, every time I come over Doak Mountain and look out over the lake, I feel a tug on my heart. It is home, it is beautiful, I am so lucky to live here.

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June 1 Back on the water at Rocky Point

It takes about 5 minutes to get down to the boat launch from home. On a warm, sunny, gorgeous day, we looked at each other and said, “Gardening? Housework? Time to get the boats on the lake!” And that is exactly what we did.

Who has time to write anything when waters like this are waiting just around the corner?

I will write something soon, of course. Don’t want to forget what we have been doing lately! Till then…..