snow – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

03-02-2018 The Rest of February

I am laughing as I read back over this blog. A commenter on the last post asked if I would please keep writing when we got home, and I said I would, but that home time was definitely not all that exciting! Who knows if you will find anything of interest here, it is all simple daily stuff.

The sun is making a rare appearance this afternoon, after a few days of in and out rain and snow. It is cold, and Mo and I haven’t had much oomph to get out to do much of anything around the place here. We did manage to finish hanging the outdoor art that we found on our travels to the southwest, and planted a small group of shrubs. Spring Bouquet Laurustinus is a lovely evergreen shrub with pale pink flowers and purple berries in the fall. Listed as deer resistant, I learned the hard way that resistant does NOT mean deer proof.

The first morning after planting them our neighborhood deer herd had nipped off the upper branches and leaves of the little shrubs. I have roses and other plants that have been sprayed with Liquid Fence, but I didn’t really think the deer were even around, much less that I had to spray the darn things the minute I planted them. I immediately got out the sprayer the next day and covered everything in the yard with the smelly stuff. I have real proof now that it really works, since nothing else was touched except the newly planted shrubs.

One afternoon that felt almost like spring, I decided to plant some pansies in the big pots by the garage. They are holding their own, in spite of the snow. The primroses that I transplanted from Rocky Point are looking happy as well. Makes me happy. I had some of these purple primroses back in Northern Idaho before I moved in 2002 to Klamath Falls and like old friends, I take them along wherever I go.

We thought winter had passed by this way gently, but it showed up with a vengeance in the last two weeks. Snow on the ground isn’t common for Grants Pass, and we have had snow several times. It usually melts within a few hours, and so far has required no shoveling or plowing, and no ice to contend with, so that makes me very happy.

It is a great time to be indoors, and I have been working on curtains for the house in the living room and dining room. We didn’t want big window treatments since we love our view, but did need a bit of protection from the afternoon sun on the southwestern window in the living room. We also thought it might be nice to hide the view of the ancient work shed from the east facing dining room window.

I found the fabrics when we were in Palm Springs, shopping at my favorite quilt stores.

I have also had a bit of time to slip into my easy hobby of card making. Love that I have most of the stuff needed for these little projects, and I can accomplish something in a few hours, unlike quilting which requires a big input of time, money, and space. The cold weather sparks the desire to cook as well and I made a seriously amazing roasted chicken and veggies, and finally did up last summer’s blackberries in an iron skillet cobbler recipe.

I find other ways to keep busy. What in the world is this thing called entropy? If I don’t stay right on top of stuff, it can immediately deteriorate into a mess. With a new house, new floors, new appliances, I am a bit obsessive about keeping all those pretty things looking nice and new. Seems as though I spend more time than usual polishing and wiping and swiping and sweeping and such, just to keep that new house look going strong. Wonder how long that will last. How long can that refrigerator look like it was just delivered. So far so good, after 4 months, it still looks all shiny new.

Weekends are fun when my daughter Deborah makes the hour long drive from Shady Cove to visit and she and my grandson Matthew drop in for conversation, sitting around in the comfy living room by the fire talking about everything and nothing.

We are settling in. We have an excellent doctor in a rather amazing medical facility, with everything we need in the Asante medical complex less than 10 minutes from home. Mo found a dentist that accepted both of us, and she is next in line for an eye doctor. It is scary how much time can be spent going to appointments for all this stuff. Hopefully that will slow down a bit, as we are both reasonably healthy.

We also have an excellent car repair shop that we have used over the last few years here in town. After more than 3,000 miles on our wheels for the last trip it was time for an oil change, brake check, and wheel bearing checks for the MoHo. We dropped the rig off and headed downtown for breakfast at a well reviewed Grants Pass spot popular with the locals. The Powderhorn Cafe was right out of the west, with down home breakfasts, cowboy decor, and groups of old guys drinking coffee and chewing the fat in front of the big windows.

After breakfast we took advantage of the early hour to walk along G Street in the Historic District of downtown. We discovered some bars, bistros, and cafes that we hadn’t seen before, and looked at the Garden Mural up close. Sadly, no camera, but you can bet when Erin and Mui visit I will have to take Erin to see the murals. We have several in town, but there are three that are extra special.

As the month drew to a close, the snows kept falling all around us on the hills, but not always here. We are at 1200 feet, and town is at 900 feet. The snow often seems to start around 1500 feet. I looked at the snow and decided on another house project that kept me indoors. I had promised myself I wouldn’t put up any St Paddy’s stuff until it was actually March, but gave in on the 27th and brought out the green bin.

I had started the blocks for this table runner three years ago in Rocky Point, and last year worked on the rest of the runner. This time I actually backed and quilted it and all that is waiting now is the binding. I cut out some fabric for place mats, but with our upcoming trip to Mexico, it might be next year before I get back to them.

We do interesting things for entertainment sometimes, in between our travels. A business run to Medford, about 45 minutes south of us, was augmented with a Costco Run, since we don’t have a Costco here in Grants Pass. There are no better hot dogs in the world than those crazy $1.50 dogs at Costco, so we decided that could be our dinner for the late afternoon. Of course, wine is always nice with dinner, so we found the only bottle of red wine in Costco with a screw top, and bought it to accompany our impromptu supper. With a $17.00 bottle of wine, decanted into those free pepsi cups that come with the $3.00 worth of hot dogs, we had a delightful time laughing ourselves silly in the front seat of the car as the rained poured down all around us and we shared our $20.00 dinner. Don’t worry, we didn’t drink the whole bottle, just a little bit.

When we first got back from the southland, we thought leaving for Mexico wouldn’t be all that exciting since it felt like spring here. Not any more! Snowy rainy wet weather making our upcoming trip to Cancun look very inviting! It will be an easy week visiting ruins, hanging out in the pools, snorkeling and eating good food. Many thanks to Daughter Deanna who offered to share her Riviera Maya timeshare with us, and to air miles for flights. Looking forward to it.

Mo’s birthday was yesterday, and it dawned with big wet snowflakes. The skies were very dark on this first day of March, with “thundersnow” predicted for the Cascades. In like a Lion out like a Lamb?

We decided to celebrate Mo’s day with a dinner at one of those little bistros that we found last week walking around town. The Bohemian Bistro and Bar bills itself as a “New American Restaurant”. We had a delightful early dinner, with snazzy cocktails, including a Lavender Lemon Drop for me, a very fine salad made with locally sourced baby romaine and balsamic reduction, some Goyza dumplings with a spicy dipping sauce, coconut shrimp with habanera pineapple sauce for me and halibut for Mo. Mo wasn’t that excited about her halibut, but I liked it. My shrimp was to die for, but the winner was the dessert, a perfect little ramekin of caramel latte creme brulee. We were happy that we found parking directly on the street in front of the restaurant since it was pouring when we went in and still pouring when we left. Nice place and a good find.

We are traveling over the mountain back to Klamath Falls tomorrow, hoping that this big storm that is enveloping most of Northern California and Southern Oregon will pass, at least enough to get through with our studded snow tires and 4 wheel drive truck. The Apartments are fully rented, and we need to check on a few things. We are so grateful that we were able to rent them all through Zillow, bypassing the property management people. So far, so good, and I think we have very good renters. The years when Mo used a property manager for the apartments when she lived out at Rocky Point were somewhat of an expensive convenience, and not always that convenient. We will see how it goes with the two of us managing things, and our good renter Jacob taking care of snow plowing in the winter and lawn mowing in the summer. Lucky to have Jacob. He keeps an eye out for things as well, letting us know if something doesn’t look right. Mo had a new fiberglass roof installed over the upper deck and we are anxious to see it as well as the new sign that was part of the EPA re-do. The old sign was too hard to keep so they trashed it and had a new sign done for her.

There has been a LOT more snow there than here, so the little day trip tomorrow will definitely help us remember why we love living in Grants Pass even if it does snow a little bit now and then.

Home in December

Rocky Point, Oregon 25 degrees F and partly cloudy with a high predicted of 40F

When we planned our winter trip south, we knew that December in this part of Oregon can be cold, snowy, and wintry. Still, I wanted to be home at Christmas in spite of the weather. Daughter Deb is close enough now that she can come over the mountain to share the holidays with us, and Melody and her family always come out for Christmas as well, with just a 25 mile trek from Klamath Falls to mom’s house in the woods. We have some great family traditions, one of which includes sledding down our hill on Christmas day.

There have been times when there was no snow, but not often. Last year the snow started in November and I counted 13 consecutive days of plowing and blowing as the snow dumped on us. This year November was sunny and the grass was still green. Then WHAM, that Big Chill that gripped the nation landed in Oregon as well, and our temperatures were as low as 20 degrees below Zero F. We broke all time records for cold for any day in Klamath Falls with readings of almost 30 below. Yup, you read that right. 30 miles north of the California border and it was -28F.

The good part about this cold spell however, was that it was just too cold to snow very much. Around the 5th of December, the snow started falling and Mo and I plowed and shoveled for two days, unable to keep up with the dumping white stuff. Then the true cold hit, the skies turned bluebird blue, and the snow froze in place, clean and dry after all our snow management. With temps that cold, there wasn’t much ice in our driveway and on our road, and we haven’t had to plow since then. The rest of the area wasn’t so lucky, however.

Daughter Deb over in Grants Pass spent a few days without water when the pipes froze. Grants Pass and the Rogue Valley are not used to that kind of weather, and there were hundreds of accidents on the local roads and freeways and most of the schools have been closed for more than 5 days now. We didn’t winterize the MoHo but left a heater running inside and the RV shed is completely enclosed, so we think all is OK. Our reason for buying the Grants Pass property had to do with lowest winter temps being an occasional bout with the teens and most of the time above 30F or so.

Daughter Deanna was right in the midst of the worst ice storm, just 30 miles from Dallas, where she and her husband spent 13 hours trapped in their semi on one of those “fake” hills at an overpass that no vehicle could manage. Deanna said someone would try and they all would slide backwards. Traffic was backed up for 40 miles or something like that. They finally got out of the mess to deliver in Memphis, run down to Miami to pick up some other kinds of fancy engines, and take off for Manitoba, where the cold was just normal Manitoba cold and not impossible to navigate.

Here at home, I managed to work on quilt projects for Christmas presents, and finally got the house decorated. I do love decorating for holidays, but for some reason it was a bit hard to get into it this year. I was dragging my feet. Possibly because I knew we were leaving just two days after Christmas, not to return until April. I definitely want to get it all packed up and put away before we leave, and of course I know there will be a bit of crunch time in that short two days as we finalize our packing for three months on the road.

Still, on Wednesday this week, I finally went out to the very cold garage (it was still around zero F, and Mo and I brought down the Christmas bins and I started unpacking and deciding what to use, what to skip. This year I will skip the Christmas villages, and those bins remain untouched. I decided to decorate the perfect little Christmas tree this year with the heirloom little pieces that have been with both of us for more years than I care to count instead of my fancy fruits and shiny globes that I bought for my Klamath Falls home when I moved there 11 years ago. The snowmen came out, and I laughed with Mo, saying “No matter how old and worn out I get, I’ll always be able to manage the snowmen, even if I don’t do anything else!”

Last night I finished up the lights on the porch, and in spite of the lack of enthusiasm I felt during the process, as I stood out in the snow looking at our cozy house I was so glad I had made the effort. Somehow it finally feels like Christmastime. Today I’ll go down to our Rocky Point community place and set a pretty table for eight for the ladies luncheon held here every year. The kids will come for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and the house will look like a Mom’s house is supposed to look. I’ll start baking cookies and make some fudge, listen to some Christmas music and be grateful that we decided to stay home once again for Christmas.

This year I even made the effort to do Christmas cards and the Christmas letter. I saw on the news not long ago how this old tradition is rapidly dying as we all seem to be communicating in different ways with social media and the internet. I decided that the letter and a sheet of photos was still a nice gesture. I still have old Christmas letters from lots of friends who used to send them. Mo gets lots of cards every year, I get very few. I do think I have friends, but maybe our friends are different kinds of people. Hers are more traditional, mine are all over the map. All over the map kinds of people tend to not send Christmas cards. So what am I, all over the map or traditional??!!

Who knows if we will be here every year. Sometimes we might like to take a break and travel somewhere warm BEFORE that winter snow and cold hits Rocky Point. Each time I have done that, however, my heart misses the old traditions of Christmas and my family, at least as many of my family that I can gather in one place at one time. Mo would much prefer to be elsewhere at this time of year, and when I first knew her, she would almost always be off somewhere in December, avoiding all the Christmas hubbub, calling me from Spain, or Costa Rica or some other exotic location. I am glad that she is tolerant of my need for family times and patiently waits for two days after Christmas to escape.

Late Spring Snow and we are going camping?!

Home in Rocky Point, Oregon
Current temperature: 40 degrees F, with melting snow on the ground. Lo tonight: 30 degrees F with a chance of snow
Yes, we are going camping. We are leaving tomorrow for the eastern side of Oregon, planning a combo boondocking/rv park trip to the high sagebrush desert. We did plan to leave on Tuesday afternoon, but some severe weather warnings were a bit daunting, and we decided to postpone our little journey until the weather shifted a bit. Good thing! Yesterday afternoon the snow hit and by 5pm we had snow on the trees and even some snow sticking to the ground. The weather report optimistically says that “with warming temperatures and longer days, the ground temperatures should be warm enough that the snow will not stick”. Ok then. It is now almost noon in Rocky Point, and true to the forecast, most of the snow is melting, but more may be coming tonight.
Mo is bringing the MoHo up from the shed to park in the driveway, ready for loading. As much as we love having the place in Grants Pass, it sure is wonderful to have our rig right here when we are ready to travel. No trying to remember what to take, what is at the cottage, what is in the MoHo. Just walk outside, check the cupboards, and pack accordingly. Nice.
Speaking of weather, my daughter who relocated to Texas last year has now relocated again to Grand Junction, Colorado. Closer to me, closer to her son, and better jobs for both her and for her sweetie. She drove north through Texas with a U-Haul the day of the tornados. She missed them. My son lives in Joplin Missouri, and while he was hit by the last big tornado
May flowers on May 22
there, the small twister that touched down in Carthage missed him by 15 miles. Truck driver daughter and her husband are delivering jet engines to Winnipeg, and so she is also out of the line of fire. I just can’t imagine what those people in Oklahoma are going through. Can’t imagine.
Mo and I watched the news, and said our thank you’s for the gift of living in a place without tornados, hurricanes, or major floods. It can almost make you feel guilty for being so lucky in the midst of such horror, but I do feel lucky, and blessed, and sad for those people who have lost everything. Of course, disaster can strike anywhere. We live in Earthquake country, are surrounded by volcanoes that could decided to heat up at a moment’s notice, the wildfires of our hotter and hotter summers could strike anywhere, and of course winter can deal some pretty angry blows. Nothing like a tornado though. However, I often talked to people from hurricane country or tornado country who looked at me like I was crazy for living in earthquake country California. It is all about where family is and what you are used to, I guess.

May flowers on May 19
Since we got home from Death Valley, we went over to the cottage and worked a bit, mowing and trimming and fixing up little things here and there. I was treated to a Mother’s Day brunch by my Klamath Falls daughter and family, and Mo and I did our annual outing to the Taste of Klamath event in town that we have enjoyed for several years now. Small town stuff, but nice, and it supports our local historic theater, the Ross Ragland. We are gardening, and until yesterday, the weather cooperated perfectly. It has been unseasonably warm, with temperatures in the 80’s here at Rocky Point. That is a lot more like July and less like May, but it made working in the yard an absolute delight. 80 degrees and sunny skies with a nice breeze is just about perfect as far as I am concerned.
The only thing that seems to keep eluding us is a kayak outing. On the days when it might be something to do we seem to always have something else more pressing taking up our time. Ah well….eventually those kayaks will get on the water again. We actually planned to take them on this trip to the east side, but the weather predictions have us thinking otherwise. Why load up the kayaks if it is going to be in the 50’s with possible rain?! Nah…we will wait for better days. I guess you could call us fair weather kayakers, although I do have photos from years past when we are on the water as early as March!
I did manage to get in on the Google Plus Hangout that Rick set up for us to learn a bit more about how it all works. It was great fun seeing everyone online and joining in on the conversation. I haven’t managed to do the Skype thing very much since I didn’t think I had the bandwidth. Maybe I can manage hangouts now with distant kids and friends. I hope so.
On our agenda for the next few days: Plush, Oregon, home of the famous BLM sunstone diggings. Hart Mountain Refuge, home of hundreds of pronghorns and some beautiful natural hot springs and a small developed hot spring pool. Summer Lake, Oregon, home to another wildlife refuge, more hot springs, and untold numbers of waterfowl. Ana Reservoir RV campground, on the Ana River and the reservoir, not far from summer lake will provide us with electric and water and a place to dump after three nights boondocking on BLM lands. Should be a nice trip. I don’t imagine there will be any kind of internet, or even phone connections to speak of, so I’ll just have to get caught up on photos and stories when we return to Rocky Point.
In the mean time, I thought it would be fun to put in a couple of photos from our very first camping trip to Hart Mountain back in 2004, before we had any kind of motorhome. I think this may have been the last time we tent camped. In spite of discussing carrying tents and sleeping bags in the motorhome for getting really out in the boonies, we have yet to actually do that. Somehow the comforts of home win out. I spent a bazillion years tent camping, and I do love it, but oh oh oh….it is so nice to have shelter and a bed off the ground. If I could just figure out how to see the stars at night from the MoHo the way you can seen them from a tent it would be perfect. My best memory of Hart Mountain is sitting by the campfire watching the stars come up right on the horizon, just as big and bright as they were in the entire huge sky. It was amazing.

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.

Yes!

I won! I won!! Amazing. Those of you who rode along with me in the MoHo on the Coast 101 Quilt Run (my very first such experience), and wished me well, are in for some thank you’s. I won a third prize gift certificate for $50 to spend at will at the sweet little quilt shop in Brookings. I am happy to say that this was one of my favorite stores of the 14 that I visited. I had given up on winning anything except receipts for all the fabric I bought when this little card showed up in the mail yesterday. Needless to say, I am tickled and already imagining and remembering all those gorgeous fabrics and the great ladies I met in the shop last month.

Lucky me, since we are heading back to Brookings on Sunday morning, and I told Mo that we would have to wait until store opening time on Monday before we travel south to California. Once again we are going south, looking for sunshine and warmth. According to the predictions, however, it might be warmer than Rocky Point but probably not much sunnier. A big storm is dampening the west right now, and it spreads far and wide.

Our plans have shifted back and forth several times, with thoughts of traveling far enough south to the Carizzo Plain to see the amazing wildflower show. The image on the right is from the internet (I have no idea who to acknowledge here), but it is one I have seen repeatedly when searching for wildflower blooming times in the California springtime. The Carizzo Plain and the Tremblor Mountains straddle the San Andreas Fault and are a long way from anywhere southeast of Paso Robles and southwest of Bakersfield.

I plugged the plan into Streets and Trips, counted the days, looked at the weather, and looked at the lack of rain and rethought the plan. Wildflowers on the plain are an ephemeral thing, totally dependent on the timing of rainfall, and this year there has been very little. Rumor has it there isn’t much blooming yet. The Carizzo Plain will have to wait for another year. Of course, now that we have ten days to get away, it is raining. Of course.

Gas prices being what they are, and timing being what it is, I decided instead that it might be time to go see Pinnacles National Monument. Merikay was there recently and took some great photos. Mo was there many years ago when she lived near Half Moon Bay, but I have never seen it. Several friends from soil survey have been involved in the soil mapping there as well. I have read papers, and seen the results of research and study, but now I just want to walk and explore and experience what it has to offer.

Being a national monument, we knew that Abby couldn’t go on the trails, so planned for a doggie day care in nearby Gilroy for the two days we plan to stay in the park. The day care seems rather amazing, with no cages, just lots of beds and toys and other friendly dogs in a big doggie park kind of environment.

Last week I wasn’t working, but of course Mo and I had some big projects waiting for a non-working, non-traveling week. We finished the painting project started last year at this time and completed our office, and mud room and back entry halls.

In the early mornings I worked on the baby blanket I am knitting for Mo’s new grand niece born just after her birthday and took one long afternoon to pull out the sewing machine. When Maryruth and I had our girls weekend last fall, we bought fabric and patterns at the quilt shop in Chico, but of course Maryruth doesn’t quilt. I am making this diamond lattice table runner for her. As simple as it looks, it still is a bit of a challenge for me as a newbie, but I am having so much fun with it. It amazes me how all these little puzzle pieces actually turn into something.

This week was a working week for me again, and Mo managed to finish painting her entire big bathroom while I plunked away on the computer. It is Friday!! I shut down NASIS for the last time this evening and won’t look at it again for ten days. Poured myself a glass of wine and took a deep breath. Tomorrow we will brave whatever the weather gods have in store for us over the Highway 140 pass to go to Medford for the day. Our destination: the annual Cheese Festival at the Rogue Creamery and of course an opportunistic Costo Run as well. Gotta stock up for our Sunday exit to sunny…er…rainy California.