Pic-of-the-Month for Summer 2023

 Hello, Friends!

Remember us?  We're your snowbird Baja friends who are in Oregon for a few more weeks!  We have been so busy coming and going here and there, that we didn't take the time to send out an update.  Now, at the end of our summer here in Oregon, we are going to be sitting in the same place for a couple weeks (Bend), so I thought I'd catch you up on our busy summer.  

June - We arrived in Fort Rock, Oregon (where our trailer is stored) on June 22.  After a few days there getting things organized, we headed to Harrisburg to deal with my brother Rich's RV.  It was a BIG job getting everything cleaned out, and cleaning the rig, then hauling stuff to St. Vincent and Goodwill.  I advertised it on Facebook, Craig's List, and parked it out front and put a sign on it!  It did sell after not too long for a decent price.  Phew!  During this time, I also delivered my latest quilt to my friends who run a quilting shop (finishing the quilts), so that I could display it in the Sister's Quilt Show at my friend Janet's shop in Sisters.  Friend June did a great job on it, as usual, in my limited time frame.  

June photos, which include our trip north, are located at June 2023. 

 

July -  After getting the RV cleaned up, we headed to Salem and our friends the Sackingers, who have a place to park our trailer.  It was time for some relaxing and visiting friends in the area.  We spent a few days there, then returned over the mountains to Bend, as we had our annual doctor appointments scheduled.   We didn't let the dust settle when we headed back to Fort Rock to go on a little camping / fishing trip with Katie and Mel to Deadhorse Lake, west of Paisley.  They had caught their limit there a little while before, and were sure there were more fish to be caught...and they were right!  We went out in Mel's drift boat, and got a nice bunch of Rainbow Trout that first afternoon.  The next day we caught a bunch more, so the guys had their work cut out for them filleting all that fish and packing it for the freezer.  Delicious!

Ben had another medical appointment in Bend, and then we went back over to the the farm at Harrisburg to welcome our daughter Rebecca and our 3 grand-kids.  We also held a Memorial Service and potluck for brother Rich that Sunday, and had a nice turn out of friends and family.  Rebecca is working remotely full time now as an architect, so she had signed the kids up for summer activities in Eugene.  Ben and I were the bus service, taking them and picking them up for 5 days!  They did have fun....mostly! Especially when they could use the family swimming pool!  They are becoming good little swimmers.  It was great spending time with them, hiking, picking blackberries and making desserts, and playing games.  They are growing up so quickly! We hauled them and their ton of luggage to the Portland airport on July 31.  (Good thing we have a big pickup!) Pictures are here for July 2023. 

August - Now it was time to head to southern Oregon!  Our old Salem neighbors had just moved to Grants Pass, and they had space for our trailer, so we found them and spent several days touring around the area.They took us to an Animal Rescue place near there that had some very interesting birds and animals.  We also visited a winery or two in the area and enjoyed some tastings.  We went on from there to Eagle Point to visit our friend Pat and her pup Button.  As usual, it was a very relaxing time.  We camped again this year at an RV park in Shady Cove, right on the Rogue River.  Beautiful!  We went to most of our favorite shopping places; Harry & David, Rogue Creamery, and a vineyard.  We ate well!!  When that visit was done, we drove from Shady Cove to Crooked River RV Park northwest of Terrebonne to meet our friends the Telecks.  We did a bit of touring around the area, and took them to see the Balancing Rocks near Lake Billy Chinook.  Amazing place! 

After that fun trip, we went back to home base (Ken & Bea's home near Sisters), and parked the trailer.  The next trip was without our summer suitcase (the trailer)!  We drove to Cathlamet, Washington to visit friends Debi and Sandy.  They live on a slough on a large island in the Columbia River.  Fun!  They have a boat dock, a boat and know how to show you a good time on the river!  Hwy 409 ends at a ferry terminal on the south end to take you to Westport, Oregon.  We used that to get to our next destination in Astoria, Oregon.

Our Baja neighbors, Brian and Hope, are in Astoria this summer as Hope is working for the hospital there.  We spent a couple days with them exploring Astoria, riding the trolley, shopping, and eating well (always!) and visiting.  We then went to Ilwaco, Washington, just across the Astoria Bridge, to visit friends Ray and Karen Hunt.  Karen did a great job of showing us around the Long Beach area.  We took a nice hike through the forest and onto the beach one day, and another day we did a boardwalk hike.  She took us to an ice cream shop.  I ordered a single scoop in a waffle cone.  He must have put at least a pint of ice cream in there!  Whoa!  I got to play some music with Ray...we've played together for a lot of years in Baja, so that was very enjoyable.  

We left there and headed back to Bend via the Oregon coast and Salem, since I had an appointment with my dermatologist scheduled to remove a Basel cell cancer from my cheek. 

Next destination: Fort Rock, again, to help Mel with the deck project they were doing.

September - We hung out at Fort Rock, helping with projects and running to town (Bend) for various doctor appointments.  My eye doctor says my cataracts are ready to remove...I told him next summer!  

We left Fort Rock and headed for a couple of our favorite places to camp in Oregon.  First stop was Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge at the Hot Springs campground.  We got our usual camping spot, but they've changed it up a bit this year.  It was a lovely, quiet time.  We were surprised there weren't more campers there (especially hunters this time of year).  We took a tour one day, and saw only 3 antelope!  The next day on the way out, we saw many, many more in large groups. 

 Next stop was the Steens Mountains RV park near Frenchglen, where we met up with the Telecks again, and a few days later the Sackingers joined us.  We drove up to the top of the Steens and oohed and aahed over the gorgeous gorges.  One of the neat things we saw near the top was two stock trucks full of sheep, and they were in the process of unloading them to pasture up there in the meadows.  Based on how many sheep would fit in one of those trucks, we were guessing 700 to 800 sheep!  We also toured the Round Barn, and I found a neat new wide brim hat at the Museum/gift shop there. 

From the Steens, we continued north up Highway 395 to the Pendleton Roundup!  "Let 'er buck!"  The Sackingers joined us for that adventure for one day.  Our nephew Mike had gotten us some box seat tickets, and for the first time since 2008, we were at ground level in some pretty cool box seats.  The next day, we used cousin Tom's tickets in the North Grandstand, right above the chutes.  Let me tell you, those bulls are HUGE!  Wow.  All in all, it was another great Round Up, and we'll be back.

Now we're back in Bend for just over a week, getting ready to head south with cousins Tom & Karan on October 4.  I had one more Mohs surgery, this time on my nose tip.  Lucky me, I get to wear a bandage for three weeks.  Right now, I kind of look like a clown, what with the extra padding.  You'll have to dig deep in my picture albums to find that picture!

Pics are here for September 2023.  I've tried to caption most of the pics in the albums.  Just click on the i in the circle.

I'll be posting pictures of our travels south in Facebook if you want to follow along.  And if we didn't see you this summer, come see us in Baja!  

Your Baja amigos,

Harriet, Ben & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Month for May 2023

 Hola Amigos!

This will probably be our last letter sent from Baja this spring.  We are heading north in 3 weeks, in mid-June.  We are going just a bit earlier this year because we have some of my brother Rich's things to take care of, and sooner is better than later!  For your information, we will have a Memorial Service for him Sunday, July 23 at Tom & Karan Malpass house, which is near the West Point Cemetery where his remains will be. 

This May, there was another car show put on by our friend Hector Manuel, so we participated with the 1929 Ford Model A Pickup.  For those of you who don't know about this vehicle, Ben bought it in 1960 when he was 13 years old!  He wanted a go-cart, and his Dad suggested an old car, and this is what he got.  I must say, though, that it looks WAY better now than it did in 1960!!  

Here's Ben in 1960 with his "new to him" $75 pickup!

He   says the color was "dirty black".  The fenders were in very rough shape, but it ran.  He learned how to drive it on their farm near Bend, including the double clutching, and drove it to high school after they moved to Eugene.  This thing followed us around for years;  we brought it down to Baja in our cargo trailer in parts!  When he was retired, he finally had time and money to restore it and put it all together.  We've been showing it in car shows and driving it in parades ever since.  This unassuming little farm truck has carted a lot of queens and princesses around Los Barriles!  (Cousin Tom got to drive it last November in the Revolution Day parade November 20!)

 
Another story that is ending on a good note has to do with our 2011 Ford pickup.  While he was driving to La Paz in late October, towing the 1930 Roadster to be painted and repaired for a minor scratch, Ben hit an animal with the front right corner.  It was low to the ground, and he's pretty sure it was a large pig running into the road.  (Any animal is possible to be in the road in Baja, believe me!)  The truck was still drivable, and there was really no place to pull over and check it out where he hit the animal, so he continued on to La Paz and Edgar Majalca's body shop. They did pull the bumper out a bit so it wouldn't rub on the tire when turning, but that was it.  In early November, he notified our insurance company.  An adjuster came out, filled out forms and said he needed to get an estimate from their body shop in La Paz, Danny's.  At that time, Ben stated that he wanted Majalca's Body shop to do the work, as they've done fantastic work on our Roadster, the Jeep, and polished both of the other A's.  Well, long story short, the insurance company's head guy in La Paz (for all of Baja Sur) was just about as unresponsive, uncooperative and unhelpful as anyone we've ever tried to work with.  He always insisted that we needed to pay $500 deductible.  He insisted on ordering the parts, Ben insisted on genuine Ford parts.  It took months before Ben and his translater Magali, and Edgar Majalca could sit down and talk with Gabriel, the head guy at HDI.  He finally agreed to order the parts, Ben agreed that  Edgar would inspect the parts and install them. The parts all came (according the Gabriel).  Edgar inspected them (Ford?  check!) and took things apart to install everything, and got a lot done when they realized that the main grill was NOT included in the parts!!!  They had to take everything back apart and install the old stuff!  (At least the bumper was installed with no problems).  Gabriel kept insisting on the $500 deductible being paid, Ben kept insisting that his parts be all installed before he paid.  Oh, and Gabriel wanted the old parts BEFORE the new parts were installed!  What???  The pickup was drivable, and needed, so that made no sense at all.  Emails went back and forth between our insurance broker in San Diego, HDI, Ben.  He has a huge file of stuff.  Finally, just a few days ago, after Ben had complained of additional costs of travel and hotel in La Paz and Edgar's shop having to do things twice because the grill wasn't with the original parts, the higher ups in the Insurance company agreed to waive the $500 deductible.  (Ben had it in his wallet all the time.... he just wasn't going to part with it any time soon!)  So, that job is on the agenda for next week.  Just another trip to La Paz!  Phew!  Life in Mexico isn't always easy.  Sorry for the long story, but that took from October through end of May, so a lot of time was involved.  Ben could write a book!!  

We have just started to eat some of our corn.  I had a nice piece for dinner last night, along with a nice big tomato, and it was a lovely dinner!  We probably won't be able to eat most of it that is ripe now, but will most likely freeze some for next year.  

Ben had great advice from cousin Tom Malpass, who grew acres and acres of corn in the Willamette Valley for quite a few years.  The best hint....lots and lots of nitrogen.  So Ben had a special applicator installed on our water line to feed the proper amounts of nitrogen to the corn.  It seemed to work just fine.

The tomatoes are still producing.  And we've got to start thinking about putting the garden to bed since we've only got two weeks before we leave!  We've used almost all of our canning jars, and the freezers are also full, so I hope we can keep the freezers cold this summer while we're gone.

We do have a house sitter.  The man who did it for us last summer wasn't able to come back (he had to go back to work in Canada!  Yikes!) We offered the job to a fellow who has been down here several years and is an avid pickle ball player, originally from Chicago.  We think it will work out well for all.  He does love our house, so no problem there.  We just need to train him on shutter application and generator operation.  

It's pretty dry here now, so we have started giving the cows and burros some water.  If the bucket is dry, the burros will let us know.  HE HAW HAW HAW!!!  I added another bucket today, because the cows were getting selfish.  

Yes, it's dry, and it's starting to get warm.  Daytime temps are in the 80's, lows are in the high 70's!  There's not much variation this time of year.  I'm still walking, and my friend Jill is back for a while, so she walks with me.  So far, I've reached my monthly goals for the year.  I'm currently at 351 miles walked to date.  The challenge will be to keep it up while we are traveling.   

Our neighbor Brian had guests who went fishing several days, and that was when they were catching Tuna.  Well, none of them wanted the fish, so we ended up with all of it!  Wow.  Another thing to fill our freezer!  

Cinco de Mayo!  It's a bigger celebration in the US than in Mexico, generally, but the local restaurants here do put on a great show.  At La Playa there was a Mariachi band and local dancers, mostly young kids to teenagers.  They were great!  We were very impressed with the show.  I took a lot of pictures, and posted them in a special album.  Cinco de Mayo 2023 Especially check out about the 9th video of 3 chicas and 2 guys, who are dancing with machetes.  They are also joined by a younger boy later in the dance with his knives.  Cool! 

My regular May album is here.... May 2023. 

 
Like I said, this is probably the last post until we get to Oregon and something interesting happens there.  Maybe Ben will write something.  Maybe not!  Anyhow, if you'd like to see us this summer, drop us a note and let us know.  We hope to get around the state of Oregon, especially if you want to see us.  

We will be leaving here on June 17th (that's the plan anyhow), and if you're on Facebook, I usually post daily pictures the scenery and our adventures on the trip.

See you in Oregon! 

Until the next time,

Harriet, Ben & Zoey