SEPTEMBER 2011

It has been months since we’ve seen a single drop of rain! It's been too cold, overall, with too much wind, true, but dry and there’s something to say for that!
I still would like to see a couple of days though that it is too hot to do anything so you can complain about the heat and you’d really wish it would cool down! It would make me happier for the fall to arrive and be (somewhat) fine with the winter afterwards.

Our 'Gold Beach' never fails to amaze me, it's such a beautiful place and every day is different!

Lots of driftwood comes ashore here.



                

   
                                                                                


During a few cold and cloudy days we cleaned out a lot of obsolete paperwork, old files, documents and plans of James that he doesn’t need now he’s not in California/San Bernardino anymore. We’re shedding a ton of weight and create some nice shelve and drawer space in the RV as well as in the truck in the mean-time!

We also finally started working on the RV after postponing it all summer for ‘when the weather gets warmer’. I guess it’s now or never, this is as warm as it gets!
We spend many days tackling the silicone caulking all around the RV. It was 10 years old and failing. James replaces it with Dicor self-leveling lap sealant.
                                                          

Although our main roof has been recently completely ‘re-done’ together with those of  2 of our slides, the roof of our entertainment slide was not and looks rather ‘iffy’ showing black mold spots all over. Lucky for us the neighbors are re-treating theirs and we can use their left-over’s. That stuff is expensive!

After replacing a lot of rusted screws and treating the ones that won’t come out of the ‘seams’ that hold the ouside panels together we re-cover them with new trim inserts.
Starts to look pretty!

                                   

All slides got new black edge trims and black rubber seals and James welded on some new locking bolts since the old ones lost their thread.

After some puzzling we manage to finally put the decals on the back left slide that we ordered last year from NuWa. This slide had gotten a new face for some reason but never new decals. Although the coach is 10 years old the very helpful parts department at NuWa managed to find the decals in their warehouse. Thank you NuWa for your great customer service!

Since the fridge has some rusty spots on the inside around the bottom hinges we took the doors of and re-paint and re-caulk this and while we’re at it I touched up all wire-racks that had started to flake of paint and had gotten rusty.

The truck got worked on too!
After taking all the rust off James spray-painted the footboards black again and also all 4 wheel hubs which took a lot of meticulous cleaning and prepping.

We work our butts off and are happy to take a break on a Sunday afternoon to participate in the ‘farewell party’ that Cal and Lee are throwing for all of us. The end of the season is rapidly approaching for most of us and soon the first will start moving away to their winter-destinations.

Cal and Lee smoked ribs and grilled salmon and the rest of us all brought their favorite dishes. I made some corn bread with honey-butter.
The food was delicious, the weather held after initially been threatened by incoming fog and we all had a great time! We met some great people here; we’re going to miss them!

I also find time to learn a new craft this month, like I need another hobby, right!

Phyllis tought me how to weave pine needle baskets. Yes, this really sounds like something you want to put on your resume, I know, but take my word for it, it’s fun to do and a hobby that’s totally suitable for the RV life-style! It’s cheap, small, light weight, doesn’t need any expensive or elaborate tools, you can do it anywhere and the materials are readily available or even self-collectable!

I haven’t even talked about my ‘agate-hunting’ that I do here on the beach. A member of the quartz family of minerals, agates have long been sought for their beauty and this area features some of the easiest rock hunting found anywhere, right on the beach at Turtle Rock.







The reason is Hunters Creek, the little creek that flowes alongside the campsite and empties in the ocean right here at the beach. Agates don't come from the sea but wind and water dislodge them from cliffs and river banks, transport them to the ocean and than the tides will wash them up on shore, especially after a (winter) storm, amidst patches of gravel that can also contain bright red or green jasper, other quartzes and petrified wood.
The agates here are mostly a translucent faint yellow to orange in color. I found some beautiful ones:

This huge one has an air bubble in it

We also tumbled some:

This is a banded agat

And than there’s Patches, a small black and white stray cat that has ‘adopted’ us. A couple of weeks after our arrival here at Turtle Rock this little guy started wandering around our site, attracted no doubt by the cat food that’s sitting in a dish in the open bay area.
He was very skittish at first but gradually gained more courage and started to let us pet him after which he ventured out to sleeping on our lawn chairs and eventually on our laps. He now even comes in the RV although he’s still a little nervous doing so.

I treated his ear mites, his tape worm and fleas and he looks really healthy and happy right now.

Unfortunately Merlin hates him and picks a fight almost on a daily basis. This is probably going to be the reason not to take him with us when we move although I already know it’s going to be very hard to leave him behind. He’s such a good cat.

                                                                                                                                                    
 

AUGUST 2011

This month started off with another terrible tragedy. Our sweet Elmo, our youngest cat, passed away on the 7^th after a short bout with increasing constipation, followed by a total blockage and possible twisting of his intestines. We’re so very, very, very sad. Our sweet, sweet baby. I loved him so much…

We buried him at Cape Sebastian. 

                                   

                                                           

Despite this we try to celebrate our 11^th anniversary on the 19^th. We're going out for pizza, have a campfire and spent some time looking through pictures of previous years. We’re getting old!

                                                                                                             

I also worked a few days in ‘housekeeping’ which means I helped cleaning cottages. Not my most favorite work but they were swamped and the extra hours pay for firewood, propane, electricity that we use ‘over’ our allotted amount and anything we like to buy in the store like beer or ice-cream. We might also use them to leave a little earlier at the end of our ‘contract’.

We're starting to think about staying in Oregon for the winter. Since we would like to go to Alaska next Spring it kind of make sense to not go all the way South to Arizona as was our plan but stay North and save a bunch on the gas that it would take us to drive there and than back up again.
Also, James brother Doug as well as his brother Todd and his aunt Esther could use James to do some work in and around their houses in Newberg, Vancouver and Whidbey Island for a couple of months so he can make some money over the winter!

James has started to work in the office on Tuesday evenings on his ‘group-stuff’ and picks up the phone from there until 9.30, which we have to do once a week, so I don’t have to do it at ‘home’. This takes a lot of stress of my back because I really hated to have to do that. I’ll never agree to something like it again!

One of our weekly day-trips brought us to the small town of Sixes this time, about an hour north of us. We took a look at the cute light house, the Cape Blanco lighthouse, build at the most western point of the USA and visited the nearby Hugh House, a beautifully restored Victorian, build in 1885.

On these drives and walks around the neighborhood and as close as around our own RV we’ve noticed that the blackberries are finally ripening!

The campground is practically surrounded by them and we started picking them every couple of days or so.  They’re great on cereal, yoghurt and ice cream and because there are so many of them (!) I ventured into baking blackberry pie, cobbler and buckle as well as muffins and scones! Yumm!

There goes our waistline!

                                                           

We also visited the Curry County Fair at the fairgrounds here in Gold Beach in the company of Phyllis, Cal and Carolyn.

It turned out to be your typical greasy food fest with some small town carnival rides and the inevitable blue ribbon display for some bored and sleepy animals, canned pickles and homemade oat meal cookies and a section with crafty quilts and crocheted toilet paper holder covers.
I think I'm quite done going to these events from now on.

At least I had some fun trying out a different spinning wheel, an Ashford traveller. I think I keep my traditional, I didn't like it very much. Not as smooth.
And I almost forgot the hilarious pig races!

JULY 2011

The foggy, wet spring has slowly made way for steady clear blue skies and somewhat higher temperatures. The wind never seems to let up though, at times the sand on the beach really stings your face and ankles.

The fourth of July is coming up and so is James’ Dad’s Birthday on the 1^st of this month for which we travel to Newberg again. We take a slightly different route this time and pay a visit to the Wal-Mart in Coosbay and Campingworld in Junction city.

That evening the whole family gathers at Dad’s bedside in the nursery home to sing Happy Birthday and eat ice-cream pie made by Brenda upon request of the Birthday boy. Dad is visibly enjoying himself, although he seems very weak and has difficulty speaking. We all get to exchange a few words with him and he eats a whole piece of pie!

Doug and Brenda leave the next day for Washington and we will hang around for a few more days to take over their daily visit routine to Dad.

It also gives us a chance to visit the famous St. Paul Rodeo which takes place each year around the 4^th of July weekend. It’s my first rodeo!

Before the evening show we roam the fair-grounds and have some nice and greasy food as is customary at events like this.

What about these ‘curly’ fries?

                                                                               

And these cute ‘cow-girls’?

                                                                               

During the show I learn that most bulls and horses get to ‘perform’ only once a year for about 3 minutes and live the rest of there lives on huge open ranges in the Midwest, like these mustangs,  to keep them as ‘wild’ as possible. I hope this is true!

I’ve always been hesitant to go to a rodeo because of the possibility of animals being hurt for my entertainment but this information puts my mind somewhat to rest.

For all we can see this evening is cowboys making horrifying crashes and limping away where as the discomfort for the animals seems to be very short and without it resulting in any injuries.

I truly enjoy the incredible horsemanship that is shown at the various competitions that take place over the evening like barrel racing, calf roping and the inevitable bronco and bull-riding.

                                                                            

On the 4^th we watch the neighborhood parade and have a BBQ in Doug’s backyard in the evening.                                                       

Two days later Dad passes away.

We’re sad but mainly happy that his suffering is finally over. Unfortunately he was in a lot of pain in the end.

At his memorial service on the 14^th we meet with a lot of family and friends we haven’t seen in years. Everybody tells us what a great guy he was and there are a lot of fun and happy memories shared by all. He truly was a wonderful man, we loved him dearly and we will miss his advice, his generosity, his humor and his love.

Back at Gold Beach we take a look at some of our monthly expenses and decide there are a few we can do without or at least postpone for a while.

Since we never watch TV in the summer we cancel Direct-TV until October and since the campground has a whole lot of DVD’s we also postpone our Netflix membership until the winter.

We’ll also cancel our 2^nd blackberry in January when the contract is expiring since I seldom use it. It all ads up and not knowing what the future will bring we opt for as little financial commitments as possible.

We make a day trip to Cape Sebastian and hike to Myers beach from there. The weather is gorgeous, although windy as always and the scenery is absolutely breathtaking!

                 
                                                                                             

                                                                               

Sadie is getting older, she’s 12 now, and we realize that we cannot have her walk this far anymore, she barely makes it back.

I’m still having fun spinning. I now have my own drop spindle. It’s a beauty, from Spinolution. By adding more or less of the little copper weights in the ‘whorl’ it is suitable for all kinds of wool.

                                                
                                                     

Elmo really likes the pink wool I got; he buries his nose in it and tries to eat it. I guess it looks (and tastes?) a little like cotton candy. I also give my supported spindle another try after having given up on it a long time ago since I couldn’t get it to work. Guess what, I have no problems with it this time! I’m actually trying some of Sadie’s hair on it. I know, that’s odd, spinning your own dog!