Super busy FALL

Tom has a new HIP!!  Unfortunately, he got a "drop foot" as an added bonus.  Lots of doctor appointments, the annual HOMEOWNER's meeting for the Resort, Physical Therapy twice a week, tests, tests, and more tests.  The angry nerve is at the knee level; good news is that he is healing.  The hip is in great shape according to the Physical Therapist. The nerve to the foot is not quite as angry; he can wiggle the toes, but is still not able to lift the foot.  My nursing duties are down-sized to getting his boots on his feet, he does all the other personal grooming activities that I was responsible for back in September and October.

He is a good patient, and says THANK YOU a lot!!  That is so much better than SOME wives of my acquaintance.  Grouchy and constantly complaining husbands would get to me quickly!  Having been married to him for lo' these 57 years, he probably knows just how much he can get away with!!

Just before Tom's surgery my cell phone died, my laptop for the business died, and the UPS that protects the ancient desk top died!!  Tom was able to transfer the business data to the old desktop so I was able to continue to do my job amidst the nursing care, but unfortunately the email contact list did not make the transfer.  SO  if you would send me an EMAIL, saying Merry Christmas, then I can rebuild my email contact list more quickly.  That is if I ever HAD YOUR EMAIL.  I know I am being silly to ask such a thing in this day and age, but I am trusting the judgement of the folks who read my blog.  Bless YOU!

We had a burst of winter weather the beginning of December, enough to open the ski area and cause the phone to ring for Holiday reservations!!  More snow forecast for this Sunday and Monday.  We will take it; although with the COLD temperatures the snow has stayed quite well!  Six SUVs of snow players parked in the lot today to tackle "Suicide Hill!"  We locals only call it that when the snow is thin and frozen solid.  Fresh snow makes old ME want to grab a saucer and squeal all the way down that hill!!  Just be sure and roll off before going into the river - it is COLD TOO! 

Our daughter, Kathleen, is flying in from Boisi ID for the Christmas Week.  Looking forward to her visit.  We are celebrating her completion of her Master's Degree in Counseling.  She is applying for future employment so the WALK at Regent University is still up in the air.  Depends on whether she can take the time off of the job, and where the job IS!!  She has several "irons in the fire" and waiting for decision time!

Speaking of flying, we flew to CO the first weekend of August to help celebrate Tom's Dad's 95th Birthday!!  It was the first flight in 10 years.  For two pilots it was awesome, we really had missed seeing the world from 30,000 feet!!  No bad effects, and even got the wheelchair escort thanks to Tom's cane.  His hip has been bothering him for over two years but finally DISLOCATED twice in 24 hours in late August, and we convinced the surgeon that it was TIME.  When TWO doctors - chiropractor and ER - agree you need a new hip, what could he say?!

The bad flight ten years ago, claustrophobia, must have been a medication issue!?  So thankful.  We have taken every possible route to CO from greater downtown Strawberry California.  Southern ID and Hiway 395 from OR to Reno NV was the last new stretch of highway - must have been Easter.  Our son, Allan, his son Tom, and his daughter Amy with her son Lane came separately. So we got the FIVE Generation PHOTO with Dad at that time.  Of course we enjoyed another in August!!  Lane just had his FIRST Birthday as he was born in November 2017

We enjoyed seeing the three Great Granddaughters at Lane's Birthday Party as their mom and dad brought them to the party.  Their youngest is ONE also! That is Joe, Tammie and Allan's oldest son.  His brother Tom was there also.  So good to see them, as they grow up and start families of their own, we miss running into them around the County as they live in Tracy and work down there.

Do NOT forget the REASON for the SEASON - JESUS!  Have a Merry Christmas and A Blessed New Year - 2019 - impossible!! 

 

The Resort Years - 13

Unexpected Guests

The Rim Fire brought us an amazing sight – a disoriented and slightly singed raptor resting on the parking block in front of the car parked by Unit #1 at noon one day!   I backed off and called Tom on the cell phone and told him to take photos from the bedroom window of “the bird” in front of our car.  We checked the internet later and found that it was a juvenile Golden Eagle!

After fifteen minutes of rest and getting its bearings again - despite the half dozen wasps flying around its neck - the elegant, long-taloned bird flew off to swoop over the river looking for lunch.  Several fishermen witnessed this amazing sight as well while fishing the river. 

Having lived in the area for over 35 years we knew of the Bald Eagle’s nest at Pinecrest Lake, and some Ospreys as well, but until this incident, no Golden Eagles lived in our area.  We assumed that it had been sucked up to 30,000 or 40,000 feet in the very hot pyro-cumulous cloud and dropped out, literally falling to our front steps.  After a trip like that I would be disoriented as well!!

We had a visitor stop by the Post Office last week.  I instantly recognized his voice and called him by name – John Trigg, dishwasher and gas pumper from YEARS AGO across the highway.  He had hitchhiked from Sonora today to check out the “old neighborhood” and talked and talked about his emergency last month when he nearly died and the years he had spent in Oregon taking care of an elderly couple, his poor treatment by the Salvation Army after working for them and signing “all of his earthly belongings?” over to them, about writing books.  I told him that writing books isn’t hard, publishing books isn’t hard it just takes money, SELLING books just didn’t work for me so I am giving them away.  I have dropped a couple of boxes on local Thrift Stores, given several to the County Fair Board to use any way they can…so am officially out of the publishing business.

I blessed John with TWO books just to keep him occupied during the drizzle.  He was so busy talking I wasn’t able to ask him how he ever found ME when he had been “homeless in Sonora” for several weeks and the local cops had told him to “move on!” before they impounded his pickup!  Turns out that had happened once in Merced years ago.  That was just one of the stories he told us before we passed him off to a neighbor who had come for his mail and was going as far as Cold Springs and would give John a ride.

Was this a test of our readiness for the next assignment that GOD has for us?  If so, we flunked…did not make him even a sandwich, did not invite him in, we did listen and thank him for coming by and wish him “GOD speed” to his next adventure.

 

We had a homeless lady here in Strawberry; who insisted that she was not homeless but escaping the stress of Turlock and an abusive step-dad who had moved in with her.  She was living in a tent up the Highway, having biked or hitchhiked from Turlock.  She appears to be a prayer warrior, praying for rain and snow - which we need desperately - as well as the salvation of her lost family members and friends. She rode her bicycle up in January, pulling a trailer she said until Knight’s Ferry where she sold it.  She says that she has liver cancer and after six treatments said, NO MORE PILLS!  Her doctor said that she needed peace and quiet if she was going to stop the meds and see if her body would fight off the cancer on its own.  She says that she knows that she is dying, but wants to plant seeds of the Gospel for as long as she is able.  She was camping out in the neighbor’s garage during this last cold spell, and another neighbor took her to rescue her “camp” up the road before the “prayed for” rain and snow come this week, we hope.

Like most homeless people, she could be playing the “prayer warrior” and “dying person” roles to get the survival tools that she needs, but how do we get her to “move on” since she appears to have overstayed her welcome here in Strawberry?  She is afraid of the dark, afraid of the big men/boys at the Skateboard Park where I told her I would pick her up on Monday evening after the mail delivery person suggested the subsidized apartments down in Sonora.  Tom says she needs to move on, but the money she survives on isn’t available until Monday in Modesto!  I just talked to my neighbor Christine, who has been helping her as well, and found a couple of “discrepancies” in her story – like who is taking her to Modesto on Monday?!  At the Strawberry Inn we put folks like her to work, until we found that they didn’t DO THE WORK, then we fired them.  I guess we could move her out of the linen room and lock the door and she would have to find another place to camp out!  Not easy being the “bad guy” but can’t have her living in the linen room any longer.

We ended up taking her to Modesto to pick up her SSI and to the liquor store, which always cashes her check, even without the ID that was taken from her before she started her trek to the mountains the beginning of January. My neighbor, Christine, convinced the owner of the Sierra Village Trailer Park to give her the RV right across from one of my acquaintances, and I even gave her a ride to cash a subsequent check and pick up some groceries in Twain Harte.  God bless her, I am sure that “her mansion up above” is nearly complete.

Several months and many conversations later, I took Mimi to a “new doctor” who said she would call in a prescription for the pain meds she has been on since head surgery in 1998.  Waited and waited at the pharmacy only to discover that my “no pills” homeless person was addicted to that pain pill.  She fell apart when the pharmacist told her that the doctor had called and cancelled the prescription.  Several days of withdrawal later, she went to the ER and the doctor THERE gave her what she needed “before she killed herself!”  Let’s see – do we have a truth problem or an addiction or both.

She is now back at her “old doctor” in Modesto, thanks to rides from folks at the Lutheran Church where I happen to play piano.  She is also living in the pastor’s RV having lost her two month home at the Sugar Pine RV Park, not quite as many druggies, but she can be a pest – she bothered strangers for rides to the ER, asked for money for milk, asked to use the office phone as her cell was out of minutes, etc.  Oh dear!

The minister’s wife “took her in for the winter” as the small RV was not going to be warm enough for the winter.  When she was remanded to STATE custody (her family has deserted her!) by a Judge, County Social Services found a place where her meds can be monitored and she has trouble “escaping!”  She has to “earn” privileges like a trip to the store, where her “spending” is totally monitored.  At least she isn’t camped by the side of the road and the minister’s wife gave her unconditional love, befriending her and helping her to kick her addictions. 

Epilogue on Mimi the homeless lady – Pastor’s wife finally found someone at Social Services who would give her the minimal news that Mimi had died back in April.  That would explain why there had been no contact in a couple of months of trying, asking about her at “the home” and attempting to discover how she could just disappear while under lock and key.  We pray that she has found the peace and happiness that seemed impossible in this life.  RIP – Gemima de Trinidad – RIP.

Life is what happens while you are making PLANS!

The Resort Years- 12

THE POST OFFICE

Our contract station is open 4 hours during the summer months – June through September, and just 2 hours per day during the other eight months. We have had a variety of Postal Helpers at our little sub-station, some elders willing to put in a couple of hours to see their friends, securing their 40 quarters to qualify for Social Security, and some our actual “office assistants” who learn to take credit cards, take reservations, handle various RESORT problems.

The Postal Service, like many bureaucratic organizations, is famous for its inefficiency.  The zip codes were supposed to lead to “no missorts” – no mail going in the wrong direction.  WRONG!  We still get mail for Tracy 95376 or 95378, just because the machines read those last digits as 5.  Our zip code is 95375.  We also get mail for the Strawberry on Hiway 50, even if it has the correct zip code – 95735, and just the other day mail for Strawberry Fields TN with the correct zip code.

The procedures change at least weekly as the middle level managers seem to need something TO DO every day, if only make changes, which are sent out by email.  As a sub-station, I do not have email for the Postal Service so must depend on my supervisor to let me know if one of the many procedure changes affects the way we do business here in Strawberry.

The sorting facility in Stockton was closed so our mail delivery truck was an hour later coming from the facility in W. Sacramento.  It was the slow season when the contract says that we were to close at 1 PM; the mail delivery did not arrive until nearly 1 PM!  The solution was to “Well, change your hours!”  So we did, contract or no contract.

The latest BIG change, a year ago last July, was to give our facility a new finance number!  And just like ten years ago when they did this, we were unable to GET postage stamps, the system said that we did not exist.  I was forced to “buy” stamps like a customer at some other post office in order to have stamps to sell, but with no way to account for the fact that I was indeed selling stamps.  Very frustrating!!

After nearly a year, I was given an 800 number to call for “Touch Tone Order Entry.”  Voila, the stamps that I ordered arrived three days later.  So easy, just have to find a way to get the “order numbers” for the various stamps without calling Customer Service every month.  But that gives Gary and Helen something to do!  TWO MONTHS later the ability to order stamps was given to my supervising Postmaster down in Mi-Wuk, so she has to keep enough stamps on hand to keep me, and Long Barn – 95335, and Pinecrest – 95364, in business!

Oh, and speaking of contracts, when the new contract arrived with the new finance number it listed my supervisor as being Tuba City Arizona, and said that I was to be open for eight hours per day, six days a week.  A phone call to the Denver Colorado Contract Unit Supervisor’s office quickly got a corrected copy with the more logical information and the short hours that we have always been open for the tiny amount that they send our way each month!

Some days you just have to laugh or you would cry, but isn’t that true of just about any job?  

JULY of 2018 was an eventful time - I had received a visit from my supervisor at the MiWuk Post Office informing me that as of August 1st we would no longer have a POST OFFICE here in Strawberry.  She had lost sleep the nights before her visit as she was sure that her news would be devastating to me.  I called to Tom who was in the apartment - on the other side of "the pantry" - walkin closet,  "Honey, grab your tape measure and a pencil and figure out how we can use this space!"  My supervisor nearly fainted!!

So on August first the maintenance guys from the USPS arrived bright and early and literally ripped out 3 clusters of mail boxes.  We had had several locals wanting to "have or buy" THEIR long time combination boxes but alas, they were USPS property as was the hunking scale with the weights to allow you to weigh up to 100 pounds!!  As the guys were finishing their task I asked where the plywood was to cover the HOLES in the walls. "Ah, we have some plastic and some tape."  Planning ahead was not part of their training so the holes were covered with contractor weight trash bags secured with painter's tape!!  Fortunately, my husband had a couple of pieces of plywood to cover their ineptitude!

We went to the local - 30 miles away - lumber yard for paneling both interior and exterior and succeeded in creating a guest room/office.  Covering the window onto the parking lot and street and putting in a larger window on the garden side of the room.  That window was a miracle!  As we were again driving to the lumber yard/ big box store for a window I suggested that we should try the "boneyard" at the local glass company and Tom said, "You know I was thinking of that just this morning!"

I am sure that the Glass Company doesn't have an abundance of customers who want a double pane window and don't care much about the size!  The "boneyard" yielded a $250 Anderson window, missing it's screen.  We offered $75 and they took it.  Tom said on the way back up the mountain that he could easily fabricate a screen from the "left overs" from the #7 remodel!  Their old double hung windows had been replaced, giving us an abundance of screens and material.

Do I miss the US Post Office?  NO!  Do I miss seeing my regular customers?  YES!!  I run into them when picking up our mail at Pinecrest Post Office, but some are actual GOD sends.  That would be my neighbor with property in Oakland which includes two lemon trees.  At the beginning of my three week fight with the flu bug back in January Helmet arrived holding a bag of lemons.  I took it as a sign that I should use the old-fashioned remedy for a cold / flu - hot water, juice of a fresh lemon, and some honey!   So I did and when Helmet arrived at the end of January with another bag of lemons, I thanked him heartily and healthy once more!  My husband Tom, kept suggesting a trip to the doctor or the Prompt Care and I insisted that I would take home more germs than I came in with and declined!!    I also took naps at least every other day and made sure that I was IN BED for 12 hours every night!!  Good immune system and patience plus a good neighbor!!

 The POOL – the ongoing saga!

The plans as drawn by Tom were sent to the engineer along with all kinds of measurements.  Hurry up and WAIT.  All ten owners have agreed that the Resort DOES NEED a pool in the summer and are willing to give us the money to complete the job!!  Halleluiah!!  We have lost TEN WEEKS of “regular reservations.”   Five weeks are coming, but want the “NO POOL DISCOUNT” – they were amazed that we only received $75 per month from the individual cabins for the use of the pool.  Of course, we also get the 20% off the top of the weekly rental.  Several of the weeks have filled with two and three nighters, so that is THE LORD’s provision!!

The owner of Unit #4 has an uncle who “just happens to be” one of four pool structural engineers in the State and agreed to draw up the plans based on Tom’s measurements and photos.  So the building permit was obtained in November of 2014, just before the winter set in.

In 2015 the shallowing pour of 40 yards followed the installation of the new drain system, which was pressure checked and approved.  Then the inspector for the FLOOR pour of 40 yards said, “Aren’t those two drains too close?”  Well, the last inspector signed off on them!  Didn’t matter – the code reads “separation” and is measured edge of drain cover to edge of drain cover.  All other measurements in building are center to center…didn’t matter!  So these two seventy year olds chiseled out the 2-sack slurry around both drains, rotated them 90 degrees and obtained the required SEPARATION and then some!!

The stairs in the corner of the shallow end were done WITH the floor pour, but small “bump in the road” - the receptacle for the ladder, ADA approved, needs to be 4 inches further down in the pool.  More chiseling required, but there has to be 4 – 6 inches more cement on the walkway, which was quickly poured with excess cement from the final floor pour.  Lovely walkway should meet the ADA requirements.  The windows in #10 and #1 will definitely need another washing!!

Then there is the plumbing that was going to be DONE while the floor cured…hopefully the chalk sketches on the pool wall won’t have become “Monets” with all the wet weather this past winter.  With a final inspection needed AFTER the pool is painted with the epoxy paint and water added we have a LOT of work left to do before Memorial Day 2016.

 

2016 - EPILOGUE on the POOL PROJECT – We had a rainy/snowy winter, the concrete cured and the epoxy primer and paint – 12 and 11 gallons respectively – were applied the middle of May.  It was a 4 day process – TSP, rinse with water, Acid Etch, rinse with water (we put a bucket with bicarb under the drain line to neutralize, and dilute the acidy water!) Then more TSP was applied with a final rinse.  The primer catalyst had curdled despite being stored where it did not freeze so Tom had to mix it twice, once just the catalyst then the primer and the catalyst.  So he spent the entire 5 hours bent over the mixing operation.  Since the primer could only be left 48 hours before the final coat of epoxy we had to do that final coat the next day.  No rest for the weary!!  Another 5 hour day but what a relief to have a gorgeous white surface totally covering two years of hard work!!

We decided that we would take the following week off and drive to CO to check on Dad and give the nearby family a few days off.  God chose to bless our decision by sending rain, hail, and snow for ALL the DAYS that we were gone!!  We couldn’t have worked on the pool had we been here!  With the winterizing covers on the five inflowing lines we were able to add water the first week of June as the water folks had asked us to schedule it and check for any leaks as Tom finished the last of the plumbing and electrical connections.

The concrete deck had developed some “Spaulding” over the years, cracks had appeared in the expansion joints where the initial caulk had dried up and been pulled out by mischievious guests.  So mix some cement for the potholes and back to the caulking gun; I used up all the caulk in our stock and a few new tubes besides.  The deck paint arrived; I read the instructions and marveled that the prep was exactly the same as the epoxy primer and paint for the pool!!  TSP, rinse, Acid Etch, rinse, TSP, rinse and finally FIFTEEN gallons of grey paint!!

In the mean time, Tom had emptied the ladies room - tool shed for two years - so as soon as the deck paint dried I started on the renovation of the ladies room!!  Two coats of paint on the walls and ceiling then two coats on the floor and it was a whole NEW experience!!  Miraculous even!!  To top this often frustrating and very tiring project I chose the 4^th of July to call the machine at the Building Department and request the final inspection.  I mentioned it to Tom just before noon on Tuesday the 5^th of July, and the inspector was here right after lunch!!  He looked at the bonding copper wire, I handed him an “as built” copy of the form that our engineer had sent to us by email, “for your file!”  He signed off on the permit and said “job well done!”   What a relief!!

The Environmental Health Department still has to sign off as well, but their pool person is out on Maternity Leave until mid-August. But she comes every summer, so I am not at all worried about her inspection, whenever she gets around to it!!

BITES, culture, and bits and pieces

The critters have hatched – three bites in two days!!  A horse fly, and two unknowns!

I told someone to beware of those cute little ladybugs, they like to BITE when they first come out of hibernation.  They do hibernate and especially at the base of large rocks with a sunny exposure.  They come out HUNGRY!

BTW – best salve for a bug bite – toothpaste.  Most backpackers carry it in their packs, and it works!

We have several “Shoe Trees” along our stretch of the highway over the Sierras.  Is it because we have the Cal Alumni Camps or are Shoe Trees now a part of our culture?  I understand that this fad started on a LONE TREE on one of the “loneliest highways in the country.”  It must be a bit like mountain climbing….Why do people climb a mountain – because it is there? 

I saw a DEAD pine tree with ONE LONELY pair of sneakers, they had obviously belonged to a teenaged boy.   The odor was strong enough to KILL a tree!!  Where else in the WORLD would people throw perfectly good shoes over a tree branch?  Folk Art someone told me; waste if you ask me!!

Mother Nature was so confused this year:  Spring in January and February, Winter in March, April, and May and NOW SUMMER!  We have enough pine and cedar cones to reforest several hundred acres!  BUT we have less precipitation than even the Northern Sierra; only the Mohave Desert is drier, so we still have more trees than the ecology can sustain, even after THREE YEARS of beetle kill.

What do you call someone who does the same thing over and over expecting a different result?   A FOOL!  A fool and their money are soon parted…but since the LOVE of money is the ROOT of all EVIL according to the BIBLE …avoid being a fool, but also avoid evil. 

An attitude of Gratitude is a great way to start the day – EVERY DAY!

The Resort Years - 11

Retirement?

Tom had given his notice during a particularly difficult period when he had been unable to go to the required Seminary Classes for going on two years.  That particular medication caused sequential seizures, something that he had never had in over fifteen years!   Very scary as each one depletes your brain, so a series in a short period of time causes mental lapses for weeks, instead of days.  Of course, that short history of three to four months caused his neurologist to put him on the EXPENSIVE “new” medication - which restored an amazing amount of brain power.  He had given his notice to the larger Methodist Church so the end of June 2013 HE DID RETIRE.  Nice send-off party by our congregation of nine years and a big question mark regarding “what do we do next?”

I had taken as many reservations as possible for our Unit #1 hoping to have a good rental history to help sell the property.  We listed it with one of the agents in my former office who unfortunately did as little as possible to sell it.  Examples I heard of later:  only THREE photos on the MLS listing page, a half sheet colored flier that I had to hand out, (also had to go and pick up at the Office in Sonora), a hearing problem that I was aware of which hindered some phone communication with me (I also have a hearing loss) but possibly with would-be buyers wanting information too.  His flier did have a “Smart Phone” icon to get a run down on all the ramifications of a condominium in Strawberry, CA population 64, elevation 5,280 feet.

One of our church members had a guest house that we were able to use if #1 was occupied by paying customers, so the boxes marked FRAGILE were stored there and some clothing and the “bathroom boxes” - which I had hoped we could deplete in the 3 to 6 months staying there.  It is truly amazing how many duplicate bottles of “over the counter” medications one can accumulate when you have two bathrooms to house them.  You don’t even realize you have two of everything until you pack it up!!

About the beginning of October we had gone through all of the reservations and were spending most of our time in Strawberry.  I had laid off the Post Office helper- Samantha - when it appeared that we really didn’t need her after vacation.  I hated to lose her, but with school starting, she was anxious as to how to get her 2nd grader to school and back, and then – her husband took the job in South Dakota!!  And since it was a 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off sort of job, she and the children moved near her brother in eastern Idaho!!  Life is what happens when you are making other plans?!  Am I repeating myself?!

On a walk one day I suddenly felt totally at peace with the idea of moving into Unit #1 and calling it home for at least two to three years.   I had checked with our tax advisor and found that it would even be beneficial in the tax department should we find a buyer after two to three years.  So I gave our notice at the Jamestown guest house and we proceeded to “move in” – our third move in six months!  The boxes marked Fragile and off-season clothes went into a small storage space where the piano had been in our son’s storage just a few spaces away.  So it rejoined the REST OF OUR STUFF! Or at least the stuff that wasn’t in the “storage shed” on our son Tom’s property – 8 x 40 feet of “ocean container!”

Meanwhile, we asked sons to help haul “our table and credenza” out of the “storage shed” up to Unit #1.  “How are we supposed to get it OUT of the back of the container?” they asked. So Tom spent maybe two hours moving boxes to make an aisle down one side of the container and we hauled the chairs up in the back of the Forester three at a time!  The desk, filing cabinet and computer parts and pieces had moved from Jamestown in the Forester, as well as those “bathroom boxes!”  The oversized dresser necessitated us borrowing son Tom’s pickup.  But these two 70 year-olds managed to get it into the bed of the pickup and the drawers into the crew cab section and the back of the Forester.  Fortunately, son Tom had work to do up here on the top of the mountain the next morning and we waited for his assistance to UNLOAD the dresser!  SMART MOVE!  I think that we still manage to surprise those two sons of ours!

Taking my job back!  AGAIN!

I am sure the RESORT homeowners were relieved that I had one less thing distracting me from my responsibilities here…after all shouldn’t the RESORT be at the top of my list.  NO!!  When we bought 1/10 interest in the RESORT, I swore that I would keep GOD, and family ahead of my RESORT responsibilities, with GOD’s help!  Of course now that we are living in Unit #1 – I seem to be here in the office a lot.  The office is where the laptop computer sits, where I can answer the phone without waking my husband if he is taking a nap.  We are trying out the RV lifestyle – twice as much husband, half as much income, and less than half as much space.  Had we gone off in an RV we would have been “campground hosts” to save on the space rentals, so managing the RESORT seems similar, if not better!

We have been married 53 years, so we have had a LOT of ADVENTURES in that period of time.  It seems like just yesterday that we lived in that one room cabin with no running water at the 9,600 foot level in Colorado with two small boys not yet in school and then a baby sister!!  So we are flexible.

Once a week we would schedule a trip down with him, taking the dirty laundry, an ice chest for the “cold” groceries, and take showers and enjoy dinner with one parental group or the other.  Also any doctor appointments would be scheduled for that day.  It ‘twas an adventure to be sure.  We acquired our German Shepherd while living there. Tom had surgery on his lower back; the dog had nine puppies.  We built a three-car brick garage with rounded corners since the next thing was to be a round house with floor to ceiling windows. I had that baby sister for the boys (Of course we loved her dearly too!)  Then we moved to Poughkeepsie NY!!

So, we have done many things in the 53 years we have been married - both getting our Pilot’s License, me learning how to run a resort in the mountains, skiing in Europe (and Tom even in Japan!), riding the rails in Europe and Japan.  Trusting in GOD to show us the way as we step out in faith, “one day at a time Sweet Jesus, one day at a time!”

TREES

The 2.65 acres of the RESORT had a large number of trees, all having grown since the area was logged in the 30s and 40s.  The cabins were built in the 50s as housing for the foremen on the Tri-Dam Project.  The Oakdale Irrigation District built three dams on the Stanislaus River, two here in our area, and one below Jamestown and above Knight’s Ferry.  Over the years that we have been involved with the RESORT we have had three beetle infestations – first pine bark beetles, then fir beetles, and now again thanks to the current three year drought pine beetles AGAIN!

Since most of our owners here at the RESORT live in cities and large towns trees are very important to them.  Of course the life cycle of a tree at our elevation is about the same as our life expectancy as humans – 60 to 80 years!  So whenever we lose a mature tree the older members of our RESORT family want us to “plant replacements.”  They even passed a motion several years ago to plant replacements – 5 gallon sized – for each tree cut down. I invited the local USFS tree specialist to come and survey the property to suggest locations for replanting.  She insisted that Mother Nature had done an adequate job of starting trees and we just needed to let them grow.

This year again, we have FOUR to SIX trees needing to be removed and the subject will again surface at the annual meeting.  We have had to remove “hazard trees” those with split tops, multiple tops, and one-sided trees that could load with snow and crash onto one of the cabins in the recent past. So that means, according to the previously mentioned motion, that we need to “replant” eleven trees.  This is our third year of drought and we have water meters on all the cabins.  I wonder which cabin will be willing to “foot the bill” for the water needed to keep the 5 gallon sized trees alive!?

We have had two instances of trees crashing down – both while Carolanne was the on-site hostess!  A tree between Unit #6 and #7 came down on a Sunday morning taking out only a metal BBQ that occupied the space between the two cabins.  It was the last of the freestanding metal ones installed by the previous owners to be shared by two cabins.  Our new owners had purchased Weber BBQs for their individual units, or in some cases propane BBQs, so those old metal ones were passé.

Then there was the Unit #9 fiasco, again on a Sunday!  The guests asked if they could have a late checkout as their baby was asleep. Carolanne told them it wouldn’t be a problem as there was no one checking in to that particular cabin until later in the week.  The guests in Unit #5 knocked on Carolanne’s door at 3 PM when they returned from skiing and said that there was a problem – a big tree had crashed through the roof of Unit #9.  We were so thankful that the baby had awakened and the guests there were GONE when the crash happened!!  Rebuilding the cabin and many subsequent problems led to that cabin being one of the two sold in the last couple of years!!  It also made us even MORE aware that TREES are a hazard as well as an amenity, and that they have a life cycle just like all living things and we should respect that. 

Trying to explain the difference between trunk wood and limb wood is a challenge, but if a top happens to break out of a tree (or be cut off by PG&E as a hazard to their lines!) then one or more limbs decide to grow UPWARD and make a new “top!”  However, that is still limb wood and where it is connected to the trunk of the tree constitutes a weak spot; that is the reason twin-topped trees are hazard trees!  The big Ponderosa Pine growing next to the Post Office was one of those hazard trees – it had FOUR tops, anyone of which could have broken off and smashed into the Post Office, Unit #2 or the tool shed, not to mention any guests walking by!  It took all of a day with a crane to get it out of there, quite an operation.

Drought and the death of trees is occasionally caused by the reassigning of septic lines.  When the store had to install a pumped system instead of the one stinking up the common area of the RESORT, the trees using that water source began to die for lack of water.  When the septic lines of Units #6 and #7 were relegated to the main system, the three fir trees downstream from that leach line system died.  They were replaced by three liquid amber trees in 5 gallon containers, and watered religiously by myself (this was before the move to Sonora and before the installation of the water meters!)  They died too! 

A by-product of evergreen trees is their cones – the food of squirrels.  The “boomer squirrels” like to harvest the Ponderosa cones before they open so at a certain time I put up the “BEWARE of falling pine cones” signs in the RESORT.  We had a guest clobbered with one several years ago – that YELPS.com guest report about the rude manager – the cones fall from thirty or forty feet up on the tippy top of the tree!!  We also had an SUV damaged by the cones up near cabin #8 one summer – when the guest came to complain I counted FIFTEEN uneated cones on the ground!!  I asked if the noise of the cones on the roof hadn’t alerted them about the danger?  Mostly “grandpa” was concerned about his small grand child, as well he should be!!  I asked that they notify us if the insurance didn’t cover the damage, three dents and a cracked windshield.  Fortunately, their homeowners policy even covered the deductible on the auto policy!!

So another of my management duties is to advise guests which trees have the heaviest “falling cones!”  And I point out the “cobs” chewed off littering the ground at the base of those Ponderosas!

This Spring my husband decided that the small firs and pines growing in the retaining walls had to go or the walls would.  I hope no one notices the missing trees and only sees the rose bushes planted in the general area to distract the eye!!  I have been seen talking to small trees reassuring them that the rains will come and they should “hang in there!”  I must remember to call that tree specialist - I am sure that it is a different person by now - and ask their opinion as to the sensibility of replanting trees – they do take so long to GROW!

Then there are the cedar trees that like to grow in the leach field – get that water wherever you can! – they get cut down, as do the willow bushes and the fuzz ball “wildflowers!?”  We had a tremendous wildflower season this year for such a dry winter!  The lupine, yellow iris, mayflowers, pussypaws, even dandelions, were gorgeous.  Of course this was the first Spring in ten years that we have been here all the time, so maybe we were just able to really enjoy the flowering of Spring!

The Resort Years - 10

Samantha, my recent office assistant, had several of those “middle of the night” phone calls while we were on a couple of trips and she had the phone on forwarding to her house – TP at 10:30 PM, an “emergency” for sure, but could you have known about it just a wee earlier.  I had a call once late at night for TP and I asked if they had checked the OTHER bathroom since that cabin had TWO – they had never thought of that!!  Then there were the folks who thought that making a reservation for Christmas was “an emergency” in July! 

Samantha had two small children who could come to work with her since we are a “contract station” and not a “real” post office.  The Post Office came with the property and contributes just about enough to cover the expenses.  It does mean that someone has to be “on premises” at least the four hours per day in the summer, providing information, toilet paper, trash bags, and collecting the revenue not put on the credit cards, giving tours to interested transients.  Samantha too is a pro at multi-tasking!  She even helped to plan a Fire Department Fundraiser – her husband was on the Pinecrest Fire Department as part of his job with the Pinecrest Permittees. 

We have always tried to time our “vacations” for the least busy times of the year, but this July 2013, we had TWO family reunions in Colorado in JULY!!  With the swimming pool to care for and guests rotating each weekend, Samantha had her hands full last summer I am sure.  And her little boy was starting 2nd grade mid-August.  But as usual, I did step on some toes in “laying her off” seeing that we were in Strawberry more than we were NOT once we returned from those weeks in Colorado. THEN, her husband went to work in So Dakota, but it is a two week on / two week off job with transportation provided!  So they have purchased a home in ID. It was good to see her at a recent wedding that she also helped to organize just prior to the move to ID, and we thank GOD that she was here as the mother of the groom who “was responsible” had spent four days in hospital the week of the wedding!!  Life is what happens while we are making plans!

Driving to Strawberry

Living in the parsonage in Sonora gave Tom a “walk to work” job and I was the one with the commute!  The thirty miles with a CD to keep me company, gorgeous scenery, and quiet time was a welcome time for me.  It was not a hardship by any means, except the escalating gas prices.  “Two different worlds, we live in two different worlds…” - old 60s song, but very appropriate.  The Subaru with all-wheel-drive was a perfect car for all seasons, and I found that I really enjoy driving.  I even overcame the tendency to fall asleep on the Long Barn double-wide section.  Good thing since I am now the primary driver!!  Tom spells me on long trips for an hour or two first thing in the morning, if his back didn’t keep him awake the night before!! We discovered that pain and lack of sleep were two of his “triggers” even with medication.  Depending on the medication, we could add sunlight, and lack of SALT!

It was not always easy being in two or three places at once – Resort reservations, Realtor, Pastor’s wife, and grandmother!!  I would be sitting at the Realty answering my cell phone “Rivers Resort, this is Martha, may I help you?” and anyone within earshot would raise their eyebrows!  Then I would answer the Realty Phone – “Sugar Pine Realty, this is Martha, how can I help you?” 

I was able to assist several Church members with the marketing of their homes pending moves to other, less expensive states.  It is never easy telling someone that they WILL NOT get every penny that they put into their “castle” when they go to sell it, and that the neighborhood does NOT warrant their asking price.  It is even HARDER when they are your friends and church members!

One of my first “Church member” Real Estate clients owned a very small home that backed on the old Sonora Cemetery.  I told the folks who called that they had very quiet neighbors, at least on that side of the house!! Amazing how many people did NOT want to live next to the cemetery…puzzling even!  Maybe it has something to do with acknowledging our own mortality.  The same reason some folks delay making a will, deciding how they want their remains “disposed of,”

or their “valuables” distributed.  “This world is not my home, I’m just a’passin through, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue..” We did manage to sell the cottage by the cemetery and the friends moved to Washington State.

Finally, Real Estate went away.  It is not a cheap hobby with fees being over $1500 per year and that does not include gas or wear and tear on the vehicle.  Four of our seven grandkids were in the area and we often heard, with little advance notice, about baseball or basketball games (I now know how to access the SCHOOL websites to get the schedules in advance!) programs, babysitting opportunities, or ride necessities.  Being the “main driver” it fell to me to organize around the Post Office hours, activities at Church, and the occasional inspection or office tour for the Realty Office.

One of my coups involved a couple who gave me a price limit and after showing them everything in that range, they mentioned having taken a drive with their friend to an area where they saw an apple orchard for sale with house and guest cottage / hobby room built to host quilting classes with many outlets for the sewing machines.  I checked the MLS, we drove out there for a look, met the elderly widower who needed to move “down the hill” and no longer had the strength needed for the orchard work.  Nice man; tough situation.  My clients made the best offer that they possibly could; the listing REALTOR called me back immediately and said that her client said, “No way!”  The asking price was several hundred thousand over what they had initially given me to work from.  Their “best offer” closed the gap a bit, but not a lot.

I did something that I had never done before, asked if I could go and talk to the seller personally.  I later found that many agents do in fact present the offer in person to the seller, usually with the seller’s agent at the presentation.  The seller’s agent gave me permission, and I had a really nice chat with the man.  We compared notes about his age, service in WWII, and the fact that my father-in-law was in a similar situation on a farm seven miles outside of the nearest town.  He still rejected my offer, and I proceeded to go to the parsonage, feed the pastor, and made it to choir practice.  My cell phone had a message when I returned home late that night that the seller would work with my buyers after all.  Was it one of my last comments?  “You going to leave all that money to your kids to fight over?”   Or just my winning personality? 

I think it was a “GOD thing” as the buyers planned to use the orchard, house, and hobby room as a retreat center, inviting folks from their church groups in the Bay Area who could never afford to go to a vacation spot, to use the orchard house for needed rest and relaxation.  We even enjoyed a supper or two with them once the ink dried on the final papers!

That was the “sterling” experience of my eight years as a REALTOR, matched only by the LAST sale – a mobile home in Jamestown.  The buyer in this case had a LOT of WORK on his hands as the roof had been leaking under the swamp cooler.  I managed to negotiate a really good deal for him and my $1,000 commission to boot!  The owner of the park just wanted someone to be paying rent on the space since the single-wide was owned by the park following the death of the owner (fortunately not in the home!)

So, like Medical Transcriptionist, and book publisher, I can put “REALTOR” on my resume, been there – done that, and successfully for several years.

Now I was free to take Tom to visit the shut-ins, and to those last-minute-notice games and events.  I could pick up the grandkids from after-school club if son Tom was in the woods, and his wife Cindy was at work. 

The Resort Years - 9

WEATHER

You would think that with a name like WEATHERS, we would have a clue or maybe some extra pull in the weather department.  Not likely!  We are both pilots and know which websites have the actual satellite photos of the western/incoming weather, but more than that – JUST PRAY!  We are now into the third drought cycle in the twenty years at The Rivers Resort.  Droughts traditionally last three years, and we are on year THREE!  Not a good omen for this winter’s ski business.  Whenever this happens the rumors start about Dodge Ridge “not even opening!”  There must be an actual line or two in their contract regarding “no snow” winters…don’t know, have no access to their contract!  Like the owners of Dodge Ridge we are just in the “wait and see” mode! 

In the past we have had very dry Januarys and then monstrous storms once they start!   Our last monstrous winter was the year that we celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary – 2011 – when Tom had to be in Kansas City MO for two weeks of seminary and we decided to drive it, despite both being SICK with head colds as we left California.  Then since we were more than halfway across the country, after the two weeks at seminary we drove to Virginia to see where Kathleen, our daughter, was working at Joy Ranch Children’s Home. Dodie was the office assistant in charge of incoming guests and the Post Office, while Mark was the maintenance person in charge of the snowblower and shoveling!!

Dodie was a jewel of an assistant.  She lived here in Strawberry so was able to be “feet on the ground” when necessary.  She had a daughter, and was able to bring her to work.  She had worked the winter at Dodge Ridge and was happy to have a part time job following that full time endeavor.  Her husband also worked at the ski area and at the campgrounds that Dodge Ridge managed in the summer.  She worked for us for a couple of years and then HER husband took a job back in Louisiana where they had a family home that they could live in cheaply.  We sure hated to lose her, but wished her well and keep track of her growing daughter on Facebook.

It snowed the entire month of January in 2011.  When we returned the cabins couldn’t even “dump” the snow from their roofs as the berms were so high from the previous snow falls.  They all looked like snow banks with snow from the decks up to the deck railings six to eight feet from the ground level!!  A lot of snow!  While I doubt that we get THAT much this Winter into Spring, I certainly pray that we get a winter or the water situation will be horrid this summer.

I told Tom the other day - winter of 2013/2014 - that we should put away the shovels and the snow blower and maybe by NOT being prepared the weather will change!!  He DID IT!  Hey, anything is worth a try.  We are going down for a doctor’s appointment tomorrow – maybe we should wash the car!! 

UPDATE - Dodge Ridge was able to open in 2014, but forced to close after just five weeks due to the lack of snow!!

“We have been your customers for YEARS!”

We never did decide at the INN if it was better to encourage return business or to turn them over like the proverbial “hotcakes!”  Return guests feel entitled to ignore the rules, argue any cleaning charges, and tell all of their friends how awful their stay was.  Now with the “social media” people can tell all their MILLIONS of “followers” instead of the 200 close acquaintances that most people can boast.   The 200 was, at one time, the standard number of wedding / death notices that the printer supplied; now with Yelps.com you can tell the whole world about “the manager who was so rude, she needs to find another job!”   The new hip helped the attitude a LOT, and that particular guest has even returned to see the “new me!”  He is easier to spot than I am – he has dread locks and tattoos from neck to fingertips!!  I just have 15 fewer pounds and an invisible NEW HIP with smile to show for it!!

It continues to amaze me that there are people who CARE what you think about anything?  Seems so if you even glance at the “comments” on news stories, we have become a nation of voyeurers, peeping Toms, and self-absorbed folks who never think of the good of the whole, only their personal “good!”    Mom used to say: “Don’t believe anything you hear, only half of what you see, and nothing you read in the newspaper.”  I would insert the internet!  So why did I start a blog?  MountainMartha.blogspot.com - That would have been the encouragement of the Tech Guy in the Real Estate Office five years ago!  It didn’t seem to help my Real Estate business, but that was 2008 when “the bubble” burst, the banks that were “too big to fail” or supported the correct political party, got bailed out with the taxpayers IOUs to China.

The title of REALTOR arrived with Tom’s calling to be a pastor ten or eleven years ago.  He had experienced a spiritual growth spurt when we had a “Share Jesus” Mission in our little church in Tuolumne.  He took a ClayM class and decided if GOD opened any doors he would give up on computers (after beating his medicated head against that “brick wall” for nearly five years) and progress to congregations as a pastor. 

Still having the responsibilities at THE RESORT, I wondered how we would handle that if he was sent to “do desert time” in greater Ely, NV or Battle Mountain, NV, from whence our new pastor had just come.  We even detoured through Battle Mountain to find the church and checkout the parsonage on the way home from a trip to Colorado!!  But, “GOD would provide,” said I.

Thinking I could cover the cost of hiring help at THE RIVERS RESORT I took the Real Estate Licensing course, passed, and got a desk at one of the local offices.  That lasted three or four months until the broker’s daughter passed the test and took my desk.  So, just like the medical Transcription, I went door to door attempting to land another broker.  No one wanted the liability of my property management side-business even though it was under Tom’s Corporation – ComputerVan Inc…  You do not have to be a Realtor to manage vacation rentals; the owner of a cabin can ask their next-door neighbor to be their agent, no training required!  I checked with the legal department of California Association of Realtors twice when brokers have questioned the advisability of my dual occupations.

I met a lot of interesting people – good and bad – in the three Real Estate offices I worked in.  Meanwhile, encouraging my owners to make improvements to their cabins to increase their occupancy!  My monthly newsletters included improvements made to various cabins, dropping the names of owners who had used their cabins that month and information about changes we made to the common area – steps where there was once a drainage ditch, planting flowers, putting FREE chipped bark around to keep the dust down following a water meter project.

About the time we decided to move to the parsonage in Sonora, on the hill above the Court House, one of the mountain folk had a seizure while at work in Cold Springs and was told she couldn’t work for six months to see if any seizures would recur.  So, of course, she could move into Unit #1 and keep an eye on things, picking up parts of the office routine, and the Post Office routine as she felt able.  At some point we should have agreed as to how much work she could apply toward the use of the apartment – Unit #1…

Carolanne the Hostess!

We received a call late one evening that the guests for one of our “off-site” cabins could not get to the cabin on the slippery, icy road.  There were three to four feet of snow on the ground, but steps had been shoveled for their access and the driveway plowed.  Despite the note on the website that chains or 4x4 would be required in the winter, they “assumed” that since the highway had no chain requirement, they could come in their roomier vans.  Even with their chains they were unable to get to the cabin.  We drove up from Sonora in the Subaru Outback and ran at least six trips from the office parking lot to the cabin shuttling them and all their STUFF to the cabin.  Meanwhile, Carolanne entertained the remainder of the party in the Office in her robe and fuzzy slippers.  Not a night we will soon forget!!

She did a good job at “my job” and I was able to be a Pastor’s wife in Sonora, and a REALTOR in Twain Harte and then with Sugar Pine Realty in East Sonora, a grandmother, and still do the books for the owners of the cabins at the RESORT.   Carolanne has the perfect personality for dealing with “the public” – she is gregarious and anxious to please.  She lived in Unit #1 and did “my job” for 3 ½ years!   I would recommend her or Samantha to any “new owner” who comes along. 

After five years of working Real Estate the market had crashed, and I had to “take my management job back” from Carolanne and get some income from Unit #1.  It created quite a stir in the neighborhood since Carolanne was well-liked.  She had several adventures while living in Unit #1, but I will leave them for “her book!” Hey, life is what happens while you are making other plans.  Her daughter in Elk Grove and the three grand daughters needed her at that time, not to mention her sister in the Bay Area!  I joined her in prayer for BOTH situations.   The situations did resolve and she has moved back to the mountains that we both love; we are friends again.  THANK GOD!