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.