Oroville to Newport - You can go home sometimes, it just may be different than when you left.

Farewell Jimmy Copland

We hitched up the trailer and left Oroville Friday morning the 20th of July. I still had Jimmy Copland very much on my mind and wondered if by any chance we had camped where he had spent his 21st birthday on the Oroville flats.

 We took highway 97 for the short 18 mile drive to reconnect with Highway 20. Denise and I do everything we can to avoid the Interstate freeways. The purpose of them is to get somewhere in a hurry and they generally don't take the scenic route. At this point in the trip we had probably no more than 200 miles of interstate out of some 7500 miles of driving.

 Highway 20 is the longest highway in Washington at 436 miles. It begins on the Olympic Peninsula at Hwy. 101 and goes to Port Townsend where the ferry takes you across to Coupeville on Whidbey Island. We did not take this section on this trip but we drove most of the rest of it.It is in my opinion the most scenic route to cross the state. It's the northern route and on the western side of the state it is known as the Cascade Loop highway.

 In the center of the state you are in a semi arid almost desert environment. Leaving Tonasket you begin to climb and quickly enter into forest land. This is not the rain forest of the western side of the state but a drier version with more pine interspersed with the Fir, Hemlock and Cedar. Another addition to the forest cover is the Western Larch tree or Tamarack as its commonly called. Its a deciduous conifer that loses its needles in the fall after a short change to fall color of a brilliant yellow. 

 This is not a relax and drive road but rather one that requires your active participation. There are very few straight stretches and it not only winds back and forth but also climbs up and down. You don't get to gawk at the scenery or you will find yourself off the road in a hurry. 

 There are not many towns along this stretch but those that are there are very small and "down homey". Republic is everybody's idea of a quaint little mountain town. The buildings are rustic and the highway is narrow and runs through the town inviting you to stop and explore. We didn't have the time as we wanted to get to Newport so we just drove through.

After you go through Republic the road begins to climb up to Sherman Pass. At 5575' Sherman pass is the highest pass in Washington that is kept open throughout the snow season.

 The Dodge did good pulling the pass, it didn't bog down at all. As we rounded a hairpin turn near the summit I caught a glimpse of a military jet blazing across the mountain peak. F-16 I remarked to Denise and continued concentrating on the curves and the climb. We rounded another hairpin and suddenly a loud scraping and vibration began. I panicked thinking that the trailer had fallen of the hitch and was now being dragged behind us. Quickly though a super sonic jet flashed by at treetop level. That jet was no more than 200' above us and moving at a high speed. It scared the crap out of me. I have never been that close to a jet while driving and hope I never am again.
 We were near the summit at that point and after making that began the ascent down to Kettle Falls.
 Kettle Falls is a town on the banks of the Columbia River or that portion of the river that is backed up behind Grand Coulee dam otherwise known as Roosevelt Lake.
 The Kettle river joins the Columbia just north of here. Both rivers come down from Canada. The Kettle river runs down from Midway where we had been the day before.
 It's a spectacular sight coming down the pass and through the forested mountains and bursting into the river/lake. The highway bridge takes you across to the other side and it was here that we left Hwy. 20 briefly and turned south on Hwy 395 towards Colville and Chewelah.
 At Chewelah we turned onto Flowery Trail Road which goes up over another pass and down into Pend Oreille County near the town of Usk. It's a shorter route than Hwy 20 and goes to the same place. When you get to Usk you again connect up with Hwy 20 on the west bank of the Pend Oreille River. This was homecoming for Denise and I. We left there in 1986 and only returned for visits a couple of times.
 If you read my account of the summer trip of 1978 then you might have guessed where we were heading. Our dear friend Liv (Olivia) is still there and is living in more or less the same place as she was in 1978.
 She has built a new cabin and she invited us to bring the trailer up there to stay when I emailed her that we were heading that way.  We took Hwy 20 down into Newport because we were unsure of being able to find the road up to Liv's house.
Off we went down hwy 20 to Newport and wow howdy what's this? Traffic like we had never seen in lil ole Newport. Times have changed for sure and a whole new bunch of people have discovered the beauty of Western Washington and the Idaho panhandle.
 We crossed the new bridge at Oldtown Idaho and turned north and downriver onto LeCleric rd.
 Neither Denise nor I were 100% sure that we would remember the turn off to Liv's place and sure enough when we got up the road we saw two roads that were a candidate. Bummer. I drove all the way to Usk before turning around. I are very hesitant to get onto a one lane road with 27' of trailer behind me and the possibility of no turn around.
 One of the new things was street signs on the private roads. If the road to Liv's had a name I never heard it or if I did I sure didn't remember. She was working and told us to just pull in and make ourselves at home. We went back to Newport and turned into an empty parking lot to text Live and formulate a plan. We didn't hear back from Liv right away so I told Denise that I was 80% certain which road it was and that if she would drop me off at the bottom I would walk up and call her if it was the right road. 

 She dropped me off at Cliff road and I started walking. It's a single lane road that goes up the hillside at about a 45 degree angle climbing 200' to 250' feet above the road below. At the top it widens out to almost 3 lanes. Wider than I remembered so I started walking. It's a half mile or so to Liv's place from the top. You go through some trees and then break out into a meadow. So far that was all correct but there were a couple of new roads/driveways and some houses I didn't recognise. I kept walking, across the meadow and up the hill. It's steep and I was glad that I had been hiking a lot. I was not short of breath. There were two more new places at the top so I kept going, I got to some fresh gravel and finally an electric gate. Liv had given me the gate code so this was the test. I put in the code and the gate swung open like Aladdin saying open sesame. Happy happy, joy joy, I called Denise and told her that we had selected the right road. She had turned the truck around and started coming. I was antsy so I began walking back down the hill. When I got through the meadow and turned toward the woods she appeared. I hopped in and we headed up to the cabin.

The gate - Logo designed by Liv

We got the trailer backed up into a spot off the driveway and leveled it and then went into to cabin to check it out and wait for Liv to get home.

 Rosie

 Front view of the cabin.

What a beautiful place. The house is built with large logs and has enough windows to be very light and airy. There was a dachshund in the house but we didn't know her name at the time. Liv had said that she had two so I was wondering what was up with the other one.  We put Rosie on the lead and sat outside taking in the serenity and peace that fills the air around the cabin.

 This reunion was a long time in the making. We had planned on meeting up with Liv, and another old friend Julane in Albuquerque NM the summer of 2015. We had it all planned out but then a week before the trip was when Denise had her heart attack and the whole thing went away.

 Olivia is one of my oldest friends, we met through Donna, my first wife, when she was 18 and I was 19. Good times and a lot of memories. There were tragedies also but that's life and you deal with it. They say it makes you stronger and maybe it does. I just know that life goes on and you have to come to grips with the inevitable bad  things that come along. Either that or you go crazy. There are more good than bad so focus on the good. 

 When Liv got home from work we got to meet Guido the other doxie. We became instant friends, he's really a cute energetic little dynamo. We did some catching up and then off to bed. Liv had to work the next day (Saturday) for a few hours and 5:00 am comes early.

I'm a morning person so every day we were there I was up with Liv when she worked and before her on days off. In mid July the days up north are long and the sun rises early. It starts getting light around 4:30 which was the time I would typically get up. Mornings are brisk as the temps drop into the low 40's or high 30's at night. It was getting into the high 80's and low 90's in the daytime so the weather was ideal.

 Liv has been working for the Forest Service for the past 35 years more or less. She is the most energetic person I know. She goes from the time she gets up until she goes to bed. It's hard to keep up with her, she doesn't let things sit. If there is something that needs to be done she gets on it and gets it done. Liv has done amazing things with very little help. I have the greatest admiration for her.
 She and I worked together when I first moved up to the area. We worked for a contractor who was doing controlled burns of clear cuts for the Forest Service. Another thing about Liv is her sense of humor. I can still remember us up on the fire line hard hats and jackets waiting for the fire to begin when she reached into her pocket and pulled out some toilet paper. She unfolded it and held it out. We the breeze picked it up she looked at me and said "Three sheets to the wind".
 While we were there I tried to help her get some things done that required someone tall or maybe some thing that needed two people to do. We got a couple of projects done but not as many as I had hoped to help her with.
 We saw more wildlife in Liv's yard than we saw anywhere else in our travels. There was a hummingbird feeder in the front and it attracted a good variety of hummers. On the workshop there was a birdhouse that was home to a family of house wrens. I never saw the babies but I heard them and mom and dad worked all day long bringing insects to the youngsters. Around the yard were Columbia ground squirrels and Liv put out a mineral block in the back that attracted deer and turkeys. Early in the morning I would see deer working that block. There were two does that had fawns. One had twins the other just one. A couple of bucks would also show up. The turkeys were funny. They typically would show up in the evening. You would see them running single file out of the woods and through the meadow, running in a chain that almost made them look like a very large serpent.
 Coyotes also came in close. I never saw any there but we could hear them just out of sight at the edge of the clearing. There were also butterflies, wasps, bees and hornets. All in all a delight. It was so nice to be far away from the highway and not be in a campground with dozens of other people. This was the most serene place we stayed.

One of the visiting does

Columbian ground squirrel

Common Wood-Nymph- Cercyonis pegala

Broad-tailed Hummingbird- Selasphorus platycercus

 

Where the deer and the turkey play

A buck came to visit also

 Liv offered us a bed in the house which we gladly accepted. This was great for us, to have a room with a view and a nice soft bed. Unfortunately it left the animals on their own. I tried to spend time with them each day but it's not the same. We would be sitting on the porch watching the humming birds or just talking and relaxing and the cats would be in the window crying piteously. Pata got put out on a lead but she was not allowed to run free. She has never learned to obey and so must pay the price. I have tried and tried with her but she just doesn't get it. I have never had a dog that would not come when called except for Bonnie who was Pata's mentor.

 I did take her down to the meadow every morning that we were there. I would get up with Liv, have coffee and talk with her until she had to go to work. Then I would walk Pata down to the meadow and get as far as I could from all houses then turn her loose to run. She loves to run in tall grass. She runs with her head down sniffing at whatever critters are hiding there in the grass. 

 She did pretty good, I would always have to go and get her but it wasn't bad until the last day we were there. On that day I let her loose in the usual place and she ran in the usual manner except this time when she got down by the intersection of the road and a couple of driveways she crossed the road and started heading up toward the house of the Newport Chief of Police. I called and called her but as usual she paid no attention to me. I did manage to head her off before she got too far up his driveway but she then started heading into the woods still running and running. I followed her shouting at her to stop. She finally came close enough that I was able to snag her leash and reel her in. I was pissed. She has no idea and I don't know how to make her obey. I have tried and tried. 

 As a result she lost her running privileges indefinitely. I don't want to lose her and I also can't take her running away and totally ignoring me. It's upsetting so I refuse to allow it any more. Her loss and mine as well. I have always enjoyed having my dogs accompany me without restraint. 

The meadow where Pata would run free.

The road running through the meadow

The meadow as seen from the road above.

  Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina

 On days that Liv worked Denise and I would drive around getting reacquainted with the area. We also had business to take care of. We went down into Newport early Monday morning and had breakfast at Audrey's Restaurant.  We used to eat there when we lived here. The original building burned down some years past but they rebuilt and the food is still good and cheap.

 After breakfast we both wanted to go up to the old homestead and see what had become of it. We both had the same idea to see if we could find the back road up from Spring Valley. So we went that direction first.  

When we first lived here we had a Mustang Stallion that we got from Liv. Some guy she knew had ridden it up to Washington from Colorado. Sam was his name and although I build an 8' corral he was an escape artist and would somehow find a way to get out. When he did he would head down the hill and into Spring Valley. There was a horse ranch on Spring Valley Road and he would go there to hang out with their geldings. We would drive down there and then one of us would have to ride him back through the woods. If it was getting on to dark it could be a scary proposition as the woods were home to bears and coyotes and a few other nasty critters. I remember one trip when it was Denise who rode him back while I lit the road from behind it was totally dark by the time we got back home and she was muttering Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh my!  

 We looked for the road and when we got to the horse ranch we were pretty sure that the road a quarter mile before it was the road. We started up it and got up it probably 2 miles when it just ended in someones yard. We tried another road a half a mile or so before that one and had the same result. 

 So back to Newport we went and this time tried to go up the Stateline road. Again  after a couple of miles we were greeted with Private Road signs and No Trespassing signs.  After trying a couple of different branches we gave up and went up Hwy 41 to the property. We turned onto Rena Rd, that we used to know as Silver Birch Circle and headed back to the Stateline road. There were a couple of new houses along the road, some of them looked pretty good. Must be moving up in the world. 

 Once back on Stateline things looked pretty much the same. We went up the road to where you have to go down and then up to get to our place. Right where the road went back up there was a gate across the road. Beyond the gate at the top of the hill was a travel trailer, right in the middle of the road. We parked the truck in front of the gate and started walking up. There was a new house on the property across from ours but no one was there.  
The mood was broken. I walked up the road to where the old house had once stood. I called to Denise but got no answer. I walked back down the road calling her. She was in the truck. The walk up the hill had been too much. 
 I got into the truck and we talked about what to do next. We decided to go see if Sam and Quinn Reimer were home.
 Sam and Quinn were our nearest neighbors when we lived there. They were also the first people in the neighborhood we met at moving there. They built a house at the back of their property and have lived there since 1980 shortly before we moved there.
 We drove down the road to their house and when we pulled up Quinn came out to see who was in her driveway. 
 We called out to her "Hi Quinn" "How are you doing?" She didn't immediately recognize us so we said "It's Chuck and Denise" 
 With that she said hi back and invited us into the house. We went in and told her that we had come to check on the property but that the road was gated. She said that she thought that we had sold out and was surprised the we were there. We hadn't seen each other in 33 years so we had some catching up to do. 
 We spent the next hour or so catching up and exchanging what had passed in the years with each of us. 
 After some time Sam showed up. He immediately knew who we were and also exclaimed that he thought that we had sold our property. 
 We did some more catching up and also discussed the road being gated with him. He, of course, knew the guy who lived there and gave us his name. He said that the guy Greg had been there a few years and was building a house. Sam said he was a pretty good guy so after we said our good byes to Sam and Quinn we drove back to the gate. I wrote a note telling him who I was and stating the we wanted to see our property but his gate and the trailer in the middle of the road were preventing that. I left my phone number and we went back to Liv's place.
 He called later that afternoon but first his girlfriend called to complain that the gate wasn't working and wanted to know who we were and what we had done to it. 
 She was kind of nasty and left us with a bad taste in our mouths. We had done nothing to the gate other than go through it.
 When he called I was a little apprehensive but he was OK. He agreed to move the trailer and told us he would give us access to the gate. I didn't like that. He said that we could buy a remote for it and he would program it to open the gate. Denise and I felt that if he was the owner of the gate and had it on our easement then he ought to pay for it. He did also say the if we didn't want to do that we could just pull the pin and swing the gate open by hand which made more sense. I told him that we wouldn't be back to look at the property until Friday or Saturday so that would give him time to move the trailer. We left it at that.
 When Liv got home that night we told her about our experiences with the new guy and the road closure. She said that he can't do that. She had had a neighbor try to do that same thing a few years back. Liv and a couple of other neighbors complained and the person was told to remove the gate. 
 Because it was only us and Greg I was more lenient but Liv insisted that we not let it go. I'm pretty non-confrontational for the most part and we don't live there anymore so I am willing to let it be for now.
 We did discuss going up to the property and Liv said that she wanted to go with us. We also talked about the upcoming Timber Days Festival in Priest River the next Saturday. We decided to call Uriah and see if he could come over to Newport for the weekend to see the property and go to the Loggers festival. Also of course to see Aunt Liv who did so much for him and with him when he was a child.
 We called him and after some hesitation he agreed to come by Friday or Saturday depending on work.     
We spent the rest of the week  exploring and getting things done during the day when Liv was working and visiting with and helping Liv when she got home from work.
 One of the places we went was to South Baldy mountain. There is a lookout tower near the peak and the views from there are extraordinary. We hadn't been there since 1985 or so but the road is fairly well maintained so we thought there would be no problems. What we didn't know was that there was a huge fire in the area in 2015 that surrounded the unmanned Fire Lookout although in was undamaged probably because the top of the mountain is not treed hence the name Baldy. In any event that fire caused the closure of many of the roads in the area because after the fire denuded the area mudslides followed. We drove as close as we could get. I did finally get a shot of the lookout tower just a couple of hundred feet above us. We were probably within a half a mile of the top when we were turned around by barricades closing the road. It was still a beautiful drive. I have also included a couple of photos from 1984 or 85 when we did make it to the top with our old CJ-5. 

 

 

 Indian paintbrush on the road up to South Baldy

 

 

 Hornets nest along the road.

Large-leaved Aster Eurybia macrophylla

 

 

Mountain hollyhock-Iliamna rivularis

 

Lorquin's Admiral Limenitis lorquini

  

 

  Columbia Lily Lilium columbianum

 

 The lookout tower above us. 

Trees are fire killed

 

 Looking down to the lake through the dead trees

 

 

View from the road up to South Baldy

  

View from the top 1984. 

Looking towards the west Pend Oreille river.

The fire lookout tower with our CJ-5 jeep parked beneath it.

 

 

 Looking to the east

 

 

More than a mile high.

And so the week passed pleasantly as we explored relaxed and continued to enjoy visiting with Olivia. She wanted to hear about Jimmy Copland so in the evening I would tell her what I knew and what we had found out during our short trip to Canada. During this I was also able to get a family tree started for her on Ancestry. She has a lot of information and a partial tree started. I hope I was able to help her get some more info.

 Friday rolled around and Liv had the day off. She had some errands to run in Sandpoint Idaho so Denise and I went along to keep her company and see the sights.
 Going up Hwy. 2 to Sandpoint is always a pleasure. The road follows along the Pend Oreille river until it becomes Pend Oreille Lake before you get to Sandpoint. Pend Oreille Lake is the largest lake in Idaho and 38th largest in the US. The Pend Oreille river flows out of it to the west past Priest River and at Newport/Oldtown it turns to the north where it continues to flow northward into Canada where it empties into the mighty Columbia.
 Pend Oreille Lake is deep, 1500' in some places. For many years it was thought to be bottomless as when they dropped chains in it to plump the depth the chain would not hit bottom. The reason for that was the current down deep would carry the chain and not allow it to hit bottom.
 Along the highway are cliff and on some of those cliffs are springs the produce cascades flowing down to the bottom of the cliff. In the winter when it gets below freezing those cascades turn into icicles that are a wonder to behold. People use to take a slingshot and propel jars full of food coloring up to the top of the cliffs the icicles would take on the colors and carry them down the side of the cliff. Rainbow colored icicles are a sight to behold!
 Like Newport, Sandpoint has seen a lot of growth in the years since we lived here. Many familiar landmarks have been changed or removed and new building are abundant. Downtown however is pretty much the same as ever. We went to a nice little restaurant for lunch. Liv knows the owners and said that the food would not disappoint. It didn't, everything was wonderful and they had an outdoor area where we could have the dogs with us while we ate.

Rosie going to the restaurant

The seating area at Arlo's 

Liv and a glass of wine

Denise at the table.

 

 

After lunch we headed back to the cabin where we called Uriah to see what he was doing. He had gone down to Olympia in the morning after work then back home where he got a short nap before heading out to see us. He estimated that he would be rolling in between 11:00 pm and midnight.  
 We wished his a safe journey. Poor guy had worked all night and now was driving across the state by himself. What I didn't know at that time was that he planned on driving back the next day. He didn't want to be too burnt out for work on Sunday night so he planned to drive back Saturday night and sleep until he had to go to work at 5:00pm. Oh man. I would not have asked him to come if I had known that beforehand. It was done and so I waited up for him as Liv had to go to bed after her long day. He rolled in shortly after 1:00 am. I directed him to the upstairs bedroom and he fell out and went to sleep. 
 We all got up in the morning and got ready to go to Priest River for the Timber days. Uriah and Liv got reacquainted amidst much laughing talking and hugs. We all got into Liv's car and went to Priest River to have huckleberry pancakes and watch the parade. We had been in the land of huckleberries ever since we entered Washington and I never tire of them. Huckleberry pancakes, huckleberry syrup, huckleberry filled chocolate, huckleberries and ice cream or just plain huckleberries picked and eaten right from the plant. Yum. My favorite berry and this year was a good year for them. 
 The pancake breakfast was great and right after we ate Uriah and Liv hopped on the  teeter totter. Too much for me but they had a good time.

Some kids never grow up - Here's two of them

Denise getting ready for pancakes

The teeter totter wasn't enough - The kids had to try the swings also

Not everywhere do you need to pack a piece just to have pancakes. This is one of those places where you do. 

 

After the breakfast we grabbed a spot on the lawn and watched the parade. 

I just love those old flat fender Willey's Jeeps

Most of the float and vehicles had candy for the kids

More candy............

It was really all about the Timber industry. It's at the heart of this area and most jobs are tied into it.

Sustainable logging is where it's at. 

 The Bull of the Woods is selected each year. 

It's to honor someone who has made significant contributions to the logging industry. 

This looks like a neat old piece of transportation.

 

 

 

We went to check out the various vendors. Most of them were local craftsman and there was some really nice stuff. We then went to check out the logging competition but it was too crowed and seemed disorganized so we went to one of the local watering holes and had a couple of beers before we went back to Newport to check out the old homestead. Priest River did not show the growth that Newport and Sandpoint have. It was much the same as when we left. Merrit's mill has changed hands and names but otherwise the town is the same. The old downtown is charming and some of the buildings are architecturally pleasing. It was a pleasant time.
 We went up Idaho hill to Rena rd. and the drive back to Stateline rd. Liv drove, I had wanted to take the Dodge but she said it was no problem so off we went. This time as we came down the hill on Stateline the gate was open and the trailer was gone from the middle of the road. I never saw Greg but was grateful that he had cleared the way for us without any hassle.
 We turned in the old driveway and drove up to where the house had stood. After we moved out the neighborhood pirates had descended on the place and stripped out anything they thought had value. The barn was completely gone all the timbers and studs taken. The roofing tin had been stripped from the house and without that I collapsed under the weight of  many winters snows. The woodshed had likewise collapsed. All fencing was gone with the exception of a couple sections by the back gate to the pasture. 
 The only thing standing was a rabbit hutch that I had built. That surprised me to see it still looking the same as when I had built it.
 There had been a parts truck in the pasture and a Ford Pinto we bought and had the motor seize up. Both of these were gone. Apparently for scrap metal. The Pinto had been stripped the last time I had been there. Someone had flipped it on it's roof and taken the transaxle.  
  The trees looked really good. Thirty years of additional growth had added girth to the ones I had left when we cleared for the house and pasture. I left Douglas firs and Tamaracks and all of these looked almost double the size that they were before. When we planted the garden I put in two rows of oregano. I put in two because that's how many seeds there were in the packet. It took off like crazy and grew back every year we were there. It's still there and has naturalized. The plants were big healthy and aromatic. How nice.
Liv, Uriah, and I walked to the back of the property to see what that looked like. There had been a small grove of white pines near the property line and I wanted to see how they had fared. There are no trails and I never cleared to the back so it was a lot of climbing over deadfalls and ducking under branches to get back there. The property is narrow across the front 350' and long 1350' to the back so it took some time to get back there. There are no markers either, well very few anyway. When I bought the property the lines were tagged with plastic tape. Some of that was still there amazingly enough. When we got to the back the orange and black stripped ribbons were still intact in places. We never did see the white pines but I don't think we walked the whole thing either.
 We had left Denise up by the car so we started heading back. We got turned around and finally shouted for Denise She answered and sure enough we were heading in the wrong direction. We called a few more times and made our way back to the car. 
 It's sad but also it was nice to go back to where there are so many memories. A lot of good times happened there. It was a lot of work and there were time when the snow was deep and the wind was howling the temperature way below zero and things were difficult but it was still a great place to be. We were close as a family and we made things work. I can remember one morning getting ready for work. All the water in the house was frozen and we needed to brush our teeth. Denise dug through the cabinet shaking cans. There was some apple juice that wasn't frozen so that's what we used.

 Life goes on. We have talked about getting electricity brought in and putting a trailer on the property for the summer. It's a possible thing to do. Time will tell. We have also talked about selling it. Again time will tell.

 The remains of the house. Looks like someone took out one of the Douglas firs. I didn't see any other signs of tree piracy.

Looking back towards what was the pasture. The square on the right was the woodshed. The pasture fence would have been directly behind that.

 Without a roof there was nothing to support the house. It looks as though they may have taken the rafters also. They were 2" x 6".

 I build the window frames. The windows were salvage from old building I had worked on in Sonoma Ca. before we moved up to Washington.

 A wasp nest in a tree near the back of the property.

How did we ever get along without cell phones? 

The old driveway was still clear and usable.

 The rabbit hutch still standing and ready for use. I could not kill the bunnies so we abandoned that project.

 

We went back to Liv's to have dinner and do some visiting before Uriah had to go back. The visit with Uriah was great and unexpected. When we said our good byes in Western Washington I did not expect to see him again so soon. So glad he sacrificed his sleep for a short visit with us and his Auntie O. 
 We spent the rest of the weekend trying to get a few chores done .

 

 

 Cementing the keypad post for the gate.

 

We did both keypads - entrance and exit

 

Another job well done.

 

Rocks placed around the base 

 

 

There were a couple of things that didn't get done. Most notably was adding chinking to keep the bats out of the attic. It was one I wanted to get done but we never got to it. It required doing it at night after the bats had gone out for their nightly feeding so timing was important. We would have to have had the chinking mix made up before hand and then it would entail some tricky ladder work to get up to where the hole was. 
 There is a couple who rent the old cabin from Liv. We had met Janet at Liv's cabin a couple of times. Liv took me up to the old cabin to see how they had fixed it up. Janet and her husband are artsy people and the cabin reflects that. They have a lace curtain in place of the front door. I could only imagine skunks or some other critters coming through it in the middle of the night. They said it hasn't happened but I wouldn't be surprised. There are bears in the area also. Not a good idea although it does look nice.
 The old wood shed has an addition also. They took me out there to see it. There is now a studio on one end of it. Janet is an artist and she does her art work in there. I was amazed at some of the paintings she had done. I told her how much I liked one that she had done and the next day she came down to Liv's cabin and gave me a print of it.

 

Fine Art And Folk Art     By Janet Contreras

 

 

 

 

She has a facebook page if you are interested in seeing or buying some of her artwork.

Fine-Art-And-Folk-Art-By-Janet-Contreras-https://www.facebook.com/Fine-Art-And-Folk-Art-By-Janet-Contreras-110753806254924/
    If you go to this page look at her profile picture. You can see the lace curtain door behind her.

 Liv wanted us to stay at least through the next weekend but time was growing short for us. Denise had a Dr. appointment with her cardiologist on the 21st of August and it couldn't be moved so we got set to leave early Wednesday morning August 1. Three weeks to get back to Texas.
 All of a sudden time was a factor in the trip and I began to feel a push.
 Our time at Liv's cabin was a precious moment of tranquility and peace. It will live in my memory bank as one of the best of times. 
 I hitched up the trailer on Tuesday and got everything ready to hit the road. Early Wednesday morning we said Farewell to Liv and Guido and Rosie. There were no goodbyes only farewell until we meet again.

Farewell  until we next time

Ziggy so ready to go - Come on, if you won't drive I will

On the road once more....