I’ve been hit and miss on the blogging front, because, well, moving and dealing with horse adjustment and moving and finishing novel/starting new project, and well, moving. Also, for whatever reason the new laptop picked up whatever security lock that a particular hotel triggered in the old one, so LiveJournal is basically useless on a laptop. I’ve been afraid to blog on WordPress and try to migrate it because I don’t think it will take…and since LJ won’t let me post comments, I can just imagine what a blog would look like (shudder). I’ve tried the logging out, logging back on thing, and it’s stubborn. I suspect it’s some sort of security lock thing. Annoying but oh well.
Still working on finding writing time with all the moving once I finished the novel, but at least the office is starting to come together. Even if I don’t have the right books in here yet, because at least half of them are still in Portland, it’s starting to fit. On our last trip we jammed the desk I’m now using (inherited from the son) and the stereo cabinet, along with other stuff.
Now that trip was epic. We crossed the Santiam Pass to have lunch with one of DH’s former bosses, then drove across the desert through Prineville and Mt. Vernon, then turned north to head through Ukiah to LaGrande and then home. It made for a long drive but we drove through the Blues near the Starkey Experimental Forest in time to see an epic elk herd–at least 200 scattered across the hillside, cows and calves mostly. But as we drove on, we saw smaller groupings and solitary elk, at least 60-80 more.
Arrived here late and unpacked bare basics, then crashed. Unloaded the rest first thing, then went out to the barn to find a relaxed and satisfied horse. She’s now decided that this is home and looks comfortable in her pen. That’s good.
It’s also much more pleasant to experience the heat wave here than in Portland. Temps are at least ten degrees cooler and we get some night cooling. And we’ve not investigated the basement yet, either…
The push pins came with me this trip so I’ve been able to get things on the wall in the office and bring out most of my office stuff–that’s here, that is. It’s all coming along slowly but surely. We got appliances delivered and all, so we’re getting unpacked. There’s still painting to do but right now we’re not in a hurry to do that.
We’re also starting to work our way into local cultural events. Today we ran up to Joseph to check out a Nez Perce traveling art exhibit–Nuunimnix Art Show, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Nez Perce National Park. I also discovered a book I’ve been searching for since I read it back in 1981–Grace Bartlett’s The Wallowa Country 1867-1877–one of the local definitive resources and the one I read before Alvin Josephy and Lucius McWhorter, both of whom used her as a resource. The copy I read in the local library was spiral bound with a paper cover–this one’s a hardback. But I’ve looked and looked and never found it, not even at Powell’s. The Josephy Center also has part of Alvin Josephy’s library, available for research on site. Mmmm. I think I know what I’m doing this winter.
Husband bought himself a big chainsaw, so now we only need the woodstove to have everything together for winter. En route from the Josephy Center to the Grain Growers to buy the saw, we cruised up Hurricane Creek to scope it out as a possible hiking trail with Mocha. We’ve ridden the trail before, years and years ago. The idea is that we use her to pack a light lunch, perhaps just lead her but get her used to the idea of going out. That’s kind of the next phase of her acclamation here–leaving the home place to Do Stuff like graze the lawn here, go hiking, and so on.
And then I came home and did more work in the office. It’s about ready for writing. Even if I can’t find my reference books, I now have a place to spread out and work when I’m not typing. Yay.
