Tag Archives: Farpoint

A long and productive weekend

The latest run to Farpoint was quite productive, indeed. We had to negotiate a freezing rain travel window (both I-84 and Tollgate over the Blues were closed for a while on Thursday) as the weather transitioned from cold to warmer and wet. We did get to see some lovely views in the Gorge, and stopped at Multnomah Falls. Of course, my good camera was buried under luggage so the phone camera had to do.

IMG_1183

The other challenge of this trip was that we took the new-to-us pickup with a load of vinyl tile. While the Dakota has four-wheel-drive and wide tires, it doesn’t have studless snows. Pickups can be a bit skittery in snow and ice, and we’ve not really played with this one in adverse conditions yet. Still haven’t, except for ice. Nonetheless, it performed quite nicely, chugging in a most workmanlike manner up Cabbage Hill with a load that weighed at least a half ton in pea soup fog. Gas mileage is not the greatest (a 1999 with a v-8 engine is not what you’re looking for when it comes to getting the good mileage) but it’s a quite satisfactory sturdy driving rig for hauling stuff.

Once we were at Farpoint, we set about Doing Stuff. One Stuff to be done was to drive down to Wallowa and pick up 30 packages of insulation batts. I ended up finding a better solution than spending the day driving, which meant I had more time to work on Other Stuff, such as…

rehabbing this corner.

IMG_1455

When we first set eyes on the red thing, we thought it was an old-timey Coca-Cola cooler. But it was buried under old roofing, a toilet still in the boxes, and lots of other stuff. As we dug the corner out, we discovered that The Red Thing is a coal stoker hopper. It still had some coal in it, and I discovered the label–Fairbanks-Morse. We tried moving it around, but there’s still ash in the burner part and it’s pretty heavy even with the coal dug out. Not sure what we’re going to do with it, but eventually…

IMG_1456

Coal in the hopper

IMG_1459

Before cleaning. I mopped the walls and floor of this area (the former coal bin) and got about an inch of residue in the bucket when I was done (and disposed of it in a sacrifice area where we aren’t going to grow anything).

So yeah. Hubby and I got major basement cleaning done. The goal is to clean it out, paint the walls with a moisture lock paint, and start at least storing books down there.

We also got a dump run accomplished, to gorgeous views.

IMG_1464

Nice view from the dump, hmm?

Even with rain and fog, we still had mountain views most of the days. I got windows measured for curtains, because hopefully the floors and kitchen will be done the next time we go up, so that we can hang curtains and start moving things in (we have not wanted to do much with it yet because the tile to be pulled up is asbestos and didn’t want to paint/clean until that was done).

The drive home yesterday was full of “so this is why we bought a place where we did.” Enterprise had sun. But as we drove north, down the valley, we encountered fog, but only at a certain elevation (which happened to include the towns of Lostine and Wallowa). Then we were out of it again, until Elgin. Up over Tollgate wasn’t bad, with sunshine, but we dropped into pea soup fog near Weston and felt our way along the highway with near-freezing temps in the fog until almost Pendleton. After that, things were clear at road level with heavy cloud cover.

Making the run with the pickup was fun, but it’s definitely not a regular long-drive vehicle, not when we have the Subaru handy. On the other hand, it’s a pretty good little working vehicle.

And now it’s back to writer life, and a lot of other stuff. Time to get the week going.

Comments Off on A long and productive weekend

Filed under Farpoint

December at Farpoint

Winding down after another day at Renovation/Remodeling World, Enterprise Version. Hey, we had mountains this morning, and then the fog moved in. But it was a high fog, and temps warmed above freezing, so with ski base layers and other stuff I could move around freely. We are within striking distance of getting the basement free of dust and stuff (old coal dust….we still have the old Fairbanks-Morse coal stoker in the old coal bin, and pulled out about ten pounds of coal. But still. Coal dust. Must go.).

Tried to write this morning but with the urgency of various errands to run around the County, including a 20 mile drive to Wallowa to pick up insulation, I got maybe about 300 words in. Doesn’t have the flow of the words I lost the other day, but oh well. Words got put down. Then it was drive down to Wallowa in the Dakota to pick up what I thought would be insulation rolls…but turned out to be batts. 30 packages of batts. 4 at a time in the Dakota. Luckily, I was able to figure out a way to keep from having to drive so far so many times and we got all 30 packages to the house. Then, after further Adventures in Basement Cleaning, we met with the contractor for Phase II (floors, porch and more windows). After that, between the two of us, we hoisted those 30 packages to the attic, for further work. Not me doing that, fortunately…just the hubby. But we got an oil delivery done, got the insulation on site, and are now down to mopping the basement. Getting there.

Meanwhile, I keep searching online for more information about that Fairbanks-Morse coal stoker and getting nowhere. It’s definitely a 1920s-1940s thing. Burgundy and cream, and when the tongue of the stoker was buried under junk, we thought it was possibly a Coca Cola cooler. Nope. It would be nice to find out if it’s worth anything, but unless there’s major $$$$$ involved, I’m not pulling it out of that corner now.

Since we don’t have TV service here, we went out to watch the Ducks game (seriously, this is not a place where rabbit ears or anything short of a subscription will get you even basic TV). Good grief, the team I grew up with snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is now winning and is #2 in the country. Huh.

And now the publisher drama has escalated. Apparently they are “redefining their image” to be family friendly. Not sure what that means yet. Hoping that means they will be willing to release the fantasy novel that I absolutely don’t think will a.) meet their criteria and b.) is not something I want to revise to meet that criteria. Drama continues. Of course it all comes to a head when I’m out of town and have iffy Internet. Isn’t that the way it works? I can hardly wait to get reliable Internet access here. Right now I’m limited to cell phone connectivity, and that’s iffy. Tonight is an exception because I have access to regular Internet.

Thinking thinky thoughts about where I need to go as an independent writer. Somehow, I have to get past my usual trend of catching the wave just as it’s broken and not earning a good ride because of bad timing. Somehow, I’ve gotta figure out a way to balance family and myself so that I can catch that break at just the right time.

My gut tells me this next year may be crucial. But dear God, what obstacles lie in my way? So freaking tired of freaking obstacles, while watching others seem to glide on through with no problems. When will it be my turn?

Ah well. A brief moment of angst. Sooner or later it will happen…or not, as the case may be. It didn’t happen with horses, much as I wanted it, because I realized what I needed to do far too many years after I had the physical capabilities to do it. The recession and those fucking education reformers exploded my hopes and dreams for making a difference in special education work (my perception is that we’re going to have to fight to regain where we were in the late 90s, pre-No Child Left Behind). Damnit, one of these days I’ve gotta find something that works.

Or maybe not. Maybe I’m doomed to the same curse as my ancestors….coming to the end of my days with nothing more than a small ripple of effect on the world, my stories barely heard, my voice effectively silenced, despite years of raging and fighting and arguing against being silenced. Thirty years ago I was being silenced because I was young and cute and blond. Now…it’s because I’m old and female.

Damn it.

Comments Off on December at Farpoint

Filed under blather

Ruminations on a busy time

For some reason I seem to be finding myself busier than I was when I went to a part-time job every day. Not making any money, just busier. Well, okay. I guess I sold some books, so that’s income. With any luck I can turn that around in the coming year. The pieces of the teacher brain and teacher paralysis are fading away, finally. I could even go back to teaching next year in the proper situation and be able to bring a renewed energy to it (so maybe all I really did need was a sabbatical…uh, no, given what’s happening in special ed this year). So probably not.

But the contractor stuff for Phase II seems to be happening at last, and I have short stories to write before I can commit novel again. And figuring out promotional stuff, ai yi yi.

I started a perfectly lovely story today with a gender neutral alien and I started using a more systematic version (Spivak–ey, em, eir, etc) than the mix of he and she I used for “Live Free or Die”. Oh, it was a lovely three paragraphs, and a quite excellent piece of work, if I do say so. But then the tablet ate it, and those pixels dispersed into where ever it is that lost files disappear to (yes, I’ve searched out my file structure but the program is Polaris Office and occasionally it does this. It was my bad for swapping screens without saving first, even though I’ve done this times before with no problem. Then I sometimes do have problems…). So I will begin again, but oh, yes, it was a very interesting way to write an alien POV. Won’t work for this particular market, anyway (this is a targeted story), but I will keep this in mind for future reference. Or I may write it this way, anyway, to begin with. We shall see. Or I’ll write two stories.

This weekend is one of the serious house working weekends (unless things are totally borked at the place). Insulation into the attic and the delivery of flooring tile. I looked at highly expensive residential tile before I went to the commercial side and picked up a heavier vinyl tile that will stay cleaner…and cost less (we’re paying someone to do it anyway, so might as well take advantage of their skill to put in a more durable flooring). I can’t stand the look of the peel and stick stuff, and the one color I did like was so lightweight that it would be worn out in a few years. We’ll be picking up the insulation at a town twenty minutes away, and making three trips in the truck. It’s our first long distance drive in the pickup, and there’s going to be some weather going over, so it’s a good thing we’ve got tile to haul to give us a bit of weight. Though the pickup is nicely balanced, so it should be okay. But the seats suck. We’ll probably have to replace the driver’s seat because the previous owner apparently was a lot heavier than either of us, and broke it down. Oh well.

So while hubby will be doing insulation, I’ll be scrubbing walls in the basement, or else begging off to write.

Busy times ahead.

Comments Off on Ruminations on a busy time

Filed under Uncategorized

Another Farpoint weekend–Hat Point

As this summer that just won’t die winds down, it’s been a good time to not be driving forty miles one way to work. Between smoke from the big Estacada fire and the heat (I can just imagine how hot my classroom would be getting), I’m grateful. It’s still taking time to recreate structure and routines, but I’m getting there.

We did a flying trip to Farpoint for grouse hunting and house business this weekend. DH ended up with a bad attack of food poisoning which was really nasty; mine was thankfully much milder. Nonetheless, the two of us were healthy enough to go on one of those long all-day hunting drives out toward Hat Point with a friend. It had been at least twenty-four years since we had been out there; nearly thirty for our friend.

Hat Point is not necessarily an easy drive, even with a four-wheel drive rig. The road has improved by quite a bit so that it’s feasible to take a passenger car out there, but it is still a rugged gravel road with some long single track passages winding up steep canyon walls.

Like this:IMG_1093

Not the best pic. Basically, that line between the burned and unburned canyon wall? It’s the road. There’s about five miles like this early on, and there’s always a possibility of encountering trucks with trailers carrying wood or horses. That can make life somewhat exciting. However, the road was significantly improved from the last time we had driven it. Much more gravel, but it’s still going to be iffy there because of the big fire in the Imnaha canyon this summer. You don’t get burns like this above and below the road without risking some nasty washouts in the rains.

IMG_1094IMG_1096

But it wasn’t all fire at Five Mile Viewpoint. I also got a few stunning pix of the Imnaha River canyon.

IMG_1109

Though my best pic was from Granny View, further along.

IMG_1159

And then there was Hells Canyon and Hat Point. The road has been redesigned so that it ends at Hat Point with a nice picnic area. You can climb sixty feet up into the lookout tower, which gives some stunning views of Hells Canyon, Snake River, and the Wallowa country…or it would if there weren’t a few fires around.

IMG_1192IMG_1195IMG_1204IMG_1198IMG_1207 Pictures–Hat Point fire lookout tower–I hiked 60 feet to that platform. Easier than the Arc d’Triomphe, even at 7,000 feet. We spotted several jet boats and rafters cruising down the Snake River, though it took binoculars to pick out the rafters.  The others are pretty much self-explanatory.

On the way back, we went out to Cyuse Flat (no, I don’t know why the “a” is dropped but that’s the usage). Friend and I hiked it to kick up grouse, plus we investigated an old barn and line cabin. Gorgeous stuff, but way too many pix. I got some good pix for later writing reference. But here’s a shot of Cyuse.

IMG_1233

It’s a big, wide flat on top of a long ridge, full of native grasses and some introduced timothy. We poked around an old cabin and barn and I got lots of pix. Gonna be writing a lot of cross-genre spec fic stuff with these pix. Breaks my heart (not!). This is pretty typical country for this area, high elevation pasturage that gets snow in the winter.

On the way back home, we kicked up a small herd of elk just above Five Mile Viewpoint.

IMG_1312

They weren’t particularly worried about us, though they didn’t hang around, either. After that, friend and I bushwhacked down a draw and shot four ruffed grouse.

On Sunday, we primered the molding around the new windows, visited with a friend, then drove home. Quite a full weekend.

 

Comments Off on Another Farpoint weekend–Hat Point

Filed under Farpoint

The rest of the trip

It’s been a busy week, but there was more going on during our trip than Spocon. We drove up to Spokane the day before. It was a lovely day for a drive, offering opportunities for pictures like this:

IMG_0911

And this:

IMG_0913

Lots more cool views than pictures. In the Spocon post, I talked about waterfall pictures. We took a long walk from the hotel (Fairfield) along the river and walked from the Upper Falls to the Lower Falls and I found these stunning shots along the way.

IMG_0948IMG_0952

And many more.

Sunday, after my last panel and all the goodbyes, we hopped in the car and drove from Spokane to Enterprise. We had not driven the road between Spokane and Lewiston, so we enjoyed new views. One of the con attendees was puzzled that it would take so long to drive a short distance (4 1/2 hours for around 175 miles), at least until she pulled up the map on her iPhone and saw the various snaky grades…down the hill into Lewiston, then up the hill from Asotin. But it’s past Antone that things really get wild.

It’s called Rattlesnake Grade. DH and I have not traveled it for over thirty years, and we only did it once together. But we both had memories of a long, winding grade both up and down a steep canyon. We’d completely forgotten about all the plateau country on the Washington side before we got there. And, before we descended into the Rattlesnake, we spotted a pair of wild turkeys–tom and hen–scratching gravel at the edge of the highway. Cool.

The Rattlesnake takes thirteen miles to descend to the bottom of the canyon and the Grand Ronde River. Then it goes a short distance straight up the bottom of a creek before climbing the canyon wall. We stopped for pix before climbing.

IMG_1009IMG_1010IMG_1011IMG_1013

And yes, people do travel this road regularly in winter, with ice, snow, and below zero temps. It is our shortest route to Spokane. Otherwise we have to go west through Elgin and Milton-Freewater to reach Lewiston and then head up.

On the top, near Flora, I had to slam on the brakes because a set of gangling wild turkey poults skittered across the road and, being young and fledglings and somewhat on the foolish side, they weren’t really eager to move for some big stupid stinky metal thing. That was still cool.

We stopped at Joseph Canyon Overlook. We’ve not been there for ages–I think it was after the fires of 1986. This is also the area where the upcoming Andrews Ranch (better title forthcoming!) is set.

IMG_1025IMG_1017

And then we reached Enterprise and Farpoint, to discover that despite what we thought, the contractor had installed all of the windows. Even better, he had been able to get a full greenhouse window into the kitchen window (he had thought he couldn’t get one that would be big enough).

IMG_1028IMG_1033

I am soooo happy about this. The window shelf is glass instead of wire like the one in the Woodstock house. I can haz planz.

And because it’s required, a mountain view.

IMG_1041

Other stuff happened, mostly pleasant. And then we were off to home and another week in the life. But my, this was such a pleasant five day trip in many ways.

Comments Off on The rest of the trip

Filed under travel, Uncategorized

Another Farpoint Moment

IMG_0392

Last trip to Farpoint was about falling in love with the house and our projected future. This trip was more about the reality–which is that we are looking at big things and the biggest remodel job we’ve ever done on a house, long distance. Scary stuff. Plus, with the political season setting in, the worry of “will we fit in?” We have to remind ourselves that we are not, not, not going to be political. Those days are done, and if we were going to revive that past history, we’d have gone to Eugene. Nope. Not going there.

But we also did the things that reminded us of why we’re making this move. No visits to friends this time as the schedule just wasn’t that leisurely–up on Saturday, back on Sunday. However, after a cursory inspection of the new plumbing job, we hopped back in the car and drove ten minutes to get to Wallowa Lake to go fishing. The wind was rising high, waves of about a foot and a half whacking the shore, stiff northern breeze…and on my fourth cast, I caught myself a nice rainbow trout. Native lake trout, 14 inches long, “with shoulders,” as the saying goes.

IMG_0406

IMG_0407

I wasn’t going to lose this beauty as it hit hard and grabbed the hook deep. So there was that.

Then, the next morning, we hopped in the car after a camp breakfast of cinnamon rolls and cruised out Thomason Meadows toward Zumwalt and the Findley Buttes. We saw a big herd of deer sunning themselves on one slope. Lots of Western Meadowlarks and Mountain Bluebirds singing. Several falcons. Good pix, some of which may make their way into the Andrews Ranch book. Gorgeous mountain views, some of which will make their way into a book. Saw a small herd of what probably were bucks making their way over a ridge. And we encountered a large cow-calf herd getting driven from winter pasture to summer pasture. We drove halfway through until we came to an unmounted human and asked for directions, then strategically parked to block an open gate to keep the stragglers from trying to duck off to the side.

I didn’t take any pictures. The herd was skittery enough as they were, and the cowpunchers (male and female) were working them slow, trying to keep the calves mothered up. It was easy to spot the wise older and calmer cows as they kept their calves close and paced themselves so that calf didn’t get tired and fall back. But there were anxious younger and hotter-tempered cows who’d take off ahead, then remember their calves, and start bellowing and backtracking. Meanwhile, the cowpunchers had a tight little group of outpaced, separated calves marching down a ditch. You could see which calves would probably make the nervous, hotter adults based on their reactions, too.

Except for one mule with a 7-shank curb, all the horses were ridden in snaffles with slobber straps (one rider had bit chains instead of a strap). I finally got to see the slobber strap in proper use.

(deletion of horse tool-specific rantage)

Anyway, the reality of the house set in on this trip. It has nice bones, but it is a converted boiler shack that became a family home that became a retiree’s last place. What upgrades there are were put in to make the last resident comfortable. Now…it needs more.

IMG_0469

The ancient dishwasher is gone as part of the plumbing reforms. We’re now talking about putting in a second sink there. The next step is new windows and new flooring in the kitchen and living room, as well as wall removal. Then….we keep going back and forth about upgrading the tiny bathroom and creating two master suites. That piece may be gravy, but the bathroom needs something.

It feels overwhelming. But we take a deep breath and keep on plugging, a little bit at a time.

In two months we won’t have the constraints that keep us to these short two-day trips (my job, primarily). We can make these into three day trips during the summer, and take longer trips during the off season when the schedule works better for DH.

Meanwhile, the other cool thing about the 700 mile round trip is that we get to see critters. Four big rams with huge horns posed by I-84 near the John Day river. The flock of turkeys on the hillside above Elgin. 8-10 eagles on the river through the Gorge. All sorts of other raptors. And lots of deer and Canadian geese. Plus the pileated woodpecker that flew in front of the car going over Tollgate.

I drove that trip in 5 3/4th hours coming home, 6 hours plus (with stops) on the way up–and Addie-the-car got 30.9 mpg on the way back, with a little wind assist. No big stops on the way home, just to get gas in Hood River (which was as expensive as buying gas in the County! Yikes!). Got the doctor letter which confirms arthritis in my thumb.

Sigh. Back to the current reality.

Two more months.

Comments Off on Another Farpoint Moment

Filed under Farpoint

So. Farpoint.

IMG_0205

Yeah. So we bought this house in Enterprise, Oregon. There’s a bit of a history with us and Enterprise, all wrapped up in how DH and I got together and politics and my inchoate longing to live in an arid mountain climate that isn’t Bend (I spent too damn many years getting drug up to Crane Prairie and, well…a toxic former boss lives in the Bend area. Do. Not. Want. Encounters).

Or…after ten years of teaching there…not the Mountain, either. Don’t get me wrong. I love the Mountain in its own way. It just isn’t…me. In the long run, it’s too damn wet. If there’s one thing that can sum up JRW after all these years, it’s my consistent longing to be someplace drier than Western Oregon with mountains. IOW, NOT the Cascades, lovely though they are. Nor the coast, nor the Coast Range. I’ve flirted with the Rockies, but…nah. Their Blue Mountain offshoots, primarily the Wallowa Mountains offshoot, are my heart. I discovered Montana in 1978, and the Wallowas in 1980, and the Wallowas always took primacy of place.

DH and I got engaged and married while living in Enterprise over 33 years ago. We always swore we’d come back, but, as time went by, it became clear that this would be a retirement return, not a return while we needed to accumulate money. So…until about a year ago, it didn’t seem possible. Then I found those jobs, and then we talked, and then we thought and…well.

Those of you who know me and DH well know that this sort of decision from us is not a hasty sort of choice. To outsiders, when we act, it may seem as if it’s a quick, impulsive decision.

(And the damn server just ate half my post. Or more. Grrr, 400 words just…gone. Pfui).

Nonetheless, when we move on something after about six months or so of discussion, it only seems fast to the outsiders.

So. Farpoint. We had been watching listings online, and this place kept calling to us. Other places (ironically, within easy sight of the house) attracted us and got sold. We made an appointment in December to drive up and look at the house, as well as a couple of others. One thing we were firm about was that we wanted a view. This house had a view, and the others? Um, not so much.

IMG_0730

Things about this house called to us. It’s not a fancy house. The place is rather stark and plain, industrial in design. It was built in 1917 as a boiler shack to provide steam heat for a local greenhouse complex (none of which remains). In the 60s, the owner jacked it up, put in the original basement, and added two bedrooms. It has radiant oil-fired heat, with both baseboards and the classic old iron radiators. One level.

IMG_0214

This pole light came with the place.

IMG_0246

The kitchen.

IMG_0270

The window and radiator in what will be my office, the original bedroom off of the living room.

And, of course, the reason for This Place:

IMG_0736

The view.

The house belonged to an elderly woman who had gone into a rest home. In talking to the local service people, it was clear that folks had gone out of their way to support keeping her in her home as long as possible, before that no longer became an option. The woman and her late husband were clearly handypeople in their own right, as well as folks who couldn’t throw anything away. I sorted through a lot of stuff our first weekend in the house, when we took possession. I found some neat stuff, but also a lot of junk. Nonetheless, the house is plain, with solid bones, and an interesting history. I’m hoping to find out more about it as we spend time there. Our friends who have lived there a while kind of remember the greenhouses and all. And our little steam boiler which powers the heat is a remnant of that steampunkish history…

We had started jokingly calling the house “Farpoint” before we even left PDX to take possession, just because of our SF connections and the number of Enterprise-related jokes we encountered when talking about it. Then, the lamp, and the discovery of the house’s history, and then, this…

IMG_0731

Drawing discovered when I was mucking things out.

So Farpoint it is. Right now, we’re not sure if it will be a second home, or an eventual retirement home. We’re doing upgrades, because while the house was maintained, it wasn’t maintained for current levels of electronic use, for example, and the windows are single pane. The plumbing is a mix of plastic and iron. We’re going to replace windows, fix the front porch, and…then we have a lovely porch to watch sunsets from. Or mornings. Or just about anything else. Farpoint is three blocks from the downtown area, an easy walk to just about every service available. The Fishtrap house is two blocks away. The nearest bookstore is three blocks away.

We plan to make a slow transition when/if retirement actually happens for DH. Me, I plan to start scrambling for more writing, tutoring, and editing work, starting June 16th. We’ll see where that goes.

Meanwhile, we keep dreaming of Farpoint, and longing for a change.

Gonna be a big one.

Comments Off on So. Farpoint.

Filed under Uncategorized