A Full-time Life

Our Canal Cottage update

Just one pretty picture from the road before we get down to business:

 

Most of the time this blog is my happy place and I don't have to work hard at all to find the joy.    There's lots of blog-worthy life going on.  And a review of past posts is always a good reminder to practice gratitude. But of course the blog also serves a second purpose as a journal of our "Full-Time Life."  And today, that journal needs to record more about Hurricane Ian and the effect it had on the RV resort where we have our winter home.  (As a review, the Category 4 hurricane happened here in Florida in late September when we were at home in Oregon.  Water in our Canal surged several feet above the sea-wall and caused much damage.)

The picture above is the view we had from our porch on November 20, the day we arrived back at Upriver.  That's what's left of the two houses directly across the Canal from ours. The yellow one is probably going to be removed also.

So yes, we are in our winter home now and doing fine.  But many of our neighbors along our Canal were not so fortunate.  Almost all the damage in our neighborhood was  from the water surge rather than wind.  Here in Florida, most homes do not carry water damage insurance.  About a third of the homes along the Canal were total losses, including our dear next-door neighbor's home.  

Ruined park model next door to us -- You can see the roof line of ours through the arm of the excavator.

Below is the now-empty lot right next door to us.  The yellow house (next door but one to us)will be renovated but is now completely stripped to the studs because it had water damage inside.  

 

 

Our house sits higher off the ground than either of these did -- we had water damage underneath (in the storage area/crawl space)  but nothing inside.    I wrote last week about all the work our newly-retired son Geoff did for us when he came from Colorado before we were able to get here.  Below is the first picture he sent  when he arrived, only a few days after the mandatory evacuation order had been lifted:  

 

Like most winter-residents, we put  hurricane shutters on all the windows when we leave Florida every year and then take them down when we get here for the season.  They  served their purpose this time.

Most of that debris on our side yard  washed in from elsewhere.  But the surge also soaked our under-the-house  insulation,  ruined a lot of stored items from our own "basement", and (most expensively) ruined the air-conditioner and its duct-work .  Thanks to Geoff all of the debris was gone by the time we got here.  Bill is doing a lot of the work  on  renovation of the damage himself.   He is replacing plumbing drains, fastening water lines and wiring because most were knocked loose, and eventually will need to replace all the skirting.  We will have to have all the insulation replaced as well as the ducting and the air-conditioner itself.  

    (Old snapshots of inside -- all the same today except for no fresh flowers right now)

Because the crawl space got opened up and all of the wet insulation pulled out, there was no damage inside our "Canal Cottage" -- it is the same as ever.  The floors need a good scrubbing by now and the windows need to be washed, but I don't think I can get away with blaming Ian entirely for that.  

Old (better) times on the Canal   (about ten years ago)

So "we" have a lot of work to do, a whole lot to be grateful for, and much to look forward to.    We will return to the usual blog programming soon! 

  #

LINKS:   THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY

 

WORK and (mostly) PLAY (now and then)

 

 

Except for the first two rows, this week's pictures are all from last Summer and Fall.  But like the best second meals from the same day of cooking, it's not just leftovers served because there's nothing else, but rather "planned-overs."  In this case,  good experiences that we really want to remember.

Here are the new servings:

It was a beautiful day for the January Boat Club lunch.  Above, the Captain is bringing our boat in to the dock in front of the restaurant for a passenger pickup.  Bill's piloting and our friend is ready to help.    I'm always happy to cede  first-mate duties to someone more experienced -- and we enjoyed the company during the "voyage."    The spouses formerly known as first-mates were waiting at the dock.  It had been a  long walk to the place where we'd tied up during lunch and we were happy for the water-taxi service.

But below is what that Captain was busy with for most of the week ....

 

... which explains why there were few new experiences to blog about.   "We" are putting in a second bathroom  at one end of the Florida Room that we added a few years ago.  It's in  a very small space planned for this purpose -- but finishing it requires not only  skill but also  acrobatic ability (neither of them mine, although sometimes I stop blogging and go hold something or fetch something as requested.)   The addition of this bath and then renovation of the existing one are the last parts of the remodeling project begun when we bought the "Canal Cottage."   

Now onward -- or backward -- to last season when we were in Oregon.

 

Late November 

The picture above is a view of the Willamette River from one of the walking paths we can access easily from our apartment.   Autumn is  beautiful in Eugene and we are happy with our location where we have the ability to walk these natural surroundings as often as we wish.  

 

Early November
Birds and a Bat!  

 

All of the above critters were seen on the same day as I walked through residential areas on the way to the river.  There were dozens of robins on the grass behind our apartment complex -- perhaps a migration stopover (although Eugene seldom gets too cold for them -- maybe this was their final stop).  There are always ducks -- but the center picture was a big surprise.  It was taken behind our apartment complex, an area where the sun had not yet reached, on the same walk where I photographed some of the many  robins.   I have to admit that I didn't realize I'd taken a picture of a Bat until we downloaded the pictures -- what a surprise that was.

 

 

Burney Falls, California

October

 

Burney Falls was the first California stop on our October Road Trip.  We were in the area to visit  Lassen Volcanic National Park -- which is another "planned-over" for a future post.

 

September

 

This is Parker, our daughter and son-in-law's dog.     He is half McNabb Terrier and half Mastiff.  This big puppy thinks he's hiding behind that tree.     There's a family tabby cat as well and one of my photo goals is to get a good picture of Parker and Chloe playing together.  They really do like each other -- and the great part of it is that the two have almost the exact same coloring.   Some day I'll get that perfect picture.

 

August

Swallows migrated through our area in August -- I caught a few of them in a very rare moment resting moment.   

 

 

 Auto-correct is one of my pet peeves,  so I had to laugh at this sign seen in a coffee shop somewhere on our summer travels.   This is dedicated to every blog friend who has ever wondered what the heck it was I meant to say when I didn't catch an error in a comment before I hit "send".    We won't even talk about text messages.

 

October -- Mt Lassen area 

Beautiful blue skies from our Autumn Road Trip -- and at the lower row corners, what I can fairly confidently say is the only snow we'll see this season.         

Thankful for memories this week and for the new ones we're making -- of both work and play  -- today, last season,  and always!     

 

LINKING this week to the following:  Thank you to all of the generous hosts. 

MOSAIC MONDAY;   ALL SEASONS;  THROUGH MY LENS;   OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS;  SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;  WILD BIRD Wednesday; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY  BLISS;  SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING

 

SPRING -- IN FLORIDA and in OREGON

   

This is  a morning sky shot taken from our back porch.   It's beautiful and very quiet on the Canal now.  Most  snowbirds have left Florida for their summer homes.

 

 

We are snowbirds too, but we usually come a little later and stay a little longer than most of our friends.  In the sunshine areas that snowbirds frequent, the six-month  season is usually defined as October through April, with the busiest months being January, February and March.  We usually don't arrive until December.

So during the month of May we like to pretend we're full-time Floridians.  Just like the people who really are, we talk about how thankful we are to get around Fort Myers now that there are fewer cars and fewer people.    (And it really is wonderful.)  The weather is beautiful here now, but I do start to  miss Oregon Springtime a little bit by the end of April.  

So I was delighted when our daughter texted a bunch of photos of their yard.   All of the flowers in the mosaic below are blooming in their Oregon backyard right now: 

   

 

The up-side of staying in Florida during May is that we miss the worst month of the Oregon hay-fever season.  The down-side is that we miss  typical Spring flowers almost completely (it's too hot here for most of them).   So I loved the reminder of Oregon springs.    (I've showed the beautiful big Black Walnut Tree in the center picture often,  because we hang out under it a lot during the summer and fall.  But isn't it beautiful in the Spring?  (I had almost forgotten myself.)     

 

Now back to Florida for some Spring birds: 

 

Woodpeckers are our morning alarm clock these days.  They are fun to see and (usually) to hear.   And they are part of the reason why we know it's Spring.    The temperatures don't seem much different now, but the birds know what season it is and we start to see Spring migrants here, just the same as everywhere else in the Spring.      

 

Ospreys are everywhere ... we ate at the waterfront restaurant on the top left last week -- a farewell dinner with friends on one of their last days here.  When we came out this guy was sitting on a telephone pole directly above where our car was parked.  Every living creature has to eat!  

 

 

This is a view of Fort Myers from the dock of a different waterfront restaurant.  We've been eating out with friends quite a lot lately as people finish up their season.  Making more Florida memories to take home until next season rolls around.     

  

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities:   :  OUR WORLD on Tuesday; MOSAIC MONDAY; ALL SEASONS; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; FLORAL BLISS; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY; Wednesday AROUND the WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B'BIRDING.

 THANK YOU to all of the wonderful hosts and to everyone who visits!  

 

 

DEAN CREEK DISTRACTION

9

 Every year before we leave Fort Myers for the summer, "we" install hurricane shutters.  Here's Bill finishing up that job last June -- just before we left on our cross-country road trip back home to Oregon.  We never doubted that it was a necessary job even though  Hurricane  Irma is the first one to hit the area since we bought our 'Canal Cottage' ten years ago.   Definitely no doubts now!  

Reports from  management  are that there was no significant damage to any homes within our resort.   There is still no electricity so we are  waiting for more detailed information as soon as they are able to check further.   All of our friends who live there year-round evacuated safely and have not yet been able to return.    

It was surreal watching and waiting from all the way across the country.  Our thoughts are with all of those in Florida and the Caribbean who were harmed by this terrible storm.  

It seemed like we spent every minute for several days watching Fort Myers TV on the station's website (an odd experience watching local Florida news when we're in Oregon --through the wonders of the Internet.)     But to distract ourselves, one day we took a short drive to Dean Creek, near Elkton, to view the Roosevelt Elk herd that lives there.  

   

The Roosevelt Elk is Oregon's largest land animal.    These Elk can be found along the Pacific  Coast  from British Columbia to  northern California.  A herd of about 120 ranges along  Dean Creek.    Fall is the best time of year for viewing them.  

At first we spotted only a couple of large groups of females and young and just this one young bull who was hanging out alone and quite far away from the rest of the herd.

 

 

 

There was some light coastal mist and not much color in the sky -- but the air was fresh and clean along this coastal creek.  It was good to be away from the Willamette Valley where the air still smelled smoky (it is a bit better this week).  And of course it was good to think about something besides our Florida house. 

 

 

 

After a few minutes of watching we spotted this magnificent bull -- obviously the Alpha male of the herd.    He was taking it easy as his harem grazed, until that smaller bull started to move toward the females.   

 

Then he let the youngster know who was boss. 

 The young bull wisely turned around and went the other way -- so (happily) we didn't see a fight.

 

 

 

 

The bull then began herding his cows and calves into a tighter group, but he stopped for this tender moment!  This young one didn't seem to want to get up and move, so he got a few gentle nudges from his pop until he got up and joined the rest of the herd.

 

 

Our visit to Dean Creek was a happy distraction from what turned out to be not such bad news as we had feared. 

 

Linking   to SKYWATCH FRIDAY; SATURDAY CRITTERS; MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; OUR WORLD on Tuesday; ALL SEASONS; and THROUGH MY LENS.

 

Thank you to all of the hosts.