Moving on in Oregon

Our time here at Forrest’s has come to an end. Although we don’t see our kids and grandchildren often enough, when we do see them at least it is for several weeks instead of just a day or two. If only one of our kids would move west..... (hint hint) we could see them more often. It is so hard having them on opposite sides of the country!

We had one big adventure this week. Or I should say Forrest and I did. We kayaked the Wood River outside of town from Kimball State Park to the Wood River Day Use Area. What was meant to be a fishing trip turned into more of an adventure kayak outing. 

Forrest and I left his truck downriver at Day Use Area and then Barb dropped us off at Kimball where we were to float fish our way down to the truck. With crystal clear water and a mountainous background the Wood starts off slowly as you lazily meander through the flat valley floor. 

Having never kayaked it before we did not know what to expect. It is the windiest (wind like curves, not wind like... you know the wind) river I have ever been on with switchbacks over 100 yards or so. 

We just let the slow current take us as we casted into the deeper eddies on the switchbacks. We were commenting on what an easy family float this was and he should bring Lily and Somer on it when we came around a switchback where another river dumped into it and things got a lot quicker. From that point on I don't think we fished or took a picture as we were too busy trying to avoid logs, rocks, sandbars and banks as the current swept us quickly downriver. I almost dumped it twice, once when I hit a submerged log in the middle of the river and again at a small sandbar. We had a blast, paddling through obstacles and around the switchbacks trying to avoid being slammed into the banks. A few times we played "bumper kayaks" trying to spin each other out like NASCAR drivers sometimes do on the track. 

Although we did not catch a fish, it was probably the best time I have ever had in the kayak. If you float it, don't take your inflatable and if you do, you certainly don't want your skeg on. 

Meanwhile Barb and Lily geocached again. Lily loves the adventure of geocaches. It is so great that they are able to do that together.    

Since Somer has to work Sunday night she treated everyone to an early Father's Day dinner from their favorite sushi restaurant. They are not open to dine in so she got it and brought it home, It was awesome! She got a variety of rolls that were all good but ranged from mild to mouth burning. Thanks Somer!

I had mentioned a project that we are working on here in our previous posts. We really enjoy having something to keep us busy here and Somer had just the project in mind for us! When this house was built it was a traditional A Frame with steel beams acting as the main support of the roofing and floor system. The previous owner had put wood beams across the ceiling of the living room to create another room up above. Somer and Forrest wanted to bring it back to the traditional A Frame with tall ceilings in the living room. During our visit in ’18 we gutted the upstairs loft area above the living room. In ’19 we took out the floor and opened up the living room. Now in ’20 we are finishing it up by opening the stairs, removing ½ of the beams as well as painting and staining! 

Original downstairs with full ceiling

Original upstairs with floor, walls and windows boarded up

In '18 and '19 it was all about demolition with not much finish work. This project had a lot of finish work. Now I know why my friend Kevin says he does not do remodels. First of all you are at the mercy of the person who built the house in the first place… hoping everything is square. Then you are at the mercy of your own skills. Do you know how hard it is to cut a straight line with a circular saw going up a wall? Or how about doing diagonal cuts down the stairs on both sides of the wall making sure that each side it exactly the same angle and height has the cut on the other side of the wall. Then there is the rerouting of the electrical wires that we did not know were in the wall. Thanks goodness we know a good electrician.

This is what the stair wall looked like before we started. That is a metal support beam above the octagon window going across the wall in the picture on the left. 

In the end it probably took twice as long as I thought. There were some days I would only get one or two boards up as I had to custom cut everything. I know Somer would look at it and think “That’s all you got done today?” I felt the same way some days. Somer and Barb stained, whitewashed the walls and cleaned the windows.... 

 In the end we are very happy with the way it turned out.

All done!

We ran a beam across the front wall of the living room as well

View from the loft

The only thing left is some more paint and cable railing. They want to do the stair treads someday as well. That might be next year’s project.  

We take a break now for a mini rant. It has to do with the bottle deposit program here in Oregon. I know it is in other states as well but no state we have ever lived in. It is bad enough that they charge you a $0.10 deposit on every bottle or can of soda, every water bottle, liquor bottle and it seems like everything else. So a case of water ends up costing you $2.40 more than it would normally. No big deal, all you have to do is save each of these bottles and cans and take them to the recycling center in town. That is until you get to the recycling center. Where the line is like 5 miles long (well maybe not 5 miles but it is longer than you want to wait) every time we drive by. Most of the people in line have not showered in at least a week if not longer. As a result we did not return any of our bottles or cans for our deposits back. I am not sure if this is the case in other states but I doubt Oregon could care less as it has to be a great money maker for them! If someone were smart they would just set up somewhere we could take them and donate them to a charity or something. There very well could be, we did not spend a lot of time looking. Okay, rant over.

So, with our time here complete and the border not open, we have to decide which way to go. Will we go east? West? North or south? Or will we just go crazy? (Or in Barb's case "crazier"). Tune next week post to see which way we go!