Enough already with all the rain! The worms are crawling the walls!

What is that on the wall?

Why it's a worm crawling across the garage - about 5' up.
Is that enough to keep him from drowning?

He's wondering if it is safe to go back to ground yet.
No, little worm, no.

He isn't going down - He is staying the course.
(Of course, a bird may just come and pick him off the wall.
That's the chance he takes.)

Oh, yeah, if you haven't figured it out yet,

We've got La Nina rain.  So far this month 10.26".

The Seattle average for the whole month of February is just over 9".

No wonder there are landslides and new ponds everywhere!

Love Birds

We got to see something new.  Crows preening each other.   This is called Allopreening. 

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The way crows strut I always consider them bullies not lovers.  But we've found out that crows may mate for life and this is a courtship display strengthening the birds' bond. 
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Happy Valentines Day

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See http://birdnote.org/show/crows-preening

THE TREE WENT "WHOMP"

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Well, in case we ever wanted to know if a tree made any noise if it fell and no one was awake....we know now, and yes it does!  
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5AM on Saturday we heard a big "whomp" that woke us both up and we asked each other "What was that?!!!"  Dean got up and said it sounds like someone on the roof.  He looked outside and in the 13' between the house and the garage was a tree....we don't usually have a tree there but we did now. 

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OMG!  We ran around like headless chickens trying to figure out where the tree came from and "if" there was any damage.  The tree came from our neighbor to the west and what we were looking at was the top 20 feet of the tree.  
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And, yes, there was lots of damage to the garage where the bottom 40 feet of the tree fell: 12 holes in the roof, broken trusses, and a branch sticking through the ceiling!!  
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And to make it a little more challenging, it was raining...hard.  Dean placed buckets on the floor of the garage, 

and then called the insurance company, and explained to them that the roof needed covered now not when the adjuster could come out next week.  
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We got the names of 7 companies that clean up downed tree debris online.  
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Ah, remember it is Saturday?  #1 didn't answer, #2 couldn't handle anything that big, #3 #4 #5 and #6 we left messages, #7 in Tacoma answered and could get a crew together and be out in a couple hours (4 hours really).  
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This was not our first choice or our last choice - it was our only choice. 

The crew: The sawyer being held by his coat by helper 1
who is being held by his coat by helper 2

By dark on Saturday the tree was off the roof and tarps covered all the holes.  

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There were a couple of local fellows who took all the wood.  On Sunday, the Tacoma crew was back and shredded all the branches. 

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Monday morning we woke up to 5" of snow.  Wednesday evening warm weather came in and and it started to rain and blow.  3 1/2" of rain and gusts to 50.  The tarps blew off. 

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So another crew came to replace the tarps and the gutter man came to put the gutter up at least temporarily. 

The tree fell because of root rot and all of this is an "Act of God".  Our insurance will be responsible to pay.  Not our neighbors.

As you can see we are still "whacking moles".  This repair should fill up our extra time this spring.

As we ended 2016, it is same-o same-o for 2017

People tease us all the time when they learn we try travel about 50 miles a day.  Well, due to some more mole holes and sad extenuating happenings, we took longer this time.  1500 miles and finally today, the 54th day, the RV is washed and back in the garage.  Does this make it an average of 28 miles a day?

Gotta watch out for wrong way drivers

 True RVers are usually heading south in December but due to my mom's poor health we did the opposite.  Ah, now we remembered why we didn't travel I-5 in December.  Not bad until we got to Oregon where the weather continued to degrade.

From flooding:

The Rogue River was spilling over it's banks

To ice storms:  required a day to sit as I-5 was closed because of the ice

Eugene, OR

To snow.

Salem, OR

Finally in Washington we were greeted with just snow flurries and by the time we got to Puyallup the weather was decent for the NW in the winter.  

Washington

Our favorite Puyallup campground has been the local Elks.  Unfortunately they had frozen and broken their waterlines and as we planned to stay for a while, we needed better than that.  So from an online hint we headed to the Fairgrounds.  Wow, 50 amp full hookup.  
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Can't hardly be better than that....oh, perhaps a bit of gravel in the sites?... or maybe we should have talked with the host before we backed into a site and got stuck!  We weren't making progress until Dean got out there with leveling boards and used his light touch to get us out of the hole and down to the site that could hold the weight of our RV. 

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This campsite worked out very well.   The Christmas lights at the fairgrounds were a nightly welcome sight.  

Visitors could find us - we'd say we are just west of the roller coaster

Never mind that January was a record breaking month for cold weather.  We had numerous nights in the teens but the great power helped immensely.  We had 3 electric heaters on high for several weeks and still managed to freeze our inside water pump.  We had visits from two cousins (one from DC) and spouses and my sis stayed one night.

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We were only 2 miles from the nursing home my mom was in.  Easy to get there at any time and help her with the rehab program. Unfortunately, mom's body wasn't cooperating and her dementia kept her from focusing on the rehab.  We had some nice visits with her
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Granddaughter Heidi and her two boys came one day with window stickers and handmade Christmas cards.  Chelsey, mom's caregiver, and Irene, my sis, were there for the vigil and to recall good memories.  In the end, hospice came to help everybody.

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After mom passed on, the focus was on moving her belongings from her apartment.  We gave, donated, sold, and brought home a lot of stuff.  Mom was a bit of a hoarder.  I come by that naturally.  It took over 3 weeks to get the apartment cleared.  (Wonder how long it will take me to get the boxes here at home put away.) 

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We took the RV home when we were finally able to see the end of the apartment cleaning.  Just in time for Dean to catch the "creeping crud" (flu?).  He took a few days off and then back to work and finished up the apartment clearing yesterday.

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And, now we are truly home, the RV is washed (in 34 degree weather) and put away.  Snow is forecast for the end of this week.  Needed to get moved back into the house. And get the new boxes handled. 

the daughter is a hoarder too

.So 54 days and 1500 miles with the moles still popping up.