We got back home at the end of March from our 3 month honeymoon with the intention of making a decision of selling or renting the condo. Within days of listing the condo for rent we had a good candidate. Then we talked with a real estate agent who made a good argument about trying to take advantage of the federal tax deductions being offered to first time buyers. We got an offer 10 days after listing it.
The condo sold and is almost completely packed up and sitting in the garage until we get the final word that the financing is done. Once we know when the closing date is, we will head back to Beaverton and move everything into a storage unit. We will then be out from under the financial burden of having a condo sitting vacant.
Before we got to Honeyman, we participated in a new hosts training class where we learned Verbal Judo! What a hoot! Met some new friends and finally learned how to get Deane to do what I want! (LOL). We also learned about the different animals in and around the state parks and how we are suppose to deal with them..... actually not deal with them, report that we have seen them.
Here at Honeyman we were assigned maintenance duties. We discovered it is everything from cleaning out firepits, picking up litter, selling firewood, to helping the rangers get the camp sites ready for Memorial Day. Getting sites ready means we are using power blowers to clean off the pine needles and moss that has accumulated over the winter months. I am driving the big push blower and Deane is using a back pack blower that cleans up what my blower will not. Due to Deane's background as an electrician, we have also been tasked with checking the "health" all of the electrical panels at the sites that have electricity.
Right now the park is not full, but we are seeing more and more people coming in each day. We have been told we are going to be full over Memorial Day, and that is when our job of selling firewood on the weekends will begin.
Honeyman is a nice State park, with many squirrels, chipmunks and big black birds running around everywhere. It has been fun to watch the interaction of these animals. We have hung a humingbird feeder and we finally got our first humingbird today. In our orientation, we also learned this area has black bears and cougars. What fun!
The weather has been wonderful everyday so far. When it has rained, it has done it at night and the day may start out overcast, but as the day unfolds so does the sun and the warmth. There is lots to do, great hiking paths, and the normal tourist things around the Florence area. The park itself is on Lake Cleawok, a small lake that the park stocks with trout.
So far we have been visited by friends from home, Nancy and Dick. They rented a yurt for the night on their way to the Redwoods, and we had a great time teaching them how to play Farkel. D'enne, Michael and Matthew are coming in this Thursday for a long weekend, and Chris and Cindy are scheduled to visit over Memorial Day. It is really nice to be 'away', and still close enough for friends and family to come visit.
One of the fun thing we have done is visit the local casino. We were up there last Saturday night to see a group called the sounds of the Shirelles. An okay concert, but the fun was after when we turned $20 into $150 on a penny slot machine.
We are having fun, enjoying being out in the open and near the ocean. We are hear until the end of June when we will head north to a state park in Washington for two months.