Clatskanie

After crossing the bridge and entering Oregon we went to Clatskanie, Oregon, the small town where Jan and family live. They have a beautiful, old re-molded farm house. It is thought to be well over a hundred years old. At one time it had been at a different place and was moved onto their propery. I think she said it had been a schoolhouse at one time. But a few years before they bought it the previous owners re-molded and modernized everything.
From the back door you enter a short hallway that leads to the kitchen with off shots to the downstairs bathroom and the pantry. To the left of the kitchen is a large diningroom that is mostly used for an office and junk room with a washroom off to the side of it.
From the kitchen you can enter either the livingroom or TV/den room. The front door is in the livingroom but isn't used hardly at all. The livingroom also has the staircase to the upstairs. Upstairs there is two bedroom, a very large master suite for Jan and Jim and a smaller room used by Cyndi. Off one side of the master suite is a large bathroom. Off the other side is a sunroom/sewing/craft room.
Now that isn't all. Going back to the pantry. There is a trap door raised by a pulley that shows you stairs leading down into a huge basement. At one time my nephews had a bedroom down there but as both have left home it is just another storage area full of mostly my moms stuff that we couldn't bare to part with.
Around three sides of the house is a porch with a railing. The roof extends out over the porch and makes for a wonderful area to get outside when it is raining as it does so much here. Jan had big pots of petunias in full bloom, hanging from the roof over the railing adding brilliant torches of color. In flower beds around the porch were several roses, also in full bloom. One rose was the last surviving 'child' from a rose that our granddad had brought from Texas when he moved his family to New Mexico in 1936. Jan had worked hard at taking a cutting off of the one Mom had at her home in Silver City, NM, took it to Oregon and convinced it to sprout, grow and bloom. I hope it lives until I can get a cutting off of it. The house in Silver City has been sold.
Jan and Jim's property is fairly large - about six acres. And they haven't done much with it. That is the way they want it. It looks like you have walked out into a forest miles and miles away from civilization. It is almost impossible to see any of the neighbors houses for the trees and brush. There is about an acre fenced for Paddy to play in. There is a large shop/garage for Jim and his tools and an older camp trailer, and in another area is what used to be a small barn and is now a storage shed for a couple of older Broncos.
A small spring pops out of the ground in the trees up on the hill to the east of the house. It creates a small creek that almost divides the property. It isn't a very wide or deep creek but in the past has created a fairly deep bank down to up and then back up the other side that makes it difficult to get to the far side of the property. If it was mine the first thing I would do is put a bridge across it.
All over the property are trees. Trees and trees and more trees. An apple tree that looks to be older than the house sits near the drive. There is a huge cherry tree out in a small meadow. There are maples, and pine and a huge Douglas fir, and an old Hemlock and tons of other trees. They have a small garden with lots of iris, some lilacs and several Rhododendrons that are very popular in the Northwest.
To the south side of there property is a huge rambling thicket of blackberries. They had been blooming and were just starting to put on fruit while I was there. Boy, did they taste good. Each year Jim makes blackberry jelly to give to all their friends and relatives.
I'm not the only one that thinks the blackberries taste good. So do lots of birds and deer.
There are a couple of does that live on Jan's property nearly all the time. They are gentle enough you can see them a lot in the mornings or evenings. There are several small meadow-like areas where they come to graze on the grass. They had fawns and I was able to see them while I was there and get a few photos.
GRASS and TREES
Oh if I could only have a little grass and a few bigger trees in my yard.