November 29, 2005:
Busy day yesterday so I didn't get a chance to update. I finished up in Eugene and drove back to Wilsonville getting in about 5 PM as it was getting dark. By the time I finished leveling and hooking up it was very dark. I did not move and hook up my big propane tank. I can barely move the thing and I was beat from working since 6:30 am. I had plenty of propane in my onboard propane tank so thought I would just use that for a few days until I was able to get home in daylight and hook it up. Much to my suprise, when I got home from work tonight, it was sitting in it's place and tied to my RV. All I had to do was connect it to the RV. Nice people here.

Sure is cold here. There is a winter storm warning for tomorrow night and Thursday for possible ice or snow. Sure hope that does not happen. Ah to be back at the beach where the temps felt mild at around 50 degrees.

November 27, 2005:
Drove back to Eugene today. No rain. Was actually sunny when I pulled into my campsite. Since it was sunny, I took some pictures of my site. The first one is of my front yard. The second is of my car and RV. This is a nice clean area unlike camping in the woods like I was over the weekend. Each type of campground has its benefits though. I would rather be back at Florence for the peace and quiet and walks on the beach instead of next to a freeway.

November 26, 2005:
The weather today was an improvement over yesterday. No rain and the sun even came out a few times. I walked to the beach again today. This being Saturday there were a lot more ATVs and dune buggies out there. This is a very popular place for them on the dunes in the area and on the beach. There was a steady stream of them going and coming from the beach on a trail that ran alongside the road where I was walking. They were not allowed north of where they came out on the beach so I had a nice quiet and peaceful walk on the northern part of the beach.

I did a few maintenance things around the RV today since it was not raining. I was going to do some housecleaning but decided to wait until I get back to Eugene. I am in a forested area here and track in lots of pine needles and dirt no matter how much I clean my shoes off on the matt before I come in. I take my shoes off before walking around inside but the rug by the door gets dirty and it gets tracked throughout the RV eventually. A few minutes of shaking out the rugs and vacuuming will clean it all up.

November 25, 2005:
It rained all night and is very drippy today. I left this morning to walk to the beach. It is a 3 mile walk on roads and then a high dune to climb over before you get to the beach. It is a wonderful beach for walking though as it is a wide sandy beach that seems to go on forever. After a 2 1/2 hour walk I came back to my campsite and took some pictures of it. I have added them to my website under "New Pictures". The rest of the day was spent cleaning up my website and deleting old stuff.

November 24, 2005:
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am at the beach and amazingly my Verizon wireless card works here. I am in a heavily forested campground and it is raining steadily. I was going to take a walk on the beach but I think I will wait until the rain lets up a little plus it is getting dark fast. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Sunny and 70 would be nice! It is a warm 48 degrees here now though. A nice change from the 30's.

The trip down here was easy. The fog was not a problem. I did go through a couple rather heavy showers but they were not too bad. Trafic was heavy around Eugene but after getting out of town it was very light. I sure could get used to this wandering around and having my home and car with me. Too bad I have to go back to work Monday.

November 23, 2005:
Done working for the week. Tomorrow I head out to the coast. I imagine there will be a lot of trafic also the fog is very thick and is going to be here for a while I guess. Should be an interesting trip. Filled my propane tank today so I can keep warm for the long weekend. Took a 45 minute brisk walk through the campground tonight for some exercise.

November 22, 2005:
I unhooked my water last night and partially filled my water tank so I am good for several days no matter how cold it gets. Propane is holding up good. Still have half a tank so that should get me by for a while. I may fill up before I go to the coast though so I don't have to worry about it there.

Worked a long day today so I may just have dinner and crash for the night.

November 21, 2005:
Bought a Linksys wireless card for in my laptop. Am now able to get on the net from the campground. My Verizon card worked ok at the DR site which is about 6 miles away and on the other side of the freeway. Go figure.

Still cold, 33 degrees at 7 PM. Last night the temps were climbing but tonight it looks as though they are dropping. BRRRRR. Guess I had better let the water drip tonight. The pipe from the ground is not insulated so even though my hose is, things could freeze up. Guess I could fill my water tank and unhook the hose. It's cold and dark out there though.

November 20, 2005:
Arrived in Eugene on Sunday and found I have no internet access. The park offers wifi at $5 a year. Not bad so I got it. Only problem is this internal card I have in my laptop does not pick up too good. Oh well, I have internet access when I get to the DR site which is what I am using now. Not sure how much journal updating I will get done until I get back to the Portland area. Sure has been cold here. I will be glad when summer gets here!

November 17, 2005:
Here I am at my first stop. Sat in the shop all day getting my SMI brake system installed in my Honda. Very boring. Fortunately I had a good book to read. After I left there, it drove next door to the RV park where I will stay until Sunday. I only need to drive under 40 miles Sunday so should be an easy day. I was able to get some walking in today. Saw some interesting ducks I need to look up. I don't believe I have seen that kind before. Maybe tomorrow I can get some pictures of them.

It has been cold here today. When I arrived this morning there was a thick fog and with the low temps it felt very cold. Tonight at 7:20 it is already down to 38 degrees. Too cold!

November 15, 2005:
Yesterday it cleared up again which of course means cold temps at night. Had a little bit of ice on windshield this morning but not more than the defroster and wipers could handle. Today was sunny all day but of course I was stuck in the cubie where I cannot even see outside! It is only 41 now at 7 PM so we will definitly get into the 30's tonight again.

I was able to get into a shop to get my auxilary brake system installed in my RV and towed vehicle this Friday so instead of heading out Sunday, I will be leaving early Friday morning. The shop is on my way to the disaster recovery site I will be working at next week. I am getting my first taste of fulltiming. After the work is done on my RV, instead of heading back to where I started, I am going to just pull into an RV park near there. No need to come back because I have my home with me! Sunday I will leave there and continue on to the work site. On Thanksgiving I will head to the beach for the long weekend. After that I will either head back to my normal place or back to the work site if I am not done there yet. And all this time I will be home! I should have internet access the entire time except for maybe when I am at the beach. With my Verizon wireless card I have broadband at my usual place but will have the slower National access everywhere else. Good enough for email and such though.

November 13, 2005:
It has been raining off and on here for the last few days. Today was not raining though so I went out and checked air in my tires and water in my batteries. Had to fill both. Getting ready to head out next Sunday for my company's disaster recover site for some testing. It will be the first time towing my car any distance. Hopefully all will go well.

Yesterday I took my weekly day off from exercising and cleaned house which took very little time, then I sat around reading all day. Tough job! Today, after checking the tires and batteries, I went to the gym and worked out for about 2 hours. Tomorrow it's back to work time.

November 10, 2005:
Much warmer today! No ice on the windshield this morning. At the time of my walk tonight it was 52 degrees. A steady light rain was falling. Normal Oregon fall day.

I took a little different walk tonight. It is too dark to walk on the unlit path I was walking on so I had to walk along streets with lighting. I need to get a reflective vest one of these days.

November 9, 2005:
Brrrr it's even colder here! 31 degrees with ice again this morning. It has been clear which is why it is so cold. I think we are going to get our usual blanket of clouds back soon which will keep us warmer. Can't wait.

November 8, 2005:
Brrrrr it's cold here! 32 degrees with ice on the windshield this morning. No ice on the roads fortunately. The RV stayed nice and warm. I did leave the temp set at about 65 instead of the usual overnight 60 degrees.

November 7, 2005:
Yesterday I cleaned up my RV in an hour or so and went to Frys shopping. Frys has just about everything you could want in electronics. I ended up getting an upgrade for my Streets and Trips software. This one has voice directions for when I use it with my GPS on a trip. I will get to try it out when I go for a trip to the coast for Thanksgiving.

I also picked up an Oregon Scientific weather station that will tell me the temp and humidity outside and inside. Or at least it will if I can find a place to put the sensor outside. The instructions say to put it where it has a clear view of the sky but out of direct sunlight and moisture. I think they are mutually exclusive at least here where it has been so rainy and windy lately. To keep it out of the rain I would need to put it in a storage compartment or in the middle under my RV lol! They are the only dry places left. Even the bird feeders are wet and they are under a thick tree and have small overhanging roofs on them.

I also found that I left my itsy bitsy screw driver in the box of (I thought) spare screwdrivers in my storage unit. I need it to open up the sensor and put batteries in it. I refuse to go out and buy another one so that will need to wait until after my next trip to storage. I will be glad when everything I own is in the RV or Honda.

Today was a hectic day at work as I was the only one there in the morning and we had nothing but problems. Then I went and was tortured by my trainer at the gym. By the time I got home I was ready to fall into bed for a week lol! So all I have done tonight is take out the trash and sit in front of the computer.

November 6, 2005:
Yesterday we had almost continuous heavy rain. I took that as my day off from walking. Instead I visited my storage site to swap some stuff and did some running around that I had beeen putting off.

Today is a beautiful day with the sun shining and 53 degrees at noon. I took my walk this morning before the weather changed. The rest of the day will be spent cleaning the inside of my RV and maybe go out for a drive.

November 4, 2005:
Stormy day here. Gusting winds and lots of rain. Worked from home today so did not have to travel. Got drenched on my walk today though. Most of the walk was okay but the skies opened up on the last leg. Soaked my shoes fording all the "rivers" that appeared. 44 degrees at 6 PM.

Ordered an SMI auxillary brake for my Honda so I can tow it behind the motorhome. Once I get it I just need to find someone to install it for me. I hate that part, I don't trust anyone to work on my RV. They recommended an RV dealer in Albany. I would rather not go that far but I may if they can get it done in a reasonable time frame.

November 3, 2005:
Rainy and windy today. A little chilly too. 47 degrees at 6 PM. I hurried home from work so I could get most of my walk done before dark. I made it. Just the last part was in the dark but that section has street lights so it's not too bad. Tomorrow I can work from home so no traveling.

November 2, 2005:
Busy day today. After putting in my 8 hours for my employer, I had a 1 hour session with my personal trainer at the gym and he worked me till I was almost ready to drop. Then I had to go grocery shopping. After that I stopped by Costco to check out a weather sensor there. It looked good but I am partial to Oregon Scientific sensors of which I have 3 already in my small RV! If I brought in one made by a different company, they would probably fight! The only thing I can't monitor that I would like to is the outside humidity. So I got out of Costco without spending a penny. The trick is to not take a cart then you can only buy what you can carry.

Finally got home and had dinner. Not going to do much tonight but update this and crash.

November 1, 2005:
It was raining heavily here when I left for work. Not a fun drive on the freeways. No big problems, just a little slower than normal. Lots of big puddles where drains were clogged by leaves made the drive interesting. Rain had stopped by the afternoon though and I actually had to use my sunglasses on the drive home! There was this big bright ball in the sky...

October 31, 2005:
Very windy night last night. Strong gusts got my RV rocking and it takes a lot to get that to happen. I had nothing that would blow away so was not a problem for me. I imagine there were people in the RV Park that had to get up and put their awnings away. Only 1079 days until my tentative retirement date!

October 30, 2005:
Here it is 4 years later and I am getting back to updating my website! A lot has happened in that time. My son is in his last year of college and planning on going on to Graduate School. I have sold my property and am living in my RV which is a 26' 2004 Born Free Class C. I have lived in it for just over one month now and love it. I have a lot more time to do things I enjoy instead of working on the house and property all of the time. I still have chores to do but they do not take near as long with such a small house.

Life is really rough here in the RV Park. No grass to mow, no leaves to rake, no firewood to chop, no pine needles to clean off the roof every few months, no blackberry bushes to fight back into submission, NO POISON OAK! Yeah, life sure is rough. Not sure I will be able to handle it! LOL!

Today I finished washing and waxing my roof. I had started it a couple of weeks ago but my knees decided they had enough for one day and clouds were coming in so I stopped at about 2/3 done. Wasn't sure if I would get another sunny day on the weekend before July but I lucked out today. Of course the forecast was for rain so I had not actually planned on waxing the roof today. Oh well, you have to take the sunny days when you can get them here in the Northwest. I wouldn't trade our trees for a whole year of sunny days though. I will try to update this journal more often from now on since I have the time to sit here on the internet now. I have the Verizon wireless broadband for my internet connection and it is working very well. Here in the Portland area I can get the broadband speeds. I have not taken it to the beach yet to see if I can get a connection from there. If I do it will be at the National access speed which is slower.

November 10, 2001:
We picked up the originals for Chris' senior pictures yesterday. We have 23 pictures and need to pick out the ones we want to keep. Spent today(Saturday) raking leaves and splitting wood again. Actually I blew the leaves! Got a leaf blower last winter and it has been great at getting the needles and leaves off the roof but this is the first time I have used it on the ground. The leaves were nice and dry so the leaf blower worked great. Got everything done in a few hours instead of a couple of days. Not sure how well it will work with wet leaves. Very seldom do I get to complete leaf removal before the rains come. Rain is forecasted for tomorrow so I will most likely stay inside and get some housecleaning done.

November 5, 2001:
Just finished spending a weekend splitting wood. Not my favorite pastime! I am getting too old for such physical labor. Chris took his SAT test for college on Saturday and he worked on Sunday, so he was not able to help much. Now the leaves are falling with a vengence so my next task is to rake leaves. Ah the joys of home ownership. I think I will look for an apartment! Still have lots of wood to split though. Mostly the big ones left...about 2 1/2 to 3 feet in diameter. Finally added the pictures of my August camping trip under New Pictures. Forgot I had them. Enjoy.

October 31, 2001:
Well, here is my monthly report. Chris had his high school pictures taken yesterday. Did he ever look handsome in his suit! Okay, so maybe I am prejudiced but I don't think so. Earlier in the month I had a woodstove installed in my living room to try to cut the electricity consumption and price. I had a large dead Doug fir tree to have cut down and thought I might as well use it. The tree is down and cut into rounds and now I have to split it. I have spent a couple of days at it so far. Sure is hard work. The branches are as big as the pine trees in Wisconsin! A lot of them were over 20 feet long and about 6" in diameter. I have brought about half of them up to the house and Chris helped me by running the chain saw and cutting them up. They will make good logs for the stove. Anyone want to come and help split wood? I have had my thermostat set at 55 since I got the woodstove installed and I fire up the stove in the evening to take the chill off. Keeps the house warm all night. There was another shutdown week where I work, but I was on call so I did not have the time off. I just worked from home though so it was a nice change. I have to take 4 days of vacation before Thanksgiving as my shutdown time though. Hope to be able to take off in my camper but I may need to stay home and split wood.

October 1, 2001:
More puppy pictures have been added. They are a lot bigger and more active now making it dangerous to get down on the floor with them. They kept grabbing the lens cover hanging off the camera. They will be leaving for Santa Rosa soon to be sent off to puppy raiser homes where they will be enjoyed greatly I am sure. Just returned recently from a week long camping trip to southern Oregon. Had a very quiet, peaceful time. Drove to Crater lake one day but forgot to take the camera so no pictures! Guess I will need to go back again. Spent last weekend getting ready for winter and washing the camper. Was able to hang the sheets out one more time but that was most likely the last time for this summer. Mowed the grass one more time too. Temps have been in the 80's lately. Does not feel like fall yet but the leaves are starting to fall. Soon I will be out raking leaves every weekend.

August 25th, 2001:
Well, I have added pictures of a trip to the coast and Lisa's puppy pictures. Lisa is a Canine Companions for Independence breeder dog and her puppies will be trained to help people with disabilities. I went over to Martha's(Lisa's breeder caretaker) to drop off the Cascade Chapter newsletter I create and could not resist taking pictures of the puppies. See my link to CCI for more information. Been busy working, camping and updating this web site. Today I worked on my path some since it was so nice out. Cut down lots of little maple trees. They grow like weeds and take over the place if I let them. Almost as bad as blackberry bushes except they don't have thorns.

August 9th, 2001:
Hey all, this is Chris Siewert, Dorothy's son and this is the first update on this page for all y'all. It's under heavy construction so it won't look perfect for a while, a lot still needs to be done. What's basically going to be on this page are pictures of trips and random stuff my mom finds and she will update them herself once I teach her how to manage the site I'm gonna design for her. I also am going to try and get her to update this thing here, kinda like a journal, to keep you all informed of what's going on out here so she doesn't have to email you all the time or something, kinda like with my site, except less vulgar, less abusive and less depressing :-) Neways, I'll keep you all posted on progress and enjoy the new site.