New Job!

This is about my new job, but it is more a history of why I had to get a new job and an attempt to organize my memory of this fiasco.

My history here at 2101M Electrical Utilities

It should be noted that I had been laid off by CHPRC which was my dream job working for Charlie Kronvall at 2425. Charlie did not know they had plans to lay me off. I had not been hired with Obama bucks so he had not even attended any of the layoff meetings. But Charlie’s boss thought I was and put me on the list. Once you get on the list...it is almost impossible to get you off because then they have to choose someone else. So I was laid off.

I immediately went to work for Bechtel at the VIT plant and was a Senior Secretary for the URS group who planned and scheduled the maintenance work at the VIT plant. After a year Bechtel decided they had too many admins in the field and the last ones hired were laid off....so I was laid off again. 

Jobs were hard to find and I was on unemployment for 6 months. I attended Columbia Basin College for a semester and took Accounting, Federal Tax and Business. It was fun to learn, but the homework was hell! I kept looking for work. I was pretty desperate after a while...then this job at MSA appeared - Clerk for Electrical Utilities (EU).

I interviewed with Jon Finley (JF) and Pat Taylor (PT). PT did most of the interviewing - JF asked a couple of questions and was a bit "sheepish"....PT took charge. JF was to be my boss. They told me the tasks I would be doing and I assured them I could do them. Included in those tasks was scheduling the training for EU, updating the training calendar, reporting the weeks training at our Back to Work meeting and handing out training confirmations for each employee.

During the interview, they also told me that there was a possibility of becoming an Operations Specialist and learning how to become the Training Coordinator for EU. Later I learned that PT was retiring and when she did Linda (the training coordinator) would take over PT's job (Corrective Actions, Assessments, etc.) and I would take over Linda's job and that was how it was supposed to progress.

PT used to be the training coordinator and is quite the outspoken, possessive perfectionist. No one could do the training like she did and she found fault with the way Linda was doing the training. So she did an internal assessment of the training program as it was and found that Linda had failed to do a few things that needed to be done as PT suspected. PT decided that Linda was not capable of being the training coordinator and threw her under the bus and started mentoring me to take over her job. I did not know about this assessment and thought this was the natural process that we had talked about. I got the funny feeling something was going on...and I tried to find out from Linda if all was well and she never said anything about the training assessment that was done. Linda was giving stuff to me to do and Pat was giving me stuff to do regarding training and I was keeping up on all that was asked. PT was very impressed so she kept giving me more. Neither Jon Finley nor his boss Randy Adkins knew the extent of training duties I was doing. There are 3 "parts" to training. 1) Someone in EU has to figure out who needs what. i.e.; by group - what do the Electricians need to keep up their qualifications as Electricians for EU. 2) Someone schedules that training for the employees and 3) someone communicates that training to the employees (using the training confirmations and the training calendar). When I began the work, I was doing Part 2 and 3 and PT was teaching me how to do Part 1.

In the meantime - for the first year I sat right next to Becky Colborn who spent the day on her phone; selling dogs on E-Bay, talking to her friends and family and wasting entire days doing nothing. I was very busy learning how to do the training and felt I was catching on and Pat told me time and again I was doing a great job. So I kept working and Becky kept visiting and wasting time.  It was ironic that Jon said in my 6 month evaluation that I spent too much time on my phone – because it wasn’t true but Becky was on her phone almost constantly. 

Something significant happened when I first started. Becky and I seemed to have a lot in common and I really felt she and I could become close friends - she was a Christian from Idaho Falls. Her father in law ran "Me and Stan’s" in Rigby, Idaho where Kery and I had drank 1000 cups of coffee. Everything sounded so right.

At the same time I had a friend at the time (Lorie) whose daughter had gone to a Christian retreat and had confessed some things while in a prayer time. A week or so later other teens she hung out with at the church started telling her they were so sorry to hear . . .  what she had confessed in confidence and of course she was mortified. She refused to go to church; she told her mom what was going on and was almost suicidal. It was a terrible situation. My friend told a good friend of hers in confidence what her daughter had told her and asked for prayer and advice. Well - this friend went to the Pastor and told him what happened because she felt the person that my friend’s daughter prayed with in confidence had betrayed her by telling others what she had said and should be reprimanded.  The Pastor went to my friend Lorie to see if that is what she wanted done. Lorie was now mortified because now her friend had betrayed her. It was a horrible situation. It broke my heart. Without mentioning any names I posted on Facebook how important it is to keep a confidence a confidence and how terrible it must be to tell someone you trust something in confidence and they break that confidence. It happened twice in this situation.

At the exact same time Jon, my boss was doing some micro-managing and I told Becky my complaints in trust and she betrayed me and told Jon what I said. Jon called me in his office and asked why I thought he was micro-managing and I had to explain the situation.

Some of the ladies here were "friends" on my Facebook because Becky was a "friend" on Facebook. When they saw the statement I made very anonymously about my friend Lorie - they wrongly assumed and accused me of saying that about Becky. I didn't know they saw and thought this.....but from then on I was shunned and ignored by the ladies in this office. I would actually say hello or good morning and they walked by like I didn't exist. I could not figure out what the heck I had done for them to treat me that way.....Later Jon actually asked me why I had posted that on Facebook about Becky...I was dumbfounded...I asked him what he was talking about he showed me and then the light went off. I told him what had really happened. He saw what had happened. I talked to Becky and told her what had happened and told her it was horrible that she thought I had said that about her and gave her a hug and told her that was not meant for her and explained the situation. By then it was too late...no one talked to them and explained the situation and they wouldn't believe me....so it went on just like that to this day. They believe I had bad mouthed their friend Becky and that was the end of that.

My heart needs acceptance. I want to love all and be kind to all. When people are not kind to me it hurts and it causes stress. I hated being there and was upset that all that had happened. Becky didn't do anything to help me because I don't know...maybe she didn't believe me. I don't know, all I know was that I was miserable being shunned by many of the people in this organization - mostly women.

So Pat Taylor moved to another building and I moved into her office. I did my work in my office and went home. Being in my own office made things a little better, but I felt alienated and alone. About this time Linda quit and Pat decided not to retire just yet. She was in a different building and it became too difficult for her to mentor me any longer....and she wasn't "right there" so I could ask questions. About that time I talked to Jon so I could get his blessing and support to work toward becoming the Training Coordinator. He told me it was fine but if it was him, he wouldn't do it. I asked him why he said that and he shared how things had changed for the worse once he became the Operations Manager after being a scheduler. They asked a lot of him and he warned me that being an exempt person might be quite demanding and did I really want to do that? I told him I really didn't...but I was already doing most of the training coordinator job. He advised me to talk to Randy and get more information about what he would have me do as Training Coordinator.

About that time we left for Mexico. I talked to Kery about it all and he said he would support whatever I decided to do. We were gone about 2 weeks and when we got back I went in to talk to Randy to find out what exactly I would be doing if I decided to go after this job...and that is when he told me "things have changed". Really? I said. Oh Yeah, we gave all the training to another department.

I was floored; I didn't quite know what to say. So I decided to just go with the flow, forget about it, just do my job without the training stuff and retire in a few years. A few weeks later, Pat Taylor came in and asked my forgiveness. said she had thrown me under the bus and advised Randy to give the training scheduling to Pat Thompson who worked in a different department as the Training Coordinator.

So there I was in my own office, with about 3 hours of work per day. Taking the training away really took a lot away. So now I found myself bored and alone. That is not who I am. I like to be busy and work and I am a people person. I like to help people and do things for them. I like to serve and I realized that most of my working career I have been happy and that was because most of my career I have been a Secretary who helped others.

So I started looking - I applied for a few jobs - then saw one for a Secretary for CHPRC. I called my friend George who was Charlie's deputy and told him about the job and asked if he knew the manager. He did and sent an awesome note to her about me. When she interviewed me - she liked me immediately and she told me - she chose me out of about 100 resumes before George had said anything. When she got the message from George she was sure she wanted to interview me and when she met me, she was sure I was the right one for the job - just as George had said.

So they made me an offer - a little bit more money and working out here at 200E about 5 minutes’ walk from Electrical Utilities offices.

I owe George big time. He did me good and I appreciate him.

I'm excited to be a Secretary again. I feel like I have learned some life lessons and will try my best to be a blessing to my new group. There are only 10 of us :) I think this is going to be an awesome move and life will be better.

Lord, I do pray for this next job. Lord, help me to keep my mouth shut, to just love and accept everyone as they are. Allow me to be your light and a blessing to each and every person there. Thank you, Amen

Changing of the House

Wow - It is amazing everything my husband has accomplished in the last few months.  Actually in the last year that we have been in our house.  The first thing he did was to remove the swimming pool and put in raised garden boxes.  He removed a portion of fence and opened up the back yard from our "courtyard" area between the house and garage. 

For Mother's Day I got new clothesline poles!  I painted them turquoise.  It's awesome to have clotheslines.  I love the smell and feel of freshly dried sheets and towels.  They feel so clean and crunchy and smell so fresh.

Prior to that and since then I have watched the back yard turn into a covered patio area and the back window of our house turn into a door.  Now our kitchen cabinets are torn out and we are getting new white cabinets delivered in 4 days.

Here are some pictures of the process:

Pool gone, raised garden boxes installed

 

 

Patio poured in the back yard

 

and

 

Patio Cover built

 

 

Cabinet in......

 

 

Cabinet Out - Door in

 

Next ...main cabinets out....

 



The color I wanted to paint was a dark teal...but one of my friends told me it was too rich, so we agreed to paint it a light teal called "Cool Jazz" ....it really clashed with our new cabinet tops.  So we looked at different colors and Kery picked one out....it ended up being the same dark teal I had chosen in the beginning!  So this is a picture of the color, the cabinet tops and the tile we put in.  I will get more pictures of the complete kitchen and get them loaded.  It looks really nice all finished and everything back in its place. 

I love the new cabinets - they have that automatic close function that pulls the drawer or door in and then the last little suck up to the edge.  It's nice.

Eyes to See - Another Miracle

I had good eyes for most of my life.  I started noticing I probably needed glasses when I was about 35 and married to Kery.  First they were normal glasses, then bi-focals, then tri-focals, but I didn't notice any big change until we moved to the Tri-Cities.  I had not gotten new glasses for a while because I was not employed and Kery was self employed so we did not have medical or vision insurance.  So when we got to Tri-Cities and Kery had insurance, I went to have a regular eye exam and get new glasses.  When the optomologist had me look at the chart, I could not see the black letters on the white chart with my right eye.  My right eye was clouded over and the chart was white.  I left without a prescription because he said he could not write one for the bad eye. When I asked this vision doctor what he thought it might be he said he did not know.

I decided to go to an eye specialist - he too noticed my right eye was bad, but I was able to squint out some letters on the chart and he was able to get a reading and give me a prescription for glasses.  Two years later the same thing was done.  In January 2014 my two years was up again and it was time to go get another eye exam.  In May of 2014 I decided to go to Dr. Jim Kintner of Kennewick Vision.  Jim is the guitar player for our praise and worship at our church.  Kery and I went together because we both had appointments.  Jim had a good look at my eye and then sat back to tell me I had a cataract!  He explained that with age our lenses get clouded over eventually and it happens for many reasons but the biggest reason is age.  He said my right eye had the beginnings of a cataract.  Our normal/good vision is 20/20, but mine was 30/51 (51 in the right eye).  He said the Pacific Cataract Center could give me an evaluation and determine if I was a candidate for cataract surgery.  Cataract surgery dissolves the old lens and then a new lens is inserted.  Jim said it was like having a really dirty windshield and getting it replaced.  He told me my eye could be fixed with this and I could have 20/20 vision.  I was shocked, first of all that I had a cataract and second that they could fix it.

When I went to the cataract center, they looked deeper into my eyes and agreed with Jim - I had a cataract in my right eye and my left eye was at the beginning of clouding over too.  So they recommended cataract surgery for both eyes. 

There is good and bad to this story....The bad part is the surgery....no one likes the thought of their eyeball cut into.  But the good outweighs the bad greatly!  First, insurance does not pay for lasik surgery, but it pays for cataract surgery 100%.  Secondly, I will have HD (high definition) sight out of both eyes for the rest of my life.  To be able to see again is a miracle!  However we have to get to it...if it is possible, it is a miracle and I am thanking God for miracles!  By the end of July I will have two new eyes!  Now wouldn't you call that a miracle??  It's amazing.

Update:  I got my right eye done and though it is not 20, it is about 25 and that is good.  This next week, July 17th, I'm getting my left eye done.

The process is amazing in itself.  When Kery and I got there we checked in and had a seat in the waiting room. Immediately, they came out to get me and had me wait in the operating waiting room.  The nurse began to put drops in my eye to dilate it.  She also told me that Dr. Leng would like to say a prayer over me before he started if I didn't mind.  Of course I told her I didn't mind at all.  Every few minutes she came back to put more drops in and pretty soon Dr. Leng came out and looked into my eye.  He looked to be about 20 years old and my heart fluttered at the thought of this young man cutting my eye open.  The nurse gave me the sedative which is supposed to make you "not care"...I kept thinking...I still care!  I still care!  She put more drops in and then I was taken into the anesthesiologist who had a sense of humor I didn't quite get.  He stuck a needle right below my eye and sent me to another chair to wait.  Pretty quick another nurse said it was time to go into the operating room.  I sat in the chair and they laid it back.  I was shaking a little, the nurse asked if I wanted a warm blanket and I said YES!  This made me feel better.  I didn't know but Kery was sitting less than 5 feet away behind a window.  He watched the operation thru the enlarged picture of the microscope.  He said Dr. Leng came in, sat in the round/rolling chair and said a prayer for me...that God's would guide his hands, etc.  He kicked off his shoes, turned the microscope to his eyes to see mine and within 30 seconds had made the first cut in my eye.  They actually made two cuts, a big one about 1/4 in. at the top of my eye and a smaller 1/16th on the side.  The ultrasound was inserted in the top ...this was also a suction.  A tool like a tiny hook was inserted in the side and pulled at the lense that was breaking up from the ultrasound.  He added some gel that turned the lense black and you could easily see it being sucked up into the ultrasound tool.  His hook cleaned the edges and then when all the lense was out, he inserted a lense with a syringe.  It slowly uncurled in my eye and before it was totally uncurled, he was done.  It took about how long it takes to read this description to actaully do the procedure.  He gave Kery a thumbs up and left the room.

The first day I felt like something had been done to my eye...I could feel the incision every time I blinked.  The second day was similar but not as bad.  The third day I had a headache behind my eye, I took some excedrin and it went away.  By the fourth day - I was back to normal....and I could see out of that eye.  It is so good to be able to see.  To not have trouble seeing is wonderful.  Now I can't wait until he does the other eye...now I know what to expect.

The Seeks - K&P

April 11, 1987

I love what God has done for me and Kery.  It has helped that Kery and I have submitted to His authority in our lives.  We started off on a pretty rocky road. 

My first impression of Kery was that he was kind hearted and he was an outdoorsy, fisherman, hunter, cowboy kind of guy and he was cute, he was also very arrogant.  Not much has changed with him, but I know him better and understand why he is the way he is.

We started off getting married in Swan Valley, Idaho on April 11, 1987.  It was supposed to be held outside, but it was April 11th and the weather in Idaho was not all that warm that time of year for an outside wedding.  So it was held inside in front of the fireplace.  My best friends Amy and Dee were there to stand with me and Kery had his friend Reed.  Kery was dressed up like a cowboy and I had on a white cotton dress with puffy sleeves and a silver buckle belt and cowboy boots.  Things started off pretty good.  We went from day to day trying to learn how to live together.  We had lots of fun together.  We floated the southfork of the Snake River and caught lots of fish; cutthroat and brown trout.  We camped out on the river and spent time hunting.  We went out dancing and spent time at the Sandpiper listening to music.  We were also drinking lots of gin and tonics - big ones.   Alcohol was our constant and most evenings we were tipsy.  If we got in an argument - the alcohol dimmed our good judgement and we said some pretty nasty things to each other.  Every time we would make up I would tell Kery "We need Jesus in our marriage or we aren't going to make it".  He, being raised LDS, did not really understand what I meant or how that would help. He would always say "yeah, right" 

One day my friend at work asked if we wanted to go to the baseball game with them.  I said it sounded like fun and when I got home I asked Kery if he wanted to go.  He said he didn't want to go and for some reason this was the last straw for me.  I instantly got angry with him and told him I hated him, and told him to get out - and not be there when I got home.  (This was Kery's house I was living in.)  Well, when I got home, he was gone and I cried.  I didn't really want him to be gone but I was so sick of our fighting I couldn't stand it anymore and I didn't know what to do.

He was gone for a month before I called him to find out where he was and how he was doing.  He told me he was living at Marshall and Joanne's and he was doing fine.  I missed him but couldn't tell him.  I loved him but couldn't tell him.

I had been keeping in touch with his mom, Carma.  She was always kind and loving to me, no matter what.  When I started getting sick I didn't know what was wrong.  I thought I had the flu, but it was much worse.  Oz was only about 9 years old and he took care of me - I couldn't eat and I could barely get a drop of water inside me before gagging and throwing up.  I had spent the first few days on the couch - then retreated to the bedroom.  I got sicker and sicker and Carma finally called Kery and told him to get over to the house and take care of me.  By the time Kery got there I was out of it - and was almost dead.  When we got to the hospital - they put me in one of the beds in the emergency room and before I knew it they had to do emergency abdominal surgery.  What I didn't know was that my free floating bowels had adhered (or stuck and grew) to my healing hysterectomy scar and my system had shut down.  My bowels had flipped over and over and over until they pinched off.  The doctor said I was totally dehydrated and would have died within hours if Kery had not come to get me. 

Kery was forced to come home and take care of me.  When I was feeling well enough to get up I remember sitting on the couch with Kery and saying to him.."what is the one thing I can do to make you happy?"  He told me he wanted peace, he didn't want to fight anymore.  He asked me the same thing and told him I wanted to feel loved.  We agreed to try our best to do this one thing for each other.  I also told him I still didn't think we would make it if we didn't have Jesus in our marriage and he finally agreed.  I lead him in the sinners prayer (admitting you are a sinner and asking God to forgive you and inviting Him into your life), and we started going to church.  It was then that Lynn Waters and Erik Strom met Kery and they hit it off as good friends.  They taught him how to be a Christian man.  They went to the very first Promise Keepers in Boise, Idaho and Kery came back a broken man - ready for God to heal him.   They went hunting together and mostly talked about God.  Slowly but surely God turned him around.  God took away Kery's alcoholism and Kery vowed to God that he would never be drunk again - Kery actually gave up drinking at all at the time - and went 15 years without a drop of alcohol - until we moved to Washington.  Now he indulges in some home brews from some of the great breweries around here.

Our first five years were difficult and I won't say we have a perfect marriage now either, but it has done nothing but get better every single day.  Kery and I don't often fight.  I love him dearly and he knows and feels that and he does his best to love me - and I know he does love me.  I'm happy to spend time with him.  I think the key to a good marriage is

1. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you - I treat Kery the way I want to be treated with kindness, love and respect.  I also try to turn the tables when I am thinking of doing something....if I would be upset with Kery if he decided to do that, then I know he would be upset with me if I did.  ie;  My best friend Amy has a daughter who lives in Hawaii.  I would be upset if Kery decided to go with his friend to Hawaii and not take me.  So since I would not want him to do that without me, I won't do that without him.  
2. Love is a verb, it is not a feeling - Love is a decision and something we each choose to do. 
3. To love someone is to put them first and live to make them happy.  I try to do that for Kery and Kery tries to do that for me. 
4. Never say anything behind his/her back that you wouldn't say in front of him/her. 

April 20, 2014

We just had our 27th wedding anniversary and we are both happy to say we are looking forward to our next 27 years together.


We love because
God first loved us.
 

We now do marriage counseling and share our wisdom, knowledge and experience.  We have "been there", and God has shown us how to love one another truly and its an awesome thing to share with others.

We have learned that when you put God first in all things - everything will be good that follows.  He makes good out of bad and His blessings just keep pouring in.  I love our life together, thank you God.  

Faith

Faith . . .

What does it really mean to me?

Well, first of all - I believe that we are all God's creation - He created the heavens and earth, the universe, the sea, the land, the trees, the animals - everything.  I believe He loves His creation.  He loves each and every one of us and blesses us - even atheists are blessed by God and don't even realize it.  When good things happen to them - they just count it as a good thing - but good and bad, right and wrong has to be based on something...who decided what is right and what is wrong? 

Psalm 25:9 - ⁹ He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.

Since I believe we are all God's children - then to me - the first thing is to acknowledge that He does exist and tell Him thank you for the blessings of life, His love and for allowing His only Son to die and pay for all humanities sins.....

Secondly - I want to live to please Him, but before I can do that, I have to know more about Him so I know what pleases Him.  This is really the main key - you have to know your boss so you know what he/she likes or dislikes or the way he/she does things.  You have to know your friend for the same reason.  The same goes with God - you have to read His book (the Bible) to get to know Him and who He is and how much He loves you.

Thirdly - When I get to know Him better - then it becomes a personal relationship with Him because we talk together and the more I know about Him - the more I am in awe of WHO He is and this makes me feel humble because He is more holy and magnificent than my mind can fathom.  It also makes me realize that compared to Him, I am not Holy, in fact I realize what a sinner I am and it is true....Romans 3:23 says "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God", it also says in Romans 6:23 that "the wages for sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in^[Christ Jesus our Lord."  So God gave His son to die for our sins.  What an amazing gift, His love, His grace.

That humbleness leads me to thirst after Him and makes me want to please Him in all I do and to be earnestly seeking a closer walk with Him.  I want to know Him more and more and live the way He wants me to and live in gratitude for what He did and does for me.

It all started for me when I was 27 years old.  That day I accepted Jesus into my life after God told me "Patsy, I love you and that is all that matters"...when I asked Him about my dad He told me "You have to love and forgive Him".  Immediately, I was changed - no more victim - I was set free! He promised to give me His Holy Spirit to mingle with my own spirit and He did.

So that was the day that changed my life - I was actually a new person - free of guilt, free of being the victim.  I still had quite a bit of stuff to get over and God helped me.

Today I am happy and free - my husband loves God as much as I do and we live a tremoudously blessed life with the knowledge that God loves us and we can walk in this world with no fear - and no fear of death - we know for sure where we are going!

It's an awesome place to be - God gives faith as a gift.  All we have to do is ask -

He is faithful.

Our Baja - La Ventana, B.C.S. Mexico

How did we ever get so blessed?

Dad asked us numerous times over 10 or so years if we wanted to come visit in Baja; we always turned him down - we couldn't afford it or we couldn't take the time off or some other excuse.  Finally we said yes and made the arrangements to fly down to San Jose Del Cabo.  We arrived in Mexico and we knew we were in a different country, where things don't move as fast and they still do everything homemade style - everything from the way they do their business, or build their buildings to eating.  It was way slower than what we were used to and we felt so peaceful it was amazing.

When we landed and got off the plane, the air was warm and inviting.  We still had on our jeans and carrying sweatshirts - coming from Idaho in the winter time.  Dad stopped at the Costco there in Cabo and Kery and I quickly changed into our shorts and tee shirts.  We had lunch in Cabo on the water front and the young Mexican girls sold me my first beaded anklets.  It was breathtakingly beautiful and the weather was awesome - it was warm; summer warm but not humid.  Even though we were hot we weren't sweaty and that was the first thing we noticed and liked about the place.  The Mexican people were warm, helpful, friendly and inviting. 

Everything was new - we drove over the Sierra de la Lagunas (Laguna Mountains) down into the one way road to La Ventana/El Sargento.  The view of Ventana Bay and Cerralvo Island was amazingly beautiful.

We were there to visit for two weeks.  The first week we went to Todos Santos, the lively little town with shops and stores and colorful displays everywhere - it was magical.  We ate lunch at a cute little restaurant and sat outside in the warmth - the ocean breezes cooling us.

The Little town of Todos Santos

Taco Stand
 

Pacific ocean beach

Hotel California

We went to Magdalena Bay and spent the night in a motel - which was interesting to say the least!  A very old fashioned iron bed frame with a fluffy old mattress and a open toilet was all that was in the room.  The showers were outside.  We got up early and hired a boat to take us out whale watching and motored up to the end of the bay before we saw our first display of dolphins jumping in unison to our pleasure.  Pretty soon a big old whale came up with her baby right beside her.  She followed us down the bay and back swimming along with us and a couple of times she (and her baby) swam underneath our boat.  It was an great adventure to see her.  She got close enough to touch and we were somehow not afraid of her.  It was awesome and would be one of the highlights of our trip.

The Grey Whale (Gris Ballena) is as curious as we are.

 

La Ventana Beach on the Sea of Cortez side

We went to La Paz and we were surprised at the size of the town - it reminded us a lot of Boise, Idaho - a big town sprawled out.  They had American type stores everywhere - Home Depot, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, etc.  There were movie houses just like our own and some movies were dubbed in English.

One day we went fishing out of bahía de la muerte (Bay of Death; they have since renamed it the Bay of Dreams).  We hired a young mexican man to take us out on his boat; he took us right to the fish!  We caught quite a few different fish - dorado, blue fin, etc.  It was a fun day.  Later that night we had a great BBQ of delicious fresh fish!

The second week came and Kery and I were so in love with the place.  It was just our kind of place, it fit our lifestyle so well - we are both outdoor type people and we love to hike and explore and living here is like glorified camping.  They do not have American technology, we went without phones and computers the entire time and didn't even miss it.  We realized this could be our paradise too so we talked to Dad about the possibility of finding a piece of property for us.  We contacted a Mexican real estate guy who's name was Oswaldo (Ozzy) - we knew then it was meant to be! 

We didn't make the deal while we were there - Dad knew what we were interested in and helped us  by looking at lots with Ozzy.  Dad would send us pictures of the properties and we finally found one we liked.  It was less than a mile from Dad and Sandies.  It was just shy of an acre and you could see the bay.  It was partially cleaned up - meaning it wasn't overgrown with greenery and cactus.  They wanted $11,000 and we told Dad to buy it.  We transferred money to him and he made the deal for us.  Everyone involved thought fencing it might be a good idea to show ownership so we told them to go ahead.  It was so cool...the first time we saw it, it was fenced and it was beautiful, no matter where we are on the property you can see the turquoise water of the bay. 

Fenced - not much on it yet. 

 



We bought the property in 2005.  Since then we have cleared a road to the lot, brought in electricity, built a septic system, and put in our water system. 

 

We were going to bring down our 5th wheel; drive it with the big red Dodge and also drive the little truck and leave it - but while we down there, a friend told us about the dangers of driving on Mex 1 the main road down to the bottom of Baja where we are.  He said there were mountain passes we had to go over that were very curvy as well as straight up and down.  He told us the semi's own the road and they fly on that highway and if you're in the way, they'll just run you off the road.  It didn't take us long to decide to sell the 5th wheel and the red truck and use the money to build.  We went to the drawing board and Kery designed a nice little place.  It is built in sections - the 1st being a casita with a kitchen, living room, dining room, bedroom and bathroom.  The second section will be on the other side with a big covered patio in between.  The second section will only be our bedroom.  It will have a bed, a clothes area with shelves and chest of drawers and a bathroom.  I'm hoping for a little deck outside the other side, but that may be too many doors.

 

Anyway, it is beautiful and neither of us can wait until we are down there 6 months out of the year.  I think we have decided to live in the cabin in Island Park the rest of the time.  We will leave for Mexico around October and visit kids and family before we head down to Baja.  We'll return to the United States around April.  We can park a trailer at Dads place in Penn Valley and take our time traveling back and visit our kids, other family and friends.  It will be a wonderful and peaceful time of our lives.  I can't wait to start it!

 

 

 

Radiator Charlie and his Mortgage Lifter tomato.

What a great story this is.  My friend Sharon found the plant at Fred Meyer and is planting it this year.  Can't wait to hear about it.  :)

Here is the story about Radiator Charlie and his Mortgage Lifter tomato!

Pay your mortgage with heirloom tomatoes? It sounds pretty unbelievable today, but in the early 1930s, Marshall Cletis Byles did just that in his home town of Logan, West Virginia.
His story is an unusual one: Byles owned a small repair shop at the bottom of a mountain which was well known for making trucks overheat. The location of his shop generated a steady business as trucks overheated on the mountain and had to roll back down for some much necessary radiator work. This is where he earned his nickname “Radiator Charlie”. Despite the prominent location of his shop, the Great Depression was looming and Byles was looking for other ways to keep afloat.

Radiator Charlie Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes

Radiator Charlie didn’t have an easy life: he started working in the cotton fields of North Carolina at the age of 4, and as a result didn’t get adequate education. Yet he went on being a pilot, a wrestler, a mechanic, and then succeeding in growing one of the most popular heirloom tomatoes in the country.

The birth of the Mortgage Lifter Heirloom Tomato
With absolutely no experience breeding or growing tomatoes, Byles decided to develop a large and meaty tomato that could feed families. He looked for tomatoes available in his area that met his criteria and started with 4: German Johnson, Beefsteak, an unknown Italian variety, and an unknown English variety.Byles then grew plants from each variety and planted 3 Beefsteak, 3 of the Italian variety and 3 of the English variety in a circle. In the center of the circle, he planted the German Johnson Tomato.

With a baby syringe, he cross-pollinated the German Johnson with pollen from the other 9 plants in the circle. He saved the seeds, which he planted the following year. Byles then selected the best seedlings, and planted them in the middle of a circle, surrounded by the other seedlings. For 6 years, he repeated this process and cross-pollinated the strongest plants in the center with pollen from the plants in the circle.

When he was satisfied that he had grown a stable tomato that met his criteria, he sold the seedlings for $1.00 each, which was a hefty sum back in the 1940s.

The tomato was of course named after him: Radiator Charlie’s Tomato. The tomato was so popular that people drove hundreds of miles to purchase the seedlings. With the proceeds of the sales, Charlie paid off his $6,000 mortgage in 6 years. Byles’ legacy is now called Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter Tomato.

In the mid 1980s, Radiator Charlie shared the seeds of the Mortgage lifter Tomato plants with the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, which has contributed to keeping the variety alive and in high demand.

Mortgage Lifter Tomato Characteristics
- Tomatoes are red and pink
- Tomatoes are amongst the most flavorful heirloom tomatoes
- Tomatoes are big and average 2 to 4 pounds
- Tomatoes start bearing fruit in about 80 days
- Tomatoes are on the meaty side
- Tomatoes have very few seeds
- Tomatoes produce an abundant crop
- Tomatoes are disease resistant
- Tomatoes will produce until frost kills the plant
- Indeterminate Tomato variety that will keep growing as a vine if not pruned

Byles died at the old age of 97, but his grandson sat down with him and recorded him talking about his life and the Mortgage Lifter Heirloom Tomatoes. Some of the recording is available in the archives of the radio show Living on Earth.