Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
April 30, 2020
By Pat Edwards
Despite the constrictions put upon daily life these days, Jim and I are finding ways to quietly celebrate these past couple of weeks. I’ve mentioned in previous columns that we have been in a state of “disaster” since last January. All of a sudden, what I thought was a large window in our family room with a leaky seal, was actually a leaking roof that had caused water damage to the whole backside of our house. The restoration process has been a long series of jobs taking place both inside and outside our home. I won’t go into further detail, but our insurance company’s home-owners policy has proven to be a good one and most of the work has been covered, thank goodness.
We now have a whole new roof on our house, new gutters, and as of last Tuesday, the walls on the five affected rooms are all taped, textured, painted, the blinds and curtain rods have been re-hung, and other items removed from the walls have been reinstalled.
I opted to repopulate the rooms with the removed furniture and contents myself so that I could go through everything and only put back what I still wanted to keep. I am beginning to uncover all of the items buried in our living and dining rooms for the last several months and am selling or donating the items that have just been taking up space so that when we’re done, we’ll feel like we’re starting all over again in a new home. I’m feeling a wonderful sense of accomplishment after so much frustration.
The whole process of getting this done through the pandemic has been somewhat of a concern, but the various workers assigned to work inside the house, especially, were extremely careful and courteous, working inside zippered tents and when not in them, wearing masks and staying at a distance.
Another quiet celebration combined with sad tones took place this morning (Friday) when Jim helped a man load his big Ford tractor onto a trailer and haul it away. Big Blue and his less powerful mate, Blue, served Jim well for many years in the hay fields around Lorane. I spent a fair amount of time myself over the years on Blue’s seat, raking hay while Jim cut new swaths or baled the cured hay into big round bales with Big Blue.
Neither tractor had a cab or umbrella—hence, no air conditioning, or even an umbrella to protect us from the sun. I didn’t mind though. I loved the feel of the gentle early summer breeze blowing through my hair as I watched the hawks sitting on the fence posts and buzzards slowly circling the fields above, waiting for us to pass by so they could swoop down and catch the mice and snakes left in our wake. I’m pretty sure my partial hearing loss was helped along by the loud drone of the engine as I circled those fields, but I wouldn’t have missed those years for the world.
Jim had to say goodbye to his cattle herd a few years ago—that was especially hard for him to deal with—and Blue and Big Blue have been lawn ornaments in our yard since we gave up the lease on the ranch. He finally agreed to offer both of them for sale recently, and Blue was picked up a few weeks ago… and now, Big Blue is gone. I have to admit, it will be a relief for me to be able to mow the yard without having to avoid them, but I know that it is just one more thing that Jim needs to disconnect from his very busy life as a farmer.
It’s so hard to let go.
All Things Lorane 