Dolbeer Donkey Days

Two of the oldest steam-powered locomotives (of which only twenty were made) were running this weekend at Dolbeer Donkey Days, held in Fort Humboldt State Park. The "steam donkey" (Iver kept asking, "where are the donkeys??") was invented in Humboldt County in 1882 and industrialized the logging industry, using mechanical rather than animal power. The two trains running dated from 1884 and 1892, and we got to ride one (not sure if it was the Gypsy or the Falk)!

We had a beautiful, sunny (yes! A break from the rain!) day, and could easily see the Bay (and Bayshore mall :)) from the fort.

Happy Donkey Days! 

The very Lost Coast

The Lost Coast is a very geographically isolated area of southern Humboldt and northern Mendocino Counties, south of where we live.   It includes small coastal towns, without major roads in or out, and is known for spectacular hiking.  While I have felt our home and life in McKinleyville, north of Eureka and about two hours from the southern Oregon border, and just north of this rugged area, is remote (in terms of distance) from major cities and we are not a very populous area, living here is comfortable (we have libraries, as well as a Costco and Target within 20 minutes despite living FIVE hours from an international airport [San Francisco, SFO)].

Despite the vast number of times we have traversed the highway 101 south to reach the airport (either Santa Rosa, four hours from us, which has domestic flights to southern California, or to SFO farther south), past the Lost Coast, we haven't had to be majorly re-routed. I am nervous currently due to an upcoming midwest trip, and feeling like we are also on a "lost [Northern] coast."

Mainly due to exorbitant rainfall this year, the region has had a lot of rock slides, which have interrupted travel on several of the state highways (including Hwy 299, a horribly winding road which runs east of us to Redding in north central California and which I've been able to avoid for about three years). Currently, there is a blocked road on 101 south of us, near Leggett.



From Caltrans District One (4/21/17)

Work is progressing at both ends of the slide north of Leggett in Mendocino County this morning. We’re evaluating whether the north end of the slide is stable enough to safely begin night work, which will allow our contractor to work around the clock to reopen the highway.
Additional specialized equipment will be airlifted in next week to assist in removing debris from the roadway.
At this time, our best estimates point to a reopening of U.S. Highway 101 to one-way traffic control sometime mid-to-late next week. 
The highway will not be reopened this weekend, and there are no local detours available. Travel plans should include detouring over onto Interstate 5 via Routes 20, 36, or 299 to loop back towards U.S. 101 on the other side of the closure. Motorists should anticipate these detours to take upwards of 7 hours.

 We are trying to plan our approach to our travel to SF to catch a flight to Chicago for a midwest trip, given the questionable road conditions, above. On the Highway 299, there is one-way traffic in a stretch (due to a rockslide there), requiring motorists to park and wait for up to an hour, before proceeding.  With a (less severely but still) energetic and carseat-hating toddler, an additional many hours of travel each way is just so daunting. Our options include:
- leaving Humboldt County the evening before, to drive at night (so toddler doesn't scream as much), although night driving on dark, small, curvy and potentially wet or icy roads is quite dangerous
- leave earlier in the day (and have an awake toddler for upwards or the majority of of 7-8 hours, and possibly hitting Sacramento or Bay area traffic later in the day (before we are due to be at the airport)
- bypass driving altogether and fly from Arcata to SF (which would cost us approximately $600 per person), then connect to our midwest flight (leaving us car-less in the Bay area and unable to easily visit friends on our return trip)
- not go (which would be incredibly disappointing, given we were to meet up with friends and my MN family)

We feel like we are between a rock (slide) and a hard place.  I am still hopeful that the road reopens in the next week, but if not, I am seriously reconsidering how inconvenient it is to live in a rural, remote area very cut-off from the rest of California, with unpredictable natural disasters and conditions that make travel difficult.

Mothers' Love

 

As a mother and a feeler (and a sucker for "Tearjerkers"), I wanted to share some great book/movie recommendations which touched me deeply and which comment on the heartbreaking love of mothers (both biological and adoptive) that are separated from their kids.

On a friend's suggestion, I just read Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran, which interweaves the story of an undocumented Mexican immigrant, Soli (who, soon after immigrating to the U.S., finds out she's pregnant) and the son she bravely has (then loses) in a foreign country, with the story of the journey and dreams of an infertile Indian couple (the Reddys) in Berkeley who raise the son as theirs but who fear he could be taken away. The writing was beautiful, and the characters (and dilemma) compelling.

It reminded me a lot of the theme of a similar book I finished a few months back-- M.L. Stedman's The Light Between Oceans (also now a movie), in which an isolated and couple of faith (the husband, Tom is a lightkeeper in a remote Australian town, while his wife, Isabel has been unable to have a healthy pregnancy of her own) raise an abandoned baby who comes upon their shores as a seeming miracle of God but who, they learn later, still has biological family ties.

If the above two don't make you cry, or you're looking for more emotionally devastating works of art, please watch "Lion," (I haven't read the memoir, A Long Way Home, by Saroo Brierly, but hope to now, soon), which depicts (with stunning cinematography and music, by the way) the story of a five-year-old Indian boy who gets lost on a train in a busy train station in India, ends across the country in Calcutta separated from his family and who is unable to find his way home. He is adopted by a selfless Australian couple but tries, more than twenty years later and with the help of technology (thanks, Google Earth!) to relocate his biological family and roots (albeit with nothing but gratitude in his heart for his adoptive parents), with the small hope that they may still be there and love him.  Whether you are a biological parent, adoptive parent, or other, and especially if you have a special place in your heart for so many of the poor and marginalized children and people of the world, I guarantee that you will be deeply moved by this powerful movie.

Here's to mothers. And fathers. And children. And hope. And a world where love makes all things possible and triumphs over all.

Egg-related fun

Happy Easter!  While I am not the Easter basket-making type of mom, we did participate in some springtime activities this weekend, which included some nice sun!

Our community hospital had an Easter egg hunt and festivities for the little ones/children of employees. Unfortunately, due to a footwear-wearing battle prior to departing the house, we arrived a few minutes late, and thus there weren't many eggs left to locate.

We checked out the pavillion, where they had a sweet, 9-day-old lamb and bunnies that we could pet.

Iver wanted nothing to do with the large costumed Easter bunny!

Due the paucity of eggs at the hospital, we staged our own backyard egg hunt after Iver's nap.

Some of the eggs had raisin treasures within, which was as good a reward our little one could get!

Gloria, a new NP from Kelvin's Clinic joined us for Saturday dinner, and brought us some lovely Calla lilies, which, under my black thumb, are likely to bite the dust relatively soon.

Iver understands that, on Easter morning, Jesus rose (or woke up after a long rest!). Since we have been rewarding his sleeping-through-the-night (a week-long stretch due, either directly or coincidentally to the door monkey-- hooray!) with a sticker each morning, Iver told us, "Jesus gets a sticker, too."  :)

He helped me whip up an Instant Pot egg bake (which, unfortunately was a bit of a moist fail).

He loved dancing to the chicken song from Inara's card.

He made it through childcare "church school" while K and I attended New Heart's Easter service, without any fight or tears. Win!

Happy Easter!

The next chapter (goodbye, milk and confinement)

It's been a couple of weeks of milestones.
First, we are altogether DONE with breastmilk! Iver's been drinking cow's milk regularly for months and I officially weaned him from nursing in December when he turned two, but I just thawed the last bag of hoarded frozen milk. This doesn't mean he doesn't ask for "tutti" every once in a while or grab at my chest, which was the behavior that really was the impetus for me to cut him off, but I am relieved to have this chapter behind us and to truly have "no more milk" available.

In other news, we have quite the Houdini on our hands. We've kept Iver in his room during nighttime wake-ups via a spring-loaded baby gate, which he now can scale and leap over (so now he runs down the hall into our room, saying "Hi, mama!" at midnight, or 2 a.m., or whenever, despite us still trying to encourage him to "obey" the stoplight clock, which stays red until 5 a.m.).

One morning, due to some kind of mischief, Kelvin put him in time-out while I was showering, and I was surprised to find a little face at the shower door and a hand banging on it a few minutes later-- he can escape fairly easily from the high wooden pen that we used from time to time for bad behavior (so now, it lives in the garage).

 

Now that he can escape from his room, but is still not sleeping through the night and still regularly waking up pre-5 a.m., despite being ignored, not fed, etc., we (on a friend's recommendation) purchased a  Door Monkey, which lets us (effectively) lock him in the room without the door really being closed/locked (before judging, please know that we have tried pretty much everything else.  He is an incredibly strong-willed child, and a very poor sleeper).

 

We removed the stool so he can't climb up and reach it, but I wonder when he'll outsmart us again and figure this one out.  I'll keep you posted.