Homeless but Happy!

Just about a week remains before Layne and I hit the road again, heading north to Oregon and Washington for final visits with family and friends. It makes for a bittersweet road trip as we realize just how long it may be before we see these loved ones again. With our residency papers now filed, giving us what our attorney calls “an active file,” the odds are good that we will be able to remain in Costa Rica until next summer’s rainy season sends us back to the States. So we will treasure the moments we have in the coming few weeks with the special friends and family members on our itinerary.

      One very special friend, my beautiful Morgan horse Indiana Mojave, remains behind here in Northern California. At twenty-four years of age - twenty-three years with me and Layne - he is now retired and living comfortably in a wonderful boarding facility nearby, Blue Star Boarding. Sadly, the increasingly painful arthritis he has developed in various parts of his body have slowed him down considerably, but most days he still seems to enjoy life, despite his discomfort. His “herd” consists of two mini-horses, Espresso and Joker, and they share a pasture next to a number of flashy Arabs and a Paint horse or two. It’s a great home for Mojave, run by a woman and her husband who are totally devoted to their horses, most of whom they bred themselves. Judy has emotionally adopted my boy and cares for him with great dedication, far beyond the boarding fees we pay. I feel incredibly lucky to have her as his custodian. Still, it’s sad to think that when I return, Mojave will be another year older and his condition will likely have worsened. At that point, I may face a very tough decision.

         Finding Blue Star Boarding last fall was one of several events that made our move to Costa Rica possible. It was almost as if all the stars aligned to make it feasible for us to pursue our dream of trying out the Pura Vida lifestyle in a tropical paradise. First, we lost our dearly beloved dogs, the black lab Whoopie and our Sharpei/Shepherd mix Emily. Although “the girls” were elderly, 12 and 13 respectively, we were still stunned and deeply saddened when Whoopie’s leg shattered beneath her one day (bone cancer probably, the vet said) and then three months later, sweet Emily just faded before our eyes. In her case, the vet guessed an internal bleeding tumor had made her very anemic and forced us to put her to sleep.

         With the loss of our girls, we realized that the three-month Costa Rican experiment was now possible - IF we could find the right home for Mojave. We had tried him in several situations, three different handicapped riding programs and as a lesson horse at another stable, but none of those worked out. Because of the arthritis, he just couldn’t do the work. Then as if by magic, we saw a flyer at the local post office advertising a new boarding stable just up the road. A visit to the facility and a chat with Judy was all we needed to know that this place was perfect. Instead of being alone in pasture, Mojave would have a field full of friends and a caretaker who was willing to give him his medicine morning and night. Hallelujah!

         The final piece of the puzzle was finding someone to rent our house while we spent time in Costa Rica. Yet even that challenge seemed predestined to be easily accomplished. One phone call to a local property manager was all it took: she “just happened” to have a couple moving down from Oregon with four horses. Our property, already set up for horses, was just what they needed. We signed the papers and suddenly, we faced a looming deadline to pack up and move out! How we managed that in just over a month, after 14 years in residence there, is a miracle. But that short timeframe also explains our jam-packed barn, filled with boxes, couches, futons, tables, chairs, mementoes and oh, so much more. So this summer has found us traipsing back and forth to the barn, considering what to pack and what to leave behind, selling a few things and giving a few things away.

         Although we’re officially “homeless,” good fortune has continued to shine on us as we have been able to house-sit for friends who themselves were traveling. Helping out by caring for their property, gardens and animals has certainly been a boon for us by providing us free housing. We hope to return the favor when they come to Costa Rica for a visit. Our little chalet in Atenas is well situated to serve as home base for visitors touring the countryside. So as we prepare to say goodbye to California and all its memories, we feel great anticipation for our return to Costa Rica and the fine new friends we have made there. Stay tuned for the further adventures of Kat and Layne, homeless but happy!

All About "Stuff" ... and Other Nonsense

        “Oh, the days dwindle down, to a precious few…” as the old torch song goes. And so it is with us as we wade through boxes, sell possessions and make plans for our last month here in the States before we return to Costa Rica and our idyllic life there. We thought we had a plan: We would each pack one large and one medium suitcase as checked bags, then have our two smaller carry-ons. But with each new box we brought from the barn, we found something else of value that one or the other of us felt would be “so handy” to have in Costa Rica. My three-piece set of mixing bowls, my old reliable food processor, the Emeril skillet, Layne’s good camera equipment, the whetstone and the good knives, the toaster, more clothes, more shoes, even perhaps my cowboy boots for possible horseback riding… and on and on it goes. Now we look at the suitcases and the pile of “stuff” and we realize we may have over-estimated our space. Some of this will just have to go back to the barn. One thing we learned in our three-month stay in Costa Rica is just how much “stuff” you can do without.

         Despite the pressures of packing and planning, we do find time to enjoy our life here. On Sunday, we went to see “The Pirates of Penzance” at the local community theater in Roseville. The old Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera was well staged with good choreography and the acting was quite credible, for a G & S comedy at least. Some of the vocalists were really spectacular, particularly the female lead whose operatic skills were stunning. Still, the pratfalls and campy script made the whole thing seem a little over-done. We almost left at intermission but fortunately, stuck it out as the second act was more entertaining than the first. When we got back to our car parked in the sun, the heat was incredible. Our temperature gauge read 122 degrees! It must have been that hot inside but as we drove back to Auburn, it slowly dropped to 104 as the outside reading. It made us long for the halcyon weather on our mountain outside Atenas.

         Between gardening duties and cat-sitting, we do stay busy here at Ruth’s. Happily, the “phantom cat” Abby has finally befriended us and now even sits on my lap and rubs up against my legs asking for pets. This is not to say he is altogether at ease with us here, but he does seem to have become desperate enough for human contact as to allow our attentions. Most of the time he still stays out of sight behind the big chair in the living room. Socks, on the other hand, has accepted us as substitute slaves, meowing loudly when it’s time for his curry-comb grooming each evening. Gardening chores have expanded with Layne’s desire to put in a full drip system for Ruth’s raised gardens in back. Today he laid the main ½” line, carefully hiding the tubing under rocks as it made the corner past the small fish pond and then began adding the ¼” lines to each plant. It’s a time-consuming project and a hot one as the sun reaches its zenith. My gardening job was weeding, not something I’m especially good at since I often confuse a weed with a treasured plant. When that was done, I retired to the kitchen to cook up a batch of hummingbird syrup. After all, we can’t let those little guys find a neighbor’s sugar source, now can we?

         Another task that fell to me today was cutting back the artichoke plant, which has provided Ruth with 8 or 10 sizeable fruit this year. The plant was a monster with long fronds and a trunk the size of a small tree. As I cut away the leaves, I discovered that one fruit had been lost in the foliage and had gone on to flower. Well! If you’ve never seen an artichoke flower, you’ve missed something pretty spectacular. Hundreds of tiny bright purple stalks about an inch tall, clustered together in the heart of the opened artichoke petals. And the fragrance? It was a musky sweet odor, extremely sensual in its depth and drama. What a delightful surprise!

         At least some of our efforts to unload ourselves of possessions has paid off: we sold the Prius! My beloved hybrid went to the sister of a good friend and she was delighted to get it. After delivering it to her doorstep up the road in Nevada City, we took a walk along Independence Trail above the Yuba River. Developed some years ago by a father for his wheelchair-bound daughter, it follows an old gold mining flume, the now-defunct Excelsior Canal, built in 1859 to carry water to a gold-mining operation 25 miles away. Mostly level and offering views of the Yuba River below, it took us through oak woodlands above the river valley. One dramatic feature was a huge boulder arrangement looming over the trail. My darling husband took it upon himself to shoulder the gigantic rock so I could safely walk underneath. My hero! 

"Cat Bites Pit Bull" and Other Tales from Auburn, CA

July 3, 2010 

         Well, we’re beginning to wonder how anyone ever acquires legal residency in Costa Rica. I’m reminded of Lucy and the football: every time Charlie Brown runs to kick the ball down the field, Lucy pulls it away so he kicks open space and falls on his butt. 

In my last post, you’ll recall, our attorney Monika asked us to scan the passport pages where Costa Rican authorities had stamped our exit date. Only one problem - no stamp! Not only no Costa Rican stamp on our most recent departure, but also no exit stamps from Costa Rica for any of our three trips there. Only once, back in 2007 did the United States Immigration clerk at the Houston airport stamp our passports upon our arrival from Costa Rica. When we returned from Costa Rica a few weeks ago, the Los Angeles Immigration officials once again did not stamp our passports. Go figure.

          But since Monika seemed to think that we should have been stamped somewhere, and indeed we had been stamped by Australian officials going to and returning from that country in 2005, I called the U.S. Department of State and spoke to the fellow in charge of immigration services at Los Angeles International Airport. He explained that they no longer routinely stamp returning passports of U.S. citizens due to complaints by frequent travelers that their passport books were filling up too quickly. So we are once again in limbo, waiting to hear from Monika how we can prove to the Costa Rican Immigration Department that we are here, not there!

         But indeed, here we are. And although the Costa Rican residency challenges are a bother, we are enjoying our temporary residency here in Auburn, California. The two cats in our care are a study in contrasts: Socks is verbal, friendly, often joins us in bed at night and hangs around during the day sleeping under a bush in the front yard or on the living room floor, sprawled on her back for some belly rubs. Socks also requires daily grooming with, of all things, a horse currycomb!

         Abby, on the other hand, is the “phantom cat.” The first few days we saw no sign of her and began to worry that she had freaked out at the strangers in the house with all our bags and boxes and new noises, and simply run away, never to be seen again. But slowly, we began to catch a glimpse of her scurrying down the hall to the litter box and venturing to the bowls of food and water. Last night, for just a brief moment, she even jumped up on the bed with us, her little collar bell jingling softly near the foot of the bed. Hopefully, by the time we leave here at the end of the month, she will have relaxed into a friendlier mode.

         Socks proved her mettle last night, however, when a smallish brown Pit Bull came trotting into our backyard, much to our surprise and alarm, although we quickly realized he was not at all aggressive. Apparently lost, he had wandered through the gate we’d left open in hopes of luring Abby inside. But when Socks caught sight of this alien creature in her space, she turned into a hissing dragon, all claws and fearsome anger. Attacking his backend, she chased the poor animal out the gate before I could grab Socks and take her inside the house. Last I saw, the chastised Pit Bull was ambling off into the open field nearby, looking back over his shoulder at the house with the attack cat.

         Abby and Socks have every right to be tense, however, as we have inevitably disrupted their routine. With every trip to our jam-packed barn, we return to Ruth’s garage with more boxes to sort through for more giveaways, perhaps to sell or to take back to Costa Rica with us. It’s a messy process. There are things we missed in Costa Rica or found to be expensive to buy there. A toaster, for instance, is pretty pricey in Atenas, running $35 to $40 or so. We do have a good toaster here, stored away. But with its bulk, it will take up a full corner of a suitcase, which will cost us $20 or so to take onboard the airlines. And flying from Portland to Chicago on one airline and then Chicago to San Jose, CR, on another, the cost of taking that suitcase full of toasters and some of the other seemingly trivial items, will likely run the same $40! Perhaps it makes more sense to buy one down there. Decisions, decisions. As mundane as that may seem, we face such choices with every box. No wonder the cats are spooked by these bustling strangers.

         But most early mornings we manage to get out for a walk. We’ve been exploring a beautiful local park nearby, Auburn Regional Park. This is a well-maintained oasis here in California where, thanks to the state’s budget woes, most state-run parks are closed down and quickly falling into disrepair. The large creek-fed lake that occupies the center of Auburn Regional is circled by an asphalt walking path which meanders under large oak trees with benches, BBQ pits and picnic areas along the way. Mallard ducks with their shiny teal green heads share the lake with dozens of wild geese, primarily Canadian and Snow geese, whose loud honks greet any dog so brave as to enter the water near them. Even pint-sized fishermen (see photo below) try their luck here in catching bass or bluegill. The park offers sports fields for all, from basketball to tennis, soccer to slow-pitch baseball and even a highly rated “disc golf course,” which is a fancy term for Frisbee. Located only a few blocks from our house-sitting base, Layne and I find the park to be ideal for exercise, people- and bird-watching.

          Although we are enjoying life here, we still like to keep in touch with events in Costa Rica, and we do this through several of the English-language newspapers available online. TheCostaRicaNews.com is a weekly publication and a relative newcomer to the field, having been founded only three years ago, but they are growing and have some worthwhile reporting, particularly on eco-tourism, medical tourism and information for expats. AMCostaRica.com is another English-language source for news, but features an abundance of prominent advertising on each page, a little garish for my taste. The oldest Gringo-focused news publication is the venerable TicoTimes.net. Unfortunately, to get complete reporting, one must subscribe. InsideCostaRica.com provides perhaps the best news coverage free of charge. Some of the many blogs written by expats in Costa Rica also offer a personal perspective on happenings in their part of the country.

         But there’s nothing like being in Paradise in person. So we are definitely counting down the days until our northern sojourn is over and we can return to the vida muy tranquilo that we have in Costa Rica.

         Happy Fourth of July to all who value freedom!