Moving to Douglas County

 MOVING TO DOUGLAS COUNTY

                                                                      2006

 

In 2003 we bought 10 acres in the hills west of Oakland in Douglas County.   This property had a one room cabin with wood stove, two sheds, a 2500 water tank with a solar pump and no neighbors in sight.  Our intention was to have a place to escape to, start a native plant nursery and have a source of firewood for our home in Cottage Grove.    We moved our 16 foot travel trailer on the property to provide us with a kitchen, bathroom and sleeping quarters when we came to spend a night or two. 

In 2002 our quiet neighborhood on the west side of Cottage Grove was about to change with the development of the forested hill side behind our house, called Mt. David.   The developer was proposing a subdivision of 400 to 600 homes.    He was in the process of obtaining the necessary permits from the city as many of our neighbors were protesting this development because of the lack of city infrastructure to support this size of development and the increase in future traffic.  This was evident in the winter of 2004 when our neighborhood was flooded due inadequate storm water drainage when all the water came off Mt. David from the newly constructed roads.   We joined a group called the Friends of Mt. David to fight with city government over this development, but the city could only smell money from increased tax revenue and we were fighting a losing battle.   Soon the sound of construction equipment would wake us in the early morning hours.  It was time to move.

Celia found a real estate ad for an old two story house on five acres near Elkton, about 35 miles southwest of Cottage Grove.   We made an offer on the place contingent on us selling the Cottage Grove house, which we put on the market in the spring of 2006.   A few months went by with no interest from buyers until we lowered the asking price by $10k then we started having people looking at the house.  An older woman made us a good offer that we accepted and we had 30 days to vacate the place.  In the meantime the place near Elkton had sold to a cash buyer.   Our only option was moving to our 10 acres outside of Oakland or become homeless in the short-term.   During a visit to our 10 acres we noticed a for sale sign up the road on the next 10 acre lot just north of our place.   It had a newer manufactured home on it, plus a big shop and a water house with a 2500 gallon tank and pressure pump, since there was no well water here.    The owner was a school teacher working in Elkton and had purchased a house there to be closer to her school.   We made her an offer that she accepted and the move began.  The lady that had bought the Cottage Grove house had to be out of her rented apartment soon, so she started moving stuff into the garage as we started moving stuff out the front door and hauling it to our new place with our pickup and trailer.  Instead of returning to Cottage Grove empty we helped move the school teacher to her new house in Elkton before returning to Cottage Grove.  She allowed us to move stuff in the back door as she was moving out the front door.   It was pure chaos and we don’t care to repeat it again. 

We have lived here 14 years, the longest place I have lived since leaving my hometown of Willows, in northern California in 1966.   It is the longest place where Celia has ever continuously lived.    We’re not moving any time soon.