Yesterday we finally went riding and it was cold…so cold we wore tights.  The problem with tights is that they are slippery and our knee pads slip down below our knees. The same thing happened a month ago I crashed and my knee and tights were damaged because the knee pads had slipped down and not offered the necessary protection. Yesterday I was riding along wondering about how to prevent the knee pads from slipping down and the only obvious solution was to get a garter belt so I ordered a set from Amazon on Cyber Monday.

Hmm…do I get leather, vinal or lace? I ordered black lace to make them more stealth, in case you were wondering, and my compression short undergarments are not nearly as sexy!. Will post a picture on how they fit in a couple of days.

Here is a print version of this year’s Season’s Greetings we mailed to those without internet access or who we did not have email addresses for.  The much longer version should be accessible at the top right of this page or through the following link  https://ronsonn.com/about/

Dear Friends & Family:

It’s been a couple of years since we have sent out our annual holiday greetings. Not because we didn’t care but because our life over the last two years has been a whirlwind. In 2015 we decided to retire and each of us worked about a month. In 2016 we reduced our work to a week! Ron is lucky because to maintain his license he only has to pay an annual fee but Dorothy also needs to work 5 weeks/year to maintain hers. Soon she will start as a Nurse Practioner with Volunteers in Medicine in Bend which sounds like an awesome place to work. Looks like Ron will be putting a few hundred more miles on his bike in the coming months than Dorothy will!

In July, 2015 we decided to explore what living in Central Oregon is like so we purchased a house that was under construction in Redmond. We moved in the day before Thanksgiving with 6 inches of fresh snow. After spending most of 2016 in Redmond we have decided to make Central Oregon our home. We are currently in a nice modern neighborhood inside the city limits. The house is fine but lacks privacy and storage/shop space. We recently found a spectacular 5 acre parcel with the Deschutes River flowing through it about 2 miles southwest of our current home. We are in escrow and hope to have a house built on it in 2017. We also plan to put our Gold Beach home on the market in 2017.

Our lives in the last two years have focused on recreation and living life to the fullest. Last February we got new mountain bikes and took them to Arizona and Utah for a month. 300 trail miles later we returned to Central Oregon and got into a routine of riding 12-20 miles/day, 4-6 days/week. We have ridden 1700 trail miles so far this year. Our skills have improved, our injuries from falls are healing and some significant weight loss accompanied the exercise, however, additional weight loss will be realized if our beer consumption decreases! Ron took a break from regular brewing because the Redmond house lacks sufficient space. The 2016 brewing season was limited to 20 gallons during a single coastal visit. 2016’s IPA was shared on special occasions including parties and Oregon State Football tailgating. Our future residence will hopefully have room for brewing, space for shop tools, raft storage and maybe even a camper van. A hopeful project in 2019-2020 is to build a van conversion to make future explorations more comfortable than tent camping out of our Toyota Sequoia that has a quarter million miles on it.

We recently took a trip to New England. The fall color was spectacular and visiting relatives and re-connecting with old friends was awesome. During the winter we still enjoy skiing but prefer to spend 4-6 weeks in Arizona and Utah riding mountain bikes. Last spring we spent a lot of time landscaping our back yard in Redmond. We learned a lot and hope to apply those skills when we build a home. The river front property we plan to build on is naturally landscaped with a Central Oregon native xeroscape that we have become quite fond of.

Kyle, 22, is in his third year at Oregon State University and is on track to graduate in 2018 with a degree in civil engineering. Last summer he worked as a firefighter, on a berry farm, and as a laborer on a construction project. He hopes for an internship in 2017 to get some engineering experience.

Rilea, 24, graduated from Oregon State in September, 2015 with a degree in Human Development and Family Services. After getting her teaching credential and working in Redmond for 6 months she decided to try something else besides classroom teaching and is pursuing that goal.

Adios Amigos y familia. We hope to see you in the coming year. Join us for the total eclipse on 8/21/2017!!!

Last Wednesday I hooked up with John Gross, one of my freshman dormmates, circa 1972-73, in quest of chinook salmon on the Elk River located a few miles north of Port Orford on the southern Oregon coast.  It was a busy day on the Elk with most of the fishermen launching their drift boats at the top of the drift, about 8 miles upstream of the take out.  John, who owns Roaring Fork Guide Service and fishes the Elk regularly, said we should only bother fishing on the lower 3 miles where most of the fresh fish would be and well downstream of nearly all the other fishermen.  The first hour and a half was slow then 2 fish were hooked and landed within 10 minutes at the Stick Hole, one of John’s favorite spots.  90 minutes later we had our third and largest salmon.  When we got off the river we were met by ODFW employee Dina to measure and record our catch.  Dina also happens to by one of my renters so there was lots of cajoling.   I later found out from Dina that we caught 25% of all the fish recorded that day out of 32 drift boats that fished the river the entire day.  Although we had a great time and were done by noon most fishermen got skunked and were discouraged after spending 8+ hours on the river.  Is it luck, skill or was it John’s Stanford and UC Berkeley  educations that made the difference?  I conclude it is a multivariant analysis requiring a larger data set to arrive at a valid solution.  I’m applying for a grant to Roaring Fork funded in part by my great sense of humor and lots of beer to expand the data set to help solve this complex problem.

We are attending dads weekend aka family weekend at Oregon State.  The afternoon started at a house with a few dozen of Kyle’s friends and their parents.

My IPA was a hit

An hour and a half before the game we went to a tailgate party hosted by Michelle and Scott Springer, parents of one of Kyle’s fraternity brothers.

We got into the stadium just before the Beavers entered onto the field.

Beavers are ahead 7 to 0 with 9 minutes left in 1st quarter

We had 45 yard line seats row 12, score was 21-10 at halftime.

After a halftime and 3rd quarter tailgate session the score was 35-10 and the game ended 42-17. go beavs!!!!

The property we are in escrow for is located at 4853 SW Loma Londa Drive in case you want to find it.  There are no fences or gates but the neighborhood watch will likely come around if you just show up unannonced and attempt to camp.  Here are a couple of maps showing the location of the Loma Linda Property and our existing home in Redmond @ 4466 SW Umatilla Ave.  If you have a trailer or RV our HOA will send us a nasty letter if you park it at our house on SW Umatilla Ave longer than 48 hours in a month so you might as well stay in a guest bedroom.  Also, for God’s sake, don’t leave your dog off a leash, he/she may attack one of the neighbor’s defenseless leashed dogs or even carry off a child and trade it to the coyotes…the HOA is something we are looking forward to missing.

I tried to load a video but it must have been too large.  We would provide UTM and latitude/longitude coordinates are not yet ready for Amazon drone deliveries and wish to not give out an accurate digital location in case the president elect decides to thin out the opposing herd.

Dorothy and I “hooked up” in April, 1986…30 years 7 months ago.  Although we have insulted and pissed each other off over the last 3 decades we have never had a major fight… not too bad in my opinion.  Anyway here is a picture of the river and cliff on our hopefully future property.

We are in escrow, scheduled to close on or before 12/30/16 ahead of schedule!!! It is looking like this property deal might really happen. The property is on Loma Linda Drive, Redmond, OR.  Loma Linda translates to beautiful hill and it is more than beautiful it is truly spectacular.  20 minutes from Bend, 10 minutes from Redmond.  Nearest house is 350 feet away  from the building site.

More maps and updates to follow!

For 25 years I consulted to clients interested in buying properties to build their dream homes on.   It is tough, you’ve found that perfect place and your emotions are raging like a teenager in heat….then this guy you hired to say everything looks great says there are some issues that could cost a lot more money than you were planning to spend….. That is where we are at, we found this spectacular property but are struggling to figure out what is “wrong with it” and how much it will really cost over the sticker price. Too bad Costco doesn’t have a property buying program like they have for buying cars (which we took advantage of this morning!).  Here are a couple photos and maps, when you come to visit and, if we buy it, we will have some extra lawn chairs available to sit on the edge of the cliff to admire the view from, we can also take the trail down to the river and do some swimming or fishing.

If we go through with the purchase it will take a couple of years before a house will be finished but we should be able to camp there in the meantime.  The cool thing is that we spend a lot of time on the other side of the river bike riding on a trail system on BLM property, maybe we can build a cable cart to haul the bikes across the river to avoid the drive.  The bad news is that there will be no trick or treaters…tonight was the first time we have ever had more than 1 or 2 because now we are in a neighborhood. We stocked up and  I gave the kids handfuls of mini candy bars!


We should be in escrow tomorrow 11/9/16 with escrow close scheduled for 12/30/16.  I  fired a surveyor last Friday two days after hiring him ….too much BS too many delays….until I told him he was fired then it can be done immediately… Sorry dude we already signed a contract and got someone else based on what you told us 2 days earlier.. New surveyor seems great and cooperative. We are very excited!!!

11-9-16 WE ARE OFFICIALLY IN ESCROW!!!

More to follow soon.