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!!!