The Christmas holidays - 2022

The months of November and December were very busy and a very successful ones. First off, Karen, Mike and myself enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday meal hosted by Mike's brother Chuck and his wife Teri. 

Next, on the weekend after Thanksgiving, Remi and I attended the Annual Christmas parade in downtown Yreka. The parade was well attended by members of the community, and it was an absolute blast. There were lots of cars, some bands and loads of first responder vehicles. It was just like the parades many envision in small town America... which is appropriate since Yreka is the quintessential "Small town". 

The holidays are a favorite time of year for me. Not only because of the fine food and the family get togethers, but also because we typically get a break from Fire Season. Also, I love to decorate the motorhome for the holidays as you can see here. 

For Karen's birthday, I took the family to Callahan's which is south of the town of Ashland. It is one of my favorite restaurants ever. The Staff at Siskiyou County Animal Control got me a $300 gift certificate for all of the work I did during the fire season this last year. It was nice to be able to treat my family for all they have done for me in the past. :-) 

One of the cool things that I mentioned in an earlier blog entry was a dog named Randy that was running loose at the Randolph Collier rest area north of Yreka. You may also remember that I took my motorhome The dog had been out there since spring of 2022. Well, the dog was finally captured by Stephanie Hoffman of county Animal Control and Rick Formanek of Rescue Ranch. Well, not long after Randy was captured, she was adopted by a wonderful family in Southern Oregon. 

During this month, one night Remi and I loaded up in the car and went and checked out homes that were decorated for the Christmas holiday, and the homes did not disappoint. This was the first time we had ever done this while living in Yreka, and it was simply a blast. 

Twice in the month of December, I helped transport dogs in need of homes from Siskiyou county Animal Control to South Coast Humane in Brookings Oregon. My first trip was on the 14th of December transporting Zoey, a Great Dane who came into our shelter on Halloween complete with a costume after being found running on the highway with another Great Dane. The other Dane was claimed by its supposed owner, but they did not claim Zoey. Two months later, I was transporting Zoey to Brookings and within a week, she was adopted. 

And a couple weeks later, right after Christmas, I transported three puppies to South Coast Humane because the owner Jenniffer was able to take a few more dogs. It does my heart good to help out these unloved dogs with opportunities to be adopted in areas not quite so overrun with dogs. 

I am truly thankful for my ability to be able to do what I do to help these homeless animals. 

Also, this month, I installed the last of the equipment that is needed on the Jeep in order to be able to tow it behind the motorhome. I installed the braking system which allows the air system on the motorhome to press the brake pedal on the Jeep. As part of the system, there is an emergency braking cylinder that holds extra air. If the Jeep breaks away from the motorhome, the emergency system will stop the Jeep so that it minimizes any damage that might occur. Fortunately, Karen and Mike were willing to let me use their garage to do these upgrades! :-)  As a bonus, they let their dog Woody help me out on my upgrade process. 

Break out the popcorn and make yourself comfortable for the extended edition of this posts video, because it is longer than normal, primarily because I crammed so much into this month. 😁

Safe travels all!

Eric and Remi too!