Surf Pines Breeze Newsletter of the Surf Pines Association January 2014 Vol. XX, No. 2 President’s Comments By Susan Holloway I hope that each of you enjoyed the holiday season and look forward to winter in Surf Pines. Walks on the sparsely populated beach are a favorite for Charlie, Portia and me as well as sharing Surf Pines with friends and family during this time of year. It has been a busy fall for the Surf Pines Board: completion of the new roads and curbs; refurbishing the park landscaping to eliminate the sand burrs; consideration of a new gate coding system; emergency preparation; and fun social gatherings. As guidance for ourselves the Board agreed to Leadership Principles: the Leadership Principles for Surf Pines Association Board are as follows: • We behave so that we are judged as trustworthy, transparent and open ~~ explain reasons behind decisions; share information for the greater good and make information immediately available • Obligation to care ~~ about individuals and their concerns • Lead by example • Always raise the bar for managing the Association • One voice, collective responsibility (creating a culture of us and we) • Bring solutions, not just problems ~~ be part of the solution • No silos ~~ research, discuss, decide and then stand together The job descriptions for John Gates, as Security and Maintenance, and Debbie Eddy, as Administrator and Bookkeeper, were rewritten to reflect the breadth of their jobs. In addition, each position has goals for this fiscal year. John completed the State-mandated Security Personnel Training this fall. We negotiated a loan to John to enable him to purchase a newer truck for his Surf Pines duties. The Emergency Preparedness Project hosted a resident training on November 3 and will train Captains to Map Your Neighborhood (MYN) on January 11th. Each Captain will then host small neighborhood meetings in order to pool the resources and skills of the neighborhood. We hope to see each of you strengthening your neighborhood ties by attending one of the ninety minute presentations. Twenty four residents attended the evening with Rex Ziak, a local historian and author who is directly responsible for designation of Fort Clatsop as a National Park. It was an informative and scintillating discussion. We hope to host another fun and informative evening in the winter. Thank you to the Community Relations Committee for hosting such an enjoyable dinner party to celebrate the holiday season. The next Board Meeting will be held on January 10th at 4:00. We hope to see you there. Please let me know if there are issues that we should add to the agenda. page 2 Quick News Real Estate Security Corner Since September, there have been two home sales by John and Carol Gates in Surf Pines: A foreclosure at 89163 Manion Drive sold for $225,000 in September and 89088 Ocean Here is hoping all of you had a Drive sold for $641,000 in December. happy and joyous holiday and wishing each of you a new year There has also been one lot sale: Lot 21 on North filled with joy and prosperity. Carol Ocean sold in October (Welcome Dave a Shirley and I would also like to thank Krause.) A new home will be under construction everyone for the gifts, cards, and there very soon. kind words. They are very much appreciated. There are currently 9 homes for sale in Surf Pines   with 3 of those being new listings including: As you know, winter hit us a little early this year, 89617 Lakeside Ct. $699,000 bringing five days of below freezing temperature and 89234 Manion Drive $699,000 cold winds. We unhooked nineteen hoses and covered 89412 Ocean Drive $489,000 many faucets, but still ended up with four homes with broken pipes and water damage. Please weatherize There are currently five lots for sale in Surf Pines your homes as we still have a long winter ahead of us.  ranging from $119,000-$410,000. One of those is a If we can help let us know. new listing on a lot at Surf Pines Estates North on   Ocean Rd. for $215,000 Security wise, things have been fairly quiet lately, which is just the way we like it. We have had a few Slower activity is normal for this time of year but false security alarms, and one house was toilet values are still at great bottom-of-the-market prices papered, but nothing too serious.  making this a great time to encourage your friends to   become your neighbors, too. Many residents head for warmed climates this time of year, so please watch out for your neighbors and let us I was reminded by one of my clients (and I agree) know if you see anything out of the ordinary. It also that “When someone buys a house in Surf Pines really helps us to know if you are going to be gone, so you don’t get neighbors, you get friends”. we can be more vigilant. For more detailed information on Surf Pines   properties, please contact one of your Surf Pines Thanks for a Great Year neighbors in the business. You’ll see our signs! (complete listings: http://www.surfpines.org/real-estate/) A Special Thanks to Breeze Contributors John and his new security truck Tim Regan, Bonnie Rogie, Debra Hall, Patrick Kelley Recycling Comes to Surf Pines Surf Pines Website Registration Page 3 Perks Recycling collection service now available in your neighborhood!   Registered users of the Surf Pines website (Thanks to the efforts of Susan (www.surfpines.org) are now able to Holloway) Residential commingled receive email messages of announcements recycling service is now available related to the community. Simply registering will through Recology Western activate receipt of updates, such as security alerts, Oregon (RWO), on a subscription agendas, meeting minutes, and event basis, to Surf Pines residents. Service will include one announcements. Emails will contain a direct link to the ninety gallon red lidded cart delivered to your home, pertinent information. The goal is less than one email with collection provided every other Friday. A recycling per week, with no more than three per month. This service calendar will be provided upon sign-up. makes staying abreast of the most current information easier than ever. Stay informed and register today. Questions? 503–861–0578, or [email protected] Stay Active this Winter: Sunset Empire Parks and Recreation District Includes Surf Pines Holiday Party Staying active in the winter on the Oregon coast can by Tom and Nancy Wilcox be a challenge. Unless you are my wife, who runs in Thank you one and all for even the sideways rain. The Sunset Empire Parks and the delightful Christmas Recreation has an 'in district' and 'out of district' rate Party. Once again and if you live in Surf Pines, you are considered 'in everything was perfection!  It district'. As a resident or property owner in Surf Pines, is hard to believe every you have access to the resources through the Sunset detail is covered including Empire Parks and Recreation District at their lowest decorations inside and out, rate. This includes the community pool in Seaside. Full including lighting. Even the program information may be found at: walkways were cleared. Let's hope shoveling won't http://www.sunsetempire.com have to be done every year. Thank you everyone! There are a range of opportunities from open swim, lap swim, arthritis classes and access to the gym/ Volunteer for a Committee fitness room. Although you do not choose to live in Surf Pines just to volunteer your time, Surf Pines depends on volunteers like you. To volunteer for work on a standing committee, Roads and Grounds or Community Relations, contact the committee chairperson. To volunteer for work on an ad hoc committee, either Budget or Nominations, contact, respectively, either the treasurer or the president. (For telephone numbers, addresses, and email addresses, see page 8.) Editor’s note: Committee meeting times are flexible and are established by the participating members. Emergency Preparedness Page 4 Be a Captain! Make a great contribution to Surf Pines January 11, 2014 3:00 to 5:00 Wine, hors d’oeuvres and training Emergency Preparedness Training is ready to move to the second phase ~~ Map Your Neighborhood.  MYN is a concept of having neighborhoods trained for disasters (an event that occurs and overwhelms the ability of local First Responders). Local officials have requested implementing the program to assist with the aftermath of events such as severe winter storms, hazardous spills, earthquakes and tsunamis, etc. My goal is to have all Surf Pines neighborhoods mapped by the end of 2014! MYN supplies the essential communication training needed for neighborhood captains. MYN teaches 9 steps immediately following a disaster; differentiating between local and distant tsunamis; recognizing different behavioral needs depending on the type of disaster and location of neighborhoods. It provides lists of emergency equipment and training that can assist first responders in reacting to neighborhood needs. Volunteers are needed to be trained as Neighborhood Captains or Captain couples. The job description is easy, with all the training done in a two hour session. Then Captains hold a meeting for their closest eight to ten neighbors in order to train them (using the provided DVD and with the assistance of MYN leaders if desired.) My goal is to have at least four neighborhoods mapped during January so that approximately forty families will have MYN knowledge, allowing us to spread the enthusiasm and desire for additional trainings throughout the winter. Your time commitment as Captains will not exceed 10 hours.   Call or write Susan Holloway 503 706–5860 or [email protected] Roads and Grounds by Don Kruger The Roads and Grounds Committee has been busy the past couple of months. Several projects have been completed and others are in the wings. •Roadside curbs and corner rocks have been added in several locations to prevent drivers from cutting corners and moving shoulder gravel onto the pavement creating ruts alongside the road. •The park has been tilled and planted with grass in an effort to eliminate the sandspurs that covered a large part of the area. We plan to develop a path covered with wood chips from the parking area to the picnic area. The volleyball court and parking will be covered with wood chips as well. Also planned is the addition of pine trees at selected locations. •The gate enhancement project is in the final stages. Attractive wooden signs will cover the stainless steel gate boxes providing a more attractive entry to our community. Both north and south entries will be improved. We hope to complete this project within the next couple of months. •The 2014 road maintenance project is in the planning stages. Reminder: Roads & Grounds Monday morning work parties will begin on January 14, 2014. If you would like to help, let me know and I’ll add your name to the volunteer list. If you have concerns or suggestions call, email, or join us at one of our meetings to let us know what they are. Meetings are held at 9:00 a.m. in the meeting house on the first or second Tuesday of each month. Check the website or reader board for the correct date. http://www.surfpines.org/committees/roads-grounds/ A Dash Through the Snow Page 5 by Katie Weber The crunch under toe couldn’t hold the hearty Surf Pine souls back from launching the Holiday Season off to a wondrous start. We may not have had as many folks this year because of the frigid temperatures but we had plenty of friends, food and folly. This year we celebrated the season again at Michael and Liz Steszyn’s home. They were the perfect hosts….they weren’t there. All kidding aside, Michael had the chance to go to China for work and Liz was in Portland and couldn’t get down due to the weather. However, Liz’s mother, Gloria Jones, was gracious enough to come and fill in as our hostess for the evening. Our many thanks to Michael and Liz for lending their home to us and trusting us to take good care of it in their absence. For those of you who missed the party you missed the best appetizers. Very creative eats this year. Maybe we’ll just do heavy appetizers next year. Our dinner fare was just as good or better than last year. Can’t forget the desserts. They were the perfect end to a wonderful evening. Thank you all for your contributions. I would like to give special thanks to our committee for their great work at setting up for our party. Robin and Bill Rhodes for the festive outdoor lighting in this cold weather along with Kathy and Ray Arndt for their help with lighting and music. Kathy is a new member and has brought many new ideas to our committee. Thank you to Norma Keever and Bonnie Rogie for all of your kitchen help.I don’t want to forget a very important part of our committee, our husbands, who without their skilled help and muscle our jobs would take much longer. They are, Mel Rogie, Ray Arndt, Bill Rhodes, Ken Weber. Absent from this list are John and Carol Gates. They are the best. We all know that without them we wouldn’t have the transportation to move our equipment around. Thank you both. Page 6 Nature Watch by Greg Hutzell Recently my daughter, Allison, asked me why I wrote Nature Watch. I was quick to answer for one reason. It keeps me learning about living things. For a host of enduring reasons, it has been my curiosity going back to days as young boy roaming the fields and creek swales beyond the borders of our home in an Omaha subdivision located where development met the wild frontiers of Nebraska. What I recall fondly from those days, was heading out to the wild areas beyond the last row of houses, with a green canvas knapsack containing my Army canteen, a sandwich of white bread, peanut butter and lettuce, a few of my mom’s salty sweet peanut butter cookies, and some Milk Bone dog biscuits for my constant companion, Crissy, a Shepherd and Collie mix. We would be gone most of the day wandering the countryside looking at all things living whether plant or animal. During those hikes, I learned the skill of being patient with nature. Often we experienced wonderful moments when we found a comfortable place to sit and let nature come to us. Once we decided to sit together in the prairie grass on a rise overlooking a small pond, where after twenty minutes or so a coyote with two pups came to the pond to drink and hunt for frogs. Crissy watched with intent as she lay by my side. For nearly an hour we watched the three roam the sides of the pond and finding success in the hunt. I smiled watching the pups become side-tracked with an occasional break to wrestle and chase each other about, while mom stalked the slippery prey. We never would have had that moment, and countless others, if we had kept moving. Once I said to my wife Chris, after having sat in a chair for several hours looking at Neacoxie lake and nearby trees, “being idle is underrated.” With that preface, I wanted to share a few of what I consider to be extraordinary observations I’ve had at Surf Pines because I chose to be idle instead of active. The first was seeing what I have come to realize was a most unusual and truly fortuitous sighting of a Long-Tailed Weasel. The second was seeing a pair of Vagrant Shrews. The third, viewing within a few feet of each other, a male Common Yellow Throat and a male Wilson’s Warbler. Two similar birds noted for their unique sartorial display: the Yellow Throat’s Lone Ranger mask and the Wilson’s French beret. There are several commonly known members of the weasel family such as the mink, martin, ermine, and ferret, but only the Long-Tailed Weasel is found in nearly all fifty states, with the mink being a close second. I observed this reddish, nearly two- foot long slender carnivore in July while sitting near the prominent Sitka Spruce on the east side of the lake. The weasel was moving sinuously through the rushes along the shore, probably in search of frogs and snakes. It moved quickly and with brisk stop and start motions, and then as speedily as it came, it was gone. Once gone, I realized I had been holding my breath. Page 7 Seeing the Vagrant Shrews was just as fortuitous. While walking the primeval trail that runs from the northwest corner of Surf Pines, near the trail to the beach to Sunset Lane, I found a log to sit on off the beaten path. After a quiet twenty minutes, I noticed the leaf and needle clusters along the base of fallen tree begin to move. Clearly something was moving along the undergrowth. The movement was not substantial enough to be a gopher or mole, which was my first assumption. The movement continued, when finally two Vagrant Shrews emerged. Shrews are easily distinguished from mice by their tiny size and protruding jaws. They are voracious hunters that need to eat twice their weight each day. Their long jaws are lined with sharp teeth. It has been said that if shrews were the size of rabbits, the woods would not be safe. On a warm June day I had kayaked to the south end of the lake where it narrows to a channel surrounded by rushes and Scotch Broom. It is the perfect place to tuck into, to wait and watch for nature to arrive. Not long after getting comfortable in my hideout, two flashes of yellow caught my attention. They both stayed close enough to watch, as they searched the plants for food. A Wilson’s Warbler was on the rushes and is easily identified by what I call its French beret. Just as distinctive was the Common Yellow Throat on the Scotch Broom, with its Lone-Ranger mask. While both birds are common in Oregon, they are not easily seen because of their relatively small numbers and singular nature. These three observations reminded me to patient in nature, and took me back to those idyllic days of my youth with Crissy, where I learned to not always be moving, to take my time and let nature simply happen around me. The Resilient Anna’s Hummingbird by Debra Hall The temperate northwest coast of Oregon yields a delightful surprise for winter residents in Surf Pines. To the surprise of many new residents, the Anna’s Hummingbird, calypte anna, is a year-round resident. Looking at the resources in the Audubon Society or the iBird app on your smart phone, one can see the year-round resident designation all along the west coast, up to Puget Sound and along the Columbia River valley. A common myth about feeders is that leaving a hummingbird feeder out in the fall and winter will deter proper migration of hummingbirds. If you have hummingbirds visiting a feeder, the feeder can be left out for as long as the hummingbirds visit. It surprises many that these tiny creatures venture out in our side-ways rain and windstorms. I have found that a window-mounted feeder, secured in or near a corner offers needed shelter for the birds as they light. This also offers the best resistance to the wind and rain and losing nectar due to winds. Being a fan of any creature, large or small that dares such a journey, I have placed a small metal garden lattice further in the corner, in the dirt of an empty flower pot. This offers the hummer the chance to rest out of the wind in-between its feedings. During our recent cold spell, with temperatures down to twenty eight degrees fahrenheit, I managed to capture some photos of a male Anna’s hummingbird perching. At first light, the male came in for nectar. A syrup mixture of 4:1 (water:sugar) will start to freeze at twenty seven degrees fahrenheit. During unusual cold spells, hummingbirds will perch and their metabolic rate lowers. Should you discover one in this state, do not disturb it. The December hard freeze was a rude reminder for several Surf Pines residents. Keep in mind these basic rules: • Disconnect hoses from faucets • Keep thermostats set no lower than 50℉ • Monitor unoccupied homes • Update contact information with SP security • Keep five digit address visible from street. Surf Pines Association www.surfpines.org Board President Susan Holloway 3619 SE Francis St 706–5860 [email protected] President Burr Allegaert 89332 Manion Dr 738–7717 [email protected] Portland OR 97202 Vice-President Gheri Fouts 89531 Shady Pines 738–6434 [email protected] Vice-President Norman Tutton 89509 Manion Dr 717–0958 [email protected] Treasurer Brian Radditz 33250 Silverspot Lane 861–0190 [email protected] Treasurer Dave Butler 89841 Sea Breeze Dr 440–5083 [email protected] Secretary Clarke Powers 89975 Surf Pines 738–9296 [email protected] Landing Dr Secretary Don Kruger 90128 Manion Dr 440–1446 [email protected] Director Norma Keever 89026 Ocean Dr 738–5069 [email protected] Director Tom Hatch 89299 Manion Dr 784–0279 [email protected] COMMITTEES Administration Safety & Security Administrator Debbie Eddy 717–2535 [email protected] Roads & Grounds Don Kruger 90128 Manion Dr 861–3815 [email protected] Security John Gates 33317 Surf Pines Lane 738–0637 [email protected] Community Katie Weber 89783 Sea Breeze Dr 723988––57998116 [email protected] Relations Bonnie Rogie 89825 Surf Pines 717–1003 [email protected] Committees Landing Dr SREoaCdUsR &IT GYrounds Don Kruger 90128 Manion Dr 440–5083 [email protected] Community Katie Weber 89783 Sea Breeze Dr 738–5986 [email protected] Relations Helpful Community Contacts http://www.surfpines.org/helpful-community-contacts/ The Surf Pines Breeze is a quarterly publication of The Surf Pines Association 33317 Surf Pines Lane, Warrenton, Oregon 97146 Members are invited to contribute articles. Contact Jeff Hall at [email protected]