One year later

One year later we are still here in our house. A Central Oregon saga continues for us and many other homeowners who struggle in this current economy and are bewildered by the whims of the banks! We did not get our modification of course, who has? What would they be modifying anyway? The mortgage company informed us over a year ago that they do not reduce principal to current value. They called several times and informed us that we were denied again (for the 5th time) because we were denied the first time... now does that sound logical? Does this make sense? Nope. They were the ones encouraging us to continue to apply for a loan modification.


In the mean time, back in January 2011, a friend sent me some information about a special program through the Oregon Homeownership Stabilization Initiative (OHSI) Oregon Affordable Housing Assistance Corporation. Oregon was given ten million dollars from the federal governments Hardest Hit Funds to help Oregon homeowners in the "hardest hit" areas prevent foreclosure. These funds are our tax dollars at work. (This remark must be read in a sarcastic voice) We all know that our tax dollars bailed out the banks and the mortgage insurance companies that backed our upside down loans so there is no real motivation to work with the homeowner by giving them a loan modification because if they foreclose the loans are covered through the mortgage insurance on the homes. All win win for the banks and not the upside down homeowner, but that is an entirely different story.

The program would give the homeowner a $20,000 loan that would be paid directly to their mortgage company as mortgage payments for up to 12 months or until the funds ran out. During the 12 month program the homeowner would be required to take classes on finance and credit, etc. and stay in contact with the local non profit hired to administer the program.

I of course, applied. I figured, what the heck, I had all my paperwork in order because I had been filling out loan modification paperwork over and over for a year and a half, how hard could it be? Neighbor Impact was chosen to administer the program and when I went in to my application interview the interviewee was very impressed that I had all my documents in such pristine order. At this point I could potentially hire myself out as a professional loan modification specialist.

Of the 15,000 Oregonians who applied for this assistance, ours was one of the 5,000 that were chosen in a lottery for final review. I found this incredible since according to the documents, my monthly income is half of what our full monthly house payment should be. We were chosen as one of the 348 families in Deschutes County to receive this special loan. I was shocked and amazed that we had been chosen but also thankful because it way buying us time.

As a member of Legal Shield, I faxed the loan documents to our Oregon Provider Law Firm for review. According to the attorney that reviewed the documents, the stipulation on this "loan" stated that if we stayed in the house for 5 years, the loan would go away, if we gave up the home by a short sale or foreclosure before then, we would be liable for any amount of "equity" earned over and above the current mortgage. Since we have a current debt on the house (first and second) of almost $800,000 I think we were safe to assume that there would be no ''equity'' in the home to worry about.

The documents were signed in April and finally in July the first payments, pro rated back to April, were sent to the mortgage company. By September, it was all over. Because our mortgage payments are so high, we got six months of payments out of that $20,000.

I did the program because I could, but the reality is, it is a very small band aid that is being put on a problem that is much larger then anyone can possible imagine. Do we make any more money now then we did a year ago? Nope, working three different businesses’ I am making about the same as I was a year ago. Could I do more? Yes, I am working on that but have not been able to significantly increase my income to the point that I can afford to catch-up the over $70,000 in back payments and start making a monthly mortgage payments. How many other people in Deschutes and Jefferson Counties are in the same boat?

So, what are we doing? Believe this or not, we got a letter from the mortgage company in September that offered to give us funds to move if we put the house on the market for a short sale. I called my Legal Shield Provider Attorney, had them review the program and they gave me the go ahead. The attorney I spoke with said that there was nothing they could see that would cause me any problems and that if it really works, let them know. The fine print on the back stated that the house had to be listed by October 4th. I called my BNI Chapter Realtor, Julie Moe with Cascade Sotheby’s International Realty and she put me in contact with Jordan Haase, the Cascade Sotheby’s short sale expert. She listed the house and sent the docs off to the mortgage company ASAP. Since that time, we have reduced the price from $500,000 to $429,000 and shown the house 6 times. Except for one phone call, and one letter letting us know that they are in communication with our realtor, we have not heard a peep from the mortgage company. We are also not yet in foreclosure. The only explanation I have for still being here and potentially having one more gardening summer is the grace of God.

There and Back Again

Anyone who reads Tolkien would understand the title. There has been so much going on this past fall and winter that I have not had the time or ability to write in a gardening blog! One of the things this gardener really dislikes is moving! I like to stay in one spot and watch my garden grow year after year and track the changes, triumphs and disasters that can happen in one place. I have moved away from my garden and started over several times in my life and each time I feel like I am leaving old friends and family. Due to the economy we have known for awhile that we will be moving at some point in the near future. In the mean time I have been thinking of what to do with a yard full of great plants when it happens! Rather then leave them in the ground to die while the bank does nothing to care for them, I planned to have a huge garden giveaway. When is the best time to throw open the doors of opportunity for all my gardening friends to come dig them all up? I was thinking April would be the time, but at this point, we do not know exactly when we will move or where we will live when we do. My emotions, and plans have been up and down all winter based upon the vagaries of the mortgage company. Bottom line, we have, like many, been waiting for decisions on our loan modification. I will not even go into what incredible convoluted craziness we have dealt with in this process. That story will be for another blog. I will keep all of my garden buddies posted as to when the bid day, week, or weekend will be when my plant friends and family will be up for grabs.

From Useless to Delicious

My daughter and her family moved to Washington state for job and land reasons. They wanted to be able to plant an edible landscape and live where housing costs were lower then central California. The house they bought in an older subdivision northeast of Seattle had recently been spiffed up and landscaped to put it on the market. Not a single plant in the yard was edible, so they began a process of transition that may take them several years. With tall established trees in the back yard, and shrubs galore, there were many areas to evaluate! All the shrubs that did not produce food must GO! I was the beneficiary of the first round of removal when we went to visit two weeks after they moved in. I was able to dig out and bring home a van full of hosta, heather, barberry and other assorted perennials that I knew I could grow in Central Oregon. There were a vast number of unwanted plants that I did not have room for that had an uncertain future. The idea to call a landscaper and tell him, come-n-get-em, was put into play, but the said landscaper did not call back, (his loss) so the rest of the shrubs and plants in the front of the house were composted post haste! Also anything that resembled a juniper was also removed! In the place of the hosta dell is now a blueberry bed! Elderberries and other assorted fruiting shrubs have made their way into the yard as well as beans, tomatoes squash and corn. The transformation of their entire yard will take a number of years and much discussion but at least for them, it is a start! I was a little concerned about the opinion of the neighbors who seem to be really into ornamental shrubs and flowers! Maybe their family will pioneer a neighborhood revolution and more and more of their neighbors will follow suit! I will continue to update you as the Useless to Delicious tale unfolds.

September WHAT?

I know, really? Where did the summer go? I started out in the spring with these wild intentions of blogging my way through the summer and now that our short short summer is on the wane, I have done nothing! I have been busy building a business rather then working in my garden. Some years are like that I suppose. Right now the daylilies need to be cut back, the hollyhocks look silly because one or two of my deer buddies decided they looked better without leaves and the shasta daisies have flopped over. All the perennials need to be dead headed AND my veggie garden was mowed down by a chipmunk and his extended family. We also made a tactical error when we put the veggie bed under the eves of the shop. With no gutter the hail storms and thunder showers trenched the bed right in the center! We have a few tomato's from the greenhouse and that is about it. My energies were not in the veggie realm this year! Thankfully, not one daylily was eaten in bloom by a deer. I have no idea why they were few and far between this year but until just last week, they seemed to avoid my garden! The chipmunks on the other hand and the beetles have been busy. I do not have a single plant without bite marks, hail holes or nibble marks, but once I go at it this weekend with the clippers, most of that will be cut back!

Requiem for a Lavender

I had been expecting a bumper lavender harvest this summer because of the age and size of my plants. I was not expecting to discover that most of my mature plants did not make it through the winter! I left them in until Memorial weekend to make sure they were either really dead, or just mostly dead ...

(From the Princess Bride)
Inigo Montoya: He's dead. He can't talk.
Miracle Max: Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.
Inigo Montoya: What's that?
Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.

With a lavender, they have little loose change but they all needed to be ripped out and replaced!
Most online sources say that quality producers like Grosso should bloom for 7-10 years and some farms in California say up to 12 years. Most of my plants were less then 5 years old! The problem? They were too wet and cold for too long. Normally drainage is not a problem in Central Oregon! My sister in Olympia Washington had the same problem on a larger scale. Due to the long cold wet winter she lost many shrubs. I am curious to know what happened in your neck of the woods! Comment on this post and let me know how the weather this year has made an impact to your Central Oregon garden!

Green is Green, a Common Sense Approach.

I know that in today's world people seem to use words to describe activities that help them categorize the activity better. For instance, Sustainable, Green, Organic and Natural are all words we use now to talk about methods of activity that have been around for thousands of years. The world was Green and Organic until about 250 years ago then the industrial age created a need for more food to be delivered faster. As a result, man got busy and technology, industry, and the age of doing things faster and bigger came into being. One of the by-products of the farming boom over the last 200 years is a myriad of products on the market for the home gardener.
At any typical garden center or hardware store you can find an array of products on the shelf all labeled with use me, feed me to your plants or spray me to get rid of the bugs.. etc. Some are plant or bug specific, rose systemic, aphid killer, garden vegetable food! They also come with warning labels and if you happen to spend time reading the fine print you may want to run screaming from the store.
Personally I ignore all of that stuff and do what I have always done! I never use anything on my plants but sunshine, water and a composted mulch. If an aphid wants to visit, fine, but if 1,000 of his buddies also want to visit I reduce the population with a shot of water from the hose and that usually takes care of the problem on that particular plant for the day. If you use common sense in the garden just like we should with our own bodies we know that feeding our plants natural food is wisdom. Look at the natural forests of the world! Who waters? Who feeds? Who sprays for bugs? Mmmm, how on earth did that forest make it thousands of years without your intervention? Talk about Sustainable! The forest survives natural disasters, bad weather, fires and not one person had to do a thing and yet it is filled with beautiful plants!
Some garden plants come as they were created and are usually labeled wildflowers or species, but most are cultivars bred to perform a particular way and far from the original plant or plants the breeder started with. Here is where a little research and common sense makes a huge difference to success or failure of a plant! Pick the right plants for your garden and they will not need much more then that good old dirt, sunshine, adequate water and good mulching. Another key is smart placement. I have shade and moisture loving plants in the front of the house where they are in shade most of the day and sun loving plants out around the patio where they receive at least 6 hours or more of sun. Drought resistant plants like Flax live happily at the very end of a sprinklers range so they are never too wet. Learning placement and soil requirements and what zone a plant likes to live in is more important then anything else when planning and maintaining your garden! No amount of artificial fertilizers or pesticides will help you if you put a sun loving plant in deep dark shade and wonder why it does not thrive! If you take a trip to Portland and fall in love with a gorgeous plant at a garden center, make sure it will also survive a sub zero winter unless you plan to bring it into the house with you in the fall! I do have a pot of Agapanthus that I overwinter in the garage. I love the plant but there are times when it seems like such a hassle to move it in and out. I also have tried many varieties of rosemary in the garden to no avail so I keep it in a pot also that goes in and out yearly.
Sustainable? Well, in Central Oregon, if you want a landscape that takes care of itself, I think rocks are in order. You do have to water unless you live in a place with a stream coming through your yard. Even a completely xeriscaped garden requires some water upon occasion. I am much too partial to daylilies and other perennials that need more water than is naturally available so we have an irrigation system in place that uses our field irrigation water. Thick mulch has always been the recommended method of keeping moisture in the ground so I top dress with compost every spring. The natural decay of the composted mulch adds nutrients and humus to the soil and gives the natural soil microbes a good meal. Healthy soil, moisture, sunshine and the right plants for your area will give you the greenest garden you can imagine!

Spring has sprung!

Winter seems to finally be on the wane! I am so glad that the daffodils and other early spring flowers have decided to show themselves in my Central Oregon Garden! It always amazes me to see primroses blooming on the ground even when the nights are in the teens! These hardy perennial plants seem to thrive on tough conditions. In the Central Oregon high desert, the ground can be frozen yet bone dry at the same time and these plants still find enough to live on and bloom! In spite of several snow storms and cold snaps, the daffodils and hyacinths are now blooming along with the forsythia.
Even though it has been cold and we wait impatiently for spring, it is still a wonderful time of year. As the days start to warm there is enough snow on the mountains to make the view driving toward Bend or Redmond fabulous! The Three Sisters show up against the skyline like nothing from anywhere else!
We just got back from a trip to Oklahoma City last week. The landscape there is flat and brown and dead except for the state tree called the Red bud tree. We saw them blooming bright purple in Bricktown next to the Cox Convention center and in landscaped areas around the city. According to the locals, the trees start out with red buds, hence the name.
We drove 90 miles to Ada from OKC to tour our corporate home office facility and on the drive there, not a mountain or hill to be seen and the trees on the side of the road all looked the same. Oregon has such bio diversity compared to the mid west states! We have so much to be thankful for even if it freezes at night until mid summer!