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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 2019)
14 Wednesday, November 6, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Scottie Wisdom&Faith Jean Russell Nave Scotties in love I9ve got two Scotties in love. Really! It all began when we adopted Piper and Bernie. Piper is a spayed female and Bernie is a neu- tered male. Even so, they fell in love. At least Piper fell head over heels in love with Bernie when she first arrived. I9d never seen such behavior before. She acted just like a teenage girl. She flirted with him. She rubbed him with her head and her body. She9d ask him to play with her; and she always wanted to be near him. At first Bernie didn9t know what to do with this little girl who wanted so much attention. As time passed he got used to it. Now he loves to be with her, too. When I let him out the back door he9ll often give out a quick bark, call- ing Piper out with him. It usually works. If she9s been sleeping, the sound of his bark will wake her and make her come running. The trigger for today9s article was my having recently watched them in the backyard. They wandered around the yard together smelling every new plant and each fallen leaf. They reminded me of a comfort- able couple taking a stroll in the park, sharing all God9s wondrous signs of spring. They were perfectly com- fortable together enjoying life and each other. I recently read an article about a study of dog9s brain scans with MRI machines. Scientists tested the brain activity in dogs when they were spoken to by their owners. Kind words from the owners9 voices triggered brain activity in the same region of the dog9s brain as loving thoughts light up in human brains. Their con- clusion was that dogs have a high probability of being able to love us in a similar manner that we love them. Of course anyone who has ever loved a dog already knew all of this. Bless Bernie and Piper for their love. Those who have lost a loved-one have an extra sensitivity to the value of love. Those of us with faith know that our deeply loved and lost souls will soon join us again in the next dimension. Think of the joy that will fill us and those souls when we all <see= each other again. Sometimes if you listen carefully you may even hear or feel your lost loved-one close by. The soul has no boundaries of time or space. I9ve now read so many true stories about people who have received signs from lost loved-ones that I9m comfortable in accepting the idea that my mother and father can still be close to me when I need them. This universe God cre- ated and gave to us is amaz- ing, limitless, and com- plex. Even scientists who study quantum physics now acknowledge that there is a very high probability of multiple dimensions to the universe. The debate now is how many exist, not if they are there. Open your mind to God9s vast existence and fill your heart with love. Life is better that way. Just ask Bernie. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:14 HABITAT: Representatives had supportive words Continued from page 3 Collins is their team leader, working under the supervi- sion of Habitat9s general con- tractor Snider. In the Meadows, Habitat is purposely not copying house plans to provide variety in the development. Owners have some say in the house design and finishing. No inte- rior walls are load-bearing, so adjustments can be made to interior spaces to meet the needs of the homeowner. They get to choose their inte- rior paint and trim. Snider pointed out the use of inte- rior pocket doors to eliminate the space taken by doors that swing into a room. Homes are heated and cooled in the main living space with a heat pump, and Cadet wall heaters warm the bedrooms. Most of the homes have cabinets built by a cabi- net-maker who provides them for his cost. Two-bedroom homes average 960 square feet and three-bedrooms are 1,056 square feet. Habitat homes cost $85.50 per square foot, plus the land cost, which for 2019 is $40,417. Monthly house payments range from $600- $900 depending on the fam- ily9s income, and is never more than 30 percent of their income. The payments include taxes, insurance, and homeowners9 dues. Habitat costs are kept low largely due to the volunteer construction crews. Snider is their only paid construc- tion staff. Besides the vol- unteer crews who regularly build, there is also a five-day women9s build every year. Local businesses and banks can organize work crews. Deschutes County provides workers to do lot cleanups and teens in the Deschutes County Juvenile Justice pro- gram come out to do a variety of jobs. YouthBuild and the high school construction class are a valuable addition to the building process, while the students gain marketable skills. All owners must complete 500 hours of sweat equity working on their homes. If an owner is physically unable to do that, they can help with office work at Habitat head- quarters and provide lunch once a week for the construc- tion team. All families must also complete a homeowner9s class. To qualify, applicants must have lived or worked within the Sisters School District for at least one year and meet income require- ments of earning 60 percent of the median income or below. Each family has a sponsor and is matched with a partner family. For a year after tak- ing possession of their home, each family gets a quarterly check-in to be sure everything is going well and to receive help with any problems. From submission of appli- cations for permits to the fam- ily turning the key in the front door generally takes about eight months. Because the YouthBuild project is a stu- dent learning program, those homes generally take about a year. Next spring Habitat will start construction of three sets of duplexes on six lots in ClearPine in the north end of Sisters. The lots were pur- chased with LIFT funding (Local Innovation and Fast Track). The housing program was created by Senate Bill 1582 with the goal of creating affordable homes for vulner- able families focused on com- munities of color and rural communities. The six lots appraised at over $80,000. Habitat9s purchase price was $58,000 per lot. Developer of ClearPine, Peter Hall, originally agreed to build eight units of afford- able housing as part of his development agreement with the City. Habitat is helping him fulfill that commitment. Three townhouses for six families will be built. One duplex will have two, two- bedroom units. The middle two-story building will have two, three-bedroom units, and the one on the north end will consist of one, two-bed- room and one, one-bedroom. Across the street will be more of the cottage homes that Hall has already built elsewhere in the development. The homes will be deed- restricted, land-trust homes. They will be perpetually affordable, with Habitat hav- ing the right of first refusal. Representative Helt of Bend was very impressed with what she saw and heard on the tour. Her father is a builder, so she said she is familiar with the challenges of construction. <You (Habitat) are doing a spectacular job. Everyone has super energy. I applaud your efforts,= she said at the completion of the tour. Representative Jack Zika of Redmond likewise had supportive words for the work done by Habitat. He said he personally had the opportu- nity to participate in a Habitat build with a group of Bend realtors. Helt conveyed Rep. Daniel Bonham9s regrets for not being able to join the tour due to other commitments. 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