Years ago, I was living alone in La Grande, Oregon.  La Grande is a beautiful mountain town set in the Blue Mountains of North Eastern Oregon.  I could look out my living room window and watch elk weave their paths across the face of the mountains.  In the winter, the scene was like that out of a fairy tale, with millions of beautiful Christmas trees dusted with snow.

I had just opened my own retail store.  I was selling and servicing vacuums and sewing machines and also giving sewing lessons to kids.  The store was in an ideal location; right on the corner of an intersection in town with a stop light. Not an ideal location for pets with the traffic, but a good business location.  The house I was renting at the time was right next door.

I loved this house!  It was a gorgeous 2 story Victorian, built…