Statsraad Lehmkuhl Oceanics 1972-73

Debbie and I just celebrated our 52nd anniversary in November and we both hit 75 this January…. OMG.

We returned to Incline Village, Nevada (Lake Tahoe) after the Statsraad and picked up the pieces of the business that we left, essentially starting over. During the 30 years that we were in Tahoe, we grew our business of window coverings into a full interior design operation; raised two kids, Brian (1975)- Jessica (1978), and were pretty involved in school and community activities.

Peter K. visited us a couple of times when his ship pulled into San Francisco. I’ll never forget him wanting to water ski on Lake Tahoe I think like late September. I said Peter, ‘ it’s getting ready to snow’, and of course he said, “that’s a never mind”. We saw Joe F. one time in LA and had some written correspondence with a few Statsraad folks for a while. Unsuccessfully tried to track down our banyard neighbor Alan A. a couple of times while visiting family in LA. In the mid-eighties I took up fly fishing and really enjoyed it.

In 1995 we were in Bend, Oregon for a wedding and on the drive home stopped in a little town called Chiloquin….picked up a soda and a local
real estate magazine for entertainment on the drive back home. Four days later I was back in Chiloquin, buying a truly dilapidated, beat up, POS ranch that had 100 acres and 1.25 miles of riverfront on the Williamson River. We built a couple of log houses and remodeled two other houses and went into the fly fishing/lodging business. (Lonesome Duck Ranch, http://www.lonesomeduck.com)

2001 we sold the Tahoe house and moved full time to Oregon. We added an adjacent ranch and built another house that we lived in while doing B&B. Even though we enjoyed the guests and met a lot of great international
folks, it was just way too much time/work and so we sold that part of the ranch in 2013. We both enjoy our horses and belong to a group that does back country pack trips. We have seen some absolutely gorgeous country on these adventures. Hope to stay healthy enough to make a few more trips.

In October we went to South Africa; Cape Town, Kruger Nat’l Park and then Victoria Falls in Zambia. It was really a great trip and we loved it.
Jessica & Mike (husband) and two grandsons are in Bend (2 hrs north). Brian is in the Bay Area, so our family is pretty close.

Ranch is synonymous with work, which means we are always busy…retirement seems to be a fantasy…..but we enjoy what we are doing. Any shipmates coming through southern Oregon are always welcome.

Steve Hilbert – January 7, 2023