Oh man, my life has become suddenly interesting in unforeseen manner. My mother, may God bless and keep her, recently married her third husband.

Here's the twist: she married into money. She's known this guy since she used to work at his late wife's bookstore, that more than 35 years ago. She and my father were good friends with her late employer (gone about 8 years) and new husband. Her second husband (jerk) never knew my dad. That the third hubby and my dad were good friends is huge for me.

To the chase: this fellow worked for years for Weyerhaeuser in Oregon and along the way bought 360 acres with a view and much timber. He's been harvesting timber and raising cattle for years. It's hard to believe, but he's 94 and works regularly. I was skeptical but upon meeting him was amazed. Walks well, no limp, quick witted, tells great stories. My mother is mid 80s.

He hasn't lived on his ranch for about 8 years. During that time a grand-nephew has been living there, in the ranch house, a bit run down now, and more or less helping manage things. My new step dad (SD) harvests timber off the land regularly not to mention cattle. So it's not like he's absent. The wedding was in OlyWA, they had a reception in OR (in the vicinity of Eugene) about 6 weeks later. It's a bit of a scene there as many relatives are hoping to be in my SD's will. Trust me, I'm not imagining this.

His grand nephew has allowed a number of squatters to move onto the land and they pay him (the nephew) some quasi rent, not much I gather, and most of them harvest junk wood to sell as firewood. My SD is not keen on the squatters but is at a loss on how to get them off. He and some of the other relatives are concerned about the adverse possession thing, for those not familiar, a process whereby squatters can gain legal title to land after 10 years.

My SD's longtime lawyer is deceased, I imagine that's something you find when you're 94 and still going sort of strong. I'm gently twisting arms for them to get some legal advice in OR.

I hope this isn't TMI but it is an unusual situation. I genuinely like this guy and like the fact that he is making my mother's life better. I'd like to help him with this, I'm almost tempted to move to Eugene. My mom tells me that he likes me and asks about me. I have a bit of trepidation however about appearing to be some Johnny come lately city boy trying to evict a number of squatters way up in the Oregon woods. It could very easily become 'boy, you think you gonna get this land for your mama?'

OTOH, I'm not keen on a group of semi-deadbeats (word is there's some serious drug use on the ranch) making life stressful for my SD. He's worried his family trust could be in trouble. He has a granddaughter and greatgrandson and that's it, in terms of direct descendants. The other relatives in question are descendants of his 3 siblings.

Long story short (too late for that), any knowledge anyone has would be appreciated. I've been searching the web, one thing in his favor, I think, is that it is not 'hostile possession.' I've read here and there that if you are allowing them to stay on your land, they lose one of the main components for adverse possession, that being that they owner must know you're there and not want you there. This site talks about sending them a letter, registered mail I imagine, giving them permission to stay.

I'm puzzled as hell that these laws are on the books. All I can figure is that it's a way to put fallow, near abandoned land back into use. Odd nonetheless.

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