Sideways and then straight,kind of like a country road.

Well Dear readers I am going to give this a go,let's see where it goes from here.

The past year plus some was one that tested us to the point of feeling like the Universe had deemed us unfit or some such thing.I was unemployed,my Father has become crazy in a heart breaking fashion from dementia and just one thing after another.The worst was the loss of our boys' friend whom had been a part of our family since our boys were very young.And then you are told by your landlord you need to move. It was one of those years you cry "Why me? What have I done?" and all of your friends reassure you they have had years like it before and you come out stronger for it,usually with something much better.

Somewhere in there I did manage to full fill  my dream of going to school to become a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner which was a financial struggle but the whole family pulled together and I am now almost finished with the program. I am sure I will blog more about this later.

Then one day it was all over and our friends were right, out of the storm good things can come.A text message was the tipping point back towards good things to come.

We were trying to figure out where we wanted to move to,the housing market in the Portland area is tight so finding a good match was looking like a needle in a haystack. Then one morning I woke up to a text from our dear friend Jen in Sisters. Long time readers may remember me writing about visiting her and her family. She had a thought just as she was falling asleep- we could move to Sisters and live in the Hacienda,their former house! She went on to mention the fabulous early American music project at the local high school for our young Sol. I could work for her in her earring shop while I finish school and get myself going and since Chance has so many excellent work skills and there is a lack of skilled workers finding a job for him should work out quickly.

Now I am going to be honest here,I wanted to text back right away and say YES!!!! YES!!! because we have always wanted to live in Sisters ,we love the house and the land it sits on but I calmed down and Googled the school program for Sol,if we couldn't sell him on it,it wasn't going to work. Then I called Chance at work. We both thought and talked it through for a few days and then approached Sol.It was an easy sell,he loves it in Sisters and the idea of all the things the school has to offer was inspiring to him.

Then the work of moving across state began,we downsized our stuff because we wanted to,we sold some things,Chance left his job a few weeks early to make logistics of moving work-many trips back and forth needed to happen before the big move and then we began to say to friends not good bye but see you soon.

We also left Issac behind in Portland,being 20 he was ready to be out on his own. we knew this was coming,he'd been talking about it but it was weird to be the ones moving away just as your son is flying from the nest.

On June 19th 2014 we moved onto 97 acres,2 miles out of town up a dirt road. We have a 900 square foot house with two bedrooms,the only utility we have on grid is power,wood heat,propane for hot water and a well for water.Since we are not on a sewer line we have a very modern looking composting toilet and all water from the house drains into drain fields..We also have use of the 30 foot greenhouse and our fenced in garden area is about an acre of land.We were able to bring our hens with us,their yard is about 1/4 of an acre.We share the property with Emile who is the father of our friend,he lives in a gorgeous A Frame he built himself that is across from our house about 400 yards away.

We have repairs to do on the house since it sat for a year and a half empty. We got here too late to garden this year but since the garden needed overhauling it gives us more time to have things more in place for Spring.

As of today we are moved in and some work has been done. All three of us are working and so far enjoying the adventure of living someplace very new to us.

Now we begin relearning things! Prepare yourselves to laugh at us,cry with us and be inspired by the beauty of this place. Gardening here is a totally different thing -the weather keeps you guessing a lot. Living off grid will have its learning curve I am sure- we already ran out of propane once and wondered what was up with the hot water heater for a few minutes.Living along side wild critters that aren't just the skunks we had at our old house will be interesting too- I no longer scream at big spiders,bugs are bigger here and you just become immune to their presence.
Next time I will have photos to share.Not of the spiders but of the house and land. I am not sure how much homesteading news I will have right away but we will just have to wait to see what comes up.

Until next time
Rois