Shakin' the dust off

Florence Oregon lighthouse (courtesy shutterstock)

The eclipse trip Big Ag and I took recently was good in many ways, but one of the biggest reasons is that it shook the dust off me. When you are comfortable and happy in your routines, it's easy for them to become a rut, and taking a trip of any length (farther than the grocery store, anyway) enlarges your perspective again to where you not only appreciate where you've traveled to, but you also appreciate home more, once you get back.

In short, sometimes you have to be someplace else in order to re-learn how to be here. "Here" as in the present, wherever that takes place.

When I was in my 20's, I was seized with a chronic restlessness that caused me to travel all the time. I backpacked through Europe for months. I traveled cross country for several weeks on an Amtrak pass, did 10 day back country trips up Mt. Whitney and the high Sierras. If bigger trips failed to materialize I got in my car, alone, and drove to Santa Barbara, Joshua Tree, or Palm Springs for the weekend. 

In truth, I was driven to travel because I lived in shitty places I usually could not wait to get away from, in that grand wasteland known as 1980's Los Angeles.

Of course I could not wait to get away from my dingy apartment, with the view of the parking lot and the neighbors with the loud television. When we're young we may not know much, but we recognize when we're in a place we need to escape from.

But the thing about growing up is that eventually, you hopefully become successful and end up living in a home and a place you love -- one the younger you would have loved to vacation in. Big soaking tub? Check. Marvelous view? Check. Pretty bathroom, sans mold and cockroaches? Double check. And so you stay put more. You put down roots because you're finally in good soil. But like any house plant, it's possible to get root bound and dusty and need to be freed from your pot and shaken up a bit once in awhile.

This trip to see the eclipse and the Oregon coast reminded me that yes, I do live in paradise compared to where I came from. But there are other paradises that need to be explored, too. The Oregon paradise we drove through had pine forests, lighthouses, wide open beaches and random beach towns with great breweries. And I remembered that paradise is found all over the planet, if we're willing to travel to meet it where it lives. 

And sure enough, I returned from our vacation calmer, more in the moment, and happier. Sometimes you just need to shake the dust loose and move around a bit to realize that deep roots are advantageous in some ways, yes, but not if they make you incapable of being anyplace else.

The Spokane Word

Me and a moose.

We are back at home, resettling ourselves after our trip to Spokane. Travel these days is an enormous hassle, but if you can put up with the long TSA lines and sitting in an aluminum can with no wi-fi or food which is hurled 36,000 feet into the sky for a few hours, the perspective and sights are worth it. 

When I was in my 20's, I was a travel addict, flying all over the world. But this was in the era of decent airline meals (you were always fed), movies, cocktails and comfortable seating. As Big Ag said to me when we got on our plane, "It's not the Pan Am Era anymore, honey." Yes, and we are the worse for it, folks.

From south....

to north. And back again.

Big Ag and I were technically on a reconnaissance mission to the northern areas of Washington and Idaho to see if we might like it enough to retire there. I'm grateful we had five days there to scout around and see the sights; it gave us more than a tourist's eye for the towns we went through. Plus we have a couple of friends who have moved there who we met for breakfasts who helped us navigate some of the terra nova.

So could we live there? Absolutely. Will we live there? Quite probably, sometime in the next decade or so. Minimum three years, maximum 10. Having lived in California for most of my life, I was astonished at just how much more affordable, how much more green, how much friendlier and how beautiful the area was. Of course we'll be going back a couple more times, in other seasons, to see what we think, but for now our views are positive.

A stop at Big Ag's house of worship.

Big Ag was astonished at the sight of ammo sitting in easy reach out on the shelves of Cabelas (in California, it's kept under lock and key and you have to ask for it). How ironic that despite the well-armed population (Idaho allows you to carry weapons if you wish) I never felt safer. Folks in this part of the country are treated as adults and seem to live up to what's expected of them. Sure, they may have a gun in holster on their hip, but they are also friendly, helpful and really go out of their way to be courteous.

Downtown Spokane, however, is a hot mess. Lovely hotels and some good restaurants, but a homeless population that makes parts of it look like Downtown Portland. Lots of young, able-bodied, sane people living in their own society in a collection of homeless hotels, getting three square meals and hanging around on the sidewalk with their friends when they aren't eating or sleeping.

They don't seem to ever leave downtown at all, but seeing it makes me see a possible connection between the Holster Set and the fact that the northern parts of both Washington and Idaho are the prepping capital of the nation. Perhaps it's not the teeming masses coming out of San Francisco and Seattle they fear, but those coming out of downtown Spokane itself.

Coeur d'Alene lake. Preppers, turn north here.

So between deep philosophical conversations about the differences in culture here and looking around at real estate, we also had a lovely Sunday brunch at the historic Davenport Hotel, walked beside Lake Coeur d'Alene, checked out the Spokane Valley Mall. (Our Central Coast has no mall, which I can live with, but also no Macy's, which is difficult when you're buying clothes and don't want to shop in either Kohl's or the $300-and-up spendy boutiques downtown. I wasn't going to miss a chance to do a little shopping!) We also spent a lovely morning in the beautiful Manito Gardens in Spokane.

Brunch in the Marie Antoinette Room at The Davenport

The beautiful Manito Gardens.

The pond at Manito Gardens.

So what's next for us? For now, a return to regular life. The beautiful thing about travel is that you have new eyes when you come home. I was conscious that we have a beautiful home and a great property which may not be our forever home, but is a pretty great place for now. But, you know, pioneer blood and all that still has me looking north and dreaming of someday.

Nothing wrong with that.

O Pioneers!

In the midst of packing and re-packing as we get ready to head to the Great Northwest for a little vacation and retirement home prospecting. Even with a full-time housesitter, there is a great deal that needs to get done around the homestead before we go, although having a housesitter helps immensely with not becoming overwhelmed with stress. Knowing that someone we know well will be actually living in our house while we're away helps with that a lot. Forget the neighbor checking in twice daily. Move someone in for the length of your vakay, I say.

Will we hate Spokane/Coeur D'Alene? Love it? Never want to come back here? I guess we'll find out. We are actually looking at retiring there in several more years (no worries residents, we are not coming to take your jobs). Most appealing to us is cost of living, followed by weather, followed by living in a place that actually has enough water. I can imagine the charm of  living in a place where enough wet stuff falls from the sky that one does not have to worry about the ol' well running dry on a year-to-year basis.

I come from a migrating tribe of people -- my family's personal story, told by our DNA and family history, takes us out of the Middle East during the Jewish diaspora, to the Mediterranean, then England, then the Eastern US, then to California. Looking over the horizon to new land is in my blood. I truly believe it is either in your DNA to be a pioneer or it isn't (and no judgement either way). You're either born with the migrating gene or not. 

But as we draw closer to the end of our careers, we ponder where we can best afford to have the quality of life we want, and where there are amenities close by that we will need or just want to have. Spokane is on the short list, and so out we go to case the promised land.

I'll take lots of pics and report in once we're home.

Staycation

I took this week off from the winery thinking I might make a road trip to visit some family in Tucson.  But Big Ag is in a busy time at work and, since I didn't want to go without him, I decided to keep the vacation as a plan for the future and just have a staycation instead.

Of course since it's spring, this means I will be doing a whole lot of work around the property.  Including some big projects I'm excited to talk about!

The basic design.  Mine will be cuter. I hope.

First of all, I bit the bullet and went ahead and and ordered a big, well-made 10' x 8' chicken garden shed to be the new chicken coop, which will be delivered and built this coming Tuesday.  Right now Cleo and Chloe, our newest chicks, are living in a small cage because there is not enough room in the current set-up for them and I want to ensure their safety. An overcrowded flock is one where the little hens get picked on by the big ones. Ellen and Portia (my Buff Orpingtons) have been great with the little girls so far in limited visitation times, but I don't want to push it. 

Once the coop is complete and the new hens are ready to move in, Miss Red the Angry Rhode Island Red will go down to live at the winery with the flock there, or will maybe become so enraged at the idea of moving she goes into a permanent state of rigor mortis and I use her as a garden statue.  At this point, I frankly don't care which.  Chickens who try to kill other chickens and humans only get so many last chances.

Big Ag is also in the process of building a large shop for himself, which will mean relocating some of our raised beds. Since we knew this in advance the beds will be fallow by summer, so we won't lose any vegetables. But it will be exciting to see this project come to fruition, if only because a large amount of crap stuff that's in the garage now will be moving out there.

And we're still in discussion about sheep or goats, not sure when that is going to happen but at least it IS a "when" and no longer an "if."

And this staycation week will also see me going to an industry event at another area winery, so perhaps I'll snap some pics and take you all along with me.  The temperatures are going to be warm and it seems like it's going to be a perfect week to enjoy some wine with friends as well as friends I've yet to meet!

And did I mention I will also be painting this fancy schmancy chicken coop?  Gotta start collecting paint samples and trying out color schemes.  The coop has shuttered windows, giving it a cottage-like look, and I will be landscaping in front of it to give it some nice "curb appeal."  It may be only chickens living in it, but we have to look at it, since it sits more or less outside the dining room window.  Any way, that will be a fun project I'm looking forward to in the weeks to come.

Hopefully, this staycation will be the right amount of work and rest.  It's so easy when you're enjoying the merry-go-round of modern life to remind yourself to occasionally step off the ride and take a break.