On the New Frontier

A week and a half ago, the journey to a new home in the Northwest began. With our car filled to the gills and beyond, Lucas and I left behind the amazing Mexican food, the rivers, the good peeps, and the enticing wildlife of Texas.


Our trip took us through some 2000 plus miles in 5 days. We stayed our first night on the road in Deming, New Mexico with my Uncle Gerry and Aunt Norma. It was lovely to spend time with both of them after so many years, and to have a warm and cozy place to stay in an otherwise barren desert landscape. The next day took us through Tucson - where Lucas stopped on the highway to cut down several stalks of agave to send to our new home for future didj making - on the way to Solana Beach in SoCa. Here we stayed with Lucas' brother and sister-in-law, Neil and Jamie, at their landlords lovely house while their's was being worked on. The vibrant flora colors of the coast was such a delight to see after the endless deserts of the days before. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast with the siblings at Naked Cafe in the sunny warm morning before we headed further up the coast.

We next stayed for 2 nights with Lucas' Uncle Joe and his lady Sabina in Goleta, just north of Santa Barbara. This is an incredibly beautiful area! If it wasn't for the high cost of living, I would have decided to change all plans and move here instead of the mountains north! The weather was beautiful, the ocean inviting, the homemade meals delicious, and the long bike ride fulfilling. We spent one afteroon biking to and along the beach to an overwintering site of the migrating monarchs. It was an amazing site to see....large clumps of hundreds of butterflys hanging from the branches of eucalyptus trees. Sadly, I realized at this point in the journey that my camera battery wasn't charged and I had no pictures of our trip. Also, it was disappointing to learn that the monarch population at this site has gone from 270,000 to 6,000 in the past 30 years!

And then, the last day of our journey took us to our new home in Dunsmuir, Cali, just south of Mt. Shasta.


Here have bought a very interesting mobile home in this town that claims to have the best water in the world. But, that is just icing on the cake in a town surrounded by endless beauty. Mt. Shasta is pictured here on the left with Black Butte on the right:


And it gets better: Literally 5 feet behind our house is a forested mountain. A hike partway up gives us this wonderful view of The Crags, which are also visible through the trees from our kitchen table:


We were able to buy this home at a really really good rate...buying it outright is costing us less than it would to have rented a house for a year! It is basically in good condition for it's age, but definitly has some work that needs to be done on it. We like it enough to want to be here while we look for the space to build our dream green home. As you can see, the paint choices of the previous owner of this mobile were a little odd:



We have now been here for a solid week - ok, minus the swift 2 days we spent going to Portland and back to retrieve some of my belongings in storage there, not nearly enough time to visit with many people. On the homefront we have have been very productive....winterizing the windows and doors, washing the carpets, priming the walls, cleaning cleaning cleaning, dealing with the kerosene heater that was spewing exhaust into the house and the fan that fell out of the ceiling as Lucas was cleaning it, finding good deals at garage sales on much needed furniture, drinking the water straight from the headwaters of the Sacramento River, and enjoying little jaunts into the surrounding areas. It is still quite chaotic in the house. Our things are not organized as we shuffle them to clean and paint.



It has been a year now since I left my home in the northwest, only to have returned to create a new home with the one I originally left to be with. And yes, we are starting to feel at home. I am personally overjoyed to be reunited with so many of my things that have been in storage all year. It feels so good to once again be surrounded by me-ness, AND to feel the unity created by mingling my things with Lucas' things. This is OUR house, we are creating a life together, and wonderfully working as a team to do what needs to be done. This house is being built on support, love, and endless potential. And it is gratefully surrounded by so many other reasons to enjoy a rich and meaningful life!