One Whole Year Here

It was an Africa-hot and muggy Friday evening in late August that Lance and I set sail out of Birmingham, Alabama. Our GPS set course on a journey 2,300 miles – far, far away. In some ways it feels like time has flown by. Are we really on the tail end of summer, already? Is winter really just around the corner, again? In other ways, it feels like we’ve lived here for years. They know us by name at Lowes and we’ve made so many great friends in the neighborhood.

We’ve come a long way in the last year. Miles wise and project wise. There I go again, using ‘we’, when the driver of that moving van was Lance and the project manager for this cabin renovation has been none other than my handy hubby. The drive up here was an adventure in and of itself. Fixing up this cabin has kept Lance busy every single day. I’m grateful for his many talents. Without him, this exciting chapter in my life would not have been possible.

The ‘good things’ about Going To Idaho are still good. We love the lack of humidity. The sun warms me to the bone. I’ve gotten my best tan ever (without even trying). Every which way you turn, it’s absolutely gorgeous. Pictures just do not do it justice. Just ask our visitors, they’ll tell ya, it’s just so gosh darn purdy here! The people in our little lake community are about as nice as you could ask for. For a few beers, they offer a lot of help!

The ‘bad things’ are still bad… I miss my kids. Alot. Maybe if I didn’t like them so much, I wouldn’t mind living so far from them. I hold out hope that their inner compass will direct them to a kinder, cooler climate. Hey kids, ZERO hurricanes here, ever. The winters kinda suck. I grew up in Iowa, but headed south the first chance I got and toured the southeast for 20+ years. Winter anywhere north of the Mason Dixon line kinda sucks. Hey, Kristie, did I mention there are NO roaches in Idaho. Zero poisonous snakes either… Char, you’d probably never break a sweat (unless you wanted to).

It’s been quite a year, indeed. We got married, my daughter got married, my son got single… I spent a glorious 12 months not punching a time clock. I’ve never worked harder. Our kick-ass barn has 99 solar panels. We’ve got buttloads of wood, 6 chickens, a stump free yard with grass growing in abundance. Soon we’ll have a REAL foundation (poor Lance, NOT how he wanted to spend his entire summer). God is good, we’ve thanked Him daily for allowing the house not to slide down the mountain (it really was that bad, folks).

What does our future hold? Mary got a job (more on that later). Our wood piles are stocked, our chicks are about to move into a new coop and start laying some eggs. Our rooster already gets his cock-a-doodle-doo on every morning at sun up. Lance still has a list of projects to tackle before the snows come. I’ll do my best to keep you posted on all the fun we have out here in the great potato state of Idaho.