Getting to Know You

Two days since we arrived and we’re settling in a little bit.  The adjustment was slightly challenging at first: one, because of the change in lifestyle and surroundings, and two, because we came to the realization that we are a handful.  Tom and Karen have been so kind and welcoming to open their home to us, and we’ve felt a responsibility to be as small an imposition as possible.  But with ourselves, three little boys, and a dog…shiiiiiit, we’re imposing. We need to be consistently mindful, so they don’t regret inviting us to come on up.  So far so good.  Actually, so far so great.  They’ve been amazing.  I think I detect the joy of parents with grown children at having the sounds of young kids enjoying the surroundings again.

In a different, complimentary way, I have to say Tom and Karen are a bit imposing too.  They are hardcore and highly conscientious.  Grow their own food.  Have very little use for grocery stores.  They think about where every piece of trash should go because no one’s going to deal with it for you out here. Work the land on top of full time jobs.  Dug 9 football fields worth of four foot deep ditch themselves so they could lay piping to run power to their house, all with Karen pregnant.  And that house was a converted school bus they parked on their property and made a home, complete with sleep loft and sun room. Karen knows the temperature of the stream vs. what it should be at this time of year, and that too much clearing up the mountain has contributed to that rising temperature. To the point that Mick and I had a full on debate at the grocery store yesterday about whether or not to get apple juice.  I said no way, she said why not.  My why not was that they have apple trees galore, and I knew they had apple sauce, so my hunch was they had apple juice, and if they didn’t have apple juice they’d make apple juice.  And if we walked in the house with a jug of store bought apple juice not only would they be offended, but our status as people to be trusted with tasks around the property would drop precipitously.  And that’s on top of the internal debate I had about whether or not to buy potato chips and/or trust that they made their own.

Basically, Grizzly Adams called Tom and Karen asking to borrow some hardcore.

Speaking of which, we need to earn trust slowly in that department, prove we aren’t complete yahoos..  Tom mentioned they had a bunch of Douglas Firs to clear, and I said, “Hey, just say the word!”  He didn’t say anything.  Just kept walking.  I’m going to have to prove myself…. so maybe I’ll just start clearing trees on my own to show I can do it, start close to the house and work my way out.

On a side note, turns out you cannot pump you own gas in the entire state of Oregon. So it’s not all self serve these days after all.

Oh, not only did they have apple juice, it had been jarred and sealed back in 2007 – this is where I’m coming when the Rapture hits.

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