Friday, July 20, 2012

Good Morning!!

The day has started out with a bit of rain. Oh well, we're off to Colville & Spokane to do more delivering of our "stuff". Shedding more and more each day. We will truly only be left with the 2 suitcases that we are allowing each of ourselves for this journey.

To continue what I started yesterday, once the seed was planted in our lives as a real possibility, we continued to do research and, at this point, have decided that Costa Rica & Panama in Central America and Ecuador & Uruguay, in South America, fit our criteria. So based on these 4 countries, we developed a plan of action as to how to make it happen.

After a very harrowing but successful unpleasant event in January, 2012, we began to put things in motion. Mike began cleaning out our "RESOURCE" shed. When I first arrived here, it was nothing more than junk to me but, alas, as the items in that dark pit began to save us time and time again as we needed parts to fix this or that, I became a believer and dubbed it the Resource Shed. When you live miles and miles from a hardware store and a trip to the hardware store means at least 3 hours out of your schedule and life, the Resource Shed became an even more important part of my life.

It took Mike 3+ weeks to sort through it all - true garbage, metal, recycle, & keep. When all was said and done, he had a full truck load of metal! He thought, hey, if I get enough to pay for the gas in the truck to haul it to Kettle Falls, I be lucky. Well, there was gold in them thar metal!! He walked away with $284!! With more than enough to cover the gas, he went and celebrated with himself and had a beer or two at Northern Ales - one of our favorite places to hang out!!

By Easter, we felt we were "close enough" to put the house on the market. As Mike and I have been in this business collectively for over 55 yrs, we think we know a thing or two about how it's done. So we put the house on the market at a price we could live with but was agressive, which is needed in this market. And, voila!! The 3rd buyers to look at the property bought our lovely paradise!! It will now be their paradise!

As of Wednesday, July 25th, Jeff & Jodee Granville along with their 2 beautiful children, Logyn (6) and McKoy (2) AND Wendy Granville & Steve Partridge will be coming "home". Jeff and Wendy are brother and sister and hale from Anacortes, WA. I know I butchered the children's names, so I apologize now.

There is so much more that has happened behind the scenes that I'll probably address later but just know that no move much less a move of this magnitude carries lots of emotional baggage for everyone!! Mike, as I've said before, has lived on this beautiful land for 37 years. This WAS his dream!! This was where he thought he would take his last breath of life. Never in a million years did he or anyone else think he would ever make the decision to agree to do this journey.

For me, having moved 31 times in 30 years, and having packed up my life and carried only what I could get into my car 12 years ago almost to the day, to move out here blindly to be with Mike, this isn't as harrowing. However, this IS my home! I've forged a beautiful life here with work and special dear friends. This ain't so easy for me either!

I'll end with you all just knowing that Mike & I are doing this TOGETHER, hand in hand, hearts blended in this fantastic, exciting adventure! We are young enough and very healthy - so let's do it NOW before we can't. 

Have a GREAT day!