Friday, February 13, 2009

28 days in Oregon

We have been in Oregon for 28 days now, it feels like 28 weeks at least since we were pulling up to the farm with our u-haul. The funny thing with not working Monday thru Friday 9-5 is that I'm never quite sure what day or what time it is. What is time anyway? There are three natural measurements of time, a day - the earth's complete rotation on its axis, the month - the moon's journey around the earth, and the year - the earth's journey around the sun. Other than that, all measurements of time, hours and minutes, are arbitrary human constructs. For me the only time that matters now, is the time to take care of the animals. And I feel hungry, so I think I'll cook now, it must be dinner time.
28 Days. And how much we've done in that time. We've taken over care of the little critters, cleaned up the yard, the trees on the property had not been trimmed in 10 years. So Ed and I tackled that, it's hard work, two or three trees and we're shot. Then raking up the pine needles, which haven't been raked up in 10 years. We're going to rake them into a pile and burn them. You don't want to compost pine needles, they take too long to break down. We've started our compost piles, which I'm happy about, although in the cold weather we think it'll take awhile to break down. Hopefully that process will speed up with the warming spring weather. But we don't think it'll be broken down in time to start our garden this spring.
We went to a local nursery to get tips and advice on gardening, they told us to sit on our hands for 6-8 weeks. We can't start till late April/early May. The ground's still too muddy right now to till. I suppose this is all meant to teach me patience, which I thought I had, but maybe I lost.
And then there has been the constant work on the Airstream, and running into town to pick up nuts and bolts, and getting lost and then arguing about what size nut we need. Then coming back and seeing our little home, which we are trying to keep nice, torn up and with tools and mud strewn all over the place. It's stressful, and hard labor, and by the early afternoon we are exhausted and hurting and brain dead. So we eat dinner and veg out in front of the TV, we don't have cable hooked up yet, so we are limited to movies on our Netflix list. That's not so bad.
Building our home and our life here, for 28 days, and I can't even imagine what the next month will bring. I think my imagnation took a sabbatical, and I'll go on a snipe hunt to find it. Maybe tomorrow.

3 comments:

  1. Hi there....I enjoy your blog and I am very impressed with your energy and attitude.

    My husband and I moved to Alaska in 1980, our circumstances were similar to yours. ( Poor economy and lack of opportunity in, of all places, Oregon.)

    Phyllis

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  2. Hi there....I enjoy your blog and I am very impressed with your energy and attitude.

    My husband and I moved to Alaska in 1980, our circumstances were similar to yours. ( Poor economy and lack of opportunity in, of all places, Oregon.)

    Phyllis

    ReplyDelete
  3. I appreciate your comments. We beleive that if you have a good attitude, you can have anything.
    Ed and I thought about Alaska, but ruled it out as too cold, and a little too far north. However we both admire your ability to make that change.

    have a good day.

    ReplyDelete