While in Idaho...

Having shared some snap shots of our life before the move you might find yourself wondering why we ever moved. We were, after all, choosing to take our children from the home and church they had known for almost a decade and take off to the unknown. Prior to arriving in Idaho this last June, neither the Mountain Man or I had ever set foot there.

Here we are on our first week in ID. Just playing around.

The Mountain Man’s family had left farming only a generation before his birth. His father vividly remembers growing up on a farm. Mountain Man spent his teenage years working on another family’s farm. As much as Mountain Man might call me a hippie, my family had been on ranch land in Wyoming until my grandfather and grandmother moved away with their children. Land is part of our heritage, living close to it and getting our food from it, not at a store but at the end of a day’s hard work. Even living in town my fondest childhood memories are of summer days with dinner straight out of my mother’s garden. Ultimately, we both wanted our family to be more self sufficient. We wanted our children to grow up with the obvious proof of the rewards of hard work that working land will provide. You plant, you nurture, and eventually, God willing, you eat the fruits of your labor. 

Obviously we could have bought land on the East Coast near our parents. His are both living on the Delmarva Peninsula and mine live in Florida. Why didn’t we just move outside of town with a bit of land? In our previous location visiting with grandparents was easy. Why would we set out across the country? We had both been drawn to the wide open spaces. Our visit to Crook County, Wyoming two years before had shown us both a place where there were more animals than people. The worst traffic jamb we experienced there had been four horses in the road. The scenery was breathtaking and awe inspiring.

We enjoy a sense of community and friends and family around but as the years have gone by we are seeing people who are increasingly busy. Busy and the years passing us by was a real fear as these kids grow… We moved looking for more connection, for life to follow the natural patterns set by season and weather, hoping for a closeness that comes with fewer people to know and more time in which to know them more deeply. In other words, we would like to be more intentional with our time. We would like to live more deeply.

My mom had this hanging when I was a child.

What did we do with our time once we arrived in Idaho? 

We had some family time.

Mountain Man's brother helped get the generator running.

Aunt's are fun to have around with Playdoh...

And the family enjoyed a meal.

Cat enjoyed time to work on her art, music, and writing.

One of her many drawings.

One of five instruments that lived with us in the trailer.

Looks like a serious writer to me!

I did  a little more of a few things I enjoy.

We went to farmer's markets, days in the park, and one awesome Fourth of July celebration at the 7N Ranch. http://www.7nranch.com/7N%20Ranch.html

Timber Wolf we met at the ID Falls Market.

Some of the many musicians we met at different parks in the area.

The Newby's amazing fireworks display!

 Adventurer said this was our best fourth of July ever!!!

 We went fishing, played in creeks, climbed trees, and took hikes.

 

So nice to have all this time together!

Come back for our next post so you can hear about scheduling a school year in a 26 foot trailer and what we did with our free time as it started to get cold. :-)

Dress up!

Pictures from before and now... Choices

      Our family has spent the last eight years in our own home. We loved our neighbors and our privacy and our autonomy. This decision to sell what we own and change our lives so completely was not easily made. However, when we researched this part of the country, Cheyenne was not on our radar. So, we chose to rent at first and will wait to consider buying a new home until we are more familiar with the area.

We grew by one person in this home.

My lovely husband built this fire pit.

Sometimes we laughed our heads off

and hugged up on each other.

We played in the snow

and the leaves

planted gardens

and had family visits

as often as we could

and we laughed some more

In case you weren't sure, we had a good life.

      Apparently the rental market is booming in Cheyenne. Plenty of properties available at a wide variety of prices had us feeling optimistic. As the answer to whether or not pets were allowed kept coming back no over and over, we started remembering some of the very best things about owning our own home as we had for the better part of the last decade. As we drove through several shady neighborhoods our sliding scale of suitability was based on two questions, “Does this property fit the budget we are trying to maintain?” and “Do we think we will die in this neighborhood?” After several owners told us they had just listed and rented their properties within a week and that they had waiting lists of up to two pages if the lease they had fell through, it was obvious this was a quickly moving market. One woman called us as we waited outside a home for our appointment to see her listing to tell us it had just been rented to the people who were scheduled to see it before us. Finally, it became apparent that we might have to adjust our budget to get into a home we were comfortable with where we could keep our family dog in our home.  Our plan of living debt free and saving for property of our own again remains important but we may have to figure out a way to bring more in rather than living so inexpensively. Cheyenne is shaping up to be more expensive than our time in Idaho was. 

Some more memories from MD.

Camping on the beach

Fishing at the beach

Monkeying around with friends

and having back yard battles with cousins

Hiking barefoot, of course

One of the Sandman's friends...

A random visit from a neighbor a few doors down. 

Cat's friend clearly making an important point.

A few friends from our time in Idaho...

     While we were in Idaho we were reminded of just how important friends and a sense of community are to our family. It is not places we will miss but the faces of the people we leave behind.

     So we move on from our temporary place of refuge and all the beloved people we came to know there.

     And we move forward to a new place. On our drive in to Wyoming I happened to glance at the map and see Daniel, Wyoming with the location of the first Mass in Wyoming just as we approached the exit to that very spot. Believing in His ability to lead us we made that our first stop on this leg of the journey. 

Our home for this year

Day 1 in Wyoming

     We are settling in at the new home and the kids are looking forward to a very white winter with our first morning in the house finding the back  yard covered in snow. 

Finding your Huckleberry

Have I mentioned that plant identification is a little hobby of mine? In Maryland I had planned a beautiful butterfly garden that could be viewed through our front window and every May we planted our vegetable garden over Mother’s Day weekend. One of my only complaints about the summer we have spent is that I have seldom had dirt under my nails at all.

Beloved butterfly garden at our last home.

With that said, I have a confession. I spent the month of August looking on every outing for huckleberries completely without success. I had visions of huckleberry jam, smoothies, and pancakes and it was beginning to look like it was not going to happen unless I went to a store to buy huckleberries. While some people would hesitate to do that because a cup of this little berry can cost as much as $20 I did not want to do it because I knew they would taste better if the family and I picked them ourselves. 

Wonderful Yarrow

Cat and Mountain Man had not complained to much when I kept dragging everyone out in the heat to search for these berries. The Sandman was my champion, willing to forage near and far and even volunteering to taste any berries we came across when I said I was not sure what they were (rest assured, I did not take him up on that offer, it is very unsafe to put things in your mouth if you are not sure what they are, even more unsafe on a mountainside hours from medical assistance if you make a mistake). Adventurer was happy to go with us but some of our rambling became to much for her tough little feet and I was very thankful for all the years we have spent wearing her in a wrap on our backs because it was quite easy to swing her over my shoulder and just carry her with me and at this age she hangs on and we no longer even need a wrap. Finally, though, I had to admit defeat. I have never seen huckleberries other than pictures and I was fairly certain nothing I was seeing on our hikes was the right berry. I bought a small jar of the jam so we could at least taste the berries and thought I would have to wait for another year to pick our own.

All those babywearing years paid off. 

Out of the blue one day, Cat mentioned to our neighbor, who grew up here and is a farmer and quite use to spending time in the local mountains with his sons, that we had been searching far and wide for huckleberries. He looked at his wife and asked if she would like to show us where to go the next day. She had never gone picking with him, so she seemed almost as eager as we were at the invitation. A plan was made to head out the following morning.

Sandman is always up for adventure.

As this kind, quiet man, who has impressed me from our very first meeting with his gentleness and patience for our Bear’s enthusiastic greetings, walked out to his truck the next morning he handed us two buckets. Apparently we were not too late in the year to expect to possibly find some. I had thought we were merely going to learn where the bushes were and what they looked like to help us the following year. He said, “Well, you never know.” He then drove us straight up the mountain and when we reached the parking lot at the top (what I had thought was as far up as you could go by vehicle) he turned onto a dirt path and continued to drive. His wife asked if we had four wheel drive because it appeared we would need it if we were ever going to go back up on our own. I am not sure what elevation we reached but when the dirt path came to an end he put his truck in park, switched from his driving slippers to a pair of boots that looked quite a bit more rugged and said, “Well, let’s go.” 

At something like 6’5 this quiet man’s long strides were difficult to keep up with as he strode further yet up the mountain. Moving from 40 feet above sea level to more than 5,000 feet above sea level has taken some adjustment. A little bit in the distance he pointed to some bushes with leaves starting to turn red and told us we had found our first patch. We spent the next two hours hunkered down in a squatting position picking berry after berry. It appeared my first mistake had been never going high enough up the mountain and my second had been looking for a bush that might grow to eye level. None of these reached above my knees. 

http://wildandfreemontana.blogspot.com/2010/09/huckleberry-culture.html
This picture and link will take you to more information about  these berries. 

As our fingers became stained with sweet purple juice and our buckets and tummies started to fill, Sandman and I heard a sound like a breaking branch. Cat asked if we had surprised a bear but our guide seemed unconcerned. We continued working our way up through the pine trees, as the berries seem to like to grow in their shade the best, and maybe we were just a little more talkative so as not to surprise anything that might be enjoying the bounty of the forest with us. Suddenly I heard more branches breaking and looking through the greenery I saw a huge bull moose not thirty feet away. Rob said we probably woke a family from their nap as we spotted a mama and her baby at the bull’s side. We continued picking and Cat and Sandman worked their way around me to get closer and have a better view. Rob’s wife said this had to beat any school day in a desk being out in the forest so close to these beautiful animals. Once again, I feel so blessed in my life and the opportunities my family and I have been given. Obviously deciding we were no threat the moose family had their lunch and we spent a short time longer picking before deciding it was time to head home. Rob casually pointed out and identified different plants as we passed by, taking care to mention to Sandman which were edible.

Jar of Huckleberry Jam. YUM

When we arrived home Liz surprised me further by giving us all the berries as they have plenty from previous excursions. I spent a short time cleaning them and sorting them into one cup portions to freeze for those smoothies and pancakes I had dreamed about. Our wonderful neighbors gave us a jar of jam they had already prepared. What a truly wonderful gift people give when they share their time and their knowledge!

I wish night photography was a skill I possessed.

Fun to run into in the night...

PS…

Just as I finished typing this article I went to the camp facilities. As I stepped outside into the dark I startled a very large, dark shape and as it ran one way I ran the other. After dashing back to my trailer to get a good flash light I quietly walked back and discovered a lovely, large, moose standing in the slough that runs behind our camp. She stared at me and I ran home to gather the clan. We all tiptoed back and were able to watch this beautiful creature having her moonlit snack just behind our summer home. I don’t know how anyone can question the existence of God when such miraculous creatures can be found.