A lot has happened in life since my last I like Thursday post in October. I lived with my parents, younger sister(funny story we were never close due to the age difference, but now we are close...it is now us against them [the parents], and her twenty something son through the holidays, sold my farm and homes in Michigan and finally settled down.
Welcome to my new home near Scott Bar, California!
My house is about 3 miles from the post office. We are about 6 miles from California highway 96, and about 1 hour from Yreka. The closest towns that have at least a small grocery store are Fort Jones which is only about 25 miles, but 40 minutes due to the road, and Happy Camp, which is about 45 miles away. There is Seiad Valley, which is only about 15 miles but they call it the inconvenience store and that is still about 30 minutes away. If you ever read about people walking the Pacific Crest Trail, Seiad Valley is a frequent stop. Oh and my nearest human neighbors are about 1/2 a mile away.
Post Office |
I stole the pictures from my real estate agent. This was early spring. The Wisteria entrance to the yard. For a couple of weeks it was full of happy bees, and hummingbirds. It is an older home and it is made of cinder blocks.....which is really funny considering the farmhouse was made of Michigan block which were cement blocks made in a form.
As a family we all talked about the fact that we aren't getting any younger, and that it is important to have family nearby. My oldest daughter, her husband and mother in law just purchase a beautiful new home that is to be multi-generational home.
I thought about it and asked if I could find and afford a big enough house if the middle daughter Rebecca would like to move her family in with me. Since her husband can work remotely it was a resounding yes after living over a decade in a high rise in downtown Portland. This house fit the bill. While I am downsizing considerably it has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a large living room, and separate living area with a sewing/sitting room for me. There is a tiny home which needs some work, as well as a large shed that was at one time used as a bedroom, Chris my daughter's husband will use it as an office when he is working. A barn, huge woodshed with a sawmill, 3 more small sheds, a bunch of fruit trees, and a very large garden area. Also I now own over 6 acres once again.
This will be a multi part showing. Excuse the boxes and stuff sitting all over. Moving in has been very slow. Main reason is how very dirty the inside of the house was, it is getting there slowly, but on a daily I clean something that is so nasty and disgusting that it grosses me out completely.
The kitchen, downside, only a couple of upper cabinets, and neither of them are in a good place to be accessible. I have been lining all the cabinets, and have went through many rolls.
The window straight ahead looks out to an enclosed entryway.
Huge kitchen island, but it is all drawers, and the drawers have no support, also there is no way to pull the drawers out to clean, and on the far end is a pull out garbage can that is so disgusting I haven't even touched it yet. Imagine a kitchen with 12 drawers, but only 2 lower cabinets, 2 lower that are very slim, and one lower corner cabinet.
The kitchen pantry. I have cleaned it several times, and am currently lining the shelves and cleaning the shelves one more time. I did buy a new fridge. Rebecca and I moved it into the house, and I encouraged Becca to unpack it, oh the smiles of unpacking a brand new fridge that was hers!
The bottom cabinets will be taken out and the Hoosier will fit there perfectly as well as possibly the mini fridge we will use for drinks.
This is going to be the living room, it is large enough we think we can put a small dining table near the window and still have room for a couple of couches.
The huge picture hides an old metal window that at one time looked at the back. Because the house is block, the window would have to be chiseled out. Instead they just covered it up, as well as some others.
The door goes to my sitting/sewing room, bathroom, and bedroom. There is another doorway to the left that goes to Becca's family's rooms and bathroom.
We have had some visitors, but the current one with the best picture is this guy.
He came into the entry way while we were moving appliances. He is just a western gopher snake, he slithered out and into a small side garden.
I have a gorgeous Catalpa tree in the side yard full of bees now, a bunch of hummingbirds, some are even orange, I have one that follows me around the property when I go for a walk. I have named him Crush. I found this beautiful cactus flower, it bloomed after I weed whipped and mowed all the grass around it.
Bobbin is loving life in the woods.
This weekend is father's day, unfortunately the girls scheduled the "big" move so I won't see my dad. My mom and he came to visit last week. At 82 he came, cut down a huge grape arbor which was growing against the house, a few dead fruit trees, and we both weed whacked a lot of tall grass down. He is my step dad, and when he was dating my mom when I was little he would come by early in the morning and get me up, dressed, fed, and do my hair in ringlets. Ladies, in my mind that made him a keeper. I got a chuckle recently he was trying to talk their dog Molly into getting up on his lap. It was so cute he said, come here Molly, let me brush your hair and make you all pretty.
💓💓💓
The other awesome dad in my life was Jeff my dear sweet husband. My daughters call him dad, and they miss him all the time, even though he was only part of their life for a few short years, he filled a huge chunk of their hearts, as well as all the grand kids. One big seller for this home is that it is only about 2 hours from Jeff's grave, so I can go visit ,ore often. I have been up there once since all this started. Recently I saw this and thought I had hit that point in life.....
It feels good to be able to sit and blog, and I look forward to taking the time to start reading blogs again. I have missed all you lovely ladies!