The Waiting Game (aka, Leaving the Moose Poop)

Helloooooooooo!!! Long time, no blog. 🙂

We’ve been busy here on the homestead, in some very unexpected ways. This summer had the usual homestead activities, picking cabbage, cucumbers and kale; gathering eggs; making nettle wine, etc.

But we were also crazy busy with some serious home renovation projects. The house has needed some upgrades (new carpets, fresh paint) as well as some general maintenance (the house and all the outbuildings are cedar-sided and desperately needed a new coat of stain, the deck needed repairs) ever since we moved in three years ago. So we decided to tackle everything, all at once.

Why, you ask? Because we are completely insane? Yes, partly.

A few months ago, after we came home from a wonderful family destination vacation on Sanibel Island in Florida, I started really thinking about how much we were missing, being so far from family. Bradley’s entire family is out east, scattered throughout North Carolina, Florida and Georgia. And the majority of mine is too – my dad is in West Virginia, my sisters in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. And my best friend is still in West Virginia, too. And I miss them like crazy.

I moved out West 15 years ago (geez, time flies!), and while I’ve always struggled with being far from family, the the Pacific Northwest got into my blood and I just couldn’t bear the thought of leaving.

Then I had kids.

Kids change everything. Absolutely everything.

If you have kids, you know what I mean. Your priorities shift. The things that matter change. You think in terms of decades, not years. You make choices based on what is best for them, because they only get one childhood.

One of the reasons we moved to the homestead, from Portland, was that we wanted our kids to be connected to the land. To know what it’s like to wander in the woods, to play in the pond, to catch bugs and frogs, to raise animals, to grow food. And the experience here has been amazing. I love, love, love this beautiful place where we’ve been so lucky to live.

But it’s also very isolating. We live so far from everything, so far from community. It’s been a struggle, having little kids and feeling disconnected from culture, from civilization. It was a huge culture shock for us. And it’s been challenging not to see family very often – flying a family of four cross-country, especially at the holidays – is physically daunting as well as costly.

Anyway, all that is to say, that we decided to pack it up and head back east. Back to the land of Grandmas and Pop-Pops, of Aunts and Uncles and cousins. Back home.

It brings me to tears, just saying that. One, because I am SO DAMN EXCITED to see my family and long-time friends more than once a year; excited for my kids to grow up having a close relationship with their family. But also because I know that we are ending a very special chapter in our lives. I will look back on our time at Moose Poop Acres (my husband hates when I call it that, haha!) with so much gratitude.

Yes, it’s been hard as hell. The epic snowfalls, the summers of drought. The smoke from the forest fires blotting out the sun. The roadways flooded out in the spring. Ugh, it’s been hard.

Did I mention that it snowed the other day? In SEPTEMBER? I won’t miss that nonsense.

But it’s also been amazing. We’ve learned sooooo much, and have made so many good memories – driving the kids around the property on the tractor, picking potatoes in the garden, raising baby chicks, hiking up the big hill behind our house, sledding through the woods. I will miss all of that.

Ready for her Andrew Wyeth painting.

Farmboy Gavin

Oh, the treasures we found in the woods (*barf*)

We don’t know exactly what the future holds. Right now, we are in a holding pattern. The work on the house has been done, the property listed for sale. Now we are just waiting for the perfect buyer to come along and fall in love with the place the way that we did.

Once that happens, it’ll be Operation East Coast Bound – load the kids and the dog into our VW van and drive off into the sunset. I’ll be sure to blog about how that goes (lord have mercy). 🙂

Until then ~ sending love and goodness from Moose Poop Acres.

Kelly