The Spirit of Harry Truman Lives On

Thirty nine years ago today, on May 18th, 1980 at 8:32am an earthquake beneath Mount St. Helens triggered one of the most dramatic moments in American history. The eruption and landslide killed 57 people, completely annihilated the surrounding forest and blasted away over 1,000 feet of mountaintop. Even though I wasn't alive at the time, I grew up hearing many stories about the eruption.  My parents were living in Portland in 1980 and showed me pictures when I was young of their cars and rose bushes covered in grey ash. They created an image for me what it felt like watching residue fall from the air like snow and explained how it was hard to breathe outside. We also made several trips up to the mountain in my childhood to view the crater and volcanic monument now established in honor of the event, slowly over the years watching the area regrow and regenerate new life.

Never trailing far behind the countless stories of the moment when the blast took place were the fables of Harry Truman. Harry Truman was the owner and caretaker of Mount St. Helens Lodge at Spirit Lake who refused to leave his home during the eruption and is assumed to have perished during the event and to be buried under 150ft of volcanic debris. I remember hearing his story at the "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" museum on the bayfront in Newport growing up and always being fascinated by it. There was a movie theater at Ripley's that would play Harry Truman's story on repeat and I remember as a little girl sitting there watching it over and over again, astonished - stunned that someone would sacrifice their own life in such a way - in the face of such imminent danger. It seemed stubborn and foolish to me. I simply couldn't grasp WHY & HOW someone could see the value in doing such a thing.

Harry Truman at Spirit Lake

My parents also had this cool hat growing up (possibly something they purchased on one of our trips up to Mount St. Helens) which I came to love and acquired sometime after college. "The Spirit of Harry Truman Lives On" it read. I never really gave it much thought - I just liked the hat for it's colors, local flare and vintage appeal. But more recently as I've donned the hat to go out and work in the yard, I've given it more thought. I've spent some time sitting on our deck, staring out at Clear Creek Canyon and Mt. Hood, and in turn gazing down at the cap in my lap. And I have to say that after only spending 6 months out here in the country (I believe actually now thinking about it that 6 month anniversary ALSO falls on today), I understand Harry Truman more now than I ever did before.

This Pacific Northwest countryside is pure magic, and watching the winter melt into spring has been mesmerizing. Birds are starting to inhabit our birdhouses. Lilacs, bleeding hearts and trillium have popped up and commanded our attention. Bunnies, quail and lizards have been found running around - and sometimes even playing - in our yard. And as hard as it is to leave this natural wonderland to go into work for a few hours, I can only imagine how your heart would hurt at the thought of leaving it behind forever. Leaving the animals to fend for themselves, the trees to burn, the landscape to be forever changed. After only 6 months of living out here, I feel like abandoning this place to be destroyed would feel like deserting family and one of the things I love the most - and that would be soul crushing.

I can't say at my age I would make the same choice. In the face of danger I would most likely pack up my pups and head out of town. But it would be a hard choice to make. And if I was Harry Truman, at the age of 83, and had owned and lived at Monte Vista for 50 years...would I choose to stay and perish on the land I adore and yearn for, where I feel more at home than any place I've ever lived in my entire life? Maybe. It's likely. Jeff & I have both already decided that this is where we want our remains to rest long after we're gone. We feel more at peace and like better humans out here on this land and I can't imagine a better place to live out eternity. Maybe that, with time, will change. But at the current moment I can only see our connection and admiration for this land growing stronger, and our roots getting deeper and Harry Truman's crazy logic continuing to not really seem that crazy anymore...

R.I.P. Harry

"If the mountain goes, I'm going with it. You couldn't pull me out with a mule team. That mountain's part of Truman and Truman's part of that mountain." - Harry R. Truman

 

Can You Hear Me Now?

Cell phones.

The technology that revolutionized the way we live our lives. Sometimes, just for fun, I like to talk to my dance students (who are increasingly obsessed with their OWN cell phones) about what life was like for me growing up, before cell phones existed. My favorite comical technological device to talk to them about is the pager. I explain to them what a pager was....that you could call someone's pager, but that they couldn't call you back. How if you wanted to call them back, you either had to find a landline phone or use a pay phone, where you would need a quarter to make a call. My explanation of this process is always met with quizzical looks and numerous questions in response, but most of all disbelief. Kids these days simply can't fathom how we functioned (and managed to survive) in this primal way.

Unless I run out of battery, I almost never have to worry anymore about how to get from one place to another, how to MAKE anything, where or when I'm going to meet someone or really 'wonder' about anything at all.  If I have a question, I can get an immediate answer...from my phone. For better or for worse, we are all slaves to these devices that are our alarm clocks, calendars, dictionaries, recipe books, and entertainment systems. And I often ask myself this question: are we the better for it?

Here's a question for you: When was the last time you turned off your phone? For a day? For a weekend? or have you EVER? With my personal cellphone being so intertwined with my job and my business, I HAVE to turn it off sometimes to get some time away from work and to recharge my own battery. One thing that cell phones have done is made it so that anyone, anywhere, is super easy to contact at anytime.  That's great when you're trying to...say...find a friend at a festival or your partner in a crowded shopping center, but this double edged sword means that sometimes I have parents or clients texting or calling me at 10:30pm - or 5 o'clock in the morning. Boundaries are something that get lost easily with cell phones, when people more often think of what's easiest and most convenient for themselves rather than respecting one's private life and family time.

I LOVE turning my phone off. In fact, it might be one of my favorite things. I usually do so for an entire day at least once every other week, sometimes more. The last time I took an international vacation, I left my phone at home on the desk beside my bed for almost 2 weeks.  It was so awesome. Some worry about my safety when I do this - what will happen if I have an emergency or need help? And I remind them that with most of the places I travel to, I question whether cell phone service even exists at all - so in that case, I'd get help the old fashion way - holler for it. And if I am in a place where service is present, I guarantee almost every other person surrounding me has a cell phone on them they'd be more willing to share in a pinch.

To me, there is no freer feeling than being untethered to that device. SOME people feel the opposite. Without their cell phone, they feel fear, stress and anxiety creep in, paralyzed by the thought of losing their trusted aid. And I realize that some people can't simply turn their phone off on a whim because they have children to take care of and look after or potential emergencies (such as anticipating the loss of a parent) to respond to.  Some may argue that life doesn't offer you the opportunity to "turn off" the world and the noise around you. But I encourage you, whatever your circumstances, to MAKE that opportunity happen for yourself. Emails don't stop coming in and people won't stop calling when I hit the power button, but it turns out that ALL of those emails and voicemails are always waiting for me when I get back. And that MOST things CAN wait. And what happens to me emotionally during the time that phone is turned off is well worth it. When I power down my cell, all of a sudden all distractions and external connections fade away and I'm left with myself. And I am fully present. I suddenly have extra time to focus on me and my family, and to be fully immersed in the present - to read, to knit, blog, to go for a hike...simply to lay on the ground and stare up at the sky, deciphering if the clouds really do in fact have abstract shapes they're making for me or if I'm just seeing things. To notice the newt crawling through the grass next to me and ponder where he's headed. To listen to the wind as it gently makes its way through the trees. I have the opportunity to do some things I maybe, just maybe wouldn't have done otherwise...

Through my own process, I have discovered that having time to wonder - or possibly even be bored - is a healing thing. This is where inspiration is sometimes born. This is where one can fully embrace the silence and emptiness surrounding oneself and reflect on life, love and relationships - for better or for worse. Instead of looking at someone else's life through the lens social media, stepping away from the phone for a few days at a time gives us time to look introspectively and work on one's own life. It helps us reconnect with the now and focus on the precious, fleeting time before us and beautiful people who surround us. I won't argue that cell phones are bad - they add a lot of value and convenience to our lives. But sometimes, their addictive qualities steal our focus so much that we lose touch with what's most important in life, and receive in return a distorted view of a life we wish we had, when in fact, if we took a moment to turn away from the screen and dig in, we'd see that the most beautiful life, or the promise of it, is lying right in front of us.

We're Really Doing It - A Country Education

Just over a week ago another winter storm rolled through the area and coated our house and hills with a few inches of snow. Today the high was 71. Go figure. Exactly one week ago we adjusted our clocks for daylight savings time and I guess that was nature's cue to hit the "spring" button, because the days are suddenly longer, sunnier and warmer. I'll take it. I am in hog heaven.

Bird's nest I found on the ground in our yard last week

 We spent this weekend buying and planting berries, more seeds/starts for the garden, and fruit trees for our South pasture. We spent the majority of today - at least 9 hours of it - outside. Gardening, weeding and occasionally (I won't lie) drinking a beer on the porch. And through each step of this new life we're living we are learning - A LOT. For example, I created my own sourdough starter last week and let me tell you there is a huge learning curve with that in and of itself. It's like an art form and a science, all rolled into one. I am overwhelmed and scared of messing it up, but equally excited about the challenge and soaking up as much reading and as many YouTube videos as I can handle. I also think I would give my left arm to be able to have bread for the rest of my life, so I'm pretty ecstatic about the possibility of making my own sourdough creations whenever my heart fancies it.

Garden bed plan

Growing plants in our garden room

We have starts!

Sourdough starter - monster & masterpiece

 About 3 weeks ago or so, our neighbor's goats started having babies. They are the CUTEST! We've been visiting them and snuggling them to make sure they're properly socialized. It's a hard job, but somebody's gotta do it😉It's also great therapy. If you haven't ever snuggled a baby goat, I highly recommend adding it to your bucket list. They are sweet, so soft and love the warmth of being held. We even held a baby goat that was only one hour old. He was so fresh that although he had already been cleaned and dried, you could still see some of the birthing "extras" protruding from his mom when we arrived...

Meeting the baby goats for the very first time with Troy & Mili - 5 days old

Little sweetie

Curious little dude - about 2 weeks old. At this age they're bucking and getting into mischief at every opportunity...

Being out here in the country really puts you back in touch with nature - and with life, and what's important in it. And as Jeff & I tirelessly read books and the backs of the seed packets, trying to figure out how to grow veggies, we're constantly asking ourselves "WHY weren't these things taught to us in school?" What could be more important than knowing how to grow your own food? Why is there such a disconnect from the natural world to the lives of so many people on the globe on a daily basis? And we can't seem to find the answer. With all the luxuries we are afforded in the first world, I do think some of our conveniences come with sacrifices, and I would argue that being more disconnected from nature is one of them.

From Big City Life to Country Mice - A Leap of Faith and Move to Rural Oregon

Just over a year ago, Jeff & I started looking at houses to buy. We already owned our home on Mississippi Avenue in North Portland and loved our cute little bungalow, but wanted something more. As time went on and with the more houses we looked at, we started to define what that looked like and narrowed down the parameters for our search. Our list looked something like this:

-Bigger house, with more than one bathroom
-Hopefully a view of some sort.  Maybe a mountain? Maybe a river?
-Not new construction - something stable with old, strong bones
-Away from busy roads
-More land and space for our dogs to roam
-No more than a 30 minute drive from the heart of the city

See, we loved our sweet home on Mississippi street, and couldn't have asked for better neighbors, but there were changes happening in Portland that we weren't too stoked on. Over the past few years Portland has grown at an exponential rate, and with it, our neighborhood did too. Our street became more crowded and popular, which meant more cars speeding down our road, more garbage being thrown into our yard and a week before we moved out, even a shooting on the sidewalk one block from our house - in broad daylight. Despite the increasingly trendy & delicious restaurants moving into the vicinity and the convenience of being walking distance to New Seasons, we knew it was time to go. In our 20's, our home in one of the now preferred neighborhoods in Portland would have been perfect - just a short jaunt to a dive bar and a 10 minute drive to downtown - but now we yearned for something different. Something quiet. Something private. Something peaceful.

Both Jeff & I had never lived in the country before, so while we were searching for a home to buy outside the city limits, we weren't sure if we'd actually like the lifestyle. We're big time foodies, Jeff only had a 10 minute commute to work and we lived 2 blocks away from one of the most beautiful parks in Portland. Were we making a big mistake? Might we be trading in a fun, exciting lifestyle we loved for one that's boring and filled with lonely days and nights?  We hedged our bets all on one thing: NATURE.

One thing we'd learned throughout all our years together is that both individually and collectively we LOVED being outside, and that our happiness was directly correlated to the amount of time we spent convening in nature. Whether canoeing, biking, or simply walking on the beach, we felt internal serenity and like we could breathe easier when we were outside. We thought that being away from the city and all the hustle and bustle of work and industry might bring us greater happiness. And we decided that it was at least worth finding out if we were right...

View of Mt. Hood from our yard

So we lept. We ended up finding a house out in Beavercreek, OR, which was 15 minutes further out than we had originally agreed on. We were sold on the beautiful views of Mt. Hood & Adams, 5 acres of fenced in land and the fact that the entire property (including the front door) was already equipped for 2 larger sized dogs (doggy door included). We've been out here almost 3 months so far, and while it is yet to be seen whether or not we're only in a honeymoon phase, we absolutely love it out here. Our mortgage has increased, but surprisingly we're saving money. We're eating out less, traded in our gym memberships for hiking trails and are building and creating more things instead of buying them.

Jeff clearing the way of our hiking trails with a machete, just below our house

Jeff made this table out of an old tree round. How gorgeous is that?!

On a hike below our house, looking out on Clear Creek Canyon

I made my own wreath this year, solely from cuttings of things growing on our property.
 

The biggest benefit we've seen by far however has been the increase in our quality of life. We used to worry each work day about getting our dogs enough exercise.  Now they run and play for hours in the morning and crash hard at night, sometimes sore and stiff from the amount of exertion they've put forth. I've spent more time outside this winter than I ever have in any of my other years growing up in Oregon. We're constantly outside - whether we're sawing apart a fallen tree for firewood or trimming up our loganberry bushes, readying them for spring. Every "chore" outside is really a pleasure, swapping out material city distractions (like going shopping just to kill time) for duties that have purpose and meaning.  For example, I used to always hate raking leaves - collecting them as they tried to fly away and cramming them into our debris bin. Now they're a food source for our compost, and it feels gratifying and "full circle" to collect them and "feed" our load of decomposing scraps.

Jeff, working hard to create our compost bin

Compost bin in progress!

Our dog, Hermosa, in front of the shop, likely stalking something...

With each passing week, the commute into Portland seems shorter and easier. But - our desire to go into the city has also decreased with time. We find so much contentment amongst the trees and away from it all that it's become hard to leave our little corner of the world. Where once we were in the thick of it, searching for solitude and privacy, now the reverse is true. And I would argue that it is much easier to find the city, find people, good restaurants and the like than it is to find a small slice of stillness, where the only sounds you hear when you walk outside are the chirping of birds, the wind whistling in the trees and the occasional farm animal greeting the day. As I look out on Clear Creek Canyon in this moment from my dining room, looking out on our first snowfall ever in our new home, I look forward with a grateful heart to many more years of this lifestyle to come.

A rare family photo! Jeff, Rita, Hermosa & I hiking Clear Creek Canyon, below our property

Christmas Day 2018. Visiting and delivering munchies to our favorite new neighbor, Norbert the New Zealand rescue pig.

Jeff & Rita on their way to hike the canyon this week.

Hermosa & Rita, on patrol below our house

Rita & Hermosa & Clear Creek

Hermosa & I, headed home