New....

A couple weeks ago, I read NVShadowBCs-Noggin' Doggin blog...."not a destination, but rather a way of TRAVELING."  It's a good read....I love how she lives her life....authentic, real, focused on allowing for amazing (my view of her life).  One time, a few years back, at a sheepdog trial, we talked about creating a MECA....and here she is today.....living her dream.  She wrote to my comment,  "When I started out, there were very little resources for this journey.  I looked at what I didn't have.  Being surrounded by positive mentors/open hands opened my eyes, all the components were here all along.  Just in a different form.  The right set of glasses and viola a Mecca."

My husband always tells me, when you are mountain biking, you need to look at where you want to go.  If you look at what you don't want to hit, you hit it. But if you look ahead to where you want to go.....that is where you end up. I find life is a lot like that as well......takes some discipline to look where you want to go.

I've loved my little slice of Heaven out in the country.  It was big enough to train dogs and small enough for me to manage, mostly by myself.  As the kids left home, and I began to get a little older, the driving to and fro left me making changes to accommodate the responsibilities of home life.  Last year, I gave up on lambing; this year, I cut back on numbers.  My dream was to live where the sheep live......maintain one homestead....be able to walk out to tuck the chickens in for the night instead of driving 15 minutes one way.  The quest began about 5 years ago and got real serious in the past two.  I haunted multiple listing sights and stalked Zillow.  We checked out property in Scio; amazing, beautiful, serene...then I asked my hubby to visualize the drive home from work on a rainy winter day in December, when the dark pulls the covers up early....no good at all.

I began to feel like Goldilocks.......this one is too small, this one is too far out, this one too much money, this one is too NOT ME!  I'm country....not big beautiful show piece of a home girl.  Harvesting Christmas trees with a helicopter on the 20 acres right next to the house doesn't work for me either.  I mean who can do outruns though Christmas trees??

A realtor friend had called us two years ago about a place she was listing. At that time, I was not interested.  After searching for two years and narrowing the musts between the two of us...when the for sale sign was put at the entry....I called our friend.  And the rest is history...as they say.

I'm not a girl that cries easily but there are days when I tear up about the amazing journey that brought me to my new home.  Hubby laughs and says he did not ever think in a million years we would find a place that met both of our "Must Lists"....me needing a barn and property for the sheep and dog work....him needing a doable drive to work and room for his hobbies.  When I travel with the dogs or do outside work, the place is close enough for hubby to help with dogs left home.  All the little details addressed as if the whole place were built for ME!

The barn was built in 1863 and has been restored on the outside.  I've always wanted a historical home but knew it could be a marriage stressor.....things can go so wrong with history in a house. But the barn....sigh.....I can futz around to my heart's content, chatting with the resident barn owl and listening for voices from the past as the hay was put in, horses tended and later, cows milked.

I find it hard to put into words the amazingness of this journey.  The feelings of blessing and gratitude and amazement overwhelm me in that good deep down in my soul way.  I know there are new journeys to seize, things to sort, creativity to find....but for now.....I feel like I have come HOME.

Indeed....."the right set of glasses".

Seize the Day!!!!