13 Years: At Home in Selle

  It's a day for reflecting.

Today marks 13 years since we've happily called this little farm on South Center Valley Road "Home."

I went back through the archives and found a couple of blog posts written at the time we moved here July 1, 2006.

They're included below. 

Over the years since we've lived out here in the beautiful Selle Valley, I've used the word "pinch" a lot. 

I'm still pinching myself and grateful that we had the opportunity to leave our farm on Great Northern Road, which had become surrounded by "Industrialville" during the last years of our 30-year stay there. 

It was truly like going to Heaven for this confirmed country hick to move back to a dirt road and a place surrounded by farm fields, mooing cows and wildlife aplenty. 

Twas a bit shocking after we'd lived on a farm brought into the City of Sandpoint to hear shooting from time to time around the neighborhood.  

Knowing we'd returned to the "country," we eventually got used to that again. 

In 13 years we've seen many changes on this place:  lots of fencing, a new shop after an old one caved in, 1.5 new open horse shelters, a beautiful box stall added to the barn,  a spacious dog run, new deck to replace a bad deck and, later, a deck roof to go with it. 

Almost everything on the list came because of necessity, along with the general maintenance stuff that happens on any farm. 

Most of the animals that came with us---horses, dogs and cats---are now gone, but, happily, Festus and Kiwi might be old but they're aging well. 

Over the years, we've enjoyed hosting numerous family and friend gatherings, unique visits (out behind the barn in RV's).  

We've also loved seeing and having spontaneous visits with our neighbors. Oddly, enough, farm folks are pretty busy so the visiting experiences are often few and far between. 

On a daily basis, we just plain enjoy living here in our little piece of Selle Heaven. 

As anyone who lives on a farm knows, there's endless work involved in the stewardship of trying to keep on top of everything (often falling behind).  

Nonetheless, most of the time, that work is both good for the soul and extremely satisfying.  

Every day for 13 years, we've been grateful to call this place our home.   

I suspect and hope that appreciation the Lovestead will continue for a long, long time. 

~~~~~

Blog Memories from Our First Days Here . . . .

Saturday, July 01, 2006 

Movin' On

The RV's parked next to the front porch. The horse trailer's full of outdoor furniture and clothes hanging from a longe line. Annie's home from Seattle, still snoozing. 

There's a wash going in the laundry room. The dryer we won't be using any more quit drying clothes yesterday. It's sure fun having to pay to fix stuff you're not gonna use.

Bill's eating his breakfast and reading the morning blats. Laura, Sefo and the triplets will be up later this morning, just in time to see all kinds of planes at the airport for the first Fly-in we've had in years.

I think Mt. St. Helens Day in 1980 was the last one when we had a host of folks sitting in our barnyard getting a free aerial show until "the cloud" came through and stopped it all.

We probably won't have a lot of time to watch the planes cuz today we're movin' on!!

The Stewarts are probably out there in Selle loading up their goats and donkey. Soon, they'll be moving on down the road to southeastern South Dakota. 

And, soon thereafter the next tenants of 214 South Center Valley Road will put the key in the door and begin a new life.

We'll take what we can this morning in the horse trailer, motor home, pickup and cars. 

By day's end, we're hoping to have most of the boxes out of this house and stacked in that house, and we'll have taken a tour or two of the new property with the Yamaha Rhino 4-wheeler. 

 If all goes well, tomorrow we'll have some extra muscle helping us with the heavy pieces of furniture. By Monday, the new dining room set and Maytag washer will arrive.

We'll take time out from most of the work on Tuesday to celebrate----the Fourth of July and our new life in the country. 

So, I'd better shut up and get moving. Lots to do to get ready for lots more to do.

Happy Saturday. Stay cool!

NOTE:  I'll never forget the great surprise that came that day.  I was doing some clean-up in the old house, when suddenly I looked up and there was Willie.  My niece Laura had driven to Spokane Airport and picked him up.  

He was living in Boise at the time but did not want to miss this monumental day in our family's history. To say that "ecstasy, " after his appearance,  went along with all the other emotions of the day would be an understatement. 

First days here at the Lovestead. 

Our horses at the time were pretty trustworthy, staying inside that "fence" around the barnyard. 

Stream of consciousness from Selle

July 02, 2006

Well, actually, I'm writing for my last time from the Great Northern living room. A freight train is rumbling by.  The pickup and horse trailer are backed up to the front porch. Bill, Sefo and Annie just loaded the couch and will soon load the "love" seat.

Annie has given the horses a squirt down. Bill says Louis, the visiting gelding from the Rasmussen house, didn't like the fireworks last night. 

Bill stayed here overnight and plans to spend one more night at this home. I'll be sleeping in the RV at Mother's house because we're also taking care of Barbara and Laurie's horses for the next three days.

Annie pitched her tent yesterday, and Sefo pitched the Laumatia family tent for a night under the stars. 

Triplets splashed around in their kiddie pool in the heat and chased Kiwi with a fribee at dusk. We picked fresh strawberries from the Selle garden---so nicely nurtured by Jolene [the former owner]---and poured them over our servings of French vanilla ice cream.

I felt sorry for Jolene having to leave her beautiful Idaho home as they pulled out of the driveway yesterday afternoon for the last time, bound for South Dakota with about 20 goats in one trailer and a stubborn donkey, who took 90 minutes to load in the other. I'm guessing they're somewhere in Eastern Montana as I write.

I walked the pastures this morning and stood before the giant forked lodgepole,  which sits like a fortress in the middle of knee-deep grass. 

I stood before the tree, gazed at it with Schweitzer's runs in the background and said out loud, "Thank you, God."

I've decided that tree will be known as the God Tree because it surely brings out the spirituality and gratitude in one's soul.

So, on this last posting from the Love house on Great Northern Road, I simply say, we have spent nearly 24 hours at the new home-----and it is good.

Special Note:  One of several sad events we've experienced on this place occurred one day in February a few years ago when the "God Tree," which had served as the spot for our "Lodgepole Society" inductions crashed to the ground.

It still lies out there (one trunk extending north; the other, south) in the far pasture, as a reminder of many good moments with Lovestead visitors who joined the society and signed the logbook.