where have i been?
in my new hometown.
and what a town! like some sort of fairy tale. i mean a *real* fairy tale. complete with both romantic, noble characters and bizarre, hidden, frightening mystery. being a new resident, i obviously don't know the intricacies of the town's stories. just tantalizing tidbits, tossed to me at the local bar. people are responsive to my questions, but every answer just generates more and more questions. the tales people spin here are almost unbelievable, except that the next person at the bar will pick up the thread and continue unphased, lending credibility to the stories. i mean, if many people tell you the same crazy things, again and again, but with new and more complex detail, you just have to believe it.
so, we love it here. as todd said, "we'll have to work pretty hard to get in trouble in this town."
there are pet cats and dogs roaming widely in town. they love attention and expect it. they are denizens of this town as surely as are the people living in the house-shaped contraptions that line the streets.
and everybody waves, except for the tourists passing through. people offer their help, if they know your pipes burst or your car won't start or your water heater's broken. they offer their expertise, if they have it, or their spare keys or other support, if they don't. the local car hosts two friendly poker games, tuesday and friday nights. there's a movie night wednesday and a "customer of the week," who wins happy hour prices all week. there's freshly-popped popcorn and dogs are welcome at the bar, too, so there's doggie biscuits from the bartender and a water bowl by the door.
you can walk from one end of the town to the other in about 20 minutes. no stoplights; no stop signs on main street. besides the main drag, the other streets in town last for a block or two before they disppear into the mountain side. like our street -- you just drive up the steep hill past one house and an alley, then our house and our neighbors, and then the street ends at someone else's house, or you can turn right. the street that turns right runs for a block, hosts two houses, and then turns back downhill to meet the main street. it's as though the streets are too exhausted to climb the mountain, too, and they inevitably run downhill, like streams.
todd's gotten most of our meat for the year within a half mile of the house. deer stubble the wooded mountain behind our home. we've also collected most of our firewood there, and have been heating the house with local ponderosas. the woodburning stove is so efficient we're proud; burning logs in there releases less CO2 than if the trees were decomposing in the woods. and we've only cut down three trees, already dead, which will provide over a month's worth of heat. we planted 150 garlics and have a bed of greens thriving in the cold fall weather. fresh salads every night!
so... we've been busy, and healthy, and learning. i'll be posting more often, now, as the days grow shorter and we retract, turn inwards, and lean towards hibernation.
and what a town! like some sort of fairy tale. i mean a *real* fairy tale. complete with both romantic, noble characters and bizarre, hidden, frightening mystery. being a new resident, i obviously don't know the intricacies of the town's stories. just tantalizing tidbits, tossed to me at the local bar. people are responsive to my questions, but every answer just generates more and more questions. the tales people spin here are almost unbelievable, except that the next person at the bar will pick up the thread and continue unphased, lending credibility to the stories. i mean, if many people tell you the same crazy things, again and again, but with new and more complex detail, you just have to believe it.
so, we love it here. as todd said, "we'll have to work pretty hard to get in trouble in this town."
there are pet cats and dogs roaming widely in town. they love attention and expect it. they are denizens of this town as surely as are the people living in the house-shaped contraptions that line the streets.
and everybody waves, except for the tourists passing through. people offer their help, if they know your pipes burst or your car won't start or your water heater's broken. they offer their expertise, if they have it, or their spare keys or other support, if they don't. the local car hosts two friendly poker games, tuesday and friday nights. there's a movie night wednesday and a "customer of the week," who wins happy hour prices all week. there's freshly-popped popcorn and dogs are welcome at the bar, too, so there's doggie biscuits from the bartender and a water bowl by the door.
you can walk from one end of the town to the other in about 20 minutes. no stoplights; no stop signs on main street. besides the main drag, the other streets in town last for a block or two before they disppear into the mountain side. like our street -- you just drive up the steep hill past one house and an alley, then our house and our neighbors, and then the street ends at someone else's house, or you can turn right. the street that turns right runs for a block, hosts two houses, and then turns back downhill to meet the main street. it's as though the streets are too exhausted to climb the mountain, too, and they inevitably run downhill, like streams.
todd's gotten most of our meat for the year within a half mile of the house. deer stubble the wooded mountain behind our home. we've also collected most of our firewood there, and have been heating the house with local ponderosas. the woodburning stove is so efficient we're proud; burning logs in there releases less CO2 than if the trees were decomposing in the woods. and we've only cut down three trees, already dead, which will provide over a month's worth of heat. we planted 150 garlics and have a bed of greens thriving in the cold fall weather. fresh salads every night!
so... we've been busy, and healthy, and learning. i'll be posting more often, now, as the days grow shorter and we retract, turn inwards, and lean towards hibernation.
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