On a personal note...

Eek! It's been, what, 3 weeks this time since I wrote a Dry Eye Bulletin? More than that since I updated the blog, for sure. And this time, it's not just because of my usual chronic behindness... it's a special brand of behindness, called MOVING.

Yes, again!

Only, this time, the destination is actually worth the pain of moving.

A little background: Those of you who have been around The Dry Eye Zone for a few years know that we moved (family and business) from Florida to Washington State back in 2006 in order to be closer to family. I grew up in Seattle, but lived away in various places (Greece... California... England... Florida) most of my adult life. And since I'm one of many, many people with a house they can't sell in Florida right now, we've been renting a townhome. And since our lease just expired and the complex was about to jack our rent up 25%... and since as many of you know we've been having some financial struggles due to my husband's health problems... that was a no go. So I went hunting for a rental home.

And by a miracle, we found this gem:

It's an old farmhouse in Poulsbo on 5 acres. With good soil, a lovely orchard - apple, pear, plum, and hazelnuts - tidy fields, and two outbuildings in good condition. The house is very roomy, nicely laid out, and in fact I think it's bigger than any we've owned or rented before. The outbuildings are great, and altogether it's plenty big enough to both live in and run the business from. The property is absolutely wonderful... I've always dreamed of this sort of thing and it never occurred to me I could RENT such a thing. Best of all, we started the lease in November, so we can garden to our heart's content without worrying that we'll lose a year's harvest if/when the owners decide they want to use the property. And believe me I plan to garden like crazy in 09.

Chaidie, my 6-year-old, is in HOG HEAVEN. Apple trees to climb, dirt to dig in, the prospect of getting our own chickens shortly (maybe even turkeys)... what more could a kid want?

I think I said old farmhouse. It is, er, showing its age. As a matter of fact, shortly after we moved in, one floor collapsed (thankfully an isolated problem in an addition, not the original structure), all the plumbing totally backed up (had to get the whole thing dug up and a clean-out added to the piping) and the fan on the (wood-burning!) furnace conked out. It was about that time I got laryngitis.

But the owners are very responsible and almost all of that is already fixed - just waiting on that fan (she said, typing with numb fingers!).

The interior is not exactly in great shape and I'm sure I'll be busy painting next year but I am just so thrilled with this place! I thought it was going to be years before we could live on some property and I just am so thankful for the opportunity we have to use land like this even though we can't buy. We're just 10 minutes from downtown Poulsbo, so still handy to everything we need. My husband is staying for a little while with his family in Greece who are kindly giving me a little breather on caregiving but when he comes back I know that he is going to love it.