Life certainly moves in weird and occasionally wonderful ways. Last year at this time, we were in the initial stages of packing up our home to set off on a world wide “adventure.” Fast forward to today, August 17th, 2018, (which happens to be my late father’s birthday) we are now the proud owners of a 46 acre lake and forest property in what is known as the Lime Belt in Okanogan County. Even I can’t really fathom this shift over such a short period of time. How have we gone from languishing in the dusty haze of Kathmandu to stewarding forest land under the currently smokey summer skies of rural Washington State? How did we get here? Are we crazy? Those are questions that have crossed my mind, many, many times.
I realize that this all sounds a bit drastic, perhaps more so because my blog has suffered considerable neglect over the last several months. I just couldn’t bring myself to write. We stayed far too long in Kathmandu, drowning in family drama, and due to circumstances beyond our control, were unable to continue on to South Africa as we had hoped. Rather defeated, we chose our path home, a good 2 months earlier than we had anticipated. That was hard. It was hard to accept, and even harder to discuss with folks back home. So I did what any good introvert would do, I retreated into myself and in the company of good friends, those that knew our story and understood our hardship. Because I do ascribe to the “everything happens for a reason,” outlook on life, I truly believe we were meant to come home early so we could heal and begin on this next journey.
None of this would have happened if it weren’t for our dear friend Matt, who introduced us to this amazing land, as well as opened his cabin to us repeatedly over the last few months. We are also so grateful to Emily, our agent, who is a rare gem, and one of only a few agents who really knows and loves this area. Her enthusiasm and eagerness to tromp over downed trees and wade through the undergrowth of newly formed animal trails in 90 degree heat is truly remarkable. She even hauled our kids up on the roof of her trusty ’90’s 4Runner (same year as ours) to marvel at a baby fawn hiding in the bushes. I love that!
Over the next few months, we will be working with a professional forester to develop an integrated forest management plan. Since our property was one of the many in the area that was impacted by the devastating 2015 fires, much of the focus will be on forest restoration and regeneration. I know we will learn a huge amount from this process and are looking forward to stewarding this land, not only for our enjoyment but to the future benefit of the forest and wildlife. I have the best intentions to document our experiences and education here, but who knows. In any case, stay tuned.
(Just to clarify, we won’t be relocating here full time, it will be a home away from home).
Dawn Stief Photography 