Let the Wild Rumpus Start

It’s been a busy morning. Busy weekend, really, that seems to continue into the work week. This morning we had a house inspection; put an offer on a much bigger house not too far from where we currently live – we love the neighborhood so, North Portland, the last outpost of the city where you can find affordable housing in a spot that feels at times like a small mountain town. Views of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens are the norm, as well as the running backdrop of Forest Park, the largest urban woodland park in the contiguous US. Would rather that we were putting an offer on a house in The Dalles, or better yet, building our own out there next to the vineyard, or at least down the hill aways – because NOTHING compares to that view, in my opinion (stay tuned for video post to see what I’m talking about).

But this is what it is, and who can complain about moving from a 920 square foot shoebox to a 1900 square foot spot? Let’s hope the owner is cool with the “must have” list – the house was built in 1897 (the one we’re currently in is 1895), so there are some things that need work. In between waiting for the this very thorough gentleman, I ran off to “the mainland” (North Portland is up on a bluffy- peninsula) to REI to exchange a travel bag, picked up dog and cat flea/tick relief (Scott found a tick on himself and figured it came from the dog, probably from the sage out at the vineyard), and then visited with our realtor who was feeding two baby birds in a box.

Scott was out at the vineyard this weekend –things have really taken off there — Saturday, checking on the pump that somehow went off. Pump troubles AGAIN. We’ve leased land to a blueberry guy who is about to start watering his bushes, and, well, there you go. Landlord at a distance. Vineyard manager at a distance. Wine maker at a distance. It can be rather tiring. But gotta keep that day job, to keep this dream going (sigh). One day we’ll get out there.

And Saturday evening we had one of the architects over for outside burgers. He’s on his way back to Austria, so we figured you can’t have enough of the American backyard BBQ – he agreed (I’ll update Little House on The Hilltop, too – so exciting!).

BBQ TIP: Scott’s approach to great BBQ burgers: fatty meat (of course), and a deep thumb print in the center of each.

Looking forward to a June trip to New York to meet with journalists, and move The Grande Dalles along, this following Sam’s and my trip to upstate New York next week, for the 70 mile Memorial Day canoe race my father is in every year. He’s done the most of these EVER, and is hoping to enlist me as partner in next year’s. My shoulders hurt just thinking about it.