in the beginning

we have been dreaming this dream since we lived it before.  while leaving i knew we needed to create our own homestead.  so for years we looked for land.  road tripping to find towns we liked, obsessively searching real estate in remote locations, replying to ads, bumbling up dirt roads with agents.  one child was born, then another.  the whole process a yearning, heavy load.
then, one day, divine intervention.  lakshmi came in the form of a chain email and opened things so that the time was now.  that night i found the listing for our land.  jumping in my heart i knew it was it.  a week later we powered up the valley and wound through the mountains.  rolling up to the driveway i could feel that, yes, this was our new home.  it all came together.  and so the homesteading could begin.
we are blessed with beautiful land.  a varied landscape of white oaks, ponderosa and sugar pines, douglas fir and cedar.  blackberries line the creek.  wildflowers follow one another in succession.  it is buzzing with life.  a backdrop of insects.  with snakes eating tadpoles and toads hopping about.  lizards skittering at the feel of your footsteps.  birds busily gathering food and hammering at trees.  the king of it all, bear, ambling about.