...I feel complete.

These are pictures of our mailbox and our dome on Lopez Island.
I just got off the phone with a guy that is leasing our meadow from us out on Lopez. It made me homesick to talk about plum trees, the heirloom apples, and the old well. We talked about the history of our property. How Michael and I sat down with one of the island old timers and heard his stories of how he and his father cut down all the apple trees on our land (it was an apple orchard) and how they pulled up all the roots with a team of horses.
We talked about how our leasee's daughter has named all the sheep that he has running on the land at the moment. We talked about what you do with wild roses and canary grass. How to get rid of them is what we really talked about. Burn em? Disc the field?
Do I look like I know such things?
It was a joy to hear that the heirloom plum trees that stand over by the place that was the original farm house are now producing some fruit. They were prolific for the first three years we owned the property and then they got some sort of fungus and we never did figure out what to do about it. I'm glad that our decision to let nature run it's course worked out OK in the long run.
Lopez.
The whole time that we lived in Saratoga Springs I told people that I was from Lopez. Since living in Paducah, I have told people that I from Paducah. I guess I must like it here so far. I do. I like our house (I will post pictures soon). I like our neighborhood. I like being able to walk to the river and to downtown. I like the activities that I am getting involved in. Last night I started my new volunteer job of co-chairing the committee that is screening films for a local film festival here called The Rivers Edge Film Festival. It was great!!! What a hardship to have to sit around and critique films. Oh, it was so hard (ha, ha). I am also involved with a group of women called, COW. Yeah, I'm a COW. It stands for Community Of Women and all they do is fund-raise and do good deeds. How lucky can I be?
I miss my dear sweet dome on Lopez. Michael designed and built her. She has driftwood posts on the inside that hold up the loft. The railing on the stairs is also driftwood. How could we leave? How could we go back and still make money? Ah, the decisions that that thing called 'destiny' is made of.
So, here I sit on my couch in my 'new to me' 4000 sq ft. house that is a grand 130-ish years old and I'm thinking that my destiny has been pretty good so far. Will we ever live full time back on Lopez? I don't know but I do know that our meadow is being well cared for, that our friend Jeffery (who lives on our land) is well and resurrecting the garden, and our dome can be seen by all who drive by as a reminder that 'those hippies' still have a place in the world.
In this moment....I feel complete.

I do love you all.

I have been writing posts in me head. I dream about them in my sleep. I now sit here in front of the computer and I'm blank. I feel like a newly washed black chalkboard at the front of the class.
Not that I'm empty or anything. Hopefully far from it. Just that I had so many great ideas and now I can't remember a lick of 'em.
We moved into our house. About a month ago. The house that we were renting next door sold and we moved in here. It was time in so many ways but....now we are camping with a make-shift shower set up and boxes. Oh, my life is full of boxes! How many of you can relate? I'm waiting on Michael to create the shelving so I can do some more unpacking. But, you know, I lived in a travel trailer for 3 years while we built our dome on Lopez and this is a walk in the park. Seriously.
Xan is off on an Alaskan Cruise with her grandmother having a ball. Artie is still at make-up special effects school and having a ball. I (flying solo without Xan) did a soft opening of The Kookie Bar this weekend and had a ball. And Michael had his studio up and running this weekend and had a ball. We're just a bouncy family.
I have missed my blogger community. I think of you often and I'm ready to be a more faithful friend and poster.
I don't know what my absence was about. Don't feel like I need to know either.
I bought a (what I think and hope) is a very cool little table loom on ebay last week. I have been itching to weave and even though I'm not a table loom lover it is an affordable way to get me started and keep me creative. It's been a bit of a disappointment here because I have not met any other active weavers. I miss my group in Saratoga. You see...there is something about Saratoga that I miss. That's about it so far.
We are getting closer to a court date about the whole estate deal. Yeah, we are still dealing with that. How many years has it been?! The executrix finally, FINALLY, submitted the final accounting and last week we (our lawyer) turned in our objections to it. Now we wait....
Just a couple of days ago I booked four roundtrip tickets to Dublin, Ireland. No kidding. We are taking this trip in honor of my in-laws who always talked about going and never did. They even had a large jug that they saved money into (of course that too never saw it's way into the estate). So we found a great deal. We bought the tickets and we're going to figure out the car rental and where we're going to stay later. We go in February by the way. Thus the cheap airfare.
Many have been bugging me about getting some pics of the new home up on the air waves. It's on my radar and will probably happen soon.
You should check out Michael's blog "www.paducahpossible.blogspot.com" and see the wedding cake that we made for a dear, dear friend a couple of months ago. We felt just like "Ace of Cakes" transporting our baby in our van through Brooklyn. It was a funny adventure.
So that's it folks. I think that I will end (for now) my random babbling to catch you all up on what's been going on around here.
I do love you all!!!!