The Shift in Priorities.....

Have you ever felt your world shift in an instant? I have. Many times. It's always better when it's something positive in the shifting, changing your life for the better. This shift happened innocently enough over a breakfast with our dear friend who we've known for the better part of 25 years. He has recently purchased a boat (which Vince found for him)....time to cut loose from being a self-professed "Land Baron" to something a little more practical....yes, I think wooden boats are practical. When Vince found it for him, I knew he would love it, and better yet--he would SAVE it. This boat was well worth saving, and it was the beginning of a new life for both him and the boat. I also think in saving these boats, you might save a little of yourself--or at least that's what I'm hoping. A better quality of life. The freedom to live unconventionally, and to live in the splendor of a timeless thing of beauty. Helping our friend move into the world of boats got the wheels in our head turning--why are we living the way we are? Our friend pointed out, quite nicely, that we had too much crap to concentrate on the import aspects of our life. I/we have understood this for awhile, but it was a new concept thinking that we could leave this life COMPLETELY. It's not that we had "failed" at what we had been attempting. Our needs had changed rapidly, yet we were doing the same thing we had always done. We needed a good, swift kick in the pants. I think that it was perfect that it had come from someone we had known for so long, and who we held in such high regard.

We have lived here in Kingston on our farm for almost 16 years now. It's a great little town complete with two grocery stores, a feed store, various little mom 'n' pop businesses and a ferry that takes you and your car over to the big city. The farm has taken up a good portion of our time, (all of our time, truth be told) but it has provided a wonderful life for us all these years. We've done some amazing things here on these 7 acres. I got the horse I had always wanted, Vince got to have tractors and dirt moving implements (he loves them), we had great, big concerts during the Summer and had massive amounts of fun with our friends and family. We also raised our kids here. They had so many happy hours on this beautiful property with nature trails and huge old trees. When we moved in our oldest was in Kindergarten--he's now in his 2nd year of college. It feels like it's time to move on.

We lived on a boat back before we bought this house. We found our sailboat in San Diego when Vince was stationed there. A 1938 50 ft. sloop built in Sweden. We didn't want to buy a house there, as we knew we ultimately wanted to be in the Northwest. Our families were in Seaside and Astoria, Oregon. It was always our goal to be closer to them. Buying a boat seemed a natural thing to do. Well, not really. I'd never lived on a boat, but we were young enough and crazy enough to try it out, and it ended up being one of the happiest times in our life. Raising tiny kids on boats didn't scare me a bit. Ben was 2 1/2, Chloe was just a little wee-one (they are 16 months apart). It was a grand adventure. I will probably blog in the future about my memories of our life on "Gullmar"...it helps pull things into perspective as to why this life is so appealing to us now.

So....we are back to the decision to sell the farm and move onto a boat. We have lots of work to do before we can actually realize this dream. For those of us who know us, it may seem like an impossible task. We've collected quite a few things over the years. Cars, trucks, boats, trailers (cool 1950's trailers) and stuff, stuff, stuff......more stuff than anybody should ever need in a lifetime. We have it, and it's currently being inventoried, sifted through, listed and sold or simply given away. I have gone through so many boxes of our collectibles, paperwork (tons) and just plain junk. It has left me wondering why we thought we needed all this crap in the first place! It's a good thing to do, to purge all this stuff and move on. It feels like we have placed ourselves into some sort of self-inflicted corral, surrounding ourselves with all these possessions, keeping us in place. All this "stuff" has stopped us from doing the things we love--or at least made them so much more difficult. The farm has been a blessing, and we have no regrets. It is time to change things up, though.