the old apple house

Derek and I finally found a house for rent in Hope, ID, 13 miles East of Sandpoint. We rent a 2 bedroom house, with an unfinished second floor (that we use as a bedroom now because the view is incredible) and a decent size yard where we planted a garden in hope to harvest yummy produce this summer. But so far, nothing is happening in the garden because the last month has been wet and cold; the tomatoes don’t like it and I don’t like it! So we may be lucky, or not, we will see… Anyway, we spent days getting the garden ready and we did not have any tools so we did everything by hand. Awesome work out but next time, we will buy or rent some tools!

Besides the fact that we had no spring, i still think that this area is beautiful and i am very happy to be in Hope. The population is about 200, and most of it is retired people and it is rare to meet someone under 60. Now, I don’t have anything against people over 60, but I have to say that it is nice to have friends our age. Anyway, the previous renters, Erik and Jen happen to be our age and they just bought a house (they had the deal of the century!) down the street so we’ve been spending quiet some time with them, having dinners, playing games and drinking beers. Awesome.

Our first plan was to move back to Spokane but we did not “feel” it was the right place for us and some invisible hands took us back to Hope, where we were a couple of years ago, and we knew it was the place. Now we just need to make it happen financially and we are brainstorming for short and long-term ideas/possible businesses. We both found few hours of work in Hope here and there, but nothing too exciting yet. Derek is working for different persons doing odd jobs while I worked few hours at the Hope café/Art gallery in Hope. The owner just got her wine and beer license so I may have an opportunity (for the season) to work a couple nights a week. Whatever jobs are available in Hope, there will be seasonal, as most of the inhabitants will be going back to Arizona or California before winter hits; and most of the businesses open now will be closed for the winter season as well. Schweitzer, the ski resort 25 miles from here is the big employer during the winter but I am not sure how comfortable I am driving up the mountains in the snow…. sounds awful.

A little over a hundred years ago, Hope’s main commerce was orchads and strawberries because it had (and still has) very good growing conditions, with good soil, southern exposure and a “moderate” climate due to the lake.  The house we are staying in right now was used to store apples and it is known in town as the old apple house. Today, Hope has a population of 200 people and only a few apple trees remain here and there. Over a century ago, Hope was a bustling center of activity, with the railroad and logging being the main commerces. Its population then reached 3000 people, including a lot of chinese immigrants who came to work for the railroad company. The Hotel Hope, no longer in use, had guests such as Teddy Roosevelt and Gary Cooper and is still in good shape. This town has lots of character and the community is really friendly.

Ted and Nancy (Derek’s parents) are coming in August and they will be our first visitors. Yeah! They should be right on time for huckleberry season and I am keeping my fingers crossed for a good huckleberry season. To tell you the truth, I don’t have high hope because it’s been so wet and cold and everything has been blooming later than usual (lilacs, lily of the valley, flowers and trees); about a month behind on the growing season so it means that the huckleberries might be a month behind too or they might not be here at all, which would suck because i am so looking forward to making jam and having pies. 

This area got a lot of snow up in the mountains last winter and we are having  a wet spring (if we can call it spring!) so the rivers are very high, as well as the lake Pend Oreille, and there are fears of flooding, especially for people living by the lake or rivers. I knew there was a reason why we don’t own a waterfront home! So we have no problem with water around here and my mom, who is France, has been telling me that they are having drought conditions there, with unusually high temperature since March and no rain. Farmers there are complaining and many crops have been lost due to the drought. It is so werid because here it is the other way around: so much rain that farmers can’t plant anything and if they do it rots in the ground because it is too wet! I wonder what is going on with Mother Nature sometime…. Anyway, I would love to get some of the sun and heat that my people are experiencing in France. We’ve had rain for days on now and sun and heat are sounding wonderful. Today, it looks like a fall day: rainy, gray, and it is a bit windy. But I am not complaining: I am accepting and loving what it is, whatever it is.  (Note: “ Loving what is” is actually a book from Baron Katie. Great book to help you accept what is and loving it. I highly recommend it).

Now that I have all my kitchen gadgets back, I’ve been making bread again and right now I am baking potato bread and it smells very good. It is very yummy and very easy to make. I ordered a bunch of different flour (wheat, spelt, and rye) online and I can’t wait to be baking more in the next few weeks. Opening all the boxes stored in the trailer (unopened for the last two years) was a real pleasure and I forgot about a lot of the gadgets I had.

Since we moved in our house, we’ve been buying more things (garden tools, wheelbarrow, furniture, etc) and when we move out there is no way that everything is going to fit in our small trailer anymore. I guess we will worry about it when time comes. We go to a lot of yard sales on the weekends but we try to limit ourselves to buy only things that we need (but we are also pretty good at buying things we don’t really need…). I am trying to buy only used items for furniture, garden tools and kitchen gadgets but sometimes I “want” something right away and it is not easy to wait. Yard sales teaches one patience. I like it because we keep the budget low for furnishing the house (which is nice because we have no furniture at all and we need to buy everything) and I recycle by reusing someone else’s junk; I love the “new to you” feeling of getting something used. 

I am very happy to be in Hope, ID and I feel very fortunate to wake up to this beautiful view every single day, even with the rain and the grey. There is good energy in town and we are just trying to enjoy life, everyday, no matter what life throws at us. I am very grateful for the life Derek and I have and i would not trade it for anything else. The good life is still my main goal and i try to live my life everyday with this in mind: to be a good person living a good life surrounded by good people.

That’s it for the updates. We are renting a cool house and we are hoping to harvest produce from the garden. I am hoping to can/dry produce as well and I took a class on canning/preserving dry beans yesterday and it was a lot of fun. When we find out about jobs and long term plan, I will let you know. I will try to keep posting  pictures and let you how the garden is doing.

Enjoy the pictures.

Peace,

CC