It’s actually a double meaningless milestone. Not only is this my 500th column, but it was one year ago today that I pulled up stakes and moved full-time to the island compound. It was the same day I was told that the pathology from my cancer surgery was negative.
It has been quite a year. Luna the Big Dog™ came the next day. HA came a couple of weeks after that, having finished the monumental task of packing all our stuff and getting it sent off with the movers. The garage got built just in time for when our ship came in, though the door didn’t happen until a few weeks after that. We moved from a pretty spare existence to having a host of luxuries: ample solar electricity, electric bidet toilet seat, hot tub, ceiling-mounted television, instant hot water in the bathroom, an automatic main gate, a washer and dryer, a gravel drive, a mosquito-screened outdoor pavilion, an icemaker, a fancy control center to manage our energy system, a catchment water system, a garage freezer, electricity and plumbing and drywall in the studio, chickens (anticipating eggs any day now…), sheep for mowing, hundreds of feet of fine fencing and gates to protect our landscaping from marauding pigs. HA has thinned and cleared much of the wild space and planted beautiful trees and flowers.
More important, though, is that we are making community connections. We have now met many of the folk who live near the compound and they are all kind and respectful, thoughtful and supportive. In just a year, I have gotten to know far more folks than I met in my neighborhood in NorCal in 18 years. It feels like community in a way that no place I have lived before did.
—2p