We're back in the Methow
06/01/2010

We’re back in the Methow Valley, stunned at how beautiful our own construction project looks…How miraculously the land is responding to our efforts to restore bunchgrass and wildflowers…How high Beaver Creek is flowing…How lush and gorgeous this valley is. 

It’s interesting that for the months we were in California we mostly worried about this place:  how would we finish it; how would we pay for it; when could we live in it; was it OK without us.  After awhile we began to think of our property as a problem.  Insidiously, the emotions surrounding our dream home began to fray a bit around the edges.  To smell faintly of decay and abandonment. 

Being here has instantly reversed that decline.  This property and this place are SO not a problem; they are a treasure!  We are so unbelievably fortunate to have found and been able to purchase this land; to have, through the generosity of Micheal’s brother, financed our home construction; and by dint of hard work and cosmic largesse arrived at this point in our undertaking. 

Last week I planted most of our garden, sowing sunflowers, sweet peas, mesclun lettuce mix, mizuna, arugula, onions, carrots, cucumbers, eggplant, peas, Anaheim peppers, cucumbers, beets—and edamame (soybeans)—a first!  I set out starts of broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, acorn squash, and four kinds of tomato (Sun Gold, Yellow Pear, Early Girl, and Cherokee Purple).  I turned over the 40-foot rows of my potato patch and planted Yukon Golds and New Orleans Reds.  I’ll go back this week and plant a couple rows of russets. 

Last year’s raspberry canes are leafing out; our neighbor Troy admitted he ate our asparagus; two rows of garlic I’d planted in neat, soldierly lines last fall, covered with mulch and forgotten about, stand at attention now, waiting for me to tell them "At ease." 

We’re back in the land of homegrown beef and pork, where grass-fed tenderloin is $4.99 a pound, and of farmers’ market cherries, apricots, and baked goods.  Last week in the grocery store I found morel mushrooms for sale—another first!  Having read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I’d come to think of morels as some kind of rare, illicit pleasure—one not likely to be encountered in the aisles of Hank’s Supermarket.  And only $3.99!  We ate morels in cream sauce over pasta twice last week, wiped the skillet with French bread and wished there was more. 

Last weekend, Memorial Day weekend, the town was alive with possibilities: A Rural Roots Film Festival, featuring gems such as Eating Alaska (what happens when a hunter and a vegetarian get married and try to eat dinner together) and Hillbilly Jam (exploring the roots of hillbilly music through the stories of three musician families).  There was the annual rodeo (yes, some country moms do let their 10-year-old sons ride bulls), a barn dance, and Spoonshine, a fast-pickin’ hard-driving rockabilly band with soulful folk roots at the Twisp River Brew Pub.  How could we possibly do it all? 

Obviously it was a law of physics thing and we had to pick and choose.  The barn dance, celebrating the successful conclusion of the Methow Conservancy’s $20 million capital campaign (there’s some money hiding out in this valley!) featured local jam band Luc and the Lovingtons.  Very easy, groove-inspiring music, but what I loved best was how delighted the 500 or so folks in attendance seemed—just to be together, dancing, watching, talking, clapping.  When a veteran fiddle player joined the band for a soaring accompaniment to “I luv ya, luv ya,” it was a moment of heaven on Earth.  A chance to deeply appreciate the beauty and good feeling people are capable of creating together.

It's good to be back.