Another Year Survived!

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Tonight we are celebrating having more or less survived another full calendar year out here in no-man's land, our second full year in fact! Sometimes it came close and I still suspect that our few neighbors in the canyon lands formed a betting pool on how long we would survive out here before giving up and high-tailing it back to civilization. Apparently this ranch had a long reputation of not sustaining life for very long. There is a satisfaction to be found in beating the odds, the naysayers and the skeptics, especially when we remember back to that first blind leap of faith, that point where there would be no turning back now. That day now seems like a diaphanously wrapped daydream several decades ago. So many sun-etched lines on our hands and faces mark the trials and this passage of time much more poignantly than any fading feed store calendar on the wall. It does feel good, so very good indeed.

And right now feels like a good time to thank my two brothers. Thirty years ago and beyond, we were close. In that brief time of feeling like a real family, they never made me sit on the sidelines and watch like a helpless girly. We worked on motorcycles, we played full contact football, we ventured into the far northern woods to camp, freeze our butts off and build things from scratch. We worked hard, we partied hard, did all sorts of "watch this!" stuff and, best of all, we laughed as often as humanly possible. It was the best of times for me as any to ever follow.

But time brings change for better or worse. My youngest brother married and ceased to be that brother of the good ol' days and my father died that same year, a week before Christmas. Eventually my mother died on this very morning eleven years ago. My best dog friend of 18 years followed her into death at Christmas two years later. Like Buck who is exiled in Portales, the holiday season is no longer a joyous one for me but we both understand and have the patience to subtly wait it out one more time.

Life should be experienced and savored in all its severe polar aspects, however, and Mark and I have been doing so by intense immersion. We have been fully alive and aware each day since we moved out here. Below is a video from Romania which captures some universal twit moments which we have come to expect and appreciate since assuming this new life. It is the laughter which bottles our disasters of the day in green glass to become fine vintage memories down the road.

Have a wonderful new year and try to add your own fine 'doh' moments to the cellar of your best vintage memories.

All the best from us out here in no man's land!
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