5 Favorites, Forest Edition

We're up at our original homestead with the forest part of our family, and there are so many things here that are long-time favorites, it's hard to pick out just five. Plunging right in, here are five things that I'm always blessed to see when we get here:


[1] THE FOREST. Redwoods, everywhere. They may be rare in the rest of the world, but they are the main species around here. Our property is in prime redwood forest, and our son does a wonderful job of managing it and doing selective logging (which is necessary to keep the trees from crowding each other out).


[2] THE OCEAN. When our boys were young, my mom would come visit and take them to the beach. One time when the ocean came into sight she asked them, "what's the name of the ocean?" (thinking this would be a good teaching moment). Our oldest son answered "Joe!" so from then on the Pacific has been known to this family as Joe Ocean.


[3] THE COMMUNITY. One of the nearby volunteer fire departments had a barbecue fundraiser on Father's Day, which is typical of the sort of community gatherings that happen around here. The entire county is rural - forest, vineyards, and other agriculture - and the events that happen regularly around here are low key gatherings that draw people from the many small communities in the region.



[4] OUR CABIN. We built this for my mom when she retired, and she lived here for over 20 years. When she died a couple of years ago, the Pirate and I fixed up the interior and turned it into our "home away from home". It's about 30 feet away from the main house which the Pirate built when we were newly married and which our younger son and his family live in.


[5] OUR OLDEST FRIENDS. Wherever we've lived, we've made a special place for our "first friends" - the stuffed animals and dolls that we had from infancy. They watch over our cabin while we're in Mexico and are comforting presences to come back to when we come to the forest cabin.

For more Favorite Things, visit Hallie et al at Moxie Wife.