Our Acreage Adventure

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

The Sum of My Knowledge

As we prepare for our big move, in my abundant free time (extreme sarcasm here), I have been thinking about the things I know about our new home state, Oregon. The last time I was in Oregon was in middle school when my family drove the Pacific Coast Highway from Washington to San Francisco. My first visit to Portland will be this weekend. So, here is the sum of my knowledge.

The license plate is super sweet with an evergreen tree. Super excited for this!
Marijuana is apparently legal. Considering it took a dictionary for me to figure out how to spell it, this is not something I will be partaking in.
I can name most of the suburbs of Portland and their location but have no idea how to pronounce them. (Tigard... You'd think Tih-girrd but apparently it's more like Ty-gird!)
There are trees, mountains and beaches/ocean within driving distance
Goonies was filmed in Astoria, Oregon. I'm sure this will be one of our first weekend trips, despite the tarp over the iconic house.
The weather is temperate and surprisingly of similar precipitation amounts as here (just more rain as opposed to snow). Apparently, no one carries an umbrella. Not sure if this is because they are "too cool for school" or just totally unprepared. Iowa country living has taught me the importance of appropriate weather gear and dry feet so you will see me in my boots with a rain jacket and umbrella. Don't care if that makes me like a tourist!
You can't pump your own gas. Right now this is so wacky to me, but when I first moved to Decorah I was totally freaked out by the Faraway cart boys and now I don't know how I'll live without someone unloading groceries for me!
Biking is a big part of the culture.
It's in a different time zone- Pacific Time which is 2 hours behind Central Time. Family/friends: I apologize in advance for the mistakes I will make with this.

Four years ago, Andy interviewed in Cresco as I toured Decorah for the day. After his interview, I said, "Yeah, I can't live here." Now, four years later and I am so sad to leave. Despite not having a heck of a lot of knowledge about our new home, I know if we could settle so fully into county life, we can settle anywhere! Our Acreage Adventure: The West Coast Chapter?

Sunday, October 4, 2015

The Goldilocks Dilemma

As a mom of three young kids, I am more versed in children's literature than the latest best seller novel or Oprah's list book. I can recite "Brown Bear" and "Moo, Baa, La" by memory and amuse myself by singing the "To Market" book. Inevitably, the books I try to hide in the back of the bookshelf are the books the kids aways request, among them "Goldilocks and the Three Bears."

Throughout the book, Goldilocks seems like a spoiled little juvenile delinquent, first breaking into the bear's house then complaining about all of their stuff. "Too little/ too big, too hot/too cold." Well, after the past several months, I think I perhaps have a better understanding of Goldilocks' pickiness.

Andy is a manufacturing engineer and has been working at a plant in the area specializing in air filters. At the plant, he is the APD (accelerated product development) supervisor which basically means he is a super problem solver. Through his experiences over the last four years at his job, he has become very passionate about LEAN principles which can be utilized within any company, not just manufacturing. The time came to move on from his current position, which is typical in his field so he began an extensive job search.

After some initial bumbling, we focused in on three things that a prospective job would require for us to move forward:

Job Description- something focusing on LEAN
Location- a place to grow with interesting things to do/see, focused on outdoor lifestyle and family friendly
Product- the company makes an interesting product that Andy can stand behind

We encountered several jobs along the way that knocked two off the list but kept looking for a slam dunk. We turned down a few opportunities that just weren't the right fit, at times feeling like a petulant Goldilocks looking for that perfect bowl of porridge. Finally, the waiting paid off and we were able to fall asleep in that "perfect bed".

So, we'd like to announce that we are moving to Portland, Oregon. Andy will begin his job in two weeks as a Senior Manufacturing Engineer at a company that makes ergonomic desks (wacko that he is, Andy had actually custom-built a standing ergonomic desk for his current office). We are super excited for this change, especially since we spent SO much time researching every aspect of it but also sad to be moving away from a town we fell in love with and our little farm that we put so much sweat into.

I never would have guessed three years ago as I was driving here the first time from the Chicago suburbs that we would be so sad to leave but, alas, we are. We will miss family, friends, neighbors and those damn chickens but look forward to new adventures that await.

Yes, we will continue blogging... it will look different since we plan to rent for awhile so perhaps some posts on adventuring in our new state, learning about west coast living after 31 years of midwest life, or maybe there will even be a tiny house in our future (?!?), so stick with us as we navigate a totally new environment. We will keep our current title so our web address stays the same but perhaps add an addendum to it... Any suggestions? So this little Goldilocks is packing away her lock pick set for a bit and preparing for new adventures.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

CORN!!!

Farm life is a lot of work and some jobs are so big that they require the big guns- huge family gatherings with lots of helping hands. Think Ree Drummond: Pioneer Woman. Since we don’t have family around here, over the years we have found a surrogate family that we bounce into whenever extra hands are needed. Enter the Hurds. Andy met Aaron at work… they probably bonded day 1 over their shared crude humor and willingness to try anything once. We usually call Aaron “Double A” since my sister’s name is also Erin and it gets confusing. AA has made several appearances in our blog since he is always our country life savior. Aaron’s wife is Shannon and they have two school-aged boys. The family all congregates at Rita’s house, Aaron’s mom. Rita is the 90lb, tough-as-nails matriarch of the family with a heart of gold and can toss heavier loads of chopped wood than Andy. Also included in these family gatherings are Aaron’s sister, Heather, her husband Mark, and their two boys.

Last night, after a to-die-for dinner of smoked chicken at Aaron’s house, Aaron casually asks what we are doing Sunday. Still stuffed with chicken, the warning bells did not clang fast enough as Andy proclaimed we were free. “Great!”, Aaron replied. “We are doing corn tomorrow.”

My first experience with corning was 2 years ago. Andy was in China on business and I was home with then 3-year-old E and 1-year-old F. Aaron had checked up on me several times while Andy was out of town so I thought when I was invited over to Rita’s to have supper and help freeze corn that he felt bad I was home alone and was trying to feed me something other than the traditional cereal and pancake diet I consume whenever Andy is not home. 6 hours later, 75 bags of corn ready for the freezer and drenched in gallons of sweat I realized I should always get more information any time Aaron calls.

Flash forward two years. “You want to help corn in the morning?” The question loomed in the air. Andy, having no idea what he is getting into agreed quickly. Even though I like to dramatically complain about it and tease Aaron about roping me into the corn day from hell, I actually had a good time and just used my last bag of corn from two years ago so I was ready for another round. I was also prepared this time. Mean person that I am, I decided to enact a bit of payback and give Andy NO information about the coming day. Mwahaha.

The day begins with picking corn from Rita’s land. A whole truck bed is filled and then driven to a shaded area for shucking. Everyone, including all the kids lend a hand shucking the hundreds of ear of corn.

F is a shucking pro! Serious Iowa boy

Aaron and Andy

Heather, Rita and boys

My first year, I showed up after this task was complete and thought I had gotten out of all the hard work! Again, this year I decided to leave Andy in the dark knowing he too probably thought the big job was over. I’m a bad, bad person.

All corn shucked

Before the actual big job of boiling the corn, cooling it, cutting it from the cob and then bagging it, the whole family takes a break to have “dinner” (which is lunch to rural Iowans). On these big family work days, dinner can range from a roast that has been in the crockpot since morning to cold cut sandwich fixings.

After dinner, the kids scatter and the adults get to boiling huge pots of water, washing the corn and prepping the cutting and bagging stations.

The worst part of corning is just dealing with Mother Nature. This year luckily wasn’t too hot, only with a predicted high of 77 but by the end of the two hour boil, cut and bag, the kitchen was a whopping 85 degrees. Add a baby to that and you are talking some serious boob sweat.

Bagging corn with L. 2 years ago, this was me with F.

Despite the heat, the friendly banter between adults throughout the work (which included a reoccurring 6" long and 1/2" wide dick joke) and the antics of the kids which ranged in age from 7 months to 11 years makes the whole job fun.