Country Living

Once upon a time, when I heard the phrase "Country Living", this would come to mind:

Now, my thoughts on country living are a little heavier on the shabby, and a little lighter on the chic. What is it about REAL country living and the yard "art" (which includes a wide range of things: discarded vehicles, gnomes, fake butterflies, windsocks, antique ovens, old school buses and fire engines... the list goes on. I think I'm going to do a whole post on the yard "art" here). Despite the yard art and abundant RVs, ATVs, and BMXs, there is a lot of beauty to behold here. We live just one block outside of Lewiston proper which has its pluses and minuses. The pluses include a view like this outside our living room window.

 The minuses include terrible, terrible cell phone reception, and SLOW SLOW internet service. No cable company has ventured out this far, yet. So, I don't think that I'll have any videos in my posts for a while. We do have some great neighbors:

We went to see the cows the first evening we were here and now every time Lincoln wants to go outside, he'll stand by the door and say "Cow, cow, cow....".

The cows weren't any too interested in being close to the double jogger.

Here's Matt and Lucy across the street from the cows. Our house is the one on the far left.

The sign reads "KEEP HORSES OFF PEDESTRIAN PATH". People have not been keeping the rules as evidenced by the loads of horse poop on the walk which has found it's way into the double jogger tread. One  day on one of my runs, I was distracted by a tumble weed stuck under the stroller. While I was trying to figure out what the noise was, I hit a load. Luckily it was dry, but the kids almost flew out of the stroller. I just smiled to myself and hoped that no one flying by on the state highway saw what had just happened. 

This is our living room on Day 1. Lincoln and Lucy love looking at the horses. Lincoln will shout "Hosie, hosie!!", and Lucy will rush to the window and stare at them like this:

Anyway, we're having fun and are enjoying our big backyard and big living space. It is a very sharp contrast to our experience in Korea. Matt and I commented to each other about how we've had more culture shock coming here than we did going to Korea. I did go to school in Logan, Utah and there's plenty or rural space in the rest of Utah, I've just never lived in it before.

One last comment: I went to Home Depot the other day to get a sheet of plywood so I could make Lincoln a 2 story fort/playhouse deal. We bought a GMC Acadia (see below) while we were in Utah, and I was struggling to fit the plywood in the back because I had the kids in there. I got asked at least 5 times by farmer dudes if I needed help. I declined these offers cause I was sure I could get it in by tilting it somehow. A majority of those that asked if I needed help asked me if I'd be able to fit it in my "rig". I was laughing inside. Can a GMC Acadia really be classified as a "rig"? I'm not so sure. I always thought that meant a REALLY big truck, no? Turns out, I couldn't fit it in and ended up having to have a Home Depot guy help me tie it in. I did feel pretty cool though, haulin' stuff home in my rig.