Reunited...and it feels so good...

The last week was full of more dog-drama, but also some good news.

After working on the yurt situation, my mom and stepdad talked to some friends who they work with about the property across the street from them that they are buying (see pic). These people are 'hazelnut" (to Starbucks types, known as filberts to Oregonians) farmers and employ my sister at their packaging facility. The property across the street which is a 100 acre filbert orchard went up for sale and these people bought it. It just so happens that there are 2 houses on this property. My stepdad brought up with them that we are looking to move and they got really excited...they don't care about making money off these houses, they just want people there that they can trust keeping their eye on the orchard...so possibly we can live there for free or REALLY cheap!! this is the best thing that has happened to us since Jay lost his job. the house is huge, 1700 sq feet, which is kind of crazy (considering the fact that we were contemplating moving into a 500 sq foot yurt) but this situation is just too good for us...we're hoping we can move down there in june. we are excited to get back to rural living. We don't want to jinx it, but i SO hope this works out. We will be living directly across the street from my mom. I can keep subbing. Jay can keep working part time. We get to see our kids. It could just be great for us. We could pay off some debt, maybe even save some money! Crazy idea.

So the animal shelter called and said that they can't put barry up for adoption because he is actually designated as a dangerous dog in our county. Um, yeah? but you already knew that. they are claiming they didn't know that. WTH? that is the WHOLE reason he is in vancouver and not at Oregon humane! whatever. I guess the county animal control called them and told them all of this...this was never hidden from them and should have been fully known. I think the shelter worker who agreed to this is trying to cover herself saying that she didn't know he was actually designated. They said it is a liability. I asked them if it was a liability even if he wasn't designated, if he had just bitten someone, and they said yes! But they DEFINITELY knew he bit the mailman! I'm so confused. Plus, he was looked at TWICE by their behaviorist and deemed completely safe and was really sweet and loving there, even in those stressful conditions.

But we figured, whatever. We are moving to a 100 acre farm out of this county. We are just going to take him back. I went and got him. I feel really bad that he was in dog jail for a month. I guess that's what he gets for biting the mailman. But he is back with us now, and i'm glad. If they want to slap us with fines and stuff, whatever. Go ahead. I'm so done with this issue, I don't even care. I know he's not dangerous. The mailman is totally overreacting to a pair of ripped pants. If i thought that barry was a truly aggressive dog, i would just have him euthanized myself. But he's not. He just hates the mailman.

i'm relieved, honestly. I mean, if he would have found a good home, I guess we would have been Ok with it, but seeing him in the shelter, and then bringing him home...his relief was palpable. Poor sophie was beside herself with joy at seeing him. i can't imagine how sad and confused he must have been during this whole time. So we're all back together again. I can't help but feel it was meant to be this way. We may even have to get sneaky and fake his death or something. But probably not. We'll just have to live with a dog who is basically like a sex offender..."hi, my name is barry and i'm moving in next door. I'm classified as a level 4 dangerous dog. The county requires me to report this..."

We've officially lost it

We've come to a nexus in our life that requires us to make a decision. Are we going to move onward and upward with getting jobs, buying a house, keep renting, take on full time teaching, leave portland, or what?

The shelter where barry is located was contacted by Multnomah county animal control. They are now claiming they didn't know that he was "officially" designated as a dangerous dog. All that means is that the mailman filed a complaint. They are now saying its a liability...why is it a liability if he is classified this way vs. if it is known that he did bite the mailman?

So we are facing a choice: find him a home out of county somehow? take him back and move? have him euthanized?

This dog does not deserve to die. If he was aggressive, I would be the first to recommend euthanasia. But he's not. He needs a yard with no mailman access. Its not like the guy got mauled. He got a scrape on his hand. USPS and the county are acting like he's a pitbull capable of killing someone...

We've been talking about moving for awhile. I feel like I just finally broke down last night. The idea of killing our friendly dog, the idea of me being incredibly stressed out working full time, me missing my children's babyhood/last year before school because I am too busy working, working and working and working and just barely paying for our rent and utilities and food and student loans...

We are now seriously looking into relocating into a yurt. On my mom's farm.

Before you get all freaked out that we are going to move into a tent, look at the pictures. This is a large structure on a platform that has a kitchen and everything.

This yurt is totally off grid...a composting toilet, solar panels, rain water catchment system, solar shower.... there is no need for any utility bills. It has a woodstove for heat. Its about 600 square feet plus a loft for the sleeping area. The picture at the top is the kitchen. It basically drains the kitchen sink and then shower onto cobbles on the ground. that's about it. as sustainable as is humanly possible without really roughing it.

If we ever get our own land, we can move it. The whole thing. We dont need to work much to pay for it. I can keep subbing and jay can work. We can grow a lot of our own food and have chickens and maybe more.

We are seriously considering it. Seriously.

See our new organized space! Lots of pictures!

I took some pictures for another organizing/decluttering website, so I'll post them here too. we've been working in the garden all weekend. If these giant 10" long worms aren't evidence of amazingly healthy soil, i don't know what is. We got some crops in the ground today. The weather has been amazingly warm and sunny these past couple of weeks.

I wanted to embed this slideshow into my blog, but i'm too stupid to figure it out today and i'm annoyed now, so you'll just have to click this link.
http://www.flickr.com/gp/24328696@N04/fRR293

I really feel like our space is totally organized. We have cleared out so much stuff. It takes a lot less time to clean up now. It's great. Spring has the effect of making me see how depressed i've been all winter. I feel so great right now, like everything is going to work out and be fine.

Jay's homemade laundry soap turned out amazing. we are trying to figure out how many more things we can do ourselves...its almost like a challenge. jay is wanting to buy a table saw because he loves working with wood and he wants to build things like children's furniture out of used scrap wood.

How to make your own laundry soap

You can easily make your own laundry and/or dishsoap. Here's the recipe. Jay did this today. It ends up costing you 1 cent per load. You make something like 20 gallons per batch. All that's in it is laundry soda (sodium carbonate), borax, and some kind of castille soap. Easy. And fun! And you can add your own essential oil, so it can smell like whatever you want.

http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm

We ordered soaps off that other website. We got shaving soap for jay (old school with the shaving brush style), a shampoo bar and a conditioner bar. Oh, and a bag of remnants for hand-washing soap.

By the way, we went to IKEA last weekend. I know, why? We just kind of wanted to see it. I also wanted to get a hamper for elsie's room. It was such a scary experience. Its like 5000000 square feet of crap made in china with a hip flare. I did buy a kids hamper ($5) and a shoe shelf to organize our closet ($9). bad, bad me. Still, I wonder how many people get out of Ikea having only spent $15? I don't plan to go back. I still feel bad about supporting that kind of thing. We have bought almost nothing new in like a year....blah! Oh well.