Idaho

We walked out of our Sunol dream home for the last time on January 22.  Actually, I didn't feel emotional about the house much.  It was the people we left behind that gets to me.  How can we leave 40+ years of association?  Or three of our five children?  I never imagined that we ever would.

Thursday, after loading up the last of our stuff into a Pod, we headed to our neighbors, Bev and Ernie Trutner, for the night.  The next night we spent with Cliff and Audrey in their new house in Mountain House.  We loaded up our red car and Gerald's gray one early the morning of the 24th, with one of Audrey's cats in each car, and headed out.  Cats.  Audrey's new landlord doesn't allow pets.  So we get the "girls".  Layne and I caravanned for the 11 hour drive from Mountain House to Star, Idaho.

I worried about our girl, sibling, kitties.  But they did fine.  A bit of complaining was offered up by each of them along the way, but they arrived in good shape.  We entered our Idaho home the evening of the 24th.  No furniture, just us, a mattress carried on top of one of the cars, and what supplies we could stuff into the cars, around the cats.  We spent the first day walking around the place, trying to decide where everything should go.  Snow was everywhere. Snow.  Frozen sidewalks and driveways.  Not Layne's dream.  Yet here we are.

The drive to Idaho

We shopped next, for a new bed and refrigerator.  As we did so, we checked out this country place to see what is around us.  Lots of shopping, thank goodness, has emerged recently around this area.  Just in time for our arrival.  It was fun to shop with Layne for several days in a row.  That's never happened before with my shop-hating husband.  We are finding the people in this place to be unusually friendly and helpful.  To a person, they assure us that this winter with its cold and snow is "very rare."  After all, this is the banana belt of Idaho.

It is strange to be a place where we know no one.  Every face is new.  So it was a treat when my friend Trudy Ostler and her husband, Bill, said they were coming for a visit.  "To help you paint," Trudy said.  They came and we did paint.  And talk.  And unpack.  And eat and play games.  It was great fun.  They left yesterday.  I'll miss them.

Being members of the Church has many advantages.  Among them is the benefit of friendship.  We have been to our new ward twice now and find the people there warm and inclusive.  Many live in our neighborhood.  I believe we will make friends quickly here.  People seem to want to.  Star, our new home town, feels comfortable and happy.  But I wish we had the people we love nearby.

The feline girls wander through our home here, following us and snoozing nearby when we settle for a meal or rest.  I am finding them good company.  We finally have the internet.  Two of our Pods have arrived, bringing lots of our things with them.  It is beginning to feel a bit more homey.  There is lots of work to do to settle in.  Everything we choose to keep must find a new location.  It is challenging and fun to determine where everything should go.  Some things about this house I like better than our old one.  Some I don't.  But, before the week is out, we will be relatively settled.  At least that is our plan.

And so, at a new 70 and a settled 72, here we are in Star Idaho.  Imagine that.

Layne with Trudy and Bill Ostler

View from our back yard.  The snow is melted now.

The front of our home in Star, Idaho