Life in the Rural High Desert

Having lived 95% of my total years in western Oregon (I actually did the math), this current 5% has been an adjustment, and I deem it sufficient to speak authoritatively on living in the central portion of this state.  Therefore .....

The Pros:

1. My mountains.  Verse 121 in Psalms, says, 

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help."

In context, this verse appears to have been intended as a question.  But to me, it's a statement.  Hence, the mountains are mine ..... although I'm willing to share.

Broken Top on the left, and the Three Sisters, middle and right

2. Space between us and everyone else.  In fact, we can only see one other house from our house.  

3. My house.  It's not fancy nor large, but it has no stairs, requires only minimal yard work, and it's comfortable.  Plus it looks out on .... see #1 above.

4. The relatively safe political climate where this can sit by our neighbor's road, unmolested.

I'm pretty sure I could even wear a MAGA hat into town if I wanted.  (I don't own one.)  As for the opposing party, I haven't seen any molestation of their signs either.  But I could be wrong.

5.  Less traffic.  Nowadays, when we make one of our frequent trips back to western Oregon, we practically break out in hives as we crawl from one traffic light to the next.  Our Hwy 97, which runs north/south through the center of the state, can sometimes clog up a bit, and too often because of an accident .... which is a topic for another blog post.  Fortunately we have a wonderful thing call back roads, which the general public usually doesn't bother with, where we can zip to town, seldom seeing more than a few cars or even a stop sign.

6. It's dry here.  Often when we go back west, we notice, like never before, the Three Ms: Mud, Moss, and Muck .... the latter being whatever you think fits.

7. There are lakes everywhere.  It necessitates owning some type of boat, which for us, is a kayak.  And camping options?  ..... Again, everywhere.

Pause a moment and soak this in.  (Hosmer Lake) Credit for this photo goes to the Husband.

Camping just last week, and there's our kayak.  (Crane Prairie Reservoir)

8. Deer occasionally wander by my window.  You cannot help but love that.

9. We are surrounded by canyons.  I can literally walk to this spot from my house. (1.5 miles)

Overlooking the Deschutes River.

10.  The people.  There are nice people everywhere.  But here, when out for a walk as I often am, you MUST wave at everyone who drives by .... or at least smile and nod.  Otherwise you feel rude.  It can be bothersome, especially to one who is easily lost in one's thoughts when on foot.  And once, after a deep dump of snow, I was out shoveling a portion of our driveway.  A neighbor whom I've never met, came along on his tractor and, without a word, drove up our driveway and began scooping snow.  And if he hadn't come, our other neighbor would've shown up to do the same.

11. Spectacular sunsets.  Check this out:

The Cons:

1. I am twenty minutes away from shopping, and I'm talking bare minimalist shopping. 

If you want real shopping, you must drive forty minutes or more.  And if you want serious shopping, you must drive three hours to Portland.  (*sigh*)  At least Amazon still knows where to find me.

2. The lack of color.  As you can see in the photos above, there are parts of central Oregon that are stunningly gorgeous.  But where we live .... there are junipers.  Here and there you might find an interesting looking one in a somewhat artful sense, but for the most part, they are probably the ugliest tree ever created.  And unless people plant other varieties of trees on their property, you will find nothing BUT junipers.  NOTHING.  

And the other vegetation, if you can call it that ....(sage brush, tumbleweeds, and cheatgrass that drives burs into your socks) are all the same dreary shade of pale green and brown.  Hence, when we drive west, I am almost overcome by the abundant color over there. 

3.  Those deer.  They must be barricaded by tall fences or they will eat everything you plant.  And if they don't want it, rabbits probably will.  

4.  Weird weather.  We don't get snow too often.  But sometimes when it snows, it dumps.  We've seen at least three feet a couple of times.  

 

And once in a while the wind, on a previously windless day, suddenly kicks up and threatens to overturn cars, then brings in a Biblical deluge of hail and rain and for about 30 minutes, tries heartily to wash us all into one of the nearby canyons, before returning to that innocent blue-sky calmness, as if to say, "Storm?  What storm?" 

  

And all lightening storms must accompany the necessary concern of wild fires, because .....

5.  ... it's so dry.  People are quite intense about fire danger here.  We have to trim up our trees and attempt to keep potential fuel cleaned up off the ground.  I never heard of creating a "safety perimeter" around my house in western Oregon.  And we've had days at a time, typically in August, when the mountains hide in the smokey haze.  

6. I don't trust other drivers here.  Hwy 97 (mentioned above) is, in my opinion, an antiquated death trap.   It has too many small roads and driveways accessing it with a scary lack of turning lanes or medians needed to keep cars and trucks separated as they speed past each other on only two lanes.  A LOT of accidents happen on sections I am frequently on and many are fatal.  But not all are due to the road.  Sometimes the unexplainable happens and someone pulls out in front of a semi-truck in broad daylight.  


As you can see, at this point, the Pros outnumber the Cons.  So until that changes, we will stay put.  Besides that, the Husband LOVES his fishing and golfing which are readily available a few minutes away.  I was told once, by a local, that people move out here when they retire in their 60s (hello, us!) and move back when they need more help in their 80s.  So we have a few years to go .....