Well it has been awhile since I have posted about my journey that I am on. I have decided to make camp and stay in Leavenworth for awhile and boy oh boy am I happy that I did!

What an amazing town and what amazing people that live here.

Everyone here is truly genuine and helpful. It is the kind of town that you read about in the old stories. The kind where the whole town comes together to help each other. They sincerely love each and want the best for each other. Oh how the rest of our country could learn from these incredible loving people.

I attended the local church on Monday to the yearly Church Revival and I have never encountered such genuine authentic individuals. I have always been on the shy side until Monday, it is because I have never felt so comfortable ever in my entire life! For the first time I felt like I could talk without being judged. Prior to Monday, I would actually have panic attacks if I had to speak to someone I didn’t know or be in an environment that I wasn’t familiar with. But both Pastor John and Pastor Brian actually cared about what I had to say and they were so so easy to talk to, it was amazing!

I would have never attended if it hadn’t been for Robin, our camp host. What an amazing woman she is!! I will not say her last name nor will I say where she is from because of her very safety. What I will tell you is that she was badly abused for 11 years by her husband and lost a limb and all because of this jerk (to put it mildly). Anyways she was finally taken to a battered woman’s shelter with her beloved dog, Burt. Burt is a retired search and rescue dog, he is a sweetheart.

Robin finally thought things were going to change when low and behold the shelter told her that she had to put Burt down or take him to the pound because they can’t have dogs in the shelter. Burt would never survive the pound, he is much too old. We all know that most people that go to adopt just want the cute little puppies. They forget about how much joy it can be by getting an already trained and older companion. Well Robin could not do that to Burt, he was all she had left. So she left the shelter and started sleeping on park benches and such.

A couple days later one of the police officers that had seen her in one of the many domestic dispute calls that was called in by their neighbors, recognized her and felt really bad. He called a friend of his that used to be a police officer and now was a Pastor at a church in Leavenworth.

What followed was nothing short of incredible. Pastor John spoke to his congregation and told them about Robin and Burt. The next thing that happened was everyone pulling together. They pulled money to get tickets to get them to Leavenworth and then they got a little trailer that everyone chipped in on and fixed up to make it live able. Then while trying to figure out where they were going to put the trailer, Pastor Brian popped up with a wonderful solution. He was managing an RV park and he could have the trailer put there and she could help out and be the camp host to cover her rent there.

When Robin arrived she couldn’t believe it. There were boxes of food and clothes waiting for her. Even a pair of glasses. Although her eye sight was very bad, her husband never allowed her to have eye glasses NOR did he ever teach her drive or allow her to take driving lessons. He totally controlled every aspect of her life.

Robin is the hardest worker that I have ever seen. I sit at my desk in my RV and watch her sometimes with AWE. She is truly an inspiration to me. One minute she is cleaning the toilets and bathrooms and the next she is chopping wood or cleaning someones RV. Never does she complain.

This morning she went for a job interview and she passed the aptitude test by 98% but she didn’t get the job because she doesn’t have a drivers license.

When I found that out, I went and told her that I was going to teach her how to drive starting next week. She was completely shocked! I just really want to help her as much as I can, she is a wonderful person. She is so grateful to everyone at the church that she walks to town and paints rooms for them or cleans carpet or cooks for the recovery group at church and etc. and she asks for nothing, not a dime. She told me that she does it because she knows in her heart that if it wasn’t for the wonderfully caring people of this little church in Leavenworth, that she wouldn’t be alive today.

I really think the biggest shocker for Robin was that the Church was doing this although she was never a Christian Woman. But also they didn’t know a thing about her. She was coming from the east coast.

But I will tell you after having met Robin that she totally deserves all this help. She is not someone doing nothing and just asking for hand outs, or just complaining about her past. She has accepted it and is moving forward. Still it breaks my heart when she sits at my campsite and talks sometimes about her past and I see the pain swells up in her. Her eyes start to tear up and she try’s so hard to wipe the tears away before I see, but I just tell her it is, OK to cry.

Wow what another day. We are all so tired and especially my little ones, well they aren’t that tired they are just really wound up. They were all nicely curled up in the soft beds in the back seat of the surburban.

We decided to take US 97 up instead of I-5 and it is so much prettier and also a really nice road. I have several pictures that I will upload later tomorrow or else when David is driving and I get a break from driving.

I actually saw some snow on Mt Shasta, not a lot but also passed by some volcanic ash from the Historical Volcano Eruption way back when.

Well I am super tired and enjoying a glass of wine to relax and go to sleep. I am going to talk to Bri for a bit before closing my eyes and slipping into a deep sleep. She has been texting me quite a bit today, boy we sure miss each other.

I sure hope it gets easier. I am praying everyday that God will have her make the right decisions and that she listens to Jeff.

I will update the rest of the day tomorrow plus ad some pictures and maybe a video.

Well it has been an exhausting last couple of days that is for sure.  We have been busy packing and also dealing with my daughter who is understandably upset, like I am.

I am quite certain that what I am doing is the best thing for the future of our entire family but it isn’t making it any easier me to make the decision, that is for sure!

Our familys goal is to be self sufficient and to have our life long dream of having our very own family compound is finally coming true. HOWEVER it is going to be a lot more work initially then we thought, but the way I look at it, it will just make it all the better and be much more proud of what we can accomplish as a family.

Plus the fact that we want to grow our own vegetables and fruits organically and also have a chicken coop for our very own fresh eggs daily.

My grandkids need to grow up living off the land the way God intended us to do. And to have a Grandma close by to make sure that all cleaning is done toxic free.

I am heading out to the great NorthWest in Wenatchee and very much looking forward to it. We are leaving on Tuesday morning.

Well off to bed now. I am exhausted after a full day of packing.

Well after considering every option and scenario, I have decided on the RV. And I am VERY excited about it!!

Robert went through the RV last night and said it was absolutely gorgeous. The only thing missing was the couch. Jeff said that he took it out because grease got spilled on it somehow. No Biggie, we can just go get another one at a thrift store or I will look on eBay for a local one for sale there in the valley.

Robert stopped by Home Depot to get some paint to cover up the graffiti. Also the Sheriff came by yesterday and ran the vin numbers on the cars and found out that 2 of the them were indeed stolen like Brandon and Brooke thought. The Sheriff called and had them towed out and there was also an Audi there that wasn’t stolen but was abandoned, how strange….

I talked Robert in to heading back here to California to help me get everything ready here. I hate him doing all the work there by himself especially since we are going to be living in the RV. Now that there is no rush I would feel much better with all of us doing the work.

I can certainly tell we will be a lot of shopping at Home Depot and eBay.

Ok so I have to make a BIG decision today. I have to make the final decision as to rather live in a small cottage or buy an RV that I really wanted anyways and live in that while making the property livable.

As some of you know I just bought 160 acres with 8 small cabins in beautiful Central Washington. And let me tell you it needs a lot of work just to get the main cabin even livable. It has been vandalized and had squatters and everything over the years and there is a bunch of stolen cars and crap all over the place.

Squilchuck Hollow Farm

The guy that we bought it from purchased it approximately 8 years ago for the sole purpose of developing it but got distracted by a nasty divorce and etc. Now he just wants out of it. I do not want to develop it and sell it off. I bought it to build a family compound that my kids and I have dreamed about for years.

We are all very excited and were ready to load up everything in San Diego and head up and just move into the cabins even though we knew they needed a lot of work until Robert flew up yesterday just to start a little weeding and get the stolen cars towed off and etc but after getting there and looking around he found mold and determined that they are NOT livable yet. Which really is fine since we want to build everything up anyways. The old cabins are just a temporary living quarters until we all build new cabins.

Ok so I am starting to ramble here. Anyways so we have to find alternative living until we at least make the first cabin safe to live in. Jeff, a family member of Bill who we bought the property from, is helping us since he lives in the local area. He said that we could either rent a small cottage there for a mere $500 a month, which is absolutely insane to me after living amongst the over inflated San Diego prices over the last 10 years. Then as Jeff and Robert were leaving the property last night, Robert mentioned how it would be nice to rent a motor home and put it on the property and just live out of that and be able to work on the property a little everyday.

At that point Jeff turned around and told Robert that he has a 2006 Dutchmen Denali RV that he is 4 months behind in payments and if we wanted we could just bring it current and take over the payments of $298/mo. OMG when Robert told me that I just about went crazy!! I told Robert heck yea!! But Robert and my DIL Brooke thinks that I should take the cottage instead so that we can walk away from the mess everyday after working there all day. They think it would be too over whelming being around it all the time. However my son, Brandon and I thinks it would be great just to go ahead and live on the property and get ‘er done, as Larry the Cable Guy would say, HEHE!!

I have always wanted an RV so for me I think this is a great opportunity. On top of that I am SO excited about getting started on this wonderful adventure and getting my organic garden going and getting a couple goats to help with the weeding and also building my Chicken Coop!

Ok so what do you guys think I should do?? Will it be the RV or the Cottage? I really look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.