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One of the things I love most about living here is that it is so quiet. At night it is so dark that (unless the fog is in) the stars just light up the sky!  I stepped outside a couple of nights ago, and it was so clear, the stars were truly like bright, shiny diamonds. I almost got my husband out of bed to come see them, it was so beautiful!

This area is well known for dungeness crab.  Crab season opens up here sometime around the first of December, depending on whether the fishermen have agreed on a price.  So I always get that “Christmas feeling” when I see the crab boats out on the ocean.  As it gets closer to opening, we begin to see more and more orange fishing boat lights scattered along the horizon during our long winter nights. 

I have about a 180 degree view of the ocean, so as we get closer to Christmas, the ocean at night begins to look like a parking lot to me.  In fact, it’s become one of the harbingers of Christmas for the family. Sometimes their lights are so strong and they get close enough in towards the rocky shore that their lights actually light up the bedroom, and if I get up in the middle of the night, I cast a shadow against the wall.

The past couple of weeks have mostly been pretty stormy, with the waves so loud that we can hear them breaking against the rocks down on the coastline. 

We are grateful that so far this season the fishermen who work so diligently all night long are still safe.  We love our sweet, succulent dungeness, but we like our fishermen even more!

Today I’m just really grateful for a job that gives me a lot of freedom.  I know what needs to be done and for the most part I’m left to do it.  My boss appreciates the work I do, and praises me for the quality.

He’s often gone, and that gives me the time to get done what needs to be done while “holding down the fort” until he gets back.

If you have to work for someone other than yourself, do everything in your power to mold the job to suit who you are and the strengths you bring to the table. 

Right now we have a vacancy.  The other position is the same level as I am, but the focus of that job is very different – it’s 80% fiscal and data driven.  Mine is about 25% data and finance driven, with the rest mostly people driven.  I could do more of that other work, but it’s much less interesting to me than what I’m doing.

Thankfully, my current boss chose to keep the same basic structure when he came into the position.  My “previous” boss had hired me for the skills I possess, and luckily for me this one has elected to keep me in that role.

I am always grateful to be able to do what I enjoy and to get paid for it.  I would always rather work for myself, at my own pace, and hiring the temporary employers who allowed me to do so, but if I have to work outside the home, I’m VERY grateful to still do so on my own terms, and for someone who appreciates me!

What would you miss most if you had to go 10 days without power?

Last year on New Years’ Eve we had a huge storm that took out all the electricity and several thousand redwoods, alders, eucalyptus, Douglas fir, pine, etc.  Just a couple of miles from here it looked like God decided to go bowling.   As a friend who lives right there said, Mother Nature gave them what the California Coastal Commission refused to – an ocean view.

We were without power for 4 days.  I had just rented a bunch of movies, and so my husband and I got into bed early (by the light of the kerosene lamps), and watched movies on the laptop.  The second night, the laptop died as the credits were rolling at the end.

Now, when we’re without power, we’re literally camping – just indoors with a roof. 

We only have electricity (there is no natural gas here), so there’s no cooking unless we put the Coleman up on the stove.  Luckily we use a wood stove for most of our heat, so we usually have a good stock of wood.  And because we’re on a well, there’s no water for drinking, washing or flushing.  Unless we use the rainwater from outside.

So it’s always an interesting experience, and we generally get 2-3 power outages of 1-2 days every year.  Sometimes it’s worse, like a few years ago when we went about 6 days.  Because we are fairly remote, we’re often some of the last neighborhoods to get power restored. 

And last year one of the wires across the dirt road to our driveway came down with a branch, so we had to wait for PG&E to repair that before we got power again.  And we were a bit anxious even about crossing it to get to the store.

So, we’re very grateful that the huge storm that swept Oregon and Washington just barely touched us.  We are only about 70-80 miles from Oregon, so we are very, very lucky.

We were talking earlier tonight with family in New Zealand and they told us that they can’t connect to their “work” mainframe in Seattle because the power is out there.  And in some places the expectation is it will be 10 days before power is restored.

We become so accustomed to things working and problems being fixed easily, that the idea seldom passes into our thoughts that we might have to go 10 days without power.  In a city setting, chances are good there will at least be water and telephone.  But in a rural setting (and Washington has many of those, just as we do), the modern comforts we’ve become used to having just don’t exist when the power is out.

My husband and I have lived here “behind the Redwood Curtain” for about 12 years.  We love the rugged and unspoiled beauty.  But every winter we are grateful for all the modern amenities we have.  And even though we only use it in the most extreme circumstances, that generator we bought a few years ago does come in handy sometimes!

We live on the far northern coast of California - almost to Oregon. We get very dynamic weather here – and some amazing visual delights.  Driving to and from work the past two days has been an incredible experience.

We often have fog – no getting away from it when you live by the ocean!!  But mostly it’s the kind that keeps the sun covered in the summer due to the extreme heat just over the mountains from us (technically called an “inversion layer” – makes the folks coming here glad, but makes for a grey summer for those of us who live here).

So anyway, it’s the middle of winter here, but between storms, so we get some beautiful clear days.

What has made this week so incredible is a combination of two things. The fog has been sitting about 5-12 feet high on the fields.  It is very close to the ground and in the morning it looks like a grey-white blanket covering the fields and surrounding the cows.

Because we are such a small community and so remote, the stars and the moon are very, very bright and noticeable here.  When the full moon pops her head over the mountains, it lights up everything and you could almost drive without your headlights. 

With the full moon on Monday, every night as we’ve driven home at dusk the fields look so ethereal and wispy – very, very magical with the moonlight illuminating the fog.  It reminds me very much of the Scottish moors, and I half expect to see fairies flitting about!!

Truly memorable, and one of the reasons we continue to love living here!

Tonight is the first Christmas Party of the season – my husband’s office party.

It’s a great opportunity to dress up a bit and go have some festive fun!  We don’t get a lot of those kinds of opportunities here Bfhind the Redwood Curtain where everything is rather casual.  So this is a great chance to dig out the special clothes from the back of the closet and go dancing.

Our dear friend Jim from Lake Tahoe just spent 2 days with us – he and hubby Tom went golfing yesterday.  It was the first time Tom had been golfing in a decade or so.  For me, the last time I swung a golf club was in High School!  But, I’ve told Tom I think it would be fun and good exercise to get out occasionally, so it looks like we may be doing exactly that.  Great opportunity to (re)learn a new skill, get some exercise with my dear husband, and get outside.

A friend down the hill from us gave us a wooden picnic table his father (a carpenter) had made several years ago.  His father (Sandy) was my husband Tom’s best fishing buddy who passed away earlier this year (at 92 I believe).  We put the table out by the barbeque.  It covers our generator (necessary due to the power outages we get every year), and provides a nice place for the plants and for the kitties to take a nap.  I told Tom that it’s nice to have Sandy at the house!

He and his wife would always come to my birthday parties and usually at that time of the year (early fall) the weather was nice enough to have a barbeque or some outside activities.  Now we can think of him everytime we cook outdoors!