I have been in all 50 States, travelled to Europe as far North as Lapland and the Southern most part of Spain and everywhere in between, but Oregon is home. There are three States on the West Coast and Oregon is in the middle. No one in Europe has heard of it. I tell them it is the State North of California and they always say, "Oh, Northern California"!
We have over 300 miles of open, public beaches. It is against the law to control access to the beach in Oregon. You can watch migrating wales from the beach and catch Salmon from the shoreline. We have beaches that are miles long with nothing but sand and other areas full of basalt rocks right into the ocean.
The Pacific Ocean is one hour away from my house.
An hour in the other direction, heading East will take you into the mountains, the Cascade Range with its mountain peaks high enough they are snow covered all year long. Everywhere are deer and except for me it appears as though we all own rifes. Oregonians are hunters and fishermen! We still have pleanty of Beaver and a twenty minute drive in any direction will take you to nowhere, the boondocks and you can discover places where people have never walked. Oregon is the size of France but has less than a million and a half people living here.
Most of the population is centered in the Willammette Valley, running most of the length of the State from Portland to Oakridge and nestled between the Coastal mountians and the Cascade Mountains and less than seventy miles wide. I am in Springfield, next to Eugene, home to Nike Shoes and the University of Oregon.
I live on a city lot, close to downtown, my little 1/3rd acre hideaway. I have a 2,200 square foot house that I built using 400 square feet of the original in 1978. We bought this property with its 900 sq. ft. "fixer" house in 1972 and paid $8,375 dollars for it. No typo there, that is what we paid. $1,500 deposit and
$78. per month!!! It is paid for now and that is good because I couldn't afford to leave!
Over the years I have done lots of improvements to this property. Making the house bigger but also building my greenhouse, a sturdy structure in itself, and then creating my studio/shop in my backyard. It is 20' x 40' and has a walkable attic for storage. It has seven big windows, about 3' x 6' with a view of my garden and the little pool I built with my daughters.
I am a sedentary creature although in my youth I travelled at the slightest whim. The world is becoming so complex and busy. I am happy here on my island and I can do anything I want to do.
Visit me HERE
We have over 300 miles of open, public beaches. It is against the law to control access to the beach in Oregon. You can watch migrating wales from the beach and catch Salmon from the shoreline. We have beaches that are miles long with nothing but sand and other areas full of basalt rocks right into the ocean.
The Pacific Ocean is one hour away from my house.
An hour in the other direction, heading East will take you into the mountains, the Cascade Range with its mountain peaks high enough they are snow covered all year long. Everywhere are deer and except for me it appears as though we all own rifes. Oregonians are hunters and fishermen! We still have pleanty of Beaver and a twenty minute drive in any direction will take you to nowhere, the boondocks and you can discover places where people have never walked. Oregon is the size of France but has less than a million and a half people living here.
Most of the population is centered in the Willammette Valley, running most of the length of the State from Portland to Oakridge and nestled between the Coastal mountians and the Cascade Mountains and less than seventy miles wide. I am in Springfield, next to Eugene, home to Nike Shoes and the University of Oregon.
I live on a city lot, close to downtown, my little 1/3rd acre hideaway. I have a 2,200 square foot house that I built using 400 square feet of the original in 1978. We bought this property with its 900 sq. ft. "fixer" house in 1972 and paid $8,375 dollars for it. No typo there, that is what we paid. $1,500 deposit and
$78. per month!!! It is paid for now and that is good because I couldn't afford to leave!
Over the years I have done lots of improvements to this property. Making the house bigger but also building my greenhouse, a sturdy structure in itself, and then creating my studio/shop in my backyard. It is 20' x 40' and has a walkable attic for storage. It has seven big windows, about 3' x 6' with a view of my garden and the little pool I built with my daughters.
I am a sedentary creature although in my youth I travelled at the slightest whim. The world is becoming so complex and busy. I am happy here on my island and I can do anything I want to do.
Visit me HERE
5 comments:
Sounds like paradise.
And the best part is you did it all yourself.. I'm sure with some help from your wife.. How many men know 'cozy' ... Your place is an island and you are the Head hunter.
I hope your there for another 40 years ,, BJ
Except you still have to come and stay a while with us in Beautiful British Columbia where it is raining radioactively in the valley, snowing radioactively on the Mountain, and the Mallard Ducks are playing in our radioactive garden.
Jerry my lawn is starspangled with golden dandelions :-)
Oh to have such an island! I love OR, Jer. I lived in Tacoma for 12 years and still wonder what on earth possessed me to move back here (my family is all here in IL and it is beautiful here too, but I long for my beloved PNW). One spring break, I drove from Tacoma down to Disney Land with my young daughters (where on earth does the time go?). I remember especially loving the Grants Pass area. I also spent a weekend at Cannon Beach and oh...so lovely. When I lived in Tacoma, I was also about an hour from the Pacific Ocean and about an hour from the mountains. Such beauty, and the weather? I so loved it. I also used to work for the Gambling Commission and in that capacity headed down to OR to work with one of the State detectives on an investigation. Got to visit Portland for two days and that was also a joy.
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