It's been a couple of weeks since I found the time to sit down and write and I apologize for that. I have to say that I hear from people every week who read this and I am so pleased with all of the positive responses! Thank you very much!
I've spent the past weeks doing a bit of local travel. I was up in Susanville the weekend prior to Thanksgiving. We drove up in a terrible snow storm and the drive took over eight hours; it was beautiful and it was dry snow, so it wasn't too bad, but it did slow everything down. It certainly made me appreciate the local weather here quite a bit. I was home for a day or so, then took off again for Cottonwood to spend Thanksgiving with my beau's family. That was a very nice time; yes, lots of good food and we even got to take home some of the (gigantic) turkey which I've made into casseroles and pasta sauces, so far.
Going away from the beautiful Valley always makes me appreciate it the more. The weather is rarely too hot nor too cold; we celebrate snow because it is such a rare occurence. Even on the hottest days we are but a short drive to the coolness of the coast. Besides the temperate climate, we have food to celebrate in our community. I find Susanville cute and a decent place to visit (I have been there in the summer in the past where most of my time was spent at Eagle Lake), but there really is no good place to eat. We did find one place, the Sage Hen Restaurant, that had good quality food prepared nicely, but even that wasn't as good as what we get here. We have Lauren's with all the fresh and local ingredients and the variety of choices her menu offers; Libby's with the best Mexican food I have ever had; the Hotel with its gourmet prix fixe dinners that allow you to savor your meal as though you were on the Continent; Mosswood and the General Store for coffees, breakfast and lunch; and several others as well. And if you don't mind a bit of a drive, both the coast and Ukiah offer even more choices - the restaurant at the City of 10,000 Buddhas for lunch being one of my favorites. In a sense, we do have it all - why live anywhere else?
The real estate market tends to be a bit quieter this time of year, with people focusing on holidays, meals to prepare, family to visit and so on. I have had a bit of activity, however, with a few people stopping by to make inquiries and even a showing here and there. I have found it interesting that two people I've spoken to recently are looking to move their money out of banks and into real estate as a safer investment; it certainly is that - as the one person said, you can live on the land and even live off of the land if needs be. And as I mentioned above, what better place to be living than here in our beautiful Valley?