*Innstalled

Well, THIS is long overdue, isn’t it?

I’m such a slacker. How do you put up with me?

Four days ago, after packing with reckless abandon, throwing half of my household into a Goodwill dumpster, I crawled out of the airport from my 48 hour whirlwind trip to San Francisco to see my mate from Australia and climbed into Dude’s truck for a ride down to Central Point. Never even passed “GO”, never got my $200. Headed right into the mix without a minute to myself.

As we divided up the household for three different locations, we barely had time to say goodbye to each other. Woefully, lots of packing was left in Brian’s hands. I can forsee endless annoying moments occuring as Ellie wonders what the hell happened to me and her 4 walks a day as she paws Brian for the answer while he is trying to actually work for a living. I am trying not to become Neurotic Wife Of Doom as the thought of Brian  and Ellie driving across the country to Arkansas over a national drinking holiday weekend scares the ever loving hell out of me. I’d like to sob like a chick, but quite frankly, I don’t have time or the energy.

We did manage to eke out a nice farewell gathering with all who could attend dinner at Country Cat, Dude’s house of internship. Dinner was splendid, company was grand (saw some great to see faces!!),  others were missed but not forgotten and I got bested by a slab of really good chocolate cake for the first time in my life. I had a hard time not being embarrassed by my lack of conquering the beast. I hope my father never starts reading this blog- he’d be disappointed in my failing of the family name… Wre are, if nothing  else, total chocolate whores.

I am learning my duties at the Willows little by little. Its not very busy this year, thanks to the economies of both Oregon and California being in the toilet. Its hitting a lot of businesses pretty hard. Weddings, fortunately, are still happening and the show must go on! Today I did a small wedding, half outside catered, to get my feet wet. Next week its gonna be more intense, with back to back events on the same day. All weekend its gonna be showers, weddings, brunches, full house of guests and early breakfasts. Its gonna be the real thing. I’d better find some electrolytes at the bike shop to replenish my fatigued legs or its gonna be a shitty summer.

I snuck off for a little recon mission of the neighborhood on the bike yesterday afternoon. I clucked at horses in pastures along the road, scoped out the cherries ripening safely under bird netting, listened to the irrigation channel water rushing through the valley hillside. This morning before the rush, I took a two mile walk to clear my head before breakfast. I heard pheasants. I whinnied back at stretching horses. I scared frogs along the water ditches. I saw signs for homegrown eggs for three dollars a dozen. I met up with a few old men ambling out to their mail boxes to fetch the morning paper, smelling of aftershave and percolator coffee. With the light canopy of clouds over the valley sky, broken only by a spray of sunbeams far off in the distance, it was a perfect stillness to counter the bustle of the rest of the day.

I hope to get a lot of unique experiences here at the Inn. Joe is trying to see if I can get in on a Morel hunt, a day smoking meat the proper/old fashioned way, and maybe Sandy can wrangle me a day with a butcher who does cow work on site at a farm, slaughtering and breaking them into primal cuts for farmers. I can’t wait to do cheese and chocolate, too.  If it has to do with food, I wanna be in the middle of it. Stay with me this summer and see what kinds of shenanigans I can get myself into!