Semi-rural – Semi-city(ish)

Recently, I connected with friends that I hadn’t had contact with for several years. Our “catch-up” conversation was not the usual, as we all have had significant life changes to share. Without any prompting, they acknowledged mine were more dramatic than theirs.

When I told them of my move to Waitsburg, their first reaction was, “where?” I gave them the geographical high points and explained that I am not on the “wet” side of the Cascade mountains but in the country of wheat and wine. Next came a barrage of questions about how I cope with their perceptions of the hardships of living in a rural area. And why do I want to?

This is the same grilling my sister gave me. Very concerned, she came to visit shortly after my move. I am sure she envisioned me living in a shack with an outhouse and cooking over an open fire out in the backyard. Luckily, by the time she visited, the bathrooms were renovated, the floors finished, and all the plumbing and electrical had been updated. Her relief was palpable.

Knowing that this will be the response from all my city-dwelling friends and family, I now have a rehearsed response.

1. It’s affordable Wine Country. Take that Napa!

2. Admittedly, no restaurant delivery in town, but I can go outside to my garden and pick lettuce, tomatoes (in a good year), cucumbers, peppers, carrots, and make a salad. (No grocery store needed).

3. Sushi isn’t great here. However, we connected with a reliable Seattle/Portland fish vendor through our restaurant, and we now have fresh fish! Wild-caught Alaska King Salmon is our dinner tonight!

4. Our town has all the essentials I need, a library, bank, gym, cool coffee shop hangout, beautiful park, and a hair salon to get my hair cut and colored (yes, I cover the gray). I can even get acrylic nails! All within three blocks of my house, no car needed, NO TRAFFIC!

5. I have great friends and neighbors. We help each other with gardens, snow removal, and know-how to party. After all, this is wine country!

6. We have all four seasons, which means I can finally wear all the sweaters that I bought on sale in Los Angeles. On sale because it is never sweater weather in L.A.

Although semi-rural isn’t a hardship, I do admit there are certain facts about rural life that took me time to adjust to:

1. I have friends here who hunt, and I have enjoyed some excellent venison and elk. I am happy they have allowed me to hang onto my need not to know my protein too well. I can keep my fantasy; I didn’t know its name; it came packaged, and that’s all I need to know.

2. I love fresh eggs, but I don’t need to know the name, genus, color, or age of the chickens that laid them.

3. Enjoying the four seasons is wonderful, but I have noticed they come with either bugs or snow. Yellowjackets, hover flies, aphids, squash bugs, spiders, blue gnats, ad infinitum before the snow, and after spring returns, the bug cycle repeats.

4. I do miss the variety of ethnic food restaurants in the city. Luckily, I live with a chef who can cook most ethnic food I’m craving. That is, IF he can find the ingredients (a challenge in a rural setting).

Although my definition of semirural may not be in Websters’, I think it should be, using Waitsburg as an example.