Years ago when my four children were young we lived in the mountains of Northern California. We lived in a 40+ year old cabin my then husband's grandfather had built.
We moved into the cabin because my husband was a drug addict and we could find no other place to live we could afford. When we first moved to Omo Ranch, I thought it would just be for a few months. Those few months turned into four years.
My youngest was about three at the time. We had no running water, unless you count the creek which was technically running water. No electricity and no indoor plumbing. We were two miles from the nearest neighbor and 10 miles from the nearest store.
The Cabin was located at the bottom of a canyon. It was beautiful there. We had two apple trees in the middle of the meadow in front of the cabin. They were gorgeous in spring, loaded with delicate pink and white flowers. And the apples were amazing! To this day I have not tasted anything even close to the deliciousness of the cabin apples.
The Cabin had propane lights, a propane stove and refrigerator and a wood stove created out of a 50 gallon barrel. You could fit a small pine tree in that thing!
Just as most things in life, living there was great and not so great at the same time. On the one had we were surrounded by all this beauty. The kids and I loved the creek and spent countless hours on the bank. I counted out the steps one day, it was exactly 175 footsteps from the cabin.
On the other hand we were cut off from civilization. With no phone, and for the majority of the years I was left with four young kids and no car on a daily basis. The only visitors we had the first year were my husband's druggy cousins who would show up all hours of the night, usually without food or enough gas to leave. And nine times out of 10 would end up getting stuck on the road, always in the winter and even surprisingly during summer when the roads were dry. That use to amaze me! How are you gonna get stuck in dry dirt? Only those guys could manage something like that.
If you have ever read the "Little House on the Prairie" books you have a general idea of how we lived. I use to read those books to the kids, I even got some ideas on how to do things, like make applesauce from reading the books.
One evening I was watching a neighbor's kids while my husband and their father went to sell some firewood. (The story they told anyway.) I was alone with my four children and his boy and girl. It was dusk. It seemed to get darker sooner in the canyon. The kids were playing in the cabin when I heard what sounded like a scream. The kids came running out of the cabin wanting to know what it was.
Now I had never even held a shotgun before. My husband left the gun, unloaded of course in case I needed it while they were gone. Like I would know how to use it! Anyway, I went into the house to get the gun, knowing it was not loaded and not even knowing HOW to load it, even if I could find the shells. I went back outside and told the kids to stay put. I was going to walk up the road and "investigate". The whole time thinking, ‘yeah this is a smart thing to do what if you run into something.' Of course I was trying to put up a brave front for the kids sake, all the while praying "God please let whatever is out there see the gun and leave."
We had heard the "scream" three times. The last time once I was a little ways up the road. I'm thinking, ‘OK if this is a person, God willing, just seeing me with the gun will cause em to leave, they don't know it's not loaded.
IF this is a critter…' then that "scream" again! I turned around said to myself, ‘forget this', and quickly walked back to the cabin and told the kids to get back in the house and we stayed inside until the guys got home.
Not long after this incident I bought a book on wildlife.I wanted to be aware of which animals I need not worry about and those who I needed to stay clear of. It gave examples of tracks and which animal they belong to, I also found out from reading this book mountain lions commonly sound like a child or woman screaming.
The kids and I would walk up the road or go for walks along the creek, picking out tracks and seeing how many we could get correct.
Another thing I remember reading about mountain lions is they are curious creatures and it is pretty common for them to follow along at a distance when humans are in their territory. The one who I think scared the heck out of me screaming that night use to cruised through the property quite often. On more than one occasion I could hear something following us in the brush and trees above the road when we would go for walks.. We saw him, now I say him out of a guess, not from getting close enough to know for sure.
Anyway, we saw him on several occasions. One day he ran across the road as we were leaving to go visit family in Sacramento. He was gorgeous, and bigger than I had though he was.
I love nature and we were surrounded by it 24/7. Each season brought its own set of beautiful scenes. Spring brought the apple blossoms and various wildflowers. Summer brought the warm weather back allowing us to splash around in the creek. Summer also brought bathing in the creek instead of the ritual of boiling water on the woodstove and putting it in a watering trough big enough, well almost, for the kids to fit into.
Fall brought all the gorgeous colors of red, gold and brown leaves changing with the season. I love fall when the weather cools off, but is still mild. Great for taking those long exploratory walks through the woods.
Winter brought snow, which is my absolute favorite thing. The first snow, which brought a covering of white. Causing everything to appear clean and pure. Every time the first snow arrived my thoughts go directly to the scripture, ‘and your sins will become white as snow." I loved making snowmen, even the kids would give up and go in the cabin from the cold while I would stay out and finish the snowman we started.
You know in all the time we lived in the mountains, with the freezing temps of winter, wood stove for heat and none of the "modern conveniences" not ONCE did my children ever get sick with even so much as colds. It wasn't until we moved back into the "city" did they begin to get colds and various other illnesses.
We had quite a few adventures in the four years we lived there. I plan to write about them from time to time.
