Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Reviewing the Rental Reviews

We're very glad, so far, to occasionally be renting Grape Hill. Spreading the love is good, right! I'm always wishing I were there, but Sue and I are getting vicarious pleasure from others, too.

Seems like the recurrent themes are shock and release. It's not like we are hiding anything, but the whole idea of Grape Hill has been to keep the human impact honest to the farmland and minimal. The house is supposed to look like an ag building...we're glad we didn't go with the yurt. Anyhow, we always are hearing how people can't believe how "out there" it feels and how relaxing it is to just gaze. The simplicity brings out good feelings and unclogs pressure points for us, too.

Not certain just how many places there are in this world where we can feel so far away and be so close-by. Thank the Palouse...without these gorgeous hills we would be right in town.

One of these days I will figure out how to do more with technology and maybe do a videolog to send out to everyone who has stayed at Grape Hill. It will be fun to record the harvest and, eventually, show the next phases of construction. The "old barn" will be a great addition!

I was reading a lovely story in Smithsonian about Charles Johnson, our acclaimed local writer and teacher. Makes me think to search him out. It could be time to begin our "artists in residence" program. Since before the house was built, we have been wanting to invite over artists to stay for a bit, trading the joy of time on this land for some token of original art from which we can build our Grape Hill collection. Yep, I'm saying goodbye now to contact Professor Johnson and see about getting this next chapter underway...

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