Ah, finally some rural living.

A friend of mine is spending a few weeks in Ireland, the lucky lady - and we're lucky enough to house sit for her in her 'cabin in the woods.' She has a tenant who cares for the wooly beasts, so we're living pretty footloose and fancy free, only needing to tend after some collies and canaries: all of which are very sweet.

Tessa the collie and Pocket the corgi: what a matched pair they are!

This weekend we'll be making apple cider with my friend's son, and i'm sure i'll be pouncing on her over 80 varieties (!) of apples in lots of other ways the next few weeks. I'll also be making lots of Nude Soap in her much roomier kitchen, and working on lots of fiber projects in the cozy house filled with spinning wheels and all the fiber i could dream to use. Just lounging in the cozy house is a vacation for us. We moved to Oregon for country living, not apartment dwelling with a view of McDonalds to wake up to! So, it's nice to have a chance to get a little taste of something closer to our dream.

Our first morning we took a nice hike down the lane and up to a local archery range. Me, Pocket and a whole passle of doggies took to the country roads and romped it up!

Rufus, Tessa and Damien lead the way for little Pocket. She's catching on to country life fast!

Trompsing about in the misty mist and my rain gear is a pretty swell way to start the day. Mid sixties and sprinkly feels pretty fine after the summer of 90-100 degrees and bone dry back in Austin. I'm sure i'll get tired of the rain after a while - but it's sure nice to feel like Fall during actual Fall!

Check out my Flickr stream for more photos and visual updates of our time in rural Philomath.