My husband and I were born and raised in the most picturesque part of the California coast, he in Santa Barbara and I in Carpinteria. We had great jobs and a beautiful home in an amazing location, walking distance from the beach. Our son went to a good school and we lived in a family friendly community. We lived quite a charmed life, close to both our families and supported by our community. My husband worked at a dispensary during the day, as a care taker during the evening and as a performer on the weekends. I worked at a salon, performed on the weekends and cared for our son. We worked a lot in order to afford the lifestyle we lead. We enjoyed it for a while but always felt like there was more to life than working just to break even, while not having any family time. A thought I'm sure many people have had cross their minds.
After attending a music festival in 2007 called Lightening in a Bottle, we decided we needed a change in our lives. This festival was held at Live Oaks Campground in the Santa Ynez Valley, next to Lake Cachuma. This is sacred land to the Chumash, the natives of this area. The Oaks and soil are alive with tales of our ancestors. Pow-Wows are held here annually. We explored the ins and outs of all there was being offered here at the event and instantly felt like kids again. Kids playing. Sure, we were 27 and 30 at the time, but we had rekindled this longing within us to play and be free to explore the unknown. We connected with the Earth, with each other, with musicians and other beautiful souls, new and old. Within those 24 hours, a seed was planted. This is how we should be living. This communal, integrated exploration and play was necessary and missing from our lives. It felt more like a distant memory that we were meant to stumble upon at this point in our lives.
During this time we were also diving deep into the information that seemed to be landing in our laps. We were researching any and everything that pertained to a conscious lifestyle, including growing our own food, making our own medicine, awareness of energy, symbolism and the system. The deeper we would dive the more we knew we needed to make changes. We had already been actively using the Law of Attraction to create that which we felt was our purpose. We were making music and had started to perform more often downtown with our gypsy family of performers. I am a singer and choreographer, my husband is an amazing lyricist, drummer and dancer. We were making conscious, forward thinking music and were so in love with the lives we were living. How on Earth would we pick up and relocate?
The "how" did not matter. What did matter was what we could not ignore: the spark that had been ignited in both of us. We needed to reconnect with nature in a real way. We needed to have the time and space to create and play as a family. We needed to grow in ways that were never nurtured before. Our new needs were not being met with the lifestyle we chose and big changes were on their way.
Our first mission was to find land. Fully aware that one does not need to move to the middle of nowhere to be off grid, we set out to find a location that felt like the middle of nowhere. Somewhere surrounded by nature. As we began our search, we prioritized our needs. Mostly, we did not want to move too far away from home. Our families and friends were a huge factor in our decision, we wanted to go and create a space, close enough to visit. Somewhere we can all connect with nature, detach from the grid and feed our souls by playing.
After looking in Oregon and Northern Cali, we got pulled off our radar by an advertisement that sounded too good to be true. We found ourselves in the Southwest end of the Sierras and while the 3 acre, mostly cliff side lot was indeed too good to be true, we fell in love with the area. After a couple of weekends looking at listings, we just about moved on when our real estate agent showed us an unlisted site. She knew the owner had listed it before. We fell in love, We made an offer, No response.
Feeling a little disenchanted we continued our search. In 2009, we were ready to move on. Before we gave up, I convinced my husband to take me by the lot with no response one last time. We got lost trying to find it but made it there before sunset. We sat at the edge of the road, looked down at the land and felt such gratitude in our hearts. We felt blessed simply for being able to lay our eyes on such beauty. Driving away I looked in my husbands eye and said, this is where we're meant to be. He looked back at me and said, then let's make it happen.
We made another offer. They countered. We accepted.
