Living the dream…

You hear all the time about folks who are “living the dream”. You can say that about the Four Country Gals. We’re living our dream every day.

Hardly a day goes by that we don’t get asked… how did you land HERE, on the SW Escalante Desert, 17 miles from the nearest town? By the way… how come there are no men with you. This is pretty conservative LDS territory, and every woman is either married, or widowed.

Well, it’s a little complicated, but here’s the short version.

Bev, Cindy and Mom are from Put-In-Bay, Ohio. Bev had always thought about retiring to the SW after a career in law enforcement. She got cancer in 2003 and was retired in 2005. She has cousins in “Dixie” (that’s the most southern part of Utah), and everyone fell in love with the area.

Shari had lived in Oregon most of her life and really needed a change of scenery. She and Cindy had become best friends over the internet, and it seemed to be a pretty good fit. After all… it’s a whole easier to divide by four than by three when you’re cooking.

The three gals from Ohio made the long trek to Beryl in August 2005. They bought this property nearly sight unseen. Bev’s cousins had checked it out, and let them know it was a good thing neither of them were young enough, or they would have purchased the place for themselves.

Shari didn’t join the hardy bunch until December 2006. She made the dash from Oregon between some of the worst storms in the past 10 years.

The first year (2005-2006) was spent getting the property cleaned up, and finding at least part-time work to help pay for all their new expenses. The property and house had been uninhabited for over a year, and this is a pretty “dusty” area.

By the time Shari arrived, the gals had become owners of one horse, and three sheep. They had managed to clean out an old animal shed (kind of a loafing shed thing), and build a pen for the sheep. Since it was dead winter, and the temps rarely got above freezing in in 2006-March 2007, water was either hauled by hand in 5 gallon buckets, or by a 200 foot hose (if it could be thawed), which was then “double drained”.

Each year, the Four Country Gals have made improvements their little corner of paradise. From the initial raised boxes in the front yard, to the greenhouse, to more animal pens, and finally a large garden… They’re getting it figured out… and living the dream!