12/28/2025
Many of you know Bruce, my husband. He loves to write. Thought I'd share his latest...enjoy!
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Apparently, I live in a land where dreams really do come true.
In 1974 I was 24 years old and my superpower was daydreaming. I was visiting my family in LA and I was daydreaming about buying a piece of property in far Northern California. Problem #1: I had $100 dollars to my name. Problem #2: It would cost me all my money to get to far Northern California. I consulted with my 18 year old sister. She was a very good sport and had an old VW square back. So off we went. With the seat down we could sleep in the back.
I talked to a realtor and found a remote 6 acre parcel for $6,000. We were in big tree country. The dense forest, the smells of pine and fir, the deafening silence of the forest completely filled my senses. It felt more like home than anywhere I’d ever been. The realtor watched and waited, with my best poker face I said I’ll take it. I’ll give you $50 in good faith money and I wanted a 90 day escrow. The seller agreed. I had 90 days to come up with $950 and the owner would carry the balance. Off we went back to LA, my sister was in disbelief, honestly so was I.
Back in LA I got a job in a leather shop in Venice Beach. My new boss had a sailboat docked in the marina that I could live on for free. 90 days later I closed escrow and was the proud owner of 6 acres in Trinity County. My boss layed me off, so I could get unemployment.
I pictured myself as a modern day Daniel Boone heading into the wilderness. So once again with $100 in my pocket I bought a used chainsaw and a large army surplus tent, climbed in my truck and headed north. I figured my $50 weekly unemployment check would keep me in food and I was off on my great adventure.
I spent the summer cutting trees and clearing a building site. I met someone in the area who cut and sold firewood. So we joined forces and with my new chainsaw skills I was in the business of selling firewood.
I was excited about the idea of building a small cabin. Having never built anything I bought a book, cleverly titled ‘How to Build a Log Cabin.’ So I drew a sketch of a log cabin and went to the county office to get a building permit. I proudly showed my drawing to Stacy, the building inspector and he laughed and kindly said it was not standard construction and would need to be signed off by an engineer (Full disclosure, I can be a bit of a smarty pants.) So I left, stood outside for a couple of minutes, and returned to his office. I told him I went to Southern Pacific but all the engineers were out on trains. He got a good laugh at that, sat me down and talked me out of the log cabin idea in favor of a traditional home. He also gave me a list of all the drawings required. I bought another book, this one cleverly titled ‘How to Draw House Plans.’ With plans approved I held in my hand a building permit. Back to problem #1 I still had no money. I decided each time I delivered a truckload of firewood to town I would return with cinder blocks in my truck. After a few months I had enough material to build the foundation.
Southern Trinity County had a Louisiana Pacific Lumber mill and I was told they were closing down and were going to demolish the mill housing. I spoke with the superintendent and he agreed to sell me a house for $1 but it had to be torn down and completely removed within 90 days. So I partnered with two friends and we each kicked in 33 cents, bought the house and proceeded to take it apart piece-by-piece. When we were done I had most of what I needed to build my cabin.
Over the next few months my off-the-grid 600 square foot cabin with a sleeping loft became a reality. Woohoo, I was indoors. As a homeowner I went to the bank to apply for a credit card. To my surprise, I got one. It had a limit of $1,500. I got a permit to add two bedrooms and bathroom to the cabin, even though I didn’t have running water or power. I blew through my newfound credit to buy the building materials and added the additional rooms. Now it was back to the bank. I wanted to get a mortgage on the house. I filled out all the paperwork on what was now my 2 bedroom 1 bath house and couldn’t believe they never asked me if I had water or power. They told me because of the remote location they would only finance to 50% of value and they loaned me $30,000. I took $10,000 paid off my credit card and put in a well, septic and had electricity brought to the house. I can honestly say, I didn’t miss my outhouse.
With $20,000 left over I went into town and bought a 4 unit apartment building with $10,000 down and a lot with 3 houses on it for another $10,000 down. As the rental units became vacant I fixed them up. After 6 years, at the ripe old age of 30, I owned my home and had 7 rentals.
I decided it was time for a new adventure. I found a property manager to take care of everything and moved to Australia.
But that’s a story for another time…
