Exploring Rural Oregon.

We completed our short tour, returning to Seal Rock by way of Eugene. We took different routes on the way back, always on the lookout for some fair valley or stretch of country road, one filled with handsome homes and barns nicely spaced on larger plots of land. Unfortunately, this circumstance is exists in far lower frequency than daydreaming city-bred folk such as ourselves might have imagined. In reality, most of these groupings of small properties seem to be a mix of retiree ranchettes (at many levels of prosperity) and plots occupied by the working (or not working) rural poor. So, yes, one could find a 5-10 acre property with a house, one that would seem affordable by southern Californian standards; but the odds of being in close proximity to a neighbor who collects dead cars in their yard would be very, very high.
These forays into the countryside always leave me mentally exhausted. My mind fills with questions. How long did take for that creeping vine to engulf that 78 Buick? How many old travel trailers is too many on a two-acre lot? When your front door is only 30 feet from a busy 2-lane highway, what inspires you to erect a miniature split-rail fence and faux wishing-well in your front yard?
Are we just thin-skinned? Is this just the way it is, where land is counted by acres rather than square feet? It is likely we will have to adjust our expectations of rural life.


A "paintable" vista.


30 degrees of view away: a decaying (and engine-less) powerboat, 2 decrepit fifth-wheel trailers in a metal shed, misc. retired farm equipment and dead appliances. Not an egregious example by any means.


Hmm, this could be nice. Can this reward be honestly earned by an ordinary man in one lifetime?