oh no!!! I'm so sorry to hear about the Covid. It's wicked. Not even sure where / how I caught it this time and it knocked me out as badly as the first time. Hope that wasn't the same for you
It may not feel like it to you, but you’ve made a TON of progress, & it looks great so far! Home improvements are no joke! So glad you’re feeling better, & are keeping your sense of humor. That’ll be your saving grace! Love & hugs!💜
Thank you, Lisa. I appreciate the encouragement. Having a toilet and a kitchen table made a huge difference. And just tonight, we got our stove! The next big challenge is the floors, which I was sure would be so easy 😆🤣 One step at a time!
Your home is going to be lovely when it's done. I can tell from the photos. The bidet was one of the best decisions I made and I ended up writing a whole post on hand held ones. I didn't realize the water pressure in America is so high and how that affects the tubes with handhelds.
Ah! I will have to look at that post! It’s an Italian law (seriously) that you have to have a bidet in at least one bathroom. In the others, I’m thinking of doing a handheld or a seat instead of a separate unit.
Interesting about Italian law and it's a good mandate! In the post I listed all the parts which you might find helpful including controlling water pressure (if needed).
Oh my! I found your substack from a comment you made on Tara Penry’s most excellent publication. I always deeply loved the idea of finding (or keeping) a home in the world, so your Finding Home made me curious. Then I heard my favorite k.d. Lang song ever on your vid and discovered you live in Blaine county, where in 1980, my wife and I lived as newlyweds in Hailey.
Our first home was in a tiny old former brothel cabin in Hailey, but young and in love can be happy in the humblest circumstances . A year or so later we moved into a mobile home where, while in bed, we would watch the ceiling flex as our landlord shoveled snow to prevent the roof from collapsing onto us, which we thought was on the verge of collapsing anyway. “Nice of you to drop in on us this evening, Rex,” we joked from the comfort of a waterbed that was included in our $200 monthly rental.
Then in 1983, we moved from Rex and his snow shovel to mostly snowless Africa for a year that became almost ten years, but that’s another story altogether.
Thanks for reminding me of those happy times in that beautiful place.
OH MY GOODNESS!!! What are the chances??? First, I love that you love that KD Lang song! It's not exactly one of her best known! But then, your time in Hailey, wow.
My husband was born here, as were his folks, so I've heard many stories about the bars and brothels west of Main St (River Street!). You were here during the big migration. $200 rent - incredible. With a waterbed (of course, so 1980's lol). Rents now are obscene. It's really a problem. Average folks and the working class can't afford to live here. So many folks live farther south, as far as Twin Falls, and drive the 65 miles a day. That's insane. This valley really needs to do more to make a life here sustainable.
Thank you so much for writing. I loved hearing your story and my husband did too! All the best to you.
We did live on River Street! And $200 rent seemed like a risky proposition. I can’t even imagine what it’s like now. Don’t want to know; ain’t going to find out.
My wife worked at Sun Valley Centre for the Arts and Humanities, where I once watched Leni Riefenstahl’s ghastly Triumph of the Will. It reminded me later of Virginia Woolf’s journal entries about a road trip with her husband through mid-1930s early Nazi Germany. Prescient. (There I go again, meandering.)
Can you imagine moving from life in 1983 Wood River Valley, were we went every winter weekend to telemark down the Stanley side of Galena Summit or to cross country ski into all the little Sawtooth Lakes along Highway 75, to life in a dusty Botswana village? It was almost a bridge too far.
During the Sun Valley summers, we found adventures in the mountain flower meadows of the Boulder Mountains, the Sawtooths, or the White Clouds. We often enjoyed lunch up Trail Creek by the Hemingway memorial. In Botswana, everything changed and for weekend entertainment, we walked to a dry, rocky gorge north of town where baboons sat on low rock cliffs as they picked and happily ate nibs from each other as they grabbed at the ears of village dogs who could almost but not quite jump high enough to snap at the baboons. Alas, even though I owned a t-shirt with a drawing of an ostrich on downhill skis, with the admonition to Ski Botswana, that was as close as we got to the ski bum lifestyle.
We ended up building a house a few river drainages north west from Sun Valley that we never lived in before we moved to Africa for a year that somehow became almost a decade, moves to three countries, and a couple of babies born in Zimbabwe and Malawi.
We finally returned to Idaho in the early nineties to live in our newish house for a couple of years before we moved to Maryland, where I continued my humanitarian aid career for another ten years as the world did its best to tear itself apart. Finally, after that decade of constant travel to all the trouble in the world, we moved to one of the former Soviet republics for a number of years.
It was there I well and truly got too much of a good thing and we returned to our no longer newish home to lick our wounds and try to make sense of it all. I’m still working to make sense of it all over at my Switter’s World Substack, if you are interested. (switters.substack.com.)
Honestly, I haven’t written about the Wood River Valley part of our sojourn, so I have a few new ideas. I’ve kept journals sporadically all these years, but I also remember where I was when big events happened, which is helpful. I was walking out of the Hailey library with a copy of V.S Naipaul’s A Bend in the River, and his brother Shiva’s North of South when I learned that John Lennon was dead. I was staying at an Intercontinental hotel in Djibouti when Nelson Mandela was inaugurated and a goat shed in Nicaragua when Princess Diana died. From my too much of a good thing file, I was gasping for oxygen on the sixteen floor of a hotel in 12,500’ asl La Paz, Bolivia, when I heard about Bill Clinton’s missile attack on a Sudanese aspirin factory in a Khartoum industrial park from which bomb blast debris landed in our well rig depot that abutted their pharmaceutical factory.
Now my job is to write about all of these miseries so my life can at least serve as a warning to others.
SVCfor A&H dropped the humanities in its name and just recently became Sun Valley Museum of Art. Hailey Library is now on the corner of Main & Croy, where Atkinson's once was (maybe when you were here), in the historic Fox building. But all of this is small change in light of your travels. I've subscribed to your Substack and look forward to hearing more.
Thank you for subscribing. The Switter’s World title allows me a lot of latitude for topics to write about and as they say, a mind that is stretched can never return to its original shape, so a lot of latitude is needed.
A couple of years ago, I stayed in a little hotel next to the Ketchum cemetery and was relieved to find that Hemingway and his wife are still there. I remember seeing the traditional scattering of coins, an unsmoked cigar, and an unopened bottle of Corona beer on his grave.
I was surprised to find that Norman Algiers was buried not far from Hemingway. Norman was a kindly old cartoonist who became friends with my wife when she worked at the Center. He livened up the editorial pages of the Mountain Express with his work and when he left, we all missed him. One of his cartoon originals is hanging from the wall across from where I am writing this.
I really enjoyed visiting my wife at SVC4A&H back in the day. The artists were inspirational for young me and were so accessible. We still have some ceramic pieces by Gail Prunehuber and Danny Doak who were potters in residence then. I remember a big photography project where old photographs of famous western landmarks were rephotograghed from the exact original perspective. The lecture series was always wonderful and we still have original posters for several, including That Awesome Space, about the West. Alvin Josephy was there during most of my wife’s tenure. What do they do there now?
I also appreciated Chateau Drug, which was much more than a drug store back then. I still have woodworking tools I bought there 40 years ago. It’s all probably changed, too.
Glad u arw laughing. Your place looks beautiful! I’m just recovering from covid (round 2 for me) too. Hugs. Love. Peace!
oh no!!! I'm so sorry to hear about the Covid. It's wicked. Not even sure where / how I caught it this time and it knocked me out as badly as the first time. Hope that wasn't the same for you
You both look darn happy!
Thanks, Kate! Even with all the challenges, we are! And hey, my gas range + oven JUST ARRIVED!! I'm over the moon! :)
Yes! Will you be doing a blessing for the new range?
That’s a great idea!!
It may not feel like it to you, but you’ve made a TON of progress, & it looks great so far! Home improvements are no joke! So glad you’re feeling better, & are keeping your sense of humor. That’ll be your saving grace! Love & hugs!💜
Thank you, Lisa. I appreciate the encouragement. Having a toilet and a kitchen table made a huge difference. And just tonight, we got our stove! The next big challenge is the floors, which I was sure would be so easy 😆🤣 One step at a time!
Great photos, Jan! And congrats on all you have accomplished with your new home—looks beautiful!
And may I compliment the hell out of this sentence: "Innocence affords a hope not always present with experience. "
Thank you, Joan. And yes, it’s so true, right?
Your home is going to be lovely when it's done. I can tell from the photos. The bidet was one of the best decisions I made and I ended up writing a whole post on hand held ones. I didn't realize the water pressure in America is so high and how that affects the tubes with handhelds.
Ah! I will have to look at that post! It’s an Italian law (seriously) that you have to have a bidet in at least one bathroom. In the others, I’m thinking of doing a handheld or a seat instead of a separate unit.
Interesting about Italian law and it's a good mandate! In the post I listed all the parts which you might find helpful including controlling water pressure (if needed).
Oh my! I found your substack from a comment you made on Tara Penry’s most excellent publication. I always deeply loved the idea of finding (or keeping) a home in the world, so your Finding Home made me curious. Then I heard my favorite k.d. Lang song ever on your vid and discovered you live in Blaine county, where in 1980, my wife and I lived as newlyweds in Hailey.
Our first home was in a tiny old former brothel cabin in Hailey, but young and in love can be happy in the humblest circumstances . A year or so later we moved into a mobile home where, while in bed, we would watch the ceiling flex as our landlord shoveled snow to prevent the roof from collapsing onto us, which we thought was on the verge of collapsing anyway. “Nice of you to drop in on us this evening, Rex,” we joked from the comfort of a waterbed that was included in our $200 monthly rental.
Then in 1983, we moved from Rex and his snow shovel to mostly snowless Africa for a year that became almost ten years, but that’s another story altogether.
Thanks for reminding me of those happy times in that beautiful place.
OH MY GOODNESS!!! What are the chances??? First, I love that you love that KD Lang song! It's not exactly one of her best known! But then, your time in Hailey, wow.
My husband was born here, as were his folks, so I've heard many stories about the bars and brothels west of Main St (River Street!). You were here during the big migration. $200 rent - incredible. With a waterbed (of course, so 1980's lol). Rents now are obscene. It's really a problem. Average folks and the working class can't afford to live here. So many folks live farther south, as far as Twin Falls, and drive the 65 miles a day. That's insane. This valley really needs to do more to make a life here sustainable.
Thank you so much for writing. I loved hearing your story and my husband did too! All the best to you.
We did live on River Street! And $200 rent seemed like a risky proposition. I can’t even imagine what it’s like now. Don’t want to know; ain’t going to find out.
My wife worked at Sun Valley Centre for the Arts and Humanities, where I once watched Leni Riefenstahl’s ghastly Triumph of the Will. It reminded me later of Virginia Woolf’s journal entries about a road trip with her husband through mid-1930s early Nazi Germany. Prescient. (There I go again, meandering.)
Can you imagine moving from life in 1983 Wood River Valley, were we went every winter weekend to telemark down the Stanley side of Galena Summit or to cross country ski into all the little Sawtooth Lakes along Highway 75, to life in a dusty Botswana village? It was almost a bridge too far.
During the Sun Valley summers, we found adventures in the mountain flower meadows of the Boulder Mountains, the Sawtooths, or the White Clouds. We often enjoyed lunch up Trail Creek by the Hemingway memorial. In Botswana, everything changed and for weekend entertainment, we walked to a dry, rocky gorge north of town where baboons sat on low rock cliffs as they picked and happily ate nibs from each other as they grabbed at the ears of village dogs who could almost but not quite jump high enough to snap at the baboons. Alas, even though I owned a t-shirt with a drawing of an ostrich on downhill skis, with the admonition to Ski Botswana, that was as close as we got to the ski bum lifestyle.
We ended up building a house a few river drainages north west from Sun Valley that we never lived in before we moved to Africa for a year that somehow became almost a decade, moves to three countries, and a couple of babies born in Zimbabwe and Malawi.
We finally returned to Idaho in the early nineties to live in our newish house for a couple of years before we moved to Maryland, where I continued my humanitarian aid career for another ten years as the world did its best to tear itself apart. Finally, after that decade of constant travel to all the trouble in the world, we moved to one of the former Soviet republics for a number of years.
It was there I well and truly got too much of a good thing and we returned to our no longer newish home to lick our wounds and try to make sense of it all. I’m still working to make sense of it all over at my Switter’s World Substack, if you are interested. (switters.substack.com.)
Honestly, I haven’t written about the Wood River Valley part of our sojourn, so I have a few new ideas. I’ve kept journals sporadically all these years, but I also remember where I was when big events happened, which is helpful. I was walking out of the Hailey library with a copy of V.S Naipaul’s A Bend in the River, and his brother Shiva’s North of South when I learned that John Lennon was dead. I was staying at an Intercontinental hotel in Djibouti when Nelson Mandela was inaugurated and a goat shed in Nicaragua when Princess Diana died. From my too much of a good thing file, I was gasping for oxygen on the sixteen floor of a hotel in 12,500’ asl La Paz, Bolivia, when I heard about Bill Clinton’s missile attack on a Sudanese aspirin factory in a Khartoum industrial park from which bomb blast debris landed in our well rig depot that abutted their pharmaceutical factory.
Now my job is to write about all of these miseries so my life can at least serve as a warning to others.
Switter
Wow, you have definitely lived a life!
SVCfor A&H dropped the humanities in its name and just recently became Sun Valley Museum of Art. Hailey Library is now on the corner of Main & Croy, where Atkinson's once was (maybe when you were here), in the historic Fox building. But all of this is small change in light of your travels. I've subscribed to your Substack and look forward to hearing more.
Thank you for subscribing. The Switter’s World title allows me a lot of latitude for topics to write about and as they say, a mind that is stretched can never return to its original shape, so a lot of latitude is needed.
A couple of years ago, I stayed in a little hotel next to the Ketchum cemetery and was relieved to find that Hemingway and his wife are still there. I remember seeing the traditional scattering of coins, an unsmoked cigar, and an unopened bottle of Corona beer on his grave.
I was surprised to find that Norman Algiers was buried not far from Hemingway. Norman was a kindly old cartoonist who became friends with my wife when she worked at the Center. He livened up the editorial pages of the Mountain Express with his work and when he left, we all missed him. One of his cartoon originals is hanging from the wall across from where I am writing this.
I really enjoyed visiting my wife at SVC4A&H back in the day. The artists were inspirational for young me and were so accessible. We still have some ceramic pieces by Gail Prunehuber and Danny Doak who were potters in residence then. I remember a big photography project where old photographs of famous western landmarks were rephotograghed from the exact original perspective. The lecture series was always wonderful and we still have original posters for several, including That Awesome Space, about the West. Alvin Josephy was there during most of my wife’s tenure. What do they do there now?
I also appreciated Chateau Drug, which was much more than a drug store back then. I still have woodworking tools I bought there 40 years ago. It’s all probably changed, too.