Oh Oregon!

My roommate Em and I were talking last night, and somehow the conversation progressed to this: we made not-real-plans to move to Oregon.

Our requirements for the perfect place were as follows:

• Near a small city, so Em could work at Starbucks if needed
• One hour or less from Portland, so we could have access to big city things
• But not actually in town itself--we want a small acreage
• Internet connection so I could work freelance or remotely
• If renting, something where they will let us do pretty much whatever
• Room enough for three or more people.
• 100+ year old farm house
• A small pond is perferrable

And what would we do with this small parcel of land?

• We'd grow fruit, like pluots and cherries
• Beekeeping would be an adventure
• Lambs! I've wanted sheep since I was, oh, 10.
• We can then fleece the sheep and make our own yarn
• We'd have chickens, so we could have our own eggs 
• And we'd have turtles, because something needs to go in that pond

The hilarious part, I think, about all these not-real-plans, is that all of the above can be done in Iowa, except for the pluot and cherries fruit growing (they need that northwest climate, if I recall correctly.) But everything else, we could just get a small acreage here and be set, and probably for cheaper, judging from my glances around craigslist.

But it's probably good that the "perfect" place doesn't exist matching all of our wants because I kind of like Iowa.