I treasure the 16 years I lived in our home in Long Beach. Blessed with perfect year-round weather, unique attractions and events springing up all the time, and big city conveniences with small-town friendliness.

Yet, I got to a point in my life where I needed a radical change. After years of dreaming and planning, my husband Chris, dog Harvey and I sold most of our belongings, converted a van and traveled the west coast for a couple years.

Eventually we found a bit of land in Humboldt county, up in northern California and have been putting in a lot of hard work developing the land, making mistakes and seeing what new challenges present themselves.

In the process I became a cat lover after adopting a kitty for pest control.