I WON THE LOTTERY!!!!

Well, not the "heres a check for a million dollars" lottery. Something much, much better. I won the "heres the life you always dreamed of on a silver platter" lottery. For all those who dont believe in coincedence or fate ( like my Dad), check out this story, its just too unreal.

So let me back up a little bit. If I could live anywhere, my dream house would have been a funky hobbitty hermit house in the woods, next to the ocean, off grid with a nice garden to feed me and a Daniel Boone kinda guy to do the hunting ,fishing and wood chopping. I was despairing that at my advanced age, that scenerio had passed me by in life and I was doomed to fade away in the city.

Since my boat is gone and after two years of trying my hardest to have David fall in love with me only to be regected in favor of some unknown "perfect woman" that he continually searches for, I decided it was time to move on. The way things have been going in my life lately it seemed the cosmos has been doing eveything in its power to get me ready for a complete life change. Well my instincts were dead on! I am about to start a brand new exciting adventure of a lifetime.

Last week I answered an ad on dear old Craigslist written by a man seeking " a hippie chick to go and live at his homestead eco tourism wilderness getaway in the Queen Charlotte Islands (also known as Haidaii Gwaii)". I thought that sounded right up my alley so sent him a picture of me and said "if your still interested , get back to me".

Well he was and did and sent some pictures and a more detailed description of himself, his business and what he wanted /expected from a woman joining him on this venture. Something about his name and location rang a bell for me and when we finally got to talk on the phone, I asked him if he had a brother named Benoit?

Well , yes he does,and how would I know that? Well, Benoit was a roomate of mine years ago and at some point his brother Patrick came to town and stayed with us for a few days while he was picking up a new boat to take back to his eco-tourism guiding thing in The Queen Charlottes. We hit it off very well and enjoyed each others company while he was here. Nothing came of it as he was happily married but I think we both felt we had met a kindred spirit in each other. He left town and I never heard from or saw him again.

Now,years later here he is again. His wife sadly passed away from cancer a few years back and he had moved back to Vancouver to get his electricians ticket. Apparently he has been posting ads for quite awhile trying to find a soul brave enough to go into the wilderness and homestead with him. He has to leave to go back there in 3 weeks and time was running out to find someone suitable.

Well not only do I want to go, but as the universe tumbles I was serendipiply( my own word ) totally ready to go at a moments notice. My stuff is all packed in storage, my boat has been dealt with,I am barely working these days, so finding someone to take over my clients was easy and I had finally accepted the fact that David was never going to be mine and am ready to move on.

So a mad flurry of activity is taking place as I decide what to pack, do last minute shopping, say goodbye to everyone and tie up any loose ends.

David has been a brick about all this. He is happy for me and willing to look after my vehicles and storage locker etc until I get a chance to see if this is going to work out and if it doesnt, I am welcome back here, where he will still try and get me a barge or floathome if it comes to that.

So with that bit of security to cling to , I am off. I will be leaving April 17th. We will drive over to Vancouver Island in his jeep towing a trailer full of our stuff. At the top of the Island we will be catching a ferry to Haidaa Gwaii.Once there, he has a house in Queen Charlotte City ( really a small town) and we will stay there for a few weeks gathering supplies for the homestead. When we are ready everything gets put on a barge and towed for a few days to get to his location.

When we arrive we have to clean out the main house and guesthouse(holds 8 people) , plant a garden and get things ready in general. The house is a solar powered, satallite for internet, composting toilets, wood fired hotub kind of a place. He runs a guiding operation from there, where people get to experience the homestead, organic garden type of lifestyle and he takes them fishing, boating,and exploring the national park during the day.

I am blissed out to say the least. This is a lifestyle I have dreamed of forever and now I finally get to give it a go.

So please stay tuned as I am sure I will have many interesting stories to go along with this new adventure. Thanks to everyone for their messages of hope when I was going through my meltdown last month. Im glad to say all is well, Ive dusted myself off and am ready to go forward into the unknown with an open heart and open mind.
I cant wait, I am absolutely giddy with anticipation. This is a thousand times better than a check for a million,.... you can't buy happiness.