This is us … then.

This is us ... now.

I was watching a podcast a few weeks ago and was impressed by the spirit of the woman speaking, especially when she said she had decided to dive unafraid into whatever life held. She was determined not to miss anything God might have for her. I wished I could be more like that. And then I remembered a time many years ago when that’s exactly what my husband, Greg, and I had done. After a few visits to southern Oregon, we decided it is where we wanted to live.

That kind of drastic move didn’t make a lot of sense. We had a good life in Washington State. Greg had a fantastic job and I was working for myself rather successfully. We had friends and family nearby. Life was good. But we wanted more, something better.

The area we lived in was growing fast and becoming overcrowded. We wanted to get away from the city with its high crime and daily traffic jams. We wanted a simpler life. So we took a huge risk and against the advice of our friends and family we made the move to a very rural area of Oregon.

We found a beautiful piece of property in the foothills of the Southern Cascades. To reach our place, we had to drive up a two-mile gravel road. But when we first saw the land, we knew it was exactly what we had been looking for, with a combination of timber and meadows. And at the time our nearest neighbor was a mile away. It was perfect.

When we went to work on the house there was no electricity on the property, but that didn’t stop us. We brought in a generator and started construction, excited to begin our new life. We had a garden, goats, chickens, cows, cats and dogs. That first winter we had a few snowfalls and fell more in love with our little homestead. Covered in white it was stunningly beautiful.

That was forty-four years ago. This is the place where we raised our children and even helped raise some of our grandchildren. We love it here as much now as we did in the beginning. It hasn’t all been easy, but we can’t complain. We are thankful for the young couple, we once were, who dared to take a chance on something new. And as you might have guessed we still take risks and dare to dream.

Now we are thrilled to share the beauty and peace of our little bit of heaven with our Hilltop visitors. And we still believe this is one of the prettiest places on the planet.

We look forward to meeting many of you and building new friendships.

Grace and peace … Bonnie Leon

P. S. - Below you'll find pictures of the cottage under construction – nearly there!

The view from the cottage...

We're excited to welcome you!