Book: River House by Sarahlee Lawrence

Sarahlee Lawrence is a young woman who grew up in central Oregon, north of Bend, east of the Cascade mountains. She was an only child and left her family farm to raft and guide white-water rivers all over the world. But she returns to build her own house on her parents' land when she is 21. This book is mostly about the process of building that home with help from her father. But, it is not exactly an idyl. Her father has always yearned for the oceans where he surfed when younger and which continue to seduce him. Her dreams are of rivers and now of building her home; his are of the waves. Her mother encourages both of them and grounds them...somewhat.

These are really love stories: the love between a child and her parents, the love of a particular landscape, the love for a home of one's own.

Lately, I have read several books similar to this one...memoirs about place. They have all been beautifully written books and have successfully translated a specific geography into words, fueling my wanderlust. I wanted to immediately get in my car and drive to these places: Annie Proulx' Platte river, Ellen Meroy's San Juan river, and now Sarahlee Lawrence's high desert ranch/farm country near the Deschutes river with the Sisters on the southwestern horizon.

"The log that runs through the center of the house and ties the entire structure together is called the purlin. I had been obsessing about my purlin log for six months, talking about it, walking by it every day, glancing at it, staring at it, and saving it, special."

They were under a time constraint as she has a river trip planned. Her Dad helps her with the purlin and things don't go well. There is a gap, a "full inch" when it is finally lowered into position. They are frustrated and angry and argue with each other. Her Dad dreams of perfect waves all the while working the farm and helping Sarahlee as much as he can. He is desperate for a break from constant drudgery, and Sarahlee is equally desperate to get the roof on before she needs to leave on another river trip and then go to graduate school at the University of Montana.

Eunice would surely love reading about scribing and notching logs and about mixing concrete, about keeping things level, about knowing how the water runs on your land and about the people who live next door or just down the road. I thought of her often while reading this. Sarah writes of her "neighborhood" just as Eunice talks about the reservation.

And the beautiful vignettes of the world surrounding her home: She is on her horse one day when he slips on slick rock near the high edge of a river canyon. "A few feet from the edge, a ball of brush, snow and mud stopped us....Then the lion emerged from the rocks and my breath caught. She sat down on her haunches and looked at me...As dusk washed over us, I sat astonished at the length of the encounter."

The cover notes that Sarah now owns and operates an organic vegetable farm on the ranch. There was a thread through this book about water rights and canals, drainages and new underground water pipes, all of which must have worked out enough to grow vegetables and which makes me happy to think about. I hope she writes another book on how it all happened.