put some trim on it

I don't even know where to start. These days I have been living in alternating states of vicious overwhelm and off-grid-checked-out calm. I suppose it's as good a balance as can be expected.

It has been one year since we moved the house. A year. And that doesn't count the chunk of time leading up to that moment, from the summer day we were driving around in the country and stumbled upon this 'place'...and immediately wrote it off as impossible and downright nuts...but couldn't stop thinking about it and one of us had a very strong gut feeling, and the other of us had to honor that...

Looking through my photos seems to reflect my states of mind. I have LOTS of photos of cracks in walls and holes in floors...and only a few of progress being made. It's hard to capture the stages as they happen, and usually once something huge happens, like a finished room, that space becomes the new storage room full of tools and junk so that other spaces can get worked on. 

The reasons for these huge gaps in posts vary. Often it's a case of not having anything nice to say, or thoughts bubble up on the cabin-to-farm commute and then evaporate, or the fact that I've spent copious amounts of time in a pocket of country with no phone signal or internet. I've been plugged into a different sort of grid, the kind that revolves around 400 square feet, a wood stove, some cooking, a vcr and a stack of thrift-store movies on tape. It's actually kind of awesome...instead of visiting a friend it's like visiting a time. We've watched some great flicks with the boy: Apollo 13, Jurassic Park, Batman with Michael Keaton. And I am no stranger to hanging out and nurturing relationships with imaginary friends, or following various white rabbits, so it's quite lovely.

(The cabin is our HQ these days, not the airstream due to cold temps and frozen pipes! Still living small, just not quite so small...)

SO MUCH has been done. And yet the list of things that still need to happen is daunting. I've had some zen-like days spent filling in nail holes and sanding spots on floors here and there (by hand! with a piece of sandpaper!)...but I'm more than ready for this to wrap up. (And often as not those zen moments turn into frustration because it never seems to end!)

Here are a few photos of what we've been up to. Hopefully next post will be a little more visually informative. At least there are a few places to sit, and we've worked in some visits for tea with friends. :)

seasons out of time

In not necessarily chronological order, here are some happenings in our corner:

Jake the Dog (who is fine!) decided to take on a truck in the dark streets of the east side. It was a scary episode for the boys, but after an emergency visit and some meds he is back to his old self, with the addition of a handsome face-plant scar.

The boy has been busy with his Shakespeare gang, and his list of people-he-is-taller-than is getting longer. (My slot rapidly approaches.) And we made our now-traditional-yearly hike up the rock.

Also tradition:

We welcomed the arrival of our cousin Aden, who is to die for!

Life's full circle and all...made a road trip to the east coast for my grandfather's funeral. I did not know him well. The history involved is difficult, but I am thankful that I was able go on this journey with my dad and sister. It seemed to me some healing happened too, somewhere amidst the smoky, cocktail-infused conga lines and ballads. (!!)

  (watch it, heh heh...)

And the stories!! My dad's storytelling is pretty legendary...and what is better than a tale well told as you blaze down the interstate in the middle of the night? 

For the record? I think my parents are effing rad. I'm grateful that they are people I admire, and that I get to be a part of their world. Words fail me, but I guess it just makes me feel...like something rich flows deeply within me that these folks who I dig so much are my people, my history, my story. If my kid adores me half as much...you get the idea. 

Props, y'all.

Mmkay. Also the annual post-turkey backyard um, football game took place. There were many gems from this event...here are a few.

House/farm progess: insulation, walls, window sills, a sink or two, a/c, and yours truly got to slap some tile down in the bathroom. 

The field wasn't producing very well, so it got re-tilled and seeded with a cover crop to give it some juice.

Our first guest accommodations have arrived!

Just kidding. It's our neeeeew chiiicken cooooop! On wheels! (I have stopped having opinions on matters such as these. Well, at least out loud...ok, I'm trying.) 

Aaand we even managed to squeeze in a little cultural learning, museum style. 

But as far as a 12 year old boy is concerned, Picasso has nothing on the Passat we were stuck behind that day whose owner had removed the 'P' and the 'at'. That guy is a real hero, putting the 'ass' in Passat and all...Picasso could have done it too...just sayin'.

All the best until...well, with my track record it'll probably be next year. :) Stay warm and cozy, enjoy some hot toddies and naps and a book or two. 

highs, lows, and in between

so, remember that magical simplicity i was talking about? yeah, well...it's getting a little old already. things are happening, work is always being done, but it's a slow part of the process. i am so thankful to have a few escape hatches i can run to when the going gets claustro. i never thought a teensy cabin/hut could feel so spacious. all relative.

now that we've had a little rain and cooler temps locally, i don't mind sharing that back when it was still hot and miserable we got to go where grass looks like this:

instead of this:

(but texas, i still love you best.)

even better, we got to see folks who live way yonder away! and spend time with my mom and auntie/uncle combo who made the trip happen. many many thanks to them! :)

one of my favorite moments:

we visited a science museum:

and spent a lot of time at farmer's markets, bookstores, and wiggling our bare toes in the cool grass. 

and then.

i'll sandwich the bad news in the middle. the day we got back from our trip, we found out that our storage barn had been broken into. it was so full of junk i don't know how they managed to find anything to take...everything we'd just packed up from our house was stacked in precarious piles, many of which were knocked over. as many of you know, i found lots of the missing items driving up and down country roads.

there have been comical moments...i found myself saying 'hey, cool, i was looking for that!' one of the notebooks i found had something i'd written about getting clear about 'stuff' and letting it go. hm.

and some grateful moments, like when i found the majority of my 8mm tapes from when the boy was wee little, protected from the rain by a scraggly cedar tree. 

and there was profanity and name calling. on my part. 

but i'm still struggling with it. there is still one tape missing. there are things stolen i don't even know are gone. i'm trying to be ok with that. the new worst thing? i can't find the journal i kept from when i was pregnant, and when the boy was a baby. it's where my little hand-drawn charts are of when his teeth grew in, and the only sonogram pic i have, and all my private thoughts and ramblings from such a special time. so not only is it my DIARY, it's THAT ONE. a small part of me hopes to uncover it in a random box. but i know it was one of the last things packed, was in a bin near the door, the lid of which was found on the side of the road.

the city police found a lady who admitted to stealing mail in the area. we found our neighbor's mail outside the barn door. so i'm pretty convinced the same person knows where my stuff is. but we are in a neighboring county, and we called the sheriff's dept to let them know the next town over had someone in custody, but now it's been a month and as far as i know there has been no new information. hunting down someone's diary isn't really a priority. which i get, but still. it makes me ache, and brings on weird bouts of anxiety. 

the incident has also propelled me into fits of purging. which i guess is a good thing.

(sniff.)

ok, onward. house/farm update:

we have a plowed field! and right now there are teensy sprouts of radishes and chard, and broccoli and other green things are in flats. the boy's greenhouse is seeing progress; we have plumbing! i can do laundry on site! very exciting. 

and a partial driveway so that if it ever rains enough we aren't stuck in the muck. oh! and one gate down, one to go. we need to get the other one up so all those cute lil sproutlings don't become deer snacks.

in other exciting small town news, we went to a book signing and met john r erickson, author of our much beloved hank the cowdog series. the hank books were the first time i heard the kid laugh out loud when he was reading. they are also all on audio, read by the author, and you should check them out. (i also think erickson is rad because the boy wrote him a letter a year or so ago (a forced assignment, assured) and he wrote back!)

check out that spiffy shirt!

until next time, blue skies. i love fall.

           'all things at our life

are brothers in the soil

and in the sky

  and i believe it.' 

-tvz