Then: The Second Week of June 2008 Now: June 8, 2011

Then: The Second Week of June 2008

There is a Mule Deer buck that has been coming near my camp in the evenings and bedding down for the night just down the driveway.  The second time I saw him, I walked to within 50 ft or so and started talking to him.  He just looked at me and continued grazing, then settled down for the night.  I shot some great photos.  This is just incredible!

On June 9, I had gone back to sleep again after JB's call when our building site contractor called at 7:15.  As soon as I said, "Hello," I added, "Holy Crap!  It's snowing!"  Yes, indeed it was, and ended up covering the mountain with a good 1/4".  Fortunately it all melted by early afternoon, but it was COLD.  Got some great photos of snow on the wild flowers.  I have heard it said, "Winter isn't over in the mountains until there is snow on the dogwood."  I can now personally vouch for that.  As I was talking on the phone, my deer friend sauntered up the driveway and into the woods.

Our building-site contractor has finished grooming the road and is working on the building site.  The two large trees have been chopped down, cut into a few pieces and moved to the other side of the driveway just up from my camp.

We had wanted the house to face west and overlook the canyon, with a view of the mountains, however we had not anticipated the slope of the land versus a flat spot to build upon.  As the backhoe dug into the dirt, it was obvious that if our porch was on the west side, we would have a view of a 5 ft wall of dirt.  I was in tears.  I changed my drawings, switching the front door to the east end and the loft on the west.  As we sit on our porch, we will look into the woods, down the driveway and off to the north ridge,  and up to the south ridge.  The deck off the loft will overlook the canyon and mountains.

Now:  June 8, 2011

As with each thing we thought was going wrong, it always turned out better than our original plan.  We love that our porch faces east with the above described view.  We get the morning sun on the porch and the afternoon shade.  As I sit at the computer in the loft, I can see the mountain peaks and canyon.  When the deck is finished, we can enjoy the second story view which is even better than from ground level.

I never saw my deer friend again, although I'm sure he saw me.

And speaking of our deck, yesterday we got the third hold dug, set the poles and screwed in the header board all the way around.  And it isn't even rustic!  It's all flush, true and level.  Don't know if we'll be out working today or not as it is 38 degrees out there with fog from the valley blowing through.  Yesterday was a perfect day for working outside - sunny sky but not too hot with a nice breeze.

We will probably do our inside maintenance since it is so wet and cold out there.  Propane appliances require a lot more cleaning than do electric or gas.  Our kitchen stove needs to have the under side of the top cleaned once a month from a sooty-like build up.  That's JB's job.  The refrigerator should be defrosted once a week as ice builds up on the back inside metal slats.  That's easy enough though, as I just turn it off every Monday for an hour or so.  Of course the wood stove also needs cleaning once a month.  That's my job, and a dirty one it is.  But we bought an ash vacuum this spring which really helps.

The two trees that our site contractor cut down are long gone as firewood.  That's another continuous job Spring through Fall, cutting firewood.  We have so much downed timber Up Here that we probably won't have to cut any trees down for several more years.  The land was not groomed in any way before we purchased it, and it was logged several times.  Plus we had our 40 acres thinned about 18 years ago and they left a couple small piles of small trees not suitable for lumber.  As soon as we the snow starts melting in the Spring, I am out  gathering downed branches and small trees.  If you don't get them before the grass and bushes start growing, you won't see them again until next Spring.  So we have quite a large pile of wood already, just waiting to be cut.  Everything needs to be cut into 16" lengths for our stove.  And pieces more than 4" in diameter need to be split.  We like to have at least 8 cords cut for the winter.

Then: The first week of June 2008 Now: June 7, 2011

Then:  The first week of June 2008

I have been meeting with our building contractor to iron out the last few details.  They should be able to start building just after July 4.  I have also hired a contractor who is going to prepare the building site, cut down a couple large trees that are too close to the site; and improve a couple places in the road for the large trucks trucks that will be delivering various items, such as two 1000 gallon cement tanks (water and septic), building materials, cement, etc.  Hopefully he can start next week.  I also finally got the building permit.  (Short sentence, long painful story.)

Most days I am still trimming trees and clearing undergrowth.  Sometimes it seems like I work and work but it doesn't look like I've done anything.  Then suddenly one day, it all looks different.  I can feel those 15 pounds I put on in Illinois dissolving in my sweat.  All that good, fattening, Midwest food.

JB wanted me to check out the possibility of moving our building site about 100 ft south to where there are less trees to block our view.  But in the time I've been here, I've noticed that the wind really sweeps up and over the ridge there - no trees, no wind break either.  So the original site it is.

Laundry is fun up here.  For my small items, I have a manual, bucket washing machine which my brother suggested.  It is a 5 gallon bucket with a lid.  I cut a small hole in the middle of the lid into which the handle of a plunger fits.  Pour in water, add soap and clothes.  Push the plunger up and down vigorously.  Viola!  Clean clothes!  For larger items I go to the laundromat.  That's something I haven't done in decades.  At least there is electricity and free wifi there, so I always take my laptop.

JB calls every morning when he get to work at 7:00 am his time, 5:00 am my time.  Half the time I fall asleep after his call.  One such morning I was awakened by what I thought were chipmunks scrambling over the water jugs just outside the end of the trailer where I sleep.  I peeked out the curtain and was almost face to face with a bear trying to get at the water!  I yelled at him and he took off up the slope.  I was able to grab my camera in time to snap a few shots  (see above photo).  He came back a few days later with the same results.  I guess they are waking up now.  The adventure continues. . .

Now:  June 7, 2011

I am late posting this morning as I could not get on the internet at 5:00 am.  We have a wireless card for our computers and a signal booster, but occasionally the signal just is not strong enough.

I left for Down There at 8:30 am and was back by 3:00 pm.  The best part of the trip was that I saw two bears, one as I was going down and the other as I was coming back up.  The first was just a big, black blur as he ran across the road in front of me going up the mountain.  I spotted the second one as I came around a corner and he was was running up the road.  Just a little brown buy, probably a yearling, who kept running in front of me for several yards before plunging down into the woods.  Larry said he had seen a few bears in the past couple weeks, but for me, it is now official.  They are awake.

All the bears up here are Black Bears.  That does not describe their actual color as they come in all shades - blond, red, brown, black. . .

Getting home is never the end of my chore as now I get to put everything away and vacuum seal any meat that is going into the freezer, or dry bulk foods that need dividing into smaller packets.  We buy large quantities (God Bless Costco!) as I always try to have at least six months worth of food in the house.  I have been vacuum sealing my freezer meat for years as there is never any freezer burn and it lasts months longer.  Now that I am buying so much of everything, I also vacuum seal cereal, flour, snacks, etc.  Some in 1/2 gallon jars and some in bags.  For long term food storage, it's the best tool I have.

We do a load of wash on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so JB hung out the laundry while I was gone.  We schedule it this way as we fill the cistern for about 30 minutes after each wash.  Our well pump is set up to automatically fill when the float gets down to a certain level, however our inverter cannot run both the well and cistern pumps at the same time.  That's another story for "Then".  For now we just manually turn on the well pump as needed.

I have a dryer, but I have never used it.  We have a clothes line in the house which runs across the living room to the dining area that we use in cold and/or wet weather.  We have another line outside which I use as often as possible.  There is nothing you can put in your dryer to make laundry smell as good as it does from drying outside.

Then: The Last 2 Weeks of May 2008 Now: June 6, 2011

Then: Last 2 Weeks of May 2008

I am in heaven up here on the mountain.  There are wild flowers popping up everywhere.  The chipmunks and squirrels are out doing their thing.  The birds are singing and nesting.  The deer wander through my camp.  It is too early for rattle snakes, and the bears seem to be sleeping in late.

Both JB and my brother made me promise not to go 10 ft from the trailer without my gun.  I wanted to use my Dad's old .38 revolver which I really like, but they want me to pack the .45.  So I do.  The first two rounds are snake shot and the last three are 300-grain bear loads.  With that, my camera and my phone, I'm good to go.

Each day I am out sawing off tree branches and pulling up scrub brush.  Wow, am I out of shape!  I had forgotten just how much of a jungle it is up here.  Most trees have branches almost down to the ground and need trimming at least 12 ft up depending on their size, and there are three or four kinds of brush in almost every open space.  There is no sage brush up this high, but rather a bush that looks a lot like it.  It will be great when I can find and unpack my Audubon Society Field Guides to Birds, Trees and Wild Flowers.  Did I mention my camera?  Its like another appendage for me.  I've already taken enough pictures to publish my own books.  I love digital cameras!  I average about 50 photos a day.

What I miss the most is a refrigerator!  With just a cooler I have to go to town every 4 days or so for ice and perishables.  If I want ice cream, I just get a pint and eat it all right away.  And going to town takes most of the day as it is at least an hour's trip each way.

On Memorial Day, my brother came up for another week and brought my belated birthday present - a 12-gauge, single-barrel shot gun!  I had always joked about being the crazy old lady on the mountain and he got this for me so I really could be!  Plus it can be very intimidating to trespassers.  It's just like the one Granny had on the Beverly Hillbillies.  He taught me all about it and had me shoot it several times.

That evening I got some great photos of a thunder storm moving up the Wenatchee Valley.

I realized, after the fact, that we had put the camping trailer too close to our proposed building site.  So RJ helped me move it across the driveway.  That was fun.  I didn't want to unload everything, so we hitched it up and inched it about 50 ft east.  He has 40 acres next to us, just down and north about a mile on the "road."  You would understand why it is in quotes if you ever drove on it.  A horse, ATV or Jeep in 4-low can make it, but not much else.  Going down, there are a couple places where you cannot see the road as it veers down.  Going up, you can see only the sky.  RJ's been building his dirt-floor cabin for the past 15 years, at little bit each year.  He's an artist and is not using any power tools.  Needless to say, it is a very cool place.

Now:  June 6, 2011

Yesterday we measured placements for the deck posts and got one hole dug.  It was really warm and muggy so a 2 ft deep by 2 ft wide hole in clay is not an easy project for two old farts.  Plus first we had to flatten out what will be the floor of the shop.  Because it is still so damp from the snow and rain, the tractor left some shallow ruts.  JB may get one hole dug today and we plan to dig two or three holes a day till we have six.  Only then will we go down for the concrete.  The last time we bought it before we needed it, we ended up with three 60-lb stepping stones!

We also went down to my brother's place yesterday so JB could see all the things RJ has done this trip and last.  He redid the kitchen so he has a built-in table by the new, very large window, and various other things including a new bathroom counter for his sink.  I am just in awe of his carpentry skills and the way he can see the possibilities for his cabin. 

I am going to town today, which is a major project in itself.  As I mentioned in "Then", it takes at least an hour each way, so we have to make the most of every trip.  I think I have about 10 places to go and I have them listed in the most efficient order.  We try not to go Down There more than every two weeks, and three if we can stretch it.  I go in the summer and JB goes in the winter.  Sometimes in the spring and fall we all go, including the dogs.

Then: January thru April 2008 Now: June 5, 2011

Then:  January thru April 2008

Now that we knew we had a source of water and where it was, it was time to get ready to move.  One of the first things I learned when we moved to Illinois is that the cost of living is lower compared to the Pacific Northwest.  I hate to pay full price for anything, so while we were there, I made the most of their after-Thanksgiving and after-Christmas sales.  I stocked up on linens, especially flannel sheets.  I bought lots of long underwear and socks.  I discovered a great used-clothes shop in a high-end suburb, and found lots of jeans and other clothes that must have been worn once at the most.  Some even still had the tags on them.  First prize in Fantastic Finds goes to the winter parka with a zip-out lining and tags still on it that I got on their half-off sale for $6!

We hit a Grand Opening sale of a Cabella's (one of my very favorite stores) in Indiana and went nuts.  At practically give-away prices, we got Carhartt winter coats, overalls, boots and hoodies.  Also picked up a camping shower enclosure and other such goodies.

We figured we would put the house up for sale the end of January and, hopefully, sell it within 3-4 months.  I could almost hear God chuckle again.  Even in that economy, our house sold in three weeks.  Okay, once again, time to refocus and switch into high gear.  We now had about 6 weeks to pack, find a good deal with a moving company, find a place for JB to stay until August, etc., etc.

Initially we thought we could rent a large U-haul and move ourselves.  Well now God was laughing with tears running down her face.  After calculating the approximate square footage of everything, we realized that we couldn't rent a truck that big.  I found a great deal with Allied Van Lines and we were set.  I had saved all our moving boxes and packing material from our move out that the company had paid for, only now we would have to pack it all ourselves.

JB rented a room from a neighbor so he was set, too.

We had already bought a train ticket for my brother, RJ, to come out from Seattle and drive the van back with me the end of March.  Since we didn't have to drive a van, that turned into an 8-day mini vacation for the both of us and a chance to pare down his bucket list.  RJ has done and seen a lot in his life, but taking the train across country was still on there, as was visiting South Dakota's Black Hills and Wyoming's Devil's Tower.  By the time we got to Seattle, all he had left was living to see his Grandchildren.

But when we left Illinois, it was without our beloved Greyhound.  She was 12 years old and had crossed the rainbow bridge in February.  The last of our pack of four.  As sad as it was, it was also perfect Universal timing as living on the mountain would have been difficult for a greyhound.

We met the moving van in Eastern Washington and put everything in storage.  I then stayed with RJ in Seattle until our road thawed and dried out in mid-May.  During that time I started the process for the building permit; met with our contractor; and generally tried to get as much done as possible off site.  This included spending hours at Lowe's and Ikea for final kitchen ideas.

Now:  June 5, 2011

More beautiful, warm weather.  RJ is up at his cabin this week so he came up for breakfast this morning.  The dogs usually get me up when it starts to get light out, which is about 4:30 a.m. now.  I let them out, start a fire in the stove, and when they come back in about 20 minutes later, go up to the loft and write on my blog.  That just wasn't going to happen this morning.  I went back to bed and got up for breakfast at 8:00!  That's why this is so late today. 

Yesterday morning we spent time sitting on the porch trying to identify a couple wild flowers.  I have found most of the ones I've seen with the help of the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Wildflowers, but there are a couple that elude me.  So when we realized that it was almost 11:00 a.m., we decided to wait til after lunch to work on sealing the upright on the cistern.  Time can pass to quickly and so pleasantly while we're sitting on the porch, in the woods, on the mountain. . .  Hey, we're retired!

We did get the riser sealed using a mortar caulking and, fortunately, we should be rain free for the 48 hours it needs to set.  Our water is once again sparkling clear.  I love well water.  There's just no comparison to city water.

Larry came up yesterday evening with his tractor and dug out the bank behind the house.  Took him 1-1/4 hrs to get up the road and only 1/2 hour to dig!  This was after a full day at work, and he was going back down to mow their very large yard!  Ah to be young again. . .

Today we can get the holes dug for the posts that will be holding up the deck.  The trick will be to get them to be exactly in line with the building.  We've never done this before.  One term we have come to use in describing our place is "rustic."  Whenever something isn't quite flush, or a bit off kilter, we just look at each other and say, "Rustic!"

Then: Summer 2007 Now: June 4, 2011

The first thing we knew we needed for our new home was water.  You just can't build without knowing where your water is - or even if you have any!  The mountains where our property is located have a fairly high water table, and we even have a spring a few hundred feet down our west ridge.  So in the summer of 2007, JB flew back to Seattle for a week and drove out to our land with my brother, RJ, who owns the 40 acres north of us.  We had hired a driller for that week and all was prepared.  First, JB and RJ had to cut tree branches and bushes back from 3 miles of the road so the drilling rid could get up without scratching off all its paint.

For many years, since our days of rendezvousing, we have camped in a tipi.  It was easier to do having our own land because we could just leave the tipi poles up and put the skin on when we camped.  But when JB and RJ first drove up there in 2007, RJ's first comment was, "Where are the tipi poles?"  We knew there had been a really bad wind storm in the area in 2006 with wind speeds on Mission ridge reaching 100 mph.  Well, it seems that we lost one very large tree in that storm, and on all our 40 acres, it decided to fall on our tipi poles!  Fortunately it missed the outhouse by about 10 feet.  Rather the poles that the outhouse, I guess.

The water witcher came up and found two possible sites for the well. JB chose the site just above where we wanted to build our house, and the drilling began.  This is not an inexpensive endeavor.  It is billed by the foot.  And after 400 dry feet we and our bank account were starting to sweat.  Another 100 dry feet.  JB had to leave to catch his plane back to Illinois, so he told the drillers to go to a maximum of 600 ft and he left not knowing the results.  A phone call as he was at the airport confirmed that at 612 ft they found water.  Whew!!!

Now:  June 4, 2011

And speaking of water, yesterday it was looking so much better.  We filled the cistern some more, and will reseal the riser today.  Thank goodness the rain is gone for the time being.  This is the wettest year on record so far in the state of Washington, and our dry, pine-and-fir-covered eastern slopes are beginning to look like the western slopes' rain forest!  For you who are not familiar with Washington state, it is divided north and south by the Cascade Mountains.  The western side (about 1/3 of the state) is very wet, with two main seasons: wet and wetter.  The eastern side is much dryer, with the four distinct seasons, and that is one of the main reasons we moved over here.  I'm beginning to think the weather followed us over.

As I am writing this at 5:00 am, I am watching the sun hit the mountain peaks and work its way down the slopes.  Another beautiful, and finally seasonable day.

Our neighbor, Larry, is going to bring his tractor & bucket up this evening and dig our our west bank behind the house about 3 feet.  We need this done before we can build the deck.  JB was doing it by hand but at 26 ft long and 3 feet in, we probably wouldn't get the deck built until October!  Also, JB had a triple bypass in 2007.  If his doctor could see some of the things JB's doing up here, he would probably put him in the book of Miracle Recoveries. 

This is just one example of how incredible our neighbors, Larry and Elsie, are.  I love the bond that being Up Here creates with good people.

Also today we will be putting the skin on the tipi for the year.  We have guests coming soon and all through the Summer and Fall, and the tipi is our guest lodge.  We had left the skin on during the winter of 2009/2010 as our nephew likes to come up for a weekend during the winter to camp and visit.  Plus, we like to go out there when there's lots of snow on the ground to build a fire and just veg.  We don't want to leave it up every winter, though, just to make it last.  We have had it since about 1984 and want it to last for years to come. 

Ah, the tipi poles.  Where did we get the new ones?  Well, in the summer of 2009, we cut them ourselves.  But that's another story for "Then."

I have created a couple Pages in my blog.  The first, "Things I have learned building and living WAY off the grid," which is self explanatory and I will be adding to along the way.  And today I am putting up, "Recommended Reading," a list of books, magazines and catalogs that we have found very useful.  I am also working on a few others that I hope you will find interesting.

Then: 2007 & Now: June 3, 2011

We spent 2007 finalizing the plans for our "cabin", and making our lists of necessary equipment and supplies we thought we would need, garnered from our research and just plain common sense.  I can tell you right now - research and reality can be quite different!  We thought we were so well prepared and knew what to do.  Problem is that we didn't personally know anyone who had build and lived off the grid.  We did subscribe to a couple off-the-grid magazines which were a big help, Backwoods Home and Backwoods. But its hard to carry on a conversation with and ask questions of a magazine, or even know what questions to ask.  We also have several books on such things as wells, septic systems, root cellars and basic rural living skills.  These all gave us a basic overview and just enough details to make us feel like we knew what we were doing.

My Dad had grown up in Spokane Valley on a small ranch and often spoke of his life there.  In those days there was no grid, except in town.  He came from two pioneering families who had very successfully lived and thrived without electricity or even an indoor toilet.  We were going to have both of those - how hard could it be?!  Well, I know that is on the list of "Famous Last Words."

My husband, JB, was in charge of the electrical and mechanical side of our needs.  He researched solar energy, back-up generators, water pumps, etc.   Being a guy, he knows basic electrical wiring, plumbing and carpentry.  (Not a sexist  statement, just a reflection of our generation.)  Plus, my brother has a lot of experience in all three of those and he was going to help us.

I was in charge of the house, but together we decided what kind of building we should have, not necessarily what we wanted but rather what we could afford and what was most practical.  Initially we wanted the typical log cabin, but it was beyond our budget to have someone build it, and we are beyond the age to do it ourselves.  Plus it isn't very practical when living with the possibility of a forest fire.  We looked into a yurt, which we really liked, but just didn't feel secure enough for a year-round forever home.  On the advice of my brother, we looked into and finally chose a pole building.  We could have a contractor build the metal shell, and we could finish the inside.  Metal pole building on the outside, cabin on the inside.

We wanted our mountain home to be as small as possible, so our final plans were for a 24 ft X 32 ft home with a 40 ft roof to also cover an 8 ft X 24 ft front porch.  That's 1056 sq ft: 768 sq ft on the main floor with a 12 ft X 24 ft, 268 sq ft loft.

We wanted the house to face west, overlooking the canyon and across to the Cascade peaks.  The front door would enter into the great room which would include the living room on the left, with the kitchen and dining area on the right.  Straight ahead, under the loft, would be the doorway to the bath/laundry room on the right and the bedroom on the left.  There would be a door in the loft off the east end of the house to an outside deck over a garage, and a side door on the west end of the living room.  We thought a circular stairway to the loft would very cool, until we discovered the not-so-cool price - and the fact that they don't meet the local building codes.

Needless to say, we had to downsize again.  We had a couple garage sales, sold some furniture through want-ads, and donated several carloads of items to the local humane society second-hand store.

Now: June 3, 2011

As it turned out, we still brought too much "stuff", but I figured it would be better to get rid of it in Washington, rather than regret having gotten rid of it in Illinois.  One of JB's favorite sayings, "Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it."

We still subscribe to Back Home and Backwoods Home and they are extremely helpful.  We also get Home Power and Countryside which are also excellent.

Yesterday, as planned, we dug out around the riser on the cistern so it could dry out & we could reseal it.  We put 2 cups of bleach in the cistern & let it set.  While we were waiting for all that, the dogs & I hiked down to my brother's place which is a mile by the road.  Probably 1/2 mile if one hiked straight down, and it is almost straight down.  That's one thing about hiking Up Here, half your walk will be up hill.  But it's great exercise, and we were back by noon.  After lunch we emptied the cistern & refilled it about 1/2 way.  We'll finish filling it and seal it tomorrow.  All in a normal day's work.

I should explain how we got the name Rose Camp.  We learned the history of this area from our neighbors and it seems that beginning in the early 1900's, local men would run sheep up in this area.  They would camp in the small, old-growth grove near our house.  There was actually still a hitching post there when we first bought the land.  They named this area Rose Camp, not only because they camped here, but because of all the wild roses.  They are everywhere on the hillside.  They begin blooming in mid-June and go into July.  They don't all bloom at once, so there are blooms around for weeks.  Then after the blooms come the rose hips which are very nutritious and high in vitamin C.  I actually made rose hip jam last summer and it was delicious.

And, speaking of jam, I did not know how to do canning when we moved up here.  Something, if I had it to do over again, I would have learned years ago.  I took classes given by the Washington State University extension program last year, and the first thing I canned was peaches.  The Wenatchee area is the "Apple Capitol of the World", but there are many orchards that grow other fruit as well.  So there are lots of different kinds of fresh fruit available all Summer into Fall, and peaches are my very favorite.  I also took a class to learn to can meat, but haven't done that yet.

We have neighbors 3 miles down the road with whom we have become very good friends, Larry and Elsie.  They are the very best kind of friends to have living off the grid.  In fact there is a very tight knit group of people living in the area, not all of them off the grid, but most of them dependable and willing to help each other.  It was Elsie who helped me get started canning and even gave me the peaches to can!

Then: Summer 2002 thru Winter 2003 & Now: June 2, 2011

Then: Summer 2002 thru Winter 2003

I have heard it said that if you want to make God laugh, make plans.  Well, She certainly had a chuckle on us from the beginning of our project.  We spent as much of the summer of 2002 as we could up on our property building an outhouse - a two-seater with two doors.  Knowing my husband, JB, would be retiring in 2008, we wanted to spend the next 6 years preparing the land and getting as much building done as possible.  Then that Fall, JB got transferred from Seattle to Chicago!

OK, change of  focus.  We would just be REALLY busy in 2008.  We looked at this move as our last fling with "civilization", plus JB grew up in Chicago so he knew the area.  Of course, when his brothers and parents visited us in Seattle, they all fell in love with Washington and moved here over the years.  So just a few cousins and aunts were left as far as family goes.

JB's company flew us back to Illinois in January 2003 so we could look for a place to live.  We found the perfect house very quickly in a small Mayberry-like suburb just south of Chicago.  So, after selling our house in one day, we packed up and headed east in late February.  Short sentence, very long hectic month!  Did I mention that we were moving from a 4000 sq ft home to a 2400 sq ft home?  We knew we really had to downsize for retirement, so we just got an early jump on it.  A garage sale, donations to family, friends and charities did the trick.  Even so, we filled up a full moving van (which included JB's Jeep Wrangler.)  Thank goodness the company was paying for it.

When we left, we had one week to get there, sign the papers for our new home, and meet the moving van.  We drove with our Greyhound (dog) in the back of our Jeep.  Prior to this, I had only driven as far as Montana and flown over everything east of there.  I had never experienced South Dakota in the winter, and never want to again.  But we made it, and settled into our new home.  For those five years, we made the most of exploring Chicago and the surrounding states, becoming good friends with our Neighbor, and planning for our mountain home.

Now: June 2, 2011

Yesterday, when we turned on the faucet, our water looked very murky.  We discovered a leak around the riser on our cistern where muddy water has been getting in.  We have had an usual amount of rain the last three days, with thunder storms and downpours.  So, today, we get to dig out around the riser and reseal there.  Of course we also have to put bleach in the water.  Drain the cistern (about 700 gallons right now).  Then refill the cistern.  The adventure continues. . .

Even as I am writing, my mind can't quite wrap itself around the fact that we've been "up here" while the rest of the world has been "down there" for three years.  (And that is usually how I refer to it - anything that is not Up Here, is Down There.)  Not only are we starting our fourth year , but we haven't killed each other.  One thing I hadn't really thought about before retiring is living together in a small cabin 24/7.  We've been married 41 years and with our 40 acres to be out on, how hard could it be?  Well, I can tell you right now, it was a very big adjustment.  Probably more for me than JB.  I kept remembering that saying: Retirement means less money and more husband.  The first winter was a bit hairy, but fortunately it helped that we had so much to do on the inside.  And unless it is terribly bad weather, we always get outside each day at least for a walk, and of course, in the winter, to use the snow blower and shovel.  We've become quite accomplished at getting around on snowshoes.

Right now our main project is a second story deck off the loft, underneath which will be JB's shop.  This will be on the west end of our house, where we had been stacking our firewood for the past two years.  We just finished building a wood shed and moving all the wood we had left over into it.  Last year we cut extra firewood as we figured from all of NOAA's weather predictions that we would have a long, cold winter.  We did, and we are still building a fire first thing in the morning and one in the evening as it is still unseasonably cold - and wet.  But we still have a full cord of wood left, along with a couple pallets of stick wood stacked 4 ft high.  Its great that we have such a good head start on next winter's wood. Having to move it all into the wood shed, not so great.

We had built a 20x20 ft dog pen in 2009, and fortunately sunk all the posts into cement.  We used the back 10x20 of the pen for the wood shed, so we just had to put in one post for the center front and add a roof.  Thank goodness we got our steel for the woodshed roof and shop sides ordered before steel prices jumped again this spring.  Before 2008 we had done absolutely no building of any kind except our outhouse in 2002.  Now it just seems like a natural thing to do.  If it has to be done, we do it.  I hadn't given it much thought until I was talking to my Neighbor in Illinois last week and telling her about the wood shed and deck.  She was absolutely amazed that we were doing all this ourselves! 

Mountain Mama with her Mountain Man!  We've come a long way, Baby!