Race against the weather...

Hello friends and family,

Yes, we are still alive.  Yes, we have not abandoned ship.  I know it has been a little while since you heard from us.  Rest assured all it well.  When you continue reading, you will understand the silence. 

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  When we left you last, we had put one coat of mud on all the drywall.  We also did a temporary winterization on the camper.  The temps were expected to drop.  We were heading out of town for Thanksgiving weekend.  We were taking the opportunity to visit with friends, enjoy some amazing food, and get some much-needed R&R.  Let me tell you.  We had an amazing time away.  It was so good to hang out with Christy, Wes and Judy.  We love their company, and Judy puts on a spread.  You would think she was serving at least 10 people.  Nope, just five of us.  If you walked away hungry, that is a you problem.  Our time came to a close there, and Judy packed us up a to go bag.  The bag was very heavy.  We stowed the precious cargo in a cooler with ice.  We said our goodbyes and headed out to Twisted Trails Farm. 

We arrived at Tom and Theresa’s house.  We chilled out the rest of the evening.  The next day and a half, we got the grand tour of all the things they have accomplished in the last four years.  Basically, taking wooded and overgrown acreage with a mobile home and turning it into something wonderful with more to come.  Obviously, we went to visit with our friends, but we went there to learn, daydream and just enjoy nature.  We tried fresh goats’ milk, omg.  It is amazing.  All the goats milk we had in the past had a really bad after taste.  Now we know why.  You must drink it with 3 days of milking and keep the billies away.  Now we want goats.  Sure, we could get some today, but we have to put that in our schedule of projects.  You have to have everything in place before you bring home livestock.  If you don’t you cause major stress on yourselves and the animals. We are trying to be smart about this journey.  Right now, our home is number one.  I went shopping in their farmstand.  We were spoiled with great food.  We got to check out a Rural King for the first time.  Theresa sent me home with some seeds and plants.  Our time grew to a close, we felt so rejuvenated. Kinda did not want to leave, but we have things to get done.  Winter is approaching fast.

We got a good night’s sleep and hoped that we would start fresh and strong in the morning, but the joke was on us. I will not bore you with all the daily details, but we have our successes, but we sure do have out setbacks.  We have two modes of heating our cabin.  We have the diesel heater and the woodstove.  We started using the diesel first to get the cabin warm enough to work in.  At first it was working great, but then it started smoking really bad outside.  Rick had to tear it apart and clean it.  We started using the wood stove.  That worked great for a few days, then it too would smoke like crazy and just smolder.  So, back to the fixed diesel heater that he just fixed.  Meanwhile, did some research and figured out the issue with the wood stove.  That is now functionally awesome.  The diesel is our backup, but that started smoking again.  So, he had to tear it apart again and clean it.  The problem with products anymore, nothing comes with clear operating instructions.  So, we are thinking operator error on both accounts.  We will get it mastered eventually.  I will say this, it doesn’t matter with heating solution we use, we only have to run for a little while.  The insulation and the reflectix is sure holding in the heat.  We are so happy. 

During all of that, the sanding and mudding continued on.  We had to have heat though, it was too cold to work in here, plus the mud would take forever to dry.  If we ever build another building that requires finishing the walls, we are taking drywall of the list.  We both hate it.  Lol Just when you think you are done with the mudding and sanding, you find a spot you missed.  Oh, we found a few.  The cabin was cleaned from top to bottom and we busted out the paint and brushes.  I am so in love with these colors.  We ended up putting on a coat and found more spots we missed with mudding.  Those were taken care of and put on a second coat of paint.  Honestly, a third coat would have been even better, but we decided to hold off until spring.  With all the construction left, we knew we would have to fix gouges and scratches.  Plus, we wanted to see where all of our cabinets would lie.  We so wanted to get situated in the cabin. 

During each drying period for the mud and paint, we tackled other projects.  Rick mostly fixed issues.  I got the new goodies added to the food forest.  We added walking onions, garlic and more strawberries.  I honestly can’t wait to see it in the spring.  I ran the chipper and got it all mulched.  The only thing left is to line it logs.  My next side project was getting my flower bulb garden planted in front of the property.  So, when you enter the driveway, the house numbers and bulb garden on your left.  Rick helped me edge it out with logs.  I also got the flower bed on the right tilled up and lined with logs.  I still have a bit more work to do.  In the spring, I will scatter wildflower seeds again.  They were very pretty. Last year, I just threw seeds.  I didn’t work on the land too much.  I just got out as many vines, trees and weeds as I could.  Yes, infostructure is important, but creating beautiful places it just important too.  The last major extra project we accomplished was making compost for the last herb garden bed.  I got it done and topped it with compost I brought from Michigan.  Unfortunately, we ran out, if our pile doesn’t create enough, we will have to buy a few bags to finish closer to spring.  I will have to make and add a few more wood chips for the walking paths, but that will have to wait for now.  The blades need sharpened.  We just found the kit in the black hole.  We will put it on our things to do.

Now, here is the really good part.  We decided to move into the cabin.  Yes, we still need to install bunch of things, but we could set it up to function.  So, on the 11^th we got to sleep in our home for the first time.  We got to sleep in our own bed again, which was heavenly.  We got to put our clothes away in a dresser. Please see the pictures below. We even decorated some for Christmas.  We will still be working on things.  We are hoping to be done by spring.  We will have to add on a porch, side everything, install the solar panels, install the starlink, and cupboards and shower and water systems.  It is a lot more work, but we are over the hump.  It is downhill from here.  We have been doing some clean up and organizing around the property.  We had to bring everything into the cabin that could be damaged by the cold.  And we had to find a few things in the conex, so we ended up going through a bunch of stuff.  At least it is getting emptier by the day.  The camper is cleaned up and shut down until spring.

Today has been a rainy day.  We ran some errands this morning…trash, laundry, hardware store.  Rick is currently napping so I figured I would finally give you a much-needed update.   We hope you enjoy the updates and the photos.  Next up is the shower install, and we shall see what is up next. 

Just in case, we hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  It will definitely be different for us this year.  We can’t make it up to Michigan to be with family, so we are staying here.  Having Christmas breakfast with the ladies.  If the weather holds out, we will be having dinner and game night with Shawn and Brenda.   We are very much looking forward to both.  I will say, I have been really behind on the gifts to send to the kids and the grandbaby.  We have been so driven by getting everything done, just got pushed to the side.  Plus, I had no inspiration for the gifts.  I normally order ornaments from my dealer and good friend, but she lost her husband not too long ago.  My heart breaks for her.  I was holding out to see if she would be doing them or not.  I know she needs the income, and I really enjoy the designs she comes up with.  I just give her some ideas and she runs with it.  She announced her store would not open up until after the first of the year.  Searching for a company that I could get all the ornaments I would need was difficult.  I would find one or two here or there.  I finally found an ad on facebook for a family business in Alaska.  They are simple and beautiful.  Because of their limited designs, I could not use them year after year, besides my loyalty lies with my girl Petra.  We have been friends for years.  We have been through a lot together.  She has been one of our biggest supporters on this journey. 

Thank you for reading my novel.  Thank you for being a part of our journey.  Now that we are out of the camper, it will be available early spring for anyone that would like to come visit.  Just give me notice, so I can get it prepared.  Much love and gratitude.

P.S. We did not meet the benchmarks in our contest, so there was not a winner. We will try again soon.