Earthship Post #14

March 6, 2017

Wow! What a crazy week!!! It started with Dave waking me up at 4:15 Tuesday morning telling me the lights on his car weren’t working and I’d have to drive him to work. I dozed off and on the 35 mile trip till I switched seats and drove home.

Then the day was full- son filling out paperwork for his new JOB! Yay! We had a quick lunch, then I drove my granddaughter to pre-school, grocery shopping with the little guy, more errands, pick up granddaughter, son and head home to cook dinner. Then, back to pick up Dave from work! Yikes!

Almost every day was just like that, or some version of that. Thankfully, Dave got his vehicle fixed so at least I didn’t have to drive him everyday.

Dave got my clothesline put up on his day off, so Saturday I headed to town to the laundromat. In the meantime the winds had started picking up. We had a high wind advisory for Sunday- I guess the winds arrived early. Still, I was determined to dry the clothes on the line. I jumped the gun a little, the poles weren’t yet secured enough and the lines drooped. When the winds picked up it was like a giant sail. My son braced the poles so I could finish drying the clothes.

I felt pretty smart transporting my baskets in the wheelbarrow until my cell phone rang and I ran inside the shed to answer it, because it was too windy to hear. The wheel barrow blew over with all my clean clothes in the basket inside. I wasn’t about to drive back to town and start all over and at least they were dry- so I just picked them up, shook the dried weeds and dead grass off and put them back into the basket. I only thought the wind was bad that day….

Then Sunday arrived….

The winds were fierce, blowing and gusting. The wind blew last summer, but this felt worse. I was sure we would lose something important, (like a camper, or a small child).  None of us got much sleep that night. When I went out to survey the damage the next morning, I noticed one of the dog’s water buckets had blown over to my son’s camper. When I walked back, I saw the dog house was gone. I walked down the hill and found it, but the pillow inside was gone. The trail left by the pink stuffing led me to an empty cover. I’m glad none of the dogs were harmed in the making of this adventure. We lost most of the insulation around the skirting of our camper. Now to start picking that all up.

Needless to say, we survived. Cranky and restless, but unscathed.

March 22, 2017

What a crazy two weeks we’ve had. The weather has been gorgeous! Record high temperatures, beautiful blue skies, things finally shaping up around the compound.

We’ve had a few hiccoughs- our black lab attacked our red heeler and we had to take him to the emergency vet. On top of that, we had to try to keep them separated to let him heal. The attack was over food, but the lab has had seizures all his life and we’re thinking he might be affected by those as well. Oddly enough, they missed each other. Rico the heeler, stopped eating. So after a week or so, we let them eat together again. They seem to be okay, but we’ll have to watch them from now on.

Yesterday was great! We finally found a company that could provide internet. They quickly installed it and voila, we’re up! We’ve tried the whole wi-fi (Hot spot) before, but it was so pricey for such a limited amount of data. I’m so excited to be able to post my blog, or even just check my e-mail without having to run to the town library. That certainly wasn’t something I’d planned on when we moved out here. Now, to get a way to do the laundry….

One of the solar guys came out and checked our system out to make sure we are okay. We’re doing fine, he tilted the panels up to catch more rays for the summer. Yay!

Spring has arrived early and the peach trees down in the valley are bursting with gorgeous pink blossoms. Life is good, God is greater than all our trials and fears.

James 1:2-4

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be made complete, not lacking in anything…