Wow – I think finally the plague has lifted. Sage and the baby both had it as bad as I did (without stomach upset).

So now we’re all trying to get in to the swing of things – cooking/cleaning, unpacking and planning on our permanent living arrangement. We were originally leaning towards straw bale but the lay of the land makes getting materials to anywhere a bit of a challenge. So now we’re back to plan B – a yurt. I’ve spent a good part of the afternoon walking through the woods looking for a nearly-clear place and have found a few – where big old trees have fallen leaving a small clearing – the yurt we’re looking at is about 20′ in diameter (talk about simplifying our lives!) So we have a good amount of freedom. Before we spend the money we’ll look at one nearby that some people already live in. Space wise it’s bigger than the RV.

Meanwhile, I’m adjusting to not worrying and am having a little bit of a tough time – all my working life I’ve felt apt at what I was doing. Here I’m having to re-learn everything from cooking (sometimes on a gas stove which isn’t too bad to over a fire which is harder) to washing dishes without using the drain on the sink in the RV (so we don’t fill the waste tank and have nowhere to empty it.) I’m a quick study, though so it shouldn’t be long.

The seeds arrived a few days ago for the garden – we’ve got two plots – one near the house and another near the creek – this second one is really great – it feels hidden away, yet is near the house. We just have to clear the brush and get moving on planting.

Well, as I’m writing this I’m in one of the potential sites – it has a good feel to it – you can hear the creek if you listen as well as all the birds – crows, hawks, etc. Not much other noise – the road isn’t too close and there’s only one other family on this road so noise isn’t an issue. I may come out to these places tonight after dark to see how they feel then. The nights here are incredible – there seem to be so many more stars then where we lived before – we’re hours away from any big city so light pollution is minimal.

Other quick notes: Kite, Dolphin, and the cats made it here safe and sound despite a storm that dropped about 10 inches of wet snow on us. Nights have been cool, days warm and usually sunny.

Our routine for now:

Sage gets up and makes a fire for cooking in our little “oasis” in the woods away from the RV (we have stove but it just feels better) the baby and I wake up, make coffee and join Kite and Sage at the fire. Then Sage, the baby and I walk coffee in tow down to the creek (Shelly the oldest cat followed us there today) after that the day’s open for whatever we want/need to do.

Soon we’ll be back online – we’re going in to town (~25 min. away) to set up our net connection and get our week’s food. See you then!