The prodigal cat returns

And he's sleeping on my bed at this very moment.

Last night. after dinner and nearly after dark. he just showed up out of nowhere.  He's lost some weight, was a bit dirty, and is obviously freaked out.  He meows frantically if we are out of his sight, and refuses to leave the house for longer than it takes to do his business out back.  Poor Pussface!  Is it possible for a cat to have PTSD?  Hopefully with a few days of food and love he'll be a little bit heavier and a lot less worried.  And hopefully he has learned his lesson about wandering off.  The forest isn't safe for a little cat, and if he dies again, I'll kill him.

In house news, we have decided to save ourselves a lot of time, money, and effort by painting the floor.  It won't look quite as nice as wood, but it'll be fast and cheap, and easy to keep clean.  Then we can get the stove in, and boy do we need it.  We're umblesicles again today, after a few days of early summer heat.  It has been so hot, in fact, that I ordered our chicks yesterday.  For those of you not in the know about chicks, they need top be kept very warm for the first few weeks of life, or they'll sicken and die.  Most people accomplish this with heat lamps.  Because we don't have electricity, heat lamps are out.  I thought that warm weather, and a thick bed of straw, would do the job.  Clearly not, so the stove needs to go in ASAP.  Stay tuned for photos of the floor, stove, and adorable chickies.  I even give you permission to get attached - these are layers, not fryers.

And there is beauty

Even in the midst of our crisis, the land soothes us.  It shows us life where we could see only death, springing anew with the flora and fauna that are now our kin.  Though we know heartbreaking loss, we also see daily the growth of the oncoming season.

Life continues on, reminding us that we must also continue. Our hearts are heavy, but we must step into the new season on light feet, greeting the living world around us with expectation and wonder.

Life. Death. Life.

Mourning.

After four days, and countless hours yesterday searching the woods around our house, we have to assume that Pussface is gone for good.  I will pray that some other family has taken him in, but it's very likely that an animal of some kind got a hold of him.  Lucifur is under tight watch, no longer allowed to stay out all night carousing.  Give your pets a little extra attention today, readers.  Love on them a bit more than usual, and forgive their misbehavior.  We would give anything to do that for Pussface today.

When it rains...

No news for today.  Just a request that all of my readers cross their fingers, and/or pray to whomever they pray to.  Our big boy kitty, Pussface, appears to be missing.  We haven't seen him in three days.  It's not like him to run off, so we're worried sick about him.  This morning we hiked around for a good two hours searching for him, but he could be anywhere.  Please pray that he'll come home safe.  Or that if he doesn't come home, that he's been taken in by some nice old cat lady who will spoil him rotten.  All we want is for him to be safe.

Slightly forced gratitude

The last few nights here have been very cold, and the mornings have been rough. We have no stove yet, and no insulation, so we've been huddled under blankets to stay warm. UG has been fine – so fine, in fact, that she tries to kick the blankets off at night in order to cool down. But UH and I, not so much. We have shivered through the nights, and sometimes through the days. While UH was at work, I sat in three layers of jackets and a blanket, shivering, until I gave up and climbed into bed with UG for an afternoon nap.

The cold, I'm sorry to say, hasn't been the only problem. The gutters for our rain collection have not gone up yet, which is making water a problem. It's water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. Every afternoon it rains, but we have only been able to collect what falls into the buckets we have left sitting under the eaves. We have bought drinking water, and had enough to do some dishes and laundry, but not enough for everything we need water for. It's a problem with an easy solution, but we haven't had time to make it happen.

The house is a bit of a wreck right now, with boxes stacked hither and yon. Though we have quite a bit of stuff stored under our fabulous new bed, there is still plenty that either didn't fit, or that needs to be out for daily access. The place looks trashy, to be perfectly honest. I hate clutter, and can't wait to get it under control.

Every day brings twice as much work as time. With UH gone ten hours out of every day, most of it has started to fall on me. This wouldn't be a problem, except that I have a fussy baby who refuses to nap, and who doesn't tolerate being put down, or having me do anything that involves bending and twisting while she's on my back in her carrier. Poor UH must get home from work in the evenings, look around, and think I've been sitting with my feet up all day while he was busting his butt to pay for this adventure.

The other day we stopped by the grocery store, and for a moment I almost suggested we take a look at what's in the Redbox. Then I remembered – no more Redbox. No more turning on the faucet and washing coffee grounds down the drain. No more throwing clothing in the washing machine and forgetting about it. No more putting UG down for a nap, turning on the baby monitor, and getting other things done. No more chatting on Facebook. No more bumping the heat up a few degrees because it's chilly. No more lots of things that I did every day, and never thought twice about.

But I have a cell phone, and can text UH at work when I get lonely. I have a house that keeps out the rain and the wind. I have three spoiled rotten pets, and the luxury to care for them properly. I have food, I can buy water, and slowly the house is getting finished in a style that is pleasing to me. I have hot coffee in the morning and hot soup for dinner. I have my amazing husband, my beautiful children, warm clothing, a bed, a couch to sit on as I type this post. I have free internet access a few minutes down the road. UH has a job, and we have a car to get around in. The things we have given up and nothing. We have all we need, and more.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming swimming swimming...

A day of rest

It's Sunday.  We've been here and working almost a week now, and we're tired.  Today, we rest.  Well, relative to the previous week, anyway.

It has been an eventful week here.  All of our things are moved into the house, furniture is beginning to appear, the very beginnings of a garden have started to form, and about half our current crop of fruit trees has been planted.  Our backs are sore, our hands are scratched, and we have developed a much more sympathetic view of those junky farms you see when you're our driving, with piles of scrap and cars on blocks all over the barnyard.  Our place doesn't look a whole lot better right now, and it'll be a while before it does.  But last night we slept in a real bed, and cooked dinner on a counter.  We still have cinder blocks rather than stairs, but we have a real(ish) indoor toilet.  Progress is progress.  But UH starts his new job tomorrow, and the pace of our progress will slow.  There's only so much I can do on my own, and UG riding on my back like a baby monkey.

In the next couple of weeks, we will try to keep up the pace as much as we can.  The guineas will come, and possibly a couple of goats.  They all need houses, and so does the dog.  Our house needs to be stained, and the gutters hung.  Then the insulation arrives, and we start finishing the interior.  It's a busy life we signed up for - an endless series of jobs that have to be done yesterday.  And we're loving it.

Our progress in pictures:

That isn't a mole trail in the distance, it's the beginning of a garden.  It took me a good hour to dig that much up.

Our house, sans stairs.  I have already managed to fall out of it.  Go me.

UH trying to figure out how to hang gutters, and failing.  Poor UH.

UH making us a bed frame.  Good job UH!

The final days

In just a few days, we'll be homesteaders.  It doesn't feel real, even with the piles of packed boxes and hastily scribbled notes laying scattered about the house.  We're really tying up the loose ends now.  Today I picked out six days worth of clothes for each of us, and put the rest in crates.  It'll just be us, our clothes, and our toothbrushes for the next four days.  Our life in boxes, in the back of a truck.

So many loose ends are still loose, and will likely remain that way.  The recipes I have pinned on Pinterest will mostly stay on Pinterest.  The photos I am in the midst of backing up online are no longer a priority.  The small craft projects I have been doing are either on hold, or off the Goodwill.  Life is moving on, and life is freezing in place, all at once.

This will be my last post before we move.  Please send a few prayers our way, if you can and are the praying type.  I'm off to count our blessings and our boxes, and will update here when we're on the other side.