Progress

Yesterday my galvanized sink arrived for the cabin; I’ve ordered the wood burning stove which will be ready to pick up next week, and work has begun on the place. These are pictures of the framing going up earlier this week.

In going over some information online, I discovered my 5 acre plot is oriented the opposite of what I had thought - I thought the cabin was at the top of the plot but it turns out we’re at the bottom and the 5 acres stretches above us to the north, an area I’ve never walked. The good news is the plot south of us has nothing on it, and the plot north of us is government land, so we have a good long 15 acre area to play around in. When my finances improve I may try to seek out the owner of the plot south of us to see if I can pick it up, too. 

The contractor wants to finish up in a couple of weeks. We will try to meet with him tomorrow when we’re out there looking for wedding venues. I think many of our weekends coming up will involve trips out there to check on progress and bring things out. I imagine at some point we’ll have to rent a uhaul and bring a whole truckload of furniture out there - three mattresses, a Hoosier, table and chairs, kitchen stuff. It’s odd to think of completely furnishing a place from scratch. 

The boys’ first week of school has gone smoothly. Until today, they’ve had no homework (Bobby will have an assignment this weekend). They were tested for covid yesterday and so far Bobby has come back negative. I’m just taking things one week at a time - at any moment we could be shut down entirely, have to quarantine, get sick ourselves, who knows? But for now they’ve had one week at school and it’s been ok. 

For me, I’m in that slightly feral state that always happens when the kids go back to school - in response to having to wake up early, I’m taking lots of naps, which then makes it hard to go to sleep, which then makes me want more naps. There’s not much to do so I’m spending way too much time doom scrolling and watching pointless tv. I’m still picking away at my refunds, but I haven’t heard from 300 people still. I will send a reminder email next week, but the cut off is in two weeks, so people had better get their butts in order. 

I had said I was over traveling for a while, but honestly I’m really glad to be headed back out to the desert this weekend. I need a change of scenery and a weekend spent focusing on positive things and not going down the existential rabbit hole as I have been.