Day: May 20, 2013

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An Exercise in Futility

I went over to C&C’s this afternoon to borrow a wheelbarrow and a shovel so I could keep working on my leaves. What an exercise in futility, what with the wind! But I’m going to keep at it, if only to pull up the rotten layer that is turning to humus and ruining the grass.

While outside, I finally met the easterly neighbour into whose kitchen I look from the office. Let’s call him Nels. 🙂 He’s very nice and was surprisingly chatty. I brought up the subject of the property line and he said he wasn’t too sure, but that it made sense for it to be along the row of mature trees and shed. I joked that his dead pickup sticking out behind the shed is on my lot and he told me he’s trying to get rid of it. That would be nice because once I get the rig on the back of the lot, no pickup will mean a view of the church.

At some point, Laura came by with some goodies for me. The first item was three chairs, the canvas kind on tubing that fold to fit into a bag. I have a few, but they don’t have arm rests or cup holders. She also had a rake for me, the kind for moving dirt, not for leaves, and a water hose. I will be glad to leave my ridiculously long water hose here and take this other one with me on my travels.

Laura also told me that Charles spoke to the disagreeable man (okay, let’s call him… Hiram), who is suddenly a heck of a lot less disagreeable. Hiram has given me permission to help myself to all the pallets on his property and anything else that catches my eye. There is a lot of weathered lumber that I could put to good use and I spotted a cute little BBQ that is in super good shape inside, although the exterior could use a little paint. I’m going to confirm with Charles that anything does mean anything before I grab stuff other than the lumber, though.

The pallets will start off as a nice big deck for Miranda once she’s squared away, and later they will be repurposed when I start working on the grainery. I can also see myself using a few to make a compost bin. I just need to figure out where to stack them so that I don’t have to move them to get Miranda further back or to fit in the grainery. I have a feeling that the grainery is going to come faster than expected.

Tomorrow will likely be a town day as I need some groceries, but I’m really not that eager to go out. I was so sure I’d go stir crazy here, but now that I have friends, the days go by very fast! Since I don’t need very much, I think I will try the store in Willow Bunch, which is much closer, provided the gravel road is in good shape.

I hope we get the promised sun tomorrow. My batteries need a good soak! But they are holding up fine. With an hour of charging in the morning, I’m holding steady between 75% and 81%. Not great, but I’ve been able to do everything I need to do, including print some documents for a work project I’m doing. I’ve come a long way from the electrical struggles I had on the beach!

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Good Timing

I can’t believe the weather right now along the route I took over the last three weeks (can’t believe it’s been that long). For those not following the news, I’m talking about the tornados between Oklahoma City and Wichita.

A recent tornado warning in Shawnee, OK, where I spent three nights, was ‘You could be killed if not underground or in a tornado shelter.’ Wichita news station KSN was dramatically evacuated while live on the air.

The recent Wichita tornado was in L’s part of the city. He doesn’t get concerned until a tornado is bearing straight at him, considering a touch down just two miles away to be of little concern, but I have asked him to check in.

Am I glad I got through before this mess. L did put tornados into their proper context for me, but these events are hitting a little too close for me right now.

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Digging Up the Cache

I was invited to dinner at Charles and Caroline’s last night, with Charles telling me to use my imagination to come up with something to bring. My imagination came up with these incredibly delicious garlic/butter/sour cream/parmesan cheese/oregano biscuits. Thank you imagination!

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I headed over around 4:00 in time to dig up the cache. C&C had put tons of root vegetables into tubs and buried them for the winter. The plan was to have these veggies for dinner. The tubs they had dug up in April were great, but the ones last night were a little disappointing. The ground had warmed up, so the veggies had started to rot. The carrots were a lost cause, but the parsnips, huge beets, and few potatoes were in good shape.

Caroline set to work washing off the veggies at the outdoor sink while Charles, Laura, and I moved some plants into their stable. Then Laura asked me if I wanted something that was about to rot in her yard and which would need a little TLC. The three of us went across the street so I could check the thing out and it was exactly what I was looking for as the first piece of yard furniture. So we got it on a dolly and trundled it down here:

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YAY! 🙂 I wanted a nice big sturdy table to use as my laundry station. The boards on one side have come loose, but that’s okay because that will let me stand on the long side and I would have likely removed them anyway. The table needs major cleaning, wire brushing, stripping, and refinishing. Another project!

Charles then confirmed my property limits. OMG, this place is HUGE. 🙂 I don’t know how we got on the subject, but I mentioned that I was hoping to find more pallets and he pointed to the place next door, owned by the disagreeable man, and told me to help myself to all the pallets on the property. The guy is giving them away and had told Charles spread the word around. I’m not sure yet what I’ll do with them, besides make a bigger porch but they are oak, so they will come in handy. So today’s projects are to go to C&C’s to borrow a wheelbarrow and shovel, rake more leaves, and then start hauling pallets. And at some point, do some paid work, too, although my projects aren’t pressing and I’ve earned a day away from the computer…

We headed back down to C&C’s and Caroline let Laura and me help her prepare the veggies, then we were banished to the porch with beer. Charles and I got talking about water and he said that between myself, him, and Laura, there is enough hose to go from one of the public taps to my rig. He’s going to have the town turn on one of these taps until I can get my own. It’s not as convenient as having one on site, of course, but it’ll save me a little money to start, especially since I’ll have to pay the water bill.

The dinner bell rang and we went in to enjoy a wonderful meal: fresh asparagus from the garden in lemon pepper butter sauce, salad with biscuits, roast chicken with mashed potatoes, parsnips, beets, stuffing, and gravy. And tons of white zinfandel. YUM.

We were just finishing up when other neighbours, um, let’s call them Isaiah and Grace, came over and we all got along like a house on fire (what an odd expression). Isaiah is Laura’s former son-in-law and a farmer whose life could be a comic strip, the way he expresses his woes being so hilarious.

The subject of my utilities came up and he asked me why I’m planning to go dump in Assiniboia when the ‘lagoon’ is just a mile away. Lagoon? As it turns out, the holding tank pump out truck empties the contents into a pit about a mile from here. Not accessible with an RV, but no problem with a truck. I can just dump into a bucket once a week and go dump it out there instead of paying for the service. Sounds crazy, but simple!

I found out heaps more history about my property. As it turns out, there used to be a town garage and it was on my lot! After that, the lot was used for parties around bonfires, and then went quiet, looking for someone to take care of it.

Isaiah’s father might have a grainery for me. Now that I know the real size of my lot, I am very excited about putting one of these 14’x12′ structures on my lot. They are made of fir, which doesn’t rot, and people put a tin roof and some siding on them. They are tall, so adding a loft inside is very feasible. The plan would be to get it here this year, make it weather proof next year, and then slowly convert the interior into a cozy bunkhouse/shed/work shop. I would get it wired for electricity so that I could have the option of putting a washer and dryer in it at some point. This falls right in line with my plans for the property, except I couldn’t imagine being able to afford such a construction for several years. I’m looking at about $600 to get it here and make it weather proof, versus paying $1,500 just to build a frame from scratch for a building that size.

After a couple more bottles of wine, we all went back into the house for Laura’s apple pie with some ice cream. And then the wine hit all of us and the lateness of the hour began to make itself felt. I walked home with Isaiah and Grace, who live a few doors down, on the other side of the church, carrying home the following:

-pin cherry jelly and apple sauce (from Laura)

-garlic and green onions (from C&C)

All good stuff grown locally. Mmm!

Here’s a rough sketch of the village, to help situate you all a little. It’s about a mile wide, to give you a sense of scale. The top of the map is south.

Legend

map

Arrow=road towards the petroglyphs

P=post office (that road continues to the west, winding and wending through the hills, to join highway 2)

I=Isaiah and Grace’s house

+=church and the symbol behind it is a headstone for the cemetery (probably a half mile behind it)

E=easterly non-sociable neighbour

M=me

D=disagreeable westerly neighbour

L=Laura’s house

C=Charles and Caroline’s house (the road continues eastward as gravel towards the town of Willow Bunch)

A=the apartment building

S=the swimming hole

I didn’t put the community hall on this, but it’s between the church and the cemetery. I will update this map as if I get more landmarks, but this should help for now.

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The Only Thing That Lasts

Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin’ for, worth fightin’ for, worth dyin’ for, because it’s the only thing that lasts.

I feel like a completely different person than I was this winter, dreading my return to Canada and seeing no future for myself here. I had no idea how the property was going to work out and half expected to land here and discover that I had just bought an investment, not a place to put down tenuous roots.

My life plan hasn’t changed at all. I still want to RV a few more years and then see the world. The only thing that has changed is that I have a safety net. Should the bottom fall out, I will have this place to return to and I will be at peace with doing so.

This property will only tether me as much as I let it. Investing in a little hardscaping, like gravel, will mean having less green space to tend, or to have tended, during my voyages. Not having a proper house on it means not having to worry about pipes freezing, rodent damage, and the like while I’m out gallivanting in my RV. When I’m ready to see the world, I can weather proof the rig as much as possible, leave a friend to keep an eye on it, and take off, secure in the knowledge that I won’t have to start from scratch should I ever decide to return.

I will confess to being rather excited at the prospect of turning this property into a proper landing base. I can already see the grainery I’ll turn into a cozy guest cottage/wood working shop/laundry room, even if it takes years to amass the materials to do so. I can already taste the fresh herbs and tomatoes I’ll grow next year. I eagerly await the day I get a faucet so I can wash my first load of laundry in my Wonder Wash and hang it to dry on a clothesline I’ll install when I get back in July.

I look forward to more Friday night canasta tournaments, to watching summer grab this land and reluctantly let go of it in the fall. And I am going to eagerly await that the first nip in the air that will tell me it’s time to go south. The border crossing should be easier with my having real ties to Canada and big plans for the following summer. Next winter, meeting up at Quartzite with friends will be all the more enjoyable because I won’t be so annoyed with having to go back to Canada.

I keep getting asked how I found this place. All I can say is that when you know what you’re looking for, the options narrow down considerably. I knew what I needed and I pounced when I found it. But it is luck that it has worked out as well as it has.