Personal

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Kindred Spirits

I just got back from happy hours (yes, plural) at my neighbours who sold me my property. I am going to call them Caroline and Charles from now on, all though that is not anywhere near their real names. Points to those who get why I picked those names.

Caroline, Charles, and I are kindred spirits. There is just no other way to describe it. We have similar values and attitudes towards life. They actually came to Saskatchewan in horse drawn covered wagons! I am blessed to have them here. This village will feel like home thanks to them.

I enjoyed way too much homemade white wine, venison salami, and cheese as we gabbed. Another neighbour, let’s call her Laura, came over at one point to join us. I now have access to showers and washing machines. Laura works ‘in town’ and said I am welcome to grab her house key from Caroline and use her facilities during the day!!!

I was sent home with a box of giant parsnips (will share a picture when I’m on a faster connection as they are weapon-sized) and two pallets to use as a front porch. I was also invited to a horse-related event in July (that sounds fun enough to pull me away from Stettler) and warned that my handywoman skills will be put to good use later this summer when Charles and Caroline start working on their addition, so I don’t need to worry about monetarily paying them back for using anything they offer me.

Caroline told me that folks here often find graineries (I think that’s the word), skeleton buildings made of fir that folks clad with plywood and turn into sheds. Charles is going to look for one as he’s always out and about doing pest control and said that I could likely pay a bachelor with a meal and some beer in exchange for having it brought out to me. I visited one of their’s and it would be more than just a shed once finished. It would have the potential to be a sweet little cottage, exactly what I envisioned having one day on this lot.

This village, or, rather, hamlet, feels like such a different place than it was this morning. I have to return a dolly to Caroline tomorrow and was told there’s always coffee on. I am going to learn to play Canasta on Friday night at Laura’s. Suddenly, I belong.

This place truly is my Haven.

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Answers!

It figures that the one day in weeks if not months that I decided to not get dressed would be the day a neighbour dropped by!

This neighbour is half of the couple who sold me the lot! She’s very nice; retired from being a power engineer in Manitoba and now raising horses. I am going to their place at about 4:00 for wine and to meet her husband.

First off, I got some answers about my property purchase. They own all the vacant lots in town and paid only $100 for mine! They thought it would be the last to go because it is so small. I thought my offer of $3,500 to their request for $5,000 was a low ball, but she laughed and said that I didn’t even come close to matching the low ball offers they had gotten previously. They considered my offer fair and serious and took it since it was cash in hand, plus they thought the tiny lot would be hard to sell. She doubts they would have accepted less, though.

Now, in no particular order, here’s the scoop on services.

Mail

The lean-to attached to a private house is a proper post office and is open in the mornings. So I can mail things from there and get a PO box. No more having to run into Assiniboia for general delivery.

Water

I am on a water line and need to contact the RM (rural municipality) to find out how to get a tap. For the summer, I am welcome to go to my neighbours and fill up from their exterior tap! I can back up to it with my truck, so I am going to get a big container to fill once a week or so and then tap into that with smaller jugs. The water is NOT drinkable.

Garbage

Garbage, water, and sewer fees are about $600 a year. My neighbour says I am welcome to put a bag in with their trash this summer!

Sewer

The neighbour says that I am on a sewer line, but I’m not really. In RV parlance, their sewer is for grey water only and everyone has holding tanks for black water, which they then have pumped out. It will likely be cheaper for me to just haul my waste to a dump station. Grey water can run on the ground considering how little I use.

Power

I do indeed have a pole on my property, so I just need to have a metre put on it and then have an electrician install an outlet. Shouldn’t cost me more than $1,000 total.

Grass

My neighbour did my lawn last summer. I told her that she can come up with a number for what that was worth and I will gladly pay, either with cash or with barter. They are doing construction this summer and I let her know I’m moderately handy and available if they need help.

Gravel

The RM will deliver gravel to my property (to use as an RV pad) at a rate of so much per yard (no idea how many yards I’d need). Several neighbours with little tractors could apparently be bribed with beer to spread it around.

Supplies

Willow Bunch is only 18KM away (compared to 32km for Assiniboia) and has gas and a small grocery store. The road there is gravel, though, so thank goodness for my truck! I drove that road once in my car and swore it would never happen again.

Assiniboia has a movie theatre!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, I may have jumped the gun on my excitement since it doesn’t appear to be a proper cinema and I can’t get any information on what’s playing this weekend, but it’s a beacon of hope that I won’t miss seeing this latest Star Trek on the big screen (although with the amount of work coming in this week, I can almost justify a four-hour round trip drive to Moose Jaw to see it…).

Neighbours

I’m told most are hermits, especially the guy right next to me. As long as I’m not loud and obnoxious, no one’s going to care what I do.

So that’s the scoop! I have to get back to work. OMG, it doesn’t rain but it pours. I don’t think it will ever be enough to get me back over the hump from the last few issues AND to cover what’s upcoming, but it’s still a relief!

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Haven

It’s been a quiet day. I had about four hours of transcription to do, so I just powered through in order to be able to spend the afternoon out here in the field doing online stuff, including shopping for an amplifier. When I get home shortly, I look forward to making a giant batch of pita and falafel. I think I’ve had enough of adventure for a bit. 🙂

I walked around my property this morning and gasped at all the ruts I’ve made with Miranda and the truck. I thought, “Wow, someone is going to be really upset with me!” And then it finally hit me. This land on which I’m parked is mine. If I don’t care about ruts, no one else will. It is still completely surreal to me that I am a landowner. Sure, it’s nothing special, just a small boxed lot with no real view in a decrepit village, but it’s mine.

And it might not be what I would have wanted, but it’s what I need. And that’s key when you have limited means of making such purchases. Yes, a big open tract of prairie would have been lovely, but can you imagine the wind out there? What about driving to and onto the lot? I have decent paved roads into the village and a proper entrance onto my property. And if I do decide to bring in utilities, it’s not going to be complicated. It’s low maintenance, has low property taxes, and, for being out in the middle of nowhere, is well situated. It was a sensible purchase.

Now that I’ve spent a couple of days parked there, I know it’s going to work out just fine as an RV pad once I figure out the logistics of getting water in and trash out. Minor details.

I’m naming my property Haven, mostly in the sense of “an inlet providing shelter for ships or boats; a harbor”, but also in the sense of “a place of safety or refuge”, after yet another planet from the movie Serenity. And don’t anybody tell me it’s weird to have one planet parking on another; okay? This is my ‘Verse and it has its own logic. 🙂

Even nomads need a safe harbour. I’m glad I found mine.

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Dining Out

One of the biggest challenges this winter was consistently finding good coffee to make at home. In Canada, my compromise for taste and price is Nabob Full City Metropolis. My coffee choices have been hit or miss all winter, and my latest purchase has been thoroughly a miss. L spoiled me rotten in Wichita, having a fresh pot of really good stuff available to me every morning. My morning coffee has been disappointing since Kansas.

I remembered from last year that the Dakota Magic restaurant has really good coffee. So I planned on having a lunch here, for both the coffee and to use up the rest of my U.S. cash.

I ordered a full pot of coffee (did not get through it) and a club sandwich, which came to $10. I brought half of the meal home for dinner. I’m going to miss this price/portion ratio when I get to Canada.

The coffee was sooooooooooo good. Since I only ate half my meal, I asked for a slice of pie to go with my final sips.

When I came into the restaurant, the server didn’t see me be seated and I was apparently invisible because it took AGES for her to see me. I was actually about to walk out, figuring they were too busy to take on any new customers, when she came to take my order. So when I asked for pie, she pointed to the buffet ($13 for lunch, OUCH), and told me to help myself to whatever looked good, plus ice cream if I wanted it, and that she wouldn’t charge me. That doubled her tip! I enjoyed their pecan pie with just a dollop of chocolate ice cream.

When you live alone in a small space, dining out is practically a survival mechanism. It’s an excuse to get out and do a little socialising. For me, food is food when it comes to my budget. Said budget goes further in the U.S. than in Canada and allows for more meals out, but regardless, so much per month goes to food and I eat very simply at home to cut costs (I so rarely buy desserts and junk food, for example, that saying that I never buy them is barely an exaggeration). Dining out is not a place where my budget needs to be trimmed, contrary to what some readers may think.

I’m off to do more laundry. I did three loads this morning and now I have the heavy denim stuff to do, which will take FOREVER to dry since it’s almost impossible to wring out by hand.

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Loss

This has been the first day that I’ve really had a chance to realise how huge is the hole in my life now that my precious girl is gone. I’ve caught myself calling for her many times, from waking up alone to inviting her to join Neelix and me in a sunbeam. I keenly miss her comforting presence on my lap when I type. Neelix asked for my lap once today, but when he does that, he wants petting and is not content to lie still.

My sweet boy is such a comfort. He’s been increasingly affectionate in this past week. My favourite new thing he does is that he doesn’t just show me his belly to rub it, but rather puts both paws around my arm to hold it in place until he’s had enough! Too cute!

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I’ve been taking it easy today and working on some projects. The day started off cool, so I wrapped my electric blanket around me in the morning, but I’m now in full sun and enjoying the contrast to yesterday’s gloomy tone. Later this evening, after the dinner rush passes, I will go try the buffet, which is $5 off for ladies on Wednesdays (so $7.95), and also play the free keno. I don’t intend to give them the $10 to get the free slot play, however.