We woke up this morning to sunshine filtering through our pines into our camper window. A few days ago the camper was still parked 50 miles away, next to The Woodshed. This week it found a place on the homestead among the pines. It was quite the adventure to get
it parked.

We tried backing the Explorer and camper into the driveway; it was a bit too big, and our driveway a bit too small to fit it. We then tried driving the Explorer and camper in. No matter how we tried there was one tree that would not allow us to pass. We nearly got stuck because of the one tree, and so before we got completely stuck, we backed the Explorer out. It was determined that the tree had to come down.

It was a hard day. After the trial of pushing and pulling the camper, Cassidy attempted to start up the chainsaw only to find the chain was shot. We parked the camper toward the end of the driveway and made the slow trek back to The Woodshed, disappointed in our lack of progress at the Homestead.

The next day we bought a new chain and concrete and made our way back to The Homestead.

The concrete is the next step in our piers. We originally thought to use blocks for the piers but opted for concrete and sonotubes when it proved to be cheaper. They certainly aren’t any easier to haul.

The concrete we purchased comes in 60lb sacks. We loaded it on to cart at the store, loaded it into the truck, and then had to unload it from the truck at the homestead. On Friday we wheelbarrowed 16 bags right past the camper. The camper blocked the Explorer from backing into the site so it was 200ft from the front of the driveway to the building site.

After hauling bags Cassidy sawed down the one tree with a chainsaw, ridding the driveway of the one unnecessary curve that had caused such a problem. After that it was easy-peasy to back the camper in right in front of our pine gate. High fives all around, and then our friendly neighbors surprised us with fresh garden salad to celebrate the feat (fresh Minnesota tomatoes are better than cake). After celebrating we organized the camper, and marveled at the feel of a structure on the homestead. What a marvelous feeling.

That evening we went to Brigids, our favorite restaurant in Bemidji, to celebrate. We celebrated our land and the hard work, as well as on year of tying our lives together.

Since the last blog we have dug holes, cut down a tree, pulled a camper, and purchased and hauled materials for piers, and set the Homestead up for electricity.

We called in a wonderful crew of electricians to put in our meter box. We were in charge of building the stand for the box, though. So we brought our first lumber and power tools out to The Homestead, and built the structure together.

It was fun to build with Cassidy, and it was awesome to see this standing wooden frame on our land. It was the first structure we put up there and we found it photo worthy.

With every addition to the land it seems to become more our own. After building the meter stand we decided to save this lovely patch of growth that graces the middle of our parking area. It has trees and wonderful moss growing. It captures the yard perfectly, and is a throwback to some of the stuff we had to cut down.

The electricians came in and installed a meter box while we finished digging our holes for the piers.

We took last weekend off to do some audio engineering at my best friend’s wedding where we booked a fantastic band. We camped at this wedding. It was an overnighter, and we turned it into two. Friday and Saturday became a vacation for us. It was our first opportunity to set up our tent in a year and we enjoyed it thoroughly, well, in a camping sort of way. Friday night it rained and rained. Apparently Cassidy was right under a very small leak where the rain fly met the tent. It dripped intermittently all night, finding a nice spot on his forehead. He woke with the snuffles, which faded with sunlight and a relaxed day of arranging sound gear. I slept fine. It was a good camping trip 🙂

 

Beltrami Electric hooked us up with electricity on Tuesday. We discovered the power Wednesday.

Last night was our first night sleeping on the land. It was our first time making a meal on the land, and also the first time using the electricity. We had lamps, and a radio going, as well as our radiating space heater, which was much needed for the 45° temps that hit the Northwood’s last night.

Our official anniversary is today. August 21^st is our day, and it was such a gift to wake up at The Homestead today.

I don’t like to be romantic or mushy, but I kind of am. I once was not romantic. I used to think romantic love was a bunch of hooey. This was an opinion generated by an opinionated kid; a scared human who allowed others sad stories to paint a picture which I used to generalize. I have grown and changed, and I now have more self-awareness as well as a new found romanticism. I came by the romanticism honestly. I found love with a great human and I am aware of how amazing it is.

We met when we were both in a phase of growth and searching. We both were squinty-eyed about relationships, albeit for different reasons. Cassidy was living in the camper beside The Woodshed. He had arrived to the place we rent now a week before Little Wing and myself. We both lacked running water in our personal abodes, and neither had a working kitchen. We made friends through sharing meals in The Big House (also on the land we rent now) where we found both water and refrigeration. Meals lead to conversations which lead to a fast friendship. It is crazy really.

Had I been living beside anyone else the reality would not be what it is today. But isn’t that how it always goes?

August 21^st, 2015 is the day that we officially joined paths, intertwined our branches and chose to grow together. This is a whole new type of adventure.

It has been a pretty grand August 🙂