Landed

When I awoke on Monday morning, I felt lighter of spirit than I had in weeks. The move is done! Now we have to unload from this trip (halfway done as I write) and unpack from all the trips (maybe a third of the way done?).

Nesting is a process both abrupt and haphazard and gradual and thought-out. Sometimes things don't fit quite how you pictured them in your head. Sometimes you find out that a room needs something more (or less) to make it habitable. Sometimes a trip to IKEA is in order... and sometimes your wallet after such a big move is thinking IKEA can wait... The whimsical part of one suggests that it might be worth it to check out all those local antique stores your new hometown is known for, whilst the scientific part of your brain is telling you not to go anywhere because c19 is ramping up again this time of year!

Yet all of that is besides the point. The point is that we are home. That we have successfully accomplished another move. That now that we've stopped living two half-lives, we can start to build a whole life for ourselves here. And as things slowly (or quickly) fall into place with drivers licenses, storage solutions, and home décor, it is enough to feel the accomplishment and the contentment and revel in that awhile before our hurried minds look to what's next.

Happy Solstice, everyone. May you all revel in your own accomplishments at the end of this year and be filled with contentment for the moment this season finds you in.

Until next time!

Escape

Ma Nature has us in her clutches. Perhaps no place we've lived has ever illustrated that so poignantly as Cold Springs.

When we moved in it was the end of January. We had been fairly dry all winter, just a few storms here and there, but the weekend of February 1st was supposed to be a doozy. We managed to get moved in with a day to spare before it first started pouring down rain and then began to snow, and snow, and snow! In the first two weeks that we were living up there, we got 7 feet of new snow. Coming from Michigan, I thought I understood the daily grind that snow could bring, but I was unprepared for the realities of mountain snow. It was heavier, it was deeper, and with a hill at the back of the house it had fewer places to go. 

We were buying boxes of hardwood firewood at $18 a pop from the local market and heating our house as stingily as we could manage. The power went out and it was days before our new analog phone showed up so that we could at least have the luxury of a phone line. Prior to that, I had to walk half a mile uphill to where I could get cell service to phone the office snow line and find out if I needed to be in that day and if it would be at the regular time or a late start. 

I had to park my car at the top of the hill and trundle a mile uphill through the snow to get to it, clear it off, and go to work each day. And sometimes vacationers would steal my parking spot and I'd have to shovel out a new one. Between shoveling at home, shoveling where the car was parked, and shoveling at work (which I was told I didn't participate in enough... hmm, I wonder why I didn't want to do more shoveling after I just got done shoveling more than all my coworkers who lived at lower elevations... hmmm....) I developed the beginnings of a hernia for the first time - something that I still carry with me!

It was our welcome to the mountain, and it quickly taught us that living up there was no joke.

And now that we are packing up and leaving this place behind, Ma Nature is reminding us that she's still in control up there. After a relatively snow-free fall, and just days before winter "truly" begins, our return to Cold Springs for one last week of packing and clean-up was greeted by a mild-but-persistent snowstorm. In order to not have to deal with the stress of commuting (or not) and electricity (or not) and successfully getting to work (or not), I took up a friend on her offer of a spare room and camped out in the foothills while Jack held down the fort and made sure the pipes didn't burst. 

Over a foot of snow had fallen by Wednesday, and power had been out over 24 hours, when the storm cleared enough that the plows went through (and apparently only opened a single, slippery lane). Wednesday night more snow was expected into Thursday morning. My hope was to return home Thursday afternoon to help Jack with the finishing touches on packing and cleaning, but road conditions made it seem unlikely. Snow was supposed to peter out by 10 a.m. on Thursday, but at noon Jack let me know that the snow was still coming down... and the power had gone out again. Best laid plans! Would I get to spend one last night in our little mountain house?

Now I’m sitting in the library, waiting to meet up with Jack for a convoy up to *hopefully* get the 2wd car to the house so we can load it. If all goes well we’ll be out of here by tomorrow. Crossed fingers and prayers for warm winter sunshine abound!

Until next time!