Violet

Violet was born on the morning that the movers came

to load up our belongings.

It seemed Martha waited for us to wake up

and we knew she would have her kittens soon after.

We were so surprised that she only had one.

All of our girls have one girl at a time.

No boys. Only girls.

Why should Martha be any different?

 

Within hours of her birth she was loaded into

my truck and moved north to our farm.

For two weeks she didn't open her eyes.

For one more week she could barely walk

and didn't leave the box.

Martha was very upset when she tried.

And now little Violet is scampering about.

She generally stays in the room where the birthing box is.

Martha is a bit more relaxed.

 

She still hisses when we come upon her too quickly.

The gets a little Mohawk and puffs herself up to try to scare us.

It doesn't work and we chuckle every time.

Martha watches her closely and is slowly letting her go further

and further from the box.

And... she is litter trained already!

Smart little kitty.

 

 

Would You Believe?

Because I have lived in urban and semi rural places all of my life, I, like many of you, took water and sewer for granted. It was just something that came with the house. Every house. Every house that I have ever lived in anyway.

Because I am married to a pump guy I knew that every time one turns on a tap a pump is running. Maybe not in your house but on your water line for sure.

What I did not know until we experienced the "making of a new house in a place that there once wasn't one" was how much stuff is necessary to make the house work. Behold, our mechanical room.

This is the Reverse Osmosis panel. This is all I know about this.

 

 This is the Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment thing. Antiscalant and Soda Ash tanks.

Whatever those are for. I think something about the PH levels. This unit

gives us purified water for the whole house. What I do know is that

it means we don't have any water spots in the shower or on the granite sinks.

 

 This has something to do with the septic system and the sewage mound.

The alarm on the top is very very loud when it goes off.

Of course it did go off once when Paul was in a meeting.

Oh joy.

 

 This is the air exchange system. I am not really sure how this works.

We have switches in the bathrooms, kitchen and laundry rooms. When

we put them on the fans run for 20 minutes and take the inside air out

and the outside air in.

 

 

 This is the boiler system. It heats the water for the sinks and showers

as well as the in floor heat in the basement.

 

 These are the rest of the lines to the in floor heat and the

hot water tank.

 

This is the furnace to which the air conditioner is attached.

It is also the central humidifier.

 

This is the 200 amp electrical panel. We were going to

go with 100 amp service. It was a good thing we didn't.

 

 And this is the water storage tank filled with

purified water. Good to know we have that much

reserve should something happen. I think it is

350 gallons or something.

 

So this is what is necessary to have power, gas, water and sewer out in the country.

I was stunned when I saw it all but not nearly as stunned

when the bills started coming in!

 

And now that we have finished the tours of the house and mechanical rooms

we can get on to more exciting things. Things like kittens and puppies and jam!

Quick Inside Tour

Okay, I am going to take you on a quick tour of the inside of our house. Obviously I didn't take much care before I took the pictures as you can see I didn't put away lunch dishes, straighten the pillows or put away the library books. But... that is what you would see if you walked in my house any given day so that is what I am going to show you now.

 

This first picture is taken from the side door when we first walk in. To the left are the stairs (15!!) that lead to the basement. Paul is a tall guy so he made our basement have 9 foot walls. It should be noted he is not 9 feet tall.

 

 

Still standing in the back porch to your left is the laundry room and to the right is a guest bathroom.

 

The kitchen is straight ahead. It has a walk in pantry there under the clock.



 

The table is on the other side of the island.



The view from the garden door. That area was all meadow but it was dug up to put in the septic system and sewage mound with all of its chambers. It will be a meadow again.



 

Standing by the kitchen sink you can see my computer station/bookshelf. It also has a view of the front door which leads into the living room.

 

 

The living room.

 

And the view out the living room window.

 

And standing on the front porch.

 

Moving down the hall you will find Athena's room. First door on the left. She picked this room way back before there was anything but drywall and plywood flooring. This room faces south, the same way the living room faces.

 

 

Straight across from her room is her bathroom. The tub is to the right.

 

Second door on the left is the office/classroom. Also faces south.

 

Across from the classroom is our bedroom. Walk in closet to the right where Martha and Violet live for the time being.

 

 

And my reading corner. Opposite of that is my little yoga space.

 

And the master bathroom. I have yet to have a shower in that lovely huge shower but soon. As soon as we have hot water.

The basement is a big open space with a very large mechanical room on one end. You won't believe that room and when it is complete at the end of the week, I will show you all that it takes to run a home in the middle of no where.

This home and especially the land it sits on are so beautiful. I pinch myself all the time to see if it is real. It is real and I am very thankful to be able to finally live out in the country. It is really a life time dream come true. Just wait until the animals start arriving!

Settling In

Well, we made it to the other side. We are finally feeling like we can breathe a bit. Only a little bit, but a bit nonetheless. Things started out way behind our schedule and continue to do so. So many details and so many regulations.

As far as the actual move went, we should have bought the extra insurance. They took a long time to load us up. We only left Delisle at 6:30pm. Martha had her kitten that very morning and she was not pleased to be in the back of my Explorer with her newborn only a few hours post partum. She further did not like being plopped in our walk in closet in a strange new place. All is well with her now but little Violet hasn't left the birthing box yet. The furniture was not delivered until Wednesday and our maple hardwood in the office/classroom is badly marked up. We just got the claim forms the other day so we will see what happens with all of that.

And then there is Phil, the plumber. Phil does a great job. He is thorough, neat, particular and good at what he does. But lets just say Phil is a hippie who wears no shirt, has a handlebar moustache and a pony tail... plus, he loves Pilsner. A little unreliable for showing up the morning after. Nice guy though.

We are all unpacked upstairs. The basement is improving by the day but when you take the entire contents of a man's garage and put it in a 1600 sq foot basement, that is a lot of real estate taken up. The upstairs is totally livable and after being here only a few days we got running COLD water which meant we didn't have to walk across the yard to the camper to go to the bathroom. Side note, purposely keeping yourself a little dehydrated is not a good idea. We are still waiting on hot water. Soon I hope. We boil water to wash dishes and still have to shower in a camper. Which is why I posted on FB a while back that I couldn't believe people go camping on PURPOSE. Sigh.

Athena is doing very well. She says she has always felt at home in this place, from the first time we saw it "bare bones". She sleeps long and plays hard and finally we had a chance to put up her new trampoline yesterday. It was the easiest project we have undertaken so far. Fast and easy. Two words that have been in short supply lately.

We still have a long to do list and finally yesterday the weather was cool enough to spend the entire day outside. Paul is still working on some road issues and thankfully his friend Terry got his tractor up and running yesterday. I got the shed all organized and fixed up the front deck. Athena helped me haul wood and we make a sitting area in the back too.

And now the bills are coming in. Some nice surprises like the well costing about $7000 less than we expected and then some not so nice, like the basement coming in at $7000 more. That issue is to be dealt with very soon. (Grrr)

And today is another day. We originally thought we would not work on Sundays. It is still in our plan but not quite yet. After we are settled. We have a dog house/run to construct today and some friends are coming up for a drink this afternoon.
And so it goes. Lots of work and a little play.