Two whole weeks on the land, and I feel like it’s been months. There is something about this rustic camping situation that really slows down time, in a good way. There are no phones to answer, no computer with high speed internet beckoning me away from the present moment. Bed time is with the sunset (thankfully quite late these days!) and wake up time is whenever Everett decides it’s time for his morning nursing.
The days have been spent building, growing, preserving, and figuring out how to remain comfortable, clean, and relatively chigger and tick-free. For me, it’s a particular challenge, as I have to interact with the outside world on a daily basis. A few weeks ago I auditioned for, and was cast in the musical Once on this Island. Going to rehearsal every night, I feel a strong need to be clean and laundered. Right now I’m bathing in big black tubs full of water, washing my hair with a hose over the head, and taking daily pond dips. It’s all so reminiscent of Little House on the Prairie, which we’ve been reading throughout this whole Missouri adventure.
The kids seem to be adjusting well to living on the land. They play outdoors all day long, eat heartily, and sleep soundly in the tent trailer,. Everett follows along beside me in the garden, carefully pulling weeds and watering young plants. Ella nurtures the chickens, and begs to be taken to the pond to practice swimming.
We have been blessed with a long, beautiful spring. Unlike last year’s drought, this summer’s rain has been bountiful, and our rain water catchment is thankfully full. We experienced a particularly torrential downpour Saturday night, and within a few minutes time, our outdoor kitchen had 2 inches of standing water, a driving rain was soaking everything under the house roof, and the tent trailer’s tiny holes were dripping onto our bed. We realized the only dry space was the tent trailer’s “dining table,” and we managed to host 7 people for dinner, each of us dripping wet. It was quite laughable after the fact, but a bit scary in the moment! The kind of experience that I will certainly remember for months to come.
All in all, each day, this land feels more and more like home.
Wishing you a wonderful day!
Teri
Fabulous!!!! Ann (How do you wash the clothes? Laundromat? The drying rack is great! LOVE! PROUD!! XXOO
So far we’ve done the laundromat once, I’ve brought it to a friend’s house once, and we’ve handwashed a few woolens. Brian really wants to get an Amish-style wash basin with an attached ringer, but they are quite difficult to find used at auctions, and are incredibly expensive new!
https://www.lehmans.com/p-2399-lehmans-best-hand-wringer.aspx
I really love reading your posts Teri and there is this large part of me that regrets not having done this very thing with my family. So healthy and real. Good for you.
Blessings.
Thanks Peg. It’s so sweet to hear from you! I see that you’re doing your own version of living on the land – big garden, lots of family connection. It looks different for us all!