Today Was A Good Day

Hello again,

So first, I've posted a link to an album in the side. It's not perfectly organized or anything, but it shares a few pictures of my home, my life, and what I'm up to. If you look through it while you read here some pictures will match what I'm talking about, and they'll all show you the beautiful land I'm learning to call home.

Back to my goals though. I said I'd write about a day, show a day in the life, and I picked a damn good one to do it for. Once I finally got off here and finished my relaxing morning doob, I gathered the dogs and tossed them in the house, hopped on the quad, and rode over to my little mother's big cottage. Hot running water is a luxury it is hard to go without some times. I had to clean myself up and wash the blender to make a meal. While I was there I had a bit of an interesting experience, some stress that worked out well in the end. Something I've found a challenge through all this is really staying on top of myself and keeping aware of stress and anxiety, because things I found I normally had a lot of patience for I just don't have time for while already dealing with everything else. This has been something that especially of late has brought an interesting challenge. I've had to learn to show and communicate the vulnerability this stress has brought out in me, and I was able to make a good step with that today. My mom's husband Dave called me while I was having a shower, wanting to talk about clearing my stuff out of the apartment ASAP to get it rented. While I'm excited about moving out of town, I was still anxious and hesitant to go all in on expecting this place to work through the winter. Without having met with NS power I didn't know what the hookup was going to be like, and had had it built up to a monstrous undertaking. Something I've had to recognize in myself is I'm not really ready to move back in with my parents, and the idea of doing so really works me out. What lies at the base of all of it is the challenge of step parents. While they can be great people, doing huge acts of kindness for you, it is a struggle to have them feel like true family, and to trust them like that. I find my defensive instincts can be brought out easily in even minor confrontations, especially with my stepfather ( I wonder if a shrink could comment on that eh?) and that's something I've been having to manage. I just think I did better today than I have before. When he called me and was pressuring me for decisive action on finishing moving out before I felt the confidence and security in this new place actually being able to work in the short term, I was actually able to communicate calmly to him that I recognized his good intent and rational stance, but that I needed to take an emotional position and be clear that until I knew I could trust this new home to live in through the depths of winter, I wasn't ready to risk being thrust back under my mom's household. I talked to my mom after and let her know what that was, and in the end I think Dave and I bonded tighter over having been able to talk about it, instead of letting it turn into some argument over nothing, generating pointless anger between two well intended people. I've dealt with such confrontations far too much lately, and to have taken even one step towards preventing them felt really good. So while I did experience some stress dealing with that, in the end it turned into a great victory.

Next, came another step forward. Leonard, who sold me this beautiful property, called me while I was getting out of the shower, and he'd stopped by wanting to chat about some business I'd mentioned to him. I told him I'd meet him back at my spot in half hour, and ripped back on the quad. When he got there, he came as a scout, leading an army of good news. I'd spoken to him about what our friend and electrician Wendel had said about power hookup, and what he thought it would take/cost to get it to happen, and he thought it was just crazy. He'd spoken to two electrical engineers from BC hydro, and while they weren't locals they thought if we had to hold to the specs we'd been quoted it was insane. I was told I needed a 10m pass with no overhang of limbs or standing tree for full length of the line, and that they couldn't run the line over the house because of the chimney, so we were scheming moving the mobile home, running ground wire to avoid having to cut down the whole forest, all kinds of seemingly expensive, complicated schemes. Leonard was happy to hear that the real Power Eng. was coming and that I wasn't going to listen impulsively to the speculation. Was he ever right.

Right after he left, the engineer showed up, and we took a look around the lot. Within 20 minutes we had a line picked up for the poles, as simple as it could possibly be with hardly any trees to fall that I didn't want to anyway, and he gave me a cost estimate. For 130m of line, 30' poles prepared for commercial grade power if I seek to upgrade long term, ballpark 1200$. All I need to do is cut a couple patches of trees, an 8' wide corridor through perhaps 30m of bush,  and have the power mast extended to 6' above roofline. So much for moving the trailer, clearing a new area, setting a new pad, or thousands of dollars of groundwire, or any of those crazy things, and hello to an officially actually affordable freakin home. I'm lovin it.

So once I got that sorted out I was excited and got down to work. I didn't take pictures before hand like I should, but I started falling some of the trees closest to the house I needed to get rid of. I got a lightbulb and snapped some shots before I took down the biggest one in that patch. It wasn't much of a tree, but I thought some might find it neat (..my mom did, okay guys?). I got a good workout of running the saw and planning what I was going to cut. It was really satisfying to be working and working with such a definite and conclusive purpose, even better than the other work I've been doing out here.

Afterwards, I was lucky enough to have a very cool visitor stop by. Rick the retired pilot, cool as hell, stopped by with his pups for a look around and a nice walk. I took him around some of the property boundaries, showed him some land, and he thought it was quite a place. It was nice to have a visitor stop by, and it's fun to get to hang out with people who have so much life experience, so different from what I've been open to. On that note, after he took off, I split some wood, cut a couple more trees down, and went over to visit Leonard and Rosa.

They are such a sweet old couple. I hung out with them for I'm not even sure how long. We just had an incredibly interesting conversation, about their land, the area, the history and its people.  I learned a whole lot about Blandford in that living room. Rosa's family is the Meisners, and they date back to this area for about as long as is possible. An interesting fact is that the point of land my Mom and Dave's cottage is on is actually Meisner's point. Leonard was also very happy and satisfied to hear how simple and straightforward the power hookup will be.

Following that up, I hopped on the quad and went for dinner at The Deck, got to more officially meet Kathleen who works there and her husband Paul, who was there having lunch. I talked to her about quads, and told her about some trails. In return she shared the recipe with me for my favourite soup they make! Preeeetty sweet deal. I really love it out here. That pretty much brings me to this point. A relaxing evening by the fire, reflecting on a good day, and doing my best to share it.