Third Week (in pics)
Between working part time remotely (see a couple of my wi-fi work spots below: the library in Superior and the back of my Sube), traveling to Missoula to do errands and attend sangha on Mondays, and going to such things as weddings and potlucks, these first three weeks on the land have been cut a bit short. Still, we’ve been making what feels like good progress.
This past week - week three on the land - we managed to get our solar panels and system set up and running (we still have some tweaking and figuring out to do); take down and debark a few trees to use as building materials; and, wait for it, install an in-ground pool! We purchased a $40 kiddie pool from Ace and Mike went next level digging out a place to inset it into the ground. He built up the sides with dirt and there are even large stones for sitting around the edge so we can hang out and put our feet in, leisure style. I’m thinking there’s a pretty decent chance it’s the most lavish set up ever crafted using a plastic kiddie pool. In preparation for our good friend Rhonda coming out to visit on Thursday, I did a water run with our buckets and jugs to the nearby National Forest campground on Wednesday evening (where there’s a potable water spigot for common use), in order to fill up our new water feature. Between all of the water hauling devices we have on hand now, we can fetch a little over 40-gallons in one trip. I clocked it. It only took me 30-min total from leaving the land, filling water, and getting back home. Not too shabby.
Considering we’ve only been here for three-weeks and we’ve had a total of 19 people come to visit, I’m a-thinkin it’s no small thing that we’ve managed to get done all that we have thus far. We have a wall tent with a working wood stove (in fact, I used the woodstove just this morning!); a dope latrine; a large canopy that we set up to park our van under; an operational solar power system; water hauling and storage set up; a pop-up canopy that serves as our meditation hall; a storage tent for supplies; and we even have our motorcycles here, thanks to our son Jaden who helped to transport us to our storage unit in Lolo to pick em up and ride em on home. We’ve taken down some trees, developed some trails, done some digging, collected rocks, and we’ve been exploring our new backyard, local roadways, and the lovely small town of Superior.
It feels nice to be a little more settled in on the land. And gosh are we dearly enjoying our encounters with the local animals, blooming flowers, and scads of butterflies. Then there are the large flies and other buzzing buzzers who like to dive bomb my face and ears, which I am not so much a fan of. But, ya know, we live in the woods without structures or services, at present. It’s only natural that we will experience the wonderful and lovely moments of living outdoors and also the rough and tumble times, too. We have large swings in temps during the course of just one day, 50-degrees in the morning to 96-degrees in the afternoon. We have limited solar power access due to the large amount of trees on site, which makes for some energy collection challenges (and likely cell booster and satellite internet challenges as well). And while on one hand it’s rather nice to not have cell service or wi-fi, as I’m sure you can imagine, it’s also a real pain in the butt too. Don’t let any type of lifestyle fool you. There are pros and cons to every way of living.
So this is us, rich in vehicles (let’s see…we’ve got the van we live in; Mike’s little work truck; my Subaru; and two motorcycles), rich in friends & fam coming to visit (we’re so grateful!), and rich in being wonderfully surrounded by tree friends. We’ve got a whole lot to learn and figure out and scratch our heads about, and also: life is good.
