The Start of a Week on the Homestead

Well, Friday we started our first full week and a few days on our homestead. This is the second full day and what I thought would be a totally secluded weekend, has been anything but. It's not been bad, just busier than hell and full of human contact. Fortunately for us, we rather like the majority of the humans we've been exposed to.

Friday began our busy weekend as we took the truck to work and then swung by a friend's house to pick up appliances. Alicia and her husband are remodeling a new home they recently bought - and they donated a washer, dryer, refrigerator, microwave, and automatic dish washer to us. Is that nice or what??? So we loaded all that up just outside of DC and looked like the Beverly Hillbillies as we headed down the highway for home. We swung by Front Royal, loaded up a weeks worth of supplies to take out to the homestead and ran by Tex's place to drop off the washer, dryer, and microwave on our way out of town. Tex and Charlotte are sweethearts, and insisted we keep the washer and dryer to use out at our homestead for the week. That really works out well for us, and we really appreciate it as it saves me from running back to Front Royal or to a laundry mat mid week. I've already used them twice and they work like a charm!

We made it to the homestead Friday night, got everything unloaded but the appliances, and called it a night. Saturday morning I surprised Bernie and got up when he did - at 5:30AM. We enjoyed our morning caffeine, caught up on the news of the world, got cleaned up and filled with breakfast, and then decided to unload the appliances off the truck. Bernie opened the front door just as our friend Eddie was walking into the front yard. He had told us he would be hunting the property that day and we were pleasantly surprised that he was ready for some coffee about the time we needed to do some heavy work. Well, at least I was happy because that meant I wouldn't have to do any heavy lifting. I made the coffee. Which seemed much appreciated. Eddie also had his brother and nephew with him, so I'm pretty sure that even Bernie didn't have to lift all that much. They got the washer and dryer inside the house, and the refrigerator, stove and dishwasher off the truck. While they took the frig down to put inside the cabin, I hooked up the washer and checked it out. The dryer needed a different plug, so I couldn't test that. At any rate, the Great White Hunters drank some coffee and headed back out in search of food. Bernie and I took off for Winchester to rustle up the new plug for the dryer and the building material to put up a wall in the house between the living room and the kitchen. If I'm in the kitchen doing anything, the noise seems to bounce off the walls in the living room. And heaven knows I don't want to be responsible for ruining a football game on the TV with a home made meal of any type. So the Great Divide project begins tomorrow.

Saturday morning we greeted the day at 6:30AM. Around 7:30AM I was day dreaming while looking out the window and I noticed evidence that we had a visitor while we slept last night. The bird feeders I made from soda bottles and hung from a tree (check out Kids Corner on our website for pictures) were gone. As I looked a little closer, I could see one of them in the distance on the ground. I went outside and inspected and sure enough, there is very strong evidence of a bear. We've seen signs of bear here and we know they are around, but they've never messed with anything before. Well, I guess that bird seed was just a little more temptation than they could stand. The tree branches the feeders hung from are clawed up and one is missing a fair amount of bark. The feeders themselves are torn to shreds - one was left several feet away and I found the other one in the woods a fair distance off. I took some pictures and put them on our website.

By 8:30AM we were on our way to Front Royal to meet Tex and head over to a couple's house that I met on Freecycle. If you've not joined Freecycle yet, I highly recommend it. As you may have gathered by it's name, this is group you can join and get stuff for free! Good stuff! You may advertise stuff you have to give away or stuff you are looking for. I advertised that I was looking for any building materials. And within minutes I had a note from Patty that she and her husband live right down the road from our Front Royal home and they had 4 windows to give us, as soon as they were ready to replace them with some new ones they bought. Within the next few days, Patty and Mike had dug out a brand new metal outer door (prehung), a brand new inside door, 4 beautiful wooden pillars with the feet, new outdoor carriage lights, insulation, several bifold doors, window shutters, and heaven knows what else! Tex and Bernie each have a fullsize pickup truck, and we had 2 truck loads full of wonderful stuff that Patty and Mike donated to us. They also sold us a gas stove heater and a huge load of 2 X 4s and OSB boards cheap! As much as we very much appreciate all that we were given, we are even more appeciative to have met 2 very nice people. They are generous to a fault and just down right nice. We were there about 2 hours and by the time we left Patty and I were talking like we were childhood friends. Very nice experience all the way around.

We took our bounty to Tex's place and he's storing it in his barn. Tex and Charlotte are family to us, and we share just about everything. We are fortunate to have such good friends. In fact, Tex is coming out tomorrow to help Bernie erect the Great Divide. I'll get some pics of the project.

So today ends our second full day at the homestead. I can't tell you how nice it is to know we'll be here tomorrow instead of fighting our way into the city to work. I'm still working tomorrow - but my job has agreed to let me do it from the homestead. How nice is that??? So while Bernie and Tex labor on the Great Divide, I'll be holed up and working on my computer. I am still on the hook to supply breakfast and lunch for the laborers, but the rest of the time I will be peacefully working on my computer. I can't wait! And I plan to prepare supper tomorrow night knowing that the results of Monday Night Football will be unaffected by the banging and clanging of pots from the kitchen. Life is good on Penny Lane!

I plan to update the blog every night or two while we're out here and keep y'all up to date on what we're up to this week. Happy Thanksgiving week to all of you from both of us!

Live Free,
Penny