Weekly Update: 7.15.23
I'm writing this update from our storm shelter. After days of storms and threats of severe weather, we got a severe thunderstorm warning this (Friday) evening. If we were in our bunkhouse, we wouldn't feel the need to get into the shelter with every storm warning, but the tent is spooky in bad wind. So here were are, all 11 of us plus our four dogs. We fit -- snuggly. It wouldn't be so bad except for the heat -- it's so very hot in here. Whenever the storm lets up a bit, we are opening the door and letting some air in.
It's sort of a fitting end to the week. Bonnie-Jean picked up her German Shepherd puppy, whom she named Tilde, on Saturday morning. Tilde is precious and we love having her on the homestead. But -- the addition of a second puppy pushed us out of routine and straight into chaos.
The two puppies require at least one and sometimes two people to supervise them at all times. We knew it would be hard having puppies right now, but Bonnie-Jean and Jeremiah have waited years to get German Shepherds. Plus, we all like the idea of having some guard dogs. But handling this puppy-stage while camping has been something else -- especially with the added challenge of heavy equipment driving around for weeks. As crazy as it has been, it is fun watching the pups together. Dagger really needed a canine friend, as Dolly and Rascal still refuse to play with him.
Thankfully, David Davis finished installing our septic system on Monday and Tuesday. It was more of a project than any of us knew it would be. We feel so blessed to have our septic in and the project done. Davis did a great job, but there was nothing he could do about the dust that blew everywhere during the process. It was hard keeping all the dogs penned or chained up, and all the kids safely out of the way.
Throughout the installation, Davis pulled an unreal amount of mess from our ground. Along with the metal farm equipment I mentioned last week, we now have a huge pile of logs waiting to be cut for firewood.
Davis also gave us some advice about our footings. A few of us have wondered about the ash and logs in the holes on the east end of the bunkhouse -- whether or not those piers would be stable. Davis suggested we dig down further, to the hardpan, to make sure we won't deal with settling on that end of the bunkhouse. It was disappointing to realize we need to dig more, as we are so ready to move on to the next phase of building. But the foundation is the most important part of our project, and we want to get it right.
On Wednesday, the weather turned brutally hot again. It amazes me that, despite the heat, drought, and then storms -- the Ozarks keep on thriving.
While the flora and fauna reveled in the summer heat, we slogged along, draining our pool and preparing to take it down. We also did some maintenance around our place, since there was so much dirt and dust to clean up. We had hoped to take the pool down late in the afternoon and get the new one set up, but they were calling for severe storms that evening. We decided to wait on setup until a clear couple of days. Thankfully, we did get quite a bit of rain overnight, and that really helped with the dust mess.
I went to Springfield with my folks on Thursday. We took back the leaky pool to Lowe's, then we picked up a dog kennel from Menard's. Our trip went smoothly -- except for the fact that the air conditioning in the vehicle decided to quit working well. It was another 100-degree day, so the heat made the trip pretty miserable.
We had purchased a similar kennel from Tractor Supply last month, before we got the dogs. It was rusty when we picked it up, so we returned it. Life has been crazy since then, and we weren't sure we would need a full-sized kennel for puppies. The chaos this week convinced us to make the kennel a priority. We set it up on Friday.
The 10' x 10' kennel turned out great. Having a permanent, safe space for the puppies is going to make life much more sane.
As I finish this post, I am back inside our tent, listening to the sounds of thunder and rain on the roof. I have to admit -- I'm exhausted. Between the puppies and storms, I haven't been getting the best sleep. And the heat is enough on it's own the wear a person out. I know God has a plan and is helping us in so many big and small ways. We just have to walk through the hard weeks and keep on trusting.
Saturday update: This Saturday morning was busy, so I decided to wait and post our update this evening.
First, the pups love their kennel. They are still getting lots of attention, but it helps to have a place for them to play together when we are busy. Dagger did make a valiant effort to dig out -- but he gave up before getting under the 4"x4" base.
We started the day with a mini-celebration. On May 23, we decided to take advantage of all the forced exercise with a family weight-loss challenge. As a group, we adults had to lose 100 pounds to earn our first reward. We reached that goal this morning, so we celebrated with Krusteaz pancakes! Tonight, we are planning pasta for dinner. Tomorrow, it's back to our healthy ways as we work towards our next goal -- 200 pounds. Since Bonnie-Jean and Grace have both almost reached their personal goals, they will be mostly maintaining and cheering the rest of us on.
After a fun morning, we spent the afternoon setting up our replacement 20' x 52" Intex Prism Frame pool. It's filling up now, and we are hopeful we can all take a dip after church tomorrow.
I think the choices we made this week will set us up for more productivity and better quality of life in the coming weeks. We knew this life wouldn't be easy, and I think it's important to embrace the hard weeks as well as the easy ones. God has a purpose for them, too, even if it is just helping us grow.