Weekly Update: 9.16.23
It's been a really good week.
It feels like it has been awhile since I wanted to start a post with such a bland yet optimistic assessment. Between the heat, set-backs, and storms -- it has felt like a discipline some weeks to focus on the good, to believe in the plan I know God has in it all. This week, though, felt good. The weather has been idyllic -- chilly nights and warm afternoons. We had rain -- just rain, without the accompaniment of wind and thunder rattling our tent. And we made progress. The progress hasn't been perfect, of course. We worked within the now-familiar pace of two-steps-forward-one-step-back. We have several sections of standing walls up around our building -- and some of them were built entirely by my sisters and I. It feels -- both empowering and surreal. This has been our dream for so many years, it is hard to wrap my mind around the fact that it is actually happening. But it is happening. And that celebratory feeling is fitting -- considering that tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of our first Weekly Update blog post. We have come so far since last September. God has been so good to us.
We spent most days this week working on the walls. On Monday, Grace and I got a lot done. All the guys were working, so it was a full ladies day on the job. Our nieces seemed to embrace the mood, as they begged to help. With fewer hands around, there was plenty for them to do -- from fetching small tools to helping lift awkwardly-sized materials. We had a blast, with blue grass music blaring from our speaker and a cool breeze lifting our spirits. I picked up the circular saw to rip plywood for the first time (something I had been avoiding), and found myself surprisingly proficient at making the long, straight cuts. I credit it to my familiarity with using a sewing machine. So many aspects of building and sewing are weirdly similar. As the afternoon progressed, the clouds rolled in, and we covered things as best we could before the soft rain started to fall.
While everything was drying out the following day, my sisters got caught up on camp chores while I worked on planning our roof. The roof project has been rather overwhelming, as we want to do something simple -- but even simple is so complicated sometimes. There are more options than I could imagine for every step of this building phase, so I spent hours reading articles, watching YouTube, and looking through our how-to books. I finally found some encouragement in the classic, Back to Basics (a book I've looked through since I was a kid, though these days we use the updated edition). It spells out the how-of constructing a simple roof system. We are using it as a guide, with a few tips gleaned from YouTube, to plan our project.
The next few days were a blend of working on the build and planning for the next phase. Grace and I got into a sheathing pickle one day, but with some time and effort, we found our way out again. We still joke about that wall section breaking the laws of physics, but we did succeed in getting it square and sheathed in the end. It was nice having our dad around starting on Thursday, as he is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to so many details of our project. We ladies hadn't attempted any wall lifting on our own (the sections are too heavy and unwieldy), so once the guys were off, we enjoyed finishing up and lifting the sections we worked on earlier in the week. In the afternoons and evening, Dad went over plans with me, and we made our big roofing order last night.
In the midst of all of our activity, it seems the area wildlife have been busy as well. We have had issues with raccoons getting into our food, so we made some changes to make sure that didn't continue. But this week, it was like the animals have gotten so used to us, they aren't afraid anymore. We heard loud banging on our bunkhouse build one night -- it sounded like someone was out throwing wood around. Our dad and brother went out to investigate, only to find deer standing suspiciously near the build, trying to look innocent. Apparently, they had been up on the build, walking around the floor. Last night, our dad looked up from his bed to see the shape of a small animal walking on the tent! He batted at it with his fist, and it scurried off. He went out and saw a feral cat nearby, so we are guessing that is what it was.
It's interesting, because the good weather made it a busier week than some. We had longer work days, and the planning took us well into the evening most nights. But our morale as a whole was lighter, as we look ahead to autumn. We ordered some thicker blankets in preparation for the colder weather, and we put the stove pipe back up so that we can use the woodstove again. It isn't quite time for a fire in our tent, but it will be soon. And we are all so ready for the change in seasons.
Watching the build go up so quickly now, we are seeing the end to our days in our tent. It will be a couple months yet at least, but it has made us want to relish this season of tent-life all the more. Personally, I've dreamed of living in a canvas tent like this since I was a teenager. I'd seen pictures somewhere -- maybe online -- and thought it looked so fun. Not too long after, we ended up with a copy of MaryJane's Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook, and her Outpost section with a glamping-style canvas tent sold me on the idea. And it has been everything I ever dreamed it would be -- so cozy and civilized I forget sometimes that we are camping at all. It feels more like a cabin than anything. And I know, without a doubt, I'm really going to miss it once we are all snug in our bunkhouse. I'm looking forward to that season, too, of course. But I'm going to miss this one just the same.
God is good that way, isn't he? He gives us so many gifts and blessings in every season -- be they seasons of the year or seasons of life. As hot as the summer was, we made so many happy memories floating in our pool trying to escape the heat wave. We are missing those times already, as we haven't been in the pool much this week at all. The verdant beauty of Ozark summer is fading now, preparing for the last crescendo that autumn is before falling away to the long quiet of winter. The flowers are fading while the trees prepare to glow. So it is with our lifestyle right now. It can be easy to get so caught up in the details that we miss the adventure of it all. And I know, someday, we will miss it. We will be settled in our bunkhouse -- and then in our tiny homes. Of course, there will be new adventures, but I doubt any will compare with the wild step we took to move out here without so many of the trappings of civilization. So, as we begin the waning of the year and our camping adventure, I'm committed to celebrating both to the fullest, thanking God each day for the good he is giving in this season. Because in Him, this and every season, is truly blessed.
