Woodstove is in and working very well. Actually almost too well, as I had to open a window for a little bit Saturday. Heat is coming upstairs nicely through the floor vents, so I think we are set for heat. Dad loaded up a wall of wood on the front porch, which should last us the week, pending on the weather. The almanac says we are due for a nor-easter late this week.

I have to do some sanding and painting around where the hole was put in, but I’ll be taking pictures of everything later this week. We tore up the carpet where we were going to put the stove (I eventually want to put some slate down there), and boy the floors in the living room are GORGEOUS. And they are already finished, so they’d just need a good clean and a wax. My dad and I are thinking of tearing up the carpet in the whole living room/dining room area and getting some area rugs.

Still no progress yet in my room. I’ve cleaned up the floors and all, but don’t want to finish it until my uncle fixes one part of the floor. And he’s been really busy helping us with the chimney and stove, for which I am very grateful. So instead I’m just going through more boxes.

Two more things I’ve discovered that we need is a garage door opener, and an iron wood holder for the living room. The garage opener we have currently does not work, and right now we have no place to keep wood -in- the living room.

Work is having a Wii bowling tournament Monday and Tuesday. We’ve all been divided up into teams, had to pick team names, mottos, and logos, and from 3-5 or whatever we’ll be bowling each day. Work will be supplying subs and pizza. I practiced a little on Friday in the conference room (we keep the Wii in there).

The other night I was asleep in bed and I woke up to some guys voice yelling “Heeeeey!” outside. It wasn’t directly near the house, but it was only like 20 or 30 yards away. I didn’t bother getting up to see what or whom it was, but it kept going on for like 10 or 15 minutes. I’d almost think the guy was drunk wandering through the woods out back. I eventually fell asleep, but it makes me wonder..

I am slowly putting my computer back together, figuring out what programs I need to install. I can tell you that being able to balance my bank account has been very fulfilling after being without for 3 weeks. I can’t explain the amount of enjoyment I get out of making sure every penny is in its place. It sometimes feels ridiculous, but then I realize that I always know where my money is, and how much it is growing, and what my future plans are to keep my financial situation stable. Then it doesn’t look so silly.

It snowed on the way home Friday night, not enough to really stick to the ground, but a glimpse of winter is always promising

Today at the Grove we had a visit from a coven located in Harford County that came to do some divination readings for us as sort of an initiation for their “students”. They were actually really nice down-to-earth people, I was surprised.

I’m a bit frustrated at my lack of progress in several projects recently, due to the chaos that is, well…everything. I’ve decided to round up a list of the “do once” projects and get them done over holiday breaks, and save the “do gradually” projects for my spare time. I’ve also decided to eliminate some projects that just don’t bring me any joy. I will probably keep some that feel like an obligation for now, but I want to start whittling down the things I have weighing on my shoulders to be completed. I’ve reached my limit, and now it’s time to down-size to give me breathing room.

I have been trying to finish up a pile of books I’ve been wanting to read. I usually spend my lunch breaks reading a little bit at a time. I’m just about to finish up “Black Elk Speaks”. While informative and a very descriptive glimpse into his life as a younger boy, I do sometimes find it difficult to follow his meaning. Especially when he talks about his great vision. Still, I am thoroughly enjoying the book, and thoroughly becoming more disgusted with the Wasichu of their time.

So overall, no major updates besides the stove, and having our 6 cord of wood delivered. Pictures will be coming soon.

This morning when I walked out to my car, I was greeted with Charlie hanging out by my car door. He had escaped from his fenced in temporary home in the yard and was chillin. I moved him out of the way and put my stuff in the car so I could try and figure out how to put him back. I was in my work clothes so I couldn’t very well pick him up and carry him over. That and he likes to peck me for some reason.

I got a rake and proceeded to herd him towards the fence, which took some effort because he wasn’t very cooperative. After about 20 minutes of avoiding him trying to attack me and trying to convince him that the fenced in area was for his own good, I held victory over Charlie.

Sorry mate, but at least you aren’t target practice.

(for those interested, a video of Charlie when we first got him)

• While driving home from Baltimore Pagan Pride Day on Saturday, I had to take a route down Mculloch Street and North Avenue. Apparently these are rather unsavory parts of Baltimore. I was met with an influx of young adults and teenagers on dirt-bikes and 4-wheelers riding up and down the road. They proceeded to turn around and I see them all surrounding behind me in my rear-view mirror, and then pass me into the intersection in front of me, stopping the -entire- intersection. They were only there for a few seconds before continuing on, but I find this the weirdest thing. I don’t think I could live sanely in the city.
• I had a random bloody nose yesterday. I haven’t had one of those since I was a kid, so it was a little weird to just have one pop up out of nowhere. It was minor though, so I’m ignoring it.
• My uncle has a new baby calf that I think is named “Jalf”. I got to pet him a bit yesterday and took some cellphone pictures of him and their horses.
• While driving through Gettysburg yesterday after dinner, I realized how much money a Bed and Breakfast probably makes around here. I mean all of the tourists that go through here in the spring/summer/fall, and then all of the ski bunnies from Ski Liberty in the winter. It’s something to think about.
• I’ve realized I’m going to miss my baby cousin, who is only 3 months old, when we move out. Everytime I make him smile I can’t help but smile back. It’s definitely one of the most beautiful things to experience.
• Water re-test came back fine on the house, our well is healthy again. Going to do a post about easements later. Good news though is that the land behind us is under new ownership as of the last couple years, and the driveway that goes through our property is abandoned and the new owners probably don’t know about the rightaway. This also means I’m going to take free reign to play in their woods and that path.
• I dislike being in a foreign food restaurant, with staff that have conversations in a foreign language within earshot.
• I’ve discovered Craiglist is an invaluable resource to finding cheap and free furniture (in addition to freecycle). A shame I can’t respond to some of these ads yet until I have a place to put stuff.
• I’m going to paint my bedroom dark dark brown (chocolate) with white trim. Dad and I will probably be going to pick up paint supplies on Sunday
• When my sister was over this past weekend, she asked about what happened between my mother and I to make us not talk anymore for the last decade or so. I decided to go ahead and tell her and she seemed pretty receptive. She asked if she could come live with me when she gets out of highschool. I said she could under the stipulation that she do her fair share around the house and get a job. She says mom intends to move to Tennessee after she turns 18 and wants her to go as well, and is in fact, guilt tripping her to go. My mother even told her that all of her friends will be off to college so she’ll have no one around. I told her that’s bogus because some friends -will- still be around and probably going to the community college for the first couple years, and that she’ll make new friends. My sister also apparently told my mother that she wasn’t sure she wanted to leave family behind, to which my mother responded with “Well your sister left you behind when she moved to Norfolk”. Nice mom.

  Alas, I told my sister it’s up to her what she wants to do. If she wants to take some time out of highschool to think about where to go to college, etc, she could come stay with me. But not to feel pressured into doing anything and to take her time deciding. I can definitely tell she’s in the rebelling age though, because she wants nothing to do with either parent right now.

• Dad and I are going to build a small greenhouse off the side of the house eventually>
• There is some weird shit going no in the pagan community lately. I think the Baltimore Pagan Community is going to fold into itself in some big black hole. All except CedarLight anyway. We keep a distance while being active. It’s safest that way.
• One thing I love about living up here are the mountains and the sunrises. The sunrises are amazing, and I haven’t been able to appreciate them in a long time because the old house was surrounded by so many trees. I am going to miss being able to wake up and look out my window to watch the sun come up over the valley. At least I’ll still have the drive through the mountains on the way to work.

When we move into the new house and get settled, I am switching to a macrobiotic diet. I am still going to eat chicken (in moderation) and fish as allowed. I will probably sneak a piece of chocolate and maybe even cheese now and then (lets be realistic). But on the whole, I want to try my hand at eating whole unprocessed foods. Brown rice, fruits and veggies, nuts and grains, tuna, etc. Nothing from a can or in a pre-packaged box.

It’s more or less an experiment, but it’s something I want to try. I don’t plan to be 100% macrobiotic because I do think some other foods are essential as well for certain vitamins I’ll need, like calcium.

I’m actually happy with how much I’ve changed my diet over the last 7 years already. When I moved back in with my father in 2001 I stopped drinking soda almost completely (I’ve snuck MAYBE a dozen in the last 7 years), I stopped eating white bread entirely, stopped adding any salt to anything. Stopped eating processed sugar (for a long time I used Splenda and now am using Stevia or Honey, though Honey is frowned on in a macrobiotic diet because it’s overstimulating), and almost completely stopped eating sugar entirely except for what I’d eat on my own. We stopped carrying sugar in the house when dad was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.

But I’ve been paying attention lately to how my body reacts to certain foods. It may be beneficial for me to even start keeping a food journal just to see how things change over time.

I think a lot of it comes from the fact that I watch the type of food that my Aunt keeps in the house here, and am left wanting the food that I used to eat before we were evicted. I mean I’m not complaining about being fed, and we do donate $200/month to the grocery bill, but there’s just so much bad food here.

They eat a lot of weight watchers food, and they keep a snack drawer filled with sickly sweet “100 calorie snacks”. When my Aunt cooks dinner, she cooks a main dish and at least 3 side dishes. So much food is left to rot in the fridge, and when it’s not it’s just being thrown away. They seem to sacrifice “flavor” for “fat free but still bad for you” chips and butter and sour cream. Instead I’d rather eat full fat sour cream, and just not eat it as often or as much. Or I’d make my own chips out of sweet potatoes and oil and herbs if you want a semi-healthy alternative.

I can feel the affects it’s having on me and I’m very anxious to get back into my regular routine, and slowly adjust to a more healthy diet.

At home I’d make a lot of dishes with brown rice, we’d eat a lot of fruit, I’d cook ONE dish and we were used to eating smaller portions. I’d make green and nettle tea (not all this diet aspartame infused poison that’s here), and our fridge was often-times empty because we’d always eat everything in it and never overload it with food. We wouldn’t eat completely healthy, dad would still eat his cheez-its and goldfish, he’d still buy sugar-free icecream and fix sausage and eggs for breakfast. But we ate a lot healthier than we do here.

Maybe that’s why I am so tired lately.

Some sort of sickness hit me as soon as I got to work today. I didn’t really start suffering from it till lunchtime though (there was no lunch to be had, I wasn’t hungry).

I beat the sore throat with apple cider vinegar before it developed, but the fever whacked me when I got home. When I got into my car after work, my bones were so achy that instead of winding down the windows or turning on the AC, I left the windows up and the AC off because the heat felt so good (mind you I drive a black car that had been sitting in the sun for several hours).

I immediately laid down when I got home have hardly been able to move a muscle since. I think I’m sweating the fever out though cause I do feel a lot better now that I’ve woken up.

We’ll see how tomorrow goes. A co-worker has already emailed me and says they hope I come in because they have work for me to do. How nice.

I went through my todo list this morning, since I hadn’t visited it in a while, and surprisingly a lot of items could be marked off or deleted due to this move. I don’t have to put a new exhaust on the blue bronco, I don’t have to clean out the garage and basement anymore, I don’t have to straighten up my father’s room anymore, the construction projects to this house no longer need to be done.

It’s actually quite nice being able to mark all that stuff off. I love completing items on my todo list, it makes me feel happy and productive. I keep a list of all the things I’ve done at the bottom so I’m reminded that no matter how long my todo list gets, my done list is even longer.

I’m sure new items will be added once we have a place of our own.

Our driveway looks like a bunch of hillbillies live here, which I guess technically is true. We have junk piled up around the trailer to eventually load in. We have chairs sitting out there, a picnic table, old plows etc. My father and I were lounging out there last night listening to Hank Williams and singing along off-key rather loudly. The neighbors may think we’ve lost our minds, but it was good to relax and feel simple and content for once. I like that we can still laugh and be silly despite everything else.

I let our turtles go the other day. I took them to my nemeton and thanked them for spending so much time with us and to have a good journey.

The ex-husband also stopped by and picked up a few boxes of his things. And the Aunt and crew stopped by today to help dig up plants and flowers to take up and plant at their place for now.

I’m becoming increasingly more and more excited about buying a house. Simply the thought of having a house that isn’t condemned, doesn’t have so much work to be done to it, and being able to redecorate…it must have all of my girlie instincts kicking in.

So many neighbors keep stopping by after finding out we’re moving. Everyone is really upset about it, some even say they don’t know how this neighborhood is going to survive without my father. I just keep thinking to myself, all good intentions and no action.

Went to look at technically 3 properties today.

The first one was listed as my “favorite” in the previous entry, and was on an amazingly beautiful lot. However the house was a shambles. A lot of water leakage, floors were uneven and weak, design was extremely flawed and like they tried to force it into the shape of the old log cabin. If the house were in better shape, we might have taken that one.

We drove by another lot my Aunt told me about near her house, but it was in the middle of a fork in the road and looked in bad shape.

And we drove by a house I have scheduled for tomorrow, since we were in the area. From the outside it looked okay, though it looked kinda like some white trash folks (still) lived there. I wanted to stop and take a better look but they were standing outside, so I don’t know what that’s about. We’re supposed to run up there tomorrow to get a tour inside.

I’m also trying to schedule another appointment over in Washington County for a beautiful looking house (on the outside), but seeing how the first house was today, my hopes are not high.

Overall I spent about a quarter tank of gas with all the running around through the mountains today. I’ll probably spend the rest of today going through stuff in the garage.

My grandfather is dropping off the storage trailer on Monday, and giving us a $10/month discount (how nice gramps). I’m still wondering if all this crap is going to fit into that thing. Dad says he’s going to probably call in several favors from some friends to let us set stuff on their property for a while. I hate doing that though, having all of my belongings scattered everywhere. And dad seems to be dragging his feet a little on this whole thing, I’m really trying to nudge him to start calling these people and getting this stuff set up -now- cause we have -no time-.

We are probably going to be living with my Aunt up in PA. I didn’t really want to live up there, but I think it’s going to save us a lot of money to do so, which is important right now.