Pre moving

 Today we brought a few things to the land. Tomorrow is the main moving day and wednesday we will sleep on the land. Linus is restless these days and the moment we went to the car he jumped in and sat there happily waiting, just to make sure that we would not leave without him. He has been through enough moves with us that you would think that he knows by now
that he is coming with us, but apparently not.

On the way with the second load, we saw a tornado off in the distance, it was far away, very thin but appeared to be touching down, I was happy to be so far away..

 As we came down the dirt road leading to the land we saw this tiny rainbow and Kaleena said she thought that it must have been the rainbow that chased away the twister.

 This is what the house was looking like this evening, by wednesday regardless of where it is 

we will be moving in.

Solar panels, solar fridge, hot water, doors and many details will come later .

In a way we will be camping out for the first couple of months...

 Here is the dry toilet, or composting toilet, almost ready to go.

We will add a composting lasagna, made up of different layers, to the bottom of the solid waste compartment to get the composting started. The urine will run off into the compartment in front. 

All that is needed now besides the beginning 

composting layer is a couple of doors.

 The level of peace on the land in the early evening is something quite special, and quite different

from the noisy days, such as they have been lately with all the construction going on.

Looking forward....

~I would also like to give thanks for the tender and comforting comments 

on the post about my dad the other day~

~His body is tired, yet his spirit is high and his soul in peace.

To watch him go through this challenging time, 

to follow him through the different stages of this event,

and to see him flowing and accepting, all the time with dignity and humility, 

is inspiring, and yet another gift..... ~

~Blessings~

House progress

Wow, just seven days to move in, a week from today.

 I just realized that as I was writing this.

Thankfully the house is almost ready, the mosquito net frames are in almost all the windows.

The kitchen is almost ready, the bathroom also...almost...

Many details will be left for us to finish once we are moved in, and I am really happy

about that. This way we will have the chance to make the finishing touches NOT in concrete,

but in creative unconventional ways, put a bit more of our touch on the details.

 This will be the desk area, just inside the front door, separated by a low bench with shelves for shoes and a planter.

 And no, that is not a second toilet there in the middle of the house, that is one of a couple of planters

that was part of Miguel's design to create a natural separation of the spaces.

 Here is the couch corner. We will eventually make cushions for the built in couch.

Underneath will be storage, much needed storage, besides the basement I am not exactly sure where we will keep clothes and such:)  

 We are all really excited for the big move....

~Blessings~

House progress

As the move in date draws nearer everyone is scrambling to finish up the final details.

Many things will be left to be finished later, such as the solar power, the doors and windows, the upstairs entrance and bathroom, but for phase one move in dec 7th, we are almost ready, yes well almost...

This was the front of the house a few days ago

 This is the front of the house now.

To the right where the showing rock wall is lower, we will build, once moved in, a grey water run off bed filled with water loving plants, this will be the filter for the kitchen sink water. In the back will be another where all water from the bathroom will be filtered and reused.

 One day last week I arrived and had to take a step back. So much concrete everywhere.

Considering I had a romantic idea that this would not be a house with much concrete it felt overwhelming for a moment. The truth is that due to time and money constraints this seemed the best option for this house. Once the block had been covered and the edges rounded it really is very nice.

Once all the details are in place I know that the house will be lovely, indeed wonderful,

a place for us to settle.

I am very excited to move in and dive into off the grid living and homesteading this wild land.

 The loft is just lovely...

 The bathroom has an elevated floor to create the proper hight between the seat and the space below where all the waste is composted. A hole will be opened in the wood and a seat placed on 

top, just like that:)

 Linus is really back to himself again, the king of the land. This means he barks at everyone

that comes around. He has already found himself a nice space on the deck. 

I love seeing him all settled in. 

~Blessings~

House progress, health, and gratitude

Returning a week ago from my little trip, I went from feeling renewed and excited 

for about half a day and then straight to bed for two days followed by a few 

days where I could manage just very slight movement. We all came down with a stomach bug and are still feeling the lingering "sinking" feeling in the belly. Strange it was, I never felt any real pain, nor did I or any of us have fever at all. The children vomited and had diarrhea, for Miguel and I there was no vomiting but intense fatigue and discomfort. I am thinking we had a mild case of salmonella poisoning, or perhaps parasites. Not much for doctors and with a strong faith in our body's 

innate ability to heal itself, we stuck it out monitoring ourselves and the children, 

keeping hydrated and resting. 

And by now we are all much better although not back to 100% yet. 

Just in case we will all do a parasite cleanse, I read up on parasites and feel that no matter what it will not harm to do this, and make it a biannual or at least an annual event.

What I found was a cleanse (if you are interested there is some info on it here and here) 

using black walnut hull tincture, powdered cloves and wormwood.

I had so much wormwood in our garden in NC, I wonder if it will grow here, I bet it will, or better yet find the local plant that the Mayan use against parasites.

~~~~~~~~~

Anyways back to the house, which fortunately is nearing it's completion, 

(well the shell anyways), I say fortunately because we need to move in the

 first week of December no matter where we are in the progress:)

Here is where it was when I left two weeks ago, the first few rocks of the wall being laid,

this is a picture from while I was away... 

(and by the way, the storm Rina completely fizzled after

threatening to make landfall as a category three hurricane on this coast a bit farther north)

 and this is as it stands now, a little mushroom house. This is the view from the west, to the left is the bathroom window and to the right the bedroom windows. The little opening that you can see at the bottom left is where the opening for the dry bathroom compartment will be.

 This is the view from the north/east side of the house. To the right the large opening will open to a deck, and by the window to the left there will be a dining/schooling/crafting/drawing/sewing area, and the door on the far left is the main entrance to the house.

 We spent a long time today sitting in the house visualizing how we would lay out the space, now taking into consideration that the loft will be sectioned off for the time being, to be available to the partners. 

I enjoyed the creative process of seeing how we might be in this house, 

finding solutions and being open....

 This will be the joint sleeping area, to the right the bathroom

 to the left the main entrance, to the right the kitchen 

While pondering the challenges of working with round walls and an enclosing circle toward the middle, in other words a round house, out of nowhere it suddenly started to rain hard.

 It was lovely to sit inside looking out, feeling the fresh wind flowing through the house, and feeling the change of the season, which is now apparent. 

It was also lovely to find that the children, together, had run into the wilderness eager to explore.

 It reminded me of why I love living in the middle of nature, how our connection to it sets us free.

I can truly say that we are all looking forward to move out here. 

We asked for this opportunity, to live back in nature, 

and here it is....not exactly as we thought it would be, but then again is anything ever?

 ohh and look, signs of autumn here too:)

~With much love and gratitude~