It’s been four months since we moved in. A few weeks after we’d moved in, Hubs and I found work an hour away. Since then, we’ve been able to stay out of the sun, sand and wind for the most part of the week and come home to a cozy cabin. No showers yet though. To keep clean, we head to the RV place here once a week and I wash my hair outside our cabin between each visit. It’s too cold to take a proper shower here so I wipe down with a cloth every night. Coming from showering every night back home, it’s difficult but good enough! I’ve now gotten used to it but am looking forward to showering every (other) day again. My hair does not like it at all.

We got our toilet upgraded. We went from doing it out directly on the ground to using a portable bin lined with a biodegradable bag my mom-in-law got us to getting a porta-potty. The porta-potty is fantastic! The biodegradable bag was actually hard to use because I’d have to bury the whole thing in the ground. The porta-potty has an actual seat and flush system. Every fortnight, Hubs takes it out to empty it on the ground and it dries up after a week of baking in the sun, just like the cow, rabbit and coyote’s. There’s a pack of enzymes we add to the mix and it does a great job. We have jars in the house for going at night too. Does it sound horrible? Well it’s better than having to go out in the open late at night which we used to do.

To wash our dishes and cook, we get water from a filtered water dispenser in town for $1.75 per 5 gallons. This lasts us about two full days of being home. That’s basically all the water we use. The plants get water we collect from the rain or river a half-hour drive away. Doing the dishes like that, I’ve noticed how much less water I use. It’s slower but the job gets done.

I’m also noticing how I relate to dust and dirt here. We don’t have a garbage collector coming by to pick up our trash bags every week. Instead, I take them to the waste station at work. Most of our trash consists of tissue paper and then packaging from mail we get or things we buy. All food waste goes to our compost pile which is growing and hopefully useful next spring. I don’t know how well broken down the food bits will be. It makes me think — one moment they’re plants the next moment it’s vegetables and then food scrap. It’s the same thing though.

Early on, I started noticing how I categorized dirt as waste. I can’t sweep dust and dirt out of my house into the open ground because it’s still part of our living space. I don’t want “our dirt” flying around out there and eventually back into the house or flying around and bothering the animals. So, I put it into the trash and take it out each day. But in the beginning, doing so felt weird because dirt is dirt. How is it some belong outside and some in the trash bin? I can’t return the dirt, mostly fine sand and tiny stones, outside because I sweep lots of hair each time. I wonder how the insects, birds, rabbits and rodents feel about us.

Since we spend half the time at work these days, we aren’t getting as much done around the house as before and as we would like to. We still try to, and that feels like a stretch to me. I am exhausted and never fully rested. Between adjusting to being married in a new place and living so differently, uh, I still try to find time for myself and my meditation practice. So, I was starting to feel burnt out in September but thankfully we got a break during the week of my birthday and again in October. We plan on working until we’ve saved up enough to pay some bills and purchase other things we’ll need for firming up the foundation of our house and garden — our homestead. Then, Hubs can stop working and focus on our plans for the land.

The first thing we did in the week we started work was to get ourselves a real bed. No more sleeping on a foam in the van. No more sleeping on an air mattress on the floor in the house. It was time for a real cushy bed. At first it was still on the floor. We’d placed it on top of the air mattress, which made me a little nervous as I didn’t want the air mattress to explode. Then a month later, we finally lifted the bed with some cinder blocks and plywood. The foam and the air mattress were very good when it was what we had, but it wasn’t so comfortable for our bodies after two months. We’d gotten the air mattress the day we decided we could move into the cabin. Our cabin was not complete, and still isn’t, but as I’d previously said, it was good enough to move in to it and we realized there were benefits to doing that! Anyway, I just thought it was funny that the first thing we really spent money on was a mattress. It’s great! It was $246 but to me, feels like a nice, firm cloud to sleep on.

June

We bought and borrowed a few things for the house. I now cook with a Coleman camp stove and I love the very easy to use propane stove. It helps so much that we can cook indoors now. We had to contend with strong winds, which brought sand flying into our food and faces and took out the fire. This stove gets well-taken care of by me every night and I’m proud of it. It feels like the one thing that has really made me feel like a married woman. It’s the wife responsibilities of cooking for my husband, who actually cooks pretty good, I guess.

One of the things we did after moving in was to go around the property and pick rocks. We needed a way to prevent rain from puddling up at our door and making everything muddy. We also needed to make sure rain wasn’t getting into the wood. That’s one reason why moving in early was a good idea. On about the third day we were sleeping in the house, we got awoken by rain dripping onto our faces at 3am. We jumped up and started shining lights from our phones and a torch around and using whatever we could to soak up the mess. We eventually got most of it safely contained and could figure out where the leaks were the next morning. That was a good thunderstorm and I’m glad our little house has stood strong since. Hubs had gone all around the house, back on the roof, putting down an extra tarp, caulking gaps and extending shelters. And we got the rocks to place in front of our door. All that helped our little cabin.

July

Right from the start, I really wanted to get some lights for outside to light the area up at night when I’d have to go out with the (dirty) dish water. After some many weeks, I finally got two solar-powered garden lamps and stuck them in our pebble entrance. They made a huge difference to house the house felt. The lights made very pretty star patterns on the ground because of the way it was designed.

This month, we got into fights often because we were trying to figure out our expectations, responsibilities and also just how we each normally lived. Hubs thinks I have lots of things and he does not like clutter or mess. On the other hand, I’ve grown up in a small apartment with six other people and am very used to being considerate while living with clutter. Hubs would often try and problem-solve though. He would look at the problems we faced and tried to solve it for us.

August

Hubs’ parents came to visit! It was so great to see each other again and have them on the property once more. The last time they’d come up was in May while we were still camping in the van and we had walked around the spot we’d planned to build at. Hubs and his dad spoke about plans while his mom and I drove out to buy us all lunch. We had tried making some mud bricks before that and I’d gashed my finger in my excitement. It was awful but I had some colloidal silver that helped. While we were gone, Hubs and his dad recced the land and found a different spot that was more ideal and that’s where the house is right now.

During their visit, his dad helped to apply a waterproofing material on our already waterproofed roof. This was an extra coat. Finishing the house is always been a huge part of our daily conversation and we need to do what we can. So that extra waterproofing coat helped a lot, before we can get some sheets of metal on the roof. To be clear, we are still technically camping on the land since the house has not been inspected. But we have always kept building codes and best practices in mind the whole time so we will eventually be able to get it inspected. We may need help with drawing up the house plan later on though.

This experience and way of living is new to me. For one, I am glad to and I’m learning to get things done and to do so within our means, safely.

In the later half of August, Hubs began working on building a bathroom and an awning for our front entrance. At that point in time, it felt like it was taking us forever to begin working on it so I was extremely happy when we finally did. Now, I realize it didn’t really take us that long to start since we had to save up and keep going to work. Some things are easy to get started, some just take a little more build-up — clarity, determination and actual ability. Perhaps no one is ever actually lazy or lacking determination.

Hubs would work on this while I would take care of things inside the house. He did this on his own mostly, getting my help when he or I thought it was needed. He did so with the experience of building the house with Richard and some general, sensible experimenting. I learnt from reading about building with cob that you should not experiment on your main house. I was concerned at various points and Hubs disliked that a lot. He’d say I only come around with criticism to which I would think to myself and sometimes say out loud that this was my house too! I was looking out for the both of us! I learnt to speak up when necessary and accept his dislikes and need for support, positive affirmation and trust. I was in it a hundred percent with him.

By the end of the month, I’d also reached out to the yoga studio here to see if I could offer healing meditation sessions there. It always revitalizes me whenever I take a moment to align myself with what I truly care about and I’m glad I did that. That’s when I shared about the healing work I enjoy doing on this page too. I’m sure Hubs feels the same way and I know he gets extremely passionate about his plants. It makes my heart smile whenever we both get aligned together too. Thank you for everything, love.