Day Nine--The PURGE

Stuff.  Stuff.  Why do people think they need so much stuff?  I have stuff in the attic that I have never unpacked in the fifteen years I've lived here.  Bob has stuff in the attic that he hasn't unpacked in the 7 years he has lived here.  What does that mean?  Do we need this stuff??? No way. Yet, it is so easy to buy more stuff.  I am determined to purge everything that is not going to enhance our lives up north.

What helps clarify my needs is that I have just spent a month in the bush, so to speak.  I love living simply out there.  In camp, two galvanized wash tubs are my clothes washer....a clothesline is my dryer.  Does it work?  Beautifully.  Even if it rains after I hang up clothes, they get a softening rainwater rinse before they dry the next time the sun comes out.  The last time I washed was after and before a rain, so I washed my clothes in the rainwater that had accumulated in my tubs, and they got an extra rinse when it rained again that afternoon.  The next day the sun came out and dried them quickly.  There is no smell like that of clothes washed in rain, rinsed in rain, dried on the line.  I've seen the artificial version of that scent sold for candles or soap, but God can do the same thing with a little sun and breeze.  Amazing.

YES, I know, I have the prettiest privy ever!
(thanks to Darrell G's good work!)

We are becoming more and more convinced that we want the cabin we build to be as much off the grid as we feel we can be, safely.  Which means wood, propane backup.  Maybe some solar, a generator standing by. Our next big project will be to have a well dug.

I think a lot of our Iowa friends probably think we are a little wacko, certainly with weird priorities, or doing things out of order.  "Where is the big luxury cabin???" "You mean you sleep in a tent?"  "Where is your RV?" "Aren't you afraid of (insert the name of a mammal, reptile, amphibian, insect, or arachnid)????"

No, I am not afraid. But, also, I am not stupid.  I'm not gonna eat circus peanuts in my tent, or not lock up at night anything that even resembles food.  I'm not even leaving my soap outside, since SOMEONE stole two bars of yucky lavender/old lady scented stuff one night.  Hope it was tasty, SQUIRREL!

(We also have a Snowshoe Hare who steals charcoal out our of firepit at night.  He is EVIL looking in the trailcam pics!)

I will continue to leave my tent flap up on clear nights, and watch the Big Dipper turn in the sky and the moon cast shadows on the ground, and listen to deer run through camp, and wolves howling both close and far away.  (and hear the Black-billed cuckoo, the lawnmower sounds of the Ruffed Grouse, and the ethereal sounds of Wood Thrush, etc, etc, you get the idea).

Something that y'all should know.  There is something very right about everything there in that blessed place.  I sat the other day on my luxury camp stool, my hands in the cool rain water that had collected in my luxury wash tub, rinsing my freshly clean laundry, while looking off into the little secret meadow behind my luxury privy, watching the bees and bugs and butterflies pollinating the Buttercups and Orange Hawkweed and Yarrow and Birdsfoot Trefoil, and thought, could I be more blessed?  I think not.  God is good.

I know the pines are whispering for me to come back soon.  Time to continue the purge  :)

Sleep well,
Elizabeth