First of all, we have to show you how Mondays work right now. Elv gets up and leaves the house at five or so and heads out to work. I end up getting up after coming fully awake against my will when I would rather snooze two more hours. But what has to been done all in one day so that we can join him over at the job in our other house for the week brings me fully awake and running when my feet hit the floor.
As you know, we are doing laundry the old fashioned way this summer in the wringer washer outdoors. That means that one of us girls has to spend the morning getting it all through. There is no such things as just "starting" the laundry and going on to other work when you use a wringer washer. If you "start" you must also stick to it and finish. I had it going by seven on Monday and all out on the lines by ten o clock or so. Well done! Pat my own back. I actually enjoy this method. You have time to pray, think, plan, and you handle each piece and can minister to stains more effectively.
Frances woke that morning with a pain on her abdomen. Very strange. She looked it up and eventually we concluded we ought to have it checked. So we ended up hurrying our whole day to meet her 4 PM appointment in Minong on our way over to Heartwood House.
We packed food, clothes, the serger and schoolbooks and left here before 3 PM.
The owners of the house had been in all weekend and left us a nice note about how the house looked for them from our clean last week, and offered the use of their row boat and paddle boat. (We couldn't find that paddle boat, anywhere!) But they hadn't vacuumed and their pets had left hair all over. So before anything could happen we had to tackle that. We brought our new sweeper with us and found most of it, we think. My poor family has been conditioned to non pet cleanliness. What a pain.
On Tuesday we did our first fuel run for Elv. That means that we take the Jeep to the woods and trade for Elv's pickup and take it in to Minong where we fill it with fuel for the machine. That pickup is huge and cumbersome. But it drives okay and Brad does the climbing up to hold the fuel nozzle into the tank opening. Why do they make fuel nozzles so huge? The tank holds 90 plus gallons. Do you know how long it takes to fill it? You watch the ticker roll on and on till its well past 300 dollars. Very horrifying. But I just walk in to the station then and tell the cashier to charge it to the boss and sign my name. Easiest thing in the world.
In the meantime, the children had spied a library and wanted to go see it. We did. It was closed. But the free wireless Internet worked just fine sitting out in front. I posted and checked my email.
Then I put that ole tanker into reverse to back out and go. I backed and just as I braked to go forward, we came to an abrupt halt. Bump! Oh No! I jumped out and ran back to see two very startled old people coming from their Lincoln van scolding and aghast with me. I apologized profusely and insisted we call the police, which I did. I don't think they even had a phone. Well, I got off pretty easy for how dumb I was. We shared the same insurance agent and the chief of police of Minong deemed our fender bender a non-reportable accident. ( Have you ever heard of that?) No fine, no scoldings, just kind words and smiles from the man whose fender I ruined.
The rest of the week was boring and normal after that, for which I am grateful to God. I sewed a dress for a friend, and the children read and studied and helped with what little housework there was.
I also read Homestead and enjoyed that immensely. I couldn't lay it down. All the feelings and ideas that Elv and I enjoy about the adventures of having land and a cabin off the grid are in that book. You wouldn't understand. But the one statement says it all, We had to let go of what people thought. I believe that is probably true for all adventurers.
We found wild raspberries in the woods but Brad and I picked them all in a very short time. I couldn't find more and finally gave it up when I stepped in water up to my ankles in the brush. There's enough for a small desert, so far.
Oh, about Frances's appointment. The pain seems to be only a muscle. The doctor, however, whom we had never met before, had been to Thailand, and other places on the globe and wanted to visit about it. He had a list of shots she ought to have, and other such pieces of advice. When we walked out he was still talking and only said goodbye as we got to the door of the waiting room.
Oh, and the library in Minong. We had to do another fuel run on Wednesday and the library was open that day. Such a tiny, quaint library. But there were books that we love on the eight or so shelves and the librarians were two ladies with Hispanic? accents who scanned our books and said we could have them for a month. "We trust you," they said. Frances found the book Miracle at Carville. She enjoyed it so much. I will read it next week.
Gladys Martin says we ought to try that grocery store in Minong, as well. "It used to be a pretty good store," she told Frances. Maybe we'll have to go see what we think next week.
So, it was a good week. Elv got billable hours in of the proper amount and the machine did not break down even once. Praise the Lord.
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