guess what this is?

Yeah, I know the photo is out of focus and grainy, but look at the arrow.  Give up?  It's a flag placed by the electric company to mark off where the electric line will be run.  Tiny bit of progress, but I'll take it.  I had hoped to tromp around in the woods today to search for trillium and other early spring blooming plants.  Too cold.  Too snowy.  Too muddy.  Too tired after preaching two sermons and one attempted visitation—my parishioner wasn't home, so maybe next Sunday for all these things.  Surely before summer, we will have a stretch of dry days so the electric can be run and this house can be built!

bread and milk

Can't teach an old dog new tricks?  HA.  Rosalyn Yalow, the second woman to win the Nobel Prize in medicine  in 1977 is credited with saying "The excitement of learning separates youth from old age. As long as you’re learning, you’re not old.”  I say amen to that because I sure am being forced into learning a bunch of new stuff at an old age as I build this house.  Like how to get electric and water to a place that has no electric or water.  Now these are two things that are as fundamental as bread and milk, unless I want to live totally off the grid, which I do not at this old age!

Apparently, when you build a house in some rural areas, it is necessary to become a member of a cooperative.  Weeks ago I received a thick packet from the Harrison REMC—the rural electric coop.  Yesterday, finally got it all duly signed before a notary public.  Returned it by mail today along with a copy of the deed and my driver's license and a big fat check.  So as of today, I am now a member of the REMC which means the money I pay each month gets paid back to me—sort of.  I paid them a couple of grand up-front to have them run the electric lines to the build site and agree to use $100 worth of electric a month for the next 30 months.  Since I'm building an energy efficient place (on their advice) with a geo heat system it seems unlikely I will use that much energy.  Also I have a wood burning stove as a back-up that is designed to heat 1200 sq feet and the house is less than 1000 sq feet. So essentially, I'm paying for other people's energy use???  You all come on over and flip on all the light switches and leave the doors open so I won't be wasting my money—oh wait, that's my husband and grand kid's job!

Next on the list is water.  I'm glad I don't have to have a well dug and the water line is run to the road.  I just have to "wade" through more paper and lay out some more cash.  Progress is being made!

Anicca

Waiting for the rains to stop and for the land to dry out so the excavation for the basement and the road build can begin.  Rained all day yesterday—flooding still.  Killing time thinking about orchards, logo designs and studying the teachings of the Buddha 

Anicca, impermanence, is one of the three essential characteristics of things in the Teaching of the Buddha, but I don't like it one bit!  Why would anyone have any drive to do anything if it's not lasting?  I get the suffering piece.  I even get the egolessness piece, but I have struggled to understand the impermanence piece—maybe, if the truth be told, I don't want to get it.  Because if I "get it" it means a whole lot of my life has been wasted and without purpose.

Last night in my meditation practices class, the teacher offered this:  Anicca is like that phrase "This too shall pass."  When we are happy it will not last because it is impermanent.  The implication is to be fully present to the happiness.  Conversely, when we are sad, it also won't last and will be replaced.  Which is why one of the central teachings of the Buddha (and Jesus too for that matter) is mindfulness— to stay focused or mindful on what is present.

So here is the present reality:  I have a beautiful pristine piece of land that I can enjoy right now!  I don't even have any bills yet associated with it and I don't have any "stuff on it" to bother with.  Wow.  Maybe I "get" anicca more than I realize.  This feels better than agitating over the bad weather ;-)  Have an anicca-filled day you all!

Three logo designs by my friend  Melody.  Let me know which one you like best.  

Melody K. Smith  www.my-trap-door.com

rain and rain and more rain—again

Also, sleet and snow and cold.  But when I took the six foot cross over to the church in Indiana I discovered that their jonquils were in bloom.  That's something.  Of course I had to go to Wildbranch since I was in the hood and it is muddy, muddy and wet.  But some things were beginning to bud out and there are lots of cool ferns.

Meanwhile all the rain has caused flooding.  They closed the hotel to the Horseshoe casino on the Ohio River but left the casino open??? I guess people will have to get there by fishing boats.  Also saw moving trucks at the houses along the river.  Folks moving their stuff to higher ground.  People are used to it I guess, but the flood waters aren't expected to crest until this weekend.  It's starting to feel like Seattle here, and I'm not the only one suffering from the endless drippy, grey days.  It's depressing!  

So I will leave you, gentle reader with words of hope from that gentle and wise sage, Charlie Brown to his worried friend Snoopy—"The flood waters will recede, the famine will end, the sun will shine tomorrow, and I will always be here to take care of you."

slowly I turned…step by step…inch by inch

Yeehaw.  I now have an address AND a permit number.  Ready to get started.  Over here—READY.  Unfortunately, we got almost three more inches of rain yesterday.  Major flooding all around as the Ohio River spills over its banks and all the little tributaries do the same.  Some folks are facing real hardship, so I'm not going to complain too much about the inability to dig a basement because the ground is too wet.  Hope the rain stops long enough, though, so I can get my six foot cross (don't ask—it's Lent) over to Indiana to sanctuary number two before Sunday.  And no, it's not on wheels and I'm not walking it over.  It's riding over in the pick-up truck.

patience-a virtue?

I think not!  Waiting is killing me.  Still too wet to dig and more rain coming tomorrow and/or Thursday.  Still haven't heard from the builder about an actual address which means I can't get the insurance guy to write the policy for coverage of theft of materials (of which there are none) and the future house (of which there is none).  Sigh.  So instead of twiddling my thumbs (truly inane activity) I'm getting myself familiar with Yabba Gabba (another truly inane activity).  Yabba Gabba is apparently Baby Crack—or at least the pre-toddler set are mesmerized by it whenever it comes on TV.  Booker, my grandson, apparently digs Brobee.  So while I'm waiting I'm planning his first birthday party which I am fortunate enough to host.  But it's in JUNE!  That's how bored I am with this waiting thing.  Sad that things have deteriorated to this point, I agree.

And gentle reader, you may be asking yourself, "Why isn't she getting soil tests, studying orchard maintenance, or planning her gardens?  Too wet, too muddy, and can't do orchard or garden planning until the house footprint is made known.  May sit tight for a year anyway on both the garden and orchard to get a feel for the lay of the land.  There are so many trees in there now, it's difficult to see.  I want to make sure we don't take out too many trees—want to keep the area around the house private and cozy.

So that's the update and where we are right now.  Since I'm spewing triteness, another saying is "This too shall pass."  It better.

dirt with street cred

Wildbranch is located less than two miles from Squire Boone Caverns, named after Daniel Boone's less famous brother, Squire.  In 1779 he moved his family to the Falls of the Ohio in an area that would be near what is now Louisville.  And then in 1780 founded the first settlement in Shelby County Kentucky.  But he didn't limit himself to Kentucky.  I suspect he either had ants in his pants or was ADHD, but the guy apparently needed to be on the move.  Or maybe he just needed adventure.  In any case after a failed attempt to establish a settlement near what is now Vicksburg Mississippi and after hanging with his bro Daniel in Missouri for a few years he headed north.  

In 1806 he landed in Harrison County Indiana where both my congregations and my personal dirt are located.  Squire established a settlement here in what is now called Boone Township.  And his settlement took.   Squire personally acquired a huge tract of land on the western edge of the township near a cave he and his brother Daniel used as a hideout years earlier.  According to some sources Boone considered the cave to be sacred.  Here on this land Boone carved stone out of a nearby hill to build his home and religious and political statements can still be found carved into the quarry wall today.  Boone is also credited with building one of the first churches in the state, Old Goshen Church. And he was involved in local politics, was a justice of the peace and apparently was one of the big shots of his day.

All of this blows my mind. Boone and his people surely walked on my land.   In a way I hold this sacred history now in my hands and it makes my knees shake a little bit.  I have dirt with history!  If you come to visit, you will feel it--you will feel the holiness of this place, I promise.

progress!

Got an email from Bill the Builder today and he said Good news, they finally have the driveway permit & health permit ready for me to pick up. I will be going to zoning today to drop off the prints and other permits. I should have a permit # and address tomorrow.  

So this is indeed progress.  When I see the Porta Potty and the bull dozer on the property I'll be convinced.  Keeping my fingers crossed that the rain we are supposed to get this weekend is minimal!  In the meantime, I am finishing up paperwork for the bank, setting up insurance for the new house on the property and trying not to get too excited.