This weekend felt like a weekend of moving forward, of taking solid steps that bring us nearer to our goal.

We have a basement!  This week the framing is starting and the house will begin to take shape.  But it isn’t just the house that has seen some work…

Base camp!  After some serious strimming (and some serious cursing of the strimmer for being useless and stalling…a lot) Stephen erected this tent.  It feels good to have a little ‘home’ on our land, somewhere to sit when the sun is too much, a place to store a few bits and pieces that we want to leave but mainly a feeling of permanence.   It’s psychological I know but knowing that we ‘could’ sleep here if we wanted, that theoretically we ‘could’ manage living here is very comforting.  It makes longer days on the land possible and desirable, knowing that it if gets a bit too hot, or a little rain comes in, we can cosy up in the tent for a bit.  And Stephen used all his extra time very wisely…

With the boys on his knee, Stephen mowed several acres of grass and brush.  These open areas gave our land the look of a real farm, a place where animals can graze, plants grow and children run.  It felt that things were starting to take shape.  Our future is still a little over the horizon, but now it feels that it is starting to come into view.