Tuesday 26 June 2012

Living on the Land

It has yet to be one week living in the new house on our land. It has been stressful moving our belongings and settling in to the new area and new lifestyle. The new lifestyle is a shared experience with our daughter and grandson, so accommodating everyone's habits and routines will take some time to adjust to and incorporate. We haven't as yet moved our furniture and other items from the "before" house. We made several tiring trips loading the cars with what we felt would make us comfortable in the interim until the "before" house sells and all items at once will come into the new house. I suspect there will be a combo yard sale as we weed out items we don't need and are duplicated.

Mounds of Top Soil referred to as Anthills by some.
Meanwhile we have spent a few nights in the stillness and the darkness of the countryside. Maybe it
is the construction soundness of a new house or just a quiet area, but I haven't heard anything during the nights. And it is definitely very black out there. We are also adjusting to a very long driveway of 1400 feet to the road. The distance from the road may be another reason for the stillness . It should indeed be an interesting experience in the winter snows to come. The house area is not landscaped yet and we have mounds of top soil piled along the drive where it was scraped off for the road construction. This will be used to level and grade the yard area so that we can finally seed and not be hostage to the muds in the rains. I am also missing my flower gardens which  I experienced in the "before" house. I will pot some of those plants requiring thinning and bring them here to the new house. But I shall have to patient until the grading is complete. My daughter, however, has the vegetable garden in already.

There is a deer in that hay!
Whether we enjoy fresh produce will be up to the deer and my husband's attempt at a garden mesh fence to hold the large creatures off from that area. They are not as timid as I thought deer should be and look at us with indignation as we yell and whack sticks to chase them away. There are tracks everywhere so it wasn't unexpected that we would be visited by these animals. There is at least six in a herd that may all show up or a few at a time. I was surprised at how large and solid an animal they were, as they jumped away from fairly near the house. The scarecrow is obviously just a decor for the garden. I shall have to get a good photo of the deer the next visit by waiting a little more before trying to run them off and before the mesh fence is complete. I am sure that they will visit in the next few days as they have been regular in their appearances.

Another project is the cutting of the hay in the  fields. It has become very high and gives the deer cover and courage to visit. I do not wish to run into any other animal residents while trying to force a path through the hay. Although I haven't heard from anyone in the area that there are ticks here, I prefer not to test out that theory. The hay at present is acting as a fence to keep me from exploring further into the fields. So a call will go out for the farmer that will bush hog the land for us. Then I plan to walk the entire area  and take out my pencils for sketching and painting. I desperately want to record the area in my art.


We are beginning to feel a little like this is home and should be settling more as we bring in some other belongings to the house and become familiar to the area and the towns. It has been a very impacting transition. And we recognized all the newness is the stress that we are feeling now. That will dissipate as we become familiar with a routine. Twenty-two years in one house and place does not shed as quickly as expected with a total change in lifestyle.

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