Crystal Groves

So I’ve had to deal with my first home repair this week. I don’t necessarily count the tree falling on the house in May as a repair, since insurance covered it and we got a new deck out of it. The chimney installation last November isn’t a repair either, and didn’t cost us anything.

But on Monday our well stopped working. Well not the well…just the pump. I had to deal with taking a…I guess equivalent of sponge bath in just 1 gallon of water that day. We thought we had it fixed on Tuesday so showers commenced as normal, but it was down again Wednesday (another bucket bath). My uncle came over Wednesday to help fix it since he’s a contractor (same one that built my deck). He also had some extra well line at his house since ours got a leak in it during all this as well (how many times can I say “well” in this entry?).

Yesterday I decided to just drive to my Aunts in Orrtanna and shower there. As of last night everything was working, but we do still need to get one small part for the pump since it’s not shutting off properly. I was able to take a shower this morning and I no longer have a sink full of dirty dishes, so I am happy.

All in all the cost for the entire ordeal is only like $200, so that’s not bad at all. I’m very grateful that my first home repair was so gentle .

Navigate Right.

From Around the Farm

And final deck pictures (also navigate right):

From House After

I’m writing this here for my records, since I like to keep track of everything regarding my house.
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You can view updated deck pictures from today: http://picasaweb.google.com/acousticdryad/HouseAfter

And a few of getting the truck out and such: http://picasaweb.google.com/acousticdryad/AroundTheFarm

I’ve uploaded some updated pictures of the deck progress (keep clicking right) from yesterday. My uncle is taking the rest of the week off and will continue on Monday. But next weekend everything should be done.

Dad and I were sitting inside earlier and we heard a crash outside and came out to find this. Apparently it wasn’t in gear. Now we have to try and pull it out with the John Deere tomorrow, since it’s sitting on a rock.

Otherwise was a decent day Not looking forward to driving through town tomorrow with all the Gettysburg shenanigans and reenactments going on. But it’s the only way to get to my uncle’s for a cookout unless we drive way out of the way.

Well I recently found out.

Dad had outpatient surgery on Tuesday where they just put a skin graph on the ulcer on his leg to see if it’ll help heal it. Before they’ve used pig skin for this, but apparently they also save the skin from circumsized babies to use as skin graphs. So now my dad has baby penis skin on his leg. That takes not being “wasteful” to a whole new level folks.

I can see the jokes now…… “….waking up with a stiff leg.”

He has to rest and not bump it for a week or two, so I’ve had to take over some of his chores as well. Fortunately I have a three day weekend coming up where I can get a lot of things done around here.

I updated my pictures from yesterday with updated deck pictures from last night, as well.

Pictures from the starting of the deck yesterday:

House After

Some humming bird (and a crayfish) pictures from yesterday after work:

Around the Farm

And more Bastian pictures, cause I can’t help my damn self:

Bastian

A year ago today is when my father and I received the notice from the estate that all three farms were being sold, and we had 30 days to get out. As many will remember, the next few weeks were a perfect hell for me. Two of my worst fears in life had just come true.

That I would not be able to support my father, and I would not be able to support myself. We were about to be homeless with no place to go and no money to go there with. I had my meager savings and I was still workin hard to get debt-free, but I was not there yet. To top it off, I still had a car payment.

When we got the eviction notice, it was kind of a surreal shock. We’d lived there off and on for 29 years. We were great tenants and we had a great relationship with the landlord. Unfortunately he died in 2006/2007 and didn’t leave a will to divvy up his estate. With no children, it had to turn into a huge legal battle among nieces and nephews. His other two farms sold for 3 million a piece. Big beautiful farms in a big beautiful expensive Carroll County. Our farm was meager, and our house was condemned and not worth anything. They wanted $200k for it, and I couldn’t afford that. I originally offered $100k, then $150k, they turned down both. I guess 6 million from the other two wasn’t enough.

Looking back now at how emotional I was, I know it was all just shock and panic, and those are fairly natural things. Once I was able to make a decision about what I was going to do (buy a different house) it was more like a light switch was turned on and I was able to mentally regain control of the situation. I don’t even think dad really knew what was going on, we just sorta surrealed our way through it (I’m aware that’s not a word).

But as most tragedies seem to end up, this one ended up a blessing in disguise. A fresh start on a better life. I am happy with that.

I tell you what, it absolutely does not feel like a year has gone by since all of that. It’s still all very fresh and new to me. I still remember how I felt a year ago today, I remember how it felt not having a home for 2 months and living with relatives, I remember what it was like packing up 30 years of crap in 28 days, I remember what it felt like coming home the next day and feeling how different the house felt knowing it was no longer ours, and I remember settlement day signing the papers for our house here in Gettysburg.

And even with all the pain I initially felt, I really can’t say I’d change a thing about what happened. You learn a lot about yourself during times like these. You learn your strengths and weaknesses, how to truck on even when you want to just give up, how to step up to the plate and accomplish something you know nothing about. And most importantly, how to take responsibility when life throws you a curve ball, and learn to be prepared for anything instead of hiding behind the thought of “that’ll never happen to me”.

It’s a bit awkward pulling $1760 out of an ATM machine. It’s fun to play with afterwards though

My uncle is going to be paying for the wood day for our deck (with that money), and probably digging the footings later on this afternoon. So construction will have officially started, which means I need to start taking some pictures as it progresses.

The founder of my church (who happens to be the same age as my father) had a stroke Saturday morning (hence all my tweets updating people). He seems to be doing good and I feel positive that he will make a full recovery. I want to visit him one evening after he gets home, but usually when I go to visit we do some drumming or something. I’d rather avoid having him feel down if he’s not able to do some of those things very well for a while yet. I’ll have to be careful.

Dad’s hyperbaric chamber treatments are finished, but we are still working on healing the ulcers. The chamber helped out a lot, but just didn’t run long enough to finish. I’m not sure what treatments they’ll be doing next, someone mentioned possibly another surgery. I still think maggots would be pretty cool.