Greeeeeeeeeeeeen Acres

Hello, folks,
Thanks for all the feedback on my last post. Seems y'all like pictures of the country.
So in this week's news, we got through a ton of boxes but anyone who has moved may know this particular phenomenon: You find the soap but not the dish, the coffee but not the scooper, the incense holder but not the incense. WTF?

Can you spot Ann here?

We have had our brains scrambled for so long that this threw us for a bit until we realized that the secret powers of West Virginia have been healing us when we sleep. We don't fall asleep so much as pass out, then rise to the sound of a rooster, a gazillion different birds and um, this character.

Click the link for approximate sound...

Yep, sometimes three in the morning. it always seems to crack us up.

So I had never seen lightning bugs in my whole life except one time in Germany when I was 16.
Here, they are all over our yard every night, especially when it's warm. After a few nights sleeping downstairs in what we thought would be our room we took the mattress upstairs and lo and behold, the window filled with the white oak, full of ... magical lights! If we wake in the middle of the night we can see the whole tree winking. This is roughly what it looks like, I cannot capture them on my phone.

We had been trying to figure out if we should have bottled water carted in or get a filter on the sink. Given WV's history with mines figured it was prudent.
Then the previous owners, whom we love, let us know about a fresh water spring. We found it and filled up several jugs with water! Incredibly fresh. Woohoo!
Yesterday we had to fire up the riding mower as the grass was getting too long. Turns out there's a starter problem - "Oh, you just jump it from your car," says previous owner.
In the best of circumstances I hate using jumper cables and this was a car battery to a lawn mower battery, the usual dangers amplified by the risk of blowing up the smaller one.
Ann and I stood over the mower with cables in hands, going over the mantra. Connect last cable, pull down choke, turn key, step on brake, hope it turns over. A 3D version of rub your belly and pat your head. I don't know how to do this.... we each muttered at various times. But we persisted...
Three times and it caught!
Here's where I threw the jumper cables cuz they were getting hot.

Ann taking off 

Never saw her again. 

I got very excited that the garbage truck would pick up any number of bags, unlike Seattle, in any number of receptacles, unlike Seattle.
Early on Monday morning I saw the truck stop, lights blinking, and then go on down the road. No pickup!
Turns out we had not paid our bill of $19.95/month in advance. Must be buried in this box somewhere...

With the jumper cable incident I was struck with how we were ready to call some guy or the previous owners, but when you're in the country you need to depend on yourself more. Ann already knew this of course but I was always ready to call someone. I was very proud of us for persevering. And of course it poured hard that night so now the pets tracks in huge clumps of cut grass into the house.

Find the cat in this picture.

The pets are deliriously happy. Watching Sailor track every little bug and whiffle in the grass is an argument for taking the risk of liberating a cat. He has a million hiding places and always comes back when I call him. Strange cat. There are more animals than we would have thought including toads and bunnies. He is killing but not eating moles. Ann says they must taste like dirt.

Sometimes it feels like we've stepped into some kind of English countryside.

Thanks so much for the cards in our mailbox! So nice to hear from you! More soon, let me know what you want pictures of, unless it's less of Ann and the pets, in which case you cannot change my mind....
Love from P Road!

We're here!

Hi folks,

Photo by Elea Carey

We have landed safely. We are so happy but also exhausted. So the writing will not be great but hopefully evocative. I'm sorry I am not writing individual hellos, I just want to catch you up on the general stuff and then will start checking in.

Ann took off with Bodie and met up with her friend Elea a week ahead of Caitlin and Sailor. While Bodie was a great traveler she was unable to go many places as it was too hot to leave him in the car.



Hence, his utter relief at having his own fenced yard and own cool concrete slab to lie on.

.

















So far, he lies on that much of the time when he's not romping through the fields

Sailor escaped the night before he and I were to fly out. His calming drugs turned him into a maniac. Hence any of you neighbors who heard me calling him from 3 to 4 to 5 to 5:30 when he finally came home, forgive me.

We caught another flight a few hours later and he was largely a good kitty as he eventually realized he was destined to lockup forever in his little kennel without ever seeing the sun again.

He peed twice, but fortunately I had pee pads and my friend Diane advised making a stack of them which I just removed as needed. Smart!




The house is beyond expectations. You may recall we bought it without my ever having seen it before. It feels much like our Seattle house but with two extra rooms and a huge
huge
huge
yard.
Field. Four acres. A big honkin plot of land.

It has its own racetrack and hoceka. We could have our own Dance there!

First meal at home.

We've just learned the truck won't get here till Friday. That means camping some more which is tricky but we're getting used to it. Who brings a card table in her trunk on a cross country trip? Ann Pancake.

We have been to Walmart four times, three times more than I've ever been in my life.



Sailor can't go outside till at least tomorrow. I think he will come back but I know I can't keep him in, that's our agreement for him coming back.

We are checking each other for ticks.

We slept in about an hour just lying in stunned silence touching feet. We made it babe, was the gist of the conversation.

We have not been to Dairy Queen yet.

When a chip reader did not respond, the disgusted clerk said "did it just froze again?

We have a barn and a root cellar and a riding mower.

Okay, here's the most important part. It is a quiet bred of absolutely real living. Yes there are cars going up the road but you hear each of them at a time, no steady droning. The birds are loud and boisterous and happy in the morning. They are free to be.
The air is very fresh and if you get hot you open a window and it immediately cools. There is green everywhere, from trees to grass to bushes.

People are incredibly friendly. It is calm. I feel my shoulders unhunching

Taking over the one surface....

View from the house

Shitake mushroom growing thing

W 

I am going to lie there most of the day tomorrow. 

Still our field.

Where would you look for a light for this hallway? If you said inside the closet you'd be right...

Original coal chute!

View from the field.

House on left, root cellar in the middle, barn on right. 

Daisies Ann had waiting in a cup for me. 

View as you do the dishes.

Sailor freaking out again. 

We miss you. Come see us.