Moved into the 'ole Homestead...

Well, I finally moved into the Cedar House, that's what 'my' house is called. Probably because it's made of cedar, like most of the original homes around here due to it's 'weatherablilty'... and/or maybe because the owner/builder's niece is named Cedar... not sure who or what came first. But either way... at my last communique, I hadn't mentally moved in yet. In fact it was only days later that I finally moved all my clothes, linens and misc. off the dining room table and cleaned the place up a bit. There was so much clutter lying around collecting dust, so many remnants of the field mice strewn about the shelves, floors, etc., that a good clean sweep was long past due. So after that, and moving some furniture around/out, the place turned back from Feng S__t, to being a little more Feng Shui. Though I've left most of the owners personal possessions about, I brought in a few of my things to take the edge off. So I guess I'm in for the winter... and that means buying firewood to last through the cold season. This place is heated by 4 wood stoves, but I'll only be using one I think. The little one in his closed off bedroom and the kitchen stove will be dormant, while I'll live by the one in the den/living room, and only light up the basement one if it gets bitter cold and need to worry about water lines & pipes. I'll soon have to learn, then fine tune, the process of having the stove last through the night and into the morning...

So here's my place from the south... I actually approach it from the north when I come home. You can see a lovely front yard that I'll probably never step foot in... You can just make out a little solar panel that charges up my power.

Here's more of a close up of the place... the stairs lead down to the homemade 'basement' where a big wood stove lives. It's rigged with copper water pipes wrapped around the back and sides to heat up water if necessary... but there are too many nob's, turn off valves, etc., for me to understand... I hope I won't have to light up the 'Frankenstove' this winter.

In my last post I showed the Commons which is the community center point I guess... so the buildings in the back ground are the wood shop and metal shop and the crib where visitors can stay. And this is the road to my house... Past the upper garden where many of the veggies come from... past the horse barn...

Said horse barn...

Down this little road... and my place is on the right.

.

This is the view of the house when I drive up... small work shop on the left and wood shed on the right... And my concrete goldfish... He's living there for the winter... he's too heavy and I just don't know where to put him... (I luv you Barrie)

You can start to appreciate the 'craftsmanship' of the place now... Jeff told me it's 'Escher-esque'... I'd have to agree. So up the stairs, past the blue thing...

And you come to my front door, with wood chopping block handy for cutting up kindling, etc., in the cold months I guess...

My porch... where while the weather lasts, I can take my coffee and read. Not many more of the days I'm afraid...

And continuing around the corner to where the steps off to the left lead to my 'out house'... where scratched onto the back wall it says "Gentlemen and Rogues alike... kindly piss outside" or something like that. But it's true... around here most everyone goes #1 outside. For me it's sometimes off the front porch, out the back door... or at night... off the upstairs back porch. I definitely know of one area that will see no vegetation for a very long time ;-)

This is the path to said out house... I'll have to get the machete out soon and do some trimmin'

And here it is in all it's glory... notice the roofing tiles on the walkway for traction... things do get wet up here a lot.

And inside the house lives my electricity... all these car battery's are linked up to that solar panel and are charged up all during the day. The house is wired for 12 volts so that means no vacuum cleaner, no fridge, no charging up the laptop... and the only lights I have are CFL's and LED... which give off a weird glow... but I do have lot's a candles all over the place so as soon as I get in I light those and douse the LED's. Just like going back in time... it's a trip! ;-)

The front room where I come in... (shot from the kitchen)

Dining room off to the left with a massive table carved from two pieces of wood... pretty cool.

Cathedral ceiling with lot's of window light... a big plus up here... That and sky lights.

Off to the right is sort of a den... that's kind of stretching it but it's where the main wood stove that I'll be using is located and so it's where I'll hang out. There are two makeshift futon couches up against the wall, for either sleeping or entertaining.

Another shot of the 'den'... with tie-dye and everything ;-) That's actually where you can load wood in from the outside, so that you don't have to go out and get it every time... cool set-up.

My kitchen.. large and airy. It has a big, industrial, 6 burner gas stove and an original wood burning cook stove. I guess the previous occupants used it to warm up that part of the house... we'll see what happens this year. But I think I will try to cook with it at least once to see what that was like back in the day... eggs & hash browns in the morning and maybe a pizza at night... got to start off small ;-)

More kitchen, with a view of the front porch... and mother nature right outside the door.

So all in all, with great coffee...

Great beer...

Healthy food from the farm...

And a place to shit... What else can one truly ask for?!...

Well lot's of things I guess... but for now I'm content. I realize that I can get a little complacent, and that leads me to just living out the moment... and not focusing on the future that I want to manifest. I'm torn on that one for now though... "Am I just following through on a life that I chose to experience before 'coming down' ... absorbing the moments so fully... living out 'chunks of time' & learning experiences?..." Is that why I can't seem to figure out precisely what I want to do? Maybe it's not supposed to be on my radar... There are many who know what they want and that's great! And maybe there's 'us' ... the dreamers... the creators... I don't know. I'm rushing through this post because I think last time I was here at the library, I got timed out and most of what I had written didn't get saved. Then a re-roofing project came up that we had to finish before the rains came... blah blah blah. Anyway, all that aside, I've also been toying with the idea that the 'universe' provides us daily with what's needed. I read the 2nd book by Marlo something or other... her follow up to the 'Mutant Message From Down Under'. And in it the Aboriginal Indians of Australia were perplexed as to why the white man felt they needed to 'store groceries for weeks & months, bring water in from the outside, etc... when all they did (Abo's) is wake in the morning, face east and asked for what they needed for that day... and they got it... be it food or water... whatever... I'm letting that one soak in for a while.....

As always... please continue to take very good care of you & yours, Alexis