Freedom: A Heart-felt Sentiment
I moved from Lexington to the farm at the end of October. In the first couple of weeks, we got electric, a septic hooked up, floors finished upstairs, most of the woodwork complete and a shower that actually sprays HOT water on me when I want to get clean… all in my little cabin in the woods.
That’s a LOT of progress, but there’s still a lot more to go. In the last week, I’ve secured a way to get Internet on the farm (using a Verizon Wireless MiFi 2200 Mobile Wi-Fi Modem), which thrills me, since I’ve tried everything else known to man with limited success. Now I can work where I live again. JOY! My biggest concern now is the monthly bill — not the ability to connect. That actually makes me really happy!
I’ve also had the opportunity to travel quite a bit in the late summer and early fall. On the weekends, I’ve traveled to see band competitions, I spent the last part of the summer riding on the back of a motorcycle every chance I got, and I’ve had some of the best conversations in recent memory. Life is pretty darn good.
I’m spending time with a wonderful man who makes me feel like HE’S the tech-geek between the two of us and like I’m some kind of political liberal or something (that’s new!) I’ve never dated anyone who knew more about computers, current events or politics than I do. I must admit, it’s nice to be intellectually engaged in daily conversations.
Alex is loving life on the farm and seems happier than she’s been in ages. She also has a pet – a black Lab named “Max” and she spends every chance she gets running in the woods and dancing in the creek with him.
The downstairs still needs some work, but it’s coming together. I have a great subcontractor that doesn’t say “you can’t” or “I don’t know how” to anything I request. That’s pretty cool. Nevermind that I spend so much time with and on the phone with the contractor that my actual boyfriend calls him my “other” boyfriend. 
I’m planning my garden for the spring, hoping to survive the dust from the construction until we can call it done (hopefully by January), am homeschooling Alex and am taking care of a few choice clients.
December will ramp up homeschooling since the move and all the work we have had to do out here hasn’t been conducive to traditional academics. Alex has learned quite a bit about construction, how a septic system works, how to plant lily of the valley bulbs (several bags full), how to manage recycle vs. burn vs. garbage dump materials from household waste, how to paint walls and how to scrub mortar off freshly laid floor tiles.
It’s all good stuff to know, but rather difficult to document in a lesson plan. Her daily journal, math lessons and constant reading are the only steadfast “lessons” of a traditional nature that have survived this November on the farm. December will be more “traditional” once again.
I’m not taking on any new clients right now and am perfectly happy to serve the ones I have. It’s enough. I don’t have to make money 24/7 to be comfortable on the farm and as the construction costs end and the house gets settled, it will take even less.
I can’t think of a time when I’ve been happier. I literally wake up every morning delighted with my life. I’m not even waiting for the other shoe to fall — I’m just happy. I smile all the time… so much that people comment about it. It’s weird.
There’s much to do and life is going at a break-neck pace with all the projects (both professional and personal) that I have in progress at the moment… but I know that it’s only a SHORT period of time before life slows to a manageable, almost leisurely pace. And the chances are pretty good that it will remain relatively relaxed.
I’m really looking forward to getting the downstairs finished and getting in a kitchen that’s full-size, not the temporary one I am hobbling by with now. It may take all of December and all of January, but this cabin will be exactly what I always knew it could be!
Next week, I’m picking up the van and I’ll then have a little “playhouse” on wheels for weekend trips and the joy of going where ever I want and coming back when I’m darn good and ready. It’s silly for a grown woman to want to have a playhouse, but that’s what it is and I WANT IT!
Freedom. Yeah, that’s the word. That’s what I’m feeling these days, an overwhelming WAVE, a warm and comfy quilt, an entire environment of freedom.
It’s nice.
