– Reflection – – GILCHREST

As this phase of the land improvement comes to a close, I sit in reflection. I have been present here on site for the last two and a half weeks learning the land, the wildlife and the nuances that come with our little spot on this earth. I am an artist…so, I don’t have a 9 to 5. Garnett, on the other hand, has had to leave during the week for work back in the city. I know without a doubt that it was so difficult for him to leave. This is why I felt the importance of writing these blog posts so he could see the progress. I am grateful that I was able to stay and “supervise” the work being accomplished. The guys working were awesome. They knew that I was here by myself some of the time and asked repeatedly if I needed anything…ice, gas, food, etc.

As the storms rolled in around the middle of these improvements, I was here alone. Never once was I afraid! My dad gave me my creativity and love for building/creating things…the vision to see something out of nothing, the ability to look through my mind’s eye. This gave me the ability to see this undeveloped land as my canvas and to visualize our homestead here. My mom gave me resilience…the ability and desire to tackle anything that I put my mind to, to accomplish and see things through to the end. My brother taught me to be tough…to stand up to anything in life with courage, to protect myself at all costs. He taught me how to fight, handle guns and how to shoot. Armed with all of that, I sometimes think that I am invincible.

Garnett knows this is who I am. He encourages my independence. He knows when I am faced with something that I don’t quite know how to handle, I will ask for help…just like the night the generator decided to quit working. He was the one I called and is always there for me…always.

Anyway, I digress…

Has it been difficult? Yes. We don’t have running water here on the mountain. We don’t have electricity yet. There is no refrigerator to keep the food cold. But, we do have a camper van running off of a generator for a comfortable place to sleep that has a very cold A/C. We have handmade quilts to snuggle under when the van reaches a chilly 62 degrees. We have a porti-potty so I don’t have to go out in the middle of the night to the “out house”, which is a Haulmark trailer. We take outside showers which are absolutely phenomenal and so freeing. You should try it sometime! We have Yeti coolers to keep our food cold…and a kettle to brew our morning coffee.

Some could not understand why we would sell our newly built, massive three story house only to start completely over. This is why: land out of the city with no rules, gorgeous sunsets, million of stars twinkling in the night sky, the moon shining so bright it almost seems like daytime, the milky way visible by the naked eye, woods filled with life, birds singing, a roaring fire pit as we sit out in the fall evenings, the sandstone dirt under our feet glistening like diamonds and endless possibilities.

At one point I said to Garnett, “I have went from living in a million dollar home to pooping in a trailer.” We both laughed and said simultaneously “…and we love it!” Will we build another million dollar home here? Absolutely not! …..but we will build a life together here that we love, that we are proud of and that is comfortable.

Thanks for taking this journey with us and I can’t wait to have everyone out for a cookout soon!

p.s. I promise that you won’t have to use an outhouse! lol