Trouble at the Kowpound…from 2016

 

Uh-oh…..

 

So, this is the first picture we took of what we thought, then, was the Kowpound. We were super scared and nervous. We had gone to scout it out. Hubs had a cool program for his phone that put those lines and stuff on there. But we were upset because THERE’S A CONTAINER ON THE PROPERTY!! That is not our container…..

We were getting ready to start doing the things! How could this happen? Did someone already squat on our land?!

It doesn’t really get more rural or barren than that. I mean, for reals….we had to get to the bottom of this!

Turns out, this sale had gone through a place called “Government Land Sales”, which sells off previously federally owned land. When I had first communicated about taking over the contract on what was my son’s property then, we had email exchanges between a guy who works at this place. He had sent us an internet link we had saved, and it went to this plot of land. On further investigation and after I’d sent the panicked email, the guy emails back and apologizes. I guess they recycle the links based on which pieces of land are still available. He actually had a few, so he had said which he thought was the best, and since this had all come up, they’d be willing to give us any of those available, for just like a hundred dollar transfer fee, or whatever.

Now, for folks who are saying “Wow, that’s great, but I’m sure that’s not affordable for me.” Government Land Sales, people. It is rural. There are no improved roads. Everything is dirty. BUT. buying ten acres of land out here was less than the cost of a car. It was literally about $10k. 10 acres. We aren’t sure yet, even still, if we will have water or how we will solve the water issue. It’s near a military installation, but as I’ve already said, it’s beautiful and we’ve fallen in love with it….

We are going to try to make it work….the story continues moving forward, but trying to get in the habit of writing again. Here’s another sunset, from the early days…

Peace….

What was the most painful thing I ever went through?!

 

(this post was from Open Diary, my first online journaling home, and when they were awesome, they used to post a "theme of the week". This was my response to that weeks theme.)

Without a doubt, the most painful thing I have ever gone through is the process and act or losing this woman. This is me and my mom. She passed away in December of 2006. The year she left us, this was the picture we took on opening day of the Oakland A’s. She was a rabid Bay Area baseball fan, really a fan of all baseball.

She was ready to go, but that didn’t make it suck any less. She had a massive stroke that pretty much decimated 3/4’s of her brain. Had she had a milder stroke, she would have woken with us talking about amputation for one of her feet, that had become gangrenous due to complications from type 2 diabetes.

She was my best friend. I miss her every day. There are a million ways in which I wish she was still here, or that I could talk to her again. But not at the cost of her continuing to live or being more disabled than she became at the end. She told me, once, near the end, “If anything happens to me, you let me go. I HATE being disabled! I have been a strong independent woman my entire life and now I’m not. I am done with this life, when it’s my time, I am ready to go.”

After the stroke, we had no way to take care of her at home, so she had to go to a nursing home. I lived with her in the nursing home until she passed. The sad and terrible thing about that is that it was a relatively new facility at the time and I was the first person who ever stayed with their loved one so they would not have to die alone.

Yeah, that. You only get to help your parents and loved ones die with dignity once. Put the paperwork in place if and as soon as you can. We didn’t do that and it caused more pain in the end, I think. But I will always be glad I advocated for my mom and her wishes.

Peace.

What was the most painful thing you ever went through? What did you learn from it?

Remember to tag your entry #TOTW68 down at the bottom, so it will end up on the Theme Page!

Preparing for the future…

 One thing I haven’t written about here. Just shy of six years ago, my son was active duty in the Army. He was on his third deployment to Afghanistan and I  think he would agree the most difficult. He used to message me while I was at work, and we’d talk about things that didn’t have to do with war. He was starting to dream of life outside the military, and that turned to future plans. I think Americans have like, this innate sense of a need, in some respects to pioneer. I’m sure like our forefathers, the IDEA of pioneering or off-grid is often very different from reality.

My son bought some property site unseen in very rural county in which we live in Nevada. I drove out to scope it out for him. We would talk all sorts of plans for the future.  I’d like to think it helped keep him sane during that last deployment…

As time and plans changed,  he ended up getting out of the army and settling in Washington state. He bought a lovely house and was happy there. He now lives overseas, but just shy of four years ago, he told me he would need to sell the Nevada property. I told him not to, discussed with my husband, and we bought it from him.

There is something magical about this place. It’s so quiet. It’s in a valley with hardly any trees, but surrounded by mountains. We call it the Kowbus Kompound and Manifestation Station. As of now, it’s our off-grid retirement plan. I think this blog may turn in to my Kow Bus story land and documentation.

Here’s a sunset:

That’s what I’ve got for now….

Peace.