First Summer in My Little Home

My lovely summer is coming to an end. Nearly time to return to work, well, as much as we can return to work, which means being online for the fall semester. From my cozy house out in a little town.

And I can't say that I'm sad I won't be returning to campus. I do miss my friends. A lot. But I truly love being out here, awakening to the orchestra that is birdsong outside my bedroom window, sitting on the front porch every morning and evening, wandering through the garden that surrounds the house and finding beautiful little surprises from one day to the next. And while I didn't get the deck on the back of the house (lumber shortage due to the pandemic) or the garage door opener installed (not in a hurry to get this done), those will happen. Just not right now. 

Mostly I've just been enjoying being here. The quiet when I wake up during the night is wonderful. The owls calling back and forth make me not want to fall back to sleep. So far, because the temps have stayed somewhat reasonable all summer, I've only had my windows closed for maybe a week. I'm not an air conditioner person, but I'll turn it on for Ado. He suffers when the temps get into the high 80's and low 90's. I've learned I can set the thermostat at 78 and it feels nice and cool throughout the house.

I had the fireplace people out in early July to give me a rundown of what it will take to make the fireplace wood burning again. The price to make this happen far outweighs my desire to have wood burning. The more cost effective alternative is a ventless gas insert, so that is on the list for late October. 

There are two dead trees on the property, and I had considered having them removed. Then, just the other day as Ado and I returned from a late-morning walk, I noticed the shadow the one tree created on the lawn. It reminded me of a spirograph. The shadow was truly beautiful, so I decided to leave the tree. It's not near anything it can harm if it ends up falling over. It'll just be a mess to clean up, which I can do. The other tree is a birch, and even though it has no leaves, the limbs are lovely. Every morning it drips with sparkly dew drops. After a rain, it looks like it's draped with tiny diamonds. That tree is close to the house, and I know I should have an arborist come out to give me the low-down on it, but I can't bring myself to remove it. Not yet.

The one project that did get completed this summer is the electrical box. The one that came with the house was ridiculous. The house inspector showed me what he considered an issue but not a big enough issue that anything needed to be done. When my handyman inspected the box, his reaction was much different. He advised me to make changing the box and breakers my number one priority. This meant putting a new meter on the house, too. I trust his judgment, so that is the one thing that was taken care of. In the process, he taught me how to install a breaker and connect the wires. We also learned whoever wired the house didn't really have any rhyme or reason to their method. Part of one room along with part of another room were wired together (if that makes sense). After each new breaker was installed and wired, I would run up the basement stairs and go from room to room to room to figure out which outlets and overhead lights were wired to that breaker. We got it sorted out, both of us shaking our heads the entire time. I was just glad the house is small.

Along with enjoying my new home, I've read quite a few books, took an online lecture series about avoiding resistance/not clinging, brushed up on my algebra (which I'm finding so much fun!), created a little workout space in the basement complete with punching bag, and fell into a nice routine of walks with Ado, practicing yoga, and getting some quality meditation sessions in. I've cycled some, getting to know the back roads in the area, even bringing out the mountain bike to have some fun on the gravel roads. Oh, and mowing the lawn at least every five or six days. This summer we've been fortunate to have a good, soaking rain at least once a week, so the grass has grown and stayed vibrant green all summer. 

Now, just a few days of summer break remain, and I intend to continue enjoying them thoroughly.