Wordy Wednesday (Contentment)

02/19/2013

Gracie has really flourished here at the new house. At the old house, I could not let her explore freely due to many dangers. But here, she can really explore. She loves the yard – both front and back. At first, she was very insecure and lacked self-confidence; but lately, she has really blossomed to the point where I will soon have to put a leash on her. I am just not sure how I am going to do this. I want my cats to be free to explore as much as they can; but, Gracie has two speeds: fast and stop.

Yesterday, she took off running from the front yard and headed towards the back. I quickly went after her and when I rounded the corner and there was no sight of her. I panicked. I quickly headed to the back of the house. She ran all the way to the back door and was ready to go inside. She simply had a brain fart and forgot about the front door.

FYI: I think she will always have this issue due to sustaining brain trauma from being hit with a car (which ultimately resulted in losing her front leg). This event happened before we adopted her.

I think we all love this place. At the old place (rental), I just could not breathe. There was not any elbow room between neighbors. Because the houses were crammed together, I wanted privacy and there was none to be had. I wanted a bit of land and most of them (houses) hardly had any land to call one’s own. I felt stifled. And, things had to be done just so (e.g. grass cut) due to HOA regulations.

At this new place, we love the freedom of being ourselves. We have neighbors; but, we have breathing room. If we cannot get around to cutting the grass this week, we will get to it later without concerns of being cited. I do not have to worry about the state of the lawn in the midst of a drought.

I admit it bugged me that people went through the effort of having a perfect manicured lawn while water restrictions were in effect. We had neighbors at the old place that would sit in a chair and water their lawn via hose sprayer to get around the water restrictions in effect – a waste of water, money and time in my humble opinion.

Another reason I love this place is because we can have livestock. The more I am here, the more I want chickens and a goat. I love going outside and seeing cows, a donkey and horses. When I walk down the road to pick up the mail, I often see goats. Once in a blue moon, I will see chickens too.

By the way, the chickens I am seeing are HUGE. The more I see them, the more I suspect they are Plymouth Rocks. More specifically, the Partridge Plymouth Rock. This particular flock seems to just venture out in the early mornings and spend the rest of their time in the coop.

We currently have lots to do around here and keep us busy. I want to start building gardening beds. I want to start building a chicken coop and maybe even a small livestock shelter to temporarily take in (foster) a goat or two. We are tearing down some fencing that surrounded the house. I discovered, by accident, the vast majority of the fence posts are not cemented in the ground; so, Dan has been pulling them up in groups of three or four. This is hard work considering they have been buried six or seven feet deep. The more posts disappear, the more contentment I gain. I do not feel boxed in now. I feel like we have so much land now. Ha!

We also have work to do inside the house which is a top priority at the moment. And, for some reason, we keep putting off the garage conversion. I think the fact we have heard too many horror stories about general contractors is causing us to be hesitant.

Overall, we are content. We love this place. It has been a good move.