So I asked for a farm. I had to sell the idea for a while. But with the political climate what it is, Monsanto out to end us all and possible grandbabies in the future the sell just wasn't that hard. So then I went farm hunting. Not in Wisconsin or Arizona so where? Temperate climate, long growing season, near water. Florida had nothing in my price range. Tennessee had some lovely properties but they tended to be very remote. And oddly you'd have over a hundred acres but the view from the farm house always included a trailer. Huh? I ruled out South Georgia because that is all that's wrong with Florida with none of the perks. I searched for farms but I kept in mind demographics, education, average annual incomes. I mean if you grow expensive organic food and no one can afford them well really what's the point. So I found some properties in North Georgia. Interesting fact: places in North Georgia (not Atlanta) have the highest concentration of PhD.'s in the SE. So I concentrated my search there and found two likely prospects. One was 100 acres and fairly remote, on the Alabama line (literally) had a cool house and barn but....no water and lots of yucca plants. For a good laugh I recommend googling how to kill yucca plants. The other was in a valley, with a small lake and near a river that feeds in Lake Weiss. It had a wooden farm house (like every surface in the house was wood) a workshop, garage and barn. But most appealing was it was perfectly manicured and landscaped. I mean it had a stone entrance and black iron gates. I felt that maybe I could handle it. So we made an offer.

I'm going to skip the rant here about financing because its over. But banks don't like to lend money for land just houses. So the whole system is literally forcing us in suburbs. Just saying.

Four MONTHS later I bought my farm. I packed up what I thought I needed out of the house in Phoenix and drove across the country AGAIN! ( I may have omitted we moved ourselves out to AZ and I made the drive 4 times. I know truck butt.

I moved in three days before Thanksgiving and yes I cooked a turkey and everything. China and Silver and Crystal. And the bird was good. Then everyone left. The first few nights were fairly freaky. I mean I had no internet yet. No tv. Just a few lights and frankly there is nothing to compare to 'I am totally alone out here and there are no street lights for miles' darkness. And then one of the dogs locked me out on the porch. Yes I broke the door down and now there will always be a key hidden somewhere. For those of you thinking nefarious things I don't really mind chicken poop anymore so just try finding it. And yes the dog survived but it was a close thing.

So I set about learning how to correctly use a wood burning stove for heat. Rule number one always get enough firewood from the shed before it gets dark. My Amazon orders started to reflect that. A firewood holder for the porch. A sling for carrying firewood. Eventually that upgraded to a wagon. Firestarters and lighters. And all the packaging it came in came in very handy. I'm not proud I cheat when I'm cold.

I found myself thinking OMG what have I done? I've given up a plush though lonely existence in AZ and I'm still alone and in the middle of nowhere. And then the ladybugs arrived. By the thousands. Crawling up the walls, on the ceiling, on me. I'm not exaggerating. They smell BTW. And then the wasps joined them.