A Thanksgiving Homecoming!

At the start of the year I’d deemed 2013 the “Year of the House”.  I do that…give a theme to each year, and a word to live by.  I pick a handful of very specific goals for the year–not a resolution, but–improvements of my person or my life, goals that I want to accomplish, and the word and theme that I choose directly relates to my goals for that year.  I had only 1 goal to focus on this year–and that was to move our family back to the forested hillside that we call home, and to move Runamuk there and dig in–literally.  So this year could only be “The Year of the House”, and the word I chose to live by during 2013 could only be “Purpose”.

I am so elated to be able to say that the purpose which has propelled me forward this year, and indeed for the last several years–has led me to success.  We are finally going home.

Ground-work will soon begin at the site of the Runamuk farm.  After a grueling struggle with various banks and financial institutions this year, we’ve finally been approved for a mortgage loan on a new mobile home and a drilled well.  We will be able to move in just before Thanksgiving.  And I am so thankful.

I’ll be the first to admit that this was not the end-result I’d envisioned last December when we were initially gifted the land by Keith’s parents.  And I’ll also admit, I’m greatly prejudiced against mobile and manufactured homes.  I’ve lived in them before, I know full well the social stigma attached to them, and–if you recall–the reason we were forced to leave our little forest-haven in the first place was because we were living in an old trailer that had fairly rotted around us, creating an unhealthy environment for raising our boys.  I was blissfully happy raising babies in the woods without plumbing.  Moving into town was not a path I wanted to take.

But as summer went on and we met with failure at every turn, I was forced to take a good hard look at myself.  Who the hell did I think I was?  Was I too good to live in a trailer?  Was I so proud that I would let an opportunity to go home–to be on my own land–pass me by???  And what was the goal for the year?  What was it I had been working towards for the last 5 years?  And hadn’t I promised myself, the trees, and the hillside–that I would be back in 5 years, come hell or high water?

And so I took it.  I seized the opportunity to move back to that hillside–even if it means living in a trailer–a mobile home.  Again.

Things will be different this time around, though.  Our trailer will be brand spanking new–built especially for us–not some ramshackle old thing that’s already sustained damage in a flood like our first trailer was.  We’re going to have a new well, and plumbing.  I look at it as an investment in our farm and business.  The long term goal is still to build a cordwood house to live in, the trailer will become my honey house and commercial kitchen.  With that in mind, I am eager to move forward.

Runamuk is ready to expand–to grow into new areas of agriculture.  Keith and I are ready to work with our land to act as stewards of the land and create an optimal and healthy ecosystem for wildlife and livestock.  We are chomping at the bit to be able to pour our sweat and blood–and love–into it all.

So stay tuned folks!  Great things are about to happen at Runamuk, and I will keep you apprised of the latest going-ons right here at the Runamuk blog–your window into our little fledgeling farm.