It's been a good amount of time since posting. Looking over my last few posts and smiling, I am seeing how much has changed in just a few months. Froggies are long gone to their homes (and likely snuggled in for the winter by now), we've celebrated three birthdays, A turned 18, S turned 6 and I, 38... Plus Halloween fun, Thanksgiving, back to Self Design for another wonderful year of learning.... It's all a blur and now I'm reminded of how valuable blogging can be for recording the smaller details that often get lost in the big picture. Suddenly I felt an urge to update so here I am.
The heavy rain has come at last. And with that, a test for the work we've done on the basement to prevent it from flooding again this year. The work done on the back side of the house actually paid off but what failed miserably over the last 3 days was our submersible pump on the front side... Which led to a basement and all of its contents under 4-6 inches of water once again...
We've got a new pump now, more suited to the type of cavity made for it in our basement floor, and it's working well. We also have a new generator, a purchase that was made this time around after realizing that if the power goes out (which means nothing to power the pump) and we get 48 hours of rain, we'll be under several feet of water, never mind the several inches we just bailed out.
Which has led to talk about climate change, leading to increases in power-outages, and an even greater appreciation and desire for knowing how to survive, even if just for a short time, without conventional things like power, refrigeration, electric/gas heat... and about the merits of preserving food and collecting firewood the way we do each year. Lots of great conversations have come from this experience as they always do.
Oh, one thing I must remember to include is a celebration: K has "officially" begun to read. It is such a magical, wonderful time of growth for him and I am so glad to be part of it. He is able to look at all kinds of words now with the power to decipher their meaning; and is eager for me to help him when he gets temporarily hung up on some weird letter combination thing.... What a world has just opened up for him! I'm so excited for what this means and overjoyed to witness the process.
