I went over to C&C’s this afternoon to borrow a wheelbarrow and a shovel so I could keep working on my leaves. What an exercise in futility, what with the wind! But I’m going to keep at it, if only to pull up the rotten layer that is turning to humus and ruining the grass.

While outside, I finally met the easterly neighbour into whose kitchen I look from the office. Let’s call him Nels. 🙂 He’s very nice and was surprisingly chatty. I brought up the subject of the property line and he said he wasn’t too sure, but that it made sense for it to be along the row of mature trees and shed. I joked that his dead pickup sticking out behind the shed is on my lot and he told me he’s trying to get rid of it. That would be nice because once I get the rig on the back of the lot, no pickup will mean a view of the church.

At some point, Laura came by with some goodies for me. The first item was three chairs, the canvas kind on tubing that fold to fit into a bag. I have a few, but they don’t have arm rests or cup holders. She also had a rake for me, the kind for moving dirt, not for leaves, and a water hose. I will be glad to leave my ridiculously long water hose here and take this other one with me on my travels.

Laura also told me that Charles spoke to the disagreeable man (okay, let’s call him… Hiram), who is suddenly a heck of a lot less disagreeable. Hiram has given me permission to help myself to all the pallets on his property and anything else that catches my eye. There is a lot of weathered lumber that I could put to good use and I spotted a cute little BBQ that is in super good shape inside, although the exterior could use a little paint. I’m going to confirm with Charles that anything does mean anything before I grab stuff other than the lumber, though.

The pallets will start off as a nice big deck for Miranda once she’s squared away, and later they will be repurposed when I start working on the grainery. I can also see myself using a few to make a compost bin. I just need to figure out where to stack them so that I don’t have to move them to get Miranda further back or to fit in the grainery. I have a feeling that the grainery is going to come faster than expected.

Tomorrow will likely be a town day as I need some groceries, but I’m really not that eager to go out. I was so sure I’d go stir crazy here, but now that I have friends, the days go by very fast! Since I don’t need very much, I think I will try the store in Willow Bunch, which is much closer, provided the gravel road is in good shape.

I hope we get the promised sun tomorrow. My batteries need a good soak! But they are holding up fine. With an hour of charging in the morning, I’m holding steady between 75% and 81%. Not great, but I’ve been able to do everything I need to do, including print some documents for a work project I’m doing. I’ve come a long way from the electrical struggles I had on the beach!