You don't have water? What?

By the second week there was still no water. The cistern was in, but not hooked up. The septic was in also; it was not hooked up. They were to do the hook-up themselves. Plus also they needed to hook up electric for the pump. This her husband and she would do together also. One of the things she would tell people when they asked how things were going was that they didn't have water yet. So it was peeing in the woods, whore's baths, and Laundromats for them.

Their friends said, 'well it is like camping. You would do this on a vacation.' Her kids replied, 'yes, except we are not camping.'

There was more than just peeing in the woods to worry about, in the beginning. Like cleaning dishes, or brushing their teeth, cleaning their bodies, drinking. They found that the creek down the first hill and across the first trail they came to, which had some good running water due to the months of heavy snow, was good clean drinking water. So they began to haul water up the hill for everyday use by the gallon. She would fill up 8-10 gallons of water from the running creek a day and walk them to the bottom of the hill. Her older girls would carry them up the hill to the trailer, 2 gallons at a time. It was a big exhausting hill. That was their exercise for the day.

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Marley explaining about how fairies live, in the new fairy creek we just discovered.

Sometimes before they brought the water up they would stay at the bottom of the hill and walk the trails for fun. They began to learn the land. Their walks eventually turned into hikes. They would walk together and talk about girl stuff, discuss a world of "what if's" and "when I grow up's". They started most of their conversations with, "You know what I like?" or "You know what I hate?" or "You know what I wish?" and off they would go on one tangent or another, laughing at each other all the way. Digging into the woods to check on the wild peach trees and blackberries. Looking for daffodils or daisies which seemed to grow everywhere. They would  crawl to the side of the pond and watering holes to check out the status of the frog eggs and tadpoles.

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Baby froggie eggs. Yay! We have a ton of tadpoles with legs and tails that we have been following around all day. Life is real today.  

They began to do this when they worked too, clearing trails with rakes, digging for the garden, hauling good dirt from around the land. Talking, laughing, exploring all the way. It felt happy, even though they, from appearances, were missing so many things. It was a good time, even though it was usually hard work in the hot sun. Just she and her girls, carrying on.

She said, 'Some day when my girls have kids, and their kids think they have it so rough, my girls can laugh and tell them how we made them pee and poo in the woods for weeks while we made our home livable. How we brought their lives to such a state that even a trip to the library was big excitement. When we are long gone, they will have these memories to share with each other. They will laugh about it together. It will bring them closer.'