It’s still hard to believe it’s been … only?  … already? a year since we moved out here.

After finally being reunited, we didn’t have much time to rest.  There were some unexpected runs into the city to get things like a small tank for our fish.  Too late for them, unfortunately.  We survived a visit from my mother that had me thinking we made a mistake in moving out here at all.  More trips were made into the city, which is when I discovered I much preferred our minivan with the broken door over a luxury car!  New fish were acquired; Stephen and the Stephens.  Sadly, only Stephen remains of that bunch, though we do now have a pair of algae eaters to keep him company.

Within a week, we hosted our first family dinner, using the bits and pieces of cooking pots (my husband and daughter had to buy new pans soon after arriving), dishes, and whatnot that we could find.  By then, we were discovering that something was wrong with our hot water, but still didn’t know what it was.  We hadn’t even really started on packing up my parents’ things, continuing from what my older brother and his wife had started, and putting them in storage.  We were also discovering just how much worse things were than we expected – and our expectations were very realistic, since I’d stayed here when I came out for my father’s funeral, and had some idea of what was going on.  Even in the time between then and our moving out, things had gotten worse, and more things had disappeared.

At this point, I was seriously thinking it was all a mistake.  We knew we were leaving one set of problems at the housing co-op we left behind for the inevitable problems we would find here.  Such is life.  But did we leave bad for worse?

After a year, I can definitely say we made the right decision.  The environment had gotten so toxic where we were living before, it was affecting all of our health.  I feel bad for my friends who are still trapped there, because they have nowhere else to go.  At least here, things have gotten better, not worse!

We’ve made a lot of improvements in the time we’ve been here, though sometimes it’s hard to look at them as “improvements”, when so much of it was cleaning up the messes others created or left behind.  More like, we’ve made headway in getting this place to where we actually can start improving things.  This place is going to be a money pit, that’s for sure.  It needs new floors, new walls, increased electrical, and will soon need a new roof.  A second bathroom was supposed to be installed this past summer, but that didn’t happen – and for medical reasons, it’s a priority item.  At least almost all the windows were replaced before we got here, though it took one of my brothers a lot to convince my mother it needed to be done.  Both my parents were pretty oblivious to how run down things were getting, and weren’t willing to spend the money in the short term that would prevent more money having to be spent in the long term.  Now that we’re here and taking care of the place for my mother, it’s even more unlikely that my mother will be willing to spend money on the place.  We are, after all, living here for “free”.

We have our work cut out for us, and it will take years to do it.

But we actually can do it, and get it done right.  That, right there, already makes being here an improvement on what we left behind.

The Re-farmer