Zero hour

Today marks the point that I have two weeks left in this rathole of a house. We can hear the neighbors constantly downstairs, and their daughter is awake at all hours of the night. Kinda like me, except I'm actually working.
To be fair, my kid is pretty loud too. I'm sure they've commented on it to themselves a few times, especially when we're disciplining her. I know that in many countries, having a room for a family constitutes the lap of luxury, but I've got an entire mobile on 156 acres waiting for me, so this arrangement is less and less appealing to me as time goes on.
We got the money! To say that it came just in the nick of time wouldn't cut it. One more day, and we would have had to sell some body parts to pay some bills. I was looking into a car title loan at the local pawnshop, that's how bad it got. I borrowed $60 from my little girls piggy bank to buy some food, and we were still way overdrawn on our chequing account. It's not that I didn't budget properly, but the loan we just got was supposed to be done a while ago, and there were some things that I had to pay for out of my paycheck. Plus, this paycheck has all of our loan payments on it, which was poor planning on my part.
Tommorow I put in the power, which means a drive to Red Deer, and then a drive to our farm. And to boot, I just got off the graveyard shift, which means I haven't slept very much. I'll catch up on sleep tonite, and then put foot to ass for a couple of days to get some very important things done.
The propane guys will be there on Tuesday, and I need to be there with electricity! Tommorow will be trenching day, I plan on renting one of those big trenching gigs for about 200 feet of trenches. Doing that by hand with a pickaxe is NOT an option!!!!! I want to actually be alive to move into this place.
I need to buy some batteries, but I'm not sure how many. I'm thinking 12, but I might do 8 and then another 8 in 6-8 months. They are horribly expensive, but they are the best quality, and I don't really need 5 days of power storage right now, since we're running off of mainly generator power. We will not have the turbine ready for move in, but it's fine, we'll just charge the batteries with the genny every day for a few hours. We have a 4500watt generator, so two hours on that will give us all the power that we actually use in a day! Hopefully this thing isn't going to crap out on me after a month...it is supposed to be pretty reliable.

I've got a lot of work to do, but now we actually have the money to do this!

I'd like to add a personal note about my family's viewpoint on our move. I never really realized it, but they don't want us to move! They kept saying that we were being impulsive, and we were thinking things through, and they were worried that this was going to cost us soooo much more than we thought (even after all the quotes came in!)
It wasn't until I had talked with them at length that I realized the truth. They didn't think we should be moving at all! I'm sure they'd deny it, but deep down, it's true.
The worst aspect of this move is the distance from the city...I've got about an hour and 15-20 minute drive to get to work. I work 16 days per month, and it's shiftwork, so it isn't going to be easy, but truth be told, I don't mind the drive at all! I like to be able to think about things, and having an hour to myself is actually a very nice thing. My family doesn't believe me, but we'll see in time. There are certain things that I decided that I will put up with, and the drive time is one of those things. If that's the worst thing, consider the benefits over living in the city!
- No irritating neighbors keeping you awake till 1 am
- Park anywhere you want.
- Dig a hole anywhere, for any reason.
- My daughter can walk anywhere without me worrying that she's going to get hit by a car, or....
- I can grow my own food.
- I have very few bills, and if I really wanted to, I could live without ANY of the monthly things I pay for! In the city, if you lose power, you lose heat too. My heat comes from the end of my axe, and needs no power.
- I will become more fit doing farm chores
- My wife will have many things to keep busy (she wants rabbits)
- I can shoot a gun on my land without the police getting called.
- My nearest neighbor cannot see into my windows, does not play in a Heavy Metal band in his garage, and can't hear anything that we do!
- My taxes are $200/year.
- I don't have to drink fluoridated water, or bathe in it.
- I can plant a grove of trees, and watch it grow.
- I can drink RAW milk!!! (When we actually get a cow)
- I can build the house of our dreams down the road.
- I can make a lot of money selling farm produce. Well, a bit of money anyway.
- We will be self-sufficient in time. Have you been reading the economic news lately?
- I will be able to build a private lake (Seadoos anyone?)
- We have our own toboggan hill
- My daughter will not grow up thinking that we live in Somalia
- I can nourish my crackpot conspiracy theories without fear of gov't surveillance (haha, just kidding...sort of)
- When the lights go out in the city, there is no food in your local Safeway, and your heat doesn't work in February, you will think "I've got to find that guy with all the land! I bet he has food!" You will look for me, but you will not find me. Only just now can I find my own land without a GPS, and I've been there 100 times! Good luck getting there with no gas either.
- When there is no food, we will be able to provide food and seeds for those that God directs us to. Did you know your lawn will grow enough food for 3 people for a year? But, you don't have any seeds to grow food with! Ok, we can help you. Seriously though, maybe you should find some seeds...just in case.
- I can roam around my land on a quad, or a horse.
- We have our own swamp. Do you have a swamp?
- No smog
- Have you ever seen the stars at night with no other lights around? I plan to do this for the first time very soon.
- No sound of traffic, police sirens, fire trucks, and police takedowns at gunpoint 50 feet from my house.
- The sound of crickets is very soothing. Or maybe you prefer the sound of drunk idiots cursing, and squealing tires at 3 am.
- I can finally find out what a "roll in the hay" is actually like!
- I can crank the Country Music LOUD!
and finally...
- We can live the way God meant for people to live.
Isaiah 5:8
"Woe to you who add house to house
and join field to field
till no space is left
and you live alone in the land."
Do you really like living 6 feet away from your neighbor?

But lest I should get a fat head, and think that I'm such a smart guy, this comes from the same chapter..
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight!

Thank you Lord for this land. May it be a place set aside to You for Your Glory.