We lost a month to my physical recovery. A month of being weakened and tired to the point that a trip to the mailbox was an epic trek. A month of emotional pain that I had to shove down and try to appear normal. A month of laying on the couch and trying to get things in motion over the phone. The first line of attack had to be the driveway. There WAS one, but it was very narrow and it had only been used by wood harvesters and tractors and the ruts were treacherously deep. It would have to be dozed and leveled before it could be used.

One contractor said he would come look at what was needed, ‘sometime this week’. For the next six weeks, he put me off and put me off and then finally said “nope, can’t do it”. By that time, everyone was mostly booked up for the season. I called and called and got more and more frustrated.

The way things work here, it is very much about who you know. I was venting my frustration to a friend one day, and she pulled out her phone, made one call, and handed me a phone number. I called the number, the man agreed to meet me at the property the next day, and the day after that, in the pouring rain, he opened our road for us. Finally, we had some level of progress to point to.

A bit at a time, as my health allowed, we got our campsite set up. The mosquitos swarmed in clouds. We bought bee suits in order to cope with the sheer numbers of them. This is how we met the teenager next door -wandering around in bee suits. Learned later we freaked him out pretty good. First impressions….

Unfortunately, the kitchen tent survived less than 48 hours. We put it up on a Friday. On the Sunday when we went back, the fibreglass poles had splintered under the weight of combined rain and strong wind. It took me 5 hours online, and more money than the tent itself cost to find aluminum replacement poles. It seems that aluminum tent poles are ONLY made in China, like so many things these days.