So….let’s get real for a minute.

This lifestyle choice is HARD sometimes. Especially when you are responsible for small children and live in a 7×30 ft space. There is absolutely nowhere to break apart. And some days, you just can’t hold together. This was one of those days. And this was a snatched moment while the kids ran to join their friends in the ball field. A stolen moment to just fall apart a little.

It’s been a DAY, y’all! I woke up this morning to this:

Because the reservoir leak I THOUGHT I fixed yesterday was apparently just taking a break, and dumped another 2 gallons on the floor overnight. We have inch-deep puddles on what was supposed to be moving-in day.

Yeah…that did not happen.

Stove is still in pieces, although I THINK I fixed one of the biggest issues. Won’t know for sure until we fire it up again. One of the panels on the back of the stove was a bit warped, combined with washers that were a bit too wide, resulting in a gap for smoke to pour through. At least that’s the hypothesis. A couple $0.17 washers may have fixed the problem, and if not I also got gasket tape and stove sealant cement as plans B and C. I am done playing around.

The roof flashing has been accomplished in our typical redneck fashion. There aren’t any available locally that would fit our size, pitch and orientation, so we made one out of leftover roofing steel. In theory, this is straightforward. In reality….not so much. Hopefully, the nearly-a-tube of high-temp silicon covers the shortcomings adequately for the projected rain tonight. Other arrangements can be made later, should it prove necessary.

Last night, I was about a foot away from a raccoon (through a window), shining a light in its eyes while it tried to break into the recycle storage container. It maintained eye contact and continued its attempted burglary. Bold bugger. It also dug up my kale seedlings. AGAIN. Has hit that particular planter 3 times.