Patience Edna, Patience...

You blink, and months pass by.  How is that?

I think of our heavenly Father…how 1000 years is but a day.  Time.  We all have it.  We all have choices in how we use it.  How we trade it.  How we treasure it.

For example – I used to trade my time for a paycheck.  I think it’s fair to say we have all done that in our lifetime.  For me, now…being retired…I’m not trading my time any longer.  I have time.  But oddly, something shifted.  I feel I have LESS time than ever.  How is that?

Speaking of time…we were planning on moving into our well house by the end of October (2015).  See this Blog for details.  Bottom line, we wanted to be near our water source for the winter months, and see what it was like to be in a new place, out in the open, out of the woods, and have more room to roam about.  (I even put in a small dog yard to move the dogs with us.)  In the past years, I had stayed many a night in the tiny well house (known as the Wee House) and enjoyed the experience.  Still rustic living – haul and heat H20, etc. etc. etc.  But as for moving the end of October, that didn't happen, but not for lack of trying.  Then, the move crept into November.  And then perhaps a move by Christmas…and then we turned the corner of 2016 and in mid-January the realization of no such move finally hit home.  We are in the old cabin for the duration of the winter. 

The well house?  Well…it will be worked on again this summer and perhaps by next fall, we will try again.  Its “close”, {very close...} but we still need things done before we move in.  Rather…I move in.  I don’t believe Russ will ever totally exit his original cabin.   {Smile}

If you have happened to watch Braving Alaska, featuring four bush families eking out a living in the deep arctic wilderness, you will know Heimo and Edna Korth.  {If you haven’t seen it, I recommend you get your hands on a copy – we’ve watched it to the point we can narrate along.}  Being out in the bush, mail and supplies come by bush plane only several times a year.  One such time, Heimo and Edna (and then-small daughters Rhonda and Krin) are waiting in sub-arctic temps, watching for the plane.  The plane arrives and all the formalities of greetings take place between the pilot (now deceased Roger Dowding, from a plane crash on the Brooks Range), and Heimo.  As Edna cranes her neck and attempts to peek at the storage behind the pilot’s seat, she innocently asks “where’s the mail?  Where's the mail Roger?”.  Roger says…”patience Edna, patience”.  With that, Edna laughs softly, looks to Heimo and steps back to wait her delivery.   What’s a couple more minutes when you have waited 4 months or so. 

Patience.  It’s a virtue I’ve been told.  It’s also listed in the Bible as one of the 9 “fruits of the spirit”, which shows you are living a Christ-like vine-life.  {My Bible lists patience as "long suffering"...}  It's a necessity of life.  It’s also hard.  

I pray for patience.  Patience for “worldly” things that make living easier.  Patience for our Lord, Jesus, to return, ever the victor.  {I can’t wait to see that white horse!}  Patience for patience. 

As for us moving to the expanded Wee/Outer Wee/Well House, whatever you call it, it will come.  In time.  The good thing is, we choose to live mortgage free, which cascades down even further with what typical Americans buy into.  Every step in building is done by hand, with already-paid-for materials.  The wood is felled and hand cut and milled from our 40 acres.  Step by step.  We live this way so we don’t have to give up our time to go out into the world and trade it for money.  We use what we have and what is refurbished and tossed aside by others. 

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.

So we may not have much, by “normal” standards, but truthfully, we don’t need much.  We have all seen where we get a new job with higher pay, only to have more bills that suck up that excess.  The key is…no debt.  When you have no debt (or very little), your money is yours.  {The Bible also instructs us in this, by telling us that the borrower is slave to the lender.  If you haven’t experienced this, go borrow money from a relative or friend.} 

As for us, we will never be “rich”, but our time is ours, and to coin a phrase from mountain man Eustace Conway…”…what do we do for a living?  We live for a living!”  Money becomes something so mundane.  If you are a Foxfire reader, you may remember reading the life story of Beulah Perry.  It’s a must read.  She talks about money not being a part of the equation for a good, rich life.  Beulah lived a poor/rich life.  And of course, the Bible has lots to say about the love of money. 

So, as I work on patience and all it entails, I am dreaming about many spring activities.  One is turkey hunting.  I will get that gobbler this spring, Lord willing!  Russ is getting his new sugar shack tricked out – he now has it in our hoop house area – the best option ever. 

I’m also excited about doing what I had set out to do last summer, which is take up residence in the Bear’s Den.  I want to move some of our chickens out there, take my sled dog Malakai at night, and see just what it takes to live in a small place with books, a flashlight and some survival cooking gear.  It can only make me more well-rounded in the area of efficiency, something I seem to lack these days.  But the “bushy” winter days won’t last, and I’ve been praying a prayer of gratefulness to our Father for the warm winter.  Its perfect – lots of snow – but so far no -43 temps.  We’ll see how we fare in February and March.  And April. 

I hope you are doing well this winter.  I’d love to hear from you.  My old Blog pals have gone silent too.  It would be good to connect and hear what other farms  and families are doing. 

Blessings –

Sherry