40 Hours on the Edge

Sure you’re wondering about the title. Hold on. 

On Saturday, April 30th Gary had me pull a stuck tick off his stomach.  The tick had been there awhile nibbling on the free Gary buffet.   Because of the upcoming house building he couldn’t afford to get sick so he went to the ER in Moose Lake to have the area checked out.  After being assured he had no co-pay, he went ahead with the treatment.  The guy working the front desk apparently was hungover and informed Gary he made a mistake.  He owed $450 for the visit.  We have a lot of ticks here.  One decided to move into my bellybutton and play house.  I threw it in the wood stove and watched it burn baby burn.  I’m on a fixed income  I can’t afford a $450 tick bite!

Gary was able to get the electric hooked up after digging a trench.  We  passed the inspection which was nerve wracking.  We’ve had a lot of rain in May which has delayed the excavation and getting the footings and blocks poured but it was finally done on May 25th.  Then he started working on the plumbing in the mud on May 28th. We are hoping to have the in-floor heat done by June 6th to get the floor poured and then the actual building can begin.  If all the stars align and we splash some holy water on the dirt and no black cats walk under a ladder, it may happen.

So after a nice Memorial weekend, we were just settling in for the night when we lost power about 8 pm Monday.  It was storming but passed thru quickly. And this is when our 40 hours began. We thought we’d surely have power when we got up the next day but the storm was worse than we thought and a lot of people lost power. We had no way of knowing what was going on so after finally contacting the electric company we were told it may be awhile and we should just check the website for updates.  Really?  We have no power means we have no internet. This chick must have been partying with the ER guy.   And Gary’s phone was dead, mine was dying, we’re in the middle of the woods.  Do the ticks care?  No. They just keep looking for a warm bellybutton.

Ok.  I’m going to be honest. Living in the back of a shed is tough. Living in the back of a shed with no power is a little piece of hell. We didn’t want to open the frig or freezer and we couldn’t cook anything anyway so popcorn was for lunch and crackers for dinner.  I used the good paper plates tho.  I just kept thinking about all the food we didn’t get to eat.  I was saving a really good frozen pizza for a special occasion and now it was trash. I know a lot of people have it worse but it’s a pizza with extra cheese.

The power came back at noon on Wednesday.  It was one of the happiest moments of my life right after finding a dollar in an ATM someone forgot.  Trusses showed up yesterday and are spread over the yard.  I think we’re in business. All fingers are crossed which makes typing difficult.