New Life in the Woods

Well, a lot has happened since I last wrote to you all here. About a month ago the landlord and her brother returned to continue work on the roof of the main house. They were angry that I hadn’t gotten anything done on their projects up here in their absence (during the 104 to 108 degree days we had for two weeks after my mother’s visit). I tried to explain that I was working on other repairs and I wasn’t about to go slave under that hot sun unpaid for several weeks, etc., but it quickly became clear to me that there was little point arguing about it. Susan did pay me for about 10 hours of work during that visit but then Guy (Susan’s Brother) made it clear that I could either continue to work in exchange for rent or get in my car and leave immediately. Again, I decided not to argue with him and worked the following two weeks for free, in essence, during a time when I had planned to do an extensive job search. All-in-all it was a miserable time and any “magic” that I once felt that this place held has since fled and it seems now as though it never existed.

I was too angry to even write about it at the time, so that’s why it has been such a long break since my last post. I have largely avoided talking about my emotional state during my time up here for a variety of reasons, but now that I am doing a bit better in general, I may start to reflect on it a bit more in these pages.

Meanwhile, my job search following that episode did bear fruit and I now have a job working for SOASTC  (http://www.soastc.org/) as a “Childcare Worker” or “Milieu Worker” at one of their group homes. I have already started the first week, filling in for someone who left the night shift, so I have been adjusting to working overnight and sleeping during the day and it all seems pretty chaotic right now. Next week, however, I will switch to working the evening shift (3-11) on a regular basis and that should be much easier to adapt to. There are also staff meetings on Wednesday at noon or 1 PM (not sure yet) and Training sessions on Thursday from 9-1 PM or so that I will start attending at some point. I believe that both are billable time so I should average well over 40 hours per week, even if I don’t take extra shifts, which I understand is a frequent opportunity. The pay is not great, starting at about $10.30 an hour, but it is enough and should help me get back on my feet and even start to pay off some debts at some point.

Of course, this will leave me a lot less time to work on the cabin and get ready for the Winter. The two big things I need to get done are to hang the drywall on the ceilings (upstairs and down) and build a wood shed for my firewood this Winter. Luckily, I have the scaffolding up inside in the area over the woodstove and a couple sheets put up there already (the hardest ones of all) so I have a good start on it. I hope to have that area done and buy some paint next month so I can at least get a primer coat up while the scaffolding is still there. Then, once the scaffolding comes down, part of it will serve as the floor of the wood shed I have planned. Around the time I start to work on that, I should be able to start using the chainsaw again. Right now the fire danger in this area is such that chainsaws are pretty much banned in the woods. The upside of having the job though, is that I will be able to afford to get the water refilled and even order firewood delivered if needed as the Winter progresses, so I won’t have to stress about those things as much.

Next time I will write and let you all know a bit more about the new job and how it is going. Hope everything is well with all of you out there!