Prior to selling our house, we already owned a travel trailer. It was a small one which we used to go camping. We wanted a much bigger one since we were planning on living in it for a while. So we placed our smaller one up for sale with the intention of buying the new one with the money we received. Like everything else, that travel trailer sold fast, right before the house sold but not in time to go shopping for a new one. Thankfully, I had a family member with a motor home which he wasn't going to need for another month. He offered to let us borrow it until we got our own and we thankfully accepted.
So our first night in the woods was going to be spent in the borrowed motor home. It was the beginning of August and the hottest, most humid part of summer. We had no electricity in the woods. We also had no water and no septic tank. We were happy to have the motor home, or so we thought. The generator didn't work, the pump didn't work and neither did most of the rest of the interior. It was so hot in there that it was nearly impossible to sleep. We were tired from moving all day so we decided to make the best of it and deal with all the problems in the morning after a nights sleep.
Since it was so late and we were tired from the move, sleep actually came easy despite the hot conditions. When the sun came up in the morning it wasn't difficult to wake up early and leave the stifling heat of the motor home. It was Saturday morning and we had plenty to do.
We hadn't really unpacked or set up the motor home since it was going to be temporary. We were just parked in the pasture surrounded by trees. We had placed the rabbits in their hutches near the treeline in the shade. The chickens which were a young new flock were in their house near the rabbits and the dogs were in their own dog pen. There was no fence to mark the living area. The perimeter fence was acres away and we would have to work on other fencing to keep the cows and deer out of the living area. For now, we were fine dealing with the daily visits from the cows and deer right up to the front door.
It was a bright clear day which promised to be another scorcher. Since we couldn't do anything about a well or septic tank and we had a place to sleep we decided to go shopping for a generator so we would have a way to power the motor home now and our own travel trailer later. We headed out and bought an expensive, highly recommended generator that would easily power a whole house in the future. We hauled it home and set it up,plugged in the motor home and were pleased to have limited power. Unfortunately, there were still some things that just wouldn't work. Clearly, there were some wiring issues with the motor home.
We decided that we would get a jump start on the travel trailer and we left again to go window shopping. We knew we couldn't buy until Monday when the dealers and banks opened. We spent a couple hours looking at travel trailers before we headed back "home" for the rest of the day. The sky was clouding up and we wanted to check on the animals.
When we got home it had already stormed while we were gone. The cover we had temporarily placed over the chickens for shade had blown off and they had become scared in the storm and piled up in the hot house. When we opened the door to check on them they rolled out of the house. Twenty one chickens were dead from the heat in the house. I was heartbroken over those poor chickens. I had hand raised them and they were almost ready to lay. I was so discouraged by the loss of my new flock that I began to question our decision to move. I hated every shovel full of hard red clay that covered their grave.
I still felt like there was a purpose in our move so I was determined to get past the negative parts of the process. We decided we would relax the rest of the day. We prepared a meal and tried to look at the bright side of things. We talked about what we would do first. We planned how we would build our barnyard and our pens. We walked through the woods and just enjoyed the rest of the day.
When darkness creeped in we built a campfire and enjoyed the peaceful time before going in for the night. Tom is quick to go to sleep and once there he sleeps heavy. I tend to stay up later and wake easily at the least little sound. That night after reading for a while, I turned out the light and finally went to sleep.
It was 3:00 in the morning when I was jolted awake by the most horrible sound I have ever heard. It was a scream of some sort but it was like nothing I could describe. It was a long, loud terrible sound that had to be something or someone in pain. I sat straight up in bed, physically shaking, with the hairs on my arms and neck standing straight up. Then, just like that the scream was cut off. I KNEW with every fiber of my being that I had heard death. Whatever was screaming had screamed its last painful dying breath.
I was surprised to find that Tom had slept through it. I woke him up and told him something was outside and described what I had heard. He got up and grabbed the gun. Together we went outside to look around. The air was still and heavy but there were no noises. It wasn't just the quiet of night though. It was the quiet when even the crickets and the night time creatures hold their breath. It was the quiet of fear and waiting. We spent some time waiting and watching but didn't hear or see anything so we finally went back inside to try to go back to sleep.
Tom had no problem going straight to sleep but I was awake and staying that way. I decided to go back outside and sit by the blackened campfire. I quietly closed the door behind me and crept down the steps into the midst of the vision. The people of the camp were waiting on me. They were sitting by their campfires softly talking and working. Some of them were doing needlework while others worked on other varied projects. The coffee pot was bubbling away on the edge of the fire. I walked into their circle and sat among them. They had even saved me a spot and so I began my new life living with the people of the vision. I realized that they had been waiting twenty years for me to join them. I also knew that I was finally home and that I had been waiting too. It was time to fully embrace what I felt was my calling.
So our first night in the woods was going to be spent in the borrowed motor home. It was the beginning of August and the hottest, most humid part of summer. We had no electricity in the woods. We also had no water and no septic tank. We were happy to have the motor home, or so we thought. The generator didn't work, the pump didn't work and neither did most of the rest of the interior. It was so hot in there that it was nearly impossible to sleep. We were tired from moving all day so we decided to make the best of it and deal with all the problems in the morning after a nights sleep.
Since it was so late and we were tired from the move, sleep actually came easy despite the hot conditions. When the sun came up in the morning it wasn't difficult to wake up early and leave the stifling heat of the motor home. It was Saturday morning and we had plenty to do.
We hadn't really unpacked or set up the motor home since it was going to be temporary. We were just parked in the pasture surrounded by trees. We had placed the rabbits in their hutches near the treeline in the shade. The chickens which were a young new flock were in their house near the rabbits and the dogs were in their own dog pen. There was no fence to mark the living area. The perimeter fence was acres away and we would have to work on other fencing to keep the cows and deer out of the living area. For now, we were fine dealing with the daily visits from the cows and deer right up to the front door.
It was a bright clear day which promised to be another scorcher. Since we couldn't do anything about a well or septic tank and we had a place to sleep we decided to go shopping for a generator so we would have a way to power the motor home now and our own travel trailer later. We headed out and bought an expensive, highly recommended generator that would easily power a whole house in the future. We hauled it home and set it up,plugged in the motor home and were pleased to have limited power. Unfortunately, there were still some things that just wouldn't work. Clearly, there were some wiring issues with the motor home.
We decided that we would get a jump start on the travel trailer and we left again to go window shopping. We knew we couldn't buy until Monday when the dealers and banks opened. We spent a couple hours looking at travel trailers before we headed back "home" for the rest of the day. The sky was clouding up and we wanted to check on the animals.
When we got home it had already stormed while we were gone. The cover we had temporarily placed over the chickens for shade had blown off and they had become scared in the storm and piled up in the hot house. When we opened the door to check on them they rolled out of the house. Twenty one chickens were dead from the heat in the house. I was heartbroken over those poor chickens. I had hand raised them and they were almost ready to lay. I was so discouraged by the loss of my new flock that I began to question our decision to move. I hated every shovel full of hard red clay that covered their grave.
I still felt like there was a purpose in our move so I was determined to get past the negative parts of the process. We decided we would relax the rest of the day. We prepared a meal and tried to look at the bright side of things. We talked about what we would do first. We planned how we would build our barnyard and our pens. We walked through the woods and just enjoyed the rest of the day.
When darkness creeped in we built a campfire and enjoyed the peaceful time before going in for the night. Tom is quick to go to sleep and once there he sleeps heavy. I tend to stay up later and wake easily at the least little sound. That night after reading for a while, I turned out the light and finally went to sleep.
It was 3:00 in the morning when I was jolted awake by the most horrible sound I have ever heard. It was a scream of some sort but it was like nothing I could describe. It was a long, loud terrible sound that had to be something or someone in pain. I sat straight up in bed, physically shaking, with the hairs on my arms and neck standing straight up. Then, just like that the scream was cut off. I KNEW with every fiber of my being that I had heard death. Whatever was screaming had screamed its last painful dying breath.
I was surprised to find that Tom had slept through it. I woke him up and told him something was outside and described what I had heard. He got up and grabbed the gun. Together we went outside to look around. The air was still and heavy but there were no noises. It wasn't just the quiet of night though. It was the quiet when even the crickets and the night time creatures hold their breath. It was the quiet of fear and waiting. We spent some time waiting and watching but didn't hear or see anything so we finally went back inside to try to go back to sleep.
Tom had no problem going straight to sleep but I was awake and staying that way. I decided to go back outside and sit by the blackened campfire. I quietly closed the door behind me and crept down the steps into the midst of the vision. The people of the camp were waiting on me. They were sitting by their campfires softly talking and working. Some of them were doing needlework while others worked on other varied projects. The coffee pot was bubbling away on the edge of the fire. I walked into their circle and sat among them. They had even saved me a spot and so I began my new life living with the people of the vision. I realized that they had been waiting twenty years for me to join them. I also knew that I was finally home and that I had been waiting too. It was time to fully embrace what I felt was my calling.