My Dream

I have a lot of dreams....and I also like to write, so I thought I would write the dream I had last night down so I will remember it, and maybe someone here will like it. It's a long dream, so be patient....LOL!

Last night I dreamed that I was divorced, and that I and the kids were looking for a place to buy, an old farmhouse here in Texas. The house was on a little used country road. To access the house you had to enter through an old ranch gate covered in grapevines. The weeds were grown up around the house, and it looked like no one had been up there in....forever. I had just been driving around when I noticed this property (couldn't see the house). I parked on the side of the road, and the kids and I carefully crossed the fence and walked up the drive, it was about a mile from the road to the house. At the top of the drive to the right sat my current house, but a little dilapidated. To the left across a large field was a barn. The property was cross fenced, and other pastures behind it. There were a few fruit trees that had dropped their fruit, and it was rotting under the trees, and there was a pecan grove behind the house, about 30 trees.

The house was in pretty good shape, but obviously abandoned. This was it, the house I wanted. I stepped up on the porch and tried the door...it was open! The house was full of old, rickety furniture, dust, debris, dead birds and lots of papers. I looked through a couple pieces of paper that sat on the kitchen table, and committed the address to memory. The kids and I left, and headed for the tax office. Once there I talked to a representative and asked about this property to see if it was for sale. I was in luck, the previous owner had passed away, and the county had claimed it for back taxes. The back taxes were $1100, and they sold me the entire property, 45 acres and the house for that amount. I was so excited!

The kids weren't too jazzed to be headed back to a house that was in such sad shape, and the fact that I expected them to live in it was not going over well. I stopped at the grocery store near the tax office, and picked up the local paper, cleaning supplies, and a large amount of staples to stock my pantry. I picked up enough for about 6 months, as I didn't want to come into town frequently. After loading up the RV I was pullling behind the dually, I stopped at the lumber store, and purchased an assort of 2 X 4's, plywood, nails, screen and the ever handy....DUCT TAPE.

After driving the 40 miles back to the "farm" I carefully unlocked the gate, trying not to disturb the grapevines. I drove the truck and RV into the drive, and then went and getting my son's help, pushed over the mailbox. I then picked it up and placed it in the bed of the truck. My plan was for it to look like no one lived here, and I wasn't expecting any mail, so I didn't need the mailbox. I closed the gate, padlocking it closed and we headed up the drive.

I pulled up next to the house, and backed the RV trailer up right next to the back of the house. This way I could hook up any electrical cords to the generator in the RV, or connect the inverter. By this time it was getting dark, so we got dinner together, and settled down for a good night's sleep in the RV.

The next morning, I was up bright and early, waking up to the sound of well.....nothing. The quieet was awesome, and a little scary. I made tea and sat at the table in the RV making lists of what needed to be done. Here is the list:

1) clean all trash out of house, and bag it up
2) clean bedrooms for each person, and set up sleeping areas
3) remove toilet from bathroom
4) build compost toilet and place in bathroom.
5) clear weeds next to house
6) build platform in kitchen and living room for wood stoves
7) set up wood stoves in house and clean fireplace in living room
8) set up electrical system/inverter in kitchen
9) set up cooking area in kitchen with wood stove and camp stove
10) Remove kitchen range from house so wood stove can fit in it's place
11) Start looking for wood for winter supply
12) Plant garden
13) Look at well and see what was needed to get it running

Once the kids were awake, and had eaten breakfast, I handed out assignments. Taylor was tasked to use the weedeater and clear the weeds from around the house. When he was done, I asked him to work on ridding the old garden plot in back of the house, of the huge weeds, and I would till it later.

The girls were given trash bags and set to work picking up trash. I moved through the house opening windows, and checking to see which ones needed screens. There were only two windows that needed the screens repaired, so I did that to keep the insects out. Both doors needed the screen replacing, so I knocked that out. After the girls were finished picking up trash, I sent them upstairs to pick out which bedroom they each wanted.

I began sweeping all the dirt out the front door, and then hauled in a large bucket off warm water and Murphy's oil soap and began mopping all the wood floors. I started from the front and ended in the kitchen. I then cleaned the kitchen linoleum with bleach water, and cleaned the kitchen table. I sent Lauren out for a table cloth from the RV, and settled it on the table. We then took a break for lunch. It was really nice to sit at the cleaned table in the newly spotless kitchen. The smell of bleach and oil soap, along with the bright sunlight filtering through the smudgy windows gave me a feeling of happiness.

After lunch I inspected the bedframes in the bedrooms, and with Taylor's help we took down the nasty old matresses and tossed them into the bed of the truck with the rest of the trash (we had taken the lumber out already). I wiped down the bedframes, cleaned the rooms and mopped the wood floors. I sent the girls to cleaning all the windows in their room with Windex, and then had them start downstairs cleaning all the windows. Taylor and I brought up their mattress from the RV, and I made the bed with fresh sheets and the quilt I had made for Lauren's 10th birthday. I hunted through my stack of lines, and found two lace window sheers to hang at their window. I told them that once they were finished with the windows they could start hauling their belongings out of the truck and RV and setting their room up.

We moved on to Taylor's room, and got his bed all set up for the night, and then moved to my room. This room was really dirty also, and it took mopping it twice to get the floor clean. There wasn't a bedframe in this room, so Taylor and I went and dragged six cinder blocks from a pile in the back yard, along with one of the sheets of plywood, and I made a stand for the mattress. Made up the bed, and Taylor and I each started setting up our rooms. I unpacked my clothes, and placed them in my hope chest at the foot of the bed and placed a kerosene lamp on the bedside table. I hung up the white curtains I had made at the old place, and had found with my linens. I put my portable safe box beside the bed, and placed my 9mm gun inside and locked it up. I hung an old blue and white quilt on the wall over the bed, and had Taylor help me hang the gun rack up on the wall behind the door, that way I would have place for the 30-30 and the 12-gauge. The shells I placed in the ammo box, and put on the floor of the closet. The room was done. (I had considerably down sized my furniture and possessions when leaving the old place.)

Stepping out of my room, I looked into the girls room. Hannah was playing with her Barbie's on a rug in front of the windows, and Lauren was "organizing" everything. Taylor was hanging his clothes in the closet, and placing his "stuff" on the shelves in the closet. The rooms were clean, a little bare, but ready for sleep that night. Each room was equipped with a kerosene lamp, except the girls room, I had bought them each a battery operated Coleman lantern for their bedsides. They were still too little for kerosene lamps.

I decided that was enough work for the day, and headed down to take a shower in the RV, and change into some clean clothes, and then set up the grill to cook some chicken for dinner (and of course hot dogs for Lauren). The kids thumped down the stairs, and I sent them into shower and change. Dinner was ready, and we ate in the kitchen by the light of the kerosene lamp, as the sun was setting, and it was very dark there without the lights of the city. We talked about the day, and how we wanted to set up the living room. We planned to take the old furniture outside the next day and dust it off really good, before using the shop vac to clean out any animal droppings, dead spiders and dust. I also needed to get the bathroom in some shape for use, and reminded them to use the toilet in the RV until either a compost toilet or outhouse was done. The water wasn't running yet, and I wasn't sure of how good the septic tank was....I would need to take the RV down the road to an RV camp site I noticed, to empty the sewage tank, and refill the water tank with water for the shower.

The kids headed out to the RV to watch a DVD on my laptop. I decided to start setting up the kitchen. The kitchen came with a really great, old style pantry, so there was plenty of room for all the food I had picked up. First, I wiped off all the shelves, set out the Decon on the floor (I hate mice). I started setting up the pantry, and made sure I put all my baking supplies (which I use the most) right next to the pantry door, that way I could reach them easily. I unpacked all my crocks and placed the flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, brown sugar in them, and arranged on the counter by the sink. I placed the rubber tubs in the sink to wash in, and arranged all the silverware, dishes and cups in the cabinets. I brought in the little cube refrigerator, and sat it on the counter nearest the back door, so that the cords would easily reach from the RV. (The RV came equipped with solar panels for running the RV appliances, so along with the generator, we had enough minimal power to live comfortably. By this time the kids started heading in to go to bed, and it was going on midnight. I walked the girls upstairs and tucked them in, gave Taylor a kiss on the cheek and a whack on the rear as he walked into his room and shut the door. I tried to suggest to him that he should leave his door open to allow for air flow through the house, and it would be cooler that way, but he wasn't concerned and shut the door. Oh well.

By this time in my dream, I became aware of a dog, a Rottweiler that we had, that I hadn't noticed before (we use to raise Rottie's, so I guess that is why it crept into the dream). I did close and lock the front and back doors, but left the windows open. The dog and I headed upstairs for bed. I sent into my room changed into my cotton nightgown and climbed into bed, groaning in pain, as well as, glee to be able to lay down. The dog flopped onto the floor and promptly went to sleep. I took my handgun out of the safe, and placed it under my pillow, and fell asleep.

Okay....go take a potty break...I will wait for you......(drumming my fingers and singing to myself while I wait)

The next morning, Taylor and I tackled the living room, and Lauren asked to "organize" the front porch with the old wicker furniture that was there, and dragging my old rocker out of the RV. She came into ask if she could plant some flower seeds in the front flower bed. I told her to knock herself out, so she went to town, pulling weeds, lining up rocks, and planting seeds in precise, straight rows.

By this time, it dawned on me I should get my handcrank radio out of the RV. We turned the radio on, and got back to work on the living room. We dragged the furniture out, pounded out a "hiney load" of dust, vacuumed it, and pushed it back inside. The floors had been cleaned yesterday, so I arranged the furniture around the fireplace, placed a kerosene lamp on the mantle, and added some family pictures. We rolled out the blue oriental rug between the furniture arrangement. Taylor began to work on a wooden outline that would be the raised hearth for the wood stove. We had two one for the living room to heat the house, and the other for the kitchen to cook on. It wasn't actually a cook stove, but it would work to cook on top of, baking was another thing, but the idea was to make a cob oven outside in the back yard,

hopefully this fall, or if we didn't get to it before winter, next spring. I had my dutch oven so could bake bread, cakes and assorted pies/cobblers.

I dragged out my sewing machine and placed on the table I had set up in the corner of the kitchen for this purpose, and hooked up the generator to sew curtains for the rest of the house. I was only making half curtains, as I wanted light in the house. We would be living off grid (no utlity electric) so we needed as much natural light as possible. Later I would make window quilts to keep out the winter cold and drafts, but there was enough time for that later. I decided to check email and the weather on my laptop, and was glad that I did. There was a severe thunderstorm on the way, and we needed to get the yard picked up and things put under cover. Taylor and I brought the lumber inside and placed along the wall in the living room. All the tools and the grill were put into the RV. We stashed all the trash in the bed of the pickup. As lightening lit up the sky, and thunder rumbled in the distance, I decided to break out my blue barrels to catch the water in. I am glad I thought to clean them before we left the old place.

There was a downspout on the side of the house. I grabbed the hack saw and whacked off a portion of the gutter, and placed the barrel under it to catch the rain off the roof. The other three barrels I set out in a row in the backyard. I didn't want the dirt from the roof to contaminate any water we would drink. The one under the downspout I would use for baths, and general cleaning. We made it inside the house as the rain begain to fall. The wind came with such force, that it drove the rain into the upstairs windows on the front of the house. I had the girls run up and close all the windows. The windows in the living room, and front dining room (which was standing empty) were fine as they were under cover of the front porch.

Using the hand saw, Taylor and I constructed the frame for the compost toilet. We finished it in about an hour, and Taylor carried it up to the bathroom, we removed the old toilet, setting it outside for another use, and placed the sawdust toilet where the existing toilet used to sit, next to the tub.

I placed the 5 gallon bucket inside the frame, and set the bucket of sawdust beside it, opening the lid, and shoving the scoop down inside the sawdust shavings. I duct taped the existing toilet shut, so that "someone" wouldn't forget and use it (yuck!) The claw foot tub in the bathroom could easily be set up with a gravity flow system, IF we couldn't get the water well running. The kids made their own sandwiches as they got hungry, leaving a mess on the counter in the kitchen....Arrggghh!

I cleaned out the bathroom linen cupboard with some bleach wipes, cut shelf paper, and placed all my towels and linens in the cabinet. I had found a little table in the house, and placed that on one wall in the bathroom, and set yet another kerosene lamp on it, with a glass container of matches beside it. A basket of t.p. with a few magazines (ha!) were set beside the compost toilet. I decided to take a break and watch the rain, think and make MORE lists.

In my dream, apparently more time passed, and we had a garden planted, chickens running around, two dairy goats with kids, in the fenced area by the barn. We had succeeded in getting the well running after buying a new pump, and setting up the generator in the shed containing the well and pump. I ran the generator every 3-4 days, just long enough to fill up the water tank allowing us to have water in the house. We were cutting the grass in the fields, tying it in large bundles and storing in the loft of the barn for the winter. I had purchased feed from the feed store and it was piled up in the barn. Taylor was spending most of his time dragging dead fall from the trees, and using the chain saw cutting it up. He had a pretty impressive wood pile along the entire fence behind the house. I had measured and so far he had about 4 cords of wood cut and stacked. He had lost a lot of weight, filled out in muscle, was burned/tanned, freckeled with his hair standing on end. He was such a good boy....quiet and helpful. Only occasionally picking on his younger sisters. It was August already, and we were pretty well set up for the coming winter. I decided it was time to get busy with the girls school work, and we would start September 1st.

Nights were the best time of all. The girls would play, read, watch DVDs from our collection, while I sewed, made lists and plans, checked the news on the Internet and researched medicinal herbs.

Sometime around November, we noticed how much quieter it was....hardly a plane flew over the house, and we hadn't seen any lights in the distance. As I was surfing the Internet one night, I noticed there was a news article posted by the BBC that stated several e-bombs had been set off in the United States causing widespread destruction, and setting the US back about 200 years. The electro magnetic pulse from these e-bombs had crippled our economy and communications, and the military was on full alert, as well as, our allies who were patrolling our borders and airspace to prevent any further attacks. I was scared. I had read about this kind of stuff happening, and was glad I had made a run into town the week before. I had laid in enough staples, canned veggies, fruits, meats, etc., to last us about two years, as long as we supplemented from our garden, goats, chickens, and anything I managed to shoot.

I decided to walk down the driveway in the dark to see if I could see any light coming from our house. Because we were using kerosene lamp, the light was very faint. I decided I was going to make dark curtains for all the windows for us to use at night. I informed the kids of the problems, asked them to stay close to the house at all times. I loaded my weapons, and had the shot gun in the kitchen over the door, the .22 by the front door, and the 30-30 upstairs by my back. I strapped the 9mm to me, and gave Taylor the other 9mm I had recently purchased. I cautioned him about playing with it, and told him it was for emergencies only. He was to keep it under his mattress, or in the holster on his belt when working outside. Who knew who or what would wander onto our property. I wanted to be prepared.

That night it started getting colder, and in the morning there was snow lightly drifting down. Taylor helped me hook the RV up to the truck and we dragged the RV into the barn. Parking the truck inside also, we locked up the middle doors, leaving only the smaller door to the side unlocked. We secured all the other barn doors and windows. Fed and watered the animals, shut the door and locked it up for the night. We all ran back to the house. Taylor started bringing wood in and stacking by the fireplace, and both woodstoves. I closed off the living room by hanging blankets in the door frame. I started a fire in the wood stove, and the fireplace, then set the teakettle on top of the stove to heat for hot chocolate. The temperature continued to drop and the wind began howling. We brought down the feather duvet, and made a pallet on the floor of the living room. The dog flopped down on the floor to snort, sigh and snooze. We were snug and warm in the house.

Two years passed quickly, and we canned all our garden produce, making sure to save seeds for next year's crops. We shot a couple of deer each winter and smoked the meat. We also smoked turkeys, butchered a goat every now and then, along with about 20 chickens each spring. All the meat was smoked, or boiled and canned for future use. Once we shot a feral hog as it tried to attack the dog, so we had ham for Christmas that year. I was thankful for all my 'old timey' books that showed me how to render tallow, smoke meat, make cheese and do a variety of chores. We never saw another person on the property, and never left it. The generator eventually died, and we relied primarily on the solar generator to run the water pump every now and then, and to keep the laptop charged in order to keep up with world news. We had our own worship services on Sundays, reading the Bible, singing hymns, and listening to our worship CDs. God was good and protected our homestead, putting a hedge of protection around us and preventing the outside world from encroaching. We did receive an email from the kids dad, asking if we were okay. His parents had passed away, and he couldn't locate his brothers. I invited him to make his way to us, but please not to bring anyone else. No one else could stay. The last we heard he was on his way to us, but without a car, it may take a couple of months to walk here. I told him to look for the gate with the angel painted on the top right corner, under the vines. We'll see if he makes it.....

Then...I woke up.....hope you enjoyed my dream.....