More Bad Weather

March 19, 2025

This past weekend we took an unexpected road trip. I wouldn’t say it was totally unexpected- maybe unplanned is the better word. It seems like the entire country was having bad weather this weekend. Nearly all week all the weather people have been warning that we might experience bad storms, possibly tornado producing storms, this Friday & Saturday. We were keeping our eye on it. Living in a non-traditional home that is tiny and not made to withstand tornadoes w/ no basement puts us in a precarious place when there are tornado threats. Where we live has never experienced a tornado but the areas surrounding us have. We’ve already had one bad weather scare this year.

There are places where we can take shelter but those come with a lot of problems. First the weather was supposed to be bad for 2 nights. Did we want to be stuck in a church basement for 2 days? Would they allow us to bring our dogs? There is a hotel about 25 minutes away that would be much safer than our house or any of our neighbors homes, but it’s not the nicest of hotels. We talked about staying there and were like should the doo doo hit the fan, this isn’t where I want to go out. We certainly didn’t want to be stuck there for 2 days. So we thought about using this an excuse to take a little trip. We wanted to stay as close as we could but also be away from the storm threats. So that is what we did. All of this has made me rethink my initial thoughts on getting a storm shelter for our property. I do think we need to have a more secure place because it seems like the weather gets crazier and crazier each year, and we don’t have a lot of great shelter options. So for peace of mind maybe it would be a good investment so all fall & spring we’re not in the exact situation we’re in right now.

We spent our time away enjoying the luxuries of suburbia. Even in the city where we lived before, we lived very much in the city portion of it. We had to drive to the suburbs if we wanted to visit a Target, World Market, or stores like that. While suburbia living isn’t for us, we do enjoy their amenities from time to time. We visited an Anthropologie and it was a breath of fresh air. I have always loved the styling & decor of Anthropologie. In the world of ethical shopping, it’s not the best choice, and unfortunately not many stores are. We haven’t been in on of their stores since living in a tiny home. But for a second while in the store I could pretend that the world was simple & beautiful with no problems or drama. I love all of their seasonal decor, particularly the kitchen ware, and their beautiful dresses & tops. We didn’t buy a thing but it’s nice to look & pretend from time to time. Anthropologie does sell my favorite kitchen towels. I’ve tried all the dish towels in all the different fabrics, and I have very specific dish towel needs. Call me crazy but I want an absorbent dish towel but most of them aren’t. I was hoping to get another set of my favorite Anthro ones because the ones I have are about 10 years old and are getting threadbare. They only had one set and while they were cute, they didn’t suit our style. We also popped over to Williams Sonoma and pretended to have a massive kitchen and a massive budget and left with dish soap and a gluten free scone mix.

Many times people tell us they envy our life and that they’d love to be able to live off grid and homestead full time. We are certainly not complaining - most of the time- and we know how fortunate we are. But most of those people only see our cute edited videos where we show our cute little kitchen that has just been cleaned. They don’t know how we got there and how much work and sacrifice has been involved. Of course there are plenty of people who think we are slumming it- most of those people are people we know in person. Many friends & family think we’re insane and impoverished. The truth is in the middle. Sometimes I do wish we lived an easier more traditional life. And that we had a normal size house and normal jobs with a little more stability. But we’ve had all of that. Ultimately we both know that this is what we want. We don’t want to be stuck in a mortgage or work 9-5 jobs. We don’t enjoy working for other people. We crave freedom & flexibility.

Today we finally had the phone call we’d be hoping for to clear up the unpleasant business dealings we’ve been having. I am happy to report that the phone call ended very well and we cleared the air. We got exactly what we wanted out of the call. We really had to advocate for ourselves to get this call and go over some people’s heads to make it happen. And we were absolutely justified in doing so. Let this be a reminder to speak up for yourself! If you feel like you aren’t be treated the way you should, don’t hesitate to say something.

Savannah just got off a phone call with her youngest brother. His beloved German Shepherd is having to be put down this evening. Her brother was sobbing as this was his first dog he raised from a puppy as an adult. It brought me back to having to put down my precious yellow lab, Lucy. She was my first dog loss as an adult and I had raised her from a puppy. I’ve since had to put many more down as they aged, and while I loved all of them the same- that first one was the most painful. Dogs are such a precious gift and they simply don’t live long enough, do they?