What you do not see

Man in Black: Inhale this, but do not touch. 

Vizzinni: I smell nothing

Man in Black: What you do not smell is iocane powder. It is odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly in liquid and is among the most deadly poisons known to man.

Princess Bride

We've been working all summer on cleaning and organizing.  We moved 11 months and 3 weeks ago and the only nice thing I can say about moving is that eventually it's over, 

assuming one survives.  

Yesterday, Kiley, our 9th grade neighbor stopped by to work.  She's been my right hand all summer in this mess.  She's swept and re-swept every grimy space.  She's carried piles of craigslist free stuff to the curb.  She's carried shingles to the attic.  She's moved and re-moved boxes.  She's hauled mouse poop encrusted linoleum and carpet rolls down narrow garage stairs in the heat and wrestled them into the garbage can.  She's helped me gather my resolve and face another catastrophic mess on yet another sweaty day.  

She's been my hero.

 

She comes over yesterday after being on vacation for a week, walks into the basement, stops in shock, and says with pleased amazement in her voice, "Whoa!  Wow!  It looks good in here."

by Fiona and Anjali

When your 14 year old neighbor is pleasantly shocked by your neatness, you know it's been a year to survive.

And today is the day we finish the house cleaning and organizing in time to start homeschool next Tuesday.  Monday we are taking ourselves and Kiley to Wild Mountain water park as our spoon full of sugar.  I can see Monday's fun and Tuesday's school coming.  But this morning, I awoke weary and a bit disheartened at the medicine yet to go down.  So I've treated myself to these moments blogging, imagining all the photos I will take after the broom is hung up and the vacuum is put away.  

  

curtain rods by Tim

I told the kids that I was going to take photos and blog about it and Anjali replied, "Mom, we should have taken Before photos."  

Towel hook by Aidan

But even photos of that first year's mess are too much to take into this second year. 

These are my Iocane photos- what you do not see is the point. 

Moving boxes piled up in an impassible heap.

Remnants of the builder's wood working business sadly propped in a corner.

A maze of new farmer mess in the garage.

Kids' rooms after a spring and summer of Mom being a first year farmer.

 

by Mark and Fiona

by Anjali

Mouse poop encrusted rolls of linoleum and carpet left in the attic from repairs made when the pipes broke.

A combination of bedding dust, oil from feed, and chicken poop which hardened like mortar over everything in the downstairs bathroom when I violated #4 on the No Can Do List this last spring.

 Chicks in the bathtub, Good Friday 2013

  End of August after two deep cleanings, towel rack by Aidan

Four years of dirt and dust in the laundry room.

swept 5 times by Kiley, shelving assembled and moved by Aidan and Kiernan

What you do not see are the unfinished projects reminding us of our lack of know-how: towel rack pieces stacked on toilets, 

 

Towel rack by Kiernan

electrical sockets minus their covers, 

 

New light switch by Dave, socket covers by Kiernan

milk crates wedged in a corner to hold towels.

Shelves by Aidan and Kiernan, pencil planning line removal by Anjali

What I do see is the order brought by hands of new friends and neighbors- the many teens and 'tweens who've worked so cheerfully in such nasty, hot, unfortunate circumstances.

  

Kiley after we finished

 

Tim's handmade shelves which he challenged himself to build.

 

Hooks installed at my request.

 

by Tim and the kids

The walls Tim and many others repainted the color I picked.

 

Tim et al

The crank covers to keep the bugs out.

by Tim

I see a lot of love.

It's the revised draft of living and farming and learning which a year of hard won experience has earned us.

New vanity and sink by Dave and Jason

It's our new best guess at shaping our environment as we reinvent ourselves.

 

I'm so glad we're here and I'm so glad to have made it through this first year and to the threshold of the second.

Sipping Wedge-style blueberry smoothies in front of the fan

Water slides and Year 2, here we come!