At the beginning of this week I decided to take two days out of town and retreat to my family’s acreage in the country.  It’s about forty acres with a stream fed fishing pond on it.  I caught a small bass (I do catch and release), went for a couple walks around the acreage, did some star gazing (I have never seen Mars so big and bright), and took care of a couple barn cats my parents keep out there.  I spent a lot of time outdoors and got a little sun on my shoulders.  I had forgotten that my medications make me more prone to easy sun burns.  I’m glad I wasn’t outside much longer.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous the two days I was out of town.  It has been a cooler and wetter spring than usual.  But we had a wetter than normal winter and a hotter than usual autumn.  I was out at the acreage by myself for two days with no internet.  I found out I like being around people more than I thought.  I just don’t like being around them for long periods of time.  It’s probably why I do well in an apartment complex while living alone.  Most people at my complex are understanding about my mental illness as we have many people here with disabilities.  Being in the country made me realize just how much goes on even in my small town.  The only people I saw in my two days in the country were a couple farmers on the back gravel roads.  I had forgotten how quiet the country really is.

Our acreage, in addition to the fishing pond, has a main cabin, a small bunk house, a metal storage barn, and a windmill.  It’s not as rustic as it sounds as my father put a satellite tv receiver, a ham radio tower, and a solar panel to run a heater on the main cabin.  The cabin is also wired so we could run it off a gas generator in case the power ever went out.  We’re even entertaining the idea of putting up a second solar panel to back up even the generator.  My family doesn’t believe in leaving things to chance.  My mother and I helped him build that cabin several years ago.  The acreage is one of my father’s retirement projects.  I’ve helped him build two cabins, a fishing dock, a windmill, make fences, and clear out tree branches from our small apple orchard.  I found out I’m pretty decent with an electric screw driver and saw.  I’m glad I got those chances to work with wood and basic construction.  It’s therapeutic and you have something to look out when you’re done and can say ‘we did this.’  They also have a garden there but they don’t grow much besides tomatoes.  It’s a late summer tradition for our family once the tomatoes are ripe that we’ll eat bacon and tomato sandwiches with sweet corn for supper probably three nights a week.  You can always tell when it’s August at our house and you smell bacon frying almost every night.

It was a good time to be out of town for a couple days.  The weather is finally starting to warm up and the sun is shining again.  It was a good way to start my summer.