The Clock on the Wall

One of our visitors last month

Slow living. To live without a schedule, without an agenda, without appointments, without a calendar.....I consider it a luxury, my friends.

We have a clock on the wall in our kitchen. It is a pretty clock. It serves no real purpose. It's a thing. An item that hangs there looking pretty. The batteries have been dead since we moved in 5 months ago. It is bizarre to live life and not feel a need to know the placement of the hands on the clock or even the day of the week.

Five months. A short amount of time and yet, it has had such a significant impact on our little family. Moving here, we knew that we would be one of the privileged few who have had the opportunity to live this life. It sounds so silly but we feel such a possessive attachment of the experience.
You may say that it isn't healthy to live this way....that structure is needed. We have structure. The structure is built with stable materials. We laugh a lot, we drive each other a little crazy, we talk, we cook and we eat, and we play. We are making memories. Honestly, I can't even type this without tears coming to my eyes because I know that it will not be like this forever. I struggle with trying to figure out a plan for our future...a way that we can somehow hold on to this slow way of living.

Evan and I recently had a conversation about what life is going to be like when we move back into the "real world". This conversation took place somewhere around mile 43 on the Realty Road. It didn't end up being much of a conversation because I can't talk about it without crying. I know that our time here is limited, and that when we go back, reality is going to hit us like a ton of bricks. You know that feeling that you get to camp....when you've left everything behind. You're able to relax and lounge and feel completely stress free? That is the life we are living here...every. single. day.

Why is life here so stress free? Because we have such LIMITED options. The biggest decision we make when we drive out of the driveway is whether to go right or left. There is no one waiting for us. We aren't in any time crunch. There is NO schedule!

While I feel sad about the day we will have to leave, I also look forward to a life that is a little more convenient, a life closer to my family. It is annoying to feel so conflicted! The experience has set a precedent for us, and we will do everything in our power to mirror this stress free life. If anything, it has made us realize the importance of slowing doooowwwwnnnnn. And for that, I will be forever grateful.

Slooow Living

Trapping and hunting have become a sort of family bonding time for us. You would think that every day up here would count as family bonding time because we have only each other to bond with. But, there are distractions in this house just like every other. When we get in the car, the piles of laundry and the stacks of dirty dishes are left in a cloud of dust (or, at this point in time it's more like giant craters of mud)!


Dragging Jackson through some rough terrain! :)

Lots of smiles.

Beaver

Lots of watching and learning.

Dragging the beaver and Jackson out of the woods.

Starting em young!

On Evan's days off, we pack up the boys and go riding around checking traps and looking for interesting creatures. Heater hunting isn't the hunting style of choice...but it's really the only option with two little boys. We're usually in the car for a couple of hours. We have no wifi and no cell service anywhere. We have a camera and a radio. We hear non stop stories from our little Warden and random pips and squeaks from our other wild man. It's just another way we are able to spend time as a family with no distractions.


This was the first day of snow.



Our chauffer for the day...our little wild man.

I think so much of how we live up here is stress free because we have such LIMITED options. The biggest decision we make when we drive out of our driveway is whether to go right or left. We have no destination. There is no mapped out plan. We aren't going to see something specific. There is no one waiting for us. We aren't in any time crunch. There is NO schedule! Most of the time I don't even know what day of the week it is or where the hands lay on the clock. We're just living slow up here in the great North Woods of Maine.