wilderness living

A local forest river.

We moved from the city to wilderness 3 months ago.

Here are some things we're learning to live with (and without).

Get comfortable living with snakes!
Almost every home has a resident black snake. They love to live under houses. They also love to live under churches! A black snake tried to slither into our church a few weeks ago while the congregation was singing. Fortunately a deacon spotted him before he could disturb the service!

If you don’t have it in the pantry - just make do with what you have.
...because the shops are too far away! Last week I ran out of laundry powder so I washed our clothes with disinfectant!

But sometimes you just can’t make do with what's on hand (a one neighbor ran out of salt this week) ~ then you share.

Plumbing isn’t always push button.
I hadn't thought much about plumbing before. You just 'press the button' and 'it' all disappears. I didn’t think about 'where it went' or 'how it got there'. That was...until we arrived in the wilderness...

We moved into a house that hadn’t been lived in for over two years. Roots had grown into the plumbing. The toilet wouldn’t flush!! Shock! Horror! Murky water backed up in the shower around our ankles!!We couldn’t call up a plumber because we live too far away, so my husband and a neighbor had to fix the problem (...while I hid in the house).

I know where 'it' goes now – a big, icky tank in our backyard. Let's hope it keeps going there!

Candles ain't just for aesthetics.
Owing to storms and remoteness we experience fairly frequent power-outages. They can take several hours to be repaired. Every home has candles and/or oil lamps around here. Some also have back up generator power.

The alarm goes off at 5am. Even on weekends.
That's because our alarm clock is a rooster! Some mornings I could knock him over the head. Fortunately for our rooster, my bed is too warm and snug to leave.

Be ready for close encounters with wildlife.
Friday night we heard a thump thump on the veranda (porch). We went to check what was happening and discovered a pair of big brown eyes peering through our window - it was a kangaroo! We coaxed her with a little bread and patted her lovely soft coat. We soon realised she wasn’t wild- just a neighbor’s pet come to visit us.

An eastern-grey kangaroo. Photo by Stephen. Our night time visitor was much like this little one.

Saturday night my husband was standing at the end of the orchard with a spotlight above his head - searching for wild dogs in the valley below. He made the mistake of standing in one place for too long - a Frogmouth Owl landed on his head!

Somedays it's a wonderful world...

~Kalianne xo