First I didn’t post because there wasn’t much happening — just going to work, walking the dog, and making slow progress on my reading and cooking projects. THEN I didn’t post because there was too MUCH happening and I didn’t have time!
The big change is, I now have a housemate. I’ll call her K (but it’s not the same K who was going to lease the fields from me when I first moved here — that plan fell flat almost immediately when K acquired a herd of goats and no longer had time for any other projects — her time was filled by a series of one “goatastrophe” after the other).
No, this K is a friend of one of my employers, and we met at a potluck a few years ago. She recently moved here to work for the employer/friend, at least through spring, and her original housing plan didn’t work out, so I offered her a room here. She’s very nice, with two great dogs that are getting along fine not only with my dog but also with my cat, about whom I’d been a bit worried. She cooks and gardens, and will help me learn in both arenas. She doesn’t know much about computers and if she wants I will help her learn about that.
Today we had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving. We went for our usual dog walk but extended it into a longer hike up the hill behind the house where there is some spectacular scenery. I dug one row of potatoes from the garden and boiled them up for some really yummy mashed potatoes with sour cream-horseradish dressing. K made gravy (and I watched and learned). We made stuffing from a box, opened cans of cranberries and mandarin oranges, steamed some fresh broccoli and celery. I cooked half a local pumpkin, intending to make pumpkin pie, but it took so long to cook (on the woodstove on a not-so-cold day when the stove was only puttering along) that I postponed the pie-making until tomorrow.
We talked all day while we were hiking and cooking and doing other chores. Then we ate dinner and watched “Strangers In Good Company”, a delightful movie that had just enough display of “survival skills” to fit my movie genre criteria :)
So, things are a little different for me these days. I have lots of reasons why I prefer to live alone if I’m not living with a life partner; but there are also lots of benefits to sharing a house, and this time I decided it was the right thing to do. So far (it’s been nearly a week) it’s working out wonderfully.
