18 March 2024

Last Friday I got some bad news that I couldn’t shake from my head, so I didn’t write my blog. Hopefully it’s nothing now, we signed to sell our old house today and the buyers sign on Wednesday. While signing I stared at this painting done by my grand dad. The whole process is a pain and won’t feel done until it is done, and I don’t know when that will be. Real estate feels like the buyers and sellers are kept in the dark as much as possible, that we never had the full story as to what was going on. There’s a closing date, all I can do is wait until then and hope all goes well. All the house stuff takes up too much space in my brain, I look forward to having a clear head again. I’ve also noticed an issue with my Youtube account that’s been discouraging where “shorts” used to get hundreds of views they’re now getting zero. There is a desire to DIY, the reality is nothing is ever done by an individual, we’re a strand on the web of life. The baby started at her new daycare this morning while we we signing our house away. Her last daycare was a more formal setting where the older kids wore uniforms, the new place seems more our speed. The daycare is a separate building on the property of the owner, the daycare building has several rooms I got to walk through when I dropped the baby off. I have a strange feeling after spending so many hours of my day in constant contact with the baby, that I’m off balance without the weight on my hip. She’ll be happy with all the friends she’ll make and we’ll go for a walk in the woods when she gets home. Today I will rest and then this week I will get a lot of yard work done.

14 March 2024

This morning was pretty rough, the baby woke up early and she’s been hyper, running all over and getting into everything. The dog misses his mommy so he’s been pouting the whole time and the cats are always making some trouble. The new house has some nice exposed beams, everyday the cats get more bold in their exploration. As far as work today goes, I was out in the front yard clearing up branches from some tall grass that I’ll mow later. While writing this my new “small” mower got delivered, I’ll see what I can assemble on that this afternoon. This morning I also updated our internet router, thankfully it seemed to have doubled our speeds, so the old router was a bottleneck. The old router was from 2018, which to me doesn’t seem old, but when we’re talking about technology apparently half a decade is ancient. The smart phone hasn’t even been around for 20 years yet, those things really took off. An old friend called me this morning and we were able to reconnect. In October 2023 I had to leave a group chat of old friends because I didn’t like what it had become. I’ve now reconnected with everyone in the chat and I’m not rejoining because I think things needed to change from that, now they have. We will establish new ways of friendship now in whatever way we will, I’m not worried about that. If we’ve lasted this long and put up with a lot of tough times, this is nothing in the long run. 

13 March 2024

A fairly uneventful morning on the farm today, I decided to slow things down and get some rest. Of course there’s no rest with a toddler, but I can at least minimize my extra curriculars to get me through the week. On Thursday I’ll have to record the podcast and Friday I need to get flowers for my wife’s birthday.  We went to the grocery store to restock some dog food and milk, going to the store every couple of days is nice to get us out of the house and off the land, plus it’s right down the street. I decided to wait until the weekend to install the new mower battery as my wife will be home and I’ll have some time to mow. My thinking was that I wanted to run the mower for a couple minutes to give back any charge to the battery, I’ll also be able to clear the path I was cutting at yesterday. There’s a spot on the property where the grass is already getting long, it would be nice to trim that back, first I’ll have to clean up a lot of fallen branches. Spring is definitely marching forward, there’s already a thin layer of pollen on my car. There are swarms of bees around the bushes, my bees won’t be delivered until the beginning of next month. I’ve been doing bee research and have made peace that there’s a strong chance things won’t work out for this hive, but I’m already learning how to improve things like starting with a “nuc” and not having them sent through the mail. There’s a local bee keepers association that I’ll look into if they’re still active and hopefully that will lead me to more resources. Getting to know local growers is the best way to start anything.

12 March 2024

Another good morning down and I can feel my fuel beginning to drop, when starting a new routine it’s important to not burn out immediately. Today is only Tuesday and I’ve been successful for two days, there’s still three more days of the work week. Mostly likely I won’t be as active in later weeks, this morning I took the baby and dog into the woods to blaze a new trail. The one path to my barn has probably been the only drivable path for sometime it’s crumbling in parts. There’s a deep red clay and water runs down it, water goes the same path every time and creates large cracks. The path that exists also runs the parameter of the property, I would like a direct route. What I was doing in the woods was cutting down a lot of young trees or bushes with my branch loppers, later I’ll be able to drive through the area with my mower. I was also able to get a new battery for my mower at the hardware, tomorrow I might be able to connect that, I might have to tie baby up in a stroller since I won’t want her crawling all over this time. Yesterday afternoon I had to go to some stores and it was an interesting experience. We live on a main road, so to go to the post office I turned right and drove about 5 miles into town. For my next stops I got back on the main road and drove 10 miles, 5 miles to my house and 5 more to the other shopping area. I’m happy that directions are so easy, it does mean when I miss my house there aren’t a lot of markers to let me know I’ve gone too far.

11 March 2024

3/11/24

Today marks a new beginning, my wife started training for her new job and I’m alone with the baby, dog, and two cats for the week. While in between jobs my wife was at home, I’ve only known the new house with her in it. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some work done this week as there is also the changing of the seasons, I can see new buds sprouting from the trees and the grass is growing. This morning I took the baby and dog down to the pole barn where my mower sits, I was removing the battery to get it replaced. My daughter was very helpful, or wanted to be, while I was getting everything free she kept climbing the mower to sneak a peak at what I was doing. When she’s older I’m sure I’ll be grateful for the extra set of hands, for now I’m mostly worried about her falling or throwing my keys into the woods. The dog was also good, the barn is on the back edge of the property with an unfenced boarder, so I’m having to teach him boundaries that might not be obvious to his senses. I got the battery out and maybe tomorrow we’ll go to ACE hardware to see if they have a replacement, I was told they’re a Husqvarna supplier, the brand of my mower. If the hardware store can’t help there’s plenty of auto stores and farm supplies. I’ve got to buy a new small mower since there wasn’t room in the moving truck for it. There’s a small fenced in area I won’t be able to use my riding mower in, plus I’ll need a bag to catch the grass clippings, I had thrown away the bag for the old mower. Everyday will be going down the list of what needs to be done.

8 March 2024

We made it to the end of the week and for my house it’s the end of the quarter, my wife starts her new job new Monday. At the beginning of the quarter, before last Christmas, she received a job offer. Since then we found a new house, moved, sold our old house and visted Disney world to celebrate. Only time will tell what happens next, I’ll be alone with the baby more and will have to take care of the fallen tree in my driveway. As Spring begins I’ll need to spend more time mowing the yard, my dad helped diagnose that my lawnmower should only need a new battery. I’ll begin life with a tractor and will likely do more mechanic work on that. The tools and strength that a tractor opens me up to will feel like a new beginning. My other fresh start is the podcast, Thursday is a recording day and yesterday I was able to get a lot of my chest. The week before I was having technical difficulties with limited internet, now that everything is up, I was running. One of the co-host’s microphone wasn’t working yesterday, but I was unphased knowing that I had a lot to say and could fill the time speaking nonstop. The avid reader might wonder how I have more to say when writing this blog everyday, well having to type out my thoughts is a bottle neck. When I started my first podcast Being Chris Cooper the premise was that my brain is constantly moving at a fast pace, so I would remove the barrier between brain and body, speaking as fast as I can think. Since then I’ve gained a lot of life experience and feel like I have something of value to share. I’ll share the links to the Spotify and Youtube channel below to my new podcast Wrecking and Rapping. New episodes Saturday morning.

https://www.youtube.com/@drawingmylifeaway124

7 March 2024

We drove back from Disney yesterday, by the time we were home it was too late and I was too tired to write. Today I figured I’d go through all the pins I’ve got on my suspenders, for the record Disney sells lanyards with their pin starter kits, I got the idea for suspenders mostly because that’s what I thought the kits were selling. Going from the top left down then up the right side we first have Peter Pan’s hat, the boy that never grew up and he can fly. Then there’s Donald Duck, growing up my siblings and myself would pick characters so that we’d each have our own Donald was left for me, I like his boisterous attitude and his short temper. The big 50 I got while visiting during Disney World’s 50th year anniversary, there were a lot of different characters available and I liked the chipmunks most from what I saw. The Minnie pin came when my sister said I needed one and the silver ribbon looked nice, I had a silver Iago I traded it for since it looked similar and I wasn’t much attached to him. The orange flying car is my most recent addition, I don’t know what it’s from, but it looks cool enough. The end of the left side is Wolverine, a favorite of mine most of my life, he’s short and tough which doesn’t appear to apply to me except when I started liking him I was shorter than all of my brothers. Going up the right side is Snow White because my daughter likes her, she also wore that dress. My dog is named after Winnie the Pooh and I’m Christopher too, so when I got a couple Pooh pins I decided to try for the whole cast. The American Mickey is for my love of American memorabilia. The Master Sorcerer award was the first pin I got that made me want to collect more, it reminded me of Army medals except fancier. Finally is Gaston who I’ve already written about, I then put the crown on his head to show him some appreciation. 

5 March 2024

Hobbling back to the car, we’ve completed our trip to Disney World, a day and a half is all we could handle. Baby girl had a fantastic morning wearing the cowgirl boots she loves and got to ride her first choo choo train. Mom and dad are very tired and ready for a nap, thankfully the baby is napping on schedule. I got some more pins for my suspenders and was able to get a bag of backings for the ones that lost theirs. The train we took led to an animal conservatory and petting zoo, we got to see lots of goats, sheep, and even a cow. Some rowdy goats were butting heads while we were visiting. For breakfast we went to a buffet where the Disney characters walk around, Mickey met with the baby and while she was getting her diaper changed I got to meet Donald, he hit me with the slickest move in the book. After the photo I thanked the duck and went to shake it hand then it pulled it away and slicked back his hair. I’ve never felt so foolish in my life, he was laughing right in my face. Donald is my favorite of the mouse gang so I let it pass. Other than that there was a lot of walking with some pretty pictures, now I’m going to unpackage my new pins and add them to my collection.

4 March 2024

We made it to Disney World and got through our first morning, we’ll be going back this afternoon when the baby wakes up from her nap. There were parts to Disney we’ve never gotten to see before like the baby changing area, it felt like having a baby butler. Time moves fast and we go slow, that’s alright it’s all about enjoying the time we have here. Today we’re at Magic Kingdom and tomorrow we’re going to do Animal Kingdom, I mostly wanted to get shopping done this morning and in the afternoon we’ll be getting some photos. There’s an adorable Snow White dress we have picked out for the baby, I’ll be wearing the same old suspenders with pins. I’ve gotten into the trading pins the park has available, I also added a Snow White pin to my collection in honer of my darling. Other pins I’m after would be the Winnie the Pooh gang as I already have Pooh and Piglet, I got a Minnie Mouse because my sister said to. The Pin disaster from this morning was that the first pin I traded for had a bent point so the backing didn’t go on all the way, of course it fell off right away. The pin was recovered, but I’ll have to replace the backing. I told my wife it’s a marathon and a sprint because we aren’t going to slow down until we leave, then when we’re in the park it’s go go go. The baby was very tired by the time we were heading out, I’m hoping this will get her to sleep in tomorrow morning since she’s been waking up early the last couple days. Things have been hectic for a good quarter of a year, so that’s to be expected. She’s great and so is my wife.

1 March 2024

We officially have fiber internet, we’re back on the grid and it couldn’t have come at a more necessary time. Last night I tried to record the podcast with the bois and the signal was so bad I kept getting dropped from the meeting. My rap got recorded and a little Shakespeare before I decided to call quits on the rest of the episode. At this point my biggest concern is us getting together every week to establish the habit and here we are at the end of another week. We got some good work accomplished, hopefully I’ll get my tooth taken care of this afternoon and if so I guess it’ll be a perfect week; minus the bill. Now that we’re established in the new place it’s the perfect time to leave, Sunday we drive to Florida, Monday and Tuesday we’ll be in Disney World, then Wednesday we come back. Then another recording next Thursday and the wheel keeps on turning. I was looking into portable sawmills yesterday as a way to deal with the big tree in my driveway, there are also several downed trees in the back woods that I’ll have to clean up eventually. There’s a lot of research to be done on lumberjacking and I still have to get everything together for bees. The bees arrive April 4th, my wife goes back to work towards the end of March. There is no stopping, only a chance to look back making sure we’re clear to move on. When I walk the woods I can see what will be, it was the same at the old house, I bought a mess and turned it into something of value, that was nice since some of that value will be turned into money, but I’m in it to eat homegrown food.