PBnJ5 Adventures

Is there a single plan made this year that has happened the way that we thought it would? No, not really. As we spent the summer loving life on the farm, the lingering thought of what are we going to do in October was never really that far away. The one thing that was certain was that we were not going to spend the winter in the RV in Wisconsin, um Brrr. So what do we do? Do we hit the road again and travel more? Will things be open with Covid? Will the RV parks shut down again like they did in April? We have no backup plan of parking at the farm if that happens. Do we look for an investment property to rehab over the winter? So so many different thoughts, but no peace or direction on any of them. So we kept an eye on real estate, the news, the weather, kept praying and waiting.

The weather stayed pretty nice most of the way through October, so we just kept hanging at the farm. Then harvest time started early October, sooner than we thought, and Pops’ corn drying and storage business opened up. Our perfect little parking spot on the farm turns out to be right in the middle of all of that fun. Right next to the dryer and in-between the grain bins. Not only is the noise of the dryer and the air transfer system a real problem when trying to sleep in the RV right next to it, but you have not lived until you have tried to keep corn dust out of an RV. Now for those of you who may not be familiar with the wonderful world of corn dust, let me enlighten you. When corn is harvested in a combine it is dumped into a grain truck. That truck then delivers it to the dryer and grain bins. When it arrives it is poured from the truck into an auger that dumps it into the top of the dryer. It is then dried and sent with forced air into the grain bin to sit until the farmer wants to sell it. In that process of moving the corn from truck to dryer to bin a shocking amount of corn mess is left behind. If you have looked at field corn the cob is pink, unlike sweet corn that would be more white. That pink cob turns into dust in the harvest process and proceeds to fill the air with pink “snow”. I call it pink snow because there is literally drifts of pink corn dust everywhere, and if there is snow on the ground it is not white it is pink. It sticks to everything and yet is super light and fluffy and blows and fluffs in all the cracks and crevices of anything and everything. Enter 3 small boys who are excellent at keeping dirt outside anyway and any hope of keeping the Lodge or the RV clean are semi hopeless. The boys however had an awesome time watching the trucks pull in and the tractor and the auger all working. They even got to ride in the neighbor’s combine and help Pops and Luke drive truck and haul the corn. Oh man. I think all my boys were excited.

We have always kept on eye on the real estate market around Long Lake with the thought of maybe on a long shot a good house would pop up that we could buy. Owning a house on the lake has been Luke’s dream since he was in high school. There is not a house that goes up for sale on the lake that he does not know about. But the market in northwest Wisconsin, especially the lake, is bonkers. Houses are selling at full price or higher hours after they go on the market. And while we got close to making an offer on one house earlier in the summer, it was gone before we did. So all signs are pointing to getting back on the road.

The plan was to leave the farm on October 26. We would head to Colorado for a couple weeks and then head to the southwest with stops in New Mexico, Arizona, and on to California. Knowing that we would be on the road for the next 6 month we took the time to make the RV feel a little more functional, a little less “right off the assembly line” look, and cozy. We added curtains, new rugs, cute decor, wallpapered almost every room, added fun things to the boys rooms to make it feel more like home, prepped the RV to do some more boon docking, a washer and dryer (amazing)…all the things. We were in the final packing stages when Luke gets a call from a local real estate agent who we had been in contact with several times over the summer. Just a quick call to let him know a house was coming on the market. Well it turns out that house was not what we were looking for but, “Oh while I have you on the phone could you tell me about the house on Grob Rd that seems to not be moving off the market, what is wrong with it?” The Realtor informs us that there is nothing really wrong with it other than it doesn’t show well. This house has mysteriously been sitting on the market since the end of July. It is cute, remodeled in 2017, comes fully furnished, and looks great in the pictures. We had looked at it online several times but had just passed off saying there was to many steps to the water and it had already been remodeled so probably wasn’t for us. We are always looking for the diamond in the rough, not the one that already shines.

So I was at the grocery store on Monday, planning to leave on Thursday, literally buying the food that we would need to fill the RV for a few days and I get a call from Luke. “I think we should go look at this house on the Lake, let’s go tomorrow.” Um sure, I guess so, why not! I have nothing else going on ? So Tuesday we pack up the boys in a pretty decent snow storm and head up to the lake. It is a 45 minute drive from the farm, 45 minutes to wonder if everything we had been planning for was going to take a sharp turn. So upon arrival and a quick walk through it turn out that apparently dead mice in traps really don’t show well. The house was in need of a good cleaning, it was just dusty and needed some love. Turns out those steps down to the lake were brand new and in great shape, it had an awesome porch even in the snow, the view of the lake was great, and the house was small but very functional. So after looking it over we got back in the truck and said, “that would make a great rental”. So long story short, we put in an offer on Wednesday, had it accepted on Thursday, left for Colorado with no RV on Friday. Thanks to Luke’s parents we had all the inspections done while we were in CO for 10 days. We had a great time in Colorado with family celebrating Halloween and birthdays, how is Zac 3 and Max 5 already?! I had the chance to see many of my good friends who I miss so much, and we soaked up some Grandma time. We left CO at 3:30am on the 5th drove all day, boys did awesome, got back to the farm by 10:30pm. Woke up, drove to the bank to finalize the money, and went and closed on our house. You wanna talk about a whirlwind, mercy.

It took us until the 20th to make the house livable between cleaning, getting rid of mice, and working on water purification and softening issues. But we moved into the lake house exactly one year to the day of hitting the road. Wow, you want to talk about a crazy year. Never in 1 million years did we think we would sell our house in CO and end up on the dream lake in WI all in a year. This house is exactly what we needed for right now. A cozy little home to hide away in for a few months. A beautiful lake to explore in the winter. And a place to stay away from the crazy world of COVID for a little while longer. Yes, there are many projects that we can work on during the winter in the house. But as of right now the plan is the get it ready to rent for the summer.

We have been able to be with Luke’s family for Thanksgiving that we hosted in the Lodge, and also for Christmas. We haven’t been home to Wisconsin for Christmas in 7 years. It was a sweet time with family and cousins. Cousins are the best. It was magical to wake up at our house on a snowy Christmas morning. The sunrise was beautiful, and we got to watch the whole thing, because the boys were done opening all their presents long before the sun came up. Bless. How I miss sleep.

So what I have learned this year: Many many things, but the one thing I know for sure God is good. The irony of His timing is nothing short of comical sometimes, but what fun would life be if everything always went the they we thought it should or on our time table. The timing on the house was exactly what God had planned. Had we looked at it earlier we wouldn’t have gotten the price reduction that we did because the sellers weren’t motivated earlier, and what is the fun of getting something “on time”, there is no stress in that. This was the house for us and God was just saving it for us.

So we continue to live life on a week to week basis, not planning too far out, because really, what is the point. We hope to be back on the road again at some point, but we will wait and see. We are getting really good at cancelling RV reservations ?, not a skill I would like to keep honing. I will keep you posted on life as it happens, but for now we are living it up in the Great White North, literally very white, super far north, and greater than I ever imagined.