Wilderness Quilter

The reading for July 29 in Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach is titled The Home as a Hobby in which she quotes Arnold Bennett as follows:

“Nobody has the right to be bored in a half-made home.  A home which is not a fair expression of us at our best, a home which lacks what it might have, a home which is in any part more ugly or in any part more uncomfortable than it absolutely need be . . . a home which cannot be run without waste, a home which by any detail gets on the nerves of its inhabitants and so impairs the harmony of their existence  – something ought to be done about such a home . . . Why not make the perfecting of the home a hobby?”

Due to a variety of circumstances, I’ve been away from home the better part of the past few months.  And when I am here, I’m distracted (is the fire headed this way again?  will the smoke ever clear?) and feel adrift, in a holding pattern awaiting the next block of time away.  I think what I need is a new attitude and I think viewing my home as a hobby will provide that.  No doubt I can better use the time I do have in getting the extra little things accomplished – so, toward that goal, I guess I’d better remove myself from the computer!

It’s temporary, I know – but the smoke is gone!  Woke up to clear skies and not a hint of smoke anywhere -so the house is open and airing.  The fires are still burning all around – as of last night, 13 of the 27 fires within a 15 mile radius of us are still active – so I don’t know where all that smoke is going but it’s lifted from this canyon for a short while.

The sky is visible but the smoke smell is stronger than ever.  How did that happen?  Looked out and saw the sky and clouds so opened the window to air and cool the house.  Big mistake!  Thankfully we have a few more days of temperatures only in the 90s.  Starting Mon, we’ll hit 100+.  Hopefully we’ll have clear enough air outside by then to run the swamp cooler and open the house at night.  I’m not counting on it, though.

The fires are still burning on 3 sides of us but not close at all.  The smoke is our constant reminder that they are out there, however.  Can’t hang clothes outside, can’t open the widows, can’t run the swamp cooler – fortunately we’ve been blessed with temperatures only in the 90s.  Things are supposed to heat up around here in a few days so we need to get our most strenuous prep work completed by then or we’ll be really miserable.  Been at it a week and may take today off – everyone is really tired.  Then we can hopefully finish up the most grueling part in the 3 days of cooler weather we have left and save the fire line closer to home for when the temps hit 100+.  The good news is once this is all done, we won’t have to do it again and we’ll be set for fires in years to come with just a little maintenance.  Living surrounded by wilderness, it’s not a matter of if we’ll get another fire threatening our home, but only of when it will happen.