My Country Life

Crossing the creek with Melvin in March, 2009. A well-worn path through the woods connects my property to my parents’ property. The path winds downhill until you reach the creek at about the halfway mark. Years ago, when I first bought my 10 acres, Mama and I hacked our way through the briars, wild azaleas, and privet to create a crossing at one of the shallowest points. We placed some large, flat rocks in the creek bed to act as stepping stones. If your balance is good, and the creek isn’t too high from recent rain, you can cross here without getting your feet wet.

Rudy July 1995 - December 26, 2012 My cat, Rudy passed away this past Christmas, on December 26, just a few days after I moved to the cabin. He was old and had been ill, so he surprised me when he rallied to make the big move to the cabin. He surprised me again by taking a sharp turn downhill within hours of beginning my country year. We arrived about 5pm on the evening of Friday, the 21 st . By early Saturday morning, he was clearly sick and spent the remainder of his days in the hospital. The vet said stress is especially hard on old cats.

Six weeks have passed since I officially moved to the cabin for a country year. Or a “country while” as I started calling it since I really don’t know how long I will be here. Moving to the cabin is an experiment as much as anything - something that I talked about doing for a long time. I eventually decided I should stop talking and do it. My intention is to write more while I’m here, but the only writing I’ve done so far is freelance work for others. So today, I’m writing the first entry for My Country Life since moving. Hopefully, the first of many.