Freedom Has Come For Me

Yesterday the roads had finally cleared enough that I was able to leave the farm. Though, like a small child too much freedom is not good for me. I drove into town, started looking for a place called "Zoo Foods" and got horrendously hopelessly lost. You would think it impossible to get lost in a small town, thats what I thought as well. I was driving down a road I thought I knew however it's the "Brown Season" so essentially all roads look exactly the same, I thought for a moment that I had been driving for far too long to have not seen things I recognized. I of course chastised myself for such a paranoid thought and continued driving, for nearly forty minutes. I attempted to google map myself once I had finally accepted defeat. Google maps didn't even recognize the road I was on as being a road. Dylan is the only person in town I know so naturally I thought about calling him. Once I played the conversation out in my head I rethought that idea.
"Dylan, I'm a bit lost can you help me?"
"Im working, right in the middle of my work day, where are you?"
"I don't know, on a road, it just goes straight for forever, I haven't even seen a sign in so long, but its paved and surrounded by hay fields."
"You just described 80% of the roads here."
"What part of town are you in?"
"A brown part?"
"What direction are you headed?"
"Forward?"
And then he would hang up, and I of course wouldn't blame him because I'm hopeless at directions. So I didn't call him. I just continued driving taking any dirt or paved offshoot road I could until about thirty minutes later I popped out very near my original destination. I congratulated myself on taking over an hour to locate a store in a town that can be driven through in its entirety in twenty minutes. Good job Bates.
My dad told me long ago to always look for the mountains when trying to figure where I am, so with that helpful hint I've pretty much always been able to navigate at least where north is and then where I need to go from that. THIS PLACE HAS NO MOUNTAINS.
From now on I have decided that I shall use google maps for everything and everywhere I need to go. If it is not on google maps it is the badlands and I must never go there.

The snow is nearly gone now from our pastures, I'm going on friday to pick up our first lot of chickens. Don't worry everyone, I have already checked the route, its all on google.
We have internet now, which is very exciting though also very distracting. I think Dylan and I had both been going through a touch of withdrawal, yesterday we just sat in the living room/kitchen/dining room/storage room and watched facebook videos like we had never seen anything so magical.
Last night our kitchen sink sprung ANOTHER leak! This one very much like a fountain, the water just sprays out of it.Today I'm endeavouring to wash dishes in the bathtub. Not sure if its particularly sterile. I thought being on a cistern would mean our main water problem would be hauling water/ running out of water. I was so very very wrong. Our main problem is that we have too much water, on the floor, in the cabinets, under the floor. Everything leaks. Water has become our greatest renovation enemy. The bathtub leaks, the washer leaks, the sink leaks (from approx. 3 places). Fortunately they are all relatively easy fixes, replace the kitchen plumbing, get a new washer, fix the hole in the bathtub. The only really tricky one has been the water damage and subsequent mould in the master bedroom. We've torn up all the subfloor, spent three days bleaching and scrubbing the floor with a Mike Holmes recommended mould and mildew killer.
At first I was so frustrated with the length of time that we would now be spending on the master bedroom all I wanted was to sleep in our bed again. Dylan though elated me the other day when he explained that the damage in the closet to the drywall etc was extensive and would have to be torn out. THAT MEANS I GET A CUSTOM 'DYLAN-BUILT' WALK IN CLOSET!! Endless joy folks, it has made an appearance.
Another thing that surprised me was finding so much joy every morning in watching the sun rise. I've never really seen such beautiful sun rises, and I get to enjoy them every single morning. That has been another source of endless joy, I find myself excited now to wake up before the sun comes up, just so I can watch it again.