Just the Facts

6:06AM     Sitting in shed looking out hayloft door.  Fingertips protruding from gloves feel cold.  Google displays 41F in St. Charles.  Distracted by thermos of hot tea, Orion and unidentified night noises.  

Sunday Oct 2   Sitting in Judson church, alone in the 6^th pew on the left.  First time in church since moving to the Cabin.  Communion bread chewy and tasty.  Lynn, mother of Anton who I mentored years ago, sits down next to me.  Discover she didn’t know we’d sold our house.  Felt embarrassed for assuming everyone knows the supposed big events of my life. 

6:29AM   Pink in SE sky.  Dog Star (Procyon) only star visible below Orion. 

April 2004   Purchased 62 acres in Elba township, Winona County, MN.   Though we kept trying on different names for it, all we’ve ever called it was The Land.

6:35AM   Great horned owl still hooting.

Feb 2007   Enrolled 41 acres into CREP program, providing us income from government in exchange for returning the acres to native prairie.  Jagged CREP boundary outlines a future 1600’ driveway to a 2 acre homesite.

6:43AM   Steel rim of thermos cup cold on my lips.  Orion hiding in the growing light.  

Nov 2007   Plant prairie seed into 41 acres.  Many experts tell us our method (no herbicide, drill straight into existing sod) will fail.

6:55AM   Poured more steaming hot tea from thermos into cup.  “Ahhh!”  Crows, well separated from one another, fly overhead and disappear beyond grassy ridge.

Jan 2009   Select Paul Neseth, Locus Architecture, to design new home.  Identify two main themes:  Welcome family, friends and neighbors.  Enable connection to the Land.

7:02AM   Toes cold.   Turn off LED lantern.

April 29 2011   I retire from Medtronic with severance package equaling pay until end of year.   My next source of income remains unknown.

7:05AM              Scott’s horse neighing.  Dakota the dog barking.  Crow cawing.   

Aug 1 2011        Closed on house in Minneapolis.  Moved into 20’ x 20’ rented cabin across road from the Land.  Linda begins working only Tuesdays and Wednesdays in Minneapolis.

7:12AM   Toes even colder.  Tea already lukewarm.

Aug 9 2011       Tom Fort, Fort Building and Supply, breaks ground on new house.

7:15AM

8:16AM
   Just before uploading blog, it occurs to me how facts---no matter how "true"---become a myth as I, the storyteller, arrange them.

Rah-dur!