From the mouths of babes

We moved to ThunderCreek when my daughter was in the fourth grade.  She came home from school one day mad as a wet hen.  When I finally got her to speak to me she sounded more like a snake than a child. "We are reading a new book in school." she hissed.  "Really?" I said.  "It is called Little House on the Prairie." she spit back at me. "Oh" I said.  "The kids in my class have never heard of the things Laura talks about in the book." she hissed again.  "Oh" I repeated.  "You do them!!" she spat back.  Trying very hard not to laugh, I replied "I learned them all from Pa Ingalls".  She was clearly not amused and stomped off towards the horse pasture muttering under her breath.

Yes those were the days...

It all started when......

It all started when I wanted to live in the country and had to decide to rent or to buy. We could rent a small home and live paycheck to paycheck like most of America but you will soon discover that I seldom do "what everyone else does". The other choice was to buy land and live on it while we built our house. The kids were less than thrilled to discover that not only had I moved them away from our 3 bedroom house in the suburbs but I had also moved them to the middle of the wilderness. My son was horrified. "What do you mean there is not a 7-11 for over 35 miles" he exclaimed. "No TV ???" "No electricity or flushing toilet ??" The mutiny had begun.

We spent a short time in the desert and decided that no one was happy living on the face of the sun. Extreme heat, high winds, snakes and cactus were not for us. This lead to a search for trees (a Joshua is NOT tree !!) lakes, streams and cooler temperatures. We settled for 3 out of 4. Though cooler than the desert, California's Central Sierra is not all that cool in the summer. Bring on the boats and water-skis !! ( I told you we are not the Ingalls family.)

The House on ThunderCreek was born from hope, dreams, perseverance and just plain hard work. It took us years to build it and we hit many bumps on our dirt road before we could call it home. The house is not done yet (19 years later) but we love it just the same. I have been asked to put these stories in writing and never did because I thought no one would believe they were true. Some stories just beg to be told so I feel compelled to put them in print. Besides, what better way to embarrass your kids than to air the family laundry on the internet. Should have bought me a new dryer ;)