This house's HOA prevents us from putting up an outhouse, which I resent. So I want to build a woodshed, and put the little cutout in it so it looks like an outhouse. Because I'm an ass like that. But seriously, it is so beyond me how I can be in Arizona so rural there is no road maintenance on one stretch because no one can agree on who owns the road, and yet have homeowners covenants more restrictive than when I lived in downtown Wichita or Indianapolis.

My parents had an outhouse until they sold the farm in the mid-'00s. But it was falling apart by then and we never used it. When I was about three or four our dog had puppies underneath it.

I just realized I never found out what happened to those puppies. Maybe my dad did something to them. Gave them away, I hope.

The farmhouse was electrified back in the 1930s, I think. My aunt has memoires of running around the house turning the new electric lights on and off.

So, I had baked oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, and ginger with fresh strawberries on top and I feel like I have won Friday.

I don't know how long this feeling will last.

for no reason at all:

la di da di, my friends like to party...

That sounds like a win to me, Le N!

Tommy, I don't think my grandparents' farm house had an outhouse (that I remember--it was big news when they moved "into town" (of 1300) when I was about 8), but I do remember one Christmas there was a blizzard, and all the electricity went out and the pipes froze, and we had to get water from the hand pump outside.

Fresh strawberries are a bit of a win.

My paternal grandmother died in the mid 80s (also her mid 80s) without electricity or running water in her house. The kitchen was a separate building, but there was no toilet--water was for washing only. The outhouse was over by the graves.

I do remember one Christmas there was a blizzard, and all the electricity went out and the pipes froze, and we had to get water from the hand pump outside.

Huh.

Yeah, power outages during storms were common back before power lines were buried. Most dairy farmers would just milk their cows by hand during a power outage, which would take many more hours than with milking machines. My dad had this big-ass generator on a trailer that he'd hook to a tractor to produce electricity during outages so he could milk cows with the milking machines. The generator would power the house too, and I remember the house lights being kinda' dim while on the generator.

Jesse, for the Good Things tumblr. This made me cry, in a good way.

[link]

You should totally do that, Liese.

I will look at all those good things!

It is snowing a lot here, but it's pretty warm out, so it's not sticking much yet. In my urban life, I went out with no socks on, walked to the bank, then to the nail place, then to the burger place, all within a couple of blocks. I think I was the nail person's only client today and she left while I was still drying, so that seems like it was a good call. I mean, I tipped well. Also, her name tag identified her as a Nail Therapist, which I suddenly saw as Nail The rapist, and had to keep myself from saying to her.