I want to move!

Thanks to some good fortune and medical intervention, Jacob’s now on his way to recovery with the latest ear drama. We arrived bright and early Monday morning for the procedure. After a bit of waiting, Jacob was in and out of surgery. The actual procedure took only about 10 minutes, barely enough time to get a good start on our reading materials.

The good news is everything went well. The bad news is they found a large pocket of infection (about the size of a strawberry) in his ear canal. But back to the good news, they got it all out and the newly placed tubes should allow it to heal.

These past few weeks have been quite a whirlwind of medical drama. First the ear infection, then stomach flu, then ear tubes. At least the ear infections weren’t catching. The stomach flu got passed around enough, although I happily skipped that part.

About the same time, the odometer on my car added an extra zero. Now 100,000 miles new, the not so old girl has really been racking up a lot of miles lately.

All this gives me more reason to seethe about not being able to move to the farm on a timely basis. It sure would have come in handy these past few weeks when Nate had to be at the farm and I had to take care of a sick child barred from daycare.

Instead, the house that was supposed to be undergoing renovation so we could move in by August has been at a standstill for several weeks now. The owner is the type of person where it doesn’t pay to argue. Nate worked with him when they built the freestall barn a few years ago and pushing him does nothing. In fact, it seems make him go even slower.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t be mad and frustrated quietly. We do have other options. We could put a mobile home in for now, but we’d still have to install a septic system and drill a well. And I’d really like something more permanent. Another option would be to build new. We’d spend a lot more money that way, but at least we’d be set for awhile. Nate says he only wants to move twice more in his life: to the farm and to the nursing home.

A third option, and probably the most logical, would be to buy the house as is and finish it ourselves. It would be a lot of work, but a lot of fun, too. I’ve been itching for some good hands-on labor for a while now. So much so that while home at my parents for the weekend I mowed their lawn and helped seal the deck. But that option would only work if he agreed to sell it to us now, which is doubtful.

It’s just not a good situation to be in. My patience is wearing thinner every time I drive past and see the bare walls void of siding and soffit-less roof. The knee-high grass he allowed to grow around it almost pushed me to my breaking point recently until he chopped through it last week. But as I drove past yesterday once more I had a breakthrough idea. Maybe that electric cattle prod hanging on the wall inside the barn would do him some good.