Walmart, insulation, movies, and lisence woes.

Hello World. Treehaven is sparkling, and beautiful and cold this morning. I guess we are to have temps in the 50's (F) during the day, and down to the mid 20's (F) at night with a chance of rain and snow showers by this next weekend. It's currently Sunday and Hubby has gone to "church" (meaning he has taken Freya and Pan on walkabout on the property to spend time with God and his thoughts!) and I am working on writing the blog, and working up to getting up, dressed, and out of my warm bed. :D

We ended up going through Sprint for our new phone service for out here. Thanks to Don and Ben at Wireless Toys I have a great new phone and phone plan! It's unlimited on everything! Phone minutes, text messaging and online time! so I can talk all I want to and never worry about running out of minutes! Whoot! I am so happy about that. Now I can talk to anyone who calls. I guess I'll have to call someone now. lol. Of course, this is saving us a bonkers amount of money over what we were paying with AT&t. There was a deposit we had to pay, $150.00 because of our damaged credit, but that is nothing really as far as deposits go. I mean, Don said he had seen some deposits for as much as $500.00 so I feel that isn't too bad. It definately could have been worse.

The downside is that I went off and left my driver's license there! Drat! So I have to make the 40+ mile trip BACK into town to get it. I'll be doing it either Monday or Tuesday. It's a trip I don't want to make unless I have more than one thing to do. I have a photocopy of my license in case I get pulled over, and then if they still ticket me for it, I'll be able to prove to the judge that I do actually have a license. It's just annoying as all get out.

We went to the evil empire while we were in town yesterday too. Walmart (shudder). I have to admit that it wasn't a horrible experience. I figured that the day after black friday the store would be awash with many people jammed in there trying to get this or that. But it wasn't packed at all. Probably due to the fact that we were there during most peoples dinner time. We picked up some stuff we needed, and some stuff we didn't need of course. lol. I picked up some more pepsi, and hubby got some Chocolate... We got a headphone splitter and 2nd set of headphones... We have found that watching movies is fine, but that it's hard to hear due to the sound of the generator. We picked up the second set of headphones and the splitter so we both can wear headphones and that should null the sound of the generator and make it a more pleasurable viewing experience. I wanted to make our wonderful neighbor a scarf for Christmas. Afterall, everyone in this area can use another scarf or hat, and he has done so much for us! Get this. Walmart just doesn't carry WOOL yarn! They had about 400 different shades and blends of cotton, acrylic, and nylon.. Just no Wool. I was pretty disappointed in that. But, Thankfully, there is a Michaels just down the street. I'll go in there and look when I go back into town on Monday or Tuesday. I'll get some wool and make the scarf up quick as a wink.

ok, I'll write more tomorrow. Going to try to dig out the corner of our cabin today, it has stuff we just piled there and I have no clue what is really there. It's a mystery. It'll be like Christmas. Oh, I know that my jewelry box is there. Maybe I'll talk the hubby into trying to put up a shelf or two in here out of the cedar boards we brought. Then I'll have a place to put some stuff. Maybe I'll even find the staple gun so we can work some more on the insulation! Now THAT would be nice (and a miracle!), I can't wait until the insulation is all in so we can get the vapor barrier up so we can get real walls in here, so I can start putting stuff places and we can get organized. Bleah.

Or maybe... We'll just watch a movie instead.

Anyone wanna come and help?

Bisquits, hold the gravy.

Many moons ago I bought a camp oven to put on our camp stove. And last night I was so desprite for some other food than soup I tried it out. I made biscuits. Quite the endeavor because first I had to make the biscuit mix, then make the biscuits. I opened a can of TREET (similar to SPAM) and fried up slices of it and put velveeta cheese on them. We cut the biscuits open and put the treet and velveeta in them and viola, dinner. I was actually quite impressed with them. The can of Treet, I bought at our local dollar store, and the velveeta is what we had because it is shelf stable. So, it was cheap, and easy (other than being impatient waiting for the oven to come to temp. 300 degrees F is NOT easy to get to over a cook stove!) and was good. Food just tastes SO much better cooked out here.

Going to get some more Treet I think. And we have decided on getting a cooler and some meat for the cabin. I miss meat... hubby misses bread... :D I think the meat will be easier to fill than the bread, since it takes so much propane to get the camp oven to 300 degrees. Either that or it'll be bread cooked in the fire pit. He'll just have to live with that for now.

Of course, if any one likes, they can donate towards that $2000.00 wood burning bread oven they have available at king author flour... I am going to make my own version of that from fire brick and cinderblock sometime in the future... Then hubby will have all the bread he can possibly want!

Mistress Treehaven

Phone Woes.

So, we have been AT&T customers for our cells for over 10 years. But, because we have moved to an area that they don't have coverage in, and we are more than 50% roaming... they cut our service. BLAH! Now we are living in a remote area, with no phone coverage. Jerks. Today, we are going to go and see if we can find a new provider... Kind of sad really, but maybe we won't have to pay anything to port our #'s to and it'll be cheap.. yeah, I'm an optimist.

Other than that, not a whole lotta new to report. :D Still plugging away on the homesite, will post new pictures soon.

Love you all!
Mistress Treehaven

Praying for a mild Winter

Hello world! how are you all doing today?

Well, we've been here for 20 days and as of yet, I've gotten no letters from anyone. I guess I'll sit down and write some more either tonight or tomorrow since it's Turkey day tomorrow and we don't celebrate it. hehe.. even if we did I don't have an oven to cook a turkey in. :D I guess I could wrap it in foil and cook it polynesian style in a firepit. But that could take hours soooo.. We'll stick with no turkey.

We've decided to put a loft up in the cabin. That will give us about another 64 square feet for stuff. Our wonderful neighbor is trying to talk us into putting the bed up there. It would be tons warmer than having it on the floor and we could use the space under the loft for other things like food storage, book shelves, and bringing hubby's lay-z-boy down out of storage. The hubby likes THAT idea. And I daresay I would like to get it here too. It makes a great place to nap or to try to sleep when the insomnia hits.

There is still a number of people who don't know that we've moved. So I guess while I'm writing some letters tomorrow I'll fill out some postcards and let them know the new address. Most of my aunts don't know, and some of my cousins. A few of my cousins like to hunt, maybe I'll encourage them to come and visit that away.

And we do have the hunting. We are right on the migration path for most ducks and geese. We have seen them overhead for a bit now, and heard the guns in the early mornings. And the deer are as thick as fleas on a mongrel hound. It's crazy! We have seen so many deer since moving down here. About 30 of them in the last 20 days and I'm not even exaggerating! Does, still haven't seen any Bucks, but it's getting time for them to drop their antlers, so it'll be hard to tell soon. But lots, and lots of does. Our neighbor says he has a few come and drink out of his little pond he put in. I bet he gets a lot of camera opportunities. Wouldn't mind seeing some of what he gets to come and visit... I think I'll put a pond in out front too. We have dogs though and that could discourage some of the critters to come and drink.

We are praying this will be a mild winter. As I have said before last winter was anyting BUT mild. 7 foot snow drifts, and 3 1/2 to 4 feet of snow on the ground. -30 and -40 degrees F for temps too. If the winter just keeps itself down to about 2 feet of snow on the ground I think we'll be ok. As it is we'll have to do some shoveling of the front area so the dogs can go out and potty. The toboggan will come in handy there, we can fill it with snow from shoveling then pull it to the side and create a kind of "bowl" around the campsite of snow. hehe... kind of a snowfence around us. It'll look like a crater.. like craterlake, but this one will be created by snow, not a volcanic explosion.

I am thinking of getting a reflector oven for our propane fireplace. It would be a good way to use the heat from that to cook biscuits and the like. now I just have to find one. Anyone have a good source for one?

ok, off to find some clothes, gotta run to town today. UGH! 80+ mile round trip. lol.

Mistress Treehaven

SNOW!

SNOW! We got our first snow of the year yesterday morning. Just a dusting, but it was very pretty. the dogs and us went for a walk-about in the snow sprinkles. They ran and ran.... I walked and walked. lol. I just don't have the energy they have. I'll get there someday, but not yet.

Well, we had bought a propane heater last week on Thursday, and a 20 lb. propane bottle, looks like today I'll have to go and fill the bottle. Not bad when you make the comparison to the electric heater. We pay about $12.00 for gas per night right now. (yes, that is a LOT of money each day that we have to quit needing to spend, but I need the generator to run my sleep apnea machine right now.) The propane bottle to fill was right about $12.00 too. So for three days of heat with the propane it was $4.00 a day, vs. $12.00 a day for gas for the gennie.

We are working on getting some batteries and other needed stuff so I can run my sleep apnea mask off of 12V vs. 120v.. Once we do that then we won't have to run the generator except every two or three days to charge the batteries when we have no sun. When the sun is out then using a solar panel we'll be able to get some power off of that and it'll save the gas and the generator.

If you have a generator remember, even if you don't need it you need to start it every once in a while to keep the oil and lubricant moving around in it. If you don't then when you do start it then it'll seize and burn out. And with most generators costing over $500.00 you DO NOT want that to happen. We got a great price break with ours in that it was only $399.00 for one that is 5000 watts, but that is unusual. It was last years model, and the last one they had. :D I got very, very lucky.

Candles! Lots of candles. I have a lot that I have bought that aren't in jars or glasses. I am sad about that! The candles that came in their own jars, cups, or glasses are all so much more convenient. Burning them not only gives light, but they also help add a little to the warmth of the cabin. And it's all about warmth this winter. :D Come summer, it'll be a different story all together. Our neighbor has told us that it can get to 100 degrees here in the summer! Ouch. I KNOW we'll be going back to our storage unit and getting the window air conditioner. Now if only we knew it would fit in the window! lol.

Although, the screens in the windows are permanently affixed. So that means I would have to cut them out to get the air conditioner in. And that is when the other problem comes into play.

Spring time is SKEETER TIME!

According to our wonderful neighbor,the mosquitos around here are very prolific. Hard to beleive this in a land where there is little to no water. Apparently, however, it's true. There are enough mosquitoes in the Spring to suck a full grown cow down to dessicated powder in about 3 minutes at any given time in any one place.

So, the newest advice is that hubby is to build me a screen house for us to live in come spring. (Poor Hubby, his to-do list just keeps getting longer and longer!)

This same wonderful neighbor is a veritable FOUNT of information! He has a wonderful cabin of less than 200 SF, that is beautifully and very practically appointed. It's all painted, and trimmed and is very functional as well as astetically pleasing. I am going to snitch some of his ideas for our own little cabin in the woods. Once I get some of his upgrades implemented here I'll include some pics.

Off to find some other mischeif to get into... maybe some insulation or something...

Mistress Treehaven

Butter and More..

Good morning world! And it really IS morning as I write this. 6:43am to be precise. I just thought I would get a jump on things and say hello this morning before we pitched in for work. Today is a "stay home" day. This means that we go nowhere and work on the cabin. YAY! We have just about 1/3 or so of the insulation done, and I would love to have more finished by tonight. If I am really lucky I would love to have all the walls done, but I am also very practical and know that we will probably have quite a bit more to go at the end of today. The roof will present especial difficulty for us as Hubby is the only one that can get on a ladder. Both because we don't have that much room, and also because I don't do heights.

OK. I promised for the instructions on how I can my butter. (All the usual disclaimers apply. If you get sick, kill someone through the use of, or go insane, it's not my fault. Deal with it. This process isn't USDA approved. Why not? Because they haven't tested it and if the USDA hasn't tested it, then it must be dangerous for you right? NOT! New zealand has been making and selling canned butter for more than a generation, and people here in the states have been doing this for a long, long time too. I use this butter exclusively now that we are here in the cabin and hope I have enough to last until summer/spring, then I'll bite the bullet and use the propane to make more.)

Materials:

PATIENCE
1 large, heavy stock pot. You want it heavy and large.
7 lbs of non-salted butter
1 long spoon for stirring said butter
14 or 15 clean (sterile) jelly jars, with rings and NEW lids
1 ladle
1 wide-mouth funnel
about 6 hours of time

Process:

With me so far? Ok, this is what you do. Put stock pot (heavy made and large, right?) on stove, and fill with butter. Unwrapped from package of course. Turn on your butter to medium or medium high heat. You want it to come to a high simmer. STIR this a lot. The LAST thing you want this to do is to scortch, if you scortch it then your done, toss it and start over. And since butter is so expensive, use some patience and keep it stirred.

Once the butter is all melted, stir it and let it simmer and be all bubbly for about 25 minutes. Well, you could simmer it for less time, but the more you let it simmer now, the less time it will take you later with the shaking step.

After your 25 minutes is up, using a wide-mouth funnel, and ladle, put your butter into your HOT and STERILE jars. (prep jars and lids just as you would for jelly.) Leave about 3/4 inch of headspace, you'll need that for shaking. Put on your lids and tighten on your rings.

Walk away for about 20 minutes or so. You'll hear them all start popping like any other canned goods, this is a good thing. Smile to yourself when you hear that ping, it's your butters future.

After about 20 minutes come back, pick up each jar and give it a good shake. Yup, you heard right... And SHAKE. Then put that jar down and do the next one. Now it gets really tedious. About every 5 or 10 minutes you need to come back, and shake each jar. As the butter cools the milk solids settle to the bottom while the fat (grease? also called GHEE), comes to the top. You want these to be evenly mixed in your butter. Shaking the jars does this.

When the butter is so cool you can't shake it anymore, pat yourself on the back and enjoy the 5ish year long shelf life of your canned butter! Label it with what it is, the year you made it and remember to rotate the oldest that you made to the front of your cabinet as you make more. Give it as Christmas gifts or in baskets of bread to new neighbors. There is nothing quite so good as opening up a jar and smelling that rich buttery smell for your toast or cookies. (Note: the taste of this butter is a little different than fresh butter, it smells and tastes like melted butter, even when it's right out of the jar. Some people expect it to be exacgtly the same as fresh, so if you were expecting that it could be a surprise.)

End of instructions on butter.

I have about 15 or more jars of butter with us up here, and each jar is about 1 and 1/2 sticks equivalent of butter. We've used about 1/2 of our first jar so far, and we have been here about 16 days or so.

Ta for now. Enjoy your butter.

Mistress Treehaven

Updates!

Here we are! New PICS! Whoot!

http://picasaweb.google.com/emily.yelton/MoreFromTreehaven#

No making fun of us. I know we look like crazy wilderness people.

As per usual, the people at the insurance agency are giving Hubby problems about paying him short term disability while he's on FMLA. All kinds of hassles. You have no idea how terrible these people are being... And now, his job is also hassling him for a date that he is to return to work. His Dr. said at least 6 months, while he receives treatment for some of his health issues. That would put his return at the middle of March to middle of April. And here it is the middle of November and it's already nag, nag, nag.

Other than that things are going well, we have a propane heater in place now, it was 70 degrees F in the cabin this morning! Whoot! And this is a morning where it froze water 3 inches deep outside. So it wasn't like it was a warm night. lol.

Wondering when the snow will hit... or if. Don't know. Last winter was pretty bad, 7 foot drifts and people snowed in and all that. Maybe this year will be better... Or worse. lol. Last year with the 7 foot drifts the snow in the flats was still about 3 - 4 feet tall. I'm only 5 foot tall... LOL. And none of the dogs are 4 foot tall. Will have to be sure that we keep the area in the front of the cabin free of snow or we'll loose the pupsicles.

I've had some people ask about how I canned my butter since I moved up here. I'll write that up and post it next time I update.

Which will be soon... And from my own computer! lol. Only brought hubbies this time as we didn't know if we would find a connection this trip. But we did. So here is your update.

Hugs for all

Mistress Treehaven.

Newest of the New!

Well, sometimes things work out for the good, and sometimes they work out for the good. :D

We didn't end up going to my sisters house for the winter, her Parents in laws own the property and they didn't want a lot of extra people on the property. So that leaves us at Treehaven for the winter. Just as good, I love it here and so does the hubby.

So, we have some more insulation up, and the woodstove in... Although, Pioneers we are not! lol. We have yet to build a sustainable fire in it. and it smokes a lot. But they say practice makes perfect right?

It LOOKS the part at least. ROFL. Hopefully we can get that fire thing down to a science before the true cold hits. Just in case though we will be getting at least a 25 gallon bottle of propane (or two) and will get a propane heater that will crank out the juice on it. That way, if we can't get the fire to work, we won't be nothing but frozen fishsticks come Spring.

Either that or about 6 more dogs. Either one will work. Although, I don't know if our king size bed is big enough for a total of 9 dogs. lol.

Hubby and I are planning on getting 2 or 20 cats. Living out in the wilderness, there is bounds to be a lot of "pests" and the last thing we want is a rat/mouse invasion once the temp climbs some. I mean, we just brought in a minimum of 6 months of stored food with us! It's like we put out a sign that reads "eat at Treehaven"! No varmit can resist that.

The Berkey is a God Send! It takes even plastic tasting water and makes it palatable. For those of you who know me, you know that is a miracle in and of itself since I can't stand the taste of water alone. I have to have tea, lemonade, juice or anything except plain water. So all our drinking water is going through the Berkey. The good news is that each set of filters will last us about a year! Whoot!

Our wonderful brother in law bought us the backer board for the woodstove (didn't want us burning down the house with the heat), as well as chains for the truck so we can get over the pass into town come time when the REAL winter hits. He's AWESOME. And no, you can't have him folks, he's my brother in law! So there!

As a side note.. My MOTHER called on Friday! Huh? Out of the blue. Ok, so we haven't talked in 2 years. Sometime I'll put up the whole story as to why, but long story short, I had told her I didn't want to hear from them until I got an apology from them for the language that was used unwarrented towards hubby and I. They have never apologized. So, out of the blue on Friday my mom calls to tell me that they are possibly moving from Oregon to Missouri/Kansas/Ohio... I already knew this, as they talk regularly to my sister (their favorite kid of course! lol.) and sis regularly talks to me. Ah, family politics. Anyway, mom knows sis told me they were thinking of moving come Spring, so I don't know why she called. Hubby says that it may be her way of offering an olive branch. I don't know. I'll call her back this week and see what the true reason is that she called. If she wants to patch things up, ok. I'll even invite them down to the property... Although they will have to bring their own cabin/tent/camper/sleeping place, There isn't room in our 200 SF cabin for company! Lol. Eventually we'll get a few more cabins out here, then there will be room. Until then though, everyone will have to BYOT (bring your own tent)!

The kids LOVE being out here. Mostly Thor and Freya. They run and play and dig and just love it. Pan loves it to play, but he shivers all night long most nights. We've taken to putting him under the covers with us... This proves a two fold positive. He gets warm and stops shivering, and so do we! Lol. Freya also sleeps under the covers with us. Had to teach her that, but she likes it now. So with these two in bed with us it sure does help us with the warmth. We tried to have Thor sleep with us, but he must just get too hot! He will sleep on the bed for a bit, but sure enough, after about an hour he gets out of bed and climbs down on his very padded doggy bed on the floor. There have been nights that he sleeps right on the FLOOR itself with no doggy bed under him. I guess that he is still getting to warm those nights. Though, I can't imagine being to warm out here... I don't think a night has been above 40 since we arrived!

We have to take the water bottles with us into town today, we have used 1/2 our suppy of water, and we don't want to get stuck up here with no way to water. That would suck a lot! We still have some juice, and pop, but that won't really keep us. Hard to cook oatmeal with apple juice... although... It would probably taste pretty darn good! lol. Since we drink herbal teas or oatmeal everyday, the water is kind of important. To keep our hands clean, we use alcohol hand cleaners almost constantly. And for now we have wet wipes for our bodies. For my hair though I use water and when we "shower" we also use water. The dogs drink water, and we drink water. Thankfully, I am smart enough to have purchased almost everything with water in it. Sardines in water, tuna in water, chicken in water, soups that are not condensed. Some stuff you have to use water in though, powdered milk, dehydrated meats, teas, hot chocolate, on and on... Once it snows we'll be able to melt the snow on our stove, and then put that in our water jugs, but until that happens we'll just have to take them into town and find a place to fill them.


Ok, that's it for now. I'll probably have more for you soon.

New Info!

Well, we made it to the property, and it's absolutely beautiful! but, we also found out that a lot of the info we were given is WRONG! It doesn't get down to aqbout 18 degrees F in the winter... more like -30 to -40 degrees F!

Sooooooo. We are looking at going to my sisters for the winter then coming back up here for spring, summer, fall of next year. That will give us more time to put in the estimated TEN cords or more of wood we need as well as get the cabin prepped for next winter's living. lol.

Greenhorns! That's us.

Not defeated, just turned back for a time. We'll see what the future holds now.

For those of you who have my address (snail mail!) write me!

hugs!

We have change,

but is it good or bad? I didn't vote for Obama, I voted for McCain, so I am a little dissappointed, but not surprised. The American populace wants change, and it seems that everyone is focused on the problem that Republicans are the ones that caused it. No one I know is focused on the problem that WE THE PEOPLE let them cause the problem. Oh well, the ability of all humans in the world to say "not me" is pretty amazing.

What other things changed though? A new Commander in Chief isn't the only thing that changed. There were record breaking numbers of people who went and registered to vote and then really did vote this election. People are starting to realize that they should vote, that it's our right as members of a free society... no that it's our DUTY to do so and that we should vote everytime something comes up that needs our voice. Apathy about how our country is run, who's running it, how long they run it and how they spend the money is what has put us in this position in the first place.

I am hoping that the momentum of the people who are taking notice of this election and what it entailed continues, so that we end up with fewer people sitting on their rumps complaining about the state of our union when they do nothing to prevent it.

Yes, we had record numbers of people registering and voting... But we aren't at 100% yet. :) It's very likely that we never will be. But for those of you who aren't registered to vote or just decided not to vote.. Just remember this. If you didn't vote, then keep your lips shut, as you don't have the right to complain about any of the elected officials, measures, amendments, or whatever on this ballot. You didn't care enough to vote for someone you thought would do a better job. And if you didn't care then, why care now? Exercize your freedom of speech over your neighbors yapping dog.

Voting in Oregon even is easy for the couch potato, it's all done via mail in ballot. They mail it to you, and you get to sit in your own easy chair and mark the little arrows, and then either mail it back or drop it in the drop box next time you run some errands.

Election Day...

So here we are again.. That time of the year when we choose a new leader for our massive country. Whoever that is this year will have their hands full. As a nation, we are so far in debt that it will take DECADES to get it all paid off. The country is ready to fall into depression and we are in an ever spiraling recession. Unemployment is going up, people in bankruptcy and forclosure is going up, and people who are able to make ends meet are going down.

Who do you think will win that coveted seat of President of the United States of America? Of course the two front runners are John McCain and Barrack Obama. Are either of them really fit for the job? I've already voted, so I know who I put on the ballot. Have to tell ya... Who I voted for will probably surprise the pants off a lot of people. I won't tell you here, but maybe in a day or two I'll put it up, keep you all guessing. :D Don'tcha just love suspense?

I also voted for our mayor here in Eugene. Kitty Piercy or Jim Torrey. That was our choices. I don't like Kitty Piercy, so I voted for the old war horse, Jim Torrey. Kitty had her chance and did nothing really. lol. Jim did a lot so let them work with him for a while. And well... If I was wrong... I'll be gone on Thursday anyway. I know, kind of a mean thing to say, but it's the truth.

There were tons of measures to vote on too. I don't remember all of them. A lot of them didn't have to do with hubby or I, but I dutifully voted on them. The ones that would affect us, I dutifully marked too. :D Want to be sure I mark my ballot up. Voting is important and hubby was in the Navy for 11 years to be sure I continued to get that right. And he gets MIGHTY touchy when he finds out someone isn't voting. :D Hear that? Get together and VOTE! It's a freedom, it's a right and it's a duty.

off to more packing. hehe.. anyone wanna come and help?

It's getting there! We got a lot more packed yesterday, and even have the appointment with Michael to deliver the cabin on Thursday. We'll be caravaning up there, the cabin, the moving truck and my truck all in a row, but not necessarily in that order.

We're kind of wondering if the moving truck and cabin will FIT in the tunnel. Yes, there is a tunnel between us and the property. It tops out around 13 feet (a little over, but I figure to underestimate it would guarantee we all fit right?) so if we are under that we KNOW we will be able to fit. lol.

It's started fitfully snowing up there, but I think it will still be ok, as it's still mixed showers and snow. Michael wants to start out at 4am on Thursday! It'll be SO dark. I don't drive in the dark well, but if I have to, I can start out later than the others. I'll have the dogs with me and some minor necessities, but not much more.

At this point we are all just kind of running around going a little NUTS!

short update...

Hubby said the blog was getting lonely so I thought I would just toss up an update and let everyone know how we are doing. We are still trying to get moved, still boxing, tossing, sorting and all that. whew, 2 people sure accumulate a lot of stuff over the years. Especially when one of them is a minor pakrat and the other is a major pakrat! lol. But it's getting there. We'll be running out for more boxes today (and some sanity) and we are hoping to be done by tomorrow! (Hope springs eternal right?)

On the upside, it'll be only another brief time and we'll be HOME!