One Year At Grafted Branch Farm

It has been one year since we moved to Grafted Branch Farm. What has it looked like? I'm sharing the good and the hard things, as well as a few things that were surprising to me.

The Good Things

• The sounds. I love the sounds of the sandhill cranes and the way the wind sounds out here. I also love the sound of the silence, particularly on clear nights. I know it sounds weird to claim that silence has a "sound", but if you know, you know.
  
• Clear skies with brilliant stars. It's magnificent here at night. Sometimes the moon is so bright that I actually see my shadow on the ground!
  
• Two washers and dryers. This makes laundry a lot more efficient and it means my brothers' work clothes aren't making our regular washer black anymore!
  
• There are some absolutely gorgeous nature places where I enjoy spending time. It's very relaxing and refreshing and I'm thankful to be closer to such places.
  
• Cute stores. I've enjoyed visiting and discovering local shops. There are some really adorable places around and I have a blast just browsing. (Though I have bought a few things :)
  
• The light in my room. As the sun sets, my room is filled with the most beautiful light. I know, photographer nerding out over here, but it just makes me so content and it's one of my favorite things out here.
  

The Hard Things (ironically, most of this list has to do with driving :)

• Everything is so much farther. At my old house, I was ten minutes or less from church, the library, and the grocery store. I could walk to a Tropical Smoothie. Everything was very close. That is not the case anymore and it's taken some getting used to.
  
• While no streetlights make for great stargazing, it makes driving hard. I honestly think that part of my problem with headlights now is from the fact that there is no other light. Driving in snow or rain is more challenging without streetlights.
  
• In the country, the roads are one lane each way with certain areas designated for passing zones. This means that if you get stuck behind a construction truck or someone going r e a l l y  slow, you're stuck until you find a passing zone AND it happens to be clear. This makes being on time tricky because you can't plan to get stuck going slow but if you are, then you might be late.
• BUGS! There are more/different bugs out here and IN OUR HOUSE! I had a very traumatizing experience with spiders last year and I'm dreading warm weather because of it.
  
• I miss carpet. I understand why we don't have it, but I do miss it a lot. Hard floors are so cold and rugs just aren't the same.
  

A few things have not been as bad as I thought. Particularly having one bathroom. We went from two and a half bathrooms to one and I thought that was going to be REALLY hard. Most of the time, it is not a big deal and I'm glad. Having an electric stove/oven has also not been as terrible as I expected. I'm even getting better at remembering to not have my face in front of the oven when I open it :)

I don't know that I could say I "like" living here, because if I could pick to live somewhere, it wouldn't be here, but I am content and at peace with living here. I've accepted it well, not grudgingly. I don't know if that even makes sense but it's the best I can do to describe it.