Temporary Forever Homes...

This is my cat Baskins.  Baskins turned 16 years old on April 1st.  She is a domestic tabby and a hot mess.  I’ve had her since she was 4 weeks old and yes she’s named Baskins because a Baskins and Robbins commercial was on tv when I decided to keep her and name her.  
If you knew or wanted to know one thing about Baskins, and there’s a very slim chance you do because she’s uber anti-social, you’d know she is a complete diva and knows she rules the roost.  I’ve moved this cat 32 times in her 16 years with me and she has stuck with me thru all those moves.  She’s never ran away once, even tho she has her own very special way of being vocal about the moves she likes and dislikes.
In 2013, I had moved about 3 times during that summer and Baskins apparently did not like one of the newest moves.  At 1:00am when I had a 6:30am tee time she decided to show me her dislike by crawling over the top of my head and peeing directly on top of it.  We moved 3 days later.  
I’ve always wanted a forever home.  I tried suburbia, inner city, and apartments I thot were cool but nothing took.  I’ve also been forced to try the occasional hospital wards where they make you take the strings out of your hoodies and shoes and thankfully I’ve managed to fake sanity long enough to escape from these court ordered detainments.  Sanity is not always my strong suit, but that’s another story so anyway, the forever home had never came around until this fixer-upper, two and a half acre, gem of a potential forever home fell into Jen and I’s lap.
We had been doing full-time RV living.  Sold everything we owned and were bandwagoning the latest tiny living trend.  It was cool and we were definitely on board with living minimally and the belief that things don’t make a home, love does.  So we were ready to take it to the next level and buy some land with the intention of living in the RV until we built a house to suit our minimalist needs.  
We happened onto some land we could afford and were about to sign the papers when Jen spotted our temporary forever home.  It’s temporary because neither of us truly thinks Oklahoma is where we’ll retire and so it’s the forever home til the youngest graduates high school.  Then, it’s off to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Asheville, NC where the seasons are in full bloom and nature and love fill the air.  The one place on earth where I’ve ever seen hippies and the Bible belt meet and live together in harmony.
So here we are at our temporary forever home.  Off the grid.  Living minimally and learning how to live off the land.  The story just started but I am already invested and in awe of the nature that surrounds me, the circle of life that I am embracing, and the idea that I don’t have to have all those things I once thot were important to find my happy place.  For now, it’s here, in Luther, America where I am engulfed in two and a half acres of lawn I said I’d never mow, but now love to, and toting my shotgun, rifle, and four-wheel drive. Take a deep breathe and feel the air around you.  Your happy place is out there waiting for you too.

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