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["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On 11/22/06, rayzentz AT aim.com <rayzentz AT aim.com> wrote:
> Aren't bravery and insanity veeerrrrry closely related?   ;-)
I'd say they're more or less identical. Any man commenting here is
asking to be hurt, at least virtually.

I don't expect to find another homestead partner in what's left of my
lifetime. The last one was as close to perfect as I'm likely to get.
He was smart, could do wiring and plumbing, agreed with me on most
political issues, and could write beautiful prose. At his wake,
several members of the community stepped forward to tell tales of when
he told a wild ass story of one sort or other... and then it turned
out to be little-known but irrefutably true. Some of the instances
were memorable, as when he told some story about North Dakota (who the
hell knows about North Dakota?) and within the hour a long distance
trucker comes into the restaurant, hears the conversation, and
pronounces it to be true. Of course, this was the same man whose totem
was a bear: we figured this out after we camped in a number of places,
several where bears were rare, and the damn bears showed up every
time.

What I'd really like these days would be someone to live on the place
who could at least keep an eye on things, feed the critters, and call
for help if needed if I weren't here to do it.

I don't get lonely. Ever. That may seem strange, but I didn't even
consider getting married until I was 30, and that turned out to me a
BFM. I wasn't even looking or interested when my soul mate, er, Jim
showed up. We met in an Emily Dickisnon class and what kind of man
takes an ED class twice because he love ED? I wouldn't have been there
but I got bumped out of the Mark Twain class I really wanted. As it
turns out, ED is pretty impressive...

Right now, if I didn't have to got out to a day job, I would have a
hard time even considering another human on the place, but I can see
the utility. If I were several years younger, I would probably set out
for Alaska. It irritates me that I can hear my neighbors' dog yapping
at night. I don't begrudge the dogs their yapping as the coyotes yap
even louder, but I just don't want to hear them.

So here I am, a solitary soul forced into civilization.

In a well-written essay, this would all come to a point. So this is
the point: all a competent woman needs is a good dog and a few
faithful cats. And she may not need that if she's a stout soul.

Marie

PS: Temporary boarders accepted if they have high-level homesteading skills