I never did hear Jesse’s dog today, now yesterday, but I did hear that wolf howling. It sure sounded like a wolf anyway. But I thought they were nocturnal. Maybe it was Jesse’s dog. I suppose if it can whine as well as bark, why not howl, too? I don’t think so, though. This time the howling came from further away. All I heard from Jesse’s place was him driving in and out of his driveway, obviously working on the wires. Tom said his truck was parked at the fork. At times I would think he was driving down here, but then when I would fail to hear the crunch of gravel which covers most of the clearing or see his truck, I knew no one was coming down here. He was gunning some engine for 5-10 minutes at one point. It wasn’t too loud, though I still hope he doesn’t do that regularly.

I wonder if most of these trees lose their leaves in the wintertime. I hope not. We’d lose some privacy, not that we’d be hanging outside then or leaving windows open, but it would really allow sound to travel better as well, too.

Right now there are scattered patches of pretty wildflowers and dandelions throughout the land.

The more I think about it, the more I don’t think the neighbors next to the Oregon dump were really 50’ away as I first assumed. I think they were more like 30’ and I doubt this lot is even 100’ wide like I first thought. I think it’s closer to 75’ if even that.

In some ways, it’s even quieter in the daytime, as surprising as that may sound. In the daytime all I pretty much hear are birds. At night, since sound carries better then, I hear trucks whizzing through the freeway that runs from Sacramento to Reno.

What was neat in a freaky sort of way was doing what I dreamt I did. I didn’t know the dream I had about a couple weeks before finding this place, where I saw myself gazing at a distant house from where I lived, was a premonition. Usually, I have feelings that tell me so, but not that time. Just yesterday I walked up to the window and gazed out and about through binoculars just like in the dream. It was like a strange case of déjà vu. The only things that were different than the dream are that we don’t have the rats yet and I certainly couldn’t see wall hangings or furniture inside the houses like I could in the dream. They’re not only too far away for that in reality, but I couldn’t see detail like that through the trees and with the houses being so much higher.

As much as we’re anxious to get rats, we want to wait till everything’s set up and done, like the upcoming window project.

There’s a hose running down to the irrigation ditch. Tom said not to drink out of the black one or else I’d get sick. That one’s just for watering plants. I’m amazed they got the hose down such a steep incline and that the deer could navigate it, too.

Unfortunately, it’s going to be about a week before we’re back online. I can’t wait to get back to work! Tom says he no longer considers my wins as wins, but as income earned. Yeah, that’s what all these W-9 forms think, too.