May 29

A year ago today, I arrived at my current residence, a cabin in the woods, in the Natural State. I bought this cabin, along with half an acre of land, without personally seeing it, trusting its description and the not-so-trustworthy selling agent, while I was still living in California, and I had no idea what living in the woods meant in practical terms. I just knew there was some land for my three dogs to run around during the day and there was a shelter for our nights.

I remember the home-sweet-home feeling I got when I saw the tiny home with my own eyes for the first time the day I arrived here, May 29, 2018, after spending five nights at different motels along the Interstate Highway 40 and being on the road for five days in my Camry, which carried the dogs, three containers filled with only the essentials, two boxes of books and dvds, and me.

I also recall, a few days later, asking my new neighbor which day of the week the trash was picked up. He just stared at me for a few seconds, shook his head, and said, “You college people don't even know how to get rid of trash. Burn the shit!” He'd heard from his former neighbor, the previous owner of my house, aka the seller, that I was a college professor, hence the “college-people” remark. After laughing wholeheartedly at his comment, I asked him how I could do that in a safe way, without starting a fire in the forest, and that is the first of many things I've learned over the last year about living in the woods.

My cabin is small, 225 sqf, and I love it. The area surrounding it is peaceful. I am literally in the middle of the woods, with nature all around me, and by nature, I mean big trees and colorful birds, but also all kinds of other creatures from chiggers, which I had to Google a few days after my arrival, to bears, not to mention snakes, which, to me, are the scariest creatures in the world. I try not to focus on the scary stuff and just enjoy the cardinals and blue jays during the day and the fireflies in the evening.

I didn't know much about nature before living here. A year later, I still don't know much, but I am living in the Natural State, and I'm learning something new every single day. I've learned about birds, the installation of septic tanks, and the way to effectively grow various vegetables depending on the season.

Having lived in California most of my adult life, I'm used to sunshine, the beach, and flip flops with a side of earthquake. However, in the year I've lived in Arkansas, I've experienced all four seasons and, in each season, been exposed to way too many thunderstorms, which scare my dogs and usually lead to floods.

Today, as I'm writing this blog post, there's a thunderstorm and the worst flood I've seen so far in this state, and, to spice things up a bit on my one-year anniversary, the universe just sent me a tornado warning.