I “moved” full time to our camper in Benezette in early January 2021. (A family member was living in our house in Carlisle, so when I say move, understand I packed some clothes and some stuff I loved, but left our home still mostly intact.)
The Willow was my focus for the first quarter since most of the work was topical and didn’t require Jeremy’s construction skills.
The shift from corporate life to living my own was amazing. (I finally figured out why I could never get to work at 8 am! Turns out no matter what time I go to bed, I wake up at 8:30.)
The Branch was still a shell and with the cold weather, snowy conditions and the supply chain issues plaguing the world at large, it was hard to get materials (and momentum) to keep moving. So Jeremy was able to spend what time he wasn’t working at the distribution center on prepping The Willow for new lighting fixtures, floors and plumbing upgrades.
For some reason I thought we needed another project (lord knows why I’m like this – I’m still trying to sort out my crazy drive to stay busy) and we also helped Jeremy’s dad with his own short term rental by painting the great room, installing new floors and light fixtures. (We also looked at 2 more properties to purchase. I guess I just like to keep moving?)
I took advantage of my new, flexible schedule and went on trips to see old friends and to make new ones. Jeremy and I meal planned for a week and went to the grocery store together on a weekday morning. We took our big dog, Diesel, for evening walks and ate together at our tiny camper table. There were afternoon breaks on our front porch, many campfires, and days full of living our dream. We were satisfyingly busy in a way that I know I hadn’t been before.
By mid-year, the pace of our projects made it clear that Jeremy’s part-time work (which was now looking more like full-time work) was becoming unsustainable. It was time for him to go all in, a decision we both knew was necessary if we were going to finish The Branch before the busy elk rut season.
We were still traveling to Carlisle occasionally for family events (and to watch the dirt track car we sponsored race at BAPS Speedway in York !) and so he left that position and We. Were. All. In.
We welcomed our first guests to The Branch in August of 2021, and for a while, we fell into a comfortable routine of cleaning the little cabins during the busy season.
Friends and family came to visit so we had lots of trips to explore the area and hang out around the camp fire or on the front porch of our camper.
As the year was wrapping up, Jeremy began to look for part time work again. We needed health insurance, and I suspect he needed something to keep him busy (we didn’t talk about these things, shocker).
He started a job that required a 45 minute, early (like, dark o’clock) commute, that I didn’t love for him (or me, because I worried about him).
By December, we had stopped talking to each other in a civilized way. He had provoked a physical altercation with a family member, blown the engine in my car and left it sit on the side of the highway, and threatened to list our business for sale on FaceBook.
Damn. How did I suppress all of that shit?
(Disclosure – I had to go back through old text messages for some of these details because my normally, sharp as a tack mind refused to give them to me. Interesting, huh?)
Building Benezette 
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