I didn't post because it was cold, I was gathering firewood, it was cold, I had a cold, I had a flu, I was just plain blue.  I also wasn't eating much because money was short and I wanted to make sure the kids ate well.  I also didn't post because I didn't know what was going to happen next.  My husband landed a job 4 hours away in an area that I couldn't live if I wanted to get stronger and better. 

We got beautiful teepees to get out of the rain and cold. The romantic fires I burned caused the kids to smell like "barbeque potato chips", as one kid put it and gave me bronchitis.  We got the teepees because the tent city we sprawled out in just wasn't cutting it in the wind and rain.  I found that making a web of light rope and putting plastic up that drained outward, the teepees stayed dry inside if there wasn't a fire.  The electric bill was atrocious, I am afraid to say.  My mother joined us after coming out from South Africa.  We all huddled, waiting.  My elder brother helped out, but we couldn't find a rental that was safe enough.  If I were to do it over, I would have gotten simple wood stoves and pipe and done it right.  I didn't think winter would be as long as it seemed.

Finally, we now have a home with my mother and the kids are in normal school.  I am finally warm.  I see the people who don't even have a decent tent.  How hard it must be, how breaking.  I had family, that without, my dispair would have been mind numbing (even spoiled as I am, it was hard.)  My mother thinks that I have parkinson's, but I think I can get better.  I am getting stronger every day and where we are has fairly clean air.  The less often I have an outbreak, the harder the symptoms are to trigger.

Winter is finallly over.  The teepees will go up again, just for fun.  I will keep them, a life raft for my bumpy life.