Reminiscing -- It's Been Five Years

It was 5 years ago today that the Bartletts pulled up their roots in Fargo, ND and headed for the wilds of North Dakota's Turtle Mountains. We had no prior experience in living in a rural area, no house building experience, no outhouse experience, no experience with animals -- just a desire to get our family out of the city and into the country, where our boys could grow and learn many new things. This was the classified ad that Jim submitted to the Bottineau weekly newspaper, called the Courant.

We received two phone calls, and one turned out to be the owner of the land that we soon called our own.

We packed all of our earthly possessions into an old semi trailer that we purchased, borrowed our friends the Kenney's trailer, and got ready to move.

Our poor car was so packed that it barely made it out of the driveway ...

... And moved into a 1970's vintage pop-up camper, complete with bright orange sink and avocado and orange flowered upholstery. No electricity, water or sewer. We made good use of our state park permit, traveling to the state park every 3 to 4 days to replenish our jugs of water and take showers.

All we had was a thatched roof hut in the woods, with a wall on one side for protection, and a bucket enclosed by a box and toilet cover.

Our friends the Kenneys managed to come up for visits that fall, and helped to keep us encouraged in the Lord. My brother Mark also arrived, helping to enclose the basement walls and roof.

The concrete work was done by some time in October, and the rest was up to us. Talk about a crash course in housing construction! I think Jim worked with a manual in one hand and a hammer in the other.

David (5), Andrew (8), Peter (10) and Jonathan (12).