What The Pause Made Room For

The summer months came with a few unexpected setbacks and less progress than we had hoped for. By this point, we had hoped to be settled into the camper, have our home on the market or possibly already sold, and starting construction on our family compound.

Instead, we found ourselves adjusting the timeline.

When I started Three Feathers Living, I wanted to share the true, honest process of creating Three Feathers Ranch. That includes the excitement of making plans, but it also includes the stretches when things take longer than expected. Toward the end of July and into August, I didn’t have many updates to share, and I didn’t want to fill the space simply to keep posting.

I had hoped construction would begin much sooner, but our family needed a pause. We stepped back for a bit to take care of what matters most: the people we love.

There were family dinners, time with the people we hold closest to our hearts, and opportunities to meet the littlest new additions to our family. There was also time to recover from a busy travel season and settle back into a routine before school started again.

Looking back on the summer, some of my favorite memories came from our family trips. I think Costa Rica was the favorite for all of us. It was the kids’ first time out of the country and their first time seeing the beach. We saw wildlife up close and shared experiences that I know we’ll talk about for years. I’ll always cherish those memories.

Even while I stepped away from sharing here, the ideas, plans, and conversations about the ranch continued. Having a little breathing room gave us space to think creatively about what we want to build and how we want to live there. There are things taking shape behind the scenes that I’m excited to share, but they’re still in the planning stages. I’ll keep those tucked away a little longer.

August brought some practical progress, too. We started packing up our home and finished the most important parts of the storage container conversion so it could be ready for our pets.

That project took longer than we anticipated and delayed our move into the camper. We completed the electrical work, installed the air conditioning, and put the necessities in place for the animals. There’s still plenty to do, and the container will be a work in progress for a while, but getting those essentials finished allowed us to move forward.

Now we’re in our third week in the camper, working through the everyday adjustments of living in a smaller space and finding our routine.

For now, we’re staying near Aaron’s parents and grandmother while we wait for power and water on the land. With his family nearby, this chapter already includes some of the closeness we hoped for when we first imagined the compound. The setting looks different from our original plans, but we’re beginning to experience what it means to have family in a close proximity.

There are still boxes to pack, projects to finish, and decisions to make. I’m looking forward to sharing those pieces as they happen, even when the progress is slower than I hoped.

From the very beginning, this journey has been teaching me patience and the importance of being present. This summer reminded me how easy it is to become focused on the next milestone and overlook the life happening while we wait.

I still hope for the day we can begin building our home. In the meantime, I’m grateful we made room for family dinners, new little faces, and memories with our kids.

Those moments belong in the story of Three Feathers Ranch, too.

I’m happy to be back here, sharing this next chapter as it unfolds.