Home Improvements

Mr Crowley and Lehu intend to leave tomorrow, if all goes according to his plan.

I'm not happy with this. I don't care how capable they are for their ages. They need to have a roof over their heads and people around them who will take care of them if they get sick or are injured.

Mr Crowley ordered me out of the house... I've been making the electricity fluctuate too much (absolutely not my fault).

He helped us to set up a pump for water, solar panels, an emergency generator, and some kind of salt-storage thing for the excess energy since we're way off the grid here. I don't understand how it works, but science isn't my thing. The pantry has been turned into a makeshift shower, the waste water from there and the kitchen flowing into a gully in the garden which we can use for irrigation. More importantly, we have a fridge and stove now. So a place to keep Trina's ice creams, though she hasn't eaten any since... you know. We have a supply of butterfingers up there too. At least Tim has gotten her to eat half of one with him.

All that's really left is the masonry- walls, windows, and doors, which makes it a good thing it's been so dry, I suppose. As the second floor is more or less our roof, we spent a great deal of time repairing the few holes and making it waterproof. It would have been too much to build an entire staircase up to the next floor; so the rope ladder is still in place. We built a glass "sunroom" facing out into the former stairwell, and the old rootcellar has been covered over to house the generator and boiler and whatnot. And... we have wifi. No more dangerous treks to Shady's family to piggyback on theirs.

With all that Mr Crowley has shown us, we can continue improvements long after he leaves, but that's not the point. I don't want them to leave. Mr Crowley can be cantankerous, but I like them both and wish they would stay.