I've been close to tears for the past hour or two, following the sort of 'completion' of our very-basic-but-finally-functional house plumbing. It has been such a very long wait. Months of anticipation, between the donated bath that we had set up in the garden with a hosepipe in the summer, the solar shower having cooled beyond usefulness, and the timing of our being gifted the most generous financial support from 
@vincentnijman 's dear mamma.
Then there was the steep and sometimes brutal learning curve of how to plumb. It is a lot more challenging in practise than the vaguely-imagined theory of it, the latter of which had been sitting in a corner of my brain, presuming a straightforward path to lovely, functional taps, sinks, drains...
Our first attempts in our initial months here involved rather dramatic wrestling in the mud with impossible pipe connections as it got dark and a storm was breaking over us.
Other choice moments have included having emotional meltdowns as junctions have burst and we have become increasingly frustrated at having to bathe with a pan of water by the stove, after a long, hard day harvesting olives, chopping wood, climbing super-steep hillsides. I've gone over ultimatum after impotent ultimatum, as if threatening to leave has any leverage when I am the one who eventually has to solve the problem!
Homesteading and autonomy mean staying, doing it, figuring it out; they mean learning by trying, then failing, then trying harder - or more strategically. Intelligent use of leverage. Clever improvisation with what we can beg, borrow or reappropriate. It seems impossible... until it is done. And then, it's done! We just had a hot bath! It was cramped and didn't last long, but tomorrow we are pledged to get one each 😋😂 and to be allowed the proper time to unwind, read, doze or whatever. Herbal infusions will be brewed. Incense and salts and oils looked out.
a new vintage dressing gown - perfetto for our new bathing fiesta
Our change in plumbing brings a whole new feeling to our life here. It makes getting up in the morning and going to bed at night wholly different; calmer, shinier, easier, more graceful in every sense. I need some time to myself to just absorb that: to recalibrate from the harsh reality of cold, wet, muddy daily existence - to warm, cosy, clean heaven. And to let go of the immense weight of feeling incapable.
we've come a long way since our tent days!
There's a long way for us to grow and learn more, before we'll have the proper home with the harmony and joy that we deserve. I am beginning to feel less 'vincible', and see that it might all be actually achievable, even though we have so much still to do, as the colder, wetter days encroach. I feel both buoyed and emboldened by the water-system success, and this is such therapy for my whole being.
Tomorrow we have to get out in the field again, to grab up the riper olives that will have been thrown to the ground by the high winds this week. And our mini-frantoio will be put into action - another investment, thanks to mamma Frédérique, which enhances our homesteading kitchen a hundredfold - a small but potent device that potentially lets us make all kinds of flours, nut butters and even seed and olive oils. You can imagine how excited we are to try that out!!
Goodnight or good morning, friends, wherever you are, and at whatever stage of your homesteading adventure you're at.