Finding Home

Chapter One

Standing on my porch watching the sun set for the last time, I was feeling apprehensive. Living up here in Alaska was a move I decided to make after my husband who was also my best friend died three years ago.

I needed to get away from the city's noise and I also wanted solitude. I bought a hundred acres in the middle of nowhere, and I have loved being here. I was never a city girl, it never settled right in my bones.

Outdoors and in nature was what always felt right, it was home the moment I saw it online one day. "That is home" I yelled out excitedly in the realtor's office. Everyone thought I was crazy or going through something after Luke's death, but I did not care, they were not my real friends.

They were the kind of friends you have when you have money and power, once that is gone so were they.

My husband was charming, funny, caring, romantic and very loving. At home when it was just us, he was all of that and more, but once he left home, he was a different man.

He built his company from the ground up; he was a multimillion air by his sixth year. No one could claim I was a gold digger even though they did try until the truth hit them in their faces that we were married eight years before he started his company.

He was ruthless, mean, aggressive and in complete control when he was at work. He owned his own legal firm and was one of the top lawyers in the country. Until that one day when it all came crashing down on us.

Some madmen that had a vendetta against my husband because he fired him for trying to steal from the company shot and killed my husband as he was getting out of his car at home.

I remember hearing the gunshot and as I ran out of the house, I saw my husband laying in a pool of blood. He shot him dead center in the head. Making sure he could not live through it.

A year after his death, I sold off the firm, the huge house that was no longer a home and moved to Alaska to start over and to find meaning in my life again. I was not sure what I would find but I knew this was the place I was meant to be.

The closest major city was Nome that was over fifty miles give or take to where I lived. Every six months I would get stocked up on food plus I would hunt when need be.

My home was perfect, it had two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a nice size kitchen, a laundry room, there was a pantry off the kitchen and the house had two fireplaces.

One was in the master bedroom, and one in the family room that the kitchen was open to. I also had two barns and a huge woodshed that during the summer months I would chop the wood and make sure it was stocked full for the winter months.

There was also a locker type shed that held most of the meat that was sealed so no wildlife could break into. It was more like a cold meat locker than anything.

The one barn held my chickens, goats, and a few pigs, along with three of my horses. When I moved here, I made sure that it was insulated for the winters, and I could air it out in the summer months.

I also made sure it was as secure as I could around the barn so nothing could dig under or through it. I cemented five feet up and the ground was cemented for the most part.

I had enough straw and wood chips to keep them warm and off the cement during the winter months, plus during the day I would open the pens up for them to go into the large indoor arena to roam around and get their exercise if they wanted to.

I turned the other barn into my garden area, where there were rows upon rows of vegetables growing year-round. It took me a year to get it going but now I can live out here indefinitely.

That was my goal. Once a year I would venture into town to get things I might need that I could not get online and shipped by plane. Plus, that was when I would visit my Dr and get everything ordered that I needed for the year.

My Dr. Finally gave up trying to convince me that I needed companionship in my life, that my husband would want me to be happy. I would not hear of it; I had the love of my life and gave him the best of me.

Now at forty-four it was my time for me, no man would become a part of it, that was my mind set, I was not looking for anything and with living in the middle of nowhere, I knew I would not get anyone.

I was happy and content with my life. It was a simple one that most could not handle, but deep in my bones I knew this was how my life was to be. I found my home.

The sun was setting, and the animals were all settled for the night. Nights seemed to last forever here even though they did not. It took me a year to adjust to the difference, but it was well worth it.

I went inside and shut and locked the door, making sure I had the fires going on in both rooms since that is how I heated my home. There were no power lines or gas lines to my home.

This was a remote area and well water and fireplaces were what kept me going. It was rugged and I loved it.

I had a stack of wood set in each room, and the fires were going nicely with a nice hot bed of coals. I sat on the couch with my knitting and settled in for the night.