Let me introduce you to us—the Disappointment Ranch family. We live on a little property in northern Wisconsin, U.S., in a small house we built, originally intended to be a cabin. But once we started spending summers here, none of us wanted to leave. Pretty soon we were moving out of our suburb house down near Madison and going to live full-time in our little cabin by the pond.
There’s four of us; (well, six if you count our pets, Darwin & Finch) Laura, Jake, myself, and my sister. Laura and Jake, as you might have guessed, are our parents. Laura is the one who wrote many of the previous blog posts on this site, but going forward I’ll be doing most of the writing.
Let’s start with Laura, my mom.
She loves the outdoors, just like the rest of us, but tends a little more towards the creature comforts when we go camping, namely warmth and a bathroom. That was one of the reasons we decided to get into overlanding; camping in the mountains when it’s cold can be pretty uncomfortable, and I can’t blame her for preferring not to pack up a cold and dewy tent when it’s 15-degrees Fahrenheit outside.
When we’re not travelling, she is an amazing cook, and we are always looking forward to whatever she makes next, which can range from tikka masala (with homemade naan!) to a good old fashioned venison roast.
She’s the one who comforts my sister and I when we inevitably get hurt from bouncing around the trails, and acts as the voice of reason whenever the family starts to argue. She has also homeschooled my sister and I our entire lives, which gives us the flexibility to travel more often, and avoid some of the problems of traditional public schools. And by giving me tons of things to read when I was little inspired my love of books and stories. In short, she’s the Mom, and she’s the glue that holds us all together.
Next up there’s my dad, Jake.
He, along with Laura, built our timber-frame cabin with his interest in woodworking and a lot of time. He is currently perfecting a CAD model of our overland rig, and getting excited as the inverters and solar-charge-controller arrive; the first physical evidence we have of our upcoming build.
With his background in mechanical engineering and love of cool technology and systems, we would never have been able to even dream of building the rig without him.
During the day he’s mostly up in his office, (also located on our property) but in the evenings he loves to gather us around the TV and put on whatever silly or awesome show we’re watching at the moment; whether that be Doctor Who, Stranger Things or Seinfeld.
Don’t get the impression that he spends all his time inside; whenever the weather’s nice he’s always urging us all to go on a walk in the woods, and during hunting season you can bet that he’s freezing his butt off in the deer stand. I’m always glad to go on a walk with him, as he’ll use the time to talk to us about whatever comes to mind, and it never fails to be fun to listen to.
He, my sister, and I are always waiting for the next cool Marvel series or movie to come out, but even when we’re not watching something silly or awesome, he always manages to bring those things to our lives all by himself, whether that be through a situational dad joke or an interesting science video. It is a rare day that he doesn’t manage to make us laugh.
Darwin and Finch, meanwhile, are our pug and cat respectively, named for the irony of a pug being named after the pioneer of evolution. Finch was a stray we found in the woods a few months or so after getting Darwin. He’s the sweetest cat I’ve ever met, if a little shy of strangers. Darwin is his bumbling counterpart, super tolerant and equally ridiculous. They make quite a pair playing together, and it’s hilarious to watch. We plan to take Darwin along on some of our adventures in the rig.
You’ll forgive me for not saying much about my sister or myself; we’re both minors and would prefer to keep most personal information to ourselves. I will say however that my sister is a mature, kind, and loving person, and I am forever grateful to have her as a sister, even if I don’t always show it.
I, in the meantime, am an up-and-coming author, who is working on this blog even as I write my first novel. It should be published in the next year or two, so make sure to look out for that!
Shameless self-promotion aside, that’s the basics! I hope you enjoyed catching up with the Disappointment Ranch fam. See you in the next post. Allons-y!
