A Journey Into Community

Two days ago I followed the trail from one end of the property to the other with my neighbor. I use the word trail loosely as it is overgrown in many spots, super soggy in others, and just difficult to get through. He's been hiking his land since he move up here last winter, so it was interesting sharing the experience with him ... looking at an areal map and pointing out the different land marks.

We have a beaver pond. I've been there a number of times since we've moved here. At first, we did not see any signs of recent beaver activity. Our neighbor who had been here for 30 years said that before we bought the property, poachers had taken them. We had found the beaver Den and we had seen old signs of them chewing on trees.

One of the previous times I wondered if we had beaver because some of the chewings looked fresh. Well. Yesterday, there is no doubt in my mind that we have beaver activity going on. There were a number of fresh downed trees, including some nice firewood sized birch trees. Fresh beaver markings. Also, some sticks were pushed up against the beaver pond on some of the weaker spots which we believe the beaver are doing in order to repair the pond.

The trail that goes past/through the beaver pond (we'll call it the moose trail because we know the moose travel it) goes right through the wettest part of our property. It was wicked cool trying to find dry spots to go out and look a little more.

Once past the beaver pond area, things certainly began drying up and the trail opened up a bit. There are a lot of downed trees and a lot of grassy type growth, so although once used as a trail for in and out of the property, a lot of maintenance would need to be done to do so again.

We found a couple of clearings. Of course, those are over grown with some kind of grass. We made it to the end of the property line and we saw the potato field and the selectman's property (8 acres directly behind ours). We saw where the trail ended and how it meets up with the potato field's road.

All in all, this was a gorgeous walk. It's a shame that it was near Echo's nap time because she slept on my back most of the hike. One of our next projects (like we need another one) is to trail blaze a new trail on some of the higher ground. I'd like to go around the beaver pond on the other side up to the first field past the beaver pond.

I'm so glad that I did this hike. It was a gorgeous spring-like day and the views were magnificent.

I write so little these days, that I don't even know where to begin when I finally do have the time to write. And this is where you find me tonight. Echo barely napped today so she is in bed early. That means, for the first time in a long time, I have time to poke around on line. I have time to take a look at what's been going on. But how do you go back over two years of stuff to comment. I'd need two years. So instead. I guess you'll just have to settle for ramblings.

Do you know that I have five letters on my keyboard missing. The keys are there, but you can't see the letters. If I stop to think about what I am doing, I can't figure out what is what. But typing how you are supposed to or with a couple fingers while looking, I can do as long as I don't think about it. Just a random tid bit.

This past year has been a very wet year. Lost of flies. Lots of mosquitoes. We had a couple of muggy days, but it didn't seem like we had a summer at all. And of course, all these things really inhibited us from getting done the things that really needed/should've been done. I had hoped we would have been further along with things this year, but alas, it feels like a struggle all over again. the big difference is ... we have a comfortable bed, a comfortable place to sit, and all of us home every night.

I work about 9 hours a day currently, give 15 minutes or so. I started as a temp in July, but am now a permanent employee. It's really not any different than it was before, work wise, anyway. I still do the best that I can do. I like the job well enough. It's a good company to work for. I like the people I work with.

I have the extra blankets and fleece up on the walls ... all but one window and one door. We are still collecting our firewood from the land. What hasn't been brought to the Yurt is now all at the staging area to be brought the last leg of the way to the yurt. Then we have to go back down the driveway and get more. I had hoped that it would have all been cut an stacked by now, but I'll just relax a little bit when it's all by the yurt.

We have put off finishing the bottom of the yurt for right now (we have one wall to finish, two doors to add, and 2" pieces of wood to cover the seams) in order to finish getting the wood and to be available to help Kit with her place. All of the projects seem to be very slow going. I think a huge stress will be released once we get these things done.

We are planning the last trip to Lewiston. Well, we are planning for Alex to go. It will be in the next week or two. He's going to winterize the place and we are going to call it done for all that we can do for the place. The way I see it, we either lose the house or we go down hard (which would mean jeapordizing our current living situation - job, heat, food) trying to prevent failure in this situation. It has been a roller coaster of a ride accepting that sometimes you just can't make things work. It sucks, but it doesn't take the value away of who you are as a person.

I know that through the years that I have been hard on my husband, but it's the grokking that has been helping me to appreciate all that he does do. I have been working hard on throwing away the "to-do" lists and just doing what we can each day. The to-do lists only serve to generate stress. We don't need that anymore. One day at a time. Maybe losing the Lewiston house is having a positive effect on me. Or ... Maybe it's something else.

So. What else.

Echo continues to do well with Daddy during the day while mom works. She rarely cries anymore when I leave. Daddy has so much patience with her. I feel like I had more patience when I had 24/7 with her. I love the little things each day with her. I usually share tidbits on facebook. One of the latest is Trinana for Katrina Kitty.

Anyway, time for me to go.

We are still working on enclosing underneath the yurt. We should have the rest of the wood next weekend. Over the winter we will work on insulating the walls.

We still have to collect our down trees and then cut the firewood. You cut them down in June and let the leaves suck all the sap out of them. We need to haul these trees near our yurt before we get snow.

I started putting up the blankets and fleece on the walls that have shelves. Soon we'll put them all up, but it's not that cold yet. :D

We've begun enclosing the bunny barn. Hmmm. I need to make a phone call on this.

Still working on Kit's place too.

More? I'm sure. but can't think of it right now. :D

We have another baby red squirrel. Saw him in our wood pile today. Saw a mouse the other day too.

pictures of some work in progress on my husband's live journal:

http://horned1.livejournal.com/64682.html#cutid1

so. it's been a while since I've posted. been a while since I read. wow. where does the time go.

We had a couple months of rain up here which was counter productive to doing outside work. Then we had a few days of good weather. And then our heat wave. And now back to cool weather, on and off rain.

We have the bunny barn done for the summer. We need to add straw bale for the winter, but everyone is dry. :)

We have baby chickens. And baby bunnies for that matter.

I've started working. Did I mention that? Alex stays home with Echo these days. It's working out pretty good. Echo barely fusses. When she does, it's only for a couple minutes. Oh, but when I get home ... milk. milk. milk. I think its just a reconnecting thing. Hard to believe that she will be two in october.

We are enclosing the bottom of the yurt. We have two walls done currently.

We've started on Kit's cabin.

We haven't gotten back to the graywater area yet. Oh the joy it will be when we have out bound water!

I'm finding myself wondering what I should say. I just don't seem to be the write that I normally have been. Hope all is well with everyone. I did read back through postings, but in case you aren't saying. :)

We lost three over night/this morning. It looks like one drowned and the other two died in kit's hands as she gave them extra attention.

One wasn't looking too good this afternoon and we lost him by this evening.

That sounds like the seven that weren't in good shape when they arrived.

Kit said that when she fed them tonight that they all came running and were looking good. So hopefully we lost all that we are going to lose.

What? we had sun on the weekend. Alex was home? three of us on the land together with sun! whoa! What does this mean? We finally have the bunny/chicken barn stablized. We still have a little more work to do today on it. Its cloudy, but not rainy today.

When the baby chicks arrived, two were dead. They had put two extra in the box so we still had all that we ordered.

I thought one had died when I picked him up, but a short while later we realized he didn't.

So we had six that were in bad shape. We put them in a box in the car and gave them some sugar water. Three looked like they were improving, three looked like they wouldn't.

We put them in a box and put them in the car (the car was heating up nicely and they really needed heat. We also gave them sugar water.

The three that were improving went back with their siblings within a couple of hours.

Then. Two of the remaining 3 began perking up. The third one was still hanging in there too, but still wasn't looking too good.

In another couple of hours, one of these three were dead (we think it was the one that we thought died when they first arrived) and the other two were put in with their siblings. One of these was still a little on the week side.

A short while later, I pulled one chick back out of the brooder and put him back in the car. Within an hour he perked up and went back with his siblings.

So as of last night when we went to bed, we had ordered 25 chicks, We received 27, 3 died, the rest made it to the brooder. I haven't checked on them this morning yet (altho I believe kit has) because it is cooler and I don't want their heat to escape.

we planted Echo's placenta under four blueberry bushes this year. We were told that they would not produce berries until year three. I was just out there and there are a few unripe berries already! wicked cool man!

Rain. Rain. Lots of rain. But we've had some beautiful days too. Echo likes to say "bug bug bug" while waving her arms around. yes. there are that many mosquitoes and black flies. We all have enough bites to prove it. Not much to report. Things are slowly moving forward. We have about half of the trees needed for firewood cut down. One of the rabbits is due to have babies any day now.

with a pellet gun. It was a huge spider ... the kind that hunts its prey as opposed to catching it in a web. It was HUGE. HUGE. HUGE. And it was blocking our entry to the underside of the yurt. It was above our heads, so trying to shoo it away was not going to work. I certainly was not going to use a shoe with it above our heads. So we got the pellet gun out and we shot him dead. First shot.

Did I mention that Alex and I don't do spiders.

Remember this past winter when I mentioned the gray jay ... well, here is some info on that:

http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?source=&parkid=&searchText=&allSpecies=y&shapeID=0&lshapeID=0&curAbbr=&lastView=default&lastGroup=1&lastRegion=934&lastFilter=4&lastShapeName=&trackType=&curRegionID=934&size=&habitat=&fruit=&color=&sortBy=common+name&curFamilyID=®ionSelect=04762®ionZIP=04762&curGroupID=1&lgfromWhere=&curPageNum=92

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Yes. You heard me. That is right. it was rainy and chilly and we started a fire. (thanks for the help!)

we had company this week. someone checking us out. He and alex began work for the bunny barn roof. we had some great conversation with him. He wants to move up here and we discussed how to make it happen last night. He is on a bus back to Maryland today.

Echo has been running around barebottom all week. When she is barebottom, she has been using her potty. When she has pants on or a diaper on, she doesn't always get to the potty, but can we say ... yeah for using her potty! Of course, when mom is home, she has to bring the potty to mom. dad just won't do. But I love it because she even goes pooh in the potty! lets hope this trend continues.

OMG! the black flies! The small little bitty black flies! swarms of them! They make it hard to work. Yesterday it was in the 80's and today, those buggers are out.

This past week, we dug out the area for the raised garden. And then we've been sifting through a dirt pile to get dirt and rocks separated. We put down some straw and then covered with the dirt. We have half of the garden filled with dirt. The stones made it into our parking area to help with the mud issues that we have when it rains.

Alex is testing out hanging upside down tomato plants. He bought the plants and set it up today. We will put lettuce on top of them.

Our dirt has a lot of clay content. But that does not stop the worms from enjoying it. We have found lots of worms.

And. I have 4 different blueberry plants that we will plant this year. It will be about 3 years before they start producing though. I am so excited for blueberry plants! I've been talking about them for years!

Alex and I saw a baby moose eating on the side of the road the other day. We don't really see them in our yard though despite seeing signs of them when walking the land. There are rabbits, and gray jays and crows, and hawks.

It truly is beautiful up here.

Between nine and nine thirty last night I hear stomp, crash, rustle. It's so loud and so faint at the same time. I grab a flash light and I peak out the door. I see nothing. But again I hear stomp. crash. rustle. It is across the clearing in the trees. I see nothing. But its big and its out there.

Back inside because Echo did not like that I was gone.

stomp. crash. rustle. This time behind my head. Back to the door with a flash light and I peak out. I look right this time past the shorter clearing to the tree line. Nothing. Still. I see nothing. but I still here stomp. crash. rustle.

It HAD to be a moose or two. HAD to be.

This morning I went looking for some tracks in the driveway. To get from one tree line to the next, he had to cross the driveway. I found one print that definitely was a moose. But I couldn't find anything else near that one print.

Oh. And this morning I found knocked over trash. Looks like a raccoon got into it last night at some point. It was not the stomp. crash. rustle. though. :D

Very interesting:


http://www.rubbishfreeyear.co.nz/


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One of the things I hate about living in the country is the WIND! OMG. yesterday. THE WIND! but today all is good.

I've got a number of brush piles to move out of the yard and into the main brush pile. we'll see if I am able to do that today.

I have a partial tree in the gray water area that still needs to come down. we've put that on hold because ...

we have been working on the garden area. We have chosen an area. We have been getting those darned red osier roots out of it. And then we've been digging up the sod in preparation of creating a raised bed. Whatever we can get set up by the end of this month is what we are going to use for gardening this year.

Most people don't begin planting in the ground until June up here. We did not get seeds going, but we are going to buy some started plants from the greenhouse down the road and go from there. We do have strawberries and mint and some herbs and garlic ourselves.

Once that is done, I go back to removing that last tree in the graywater area and we begin pulling up roots.

I should be working on the garden now, but Echo is taking an early nap. hmmm. so I am inside for now.

I am almost done clearing the trees in the gray water area. I cleared about 20 pine trees by 1:00 this afternoon. There is one more pine tree left, but I need alex's help with that. It's a little big and I don't want to try and down it with me and echo.

After that, I have one big tree to take down. I'm not sure what kind it is, but it will take a while as I will be cutting branches off first. It looks like its dead so it might go easily.

And then there is a small clump of dogwood trees. I may even get those done today.

And then after that, it's clearing the red osier (I hate that stuff) and then getting the roots up so that we can dig down two feet. We so need a pig to help us with this part of the task.

I walked down to get mail and I grabbed another wheel barrow of last years down trees.

I made three phone calls this morning. One of them was to the electric company letting them know that we had a top of a tree in the wires. It had been there for a few weeks, so there was no rush, but we did need to get it out. They showed up today and it is out. and the guy who showed up remembered Alex. Wow. wow. Wow. I really love it up here.

And in moments, back out I go to do more work.

I love where I live. I love seeing the wildlife. I love getting outside and working the land. The rain and the mud don't bother me too much. The cold doesn't even seem to effect me too much. Sure some days we do start a fire just to get the chill out of the air. I likely will do so at some point today because of the rainy nature of the day and because I believe the temperature is supposed to drop a little later. But its 50 now and dressing in layers takes care of things.

Next week we are supposed to have a couple of really nice days (ie, no rain) so I will be back to working on clearing the gray water area. It is not a small project. We want to get a pig to help us. I cut the trees, he gets the roots of the red osier. then it will be much easier to dig down two feet to put the sandy mixture.

On some of the rainy days, I have been taking the wheel barrel down the driveway to collect the cut trees from last year getting the electric up and running. Of course, I can only get the stuff that I can lift into the wheel barrel. I am about halfway through the driveway. When I am done, I will then ask for help to get the bigger trees.

Friday I took the wheel barrel down the driveway to the mailbox with me. On my way back I began collecting stones. I figure we will use them for some upcoming. But OY! stones are heavier than wood. And I couldn't stop collecting stones no matter how heavy the wheel barrel got. Oooo. That's a good one. And that's a good one. I finally couldn't take one more stone or else I break my back.

I took a few of the stones and I outlined Tiger's grave. Then I added some fresh dirt and I planted some catnip. Is it too soon to plant? Maybe. But I had to try. It should take a few weeks before we see anything. But I thought it appropriate to plant catnip over him. (oh. You might not have heard that some animals ate the crokus that Kit had originally planted on him.)

I now know without a doubt that we made the right decision in regards to Tiger. I don't miss the pain in the ass kitty he had become in his last few months, but I do miss him. He was a good cat through the years. And I am so grateful that he has been a part of our lives. Its nice to know that he will always be here with us.

I seem to be rambling this morning. And perhaps I could just go on rambling. But that never makes for a great post. So here ends my update for today.

I am sure these get lost in my busy bee post soooo....

It was the cutest thing to see Echo try to pull one of the trees that I cut down to make way for our gray water area. I gave her the smallest one and it took her a while, but she did manage to get it over to the brush pile. So. As I continued to clear trees, I made sure that I kept the small ones aside for her to bring to the brush pile. I think I got pictures of this the second day.

Echo wandered around the yard helping us at different times or just doing her own thing. Well. we saw a squirrel busy gathering materials for a nest, I believe. Echo spotted him and the two of them were playing a game of run and hide and peek back out to see who this strange creature was. Oh. it was such a sight to see!

And then later in the day, Echo was playing with the water jug and plastic cup on the stair. She climbed the stairs and knew that you had to pour the water into the cup. She couldn't figure out what to do though. So she took the jug over to a bucket of water to play with. It was soooooo cute to watch!