The Campfire Trail: September 10 - DIY Homestead

September 10, 2022

Day 344 of the Adventure

Coffee Time at one of our Projects

As I sit here by the fire this early morning, I can here Wild Turkeys gobbling somewhere on the mountain just to our North-East. I don't know the turkey routine of the Fall, but I guess it's getting ready to start. There was also the soft call of a Screech Owl coming in from someplace closer. We had heard a number of Owls in the early Spring, but they had gone missing for the whole Summer. Life in the Woods is starting to feel very natural now that the mornings are slightly less....Summer-Like. I certainly would not say we are tasting anything of the Autumn yet. But it is inching its way closer.

Over the past number of years, the approach of Fall has triggered a thousand things that needed done in our Resort lives. Most of that had to do with getting things ready for Winter's cold. We have things facing us here as well as the Fall and Winter approach. The strange feeling is this time, is that everything seems okay. Yes, there's siding to install, a wood stove to buy and install, some additional firewood cutting. Aside from those few things, which by the way, don't feel much like the frantic preparations of the past, I'm remarkably calm about the up-coming change of seasons.

The act of transforming raw land into something usable and livable has been a process of discovery. It's easy to say, "We need a house, a water source, a road, a source of power and a waste-water system." After that comes the breakdown of things needing done, for example with the septic system, "We need a soil test, a permit, an engineered plan, something to dig with, elevation readings, a variety of tools, the water connected to test everything, and so on. It doesn't just end with the knowing it needs to exist on the property. So it is with every step. The roads for example include deciding where we want them, figuring out water run-off issues, removing trees and brush, grading off some of the top soil, figuring out the amount of big base rock, the amount of small base rock, the amount of clean rock, something to move all of it with, re-figuring out the water run-off issues again after it rains once. (then sometimes a third or fourth time.) and so on.

There's a process with every step and while not terribly complicated, it's still a process. A process with steps that are best when done in the right order. We've gotten ahead of ourselves from time to time, but for the most part, it's gone smoothly. As the cooler weather is now just starting to creep in on us, we just need to make sure the outdoor portions of that process get pulled up to the front burner on our to-do list.

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Our progress, the realization of our dreams, and the quality of our life depend directly on the level of our commitment to the process.”

― Dr Prem Jagyasi

Base Camp Coffee of the Day: Lost up the Creek (Sumatra)

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