Friday, August 29, 2025

A Taste of Things to Come - August 28

August 28, 2025

Day 1,427 of the Adventure


A long drizzly rain finally came through today accompanied by cooler weather. It was impossible to plan anything outside beyond just getting wet. It made for a good day to get caught up on indoor projects. Much of which included paying bills. We did take a drive to get some errands run as well and have a good lunch at the home of the "Throwed Rolls". If you know, you know! It's still August so we all know that summer is not leaving us just yet. Still, after working through a couple of months of good summer heat, a cool, rainy day did whet the appetite for the coming of autumn. For now, we'll just treat it as a taste of things to come.

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.” ― Sylvia Plath

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Practical Side of Prepping - August 26

August 26, 2025

Day 1,425 of the Adventure


It's very easy to automatically classify all prepping activities into the category of apocalyptic, doomsday prepping. It's just the nature of the stereotype. It's certainly not something I have ever been drawn to but the idea of it is kind of fun to run through as a case study. In reality, practical preparation and apocalyptic prepping do have a lot of cross-over components. Those of food, clean water, medications, shelter and energy all have common threads no matter how deep the prep activities go. Being prepared for natural disaster type of events, for example, is the first step of being prepared for other more serious events. We all can remember the recent supply shortages that were frustrating at the least. Economic pressures have even contributed to personal difficulties in obtaining necessities for normal life. Choosing to become better prepared for one week to three month disruptions, will provide the foundation for longer term, more serious preparation. This assumes you intend to advance into the more serious prepping life. It's all things to consider but whether you are thinking short term practical prepping or long term survival prepping, a little prepping is good to have established in your life. 

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Because you never know when the day before ... Is the day before. Prepare for tomorrow.” ― Bobby Akart

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Apocalyptic Trilogy - August 24

August 24, 2025

Day 1,423 of the Adventure


Recently, I wrote a series of postings about a book I had read called "One Second After". It was a story about the country being hit with an EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) weapon that destroyed the power grid as well as all electronic components in the United States. An EMP is a real thing but would take some fairly sophisticated equipment to hit in a large way like the book described, although very possible. It was a fascinating story to the point I committed to order and read the next two books in the series. "One Year After" and "The Final Day". Both were just as intriguing as the first of the series and added even more perspective to what the world might look like in the event of a nationwide disruption of grid power. It's amazing how so much of everything we've come to rely on in life is part of a chain whose one single, potentially weak link, is the power grid. These books are worth reading if you've ever considered a life of practical preparedness.  

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “We are not preparing for the world we live in - we are preparing for the world we find ourselves in.” ― Michael Mabee

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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A Promise of Rain - August 25

August 25, 2025

Day 1,424 of the Adventure


The morning held promise of rain. Yes, we complain a lot about the rain and how it affects our house building work. Every now and then though, a little rain is welcome to give the thirsty ground a drink. There's also the issue of campfires which are pretty much on hold until the ground gets at least a  light soaking of rain. The day began with a promise but ended in a bust. not a drop of rain hit the ground today. 

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Thunderstorms are as much our friends as the sunshine.” ― Criss Jami

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Thrashin' Weeds - August 27

August 27, 2025

Day 1,426 of the Adventure


It's weed thrashin' time once again. If we had kept it mowed better this year, I would call it mowing the grass. But alas, we was thrashin' weeds today! The overgrowth was partly due to the fact that switching from backhoe attachment to brush hog attachment is a bit of a pain. Not something you want to just do every day. Mostly though, it's been due to the fact that the PTO (Power Take Off) on the tractor wasn't working right. It started acting up last Spring when we were setting posts in the garden. It would sometimes not shut off when I tried to shut it off. Other times it would just start up on it's own. Can't have that. The control cable was malfunctioning making it very dangerous to operate. We hadn't taken the time to get it to the shop to get fixed, so we just quit using it. The PTO is necessary to run the brush hog. I recently found out that the PTO control was under a factory recall. Imagine that! So yesterday was the "Fix the PTO day". We loaded up the tractor and headed to Arkansas to the closest dealer and now......... We Thrashin' Weeds once again!

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “In the short run, technology many be more efficient than man, but it will never be perfect. Every piece of equipment will eventually reveal an error code.” ― Suzy Kassem

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Monday, August 25, 2025

A House-Building Dream in our 60's - August 23

August 23, 2025

Day 1,422 of the Adventure


Are you NUTS? Yes, we've heard that from friends and even family members. Maybe we are. We are now 64 and 66 years old and a year ago this month, we started on the biggest "homestead" project so far. The building of our permanent house. Many of you know that we built a small cabin on our place about three years ago. Since then, we've been living here, enjoying life, gardening, getting other smaller projects done and planning for how we would approach house building. One year ago this week, we were removing trees from the house site. That progressed on to digging the basement which took us into the middle of September. 

Why start something like this at this point in our lives? It's not an easy question to answer. We've always talked about building a house of our own. Doing all the work ourselves. We probably have actually aged past the point where that made a lot of sense, but a bucket list goal is hard to just ignore. Yes, there's a lot of work, hard work involved, but.... there's also a lot of satisfaction. We're taking the time to add details to the process that many times would be ignored by contractors. We don't have to explain ourselves to anyone but ourselves about why we are doing one thing instead of another along the way. We are integrating so many unconventional systems like the dual solar plant/grid power option. A system that has already kept us powered close to a dozen times in our cabin due to local grid power outages. The heat will be a fascinating combination of sources as well...... when we get that far. In short, we are allowing ourselves the creativity of design that normally never happens. Rather than retrofit an existing, more normal home with all of this would be much more work than just building it all that way to start with. Maybe it's nothing more than an experiment in self-sufficient living and alternative construction. Whatever the reasons behind it, it's coming together and will be a source of pride when complete. 

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “The passion and excitement that I get from life, when immersed in studying something weird or unconventional, is amazing. It feels as though I’ve found a new toy to play with.” ― Robin S. Baker

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Two Points of Attack - August 22

August 22, 2025

Day 1,421 of the Adventure


Yesterday, I mentioned that we had finally overcome probably about 95 percent of the "cave-in" problems in our basement. The persistent rain in the springtime and even the occasional rain during the summer, kept us busy repeating the clean out of mud that would collect in our workspace. Finally, we've gotten past that point. Rain can still be a nuisance but now we have a couple of areas we can work on depending how the weather is treating us. The area in front of the summer kitchen door is now backfilled and drains rainwater along with the rest of the foundation. Now it really doesn't matter what the weather does, we have multiple places to work. Where we once used a six foot stepladder to get into the kitchen, it's only a couple of steps up now. That area you're looking at in the picture will contain a small deck soon. Each day is a good day of progress now. 

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “You have as many options as you give yourself.” ― Kasie West

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Conquering the Cave-Ins - August 21

August 21, 2025

Day 1,420 of the Adventure


Another day of progress was made in the basement. Earlier this summer, I was feeling like it may be hopeless getting it done by this fall. Each step we make forward now is eliminating more and more of the "cave in" part of the delays. the sidewalls of the basement hole were notoriously chafing off each time we got a little rain, filling the workspace with mud and debris that had to be cleaned out. We've now officially made it past the far corner of the "uphill" part of the basement where rainwater would run in from up the hill. In addition, that whole section is tiled and backfilled with loose rock. Now, the water simply disappears into it and reemerges a hundred or so feet down the hill behind the cabin. So far, it's working great. Almost like it was planned that way! 

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Plans don’t go according to plan. Might as well get going as if you had a plan anyways.⁣” ― Richie Norton

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Saturday, August 23, 2025

Virtues of a Legacy Mission - August 20

August 20, 2025

Day 1,419 of the Adventure


I recently heard this term (Legacy Mission) used by Joel Salatin, the godfather of homesteading. He was referring to those who make a commitment to building up a small farm or homestead with the intent of achieving greater self-sufficiency or independence from large scale "systems". If you try looking up the term, you will find a lot of descriptions and definitions, but none are really what he was referring to. He used the term when describing the amount of work and vision typically needed to build up a generational property related to homesteading or farming. It's something that can be overwhelming in the amount of work required. In fact, many would consider the work to simply be too much to be worth it. This is where the vision part over-rides the work part. When the vision is one of "legacy building" rather than "homestead building", then suddenly the paradigm changes from a task list to a legacy vision. Or, in other words, a "mission". A "Legacy Mission" is something that is larger than the sum of the accumulated work involved. It implies a purpose lasting beyond a lifetime to serve subsequent generations. When I heard him say this, a lightbulb flickered on in my head. It's the notion of what we've been doing but had not put it into words. Legacy Mission, where the true mission of the endeavor is to truly create and leave a legacy.

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built, or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.” ― Ray Bradbury

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Turning The Corner - August 19

August 19, 2025

Day 1,418 of the Adventure


We are turning corners in the basement, both literally and figuratively. We've recently gotten back to the far corner in the southeast part of the basement. This is where the walls extend out to make a bedroom possible upstairs. You may remember in the beginning of this project. We had to shift the entire footprint of the basement to the north about a foot due to a massive rock outcropping we had uncovered while digging. This particular corner where we are working now had one as well that we're actually trying to maneuver around. I hate to admit that we're fudging our plans just a little here, but it will all work out. It feels like we're making progress once again after the slower, tedious process of building the storm shelter and summer kitchen portion you can see to the far right of the picture. Another sign of progress is that as of this picture, we have officially used up the inventory of blocks we had brought all the way down to the construction zone. 900 blocks in total so far. That means we still have 750 of them we will transport down from where they are stored near the garden. 

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Progress is not an illusion; it happens, but it is slow.” ― Orwell

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Attack of the Horseflies - August 18

August 18, 2025

Day 1,417 of the Adventure


Each day we spend working on the house, a certain amount of that time is spent battling horseflies. I'd say about 10 minutes per hour is spent swatting at, stalking or otherwise waving arms frantically, trying to shoo them away. Neither of us have been bit by them yet, but we both have in the past. Painfully annoying is the best way to describe them. If they do get in a bite. you know it immediately. Kind of like something small just buried a pickaxe into you! Fortunately, they do not attack in swarms or anything like that. Usually just random guerilla attacks by themselves or sometimes in pairs. Their attacks are not coordinated, just random acts of violence. If they ever land, they're fairly easy to target and kill, but they're like "bugs on speed" when flying. We manage to eliminate at least two or three each day, but today we took out seven of them. Our actual workday accomplishments were probably twenty minutes less than they would have been if the horseflies would just mind their own business!

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “A horsefly can't do a horse much damage, but it can drive it wild anyway.” ― Harry Turtledove

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Sunday, August 17, 2025

Running Out of Gas - August 17

August 17, 2025

Day 1,416 of the Adventure


We began the day with high hopes of getting a significant section of footings installed. By noon, I was out of gas! Partly due to the heat and partly due to the fatigue of a couple of strenuous days of mixing and handling wet cement. We spent a good part of yesterday building forms for footings. After three and a half hours this morning finishing them up, there just wasn't enough in the tank to mix and pour the cement into them. We made it about half way and should be able to wrap it up early tomorrow morning. 

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” ― G.K. Chesterton

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Saturday, August 16, 2025

Afternoon Visitors - August 15

August 15, 2025

Day 1,414 of the Adventure



Maybe it's the dry weather but I don't recall deer wandering into camp quite so often as they have been lately. We have one small patch of fresh grass that grows well just behind the cabin. When it was dry, tall and "stalky", the deer didn't much care for it. For our sake, we had to trim it down to keep the ticks and chiggers at bay. Once trimmed and growing fresh and tender, the deer can't seem to resist it. Almost every day and most nights, they wander in and munch it down to "lawn length" again. Today, it was a nice buck accompanied by a doe. In the past few days, I've seen groups of bucks and last night, counted seven does and fawns. They don't seem to be bothered by the proximity of the cabin. I guess deer company beats no company!

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Live bold, without fear. This is life amongst the deer.” ― Katelyn S. Bolds

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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August Campfire??? - August 14

August 14, 2025

Day 1,413 of the Adventure


I honestly don't know what I'm thinking with this fire. The fire itself is okay, because it's just some trash and wood scraps. The issue is that I find myself sitting in front of it, even though it was almost 80 degrees at 7am and 82 by the time I took this picture. I guess it's just habit. I grew up loving evening and night-time campfires. Anymore, I prefer early morning fires. The quiet is different somehow in the morning. I'm barely tolerating the fire this morning, but it's still offering up it's campfire vibes. As badly as we need this summer to linger for our building project sake, I am already looking forward to the fall fires and the smell of the woods as the weather begins to turn. 

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “This morning, the sun endures past dawn. I realize that it is August: the summer's last stand.” ― Sara Baume

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Why Didn't I Think of This Sooner - August 16

August 16, 2025

Day 1,415 of the Adventure


If you've been following the progress on our house building project down here in the woods, you've probably noticed a theme. Me complaining about the recent hot weather. Yes, it's been hot. It reached 100 degrees both yesterday and today. We had a semi-brilliant idea recently and just now got around to getting it implemented. It's a "Party Tent". The name may imply fun and festivity, but in our world, it means just one thing....... Shade. In fact, it may very likely be covered with cement splatters very soon and that's okay. We set it up where we are continuing to extend the footings on the far southeast corner of the basement. We've already noticed that it feels about ten degrees cooler under the white canopy than it does if you step out from under it. At 10' x 20', we'll be able to move it along the path of progress and keep ourselves shaded most of the time. That's Real Progress!

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “When did you get so clever?" "When I realized I wasn't as clever as I thought.” ― John Connolly

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Friday, August 15, 2025

Backfilling the Basement - August 13

August 13, 2025

Day 1,412 of the Adventure


Each step in the process of building a house is mentally encouraging. Even the lowly job of backfilling the space between the basement walls and the wall of the hole we dug last fall. Early morning work is reserved for the "real work" like mixing cement or laying blocks. Later in the day, not much is left that is tolerable other than driving around on the tractor. So, backfilling it is. This step also helps bring the "cave-in's" to a close. Even though we haven't had as big of an issue with them lately. Now that we're in the dry part of the year, the rain has not had the same effect when it comes to washing out the sidewalls of the basement hole. Now that we can start filling that void in, the frustrating cave-in's are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. 

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “To conquer frustration, one must remain focused on the outcome, not the obstacles.” ― T.F. Hodge

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Form Building - August 12

August 12, 2025

Day 1,411 of the Adventure


Another unconventional aspect of the housebuilding we're involved in is the top of the block walls. In most cases, the blocks would get laid up to the top and that would be it. After that, the cavities would be filled, or partially filled right at the top to install anchor bolts and create a seal between the blocks and the sill plate (the board that lays onto the top of the block wall) This assumes that your block mason is skilled enough to lay the blocks straight and level. Not being a skilled mason, I am only just close to straight and level. It's not as easy as you might think. Anyway, to account for this, we are forming up concrete forms for the top five inches or so of the block walls. By doing this, we get the tops of the walls perfectly level. Plus, we are filling the entire block wall with rebar reinforced concrete. This means we also get the benefit of a cap layer of concrete that is tied into the concrete filled cavities as one poured unit, adding a tremendous amount of strength to the walls, Maybe overkill, but maybe just good planning. Today, we built the forms to do this on a new continued section of the wall. 

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Oh yes, well, I find myself unconventional everywhere.” ― Anna Godbersen

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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