August 14, 2006

I think the people I was tour guiding with while they were looking at the properties up here found their piece. They will know sometime today. I am pretty excited. They promised me the second call, though I am sure I will hear them all the way from the Island.

Last night I had to go to the dump and I got alot of old barn wood (or shed or something) and I am making slip forms for the root cellar. We need to go get the hand cement mixer today sometime as I hope to work on the cellar this upcoming week. I am tired of staring at the hole in the hillside and I believe I have done enough mental planning on the thing that it is time to get going on it, since I will have potatoes to dig in less than a month.

I also took time at sunset to go up to the cabin site and I laid out a 16x16 foot area and sat in there to see if I could live with the way the cabin would be set for both view and sun strategies. And where the woodstove would go (which I need to restore). Then I went out and sat on the 'porch' to see if that would be set right. I was totally relaxing up there and then the "Teenager" came up to talk with me for a wee bit. So he helped me plan as well.I guess I ought to back up just a little bit... as I went up to the site, I had measuring tape, surveyors tape and an axe with me. Just as I got to the site, this big dark/blackish thing got up from the middle of the cabin site and SCARED ME TO DEATH!! I have seen bear tracks and other signs up there. But as this beast was getting taller and taller though the bushes as it jumped up, I finally realized it was one of our horses "Kit", who is the 13-14 hand pony, who had been laying down and I had scared her just about as bad as she had scared me. When I initially did a girly scream and then talking to the horse, "Teenager" heard me and knew where to locate me at. So this morning, I am going to go out and pound old rusty nails out of the barnwood and lay out my lines for the root cellar. I REALLY want to get the walls going so I can make the niche and then start blacksmithing again so I can start building the door. I am thinking on a 14th century church door I have seen once, but I cannot wait to start on the doors. I have been in such a forging mood lately. But I do not want to start on the doors until I know what size the hole is going to be.

My bf and I took a walkabout on the property last night and we decided to take down all the pines and leave the other things (spruce, fir, alder, poplar, birch ect). The Mountain Pine Beetle is attacking the pines younger and younger and we decided to take them down to utilize them now instead of when they are ruined. We can cut alot of them green for siding and cause them to dry faster.A neighbor down the road had her neighbor's kids run bikes all over her property and ruined all her blueberries. So she came over to pick ours. They are spotty this year, not the beautiful blue carpet that we had last year (and I could not pick due to my injury). She is very interesting to talk to as she is a wildcrafter, herbalist and works at a heath food store. So we can gab alot. I fed her homemade cheese and crackers. It was the cheese that was the demo cheese for when the out of town land buying people were here and I showed her how to make cheese easily.

Today's chores are cleaning up the mechanics shoppe since the back part got cleaned out so alot of the stuff being stored in there can go to the back, such as my dog sled. Bringing up another pallet or two for the woodshed to move the 2 cast iron stoves to, so the boys can being in more wood. We try to do a couple trees at a time, get that all cleaned up and then do the next couple, but our faller/bucker friend went faller-happy last weekend and there are about 40 trees down, so that mess needs to be dealt with. Maybe we can set up the Alaskan Mill and start cutting siding and put all the 'learning to cut siding' up on the shoppe to make it look nicer than the black side of the lumber wrap.

Speaking of lumber wrap, I want to put a layer on the top of the mobile home which is the poultry house as there are 2 holes from where some sort of equipment used to have to go through the roof. I do not want to make too many repairs to it, since in the next 2-3 years we will be building a proper barn since this one is probably the first year they ever made mobile homes and it is rotting.

Well, the chickens and turkeys need to be let out and the hogs fed (who are getting large enough they are making me nervous to go in their pen alone. Took chicken counts and we need to butcher at least 15 in a month or so. Some of the roosters need to have their bands removed anyway as their bands are starting to get too tight on their legs and one poor rooster had a small injury from it.

Evening Update:

My new friends indeed got their place. I am excited and thrilled for them. They are new at homesteading and I will help them along as much as I can.

Today was a long, but productive day here. I got the greenhouse watered, picked a 50 foot row of Calendula and took all the petals off for soap making as I have been negligent at making us more for the last few months.

Between the 4 of us, we almost got all of the woodshed filled today. My bf and "Teenager" cut the trees up with chainsaws and then all the guys filled the trucks with the firewood. Then they bring them in from the back 40, sort them from splitting to just stack it. If it gets tossed to the doorway, I then stacked it. My bf did miss the routine.. and I got slammed in the right kneecap with a chunk of wood. Or maybe I missed the routine.. oh well.. I am not limping now.Dinner was a nice chicken Alfredo made with Mozza over spiral noodles and fresh broccoli salad out of our garden. I had some left over Leek Soup which I made yesterday-ish.

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