The Fantastica Chronicles (Day 15-21)

Day 15. (TFC Mailbox Repairs, Felling Another Big Mimosa Tree Full Of Seed Pods, Beautifying An Area Along The Creek, Cleaning Up A Large Pile Of Rusty Metal Near The Creek, Creating A New Trail To The Creek & Finally Getting Some Rain To Knock The Dust In The Camp Down)

I did not sleep all that well last night because something repeatedly kept coming near the camp and setting the dogs off barking and waking me up which really is not all that big of a deal but I also had a bunch of bizarre and vivid dreams that were in no way enjoyable. When I finally actually woke up on my own I was feeling quite irritable so I just went back to sleep and after two more times of doing that I woke feeling rested and much less irritable and ready to start what has become my daily routine of starting a small fire to knock the chill off, letting the dogs out to do their morning business in the woods and brewing my espresso.

It was really nice this morning not to struggle with the WiFi connection so that I could check my various inboxes and do a little bit of research while sipping my morning espresso and having a smoke. It might seem like a small thing but not having that morning frustration (of trying to get a good connection) makes a big difference for me in my overall mood which often gets set in the first hour or so of each day. Also when I made my post last night and the internet connectivity worked flawlessly it made for an awesome end to the day and I did not spend the last few hours of the evening feeling agitated.

After finishing my morning routine I went down to the homestead proper to check in with the folks there (which has also become part of my daily routine) to see what would be 'going on' around the homestead today so that I could plan my activities accordingly. I was delighted to find out that for today I would have two different helpers for one hour each which might not seem like much time but there is always something to do that is easier with multiple people working on it and having some dedicated time makes for planning things a bit easier.

Anyway something that has been bugging me since before actually moving here is that the mailbox for the place was missing it's door and after inquiring about it this morning I was delighted to find out that the door was still here and in one of the sheds so me and one of the other folks went there rather immediately and located it as well as some bolts that had these plastic 'nuts' which were leftover parts from the packaging that a lawnmower came in.

I got the door to the mailbox attached and in doing so I realized that the mailbox itself was merely resting upon the post (how it had not fallen off the post still puzzles me) so I got it re-attached to the post. When I tested the door I noticed that it was missing it's handle/knob to open it and that the metal of the door was rather malformed which made it not shut evenly so I used some pliers to straighten it out and get it more or less 'trued up.' For the handle/knob I cut a small piece of black locust (because I use it every chance that I get) and attached it where the original handle/knob was. All in all it came out rather well and I like how odd/unique the new black locust handle/knob looks.

Right after wrapping up the mailbox project my first helper of the day became available and we bucked (removed the limbs) from that mimosa tree that was leaning over my solar panel that I felled a few days ago and got it all chopped into smaller parts and added the seed pod laden branches to the fire pit. We then felled another large mimosa tree that was nearby and just as we started bucking that one my second helper showed up. Mainly the helpers hauled away the various limbs (adding more seed pod laden branches to the fire pit) and raked up all the seed pods that had fallen to the ground and also adding them to the fire pit. I had previously noticed that there were still a lot of seed pods on the ground from that big mimosa that was between the sheds so one of the helpers got them all raked up as well.

We went from the mimosa project down to the creek to start working on an area there that was really quite the fucking mess because there was a bunch of random rusty metal objects there as well as a bunch of very tangled barb wire all mixed together and made even more difficult to clean up by a bunch of rhododendron trees and branches making the area difficult to access.

That particular 'junk area' is the only one like it I have seen on the property and it looks like the previous owners of the place tossed most of the metal there as a means of 'disposal' or that at some point in the past the creek had flooded and deposited it there but I am unsure on the latter of those two possibilities because there were several pieces of roofing metal as well as several large galvanized buckets with their bottoms rusted out. Also located there is what appears to be a rather mangled old grain silo (or part of one) that will take several people to pull it uphill from where it currently is. That particular area is also where I want to put a water holding tank (or barrel) for irrigation usage so getting the area cleaned up was rather important just to make it a bit safer to work in. Also ever since I first saw it I have sort of obsessed about one of my dogs getting in there and getting tangled in the barb wire and getting 'snafued' amongst all the rusty metal as well.

Anyway we got the trees and limbs cleared out of the way and I got the majority of the barb wire pulled up and coiled. I say the 'majority of the barb wire' because there is more around that area to be removed still and I only got the barb wire pulled up that was immediately in the area we were working in. Anyway part way through the project one of the helper's one hour of work was up so me and the other helper tackled the remainder of the task at hand and that helper wound up working long after their initial hour was completed.

In the process of cleaning things out we created a new trail that leads from the creek and connects directly to the main trail that leads to the homestead proper which made hauling all the scrap metal (except the old silo parts) uphill much easier than trying to haul them out the long way along the creek to the steep path with the rail. It really was quite the tedious task dealing with all the branches, scrap metal and barb wire but the area looks much better than it previously did, the creek bank is cleaner and there is now a nice gently sloping trail to the creek closer to the homestead proper to boot so all in all not too shabby for a few hours labor.

At the very ass end of the day it started thundering which of course got the dogs all worked up (especially since I was elsewhere doing stuff) and the two that get the most frightened by the thunder mauled the cheap wire fencing that I used on the gate portion of my dog yard before I could get back to the camp so now I need to hunt around for some stronger fencing material to fix the gate with so that doesn't happen again. They weren't trying to escape or anything but when they saw me coming back they both started pawing a bit over-enthusiastically at it and the meshes of the wire stretched and then broke. I knew it was some crap wire when I used it but it was the best thing that I had available at the time.

Anyway it eventually did rain (for the first time since my moving day) and I am incredibly thankful for it because the dust back in the woods has been horrible especially since the upper slope of the woods has hardly any ground-cover vegetation growing on it. Hopefully the things that I am doing here will help change that last bit and maybe in the future the dust won't be quite so bad but it is going to be quite some time before that comes to fruition.

Well I am still just chugging along here and now that some of the leaves are starting to change color I am starting to really feel the pressing need to get out of my camping scenario as rapidly as possible before the cold weather arrives which I think I can do but for now I am still doing site preparation, cleaning stuff up to make the place safer for the dogs and earning my keep around here because the folks here keep feeding me which is awesome especially since I can in no way shape or form afford my own groceries at the moment.

I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

The black locust handle that I added to the mailbox door.

Day 16. (TFC Visiting The Local Dump, Checking Out The Local Feed Store, Meeting Some Nice Neighbors, Discussing A Strategy To Fell Several Large White Pines And What To Do With The Wood From Them, Finally Getting The Elevations Correct For The Gravity Fed Irrigation Water System To Overcome It's Initial Head Without Changing The Intake Filter & Trying To 'Tickle' A Spring Into Existence Out Of The Side Of The Mountain)

I kept waking up long before dawn today and falling back asleep but eventually I got out of bed and started my now very long day at 5:37 which although was quite eventful does not really seem like I actually accomplished all that much but that is probably just my perception because I didn't over do it with huge amounts of physical labor.

Early in the day some folks here were going on a dump run as well as visiting the local feed store so I tagged along with them so I could possibly scavenge at the dump (I actually found a nice A-Frame ladder there that just needs some minor repairs) and so that I could visit the feed store to see if they carried any economically priced dog food so I won't have to make such a long trip every month to the sort of store that I usually buy it from. Unfortunately the feed store only stocks high-end dog food that although is outside my budget is rather fairly priced for the quality so if my financial scenario ever changes I will assuredly be doing my dog food shopping there instead especially since it is pretty damn close to the homestead instead of pretty damn far away like the other place.

While we were out and driving around the folks took me by a shop owned by some of the neighbors here and I finally got to meet them after hearing so much good stuff about them for the last several weeks. Although the visit with them was brief I really liked them and am looking forward to having more interactions with them in the future.

Once we got back to the homestead I got to discuss some of my strategy for felling the big white pine trees here in such a fashion that will make the process of bucking and sectioning them up once they are felled hopefully rather simple which lead to me questioning the person I was talking to about potential uses for all the material we would be creating with the limbs and logs. We didn't come to any decisive conclusion about what to do with the logs themselves but we decided that the smaller limbs would work rather well as wattle for several wattle and daub construction projects around the homestead which is pretty cool because it is something that I do not have any experience doing and it would also be an excellent use of all the pine branches.

Since we cleaned up that area near the creek yesterday I was able to test a few different configurations of the irrigation tubing that I have run along the edge of the creek feeding off that low elevation high volume spring and after a few attempts I was able to overcome the initial head again using the velocity/siphon effect without making any changes to the intake filter/screen which is pretty awesome because I was really dreading having to fabricate something different for the intake filter/screen. It also meant that I could continue the original project of excavating soil, rocks and roots in the bank to accommodate a barrel or other holding tank so that I can then pump water from the barrel the last ten feet uphill and into the homestead proper just above a garden area.

With the aid of a helper the excavation for the barrel was completed rather rapidly and since the barrel (and possibly the holding tank uphill above it) will have an overflow, and the area where the barrel is to be located is rife with subterranean water I decided to build a bit of a retention area around and below where the water would be overflowing from the barrel with the potential that eventually perhaps a spring head will emerge if the ground stays wet enough for an extended period of time. So below where the barrel will sit we built a small dam with mud, rocks, twigs, leaves, sticks, logs and roots and in the bank where the barrel will sit and two large rocks rest beside each other with a crevice between them filled with an almost white clay we dug out the terrain in such a way that water would flow into the vertical crevice as well as beneath a horizontal crevice below the large rock on the right side of the vertical crevice which actually gives a pretty broad area over which a spring head can potentially emerge or in my terminology 'can be tickled from the side of the mountain.'

We will see how all that spring head tickling works out but I have wanted to try it now for a number of years and never quite encountered the right terrain or had the water available to keep an area like that moist enough to even begin the process. For now I am content that I will be capable of filling a barrel and using a solar rig and small DC pump to get the irrigation water into the yard of the homestead proper.

That is about it for now and although it has grown incredibly late with the process of writing and editing this I am going to 'push on through' and get everything posted. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

Injecting water into the crack between the two big rocks.

Day 17. (Getting A Slow Start To My Day, Explaining Yesterday's Water Project, Building Plumbing Adapters, Trying To Get The Irrigation Water Uphill Another Ten Feet, Setting Up And Testing A Twelve Volt DC Water Pump & Enjoying Some Time In The Creek With The Dogs)

I am unsure exactly how many times I woke up this morning long before the sun came up but each time I just felt exhausted so I snuggled a little deeper under my blanket and repeatedly dozed off again until eventually I felt more rested and capable of moving around without too many aches and pains. Once I was up and moving I could really feel the soreness in my body so I decided to just shelve my bigger plans for the day and try to heal up a wee bit.

While I was still drinking my morning (nearly afternoon) espresso one of the folks came by the camp to visit me and after chatting for a bit we wound up hiking down to the area near the creek where the small dam was built yesterday and I was able to explain in great detail all the things that I was trying to accomplish with the water in that area and talked about my plans for getting the water the last ten feet uphill and into the yard of the homestead proper. While we were standing just beside the small dam that was constructed yesterday I noticed a feature of the slope above the area that had previously eluded my attention which is basically just a gentle rise in the grade for a short section of the slope that runs at a diagonal angle which although would bring the water to the yard a little downhill of where I originally was picturing it, it might still work and also spare me from having to pump the water nearly vertically uphill.

After a little thought about that angled slope I realized that I might perhaps be able to get the water up the slope without the aid of a pump if I downsized the tubing to a quarter inch and could achieve the required velocity/siphon. So I set about fabricating some adapters that would adapt the three quarter inch irrigation tubing into a water hose and then get the garden hose to adapt to the quarter inch tubing. It took a good bit of time to sift through all my plumbing stuff and make some adequate adapters but eventually I got a fifteen foot section of garden hose connected to a twenty foot section of clear quarter inch tubing.

When the fabrication process was complete I headed to the creek with my hose/tubing and plumbed it onto the water line coming from that low elevation high volume spring and was rather dismayed that only a dribble of water emerged from the end of the quarter inch tubing. Eventually I started seeing some brown mud coming out of the end which looked like the remains of dirt dauber nests that had been in the hose but then the flow stopped altogether so I hiked back up to the camp, retrieved some tools and took the garden hose to quarter inch tubing adapter apart to find that it was plugged with a stick. I am still miffed as to how a stick got stuck inside the garden hose but after digging it out with a flat head screwdriver and reconnecting everything the water flowed really well out of the tubing. Unfortunately I could not get the water to overcome the crest of the hill and get it flowing/siphoning into the yard even utilizing that angled slope area. I might possibly try moving the intake further uphill if I can find another spring and try to get more velocity and perhaps actual water pressure so that I can utilize gravity alone but I need to hunt around first and survey the terrain more to find out.

Anyway after all that I decided to go ahead and get one of my twelve volt DC pumps setup with a hose and an adapter to connect to the garden hose and quarter inch tubing arrangement that I made today and test it in a bucket to make sure that everything would work which it did so that is rather nice. It will be a bit tricky getting the battery and solar panel setup to power the pump because I will undoubtedly need to construct some sort of small building (like my solar shack made of pallets) to keep the charge controller and battery out of the weather. We will see how all that turns out but for now I am one step closer to getting some irrigation water into the yard of the homestead proper and am quite content with the progress thus far in regards to that entire project.

At the very ass end of the day I took the dogs to the creek and we had a rather relaxing time just soaking in the water which is always a nice way to end the day.

I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

The twelve volt bilge pump mounted on a block of wood so that it floats and does not suck up silt from the bottom of the bucket.

Day 18. (TFC Testing A Few Twelve Volt DC Water Pumps, Failing To Pump Water Ten Feet Uphill, Napping During The Afternoon Thunder, Doing Some Late In The Day Water Projects & Finding An Ice Cold Subterranean Spring)

I got off to an early start this morning by getting out of bed the very first time that I woke up which was at 4:51 which made for plenty of time for me to enjoy the morning 'stillness' that I enjoy so much. The only real bummer to my morning is that I had just enough propane to make a single pot of espresso before it ran out and I could not make a second pot without hiking down to the homestead proper and using the big propane stove there. All those moving expenses are still biting me in the ass and unfortunately I am unsure when I will be capable of affording more propane so I might have to dig through my still packed belongings and find one of my single burner electric stoves to use for now. I doubt the eighteen gauge extension cords I am using to run grid power to the camp can handle the load for an electric burner so I may have to setup a heavy gauge cord somewhere just for that but one way or another I will have my morning espresso without having to clunk around in the homestead proper's kitchen in the wee hours of the morning while folks are sleeping.

Once the sun actually got up and I finished my morning chitchat with some of the folks here I headed down to the creek with a basket of tools and the bucket that I setup one of my twelve volt DC water pumps in yesterday. Once I got the bucket containing the pump in place and ran the water lines uphill I used a small eight amp hour deep cycle battery to power the pump.

The pump worked and all but it could only drive the water about halfway up the incline to the top of the slope. I then tried to use a larger battery (the one I previously treated with epsom salt) to provide more power to the pump but the pump just was not up to the task. I tried several configurations of the water lines running uphill by placing them at different angles along the slope but I still could not get the water further than halfway up the hill. Since the pump is just too small for the job I decided to put a secondary twelve volt DC inline/submersible pump after the first pump about halfway up the hill and although with both I actually got the water to the top of the incline it was only dribbling out the end of the water line and seemed to only work when the water line was laying on the ground. When I setup the second pump I used a light gauge wire with an electrical port on it that would mate with the second pump's electrical port and told myself 'to check for water coming out of the end of the line before the wires can melt' but I just was not quite quick enough, wound up melting the wires and having to scramble to disconnect them before they truly caught fire, shorted out the battery or both.

Needless to say I was 'over it' at that point and decided that I needed to rethink the entire scenario and come up with a better solution to get the water uphill. Just as I was starting to gather all my tools and stuff up it started thundering and of course those two dogs of mine that get frightened by the thunder started raising hell at the camp so I dropped what I was doing, hiked uphill and let one of them outside so they wouldn't cause a ruckus with each other. The way it was thundering and the sky was getting dark I thought it was surely about to rain like crazy so I scrambled to get the big battery put away inside the camper, gather all my tools and get everything in the camp put away for what looked like quite the storm.

By the time I finished all that jazz I was feeling completely wiped out and decided to just lay down with the dogs to comfort them and take a nap until the storm passed. I woke up briefly several times but went back to sleep because it was still thundering which it did for almost the entire three hours that I was napping but from what I can tell it never actually rained a single drop.

Once I got up from my extended nap I hiked down to the homestead proper to make some more espresso and was delighted to find out that two of the folks there wanted to help me do some stuff. While I had been napping I kept mulling over the gravity fed water situation (and specifically the elevation changes and possible water sources) while I was in that half awake half asleep state that I often find interesting solutions to complicated problems in. During those times I kept picturing finding a spring further uphill and further back on the property so when the folks offered to help with something we rounded up some tools and hiked to the furthest corner of the property to a particular spot that I have been looking at ever since my arrival here where I thought a spring might be.

At first we just did some exploratory excavation and were working towards building another pool/cave to hook that big two inch tubing into but we rapidly found flowing water that appeared to be coming out of the side of the hill and not surface water from the creek itself. So we divided forces and one of us worked on excavating that area (there was only enough room for one person to work there anyway) and two of us started working on another area a little downhill from that area to make a pool to use with the two inch tubing. After a little while the person digging at the original site made the observation that the water coming out there was much colder than the creek water and they were indeed correct which means we finally got on a good vein of ice cold subterranean spring water which in every way is fucking awesome. The site will of course take a lot more work before I can find the actual spring head itself and figure out how to capture it if at all possible but nonetheless it is a very promising start to having more than just an irrigation system but actual drinking water as well.

Having found the good spring water at the ass end of the day I am itching for tomorrow to get here so that I can dive back into that project and see what becomes of it but for now I am just feeling like something truly wonderful was accomplished today and am excited to see how it all turns out.

I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

The cold water spring after the initial excavation.

Day 19. (TFC Excavating And Exploring A Spring, Moving Large Stones, Getting Really Muddy, Walking Around With Rocks And Water In My Boots & Taking A Nap To Recover)

I should probably not even write a post for today because the title sums it up rather well but I might as well do my best to hammer out some words while the smoke from my campfire is not blowing in my face and only a handful of noseeums are biting me.

I got up pretty early today but it was after the sun actually rose so it definitely was not all that early. Having to hike down to the homestead proper to brew my first pot of espresso is definitely not something that I want to keep doing in the morning because it means that I have to be around people before I have my coffee and although I like the folks here and all there just is not anyone on the face of the planet that I like that much!

Anyway after getting my espresso made and letting the dogs out to do their morning business I got a rock/sway bar from one of the sheds, gathered up some tools of my own and headed to that cold water spring that I mentioned in yesterday's post and set to work exploring the pool of water looking for the actual spring heads that are supplying it. I rapidly realized that I needed to be able to drain the pool to see if I could locate the spring heads so I hiked back to the homestead proper and got the final piece of two inch tubing that had thus far gone unused.

Getting the tubing into place to drain the spring pool was a tedious task and required a lot of digging to get a channel dug out to lay it in that had an adequate enough slope to accommodate it to drain but eventually I got it flowing but to my dismay the pool only dropped about an inch or two because the volume of water entering the pool was greater than the water exiting the pool so I pulled up the two inch tubing dug a steeper angle for it to lay in, reinstalled it all to find out that it still was not draining fast enough. I spent the better part of three hours fucking around trying to get the pool to drain sufficiently before getting one of my twelve volt DC water pumps and a battery and pumping out the water via mechanical means. I still couldn't get all the water out of the pool but I did get the majority of it out and was able to spot three very small distinct spring heads emerging up from the ground which is my least favorite sort of spring to try to capture.

There is probably more small spring heads beneath all the muck in the pool but I changed my priorities from exploring the spring to creating an adequate channel to drain the pool which involved moving a lot of really large stones as well as countless smaller stones and essentially digging an approximately eight foot long channel through mud, roots, stones and lots of silt.

Once I finished roughing the channel in I was absolutely exhausted and further dismayed to see that the water that had accumulated in it was flowing backwards towards the spring's pool so I used some flat rocks to dam the channel in a few places and called it quits for the day because at that point I had spent nearly seven hours working on the site, was very frustrated with the progress and was absolutely wiped the fuck out from moving around what probably amounted to a thousand odd pounds of stone and mud.

As I set about gathering up my tools and carrying them uphill I realized that I not only had a bunch of water in my rubber boots (per usual because all my boots have holes) but that the holes have grown so large that now pebbles and small stones easily slip inside the boots as well. I probably should have just taken them off and washed them out in the creek but at that point I just wanted to get back to the camp strip out of my incredibly muddy clothes, get a shower at the homestead proper and take a nice long nap. I didn't even bother collecting all my tools and did the aforementioned in rather short order.

Well as grueling as the day was I do realize that I am rather obsessed with getting a spring captured here and although I have delved the reasons for this latest fixation all I can really come up with is that I don't want to live anywhere that I have to rely on grid electricity to pump my water from a well so it basically comes down to peace of mind and being self-sufficient in regards to water.

I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

The cold water spring after further excavation and moving around some big rocks.

Day 20. (TFC Working On That New Spring Site With Some Helpers & Not Tying A Hammock Off Properly And Falling Flat On My Back)

I did not get a super early start to my day this morning but I did get up rather early and after digging my electric single burner stove out of my stuff that is all packed away I plugged it in to find out that it no longer works which is pretty weird since I have not used it in almost three years and it worked previous to that. Fortunately I recalled that I had one small bottle of propane packed away in my stuff that someone gave me last year so I dug it out and was able to make my morning espresso at the camp. As a side note later in the day one of the folks here loaned me a mostly full large propane tank so for now I am all set for brewing my espresso at the camp whenever I want to.

Late in the morning I loaded up the big wagon with some tools and headed back to that cold water spring site to continue working on it and found out along the way that the last bit of the trail that leads there is entirely too narrow for my wagon and I almost flipped it over before getting it to where I was going because the terrain there gets rather rugged. I made a mental note to myself to see what I could do about that section of trail but I didn't want to get distracted by a 'side quest' today.

Mostly I worked on cutting back a bunch of roots that were blocking that secondary channel that I wrote about in yesterday's post and also removing lots of big rocks that were blocking the channel. One rock in particular was a bear to get out of the way because of it's shape, size and how it was wedged between several other rocks and it took me the better part of an hour just to move it. Yesterday while using that rock/sway bar I put entirely too much pressure on the same spot in the palm of my hand and it was so sore today that it made gripping the bar (or pretty much anything else) rather difficult because it hurt so much that it kept making my hand cramp.

Right after I finally got the big obstinate rock out of the way and started cleaning out the bottom of the channel with a maddox three helpers showed up offering to help with things which was absolutely fucking fantastic especially since my throbbing hand was making for some rather slow progress. By then most of the channel was cleared except for one big rock at the very end of the channel that just would not budge and was wedged in place beneath and between two really big rocks that there was no way to move without some sort of heavy machinery or a small army of folks armed with sway bars.

I had been looking at that particular rock for the previous few days and had decided that the only way that it could be dealt with was to either dig out around it and have several folks prying on it or to break it into smaller pieces with a chisel and hammer. We tried the first tactic to no avail and then we all took turns with the hammer and chisel and eventually split it in two lengthwise, pulled out all the chunks and then used the hammer side of a splitting maul to break the other pieces out of the way so that the water would flow (mostly unimpeded) down the channel. It was quite the task to say the least and honestly I think the folks thought I was a bit crazy when I said we were going to split that big ass rock with a chisel and hammer but hey it worked!

After that we worked on clearing the channel more and giving it a good slope to keep it draining and we also plugged some of the leaks in a small dam that I built to help keep some of the creek water from getting into the spring area. The proximity of the creek has definitely been problematic but fortunately the actual spring water pool itself no longer gets any creek water seeping into it but that could definitely change once we start getting more rain or during the winter when there is snow melt and given the type of spring it is and the type of capturing it will require I might just set it up for irrigation purposes and continue looking for a spring better suited for drinking water.

Anyway after several hours of sloshing around in the muck we gathered up all the tools and called it quits on the spring project for the day which was fine by me because we accomplished everything I had set out to do today on the project and faster than I had anticipated doing it because there were four of us working on it. I am gradually getting used to having help with things and it damn sure makes a big difference on what can be accomplished and the time it takes to do stuff.

After getting back to the camp and getting my water logged boots and muddy clothes off I washed up the best I could, ate some lunch and decided to finally setup one of my hammocks so that I could lay in the shade, relax and do some reading because I was feeling pretty tired and was daydreaming about falling asleep while reading a book and how nice a nap would be.

I initially tied one side of the hammock with a temporary knot just to make sure it would reach to an adjacent tree and also so that I wouldn't have to untie it in case I needed to adjust the height. I had a single piece of long rope so after tying that first side I used the same rope to tie the other side without cutting the rope. The hammock fit perfectly between the trees and the height was looking good at about three and a half feet off the ground so I went and got a knife to cut the rope in half. While I was getting the knife I also grabbed a book that I was reading before I moved but hadn't made time for since my arrival here and I also called all the dogs over so they could hang out with me while I was reading. In the process of all that I totally forgot about that temporary initial knot and jumped into the hammock...where upon the temporary knot slipped lose and I landed flat on my back and am lucky there were not any rocks or sapling stumps under me or I would have had quite the accident instead of just going 'splat' on the ground with the book flying from my hand. I definitely have a few aches from that now but at the time I just got up, tied a proper knot, climbed in the hammock (rather cautiously that time) and tried to read my book but failed because I needed a pillow under my head so that I could read. I kind of wanted to scream at that point but instead I just got a pillow and did some reading and although I didn't even come close to falling asleep it was at least relaxing.

I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

The big slate rock that we split in half with a chisel and hammer.

Day 21. (TFC Moving A Large Rock That Was Wedged In The Cold Water Spring's Pool, Felling Big White Pine Trees & Getting My Favorite Sweater Repaired)

It was rather chilly this morning and I awoke to three of the dogs all curled up and snuggled against me under the blanket which I found so damn cozy that I actually went back to sleep several times until I actually saw daylight outside, roused myself from the bed, built a fire and started brewing my morning espresso. Even with the fire going I wound up putting on both a sweater and a jacket before I felt warm so I guess that the seasons really are changing and I need to really get my shit together and get moved out of the tent which means building something to live in or coming up with the funds to afford getting some excavation work done with some heavy equipment and then paying for the camper to get moved to the rear of the property here. At the moment building something seems the more affordable route because I already possess most of what I need but it would be much more efficient and less time consuming to just get the camper moved.

After my morning chitchat with some of my fellow homesteaders I set out for that cold water spring with one of them to 'just move one big rock' that was wedged between several other big rocks and blocking the pool at the spring itself. I had moved the rock several days ago when I started that secondary drainage channel but had failed to move it any further since then even though I had tried multiple times. The person that helped me this morning though has a good bit of upper body strength and like myself is pretty good at moving large objects via lots of small movements so together we made pretty quick work of getting the rock not just moved but situated in a place that will benefit the overall project.

Since that particular person had not yet seen the cold water spring project I got to go over the details of the project thus far and the long-term plan for what is ahead with it and of course we inadvertently started working on more than just moving the one big rock.

I was actually trying to take a break from that project altogether today but I didn't mind some help getting the two halves of that big rock (me and the other helpers had split with the hammer and chisel yesterday) finally extracted from the ground. It took both of us working at different points on the split halves with the rock bars to finally work them loose as well as digging out around them but eventually we did it and it felt so damn good to finally have them out of the way! We started on removing a second similarly buried rock that is also blocking the channel but after a while we decided we had gone well beyond 'just moving the one big rock' and that we should call it quits because we had basically gotten entirely too over involved and had other things to do today.

Anyway those white pine trees that I have mentioned before were on today's itinerary and although I probably could have done them in the wee hours of the morning I elected to do them late in the afternoon when the sun was well beyond shining in the area they are located which would assure that I wouldn't have to deal with squinting or having the sun in my eyes as I was working. The same person that helped with the big rock this morning was my spotter for the tree felling and a third person helped to haul logs and limbs out of the way as I operated the chainsaw.

The chainsaw itself runs well but the recoil spring has seen better days so the pull cord gets stuck in the extended position and requires that the flywheel cover be removed then the cord be spun tight by hand which is a superb pain in the ass so eventually I got fed up with unscrewing the four screws required to remove the cover, rewinding the cord manually and then reinstalling the screws. My solution was to leave the screws out, place the saw on the ground, place my knee up against the plastic piece that covers the flywheel and houses the recoil spring (and pull cord) and then once the saw was running just remove the plastic cover and set it aside which was sketchy as fuck because the flywheel was then exposed but hey it worked and I just had to be extra cautious while operating the saw.

All total we felled eight trees and only a few were smallish ones that were around forty feet tall. I did not bother with bucking them but I did cut away the sections that were blocking the trail. It is going to take a few days of work to clean up all the mess but I feel like it was a big accomplishment just getting them on the ground and making headway on not just making the woods here healthier but also on clearing out a site for myself to build something at. I can't wait to see just how much more sunlight will get into the woods here in the morning now that those trees are out of the way.

After all the tree stuff was done I brought my favorite sweater to one of the folks here that does a bunch of sewing and asked them if they would fix both the pockets where the seams were coming lose. I had asked about it earlier in the day but hadn't brought the sweater with me and since they were already sewing on something else it made for a quick project for them because everything was already setup. They sewed two small triangles onto the pockets and boom it was done in less than two minutes. I had been babying those pockets since noticing it some time last winter but now I think they are really strong and can endure me stuffing my hands in them while I brew my morning espresso which for whatever reason I thoroughly enjoy doing.

I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day night.

The mess created by felling the trees!

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