Hello Everyone!
More rainy weather, Silence over traffic, Farm progress, The hazy sky & Projects aplenty!
Alright, I woke up before midnight and decided to stay awake after laying in bed for a while listening to the rain without the pitter-patter sounds making me fall back to sleep. Waking up so early definitely has its charms and as I keep saying: I love soaking up the silence and especially so considering how much racket there is around here except for during these quiet hours.
Sometimes I really wonder at the psychological effects this place has had on me... and where I would be at (progress wise) if I did not have all that 'friction' to deal with. One thing is for certain, and that is that every single day seems like a damned struggle between making a concerted effort not to take on more traumatic stress... and not letting my already 'stirred up' PTSD get out of hand.
Then there is the whole lack of seclusion and privacy thing... which honestly is probably what tends to make all those other stressors seem worse than they probably really are. Having to contend with all the constant vehicle traffic every day is exhausting in and of itself... and lately I have found myself repeatedly 'wandering out of sight' almost every time that I hear a vehicle approaching.
At this juncture, I have also stopped waving at every vehicle that passes while I am busy working on stuff... because otherwise I wind up waving so damned often that it is hard to stay in a rhythm getting things done. I am sure that some folks view it as rudeness because they do not get waved at the two times that they pass by the place each day... but from my perspective the nonstop traffic (often kicking up a massive cloud of limestone dust) does not leave me in much of a mood for waving.
Lately, the new building has of course been getting a lot of attention... and most likely folks are pleased to see the place looking more like something that they can at least relate to as far as setups go. I get it though, because folks understand 'the familiar' and many lack the kind of life experiences that it takes to even begin to understand what 'living an alternative lifestyle' is... yet alone that there are plenty of lifestyles to choose from.
Fortunately, most of the folks around here seem to have lost interest in me... and now that the place is looking more and more like a functional farm... perhaps it will finally sink in that my only real interest here (at this property) is getting said farm up and running. Sure, I have to 'make do' for myself and the critters along the way... but (personally speaking) the distinction between 'building a farm' versus 'building a home' could not be more crystal clear.
In many ways, I managed to get much more achieved in the first year here (towards that goal) than I actually thought that I would... and that only occurred due to help from other folks. Some of that help I asked for directly.... but by and large folks have just been super supportive of my endeavors... and a few of them even facilitated things that I could have never achieved on my own... or that would have simply taken me forever to achieve!
I am often unsure of how to spell out my thanks and appreciation to folks... but I do tend to thank everyone along the way... and file away in my brain the 'story' of them helping. What I mean there, is that I love the 'story' of things in general... but when there is say a physical item involved (that has been gifted to me) there is a sentimental hook of 'warm fuzziness' that I simply relish.
A little example of such a story, is the big solar panel that I have... and how although I paid my buddy a hundred bucks for it... I always remember it more as a gift since he both delivered it... and sold it to me at a third of the price it was worth. The 'story' part for me, is how that one big panel got me through the better part of three years of living off-grid... with multiple nested stories (and learning curves) relating to said panel... that all lead back to that moment of receiving the gift from a friend.
Not to get overly sentimental here or anything... but it has been nothing short of awe striking to me to have gotten to where I am now not just by my own persistence and perseverance... but also by the love and kindness of others. Words always elude me when it comes to adequately expressing my sentiments related to 'making it here' and honestly it all still seems surreal to have occurred at all.
Something that really drove the previous three decades (and especially the last decade) home was when I was planting those black locust saplings in the meadow to start my first grove here. While I was in the act of planting them I kept having this sort of vertigo mixed with a free fall feeling... and wondering if perhaps I was stuck in some kind of dream... to which all I could think was: If it is a dream then it is an interesting one and I should keep planting trees either way.
All that jazz aside, yesterday was not all that productive of a day aside from taking numerous hikes... because I was still feeling way too stiff and sore in all my joints and muscles. Waking up a few hours ago to not feeling that way was nice after everything being so inflamed of late... and if anything... I now feel like I am physically in awesome shape and ready for the next round of projects.
The hiking around that I have been doing instead of working the last few days has been really nice actually... and I have figured out a bit of a windy route to take where it is mostly private. Since all the vegetation has grown back in the hikes have assuredly become a bit more soothing... so over the coming months I need to build more privacy walls, terraces and such to make the winter hikes have some of that same feeling in regards to privacy.
Anyways, the last few days I keep intending to mention just how frigging hazy things have been outdoors... and even on the sunniest of days (I think three or four days ago) there was an obvious haze... every-frigging-where that I looked. Turns out, it was not me going blind like I initially thought... but a bunch of wildfire smoke from Canada drifting down into the region... and yup (as it turns out) it is even drifting much further south of here.
Long story short, when I found that out I was of course immediately reminded (yet again) that perhaps the safest route for this crazy timeline... is building something underground. I mean things are just sort of bonkers when it it comes to natural disasters and the rate/frequency of their occurrences... and mayhaps it is some deeply instinctual thing on my part... but I sure would feel a heck of a lot 'safer' with several feet of dirt between me and everything else.
The funny thing is, that when I try to picture myself actually living underground like that... I can never quite do it because it is something that I have yet to do in life and a form of construction that I do not have any hands on experience with. That said, the very idea of having the option to live underground if need be is vastly appealing... and I think that is the real attraction that it holds for me aside from the novelty of learning a new skill.
For the time being, I have enough to contend with as far as projects go... but that said... the more that I hike around looking at places for underground dwellings the more that I am starting to settle on one or two options. The best option is probably to do it on the lower tier below where the new building is... because the 'best' other option will destroy/impact way too much natural beauty inside the gulch the potential spot is in.
At the moment, I will have my hands full well into late fall getting the entire driveway and existing building area sorted out... so while it is tempting to 'make another mess' somewhere... I do not want another 'job site' or impact zone to manage... let alone have to tend to more trails. As a side note, I am planning on finding the largest piece of paper that I can, spreading it out on the shed floor and drawing out the property along with all its features.
Once I have that visual representation of the place it will be so much easier for me to get a better grasp on 'how one thing relates to another' (terrain wise) and how I can work with the terrain... instead of against it. Basically, I want to make things easier on myself in regards to managing (and maintaining) the water runoff, the watershed in general... and of course the gravity-fed water systems.
During my time here thus far, I have learned a lot of how the place works when it comes to the water runoff... and truthfully it is pretty ideal for irrigating the things that I grow without even needing to install an irrigation system. There is already a noticeable difference in how damp many of the areas in the gulches are that I altered slightly with weirs and brush dams early last year... and I have yet to do much more than fell some unwanted small trees (that were sucking up extra moisture) ever since those first alterations.
I truly think that, in a few of the gulches there are places that would only require felling the larger unwanted trees to get the water to start coming to the surface. It is not just that the ground is merely 'damp and squishy' already... but the trees themselves (along with the vegetation near them) look very healthy and downright vibrant... which makes for a good indicator that there is a source of water either below or nearly below them.
In other news, I have recently been seeing even more mushrooms that I had not seen growing here before... and among them there have been multiple kinds of boletes. As it would happen I also spotted what I thought at the time might be a two-colored bolete... but I was mid-work with the heavy machinery operator here... and could not stop in that particular moment... and try as I might I have yet to find it again.
Yesterday, I was looking for it again when I stumbled on what at first that I thought might be some lobster mushrooms... but upon closer examination I was/am unsure of what they are and they might even be Chanterelle. They look and smell delicious with (to my nose) an apricot scent and might simply be a strain of lobster that I have not encountered before.
Well, it is now a few hours before dawn and I best get to wrapping this entry up and start digging into the editing and posting phase if I am going to stay on track with my recent routine. I hope that folks are doing well. Ciao for now.
