Hello Everyone!
Snoozing the morning away, Stress acts as sand in the gears, Moving ridiculously heavy logs, Filling in terraces & Not quite high enough!
Alright, it is so late in the morning... that I do not know if I even have time to write this entire entry... without missing out on my chance to get some stuff done outdoors during the 'cooler' portion of the day. Last night I wound up staying up later than usual (I had previously been falling asleep before sunset) and then I kept letting myself drift back off to sleep each time that I woke up... instead of getting out of bed and setting some 'rainwater espresso' to brewing.
I dunno what it was that kept me up so late but it probably had something to do with stressing over world events... and having all too much anxiety over my financial scenario. That last part is the real kicker, because I keep stressing over where the hell I am going to get the funds to pay for more drinking water, pay the phone bill (whose payment got declined a few hours ago) and of course get more supplies.
All that stuff tends to dominate my thinking in such a way, that I keep finding myself barely able to focus on anything else... and having to 'play catch up' with my morale in an effort to not let it get fully undermined. Given that said morale is only ever achieved a sort of 'flickering fickleness' since I arrived here... I am accustomed to the extra mental effort it takes to have any desire to 'stay in motion' but ugh... I wish that I could spare myself all the mental trickery that requires.
There just does not seem like there are any tangible solutions to change things for the better on that front... and sometimes I have to wonder if I only keep persisting out of sheer determination... and if so what price am I really paying to do so. It damn sure "ain't no way to be living" and eventually I am going to have to find some way to actually enjoy the place and my time here... instead of it being a never ending assault on my peace of mind.
For now, all that I can do is keep trudging along and regardless of how incremental my progress here has been (due to all the challenges and friction) I best not lose sight of the fact that I am actually improving the scenario. So much of what makes this place so damned annoying to be at, is still the seclusion/privacy factor and I swear that if I had the means to do so... I would erect a three meter tall all metal (or cob) privacy fence around the entire property and be done with it!
Anyways, yesterday was hit or miss on the productivity... but I did get in several hikes as well as pull more of those big sweet gum logs from out of the woods (behind the new building) and moved to the flat spot below the building near the retention area. Those frigging logs were way heavier than I thought that they would be, because they were not quite as high off the ground as I thought they were... and have thus been soaking up water ever since I first felled that tree weeks ago.
Getting those logs moved also required moving a bunch of tree debris left over from the land clearing... and more or less 'cleaning up' much of the area around where the logs were at. While I was there, I also made sure to get the beginnings of a solid berm created along the hill... so that none of the runoff water coming from uphill will flow into the retention area.
Doing all that jazz really wiped me out... but after a short reprieve in the shade (and in front of a fan) I hiked back over there... and set to working on filling in the parts of the terraces that I had not filled in yet with dirt. Although, I continued to harvest dirt from behind the building (from that pile I mentioned in a previous entry) I also shoveled a good bit of it from beneath the building in an effort to get a few spots to start draining better.
Honestly, I think that the building is too close to the ground not just because of how damp that area stays... but also because portions of it are getting way too much 'splatter' every time that it rains. In the end, the most reasonable solution seems to be to raise the building another third of a meter... which would stop the splatter, give the crawl space more airflow, make it easier to create some drainage channels... and give me plenty of room for storage to boot.
Well, on that note I best get to wrapping this entry up so that I can get outdoors before the heatwave starts. I hope that folks are doing well. Ta ta for now.
