Adventures In Homesteading (Day 338)
Hello Everyone!
Waking super early, A slight improvement to my morale, Felling another big mimosa tree, A new brush wall & Some wee hiking!
Alright, I woke up super early this morning because I wore myself out yesterday... and fell asleep much earlier than I have been of late. Even though I keep considering putting off writing this for a few more hours... I figured to forgo all the procrastination and just get it over with... regardless of how lackluster my enthusiasm for making these entries has been of late!
Yesterday was a bit of a mixed bag of feelings, as the stress of my financial scenario continued to weigh on me... while my desire to 'keep plugging along' (and my morale) started to shift in a more productive direction. Without going into any details about the latter part of that statement, suffice it to say that the kindness of others often moves me in ways that I would not be moved without it.
Anyways, I finally got a day here where it was not raining and things were able to dry up some outdoors... which made it not only possible for me to get much more achieved... but to also do so without slipping and sliding around whilst doing it. As I have stated numerous times before, the steep incline here combined with the sparse vegetation... makes walking around precarious at best and downright dangerous at worst.
My big objective for the day was to finally fell that big (mostly dead) mimosa tree that was right next to my camp that posed a hazard not just to the tent... but also to the dog yard given which way it was leaning. Thankfully, I was able to make quick work of it with my corded electric chainsaw... and was pleasantly surprised that a lot of the larger sections of the tree were not rotten and (more importantly) what I would deem to be usable material.
There were even a few green shoots coming off of it that I was able to use on my privacy (and shade) walls around the tent itself which was nice because I needed more material for that project to fill in some holes. I am unsure how many other pieces of useful material that I got (for fence posts and such) but even the mostly rotten material came in handy for building a new brush wall just downhill of my compost pile.
That particular 'brush wall' near the compost does not add much privacy as it currently is... but I trained a bunch of the vines that were growing from the felled mimosa tree onto it. Hopefully, the vines will grow into (and over) it during the coming months... and make for much more privacy once they do.
On a different note, I still have yet to get another visit from the rat that was pilfering my food supply... and I am starting to wonder if by running the dogs in those areas around the tent might have scared it off for good. Since I really do not want to risk losing anymore food, I repurposed one of my lidded buckets (that I had toilet paper stored in) as a container for food... which will hopefully do the trick until I solve the rodent problem altogether.
All that jazz aside, I hiked around a good bit also while the weather was nice in the hopes of finding some mushrooms... but all that I found was some beige colored ones that I have no idea what they are. I still have yet to figure out why there are not many edible mushrooms here... but perhaps it is a combination of all the limestone dust from the road... and the amount of pine and cedar that grows here.
Well, that is about it for this entry. I hope that most folks are doing well. Ta ta for now.
It sounds like things are moving along at your camp. I hope that the financial situation improves. I really know how that can weigh on a person and make every aspect of life feel anxiety-filled.
Yeah, the camp is slowly coming along. I hope that the financial scenario improves also the stress is really such a burden in that regard. It sure does not make for a pleasant existence that is for sure.
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