Adventures In Homesteading (Day 54-56)

Hello Everyone!

Hard to break away, One storm after another, Caught somewhere between resting and eating, More earthworks progress & The spring site!

Alright, it has been another few days without doing any writing... and although I tried repeatedly to make some time for it the last few days... one thing or another keeps coming up that seems to interfere with doing so. Sometimes it has been the rain... sometimes it has been due to not being able to get away from my whining elder dog long enough (without her whining) to focus... and some of it has been me napping way too much.

It has assuredly been frustrating on many levels... because I really do need to be staying on track with my writing routine more... and not let stuff get in the way of it all. Heck, I even woke up in the wee hours of the morning today... fully intent upon writing... but by the time that I made it to the writing tent and was about to start writing... my elder dog started whining for me because she did not know where I was.

As endearing as it all is... it is also absolutely maddening to have to constantly break away from whatever I am doing... just to hike across the place... and show her that yes I am still around. Having tried the route of just ignoring her pleas does not work either... because she just keeps ramping up both the frequency... and the volume of the whining.

Anyways, I spent the bulk of the last few days cooped up in the camping tent... as one storm after another rolled into the area dumping rain. Being cooped up has not been all that bad though... given that my muscles have had plenty of healing time... and I have gotten lots of extra rest.

I have also been continuing my trend of eating as much food as I can each day... to offset all the calories that I keep burning off while not just working... but simply getting around the place. It is worth mentioning again that building that 'earth bridge' across the gulch... has done wonders for alleviating the pain I was having in my calves... due to how the bridge obliterated the steepest parts of the gulch.

Whenever I have had time to do so, I have continued my efforts on the cellar hole, the earth bridge and the main spring development site... but now that the ground is constantly wet... and the clay is slick and clumpy... it has been a slow process. Regardless of the slippery conditions I keep plugging away at it all though... and although the bridge and cellar projects are not going as quickly as I would like them to... the spring site is moving along nicely.

The main thing that is helping with the spring site is finally getting enough rain so that I can see what the water is really doing there... and at what depth it tends to pool at. At this point, I think that I have it figured out well enough that I can look at constructing a collection wall (below where I have dug all the holes) and once that is in place (and capturing water) I can fill all the pools with gravel.

I am not entirely sure that I will fill the holes solely with gravel... because I keep tinkering with the idea of coating all the holes with bentonite clay... before adding the gravel. Once I get the gravel in place I can figure out whether I want to cover it all with polyethylene and topsoil... or come up with some other method to keep surface water, rain, leaves, critters and everything else out of the catchment area.

For the most part I have been trying to do everything that I can around here without 'junking the place up' with stuff... or creating things that will require long-term maintenance... so that all has been on my mind when it comes to the spring site. Especially so when it comes to covering the gravel with polyethylene... or any other plastic-like material that will break down later on.

Well, I am going to keep this entry short and sweet. I hope that everyone is doing well. Ta ta for now.

Stormy weather!

This little piece of pipe was the perfect size for this!

It made for a very simple way to drain the upper pool into the lower one!

The cellar hole a few days ago!

The earth bridge is coming along!

The cellar hole today!

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Cheers! & Hive On!

All content found in this post is mine!