Change in plans

Yesterday was to be a productive day of stripping the bark off of timbers and doing some odd jobs around the ranch.. I did spend two hours taking the bark off of timbers, but after only one load of gravel to fill in a low crossing between pastures, I was suddenly sidetracked. I had to spend over 4 hours getting the tractor out of a soft spot on the other side of a gravel bar. Through lots of digging, lifting, cutting, hoping, and maneuvering, I was finally able to get the tractor unstuck. Unfortunately I was still in the wrong place, and the pit where I was stuck was between me and the pastures where I needed to go. I needed another plan.

So plan B was to work my way upstream of the usual crossing, and find another. I hit pay dirt with a good rocky crossing with a hard bottom. Well I thought I hit pay dirt.. Once across that bit, the last 15 feet to the pasture turned into pure bog. Before I could begin to back up the tractor sunk in about a foot. I worked at trying to get it out for about an hour or more, before giving up for the day exhausted, frustrated, and wondering just how I was going to get this beast back up onto dry land once again.

That was yesterday. Today began with a trip down to the tractor, and a few hours of digging, bracing, moving timbers under the tires, and trying to use a come-along to pull the tractor out. The end result: I am more tired than I was and the tractor is still where it was yesterday.

I have a call in to a neighbor who helps on the ranch and who borrows equipment from time to time in hopes of getting his tractor over here to get it stuck as well.. sorry I interjected a prediction there.. the hope is that he will be able to use his tractor to pull this one out.

In the meantime I still had to feed the herd of cows, but without the tractor to move the bales down to them. So in the barn I began taking apart a large round bale and moving it by hand to a small four wheel drive utility vehicle. Once that was full, I took a load down to the cows. 5 trips later they are fed.. for the morning. I will need to do this yet again this afternoon. The end result" I am even more tired yet.. and expect to simply collapse, probably from a stroke or heart attack, immediately after feeding the cows this afternoon.

As they say, some days it does not pay to get out of bed.

Tomorrow will be better. It is what it is.. any other suggestions for platitudes?

From peaceful to pummeling

For a day that began with such tranquility, it ended with great violence. The evening began with a enormous flash of lightening, a mad dash for the caravan to shut up windows, and rain suddenly coming down in buckets. Quite damp I got inside, shut up the windows, and quickly checked the radar online. A line of severe thunderstorms from south Texas northward well into Missouri at least was bearing down on me. With the immediate storm passing, I relaxed, enjoyed the last of my Henbit curry dish, and returned to reading, while listening to the wind rip and roar outside. Within a few hours, it was whipping the caravan enough to bring about some concern, though not enough to leave. I decided to turn in knowing that we were under a tornado watch, and that further storms were bearing down on me.

Well they hit with a vengeance. I could not have gotten more than a couple of hours sleep total in the entire night. I was first shaken awake but the winds increasing in their fury, then by rain which seemed to be boarding on being hail. From there it only got worse.. at one point I got up and got dressed fearing that I would soon have to bolt for safety, though I had little idea where would constitute safety (if only my u-house were already built.. it would be perfectly safe from such stormy shenanigans). So dressed I lay back down to drift in and out of sleep until about 6 am when I once again undressed, slid under the covers and slept for about 40 minutes in the relative calm. The rains had eased to sporadic showers, which ended about 7:30 am, when I had to get out to take care of animals..

Not the sort of night I wish to repeat any time soon, though I do love storms. The final result of that night is that I am turning in quite early this evening, while hoping that tomorrow will bring a day suitable for more progress on the house.

Dreary? No, peaceful.

After a full day of rain yesterday, ending in a wonderfully vibrant red sunset, we began the day with early morning showers ending to leave a foggy and very still landscape. There is full cloud cover and we are in the mid 60's F, all of which many folks would consider dreary or depressing, but I find such days to be rejuvenating and so peaceful to almost be meditative. The rain has kept animals down or inside, so there is no barking, nothing from the cows, and only some modest chirping and calling from the forest birds.

With the quiet, the featureless sky, and the still air it is almost as if time has stopped, letting us get caught up to it, leaving behind that feeling of being behind. Though the metaphor says something ill about our culture, it is apt here: a day to recharge one's batteries.

So today will be filled with catching up on some reading I have set aside for far too long, working a bit on drawing up the specifics as to what timbers are needed where in the house, and enjoying the peace and quiet which seems to get ever more rare as we "advance" as a culture.

It is for days like these, and others of course, that I have chosen this path and decided to take on this experiment of living simply by my own efforts, and why so many have chosen to go back to the land, or get out into the wilderness whenever they can. Peace and time are far too rare to be squandered working to support the things of our modern lives.

Some Assembly Required

I have been asked for more recent photos, so here is the only relevant shot taken this very morning before the rains came on. This is my home. Or it will be in time. What you see here are 64 timbers over 5 inches in diameter with some as much as 16 inches in diameter, plus a number of smaller timbers which will be used in various supports. I am not quite done harvesting timbers, but this is certainly the bulk of those I need to build my underground log home.




The delays in work can be seen here in the form of two different ice storms:

















In between these storms I was drafted into a repair project:














What you are seeing here is an entire 60 foot section of the barn roof which was picked up and flipped over onto the remainder of the barn. Needless to say this repair took some time. In fact there are still 12 pieces of tin to put on in order to be done with this repair. We added some strapping to ensure that this sort of thing will not happen again.

A brief aside

One of the perhaps foreseeable but yet surprising "issues"I have run into when describing the house to folks who though either related or otherwise somehow involved, though not what I would call close to me, is a near constant fascination and focus on the television. They would seemingly abandon the house in order to save the television.

The source of the issue lay in the fact that I have no plan for a television (I have never owned one) and that they see it as not merely "a"crucial element, but "the" crucial element of life, even here where they could go outside and admire the night sky, or walk some wildlife trail to see where it leads, or merely sit and watch the life around us go about its business.. Heck they could go out and gather in free wild food to eat, or enjoy the sounds of the forest. The point is that if one wants to live inside a box, why not make it a box in the city?

Do not get me wrong, I enjoy the mindlessness of some television, and I will watch some things on the computer once I get settled, but I will not allow this to rule my life. Even now, when I step outside on a night such as this when the moon is shining so very brightly, I spend some time marveling at the fact that I can see for quite some distance, my best guess is a quarter mile, in the moonlight, not because of street lights but because they are missing..

One more step closer

Another day of simply moving timbers from one location to another, the house site. Still the more timbers I get on site the easier it will be to calculate what I still need, as well as to begin marking timbers for specific locations in the build.

Not all which have been cut are on site yet, but many more are. I have two stacks to move the final leg to the site, one already up on the ridge, and another composes mostly of smallish cedars (5-8 inch diameters) which are still down below, but which I should be able to move all at once using a truck rather than one or two at a time using the tractor.

And yes dear readers I am using machinery to accomplish some of the tasks necessary for building this underground log cabin. I was reluctant at first fearing a loss of some of the experience, including some personal association with each log, and the tactile sensation of moving each, but given that some of these timbers weigh several hundred pounds, and are best used whole where possible, I overcame this reluctance and realized that I will still be laying hands on every timber more than once regardless.

For those concerned with the environmental impact of using machinery, well that impact will be minimal in the big picture, and more than compensated by the energy efficiency of the U-house, the radically reduced energy costs in transportation (my timbers travel feet and yards, perhaps tenths of miles, unlike most dimensional lumber which travels thousands of miles.. ), and by the fact that I am using snags (standing dead timbers) , discarded timbers from logging, and timbers which otherwise would go to waste. To the last of these, some neighbors have given me three nice pine timbers which had to be removed so that they could build their shop last year. I have yet to pick these up but will soon. This is the ultimate in recycling: I am using that which others consider waste, in order to build my own home. In fact I am even using the polyethylene cording used to hold round bales together to cushion the backfill process. I am collecting that twine now, putting it into the otherwise discarded feed sacks, and when the time comes I will place these against the polyethylene on the outside of the shoring so as to protect the polyethylene sheeting from any punctures.

So I can say with some confidence that I have no apologies to make with regard to the environmental status of my home and its construction. Yes I could do it all by hand and perhaps buy a mule to drag timbers to the site, but I can guarantee that it simply would not happen under those criteria. Were that necessary, I would build a different sort of cabin which would require more use of wood for heat, and perhaps even some form of air conditioning..

Speaking of such concerns, I have been eying a spring fed pond and creek on the property for possible use for a micro-hydro-electric system. This seems to be a real possibility given what I have read about the modest needs of some of these efficient systems. Some require as small a drop as 4 feet, which is doable on this site. There are two downsides that are immediately evident: Rural electric is heavily subsidized with our stolen income (tax dollars) so electricity is cheap (thus everyone wastes it around here.. ) and the distance from the nearest possible generating site to the home site is significant. Still I am going to price this, along with some wind generation possibilities for which I do not hold out much hope given what I have read so far and given the sporadic nature of wind here. Solar remains a possibility, but of course is still very cost prohibitive. There might be the future possibility of some rebates, but I would be very seriously troubled about the idea of taking any such rebates from the feds given that it is not their money to give in the first place.

Still I am working at every opportunity to find ways to reduce my impact on the world (including other people) without sacrificing the important aspects of living.

Another day of logging..

I have commented before about harvesting snags, standing dead trees, and other dead trees for my home, but what I have overlooked is the transportation of those timbers. Today I spent several hours on heavy machinery, okay.. a tractor, moving timbers from many places where I dropped them to one of three places: two places where I stationed timbers which require some other action to move them to the site -either the moving of the herd of cattle (not mine) which stands between the timbers and the site, or finding a way to move timbers up a road going up the ridge which has trees closer together than the timbers are long.. , and the third place being up by the house site where I was able to drop off a few timbers in a new stack for just the snags which are already ready for being treated through charring to become posts.

Most of these were moved one at a time over rough terrain. Thus a handful of timbers might take an hour to move any real distance..

The next few days will likely be much of the same. Once I can get most of the posts on site I can start to mark them for specific placement in the design, thus allowing me to know what I need to finish the build.

cynic

CYNIC n. A blackguard whose faulty vision causes him to see things as they are, not as they ought to be

Ambrose Bierce

Weather challenges

As I noted last week, I am back up and running with a new fan installed on the laptop so all is well with regard to computers anyway..

This week has brought yet another round of ice storms, cold and wet weather, and now coming nearly full circle, we have enjoyed two days of sun and 60+ degrees.

The good weather has allowed me to get out and make some progress on additional clearing of the site, made necessary by a better understanding of the necessary design, as well as some important changes in the design of the home upon completion of the Underground building course. My previous design would have sufficed, but this new design allows in a great deal more light and views, including two directly downhill views.

Those downhill views come with some challenges, which became very clear today as I hauled logging chains up and down the ridge. The primary of these will be a need to take care when exiting downhill. The ridge slope at that point is greater than one to one, meaning that for every one foot forward you climb a foot or more.

The days of ice and cold allowed me to refine the design of the U-home to what I believe is a design which I will find very comfortable, efficient, and yet live like a house close to twice the size. 30 linear foot of running windows, plus at least another 12 linear ft of windows and doors elsewhere should allow for ample natural light, as well as for cross ventilation.

I have included a generous area for cold storage, earth cooled of course, which will also double as support for a loft area. The loft area itself will do double duty in that it will be overflow for storage, as well as a sleeping area for guests, should I have any. Then again, depending on the season I may decide that the loft is my preferred sleeping area, and so will give over the main bed area, with its own wonderful views.

Notice that I have not used the term "room" when describing these areas.. The primary reason is that I am trying to build a life, not a group of segments. So too with the house. The cold cellar will be closed off in order to keep it cold, the toilet area closed off to keep odors out of the house, but these are the only two interior doors in the entire house. Other areas can be screened off for privacy, but most of the time the house will live as one large open space, "divided" if you will be the view presented or the function of the space. There will be a long sitting/lounge area along one wall of windows, which is at the same time open to the kitchen so that no one is separated from anyone else by the "chore" of cooking or prepping food. The large table, approximately 8 ft long, will serve as dining area, but also prep area especially during harvest and putting up of food.

Most of the walls which do not contain windows, will be shelves, almost certainly mostly containing books, but also some collections such as the mementos of the trip to China and Mt Taishan.

So where I sit now is that I need to finish dragging some timbers up the hill and off of the site, strip them of bark, allow them to dry then prep them for installation. With any luck the next several weeks will bring on the excavation, which will allow me to start setting the posts for the uphill and down hill walls.

As I have been asked, the last post referred to a wonderful pet of some dear friends of mine. She passed far too young doubly so for such a fun loving and caring soul She holds a special place in my heart and her passing lessens the world a bit. Love the animals around you while you can. Time is your more rare resource..

Run Free

I am back up and running on the computer, but updates will have to wait. For now:

Good bye to a great spirit and a dear friend. Run free Minx. May you never lack for squirrels.

Frustration on the rise

From the basic frustration of not having computer parts available locally, and not having decent relatively inexpensive internet service available, now the frustration level is on the rise.. Apparently if you want to have computer parts shipped here, they assume that it is fraudulent, no matter to what degree you can prove you are who you are and that you really do want that part. I was told over the phone directly that I must be trying to defraud someone because I want a computer fan. Thanks JPCParts.com..

The ordeal goes on..

The only positive note on this day was the harvesting of several timbers from the cedar grove back in the hills.

Days like this remind me why it is that I long for a very simple life. Fewer things, and less complexity, means fewer things to break and fewer opportunities for failure..

The death grip I have had on my computer/internet connection for the last decade has loosened significantly..

Progress report- Timbering

Computer issues aside, and time consuming obligations overlooked, I have still been able to make a bit of progress on my own projects, which for the time being remain harvesting timber and revising plans to fit available timber and the requirements of carrying almost two feet of soil on the roof...

One of the benefits of having other obligations is that I can do a little of the hard work at a time, meaning that I can work until I am tired and then go work on my other obligations. For those who have not employed a chainsaw for anything more than the occasional removal of a limb or small shrub from the yard, using one continuously especially a larger one meant for ranch use, is very tiring. Your arms burn from simply holding the saw, and then you often also have to attach logging chains, hold the saw over your head (which is in every warning in every manual.. do not do this) all of which add to the exhaustion you feel after as little as an hour of such work.

So whenever time and the weather allows, I go up into the hills and harvest the trees which I marked on a couple of previous visits. Most of these are cedars, as my revised plan (going away from the PSP system somewhat..) calls for many many more posts, which means cedar which are great for compression, and which do not rot (especially when protected as I will be doing), though I will also be harvesting some other deadfalls, and standing dead timber where appropriate. I am gathering in some pine (easier to work and great for interior surfaces) and where I find them I take hardwoods, like Oak, Hickory, and in a sad but fortunate case or two Black Walnut.

These hardwoods when they are sufficiently large, are going to be my roof girders and beams, since their tensile strength is far greater than cedar meaning that a 12 inch diameter Oak, will be able to support far more than a 12 inch (or even 15 inch) cedar. This is important not merely for safety, which is very important to me of course, but also so that I can save effort. If I can build the roof support with 12 inch diameter wood, rather than 15 inch diameter timbers, then I have five inches of soil I need not remove from the floor in order to have the same head clearance. For someone as tall as I am, this is very important, though honestly it is equally important to anyone building their own home.

And I have to admit that there is still an element of love of what is involved, in that I would rather use a smaller timber where I can to save the large ones for where they are absolutely necessary. Remember I am (so far) refraining from taking live trees, so as to keep my impact on the local environment as minimal as possible.

Regardless, the short point is that I am still harvesting timbers, and still getting ready for construction which will be an ongoing process so bear with me. I have however found on ebay a draw knife which appears to be FAR better than anything else I have seen, and still I picked it up for less than one normally finds a new one. This is a tool I expect to donate to my "heir" (not likely I will have kids near as I can tell at my age) and hope that he/she will keep and use to donate yet again.. it is a tool for a century at least.

So for those who have so kindly asked about the progress, I thank you and welcome such questions. I am still making progress, and I am still doing my level best to keep to the budget to show that we can all not only survive the coming painful depression but do so on our own terms, living lives of pleasure, peace, and comfort, though obviously not one of uniformity or conformity.

Computers and caretaking

One of the things which may get overlooked in this adventure, is that while I am trying to live very close to nature, in my own way and at my own schedule, I am doing so while trying to stay connected to the internet (somehow frugally!?!) Most of the time the challenge to this is to find internet service at all, especially service which is sufficient, and sufficiently inexpensive. Dial up is still the norm here, for those few who have connection at all. Yet I have this week discovered that other more basic and more challenging issues in the form of hardware problems.

My primary computer which I purchased a year ago to last me for several years, went down thanks to a fan issue. A new one would run me well over $100, so I opted for a refurb fan which was supposed to run me about $60, but the site I used (supplysale.com) refused to even contact me about the order for a week, then canceled the order without explanation as soon as I filed my second query. Needless to say, I suggest avoiding this site completely as unreliable and disreputable.

While trying to get a response from that site, and waiting for the order they initially claimed was approved and in process, my fall back computer, a laptop from many years ago which is overloaded with data and runs so slow as to make you wish for dial up, decided to cease working properly as well.

The end result? Well today I ordered the same part from another company, one out of Texas rather than California, so I am a bit more hopeful of receiving it. I have fallen back yet again, to using the computer of the wife of my nearest neighbors for whom I am house-sitting, cow care-taking, and dog wrangling. Hopefully before they return in a week or so, I will have the new part and have my own primary computer up and running once again.

One of the lessons of frugal living comes out of this experience, in that by care-taking for neighbors, you can find alternatives which may not otherwise exist. I have no bills other than food while they are gone, I can save the propane and electricity which I would otherwise have to use for heating and cooking, as well as light and to fire up the non-working computer.

I am also generating good will, which can come in handy as well, such as when I have need of a tractor or other machinery which will make moving 24 foot timbers much easier. In these trying times many of us are forced to be frugal, without practice, but even those of us who are used to frugal ways, we must stay on the look out for any possible opportunity all the while remembering that to some degree for almost all of us, there is also a benefit of a good connection with people who have an interest in our own lives, and us in theirs.

Long Forgotten NIght Sky

One of the often overlooked or overly glamorized benefits of being away from modern developments, is the incredible night sky. Sure I am referring to the harvest, blue, and full moons which we can ll appreciate no matter the locale, but I am also referring to the appreciation of Orion traveling across the sky at night, and seeing the Milky Way in its fully glory. The last two nights I have suffered from my unfortunately recurring insomnia, but I made the best of it each night by taking a few moments to step outside, with my eyes already adjusted to the dark, and seeing a mind boggling array of stars.

I am the first to admit my own cynicism, I revel in it, but the opportunity to experience the beauty of the stars without the interference of perhaps well intentioned street lights, neon, and the other encumberances of modern culture is something to not merely not miss, but to seek out.

Just turning another page

This New Years holiday is even more anti-climatic than ever before for me, which is saying something as I just see no reason to single out one day for recognizing the passing of time and our individual lives. Yet as I say this holiday is special in its lack of any significance whatsoever to me. For me the new year began back in the summer when I began these sets of journeys which have brought me to these particular hills where I have begun the process of building not only my new home, but an entirely different life for myself as well.

Still I recognize that some folks feel a need to mark the passage of the arbitrarily determined "end" of the year, or "beginning" of a "new" year, so for all I simply hope that from this point forward you can see every day as a new beginning, every moment as one worth living, and every minute more precious than any gem. Time is our most precious asset, and life is the process of spending that time. Spend the time wisely. Live your live authentically. Enjoy that which brings you pleasure, ignoring the expectations of others.

Weather again brings difficulties

As part of the bartering for the land upon which, or rather under which, I will be building my house, I have to help out on the larger property as needed. Well thanks to the weather that help is sorely needed this week. Yesterday the winds were blowing so strongly that they lifted a very large portion of the roof on a hay barn, flipping that large section (20'X60') over onto the rest of the roof.

So today was spent taking apart that roof as best we could into sections which we then pulled off of the roof so that we could disassemble the rest into parts in order to build the roof once again. Tomorrow will likely be spent in much the same way. Then we begin the process of building again, which will likely take up all of this wonderful break in the weather, thus putting off my own efforts to build my underground house.

Such is the nature of things..

Still with some timber cut, other timber located, plans in place, a batch of muscadine wine begun life is not all bad..

Weather woes and small spaces

After those three days of great progress and no small amount of timber harvested, I found myself hampered by cold, ice, rain, mud, and all of the ills of winter weather. With the temps dipping into the teens (F) the smart person is reluctant to even leave the warmth of his bed!

Still there has been some progress, in the form of a grove of cedars of some size which may result in some change of plan in that I may create vertical shoring in the form of a wall of posts, rather than a few posts holding back dimensional lumber. This means taking more trees, but even so it appears that it may still be possible to do so without taking any live trees, aside from those very few I had to clear from the site of the house itself. The grove we discovered when just taking a jaunt around the property, surprisingly is almost exclusive standing dead cedars (with the other species of trees still living just fine). Many of these are many feet in diameter, including one giant which will become the center post and a focal point in my home.

But as I said, the weather has been truly unpleasant for the most part, keeping me indoors to a large extent. One consequence of this has been a conscious examination of what it means to live in a small space. While preparing for building my home, I am living in a caravan of less than 150 ft sq. Needless to say this is a challenge, even to one such as I who desires small spaces and little impact on the world around me. One of the challenges, and there are many, of this arrangement is that the ceiling is actually about 2 inches shorter than I myself am. So the cubic area is even less than is revealed by the square footage. Still it is my place, and I am making the most of it as my temporary shelter.

I am coming to see some of the challenges of the home to be built, though it will be four times the square footage and have ceilings much more in proportion to my own person. The challenges are perhaps not entirely unique to me, yet it would be tedious to go into them in detail at this point. Mostly they take the form of realization of the need for kitchen workspace, for hanging storage, and for general storage for those things used daily or at least weekly but which need not be underfoot.

The weather promises to warm above freezing tomorrow, but with that comes more rain, so I am doubtful as to the amount of work I can get done, yet I will hope for dry skies and at least some opportunity to begin to clear the timber of the grove, in which we will be creating a bit of an opening in the forest and some more useful habitat for the fauna.

Timbering day three

After clearing the site and taking the timber off of it, I have begun to harvest timber from other parts of the property for the construction of my u-house. So far other than the few I removed from the site itself, I have not taken any living tree, instead relying upon dead falls, standing dead timber, and recovering what was considered not worth taking when they cleared some land for pastures in recent years.

Today's haul was 11 timbers, including a wonderful set of oaks which had fallen on a fence, but had grown previously near laser straight for over 25 feet. Just one of these I harvested is 25 feet long by one foot in diameter. This wonderful, slow grown and beautiful oak will support part of the natural roof which will shelter me, but which being earth is quite heavy. Between this, two sweet gum trees, and a hickory taken out in a storm last fall, I believe that I may have all of my roof girders (the principle horizontal roof structures).

I was also able to get some great oak posts from the limbs and tops of these trees, along with a number of good sized cedars which are already well aged.

The photo shows only a small number of the timbers taken today, mostly the oaks.. the longest being the 25 footer..

Tomorrow.. perhaps more cedars from the same area, along with some of the remaining limbs which could be of use. Progress..!!

Of muscadines, bok choy, and persimmons

One of the great pleasures of my recent life has been the foraging of food otherwise ignored, forgotten, or simply unfound. After arriving at my currently temporary location, I discovered the grand herald of the southern summer, the muscadine, still clinging to the vine. While most of these were inedible, at least not palatable to me, there were a few still green that the frost had turned wonderfully sweet.. these tidbits immediately took me back at least six months to the summer if not years back to the times I collected these as a child along the banks of an exciting creek full of child inspiring wonder..

At the same time, I have been practicing other forms of what would otherwise be considered urban foraging, except that I am hours away from any place anyone would mistake for even remotely "urban."

I have been enjoying the persimmons which are simply inedible until after the first frost, as well as bok choy planted int he garden which is bolting but still very tasty..

I have collected dried black eyed peas, which would be ignored by the owners as undesirable (they collected what they wanted fresh), and I could collect black walnuts were I more patient.. ( I expect that next year I will be..)

This ignores many of the wild edibles of which I am still learning, such as green briar (a nice bit of vengeance that is.. eating the damn vines which leave me cut to ribbons..) and others..

On a tree once planted I am certain by one of the early homesteaders of this site, there stands a persimmon tree, which produces fruit which is simply not edible until the frost comes and converts the starches to sugars producing a delicious if seedy treat.

All of this in December, when the winds are howling, the cold threatening, and the climate simply unwelcoming..

So in these troubles times I ask, are you really taking in all that you could for a comfortable and even gourmet lifestyle?

I am doing what I can.. give me a year and I will be living a fine life than most kings throughout history, for less than the most modest welfare queen!

Clearing the site

Removing the timber, which will be used in the construction of course, was the first step to clearing the land in preparation for the underground home I am going to be building over the next several months.

Dropping twenty some odd trees in the heavily briared site was a tiring two day job, but the results are satisfying. Soon I will be clearing off the vines and putting up permanent boundary markers to be used for excavation. You can see two of the temporary markers on the left side of the photo. This side is the cliff side, which is not evident in the photo. You can see just a glimpse of the mountains and hay meadow in the upper right of the shot.

Definitely progress..