A Low-Key Day

I had a pretty relaxed day today, but the dogs and I did get out to my land for just a few minutes because I wanted to retrieve the trail cam and loan it to a friend.  The snow was thick and heavy, so it was a good workout.  

The dogs enjoyed themselves.  Last week was a very busy week at work, so the dogs didn't get a ton of exercise.

Lol, in the above photo, Thane is in one of the holes the gray water guy dug.  

Can you spot Dad's Toyota Rav-4 below?  That's how high the snowbanks are along the road.

Standing on top of the bank looking down...  (By the way, it's an interesting experience trying to walk down a snowbank in snowshoes!!)

 I got a draw knife in the mail today.  It can be used to strip bark off trees.  

This will come in very handy if I decide to build a cordwood house.  I'll have to do a post on that building style soon.  I'm still in the early stages of researching it, but it sounds like an intriguing way to use the hordes of small softwood trees on my lot.  

Lol, I have a LOT of small trees that need to come down!  

Happy Monday!!  :)  

Shedding Some Light on Things...

Lol, I was probably way more excited than I should have been when this pretty little thing showed up in the mail yesterday.  :D

I've got another lantern coming, too, though it's just plain galvanized metal and not quite as pretty.  I also got a straw broom, and I've been drooling over axes and splitting mauls.  I'm planning to really embrace the rustic lifestyle of living in a dome in the middle of the Maine woods, lol!  

Just waiting for the 2.5 feet of snow on the ground to start melting.........

Tree Tapping Time!

We're starting to get into the season where the sun is warm during the day, and the nights are cold - perfect for tapping maple trees!  

I skipped last year because it's a lot of work, and we didn't have a real need for maple syrup...but this year, we're going through more - Dad likes it in his oatmeal, and I like a tiny bit in my coffee.  So today I found my spiles and other supplies, dug a path, and tapped our two big maple trees.  :)  

These trees are at my parents' house...this summer, I'll do some exploring and see if there are any maples big enough to tap on my property in Maine, and mark their location on a map.  

Happy Friday!  :)

Nothing to Report

Nothing much going on so far this week.  Except that I've been told that I really do need to wait until the snow is gone before setting up my cinder block foundation, lol.  So that probably means a moving day date sometime in April or May.

Oh, and my apologies to those who were on my blog email list...it looks like some of you got booted off somehow.  I think I've added everyone back onto the list now.  But some of you might have a few posts to go back and read!

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a very happy Monday!  :)  

A Slight Change of Plans

So I had the site evaluator out today to check and see if my dome site had good enough soil for a gray water system. 

Sadly, it didn't.  He dug down to the ground (through about 2.5 feet of snow, lol)...and then dug a small test pit...and then used an auger to check the soil type.  By the second or third plug of soil he pulled up with the auger, the soil was literally dripping.  

Obviously, saturated soil isn't ideal for installing a drainage system.  So we moved a bit further along the back part of the 4 acre section, but even though it was a bit more dry there, it still wasn't ideal, and would involve a 2-3 foot high pile of gravel permanently installed next to my dome.  

We started looking for higher ground.  There are one or two little knolls on the property, though unfortunately, they're closer to the road...and closer to the neighbors.  I really wanted to be all the way in the back corner, but it seems that I don't have a ton of choice in the matter.  We dug one final hole on a slight incline, and that one had acceptable soil.  

So here's my new dome site, tucked back in this little nook:  

(And yes, I'll be taking down that leaning oak on the left....)

For another point of view, here's a Google Maps image.  The blue line is my whole property.  The red line is the 4 acres I'll be taking out of timber tax.  The yellow "x" is where I wanted to put my dome, and the orange "x" is the approximate location of where the dome will now be going.  

So I guess that's that!  At least it's a bit shorter route for me to lug my cinder blocks in, lol!

I Think I Need a Pack Mule!!

The current plan is to use cinder blocks as a foundation for the dome....and it occurred to Dad and me the other day that it might be easier to transport them while there's still snow, since the ground is quite uneven and a cart or wheelbarrow might not make it, whereas a sled can slide over the packed snowshoe trail.  

So today I got started on the Great Cinder Block Migration of 2019.

First, I installed steps in the 4-foot-high snowbank along the road, because we've discovered that getting up and over that bank in snowshoes is a rather ticklish business:

Then I loaded up a few blocks in the epic sled that I bought the other day.  I was disappointed to discover that I can't put 4 blocks flat in the bottom, but it worked okay to have them at an angle.

In case you're curious, each cinder block evidently weighs between 30-35 pounds (I Googled it).  By the second trip to the dome site, which is about 400 feet back from the road, I was thinking that a pack Mule might be a nice addition to Butterscotch Farm...

There were a few oopsies along the way...

...but by the end, I had a nice little pile of 13 cinder blocks near the dome site.  (I wonder how many cinder blocks I'll need to support a 20 foot dome??)  Next time we get a pallet at work, I'll bring one over and pile the cinder blocks on that instead, so they don't get lost in the snow. 

Below is the dome site that I'm leaning toward - kind of tucked up against the trees to the right.  It should stay fairly shady there - important, since I probably won't have air-conditioning.  The gray water guy is coming tomorrow and should be able to tell me whether the soil is suitable in this location.

The pooches are greatly enjoying all the extra outings these days.  :) 

Happy Monday!!!

Trail Cam Success

I checked the trail cam today...Dad, Timothy and I had put it in a new spot last week.  Looks like we picked a much better spot this time - check out what it captured!!  

(Note that I still haven't got the time stamp right...I fixed it, all except for the year, lol.)

In the photo below, you can see the glowing eyes and faint shape of the coyote behind the tree to the right.

And two videos:

https://youtu.be/i_enSHsLkEQ

https://youtu.be/eqfz8Mln5Nw

I thought that was pretty neat...and maybe a tiny bit spooky, lol!!  :P