Trail Cam

My brother Timothy got me a trail camera for Christmas, and Dad and I put it out on my property not too long after that.  I just checked it for the second time today, and nothing profound has happened yet...I may have seen one corner of a bunny one time, lol.  We moved it to a different spot today to see if we get better results.  I seem to recall seeing TONS of tracks last year, but there have been hardly any this year.  Not sure what that means.  

These were the most amusing couple of photos from the SD card - you can see a huge difference in the level of snow in the two shots because we had a big snowstorm.  (Note that the time stamp is incorrect.)

Lol, also not sure what's up with the temperature in the second image...

Dad, Timothy and I also started trampling down a path so that I can have the wastewater guy come out sometime in the next couple of weeks and put together a gray water plan for me.  

We walked through the area where I'll probably be putting the dome (and house, eventually), and I thought this was funny too...remember the natural fence that I started last summer?  Here's what it looked like then:

And here's what it looks like now (albeit from the opposite angle): 

Can we say "underwhelming?"  

I think I have my work cut out for me!!  :P

Anyway....happy Monday, everyone!!!

Gearing Up

I'm still hoping to move into the dome sometime this spring.  I spoke with a company today that can help install a gray water system, and it sounds like the expense isn't going to be as bad as I necessarily thought, though I really had very little idea of what to expect.  

So that was encouraging.  :) 

I also visited the local thrift store and bought some dinnerware, a few utensils, and a really nifty strainer...I'm gradually collecting all the stuff that I'll need for the big move, and packing away most of my decorative stuff to save for when I have a real house in a few years.

The dogs and I played Frisbee for a few minutes this afternoon.  I felt bad for them because the snow is so deep that it was really tough for them to run, but they didn't seem to mind too much.  Here's my favorite picture of the two crazies:

Lol, Thane is such a goof...he lets Thea do the hard work of chasing and catching the Frisbee, then pounces on her when she's on the way back to me, and tries to wrestle the Frisbee from her.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a delightful Tuesday!  :)  

Land Layout Idea #1

I spent an hour or so today drawing out an idea for how I'll lay out the 4 acres I'll be starting with.  I'm sure this will change many times over the next few years, but you gotta start somewhere!

Here's the Google maps image of my land below.  The blue line marks the approximate boundaries of the acreage that I own.  The red lines show the 4 acres I'm taking out of timber tax to build on and (eventually) (with LOTS of super hard work) turn into pastures for a small homestead-type farm.

The picture below is one possibility for laying out the 4 acre chunk.  (If you can't see it very well, I did zoom in a bit in the next couple of photos.)

Zoomed in a little more.  I'll leave trees between me and the neighbor for privacy, as well as between the road and my pastures.  I want to put up a nice, tall fence around this whole section as well, both for privacy, and to help contain dogs and livestock.

And zoomed in even more.  The reason the pastures are all chopped up into small pieces is that I want to employ rotational grazing.  I need to do more research on how that works, though, to see if my pasture layout is a good one.  I know many people use movable electric fence rather than permanent fences.  

I haven't fully settled on where I'll put the dome, but it makes sense to put it near where I want the house, so that if I get a well, septic, and a solar system before I build the house, I can tie the dome into those systems.  And I definitely want the house in the top corner, so as to have maximum privacy from neighbors.  So far I only have neighbors on one side, but I don't know if whoever owns the lot on the other side will be building eventually.  

So we shall see.  This will definitely be a VERY long-term project!  :P  

Ideas for Using Fleece

I still haven't done anything with all that fleece I bought a super long time ago.  I have a spinning wheel, but the more I think about it, the more I'm beginning to suspect that I might not have the right level of patience to learn to spin yarn, much less do any knitting or crocheting with it.  Maybe someday, but probably not any time soon.  :P  

I spotted this little toy at an antique store a few months ago, and that inspired me to think outside the box and come up with some different things to make from my epic fleece collection.  

So today, I asked the members of a Facebook group that I follow for ideas on different things one can do with fleece, and here are some of the answers:

1. Felt it (you can put a layer of felt on a bar of soap, or you can create felted objects like purses, ornaments, hats, slippers, dryer balls, scarves, toy animals...)

2. Sell it as is, or washed and carded into batts

3. Make an ugly Christmas sweater - LOL!

4. Use it to insulate water buckets for livestock (place the fleece into a large bucket, then place a smaller bucket full of warm water inside the first bucket, nestled in the fleece)

5. Use it to insulate bee hives

6. Add small balls of it to potting soil to help retain moisture

7. Use it as insulation inside the walls of a building (barn, chicken coop...even a house, though it would definitely need to be washed first)

8. Use it as garden mulch

9. Use it to make a super warm quilt

10. Use it to keep slugs from getting into your garden (apparently they don't like to crawl across it)

11. Use it to stuff dog beds

So that gives me some cool ideas to work with.  I like how many options I have...makes me excited to own sheep someday.  :D  

And one nice thing - if all else fails, I can just compost the fleeces.