Friends, Frog Eggs, and a Driveway!

Yesterday some friends from church came and wandered all over my property with me.  I received lots of great knowledge about various plants and trees - especially which trees I should cut for firewood, and which ones I should give plenty of space so that they can grow nice and tall and start to branch out.  We only spotted a few Sugar Maples, and they're mostly way over on the other side of my lot, but I'll have to mark them at some point in case I ever want to tap them.  I have TONS of Red Maples, which you can tap too - they just have a lower sugar content.  Probably many of the Reds will end up as firewood.

There are lots of interesting small plants, too - we ate Wintergreen berries, and admired the Mayflowers that are all over the place:

Apparently Mayflowers can't be transported - they need very specific types of bacteria in the soil that can't be replicated.

This one is a mystery...I'll have to keep an eye on it and see if it flowers at some point:

We saw what might have been Moose bones!  They were scattered over a wide area, doubtless dragged around by the coyotes.  

Lol, you might need to trim your Moostache a little, Randy....  ;) 

Frog or Salamander eggs in a little pool down by the creek:

After my friends left, I used my new little cart to bring a load of cinder blocks from the old dome site in the back corner up to the current site.  It works okay...I'd say it's nearly as much work as pulling the sled, lol.  One of these days I'll have to save up and get an ATV...or a horse.  :D  

Today, one of my friends came back and cut out a driveway for me!!  All of us discussed the driveway yesterday, and we decided to mostly abandon the little skid trail - it's super rutted, and has lots of giant stumps sticking up.  It was actually easier to put a driveway in off to one side because most of the trees were little.

Here's the "before" shot:

After a couple hours of work, with Joe wielding the chain saw, and me dragging the trees and branches away, voila!  A driveway!!  :D 

We've got a few more little stumps to shave down, but isn't that awesome?  This is definitely an answer to prayer - I'll be able to back the truck in very close to the dome site, which is to the left of those light-colored pallets you can see in the center of the frame.  I'm definitely grateful to God for sacrificial friends, who have taken the time to help and encourage me in this project.  

I was actually thinking on my way home yesterday....there was this little part of me that almost didn't want the help.  It's kind of satisfying to be able to post on here saying "I did this," and "I did that"...but God doesn't want it to be that way.  Even the homesteading term of living a "self-sufficient" lifestyle isn't really Biblical - God wants me to find all my sufficiency in Him, not in myself.  And yesterday and today He provided fellowship, encouragement, and physical help for this project.  

Anyway...I'm not trying to be preachy...that just kind of struck me yesterday.  :P

I hope everyone had an awesome Tuesday!!