Almost Three Months

When I was working full-time, I looked forward to retirement and the fact that I would now be able to spend more time at the property, moving our vision forward.

Life does not quite work out that way, does it?

I won't bore anyone with details. It was just a rough summer.

This being said, that itch to ensure everything was okay at the property was starting to drive me crazy. So this weekend came along and we had no plans. I thought about doing an up-and-back in a day, and mentally went back and forth on doing this or spending one night. Additionally, I had rock laid and spread on the south and east sides of the building, and really wanted to see that. I will still need a bit more rock, but it all looks really good as you can see in the photos.

Lorraine went with me, and we left on Friday morning and got to BRF with few issues.

First job: Repair the camper roof. Last year, positioning the camper so I could back it into the building, I got the camper caught under the corner of the porch on the building, and a small tear occurred. I had a kit to fix it, but last time I had forgotten to bring a caulk gun. So as soon as we got there and unloaded, my attention went to fixing the roof, which I did complete. Hope it works!

Lorraine pulled many weeds that had grown around the building, which was a huge help.

Second job: The driveway was getting pretty overgrown, as we could see when first pulling in. So, it was weed-whacking time. I was able to do from the road to the building. It was a lot of work, and I had string-feeding issues more than I can count. It will be a game-changer when I can get the DR Field and Brush Mower working, as I can use that to take out a ton of over-growth.

We had a bit of a mess on the trail from the clearing to the stairs..... tons of debris. However, I first went down to weed-eat the shoreline/bagged stairs first while Lorraine swept the debris from the stairs. We really did not have any other major debris other than on this trail. By the way, the rest of the debris pile stuck on the boulders is gone. I am guessing we got enough of it cut up that a flood came through and was able to carry the rest away. One less issue for us to deal with.

Then it was the trail cleanup. This is where it is nice to have the ATV with a wagon. Before, we would have just cut it up and thrown it in the woods, adding to the debris we already have. But now, we can load the debris in the wagon and haul it out to burn it. We did not get it all burned. I need to build another firewood-storage rack near the building, as our pile of firewood is starting to grow in that part of the property. And, anything we cut on the east end of the property can not be moved to the rear, or we risk spreading the Oak Wilt that is decimating our oak trees.

It was a nice night with beautiful weather, so we sat on our porch after running into town to grab some supper, and to the campground to take showers.

Slept great. Up early to take care of some final items, load up, and hit the road.

It was a good trip. The up-and-back would not have worked well, as there was too much that we needed to get done. But we still have a busy fall, so had to work this in when we had a small window to do it.

The next push will be to clear the section between the east side of the building and the driveway. That is shown a bit on the third picture below (the one that has the garage door showing). I want to clear-cut to the left (east) so we can plant pine trees to create privacy and noise reduction over time. Then we need a well so we can have water on the property. Then clear to the north of the building to plant a birch grove. But I am getting ahead of myself. We'll just focus on the clearing near the building for the pine trees first.

The first picture is of the runway I needed to back the camper into the building. I am very happy with how this turned out. The second picture is the rock on the south side, and the third is on the east side.