Welcome back friends, I’m glad you’re here! We have a lot of updates to go over, so make yourselves comfortable and let’s get caught up.
Part 1 “Milestones”
Late in August we took an unscheduled trip up to the farm to help with some unforeseen complications regarding my father’s care. These are the times I very much wish we were already moved in, so we could always be there when needed.
While we were there, I had a bit of spare time, so I put in some further effort organizing the workshop. Every time I look at that space I see revisions and improvements I’d like to make, but the limited times we are there are typically focused on advancing construction of the living space. Although I didn’t have the time for a major redesign, I did get things tidied up a bit, and performed some maintenance on a few of the older tools.
With that out of the way, I worked on getting us set up for the following weekend, when we would begin the pre-wire for electricity.
At one point walking between the buildings, I heard something loud in the distance. At first I thought it could be a gunshot, but it didn’t sound quite right. Without giving it much thought, I went about my business. Later that afternoon, as we were leaving the farm for the day, we found a large tree had fallen, blocking the driveway. Our property is full of old growth trees, so this is not altogether an unusual occurrence. The timing of this event though, was another matter. We were in town on a last minute notice, and had we not been there this would have been a major complication for my mother to deal with. I see the deliberate timing that GOD places on our lives that causes us to be in a position to do the greatest good. My wife and I understand with GOD in our lives there are no coincidences and for that we are extremely Grateful!
I’m a little embarrassed to say, growing up as a country boy who couldn’t wait to get to the “big city”, I’ve had little to no experience using a chainsaw. There were numerous times as a kid when I went out to help my Dad as he cut firewood, but he was always the one running the saw. Once I got older and eventually left the farm, I’d never really encountered the opportunity to use one again.
Being no stranger to power tools, I wasn’t that intimidated… and funnily enough, I had asked for a new chainsaw last Christmas, in anticipation of future farm chores.
So right here, the Good Lord handed me an opportunity to learn something new.
The next morning we returned to the farm with the necessary fuel and oil, and I loaded up and headed out to the downed tree. Everything went smoothly and I made short work of the obstruction, clearing it off of the driveway. I was impressed by the efficiency of the saw, and thankful for the chance to break in a new tool. To say the least, it felt like I had turned a milestone on the way to becoming a proper country boy again.
Part 2 “Walking the property”
After clearing the driveway, I decided to take a quick tour of the property. I grew up here and wanted to see the current state of things I remembered from my youth.
There has always been a small pond on the low point of the land, but it has been crowded by unrestrained tree growth. Future plans are to clear back some of the surrounding area to open it up and revitalize it as a natural reservoir.
Also, there is a historic old building on the property that unfortunately served as a dumping ground for all kinds of scrap. There is a lot of metal to be salvaged out of this area, and hopefully with a little care and patience, the less stable parts of the building can be shored up so that it can be preserved for posterity.
There is also an old greenhouse that my father had constructed many years ago. We recovered a bunch of tempered glass panels during our cleanup that were used for the original roof covering. The glass roof had eventually been replaced with a tin roof and the building was converted into a chicken coop. As there are no chickens currently, it has become a storehouse of old odds and ends. The building has good bones, with a low cinder block wall, good framing, and solid roof. Once we get it cleaned out, my plan is to convert this into a sawmill for processing timber.
And then there is the old garden, which is adjacent to the boathouse. Eventually, we want to clear this back to a clean slate and redo it with cinder block raised beds and a new surrounding fence to prevent animals from gaining access to our produce.
Lastly, we see the old berry patch, with a few scraggly blueberry bushes clinging on for dear life. The long term goal is to turn this into an orchard with various fruit trees.
I am very excited about the potential of everything this land has to offer us, and can’t wait to be here permanently, so we can get started!
Part 3 “Electroculture”
The next phase of our build was pre wiring the place for electricity. This was accomplished over two weekends of work. The first step was plotting the course of the circuits and boring the desired pathway through the framing.
Then the new breaker panel and receptacle boxes were hung in their respective positions. From that point everything went rather smoothly, pulling all the wire from end points back to the main panel. Once the panel was wired, now the only things left are to wire the outlets and switches, and wait for the electrician to make the connection to the power pole. While a pre-wire isn’t the most photogenic aspect of our construction, I did snap a photo of the breaker panel to document the progress.
As always, we give the utmost gratitude to GOD, for keeping us safe, and showing us the correct path forward.
Until next time, thanks for reading, and GOD BLESS!!!
FXT LEATHER 