Hello Everyone!

A brief introduction: Hi I am Jacob.

TL;DR: There is no tl;dr because you should have more patience and attention span than a gnat on a high wind.

Apocalyptic Homesteading Day 6!

Warmth In A Canvas Tent, Filling A Trench, Site Development, Trail Making, A Hen Lays An Egg & Meandering Thoughts On Life

I am yet again awake long before the sun is up and just sort of brooding over everything as I sip my morning espresso and enjoy the stillness of the predawn hours which is something that I always find incredibly soothing. I went to bed yesterday almost an hour before dark and woke up at nearly two this morning which admittedly is early even for me but after nearly ten hours of sleep I am quite well rested and can use these hours before dawn to hammer out some writing and not feel all that rushed to get it all done before the sun is fully up and I feel compelled to start working outdoors.

It is slightly chilly in the tent this morning but now that I have the propane heater running it is starting to warm up in here a good bit. The dogs of course do their part to keep me warm especially since two of them tend to like getting under the blankets and snuggling themselves up against me which is super nice on these chilly nights when the temperatures dip towards freezing. Living in a canvas tent makes for an interesting experiment in 'staying warm' during the winter but so far aside from that one cold night (before I got more blankets) things have been cozy enough. It is actually going to be quite warm in the evening for the rest of the week but come next week the temperatures are going to drop so before then I am going to dig through my gear that is stored away, find my electric blanket and start using it to make the bed a little warmer.

I began my day (now yesterday) once again by taking a morning walk around the property and then setting to work on getting more of that big trench filled in with dirt. The task really is not all that bad especially since there are not a bunch of rocks in the soil and the soil itself (although rich in clay) does not seem to clump together all that much and makes for some easy shoveling. When the trench was first created a trenching machine was used and as a result the dirt from the trench is conveniently located rather uniformly on both sides of the trench and easy to scoop (and scrape) into the trench with just a shovel and fill it in. To be clear there is dirt/soil berms along each side of the trench from when the digging occurred and I have mainly used one berm or the other to fill in the trench but never both sides along each section that I fill in. Since I have only been walking on the filled in trench to compact the soil (and thus not compacting it super well) I am thinking that once the soil settles more I can fill in any low spots with dirt from the other berm. I am hoping that the soil does not actually settle all that much and I can leave the unused berms the way that they are because due to the slope of the terrain in that area the berm acts as a big water diversion to help keep water in the pine forest located there and stops it from either running directly off the property or into the driveway. It is undoubtedly an unintended consequence of the trench creation but now that it is in place I think that it can be put to good use as a water diversion device but (again due to the terrain) I will need to keep an eye on it over time to ensure that it does not create a swampy area where all the water coalesces.

I actually got all but the last eleven-odd meters of the big trench filled in and when I paced off the last remaining section to the power pole I turned around and saw that there is another open trench leading from the breaker box near the power pole and off towards one of the structures on the site. I would be lying if I said that I was not dismayed a bit upon seeing the other trench (because I thought that I was nearly done filling in trenches) but I just sighed and resigned myself to the task of filling in that trench as well which by the way is much longer than the other ones that I have either already filled in or am currently working on filling in. It is kind of funny but I keep telling myself something like: Filling in even the biggest trench starts (and ends) with one shovel scoop!

After spending a little over an hour working on filling in the trench I hiked back to the base camp and loaded up the big black wagon with all the stuff that I would need for working at the new shelter site. Each day that I work on the new site I bring the dogs with me and put them in the dog yard there so that they do not get a bunch of separation anxiety throughout the day. My boy dog (who seems to be full of boundless energy) has taken a great liking to our little daily hike from the base camp and to the new shelter site (and vice-versa) and I have started tying his leash to the handle of the wagon and he pulls it along behind him as if it was not even there! Of course I still keep a hand on the wagon's handle for steering purposes and also to help him on the uphill portions of our trek but for the most part he does all the work and saves me a few calories along the way. He has taken to the hauling so well that I am thinking of either fabricating or purchasing a good hauling harness for him to make it a more comfortable affair when he is puling the wagon along the roads here.

I spent the majority of my day clearing out small trees (and more strangler vines) from the new shelter site and left the music off so that I would have sufficient electricity over my several hundred feet of small gauge extension cords to run my electric chainsaw. It is a wonder that over the three hundred feet of sixteen gauge wire that I can get enough amps to run the saw well in the first place but it seems to be working just fine as long as I take my time while cutting and not try to force the saw to cut faster or get it bound up in the cut itself. For the most part the saw works well but it sure does not like cutting cherry trees (even after sharpening the blade) so I will probably wind up using a gas powered chainsaw to deal with them as well as the larger oaks that need clearing from the area. I have still been saving all the material (poles) from my land clearing efforts and whoa has the pile begun to grow into something substantial! The one big downside to harvesting all that material so late in the year is that de-barking it will be quite the chore and nowhere nearly as easy as when trees are harvested in the spring and summer when the bark (and tree) is growing.

The last few days I have not been bringing the chickens with me to the new site and they have been quite happy in the temporary coop (large dog crate) that I setup for them (complete with roosting sticks) and the main reason for leaving them at the base camp is because I wanted to see what would happen if my boy dog was not intervening every time that the chickens tried to mate. I guess that you could call it an experiment to 'see what happens' and late in the day I heard one of the hens making some strange noises and after investigating what was going on a few minutes later I found an egg on the ground near the middle of the temporary chicken coop! It is the very first egg that the chickens have produced and although I was super happy to see it... I had just fed all the dogs so I broke the egg open and put it in the pack leader's bowl of dog food after she watched me retrieve it from the coop. The dogs were already super protective of the birds but now that they are making eggs I can start 'egg training' them and I am sure that they will become even more protective after that.

On a different note. I am rapidly adjusting to the new location but still just beginning my ninety day 'adjustment period' that I go through at every new site. I will say that being in a place that I can truly 'be myself' is fucking epic and that coupled with the folks involved has made for a rather easy transition from the last place as well as easing the creation of new daily routines for myself which as we all know is a 'staple' of me living a mostly stress-free lifestyle. To say that the new location is the polar opposite of the last location would be a massive understatement but there you have it because it assuredly is in every way. It is difficult to sum up but with the way the land itself is shaped, the abundant access roads, the relatively flat terrain, the amount of acreage involved, the abundance of wildlife, the distance of neighbors, the power and water lines ran to much of the inner (most used) portions of the property, the amount of sunlight the place gets in general, the many flat camping sites (both established and un-established ones) and just the general 'feel' of the place... I am really fucking impressed and trying my best to just focus on what I am working on and not get too caught up in the 'potential' of the place.

For the most part I have just been plugging along doing the things that I know to do and pretty much devoting the bulk of my energies towards developing the new shelter site but I have also been spending a little time each day clearing trails that lead to the less used portions of the property and basically learning the lay of the land and its environs. The trails that I am working on are mainly new trails and I have been avoiding the game trails (of which there are many) so as not to disturb the movement of the wildlife before it has time to adjust on its own to me and the dogs (and chickens) presence at the site. Even in the actual new shelter site location there are several trees that I have left alone just because there are squirrel nests in them. I think that so far I have counted four squirrel nests in the roughly twenty-six meter by twenty-six meter area that I have been clearing brush, vines, small trees and saplings from which is pretty damned impressive if that is any indication to the amount of nests (and squirrels) potentially located on the property in general. There is also what I think is a big hawk nest near the new shelter site but I have yet to spot what is inhabiting the nest so I am unsure if it is really a hawk nest or not. Come springtime though, I am sure that the woods here will come alive and I will get to really see the wildlife here and hopefully get some awesome pictures along the way.

Before I began this journey here at this site I was thinking that I would just take a nice break from writing each day but honestly after just the first few days I began to notice that I was feeling mildly 'unsettled' (like I had an itch that I could not reach to scratch) and I absolutely knew that it was a result of not writing out my ponderous thoughts each day along with the various 'goings on' in my day to day life and the projects that I am working on. All that I came up with (during my brief break) is that the writing has become a cornerstone of my mental stability and without it I have a difficult time with letting go of one train of thought (or life events) and moving onto the next. I doubt that I am doing it any justice by summing things up that way but what I am getting at is that 'wording things down' each day is super beneficial to me psychologically and since I read what I have written a few times during the editing and posting process I am often left with a feeling of genuine perspective about not just my adventures but also about myself which has proven incredibly useful for a number of reasons and mostly so in regards to my decision making process, my attitude and my morale. That last one is always the trickiest but it is assuredly the one thing that keeps my spirits up and keeps me plugging along in a rather content, patient and 'aware' manner which is sort of vital around here given that there are rattlesnakes that camouflage quite well in this environment!

What I was getting at with all that jazz is that I did not make it very long without my daily writing ritual and it became quite obvious to me that whatever 'therapeutic value' that I get from it all is well worth the time that I put into it and the writing is something that I would do well not to omit from my life all too often if I want to maintain an 'even keel' and continue to foster the peace of mind and sense of well-being that I have spent the last several (okay nearly four years) cultivating. When it is all 'said and done' I feel proud of myself for having the discipline and devotion to tediously peck out one word after another for all these many days and just doing my best to tell the story of my life in such a way that other folks might learn something in the process. I know that my writing is often all over the place (subject-wise) but I still think that 'homesteading' is the best umbrella under which it all falls because that is at the very center of my actual lifestyle as far as how I actually 'live' goes. As much as I have wracked my brain about it nothing else has really seemed to be quite so all encompassing as that term. I just look at it all like I have many 'facets' to my life and try not to box myself into a corner with the writing and thus limit sharing my thoughts on those various 'facets' whether it is about technology, music, art, farming, water management, land management, wildlife, livestock, critical infrastructure, gravity-fed water, composting or whatever the heck else is involved in this peculiar life of mine that I share with the dogs and the chickens. In other words: It feels so damn good and I just keep doing it to my heart's content!

Well hell, I should get towards wrapping this all up and just say that the shelter design is coming along well and it is looking like I will be having a much larger shelter than the last one that I built and it will be constructed on skids so that it can be moved around later via either a wench, a vehicle or a combination of the two. We are still working out the last few details of the materials list but I feel confident that we will get them delivered to the site over the next few weeks before the temperatures really start to dive for the winter months. The fencing for the new dog yard is also on its way so I am pretty stoked at how things are lining up with the entire shelter site project. There will of course be a heck of a lot of work involved in getting those materials turned into what they need to become but hell at this point in my life I am in awesome physical shape and have been in the routine of working on stuff each day for so long that I think that I can skip a big portion of my winter downtime and just keep chugging along accomplishing the goals before me.

Alright, I really should wrap this up now and spend some time editing it before getting it posted. It is now 4:29 in the morning and although daylight is not yet burning it sure will be soon and probably will be by the time I finish all the editing and posting! I hope that everyone is doing well, has a nice day/night and is gentle with themselves and all other living creatures and I will assuredly do the same.

More about me: I have been doing property caretaking (land stewardship) for many years (decades) and live a rather simple life with my dogs doing what most folks would consider to be an 'alternative minimalist lifestyle' but what I often just think of as a low-impact lifestyle where I get to homestead and spend the majority of my time alone with my dogs in the woods doing projects in the warmer months and taking some downtime during the colder months.

Nearly four years ago I began sharing the adventures (misadventures) of my life via writing, videos, pictures and the occasional podcasts and although my intention was to simply share my life with some friends it undoubtedly grew into much more than that over the years and now I find myself doing what equates to a full-time job just 'sharing my life' which is not even all that glamorous or anything but hey folks seem to enjoy it so I just keep doing it!

The way that I look at it is that I give it all my best each day and while some stuff I write is better than others I think that for the most part I do a pretty good job at doing what I am doing which is simply 'sharing my life' as candidly as I possibly can and whatever folks get (or do not get) from it there is always the satisfaction of me doing what I set out to do... which is to simply share my life.