The Fantastica Chronicles (Day 403)

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.

[End Introduction]

The Fantastica Chronicles Day 403!

Dodgy Cellphone Companies, Working On The Stone Pathway & The Appearance Of A Big Black Snake

I am writing this a bit later than when I usually do my writing of late which is not all that big of a deal or anything but it is assuredly going to cut into the time I have to do stuff outdoors today. For those that have not noticed I have been doing my writing in the morning because I kept finding myself fighting fatigue and inadvertently staying up late because after all the writing, editing and posting I was often awake until midnight or later. This morning though my cellular plan rolled over and I was incredibly dismayed to find that my 4G internet was still not working over my hotspot even after I restarted the phone and gave it a factory reset just for good measure. I even did a bunch of research online just to see if maybe my sim card was bad or something but alas still nothing seemed to fix the problem. So I did what I really dislike doing which is to call my cellular provider and try to get some technical support to figure out what was going on.

What I learned from the provider is that some time over the previous month that they had quietly changed the 'unlimited' plan that I had that supported 4G over a WiFi hotspot which is pretty fucking bogus in my opinion but considering it is the only option that I have for cellular service (or any internet service) they pretty much have me by the proverbial balls on that one. The only options that I had was to either keep dealing with the 2G speeds while using the hotspot feature or upgrading my monthly plan to their 'top tier' unlimited plan that includes 4G speeds over the hotspot. Considering the amount of frustration that those 2G speeds incur upon me and just how much time that it wastes each day I decided to just upgrade my plan. It all makes me think of the old saying that 'it is a crooked game but it is the only game in town' so I might as well play it!

On a different note, I spent more time gathering up flat stones to use as pavers on that pathway that I have been working on but this time I just scavenged up a bunch of them from the woods instead of getting them from near the creek which made it a heck of a lot easier. I also laid out all the stones beside where I wanted to extend the pathway to make sure that I had enough of them before I started embedding them in the ground. Doing that also made it where I did not have to keep walking back and forth to fetch stones for each section of the pathway. All in all the pathway came out rather nice but I had to stop about a meter shy of the chicken coop door because there are a bunch of dogwood roots near the surface there and I did not want to damage them and adversely affect the health of the tree. I might go back later and try to fit a bunch of smaller stones between the roots but I am still undecided on whether I want to do that or not.

Anyway, several weeks ago I kept wishing that I had one good snake living around the shelter area to help control the rodents and while I was laying the pavers the dogs started barking their 'snake bark' from under the shelter and when I looked up from my work I was delighted to see a nearly two meter long eastern king snake with its head raised and hissing at the barking dogs that were alerting to its presence. I of course called the dogs off so as not to frighten it away and put them in the shelter so that the snake would calm down. Then the chickens noticed it and they all circled around it and although they did not peck at it they sure looked like they were about to before I shooed them away also. Eventually the snake meandered its way into the arched room and hung out there for the rest of the day. I thought about catching it and putting it in the greenhouse where I have seen the most rodent activity but I figured that it would probably find its way there on its own eventually and that it was best not to frighten it and potentially scare it away. Hopefully it makes itself at home somewhere around the shelter area and once the chickens start laying eggs I might lose a few eggs to it but that would be well worth it since those types of snakes are awesome at controlling pests and also killing venomous snakes.

Well, I am just going to keep this one short and sweet because the day is already dragging on and I need to get the heck on with doing some stuff and see what all I can accomplish. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

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The Eastern King Snake under the shelter!

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The snake chilling in the arched room!

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The progress that I made on the stone pathway!

Thanks for reading!

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.

A little over three 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 the Fantastica Chronicles came about is that I was living at another place when I started chronicling and sharing my days but eventually I wound up moving to a new place. The new place is a homestead named 'Fantastica' so I started with 'Day 1' upon my arrival here and just kept documenting my days much like I had done for the previous nine hundred and fifty-seven days at the last place that I lived.

I have mostly done that 'documenting' at Fantastica exclusively with words (and pictures) opting not to do the videos because as I learned at the last place, sharing videos over an intermittent and slow internet connection is horribly time consuming and what I often think of as an 'ulcer inducing' experience. All that said, I opted for simplicity with the documentation and have no real regrets for doing so.

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.

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That Is All For Now!

Cheers! & Hive On!



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(Edited)

Holy shit, that is a big snake, fortunately you know that isn't poisonous because if you ignore it or don't know the variety of snake would be really scary to have such neighbour. 😅 PD: Well is quite scary anyways for me lol.

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They are probably the best snake to have around and I am so happy to have it here! :) Yeah it is important to know the different types!

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Snakes and spiders. The average person would kill them on the spot poisonous or not. It seems they are more a fan of rodents and flies...

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Yeah those two things sure help keep the pests under control!

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