A Little More Like Home

Normally I write these blogs the same evening after I finish working around the farm.

Not this time.

Last night I was exhausted.

For whatever reason, the day caught up with me.

I was also fighting with the computer, and eventually I decided the blog could wait until morning.

So here we are.

Yesterday started pretty early.

I think I was up around 7:30.

One thing I've noticed since getting back from Florida is that my body seems to be waking up earlier than it used to.

Not that I'm complaining.

It gives me a little extra time to enjoy the mornings.

The first places I visited was the garden.

The vegetables are still hanging in there, but what really caught my attention was everything growing around them.

The weeds outside the garden have absolutely exploded.

Standing there looking at it made me appreciate the weed barrier even more.

Without it, I think we'd be spending every day just trying to keep the garden from disappearing.

Instead, the plants are still doing well.

They're producing.

Maybe not quite as quickly as we expected, but then again, we are still learning.

This is really our first serious attempt at gardening.

The temperatures here are cooler than what I'm used to in Florida, especially at night, so maybe everything just takes a little longer. Even compared to down in the valley we are much cooler up here on the mountain.

Either way...

We're learning as we go.

From there I headed over to the barn.

My goal for the morning was pretty ambitious.

I wanted to fill six or seven contractor bags with garbage.

Every Monday the garbage truck comes by, and I've figured out I can fit about four full contractor bags into the two garbage cans.

If I can consistently fill them every week, eventually we'll make a real dent in the cleanup.

The workshop is already in pretty good shape.

The bunkhouse is mostly cleaned out.

Now it's the barn's turn.

The funny thing is...

Cleaning gets harder as you make progress.

A week or so ago my partner was here and absolutely crushed it.

She filled five or six contractor bags by herself and made a huge difference.

Now much of the smaller stuff is gone.

What's left is scattered around the floor, tucked into corners, or mixed in with things we're actually keeping or too big for garbage bags.

Instead of the six or seven bags I had hoped for, I ended up with three completely full contractor bags.

I also hauled out a number of larger bulky items that wouldn't fit into bags at all.

Between everything, the garbage cans were completely full, and I stacked the oversized items neatly beside them for pickup.

Garbage day is today.

Hopefully by the time you're reading this, all of it is gone.

One small step.

But every week those small steps add up.

By the time I finished in the barn, it was well after lunch.

I opened the freezer and found some fajita chicken.

A few tortillas later...

Lunch became a very simple chicken quesadilla.

Nothing fancy.

Actually...

It turned out pretty good.

After lunch I wasn't really interested in going back into the barn.

The garbage cans were already full, so I'd accomplished what I needed to accomplish.

It felt like a good time to switch gears.

So I pulled out the mower.

It's been over two weeks since I really had a chance to mow much of the property.

The first stop was the playground.

Then the area around the garden.

After that I started working on the field next to the garden.

Slowly but surely, everything was starting to look maintained again.

When I first got back from Florida, I focused on the area around camp, the bunkhouse, and the road leading up to the main house.

Yesterday was about reclaiming another section.

Little by little, we're taking the property back.

Then...

The mower had other ideas.

A belt that we had replaced only about a month ago decided it was done.

It shredded.

Completely.

I guess another project just found me.

Now I get to head into town, pick up another belt, and hopefully install it myself.

That's life around here.

Just when you think you're making progress, the next repair reminds you who's in charge.

Before calling it a day, I walked back through the garden.

Everything still looked healthy.

Maybe just a little slower than I expected.

I'm not sure if that's the cooler mountain weather, my inexperience, or simply impatience.

Probably a little of all three.

Back at camp I continued another project I'd started a few days earlier.

Burning through the piles of cardboard, old wood, and broken furniture we'd stacked up over the past few months.

If you remember when we first bought the property, I intentionally made burn piles instead of paying to haul everything away.

Now it was finally time to start making those piles disappear.

As I watched another pile turn into ash, something occurred to me.

Over the past few days, I've spent less time simply cleaning...

...and more time making camp feel like home.

Not perfect.

Not finished.

Just...

More comfortable.

More organized.

More intentional.

There's still a lot I haven't shown you.

I'm keeping that surprise for a little while longer.

But I can tell you this.

Every evening when I sit down now, it feels a little different.

A little more complete.

A little more peaceful.

And I think that's why I was so exhausted last night.

Not because of any one project.

But because every little improvement is slowly transforming this place from a worksite...

...into home.

~ Making Memories