Oof, it’s been a flurry of activity around here. Trying to keep up with it all has been difficult, especially making the time to be or share online. But that’s ok with me - I prefer to put my energies into real life than online life!
The new crater in the center of my yard.
Recently I struck a barter deal with a neighbor with an excavator to finish the groundworks around my home/studio that someone else had begun but now can’t finish. What began as a simple project turned into my yard currently looking as if a bomb went off. Literally, there is a giant hole where the firepit used to be, large boulders strewn about and piles of rocks and dirt everywhere! Giving another person free reign to express their creativity and co-creating with them has always been my achilles heal…
Eventually the pit will become a wildlife pond and summer irrigation for my garden, fed by a seasonal creek bed that will collect rainwater from the house roof and the road above my place. I’ve been nerding out researching native pond plants and ecosystems as I’ll be doing the finish work myself. Another project I didn’t plan for, but am excited to learn more and implement!
There’s also a rock bridge in progress that will connect my future front porch/front door to the newly leveled and graded parking area out front. The firepit has moved to the back of the house. The septic system will be installed soon, and I’ve begun collecting small diameter trees to turn into fence posts for fencing the entire place later this summer.
The little shed I built quickly from found materials to originally store my camping gear and simple tools when I first bought the property is now located in the future septic drainfield. I had planned to take it down, but now that I have access to someone with heavy equipment, it will be moved elsewhere to be repurposed as garden tool storage.
In exchange for all this, I’ll be making the neighbor a website for his business and designing all his promo materials. Probably for the rest of my life, ha ha!