Plenty Of Sleep, Firewood Scents, A Wormy Compost Mound & Making Fencing Progress
I slept late into the afternoon today after being up rather late last night which was kind of unavoidable because it is what I wanted to be doing! Earlier in the day I had stacked up a good bit of that green firewood for the evening's fire and I was glad to see that it burned quite nicely and did not even produce all that much smoke which was probably a result of the pieces all being of a small diameter and having been air drying the last few weeks where I had it all ricked up off the ground. It is worth noting that the cherry wood had quite the nice smell to it while it burned and oddly enough the older dry wood seemed to produce a much stronger odor than the green (recently cut) cherry wood did. The fat lighter wood of course had the strongest scent and there was something very pleasant about smelling it combined with the other woods and at one point I inspected the fire closely to try to gauge the ratio of each type of burning wood just so that I could remember the 'recipe' just because it smelled so nice!
Anyway, I did not get over to the new shelter site to start working until a few hours after noon. I first spent some time hauling that firewood to the main fire area with my big wagon which I had finally decided to just empty out and start using it. As a side note now that it is not acting like a giant toolbox in the storage tent the tent itself now has a heck of a lot of free space and it is much easier to move around in there so go figure! Once I got the firewood stacked I pulled out all the fence installation tools and supplies and put them all in a five gallon bucket by themselves so that they are consolidated and I can work out of the bucket when I start installing the fencing material and wire bracing that lends support against sagging corners and gates. The process of installing the fence correctly (and optimally) is a rather elaborate one but it will all sure make for one heck of a nice fence and be well worth doing all the little tedious steps to the best of my ability along the way to ensure that outcome. Given the amount of annoyances over inadequate fencing that I have had over the years I am damn sure going to learn from all those lessons and resolve the 'fencing dilemma' once and for all!
All that jazz aside, I got the remaining horizontal corner braces on as well as two of the three gate opening braces and I think that somehow in it all I came up one post short which is not that big of a deal because we were already thinking of getting a few more posts anyway and perhaps doing a bit of extra bracing with them because of how many gate openings there are and thus how many places the runs of fencing material will be sectioned up. More bracing is always good in my opinion anyway and the more I think about it the more I am inclined to fortify the fence in every way that I possibly can and make it as maintenance free as humanly possible. The currently installed braces look kind of wonky because the terrain changes so much in elevation and without much experience of building fences on the sides of hills I hope that I have the braces all placed where the wire mesh fencing will be able to be stapled to all of them for their entire distance. Since the braces are currently secured with six inch landscape screws I can always move the braces up or down if the need arises but hopefully all my fuzzy logic pays off and they will work as they currently are with perhaps only a few minor adjustments. I am also having to factor in a bunch of minor terrain changes (dips, bumps etc) along the bottom of the fence lines that I will have to address with shovel work and how that changes where the top of the mesh fencing material will be. Ultimately the fencing material is stout enough to support itself a good bit because of the heavy gauges of wire used in its manufacturing so it is no biggie one way or another. In other words there is a lot going on with getting the fencing installed properly but I think that my next step will be to dig the trench through the loamy layer along the bottom of the fence line and see how things are looking after that before moving forward with the mesh fencing installation.
On a different note. Late in the afternoon I finally built a home for that five gallon bucket of worm-filled compost that
I brought with me from the last such compost that I made. The new compost is directly outside the north gate (the lowest elevation gate) and a little ways down a nice flat path where there is already a large natural depression in the earth. I do not want to spell out each step of how I started the compost but lets just say that I did pretty much exactly what I have done three other times in the last four years... but with a starter culture of soil, worms and microbial life to help kick start everything. I also added the three gallons of used coffee grounds that I have saved over the previous twenty-five days. The entire compost building process went very well and although I added five gallons of biochar to it I am thinking that I might want to add a bunch more around the new compost mound itself just to help get things established and prevent any sort of runoff from happening. Since there are a lot of pine trees dropping needles in the area I think that the biochar will make for a good buffer against acidity while the worms get established and everything has time to start decomposing into new soil. As with most things it is an ongoing experiment but that experiment is also getting conducted on the premise of what I already know to do and am simply trying to refine it. Many times a compost mound will do well (or not) entirely dependent upon the terrain and its proximity to sunlight and vegetation so I am hoping that the location that I have chosen and even designed the fence layout around will be a good one but if not I have a good contingency plan with the experimental compost mound that I already started further uphill from there near where I originally had the portable PVC dog yard fence setup. Aside from having a big pine tree felled beside it that little compost is looking pretty good and I think that I am going to use it for composting things like citrus, onions and things of that nature so that I can keep them out of the main compost mound.
Alright, it looks like I will have to cover the next day in this post as well because I never got it all edited and posted yesterday which is no big deal or anything and I will do like I did a week ago and just include two days worth of writing in a single post. Perhaps I should just start doing that anyway so that I get one day off from writing each week but honestly given that I enjoy writing so much I think that it would amount to just taking a break from doing the editing/posting aspect of things even if I have done the day's writing.
I am up super early so I will try to take my time here and spell out everything that I can to the best of my abilities without too much anxiety along the way that the sun will come up and I will need to transition to the outdoor activities portion of my day. Aside from enjoying the early morning stillness... waking up this early in the morning sure does accommodate me with plenty of time (usually three to four hours) to ponderously get everything typed out, edited and posted. The need for said time is how I began to routinely get up so early to start with and that coupled with a desire to 'get everything out of my system' (so to speak) first thing in the morning often seems to improve the quality of my days and helps me start each day with a clear head and not having a whole bunch of random stuff running through my mind that I have given the mental label of 'something to write about' and filed away in my memory. In other words starting my days with a 'clean slate' sure helps and I can focus better on new experiences once I have 'worded down' the old ones.
On Day 26 I slept in super late like I mention at the beginning of this post but I eventually got the dogs kenneled, got my work clothes on and headed over to the new shelter site to see what all that I could accomplish with the remaining few hours of daylight that I had available. What I noticed upon walking over there was that whoa has that entire site come a long way in a short time and just getting it to the point where the site is clear of debris and the new dog yard construction project is reaching its final phases is an immense achievement. Granted I would probably be much further along with it if I was giving it six to twelve hours of work each day but hell given that it is wintertime I am happy to get in three to five hours a day and call it good enough because otherwise working in the unfavorable conditions would just be a recipe for putting me in a foul mood and probably result in getting more injured than I normally would because of all the bulky layers of clothes getting in the way and/or because of discomfort distracting me due to the cold conditions.
All things considered though, the site is looking promising and although I have assuredly 'put in the work' I know that to go from raw land to livable area is no easy feat and to get from 'A to B' involves lots of steps and even if those steps are familiar to me I must remind myself to keep observing the site, noticing its features, noticing where the sunlight (and shade) falls, how the water runs off it, what insects are in it, where erosion might occur, how much wind does it get, what can I hear and not hear from the site, which paths do I instinctively use, and so forth and so on whilst continually visualizing the homesteading setup that I want to create in the space and how all those factors (and more) will affect it and vice versa. The stuff that I am doing to asses the scenario is being done out of habit on my part and although I seldomly really get into the details of site selection, site preparation and site development the key thing that comes in handy is a good working knowledge of terrain and being able to visualize water runoff over said terrain. Like I have said before it is much easier to adapt to the terrain's features than to try to force the terrain to 'adapt to my ideas' and that flexibility is vital for eliminating both short and long-term struggle with things and if done well the key benefit is having nearly full control over the water runoff of said site and of course then I have a bunch of water to work with to boot which always comes in handy. As far as that last bit goes, with this particular site pretty much all of the site's water runoff will be watering a roughly thirty-three meter long row of wild grape vines so that is pretty neat.
On a different note. I continued to work on building the new compost mound and after adding four wheelbarrow loads of biochar around the perimeter of the new mound (where I put the worms and starter dirt the day before) I then added a bunch of leaves that I raked up from the surrounding area and from the path that leads to the new compost mound. I did not add anymore leaves to the top of the mound and just focused on putting a really thick layer of them (along with lots of small sticks) over all the biochar so that they will decompose into soil that will later settle into the biochar on its own without me needing to till it in. Since the mound is new I may wind up tilling some of those leaves into the biochar but I am thinking of adding another 'ring' of biochar to the mound's perimeter and tilling the leaves in on that ring as I am adding the biochar to it and basically leaving the entire center of the mound undisturbed while the worms get established. One thing is for sure and that is that given how much clay there is in the soil here I will have to heavily rely on the mound itself sustaining enough habitat for the worms and not be too reliant on them also inhabiting the actual ground where their potential population would be much larger. For now all that I can really do is feed the worms whatever I can until I get the dog yard fence done and can start collecting dog poop from inside it to feed to them. I am also thinking that it might be a good idea to hunt around the larger property and try to find a good deposit of topsoil that I can incorporate into the mound over the coming weeks to help bolster the amount of actual soil in it.
With needing more leaves for the compost mound in mind I began raking along the fence lines and made piles of leaves that I left near every other fence post and can easily collect and haul to the compost mound later with the wheelbarrow. I am mainly raking up the leaves along the fence line so that they are not in the way of digging the trench for the bottom of the fence nor be in the way while I am installing the mesh fencing itself. I also do not want a bunch of stuff to trip over while working (like small sticks and vines) nor a bunch of stuff on the ground in case I drop something (like fencing nails) while doing the fencing installation. I am considering raking back the leaves for a little more than two meters on the inside of the fence line just to make rolling out the wire mesh a bit easier but I am unsure if I am that ambitious and nor if it is a good idea because it might encourage erosion in the areas that I do it in. At the very least I will rake the remainder of the fence line itself and perhaps just collect all the sticks and remove any small stumps or snags from the areas where the fencing will get rolled out over before being cut and lifted into place along the inside of the fence posts. Basically I am just thinking to make things a bit easier on myself later by getting everything raked up before I get going on the next phase of things.
Well, now I really do need to get this wrapped up and edited. It is a rainy morning hear and the winds are gusting on and off but hopefully things will settle down soon and I can get on with doing stuff outdoors. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
Where I raked along the eastern fence line.
The firewood that I stacked for that outdoor fire.
The beginning of the compost mound is a layer of sticks and a few small rotten logs.
The next layer of the compost mound is leaves.
I then added the five gallons of wormy soil to the compost mound.
Directly on top of the wormy soil I added three gallons of used coffee grounds.
Around the base of the mound I added the pieces of loamy soil that I saved when I dug the fire pit.
I then added more leaves and sticks as well as small rotten pieces of oak logs.
The last step that I did was to add biochar over the top of the entire mound before covering it one final time with leaves.
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That Is All For Now!
This post was originally posted to the Hive Blockchain here:
https://peakd.com/homesteading/@jacobpeacock/apocalyptic-homesteading-day-25-26
