Another Rainy Day, A Long Hike Site Scouting, Problematic Fungus & Thoughts For A Pond
I am off to a slow start this morning and it is looking like it will be yet another rainy day so I doubt that I will be able to get anything significant done outdoors. Staying cooped up indoors out of the rain the last few days has me going a little stir crazy and sort of 'chomping at the bit' to get back to working on the fencing project but there just is not anything that I can do about the weather besides either hunkering down and waiting it out or working in it which would undoubtedly be a miserable affair. I am not going to complain too much about the time off though because whether I really wanted an extended break or not my body undoubtedly needed one and it feels much better having had one. Just giving my mind a break has been nice as well because alas it has been working in overdrive as well and just zoning out the last few days has left me feeling rather relaxed.
In the morning the rain let up so I hiked over to the new shelter site and gave everything a good 'looking over' and once again I found myself visualizing various arrangements for where the cabin and the chicken coop will be inside the new dog yard and more or less just trying to make sure that my ideas for the space are not critically flawed. I keep doing that on almost a daily basis and so far it has only amounted to me realizing that my original ideas for the layout of stuff is a pretty solid one and that the placement of the structures is not going to waste any of the precious flat areas that were a significant part of why I chose that particular area to start with. Another thing that I keep looking at when I do those kinds of visualizations is how accommodating would the area be for someone other than myself because ultimately that space is just a temporary one for me while I find and develop a more secluded site of my own. That part of things is a bit tricky because I know to double (triple, quadruple) check my thinking in that regard given my inclination to adapt myself to a site and not vice versa which is how most folks approach such things.
While I was at the new shelter site I got to thinking about my future 'secluded area' and decided to go on a hike to see how all the rain had impacted the various potential sites that I have been considering. It is worth noting that I have not really given the next site a whole lot of thought and have gone out of my way to curb myself from thinking about it overly much because my focus needs to remain on the current site I am developing so that my brain does not get overloaded trying to tackle the strategies, logistics, tactics and projects for two sites at once. My mind is already engaged (on a minor level) with developing multiple other sites here (including ones that are already established) but quite frankly I have to get my own setup (at least the temporary one) dialed in first and foremost. I also want to avoid too much thinking about all that jazz because I am still learning the lay of the land and not enough time has passed here for me to have enough of an understanding of it to make well-informed decisions about such matters.
I wound up hiking around the majority of the property and I gave it a rather 'critical eye' in regards to the water runoff, where the flat areas are, the location of the sunlight (what little there was on such an overcast day) and what kinds of trees surround or are growing in the flat areas. There are a few nice flat terraces on the eastern slope that would make nice camping spots but I would not want to cut down the big live oak trees in them to accommodate them having structures at them. There are plenty of what I call 'scrub oaks' growing here and although I do not mind thinning them out I want to leave all the live oaks that I possibly can especially considering that they are some of the most beautiful (and albeit healthy) trees on the property. In other words there are many flat sites that just do not 'fit the bill' for what I am looking for regarding my own long-term setup just because I dislike the impact it would cause in the long run.
During the hike I also got to get a look at the various types of mushrooms growing around the property and with all the recent rainfall there sure is a lot of them. Given that it is winter most of the kinds of edible mushrooms that might grow here would not be popping up but I always find it interesting to see what does grow in the colder months. There are quite a few 'Jelly Roll' mushrooms here (which are edible) but I did not bother with gathering any of them. The only detrimental fungus that I have found so far is 'Cedar Rust' and although it is not quite everywhere yet (much like the kudzu and Chinese privet and how it is in just a few places) it sure will be if it goes unchecked. I need to do some research on how to deal with the Cedar Rust but what I have been thinking of doing is just locating it and cutting whatever it is growing on down and then burning it at the locations where I find it so that during its removal I am not just spreading it around the property where it will infect more trees. It is always a tricky prospect dealing with such things but it is important to do so to help maintain a healthy forest.
Anyway, I pretty much wore myself out hiking around for a few hours before returning to the new shelter site and realizing that some of the best flat areas on the eastern slope (besides those ones at the foot of the slope that I mentioned a few weeks ago) are quite near the site that I am currently working on. Just to the north of the new site is a really big flat area and it is so close that I could actually use the existing northern fence line for its southern fence line if we decided to utilize it. That nice flat area was a part of my original choosing of the current site but my ideas for it are so vague that I am hesitant to word them down. There is however another nice flat site not far from both of those sites which would make for an excellent homesteading spot but it is not as secluded of a site as what I have been looking for. It is 'private' and all even though it is on a bit of a knoll and I guess by most folks standards the entire property here is 'secluded' but for me (after caretaking at many various sized properties) the entire notion of seclusion is a vastly different thing. In other words if there are neighbors (or busy roads) anywhere that I can hear them from then I do not see it as all that secluded which is of course coming from a very biased perspective so I always have to keep that in mind. There is assuredly plenty of privacy here and lots of usable nooks and crannies that are even more private and just need roads or trails created to them so that they are more accessible. I am sure that I will eventually settle on choosing a future site that will work well for my needs but for now the scouting for said site continues.
Well, the morning is dragging on here and I want to at least get out and look around some this morning at where all the rainwater runoff has accumulated before the rain starts up again. That big meadow that is more or less at the center of the property had a bunch of water pooled in it yesterday and for the first time I noticed that to turn that area into a pond would only require building a dam on two sides of it because the other two sides have enough of an elevation change that they would not require any dam building. I do not know how that had previously escaped my notice before but it sure would save a whole lot of digging to create a pond in the area. I also noticed that there is a nice wide flat area bordering the meadow where a very large sandy white beach could be created which would be an awesome feature if the pond was also a swimming hole. As much as I do not currently have a lot of time to focus on that project it sure is nice to daydream about having a nice place to swim (and frolic) during the hotter months of the year.
Alright, that is enough writing for one morning and I better get on to the editing and posting phase of things. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
I saw a few of these little amanita mushrooms popping up.
There are a bunch of these Jelly Roll mushrooms growing here!
I saw a lot of these little white mushrooms but I have no idea what they are.
I wish this picture had come out better because these purple mushrooms look super cool.
As you can see this meadow already retains a lot of water in it!
Thanks for reading!
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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-45
