Of the 20 acres we call The Mountain, we’ve developed roughly two-thirds of an acre. There’s the driveway, the pad for the cabin, the site where the shed sits, and the lower level accommodating the septic system. At the north end of the driveway, we cleared for our well, and not far from that we have our eye on a small area for a second outbuilding and parking pad.
The work we did carved out a bench of sorts, a relatively flat patch of land for us to inhabit. It’s impossible to ignore, however, that we’re still perched on a fairly steep slope falling away to the west and south. Below us is a wide valley that contains Crooked Creek, pasture land along its banks.
Where we’re situated doesn’t give us a panoramic view of the bottoms. Sunsets are nice, as is the stargazing. It’ll open up more when the leaves are down.
Looking around at what we’ve accomplished (so far) is gratifying, for sure. Amid the progress I see signs of false starts and poor decisions, possibilities and dreams and work yet to be done.
I’m in love with the pretty girl with the scar on her cheek.
This morning I slept through sunrise. I took my coffee and my chair over toward the picnic table, the place where shade lasts longest. I sat with my back to the homesite and faced the woods.
It’s what I often do — choose a spot around the perimeter of the third-acre clearing and let the wilder world pull me in. Trees, scampering squirrels and skittering chippies, birdsongs, rocks and moss and duff and rotting logs.
I could pick a different vantage point every day for the rest of my life and my senses would gather something new each time. Thoreau had it right — we need the tonic of wildness.
As the day went on I found myself less and less interested in beginning the tree work that must be done by Wednesday. Now I’ve backed myself into a two-day corner. I’ll get it done somehow or other.
Instead I tackled something long overdue — giving much-needed love to our tools of personal defense.
Being on the road, working without my full compliment of supplies, not having a workshop… I could make lots of excuses about why I’ve neglected such an important task for so long. Truth is, there’s no excuse.
Deb joined me outdoors where I’d set up at the picnic table. She worked on hers while I worked on mine. Though none were necessarily grimy in ways that’d impede their proper function, all were dry and in need of lubrication. We took care of that, of course, and we performed routine function checks.
That’s when the simple ritual reminded me why it’s so crucial.
I have two pieces that I carry regularly, a large one and a small one. When I tested the function of the latter today, it refused to feed reliably — a magazine issue, probably the result of a weakened or over-compressed spring. I took the mag out of service and replaced it with a new one.
That makes it two lessons re-learned this week, both of them related to postponing regular maintenance. Fortunately, neither exacted a price.
Over the last year or so, I’ve recommended certain YouTube channels. And while I have no love for YouTube or parent company Google (I’m on Rumble myself), there’s some worthwhile content that I urge readers to check out.
At the top of my personal must-watch list is Bushradical (Dave Whipple). He’s not putting out many videos these days, but his archive is pure gold for anyone interested in rustic living. His wife, Brooke, has her own channel — Girl in The Woods — but much of what she does isn’t quite my style. Maybe it’s yours.
An American Homestead (Zachary Bauer) is valuable for its off-grid-living content, but also for its political and cultural commentary. And the homesteading-skills videos are particularly useful to Deb and me, since it originates here in Ozarkansas.
I’ve mentioned all of those channels before. Now here’s a new one worth watching — The Prepared Homestead (Travis Maddox).
It comes to us from the Ozarks of Missouri, a couple of hours’ drive north of The Mountain, and like An American Homestead it blends practical self-reliance with unapologetic, principled commentary on current events. I like the style and I like the attitude.
There’s a lot of unfiltered crap on the wwWeb. I figured I’d share some of The Good Stuff.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB