23 April 2024

On my regular walks with the dog I spotted something in the distance, a shiny black and I know from painting that black is not a color normally seen in nature. There was a sizable snake sitting on a vining branch. I took a photo and on the right side can be seen the green poles that represent the edge of my property. At first I thought a predator waiting on the boarder for the unsettled wildlife my work creates seemed fitting. The thorny brier I cut down is only a menace to me, for a creature like my dog he weaves through effortlessly and for something even smaller like a groundhog or mouse the thorns offer layers of protection. When the brush is cleared the sanctuaries are exposed and they must go somewhere they won’t be disturbed. Looking up the snake it appears to be a black racer, not venomous and a protected species in my area. They are also more likely to flee so I’ll welcome the snake pal. The new house has offered many new animal friends and I wanted to share the photos I took of them over the next couple days. The other thought I had on the brush was that it is important, as are the younger trees, I’ve removed something from the ecosystem and I have to replace a new species of brushes and vines, or the soil will erode and the sun burn plants accustomed to more shade. The new brush will be without thorns is all. Possibly with edible fruit, usually I like to have an edible area and a aesthetic shade area, there are many options and I’m not rushing to do any of that soon. The shade plants and the nurseries will reveal themselves. 

22 April 2024

Another good weekend, mostly time was spent with the family. My wife went for a walk in the forest with me, she hadn’t been back there in sometime and before started clearing it out. The photo she took of me and my trees, it’s always nice to share my work with people. When I’m in the dark forest being attacked my thorns I can wonder why I’m doing it if no one will know it’s been done. The audio book I currently listen to while working is the Chronicles of Narnia, and it feels appropriates when I take someone to my world and it’s unlike anywhere they’ve been. The food forest is the long term goal, to make an Eden substitute, that will really shock people though it will be a couple decades. Other activities the family did was my daughter jumped on a trampoline for the first time. There is a full size trampoline in the grass that came with the house and I’ve slowly been getting the baby used to the feel of it under her feet. This weekend the baby and I crawled inside with mom watching the entrance. For the most part sat still since my jumping would be too intense and the baby ran circles around me. There’s a video of her discovering that she can jump and what happens, she screams in joy, a fun thing about kids is when they become overwhelmingly happy they just scream, better than bad screams. The podcast is starting to get off the ground, I ran a YouTube ad for the video I posted Saturday and I’ve almost doubled my subscribers since then. My new hats should be delivered today which is also exciting, it’s a new adventure. I had a friend tell me about how they started gardening, it’s interesting to watch them start a new adventure that has taken over my life.

19 April 2024

All the mowing yesterday went well and so did the podcast recording. We’ll have to change something in the future because currently we start recording at a time that is later than my bedtime. I know I go to sleep early, but sleep when the baby does. The other guys I record with both work night shift, so they’re recording early in their morning. Both bois also had their show shirts on last night for the first time. Like my costume hat, I had shirts made for the show because I like designing clothes, but up until this week one of the guys had never received his shirt. Thinking of mowing again, hopefully my life isn’t consumed by mowing though it feels that way sometimes. Yesterday I mowed the South lawn where the peach trees are, I’ve yet to mow the West lawn. Since the sun sets in the West and there is a boarder of trees, the western lawn is covered in shade the most. The path I was clearing the day before in the forest got mowed, everytime I clear part of the forest, more to be cleared is revealed. What I really like about the forest now that I’ve cleared a significant amount in the center is it feels like a massive room. As high up as I can look there are trees and trees in every direction wide, truly a peaceful place to spend time.

18 April 2024

I’m in a hurry to mow today, yesterday ended up with more resting than I had initially planned and the grass is closing in on me. The grass isn’t too bad though it does bother me, at least I would like to create a lot of different paths in the tall grass that we can walk from one place to another. I do need to get in some long mowing sessions though, probably need two a week and I’d like to mow the pool area this weekend with the push mower. The work I did get done yesterday was brush clearing on the back end of the property, I’m so close to the edge I can finally see it. More brush clearing will be needed before I can get the mower to the back edge and before I start today I want to take the branch loppers and cut some thick brier. Part of my mowing today will be going over the brush I cleared yesterday that way the paths will be opened up. A lot of the smaller brier escapes my work, but the mower makes quick work of it. The reason I have to go through with the trimmers and chainsaw first is because the brier gets viney and bundles, meaning at some points I can’t drive through it and if the vines are cut down they’re likely to strike me when I’m not looking. After mowing I’ll hope to get a little rest before picking up the baby, then we’re recording the podcast tonight. We finally made it to 10 episodes! I feel like we only began to figure ourselves out in the last two or three, I’m excited to see where we can take it especially because the other guys have been more help than I was anticipating when we first started. 

17 April 2024

My bees are doing well, at least they seem healthy and active. The photo I posted shows that they’re growing sideways, the black frames are for them to build their honeycombs on, but they want to BE independent. This was the third times I’ve interacted with the bees and it’s still an unsettling endeavor, I haven’t figured out a solution for my long hair in the beekeeper’s hat. Because I can’t brush hair out of my eyes with the full suit on, I’ve tried wearing a sweatband and a baseball cap, eventually they get dislodged and start floating around the beekeeper’s hat along with my hair. It’s hard enough adjusting to being in the hive, add on occasional blindness and I’m trying to get out of that situation as fast as possible. The queen is free and I assume she’s still in the hive or the rest would leave, she could be staying in the perpendicular combs which means I won’t be able to find her without breaking their structure. There hasn’t been enough time for me to be able to identify the queen and I wouldn’t be able to see anyway, it would be nice to check on her whenever I open the hive. In time I will get more comfortable exploring, for now even with the protective layers I try not to touch any bees, there has to be a natural instinct that is telling my body “no” because even as I write the thought of putting my hand in there makes me uncomfortable. The bees are eating, so that’s good, I replenished their sugar water yesterday and they still had a little pollen patty left. It had been eight days since I last checked on them and the sugar was empty, my plan is to go back this weekend to see how fast they’re drinking and to leave some more pollen patty. 

16 April 2024

Yesterday was fairly restful, the pool guy never showed up, apparently they had someone quit last week creating scheduling problems. That doesn’t bother me, in the past it would have, any time I’d have an appointment I used to stress out over it the entire day of and a good deal before hand. Having a kid has put me on a track in life that keeps me moving, meaning if I’m tired or stressed out, the baby still needs things. Now I don’t care about such things, I’ll worry about the baby, let them worry about the pool. Along with that yesterday we found out that the new baby we’re expecting at the end of the year is going to be another girl, my baby girls are going to be so cute playing with each other. They’re so beautiful that I’m sorry you don’t get to see them, I’m sure you’ll understand the internet is no place to share such things publicly. Life is hard to understand, so much has changed from when the first baby was born and especially since I was in the military, yet I’m still the same me. Envisioning life it’s easier to think that what is me as my life’s plan, the plan for me has always been the same though the person in the moment has changed and I had to do step 1 to get to steps 2 and 3. The person in the moment doesn’t control the plan, but makes decisions in those moments. A kid looks at the adults around them to get an understanding of what it means to be an adult. At this point in my life I can’t say I’ve met anyone like me or doing something similar to act as a guide, that’s why I began making my own entertainment, the only way to let that light shine through.

15 April 2024

Where does the time go? I blinked and the weekend was over, still we had fun. My sister in law visited and the podcast is doing well, link below. We record on Thursdays and I release the episode on Saturday, this week will be our 10th episode. From the beginning my goal has been to reach 100 episodes, right now my intention is creating a new habit. As that time passes we will figure out what we’re doing, I’ve been developing kingly attire and my brother serves as a jester. We haven’t figured out a schtick for Flizo yet though I’ve been recommending he look at Jedi imagery. Since I have long hair I want a hat to hold it back, I’m now at the point that if I want something I have it made to my specifications, so I’ve been working with an artist to make a logo that I will have on the hat. This weekend we got a sketch of how the logo will look and I’m pleased with it. Everything is moving along, I might even be on Apple podcasts soon. That’s a little joke because Apple has been giving me constant headaches trying to use their services. This week looks pretty simple, a pool guy is coming today to get us started on maintenance, a plumber comes tomorrow for a broken toilet, and there is a lot of grass that needs mowing. Since I wasn’t at this house last Fall I don’t know what vegetarian grows up and falls back in Winter, that means I work to keep everything down until I get a better idea of the entire growing process. 

12 April 2024

This week was intense, or as my wife put it, “What week isn’t exhausting?” She’s right, often when I walk the land I can begin to be overwhelmed with the amount of work there is to do. There isn’t as much that needs to be done as I imagine, I could let the woods be woods and the grass stay as grass, then why did I come here? I’m comfortable controlling that fear that bit by bit the work with get done. I’m here for a reason, if I show up everyday then change will happen. I said on the podcast that I’ve given myself up, that’s how it feels, in order to tame the land, raise children, and maintain a happy marriage, caring for those things comes before myself. That doesn’t mean that I don’t care for myself, but I don’t let the exhaustion get to me. Similar to doing a road march all through the night when there’s no telling what’s around or how long we’re going, just keep walking. When the big feels too big, focus on the small, one foot in front of the other. Yesterday turned into an incredibly frustrating day, I had to go to the health department to get this state’s version of my child’s vaccination records. There seemed to be a computer error and the person was trying to tell me that we needed another shot to be up to date, despite that shot not existing and the government regulations saying we had all the shots we needed. She couldn’t conceive that the computer was wrong, eventually I went to a different county health department and they overrode the computer. Additionally I had a dentist appointment where they tried to give me and charge for a cleaning I never asked for and then I never saw the dentist until over an hour after my appointment. Those situations test patiences, in the moment I want to destroy the good things I have and walk away from it all because I’m annoyed. That’s not why I’m here though, I must stay true to the path I’m on.

11 April 2024

At the end of the day yesterday my giant green thuja trees were delivered, I had already picked the baby up from daycare and would have to put her to work in the fields. The trees are small for now, but this time next year they could possibly be taller than my peach trees they grow so quick. At a mature height the thuja can get 60 feet tall, for reference a walnut tree grows to 40 ft, apple tree to 20 ft. There aren’t a lot of trees that grow this tall, fewer are evergreen and grow fast. There may be a risk that I plant them too often, luckily they’re so big that a little goes a long way. Because the trees are small now, I didn’t need my auger to drill a hole for planting, the mattock was the tool I reached for, or as I like to call it a pick axe. The mattock was my first tool to get comfortable with, as a teenage before I could swing a woodcutting axe I would swing the mattock into a tree stump. Now I can split logs all day and only needed three swings to plant three trees. Then I gave the trees some fresh soil, mulch, and added them to the drip irrigation line. Nature was also nice enough to provide rain last night giving the newbies we soil. The danger with drip irrigation is leaving the water on, when I watered the peach trees a couple days ago I forgot to turn it off for around an hour, usually I water for 10 minutes. Someday I’d like to set up timers so I don’t have to worry about any of that. There’s always improvements to be made, I’m grateful to be able to manage as much as I do, that I can plant trees while the baby plays in the grass. The don’t didn’t even go near the road, I think these new trees will teach him a new boarder. 

10 April 2024

In such a rush to get started work this morning I forgot to write before stepping out. By the eyes of the outside world not much has happened, despite hours of mowing I’ve yet to cover the whole yard and I’m not trying to yet. My primary concern is cutting back the over growth on the boarders and in the woods. With my mower I’ve also made several passes with hedge trimmers and a chainsaw. This morning I destroyed two more hearts of darkness, that’s what I call the brier patch that is old enough to have branches thick as a young tree. The hedge trimmer cuts through the viney brier revealing the heart and I need a chain saw to finish it off. This being the beginning of Spring all the plants are at their weakest and this is my best opportunity to not lose any ground the rest of the year, soon I will have to wait until Winter to continue this work. A great achievement to me was clearing a path on the eastern edge of the woods. Today I was mowing around the parameter of the property to asses what needs attention. I like to be able to walk everywhere on my property which means no branches hanging below six feet, we may be years from that. Beyond the path I made today there is still part of my parameter too thick to pass and the deeper I get, the thicker it is. The woods are looking lovely to me though anyone else might not notice I’ve done anything at all. What is the difference between cozy woods and wild ones?