Chapter 49...A Walk In The Woods

Off Grid...Chapter 49 It is time for Chapter 49 in the Mike and Lisa world. Although we didn't get a lot of work done we did get outside to enjoy the weather and I took pictures. Monday 2-9 It was a nice day today unfortunately I had to go back to the dentist. I drove into town and was in the dentist chair for 4 hours. Needless to say by the time I got back home I was sore and tired. Later that evening we got a call from the Game Warden. He asked us for permission to put beaver traps on our other property. Of course since the beavers have been eating our trees that we planted we told him to go for it. Tuesday 2-10 It was another beautiful sunny day. Mike and I(and Niki) took a walk around the perimeter of our property to check for tree damage. Here is where we started out at the back of our home site. Then we came across a massive tree on our fence line. We walked up to the back property line and then followed the fencing around. On our way back down on the one side we passed a bunch of downed trees. Here is a giant tree that came down. Mike is standing there so you can see how big it is. And Looking back up the hill behind us. We continued walking down that side of the property and we came across this neat hollowed out tree. It was a long walk around the property. We had to take a couple of breaks because Niki was having a rough time. She loves hiking but she gets tired very quickly. Ahh, it felt so good to be outside in the sun again. Wednesday 2-11 Wow, it was another nice day. Today we decided to take a ride. First Mike and I went over to one of Jimmy's(our grader) property to see how he did. We walked to the top and we could see across to our property. You can see our motor home and building but we couldn't really see the house. After we left there we ran into Jimmy on a job and talked to him for awhile. Then we headed over to see our old farm. We used to have a farm with 112 acres and we sold it to a family. He sold it to a developer  and now it sits empty. It is so different then when we had it. This is the "new" road and you can see our old house. Next we went to visit Marsha(an old neighbor) and see how her daughter's house is coming. We checked out the new house going up and it looks good. Then we went to the barn and Marsha's husband Ray was working with the horses. He said everyone in the house is sick. Mike and I said "stay away, and tell everyone we said hi". We'll come back when everyone is better. We asked Ray about a bunch of plants we saw growing next door. He said it was bamboo and they grow like crazy and they stay "green". Mike and I are always interested in plants that stay green. Here is the bamboo. We had no idea Bamboo could grow here. It looks good as a fence. Thursday 2-12 The weather has changed again. We are supposed to get wind gusts up to 70MPH. I really hope the forecasters are wrong. On the bright side we produced a lot of extra power. Time to do laundry and cleaning. No use in wasting our electric. Friday 2-13 First thing this morning we got a gravel delivery for the driveway. Overall our road is doing excellent for the first year. We had a few patches of mud areas and a couple of small ruts. Next Mike and I headed down the mountain to pick up a trailer for our lawn mower. We found one that is new and it is made specifically for a zero turn mower(which we have). It is 5 1/2 feet by 7 feet and it is very light. We had to get a trailer so we could bring the mower here. We are going to bring our other metal building here so Mike can use our other metal building for "all" the solar stuff. Yes we are going to move everything again. Saturday 2-14 Happy Valentine's Day. It's another beautiful day this morning. We drove over to our other property to check on things and pick up the lawn mower. Mike had to work on the mower to get it started. Things do not like to sit all winter without being started. I checked our big pond and thankfully it is full of water again. We were so dry for awhile and the pond and creeks got really low. Our pond with water Yeah, Mike got the mower started and onto the new trailer. It's a perfect fit. We took a nice walk around the property(it's flat). We wanted to see if we could find the beaver traps. Here is our smaller creek with water again! The beavers got to this poor little Hemlock. Oh no, they are starting to get the Cypress also. We have tried so hard to get the trees growing on this property and the beavers are having a field day. I hope the game warden gets them and moves them far, far away. We walked to the back and the back ponds look good. We have a couple of branches to clean up, get some leaves out of the creeks, and fix some fence line. Overall the property is in really nice shape. On our way out I got a picture of our resident Geese. This is most likely the female and the male was swimming in front of her. They have eggs on our Island every year. On the way home we stopped to pick up and order parts for the mower so Mike can work on it. Sunday 2-15 Today turned out to be a much nicer day than expected. We opened up all the doors and Mike went up to work on the mower. He took it off the trailer and cleaned it and then changed the started solenoid which was bad. Next he has to do an oil change. I stayed in the house and did food prep. Mike and I put on a little winter weight from our inactivity. It's time to lose that found weight. Niki started barking so I looked out the window. Howard was here to feed the cows. This picture doesn't do it justice but I can't believe where Howard takes his truck to feed the cows. He goes up the side of the mountain to throw the hay out. I wouldn't even "be in" his truck. No way. Mike talked to Howard and Eric for awhile. They are doing well and like everyone else they can't wait for spring. Well I am happy to say at least we got the chance to get outside this week. I think a few more weeks and we should be done with winter. I hope you all enjoyed this update. Lisa