Today, we spent nearly ten hours clearing logs along the edge of our driveway. We've worked at this project on many occasions, but today we were armed with Rick's dump-trailer, and it made a world of difference. Once we had the wood chainsawed into manageable rounds, all we had to do was toss them in and bring them to the top of the driveway to be dumped into a central pile for future splitting.
Quite often, after a day of work, it doesn't actually look like we've accomplished anything. At the end of today's session, however, the difference was actually noticeable! We're almost done with this part of the project and it feels great.
Bit by bit, we're settling in—making "stations", as I like to call them (or "zones" in permaculture speak). Our wood for splitting and stacking now has a home where it belongs. Our workshop and homesites are chosen, our poop has a place, and a location for a root cellar has been decided upon (more on that later). It feels so good to see our ideas taking shape in the real world.
Now, the sun has set and the wind has picked up, gently coaxing music from our new windchime. Tick checks have been completed without concern. A once-frozen pizza is in our bellies, washed down with cold beer and few episodes of The Big Bang Theory. Tyler and I are cozy in bed, journaling up a storm, just like we used to do on our bicycle tour. Our bodies are dirty and sticky with sweat, but we're very, very happy.