Posted on by Emily

Day 597

Greetings!

We’ve done some mulching.

Bu has done a lot of napping.

And testing of benches.

I think I have a bench addiction.

We prepped and planted a garden. Josh did the prepping and I did the planting.

In addition to these seeds, I also planted a variety of tomatoes, peppers, and some speckled lima beans (my favorite!).

Things are progressing nicely as we’ve had a lot of rain. So far, the solar-powered electric fence is working well and keeping out critters.

Check out my beets!

This is the garden after two weeks!

If it were up to Josh, the entire garden would have been corn. We settled on 3 out of 12 rows being corn.

I’d also like to report that some of the shutters have been hung. Due to the weather, this process of hanging the shutters is going on three weeks long now and not even half of them are hung. And the painters won’t be back to finish the columns until after the shutters are hung and the screened porch is complete.

I can’t talk about it.

The screening of the porch has progressed more steadily. All screens are in and now we just need a few final trim pieces to finish it up. Please take note of the large horse fly that is *inside* the screened porch…

This photo was taken on a peaceful morning walk the day before my first brush with death since living in the wilderness.

The following morning, I was walking along our road, by the creek, when I noticed a turkey on the creek bank about 20 feet away. I was thinking to myself what a lovely moment in nature this was just as the turkey spotted me and then started squawking and flying right at me.

I began shouting in the deepest and most menacing voice I could muster and put my arms out wide as I backed up the way I had come. The turkey stopped flying when she was about 5 feet from my face but kept charging, flapping her wings, and carrying on until she had forced me 50 feet up the road.

She then retreated to the brush on the other side of the road opposite the creek, circling a spot about 10 feet from where she first spotted me. Evidently I had come between her and her babies though I didn’t know it.

I think I’ll be adding a whistle and some pepper spray to my keychain.

Home sweet home.

And, finally, our Starlink satellite arrived today! There is hope for better internet service.

Posted on by Emily

Day 161

I’m starting to think we actually live in Portland, Oregon, not Nashville, Tennessee, with the number of rainy days we’ve had the last few months.

This weekend, however, we’ve had two lovely, dry, and mostly sunny days.  Let’s hope this trend continues into next week and for the next few months so they can grade the spot for the house, pour the basement, and frame the house without further delay (ha!).  Word is that the earthwork guy is showing up rain or shine this week.  We shall see…

 

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I have many pictures that look like this.  I’m looking forward to having pictures from this angle that have a house in them.

Back to the nice weather this weekend.  Friends of ours that live very near our current house were taking out some landscaping that had become too much to manage.  They generously offered us some boxwoods and azaleas so we went over to help dig them up and then headed out to the property.

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We planted them in the two front property corners so they would be out of the way during construction.  Once the house is complete, it is likely we will transplant them to the landscaping beds, but for now they are anchoring the front of the property.

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The landscape architect, carefully placing the shrubs while I document from a safe distance.

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Though it appears they are practicing proper social distancing, the reason for their spacing has more to do with ease of mowing than a health risk.

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Aren’t they cute?!

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Here’s how they look from the future front porch.  Josh had to limb up the tree a little bit more so construction vehicles can maneuver.

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My phone camera is not doing this justice at all, and the orange septic field fencing really isn’t helping, but this is one of many beautiful “volunteer” dogwoods along the edge of the property.

This past Christmas, we asked for contributions to our landscaping fund along with the gift giver’s favorite tree, shrub, or plant.  Now that the weather has turned a corner, we are excited to start planning for more planting around the property!