(written on the 22nd and 23rd)
Woke up at about 8:30 to my alarm. Set the countdown timer to give me a little bit of a snooze, but couldn’t fall back asleep so I just got up.
Headed over to get things going with our weekly Saturday morning Haven Hill projects, but I hadn’t heard from anybody else other than for people who are going to be there and help.
I plugged in my power station to have it charging while we all worked, but after heading over to chat with Jim, I found out that he wasn’t going to be able to help either, at least not right away, because he was watching one of his grandkids while one of his kids went out and bought a truck.
So I loaded up my chainsaw and loppers and just got started myself, loading up all the branches from the cedar tree that I had cut down that’s right next to the huge oak tree between Jim’s place and the upper field by the barns and whatnot.
While I was working on that, Stevie let me know that he was going to be helping, so that was nice. He brought his weed eater that has the brush attachment on it, and after borrowing my tools to get it tightened on, I sent him over to start chopping stuff up on the fence line between Liz’s house and the lower pasture.
The fire was able to consume most of what was on that fence line, but there was still a fair bit left that needed to be cut up. Huge clusters of blackberries.
So I sent him off doing that, and then when I was done loading up all the cedar stuff, I came around and started loading up all the stuff that Jim and I had cut down next to that same fence line that Stevie was working on.
Once I got all that loaded up, I just went around Liz’s yard and Jim’s yard loading up all the branches that we had cut and also the branches that had just fallen from wind storms and whatnot.
Stevie headed home for a while after that, and I kept loading and emptying the trailer, loading up a bunch of stuff along the tree line between Liz’s property and our old house, and then going down by the front fence near the front gate and spending quite a bit of time cutting and pulling out Vines that were choking out the trees and vines that had grown all over the front fence.
Jim ended up leaving all together and wasn’t actually able to help, as he had to go help one of our other friends who was stuck at a job needing some guidance with some work that builders had done and screwed up so badly that he wasn’t sure how to fix it.
Jim was able to help him figure out a way of getting it fixed or at least fixed enough.
Fortunately, Stevie came back to help and Landon got home about that time and started helping, so we were able to clear most of the rest of everything that Jim and I had spent those days cutting down. We loaded up at least a few trailers full. I think I did one and a half before they got there and then we did another one and a half after I think.
Then I showed Stevie the area down by the creek where the grass is growing in even under the forest canopy. I think it’s doing that because we don’t have any oak trees right there, so you don’t have the huge leaves that kill everything below it but the super hearty weeds and vines.
We talked about some projects for the future, micro hydro stuff, dams and bridges across the creek, etc.
Lots of possibilities.
After heading back up, I grabbed my skid steer to help Stevie move some brush that he had cut up, and I ended up staying for probably an hour and a half or so or maybe 2 hours or something or longer helping him move a whole bunch of brush into a big burn pile for a bonfire he wanted to have with some of his friends, and then moving a pile of dirt from where it was in their backyard into their little garden grow box. I think it was maybe four scoops with my skid steer.
Then Stevie mentioned that he had on his list of things to do to get rid of the huge Blackberry bramble mess between his house and his beehives, and I figured that my skid steer might be able to make short work of it, so I plowed through the massive blackberry and saplings and small tree patch, over and over again until I was able to get most everything up by the roots and into a big bramble pile, which I then pushed from by his beehives all the way to the burn pile.
Met Jim as I was heading back with the skid steer, and wanted to show him what was going on in the woods down by the creek, so I drove him down to show him, and we ended up plotting and scheming future projects down there for probably 30 minutes or so.
It’s fun to plot and scheme. It’s my goal to get everything down there to the point where people want to go down there to hang out and enjoy the area. 🤞
Little by little…
Drove back up to Jim’s place and watched the end of the Arkansas St John’s game. Pretty shocked Arkansas won. 😶
🥳
Then they were heading out to go to a game night with friends, and I jumped back on the skid steer and pushed all the branches and whatnot that we had gathered down into the bottom of the upper pond.
Good stuff.
Making lots and lots and lots of progress.
Totally forgot that I had told Liz that I was going to help get her mower back going again for the start of the season, and it started right up, so I thought I was home free, until I took it around and started smelling burning rubber. Took me a little while, but I finally figured out that the main drive belt was rubbing against a metal bracket, and as I looked at it, I realized that it was rubbing against the metal bracket because the whole rear end of the mower was tilted back.
😶
So I started looking to figure out why, and after looking around for a little while, I saw that the entire left frame rail was split completely in half.
😶
Crap.
So much for a quick and easy. 😅
Went inside to let Liz know the bad news, chatted with her and Mike for a while, started out in a flash when Rhett started talking about the BYU game, because Jim and Steph are recording it, and we weren’t going to be watching it until after it was probably over.
I got the sense that it’s not going very well, though, from the few words that came out of red’s mouth and then the few words that came out of Mike’s mouth. 😕
🤞
Now I’m at the grocery store to pick up some food, and kill time without looking at basketball scores online until after the game is over. 🙃
…
Whoops! It’s the 23rd now 😅
Let’s see, I got back to Haven Hill and watched Bones on Amazon Prime while eating an entire thing of ice cream.
Need to break the junk food.
So weird to not be able to just break it. I’ve always been able to just… stop.
Anyway, sat down to watch the BYU Wisconsin game that Jim had recorded. They had a game night with friends, so they recorded it instead of watching it live, so I abstained from sports and sports news, during March Madness 🙃, for something like three or four hours before it was time to head over to Jim and Steph’s to watch the game.
Heart pounding game, especially at the end. I know lots of people say it when their teams are fighting to win the game, but certainly seemed like the refs were trying to gift Wisconsin the game. Call after call after call that was just… ridiculous.
I did see some calls against Wisconsin that shouldn’t have been called, but overwhelmingly and even from non-byu fans that I’ve seen comment about the game, the refs did quite a bit to ensure BYU would lose and Wisconsin would win.
In the end, BYU won, making their first Sweet 16 since the Jimmer era.
Finally answered a few JustAnswer questions today. Not many, but some. Will need to do a bunch tomorrow to not get demoted again, and even then, I might still get demoted.
Hopefully not. 🤞
I just haven’t had the resilience to handle the obstacles.
Gratitude:
- I’m grateful we were able to get some really good things done on the property today for everyone collectively and for a few families individually.
- I’m grateful I was able to help Stevie accomplish what would have been a huge task without equipment, and to be able to do it quite quickly.
- Grateful to be able to be making some progress on the pond area. I’m actually going to remove part of the dam that I built in order to have the water drain all the way out one way. Then I will dig out the area deeper to see if I can make the swimming hole deeper. 🤞 It might all just end up being temporary when we get the huge goalie washer storms. Those will destroy the dam itself, but they also might bring a whole bunch of rock down and around and just fill up that area again. Not sure. We’ll see.
- I’m grateful to have my skid steer. I’m sort of wishing that I still had my mini ex. 😅 There’s so much that I want to do now with the mini excavator and with me having not yet left Haven Hill. The likelihood that I stay is still probably not good, but it’s inching back up. I guess we’ll see where it stands when the ticks come alive and the humidity and oppressive heat kick in. The more I think about it, the more I realize that being here in Arkansas is my best chance at being around family for a large amount of time, as my siblings are so spread out that we rarely ever see each other. With no family of my own, my siblings occupy a much larger portion of my desired relationship base.
- I’m grateful that BYU won. Obviously, it’s not necessary for a good life for them to win, and whether they win or lose their next game, it’s already been a successful season, but it’s still fun to have a team you root for doing well. There are times where just following the good news that someone else has can be enough to tide me through for a little while.
Success:
- I’ve been doing a little bit better with my language. Still a long way to go, but definitely improving. 🎉
Improvement:
- Darn that junk food. 😅
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 