But You Cant Stay Here

The season has come to an end. I have done as much as I can. Eeerttt!!!! (record scratch) That is a big ol’ lie. There is plenty to do, I am just being lazy. Conveniently, the weatherman is saying winter is brewing. Once the road gets wet, I have to hike the mile in and out with whatever I decided that I just needed to have on either side of the road. The days are getting too short to get much done and the solar system isn’t charging the batteries to get through the night. Plenty of other things to whine about but for the sake of brevity, I’ll just blame the weatherman for my lack of efforts these past few weeks. 
Like I said, there is always plenty to do but think i can go away happy with where I’m at.
I cleared about 2 more acres of brush for wildfire mitigation. Not sure how mitigated it is, because now there are just big piles of flammable trees and bushes that have been dying in the sun. The county lifted the burn ban in early October but without any corresponding rain so I was too afraid to strike a match to it. I’ll try a big burn pile next spring.
I also made some progress on the canyon of crsp, the gully of gloom or the pit of despair if you will…

My initial plan was to just bury it but getting dirt back here is a project unto itself. Other neighbors did a bunch of dirt loads this summer and the weight collapsed a culvert and carved deep ruts in the road. And that was the relatively built up section of the road. Although burying everything would make for some interesting archeological debates in a few hundred years, I decided that I would pull it out and take it to the dump. And what’s better than having an excuse to go to the dump? I pulled about 5 trailer loads out so far. Can’t even estimate how many more to go.

The big progress was getting the foundation ready for cabin building next summer. Assumming of course, the walls are still standing when I get back.

I fixed the damage to the trailer cover roof from last January’s snow storm. The snow snapped few of the 2×6 joists. I know I should have used 2×8’s but I built it during the covid supply chain times. I was lucky to get the 2×6’s. Time and weather will tell if my non-existent engineering skills are enough to hold back the snow this time.

But all accolades aside, its time to pack up and go. No small feat either. I find that the long dry summers here tend to result in the spreading out of my tools,and materials with trash piled up all over because why not. The big why not is it takes about a week to pack up and lock down before I can leave for the winter. I spent a week straightening up but there is still trash everywhere. I am hoping that my meth lab chic look that I am leaving behind will keep any ne’er do wells from poking around. Time will tell.

With that, I’m off into the sunrises. Stay tuned.