Sunday, August 14, 2022

 Haven't been through a day like that in a long time.

Two nights ago, we all went over to one of their group house' to play cards.  

Got home late - around midnight - got to bed even later - but then I got up at 10 am while everyone else still asleep, took Addler and went over to the property.  Unloaded all of that lumber on that trailer and walaah. 

The 4 wheeler pulled it up that steep hill with relative ease.  

But, after all of that, I wanted to take the dog home and get some cold water.  I had only brought a small cup of ice water with me, figuring I was only going to be out there for a little while with the dog. He was getting over heated as well, time to take him home.  

Well, when I got home, I saw that James truck was gone. Curious, I pulled up Life 360 and saw that he was - heading to my property.  It might have been the live video I had posted with an excerpt in it titled: I really could use some help out here! - that did it, lol, I dunno, but I got my ice water and headed straight back over there.

For close to 5 hours, we worked on clearing enough trees out of the way to get that trailer back in  there.  It was over 100 degrees and it wasn't light work by any stretch of the imagination.  Cutting down trees and then dragging them into whatever holes in the woods we could find for them.  They'll have to be dragged back out at some later date - when the burn ban is lifted  - put them on a pile and burn them up.  That will be another one of "those" days.  

It's just so hot out and I'm not in particularly great shape.  Keep doing stuff like this and eventually I might get back to good shape, right now, it's just not all that good.  While all of these experts tell you that cardio workouts aren't going to cause you to lose weight - and mostly they won't - they ignore the fact the doing such workouts do for the internal portions of your body.  Your cardiovascular system specifically and this kind of stuff will help bring down my cholesterol, along with being careful about what I eat and drink and doing the intermittent fasting, which has been scientifically proven not only to help lose weight, but also bring cholesterol levels down.

However, I don't feel so bad knowing that James was also out there with me and he was also feeling it by the end of the day.  In fact, he disappeared into his bedroom for pretty much the rest of the day and night. I did the same, taking a shower and laying in bed all the way from yesterday late afternoon until - now.  

So now what? Well, it's Sunday and I"ll be headed out in half an hour. But, the next day off, I will head straight back over there, load all that lumber up on the trailer and hopefully make it back to the bridge site.  Getting that trailer out of there is going to be a wonder as it will have to be backed all the way out, unless I decide to cut down a bunch of trees right there where the bridge goes so I can back into a hole and pull out.

It's not out of the question, as I want a trailer made through there anyway.  And it's only small trees, nothing like what we were doing yesterday.  Some big, tall trees had to come down, unfortunately, but necessary.  Now, a pickup could make it back in there and that's a good thing. I did call the mulcher guy yesterday in vain hopes of him coming out to knock all the rest of what I want done, out, but he's busy.  

He's always busy, his rates are very good and he does good work.  There is some touch up work to be done on existing trails, a road to be built, an old trail that needs cleared out and another trail that needs to be made.  None of the above involves taking out any large or even medium sized trees. Well, there might be one medium sized tree that needs come down, the rest are nothing but small trees that need cleared anyway.  

Anyway, I've done all of this work up til now - days worth - just trying to get the materials back in there. No work on the bridge site or bridge itself has been accomplished.  But, it's getting there, just far more work involved than I could have possibly imagined to make it happen.  

Get the materials out there and then start cutting down more trees. These are the trees next to the creek on both sides that the machine couldn't get at, the hill was too steep and he was afraid of rolling over.  I don't blame him, but I have a new chainsaw to deal with it.  After that, I can dig out the post hole, put the posts in, and then dump the cement in there.  I'll have to bring those bags of that stuff down on the back of the 4 wheeler.  No trailer, just make 3 or 4 trips. Yes, I need a good, solid, small utility trailer that the 4 wheeler can better handle, but that's just not in the budget right now and I am very happy to hopefully be able to get that trailer up in there, get the stuff back there and finally get this portion of it over with!

Oh, and I had two offers for help out of that video beyond James.  Hey, I'll take whatever help I can get.  Even a person that really can't do much? I can give them a pair of large clippers and they can start cutting down all of these hanging vines all over the place.  Just get them cut as far as they can reach up, that will be fine. It's more like a jungle back in there with all of those thick vines all over the place.  Plus, they can pick up the small sticks and debris off of the trails and just pile it up for me to come later and haul off to a burn area and get rid of it.  

There's a lot of minutia that pretty much anyway that wants to help out can do. The other guy? Well, he could probably help me put that bridge together.  Plus I have a dog park to put together, however.....

I don't see myself putting a dog park up until I get the land flat and level.  It's all little hilly stuff right now and I really want it nice and flat so I can plant grass in it.  That's something I'd like to get done soon, so renting that dozer may not be too far off into the future. It will include an entire day of flattening the entire front 7 acres minus what they already did for the RV pads/site. It will get rid of all of those weeds and then I can plant grass seed - well - if it's going to rain anyway.  

Mom wants to help pay for the materials for the dog park, I ain't turning anything down.  Her name will have a spot on any list of people that helped build the park, she put in a substantial amount of money, all spent on the property and building.  I've wasted none of it, mother would not approve of that, lol.  It helped me get through this idea of more steps to the preparation of the RV park than I knew about.  Without those extra steps, I'd have another 23 grand sitting in the bank right now.  I figure the materials are going to cost around $1,000 - ball park. Fencing, posts, gates, grass, a dog clean up station.

You've seen them. Just a post with a trash can and plastic bags you slip your hand into to pick up dog poop. YOUR dog's poop. I'll had a small shovel to it to people that cant fathom the idea of doing that by hand.  

What's left? A lot.  The sign is being held up by the supply chain issues, they can't find the special board they use to paint the sign with.  Their normal supplier is out.  I didn't know until I pressed them what was holding that up.  I may spend $30 and have a temporary sign put out there that I can move up to the highway when they get the sign finished.  Insurance, doing whatever i'm going to do with the interior of the new shed-building, plant grass on the RV sites, install drainage pipe, etc, long list.  Walking trails are not far from done, but certainly still work left to do.

Anyway, it's about time to head out.

Happy Sunday. 


 Friday late-morning Typical morning when there is no work.  It was, I should say, until the new guy called.  "There's nothing wron...