Shamblewood growing

Much has been happening on our property and in our home. I'm hoping to catch up and make a better habit of recording and sharing the progress in both image and journal.

When we moved on to this property, we thought we'd have to demolish the shed. But H was determined to save it. She 'encouraged' her siblings to help her move out the stored (rotting) wood

Much of the wood was either moldy or rotted and needed to be burned. My younger son was eager to strike the match and tend to the blaze.
Some of the planks are salvageable, and I hope to use them for projects. There seems to be a market for large flat wood pieces with motivational sayings and scripture verses, so my plan is to sand down several pieces and try my hand at painting. I have no idea what the previous owners who left the piles had in mind for this wood, but it was doing no good piled up in the shed.

It took some heavy lifting and laughing to clean out the space; D enlisted a friend to help him carry the several broken toilets that had been thrown away and forgotten in the dark corners.  That's an experience he won't likely forget.
H then swept, wiped, aired out the space, and then spread pebbles on the floor of the tack room.
She did all this when I was away from home. I called her to check on her day, and her reply was, "I just spread gravel on the floor of the tack room." When I left the house that morning, we had no gravel; while I was gone, she had ordered it, paid for it, had it delivered and carried it wheel barrow load by wheel barrow load across two acres to the tack room and spread it!

Finished tack room floor

can you see the little pink ear? 

We chased this little critter out a few times, but he keeps coming back. As long has stays out of the duck food and alfalfa we can live in harmony.



Behind the shed and tack room is a large hole that fills with water during rains. We had originally planned to fill the hole with dirt, but my second oldest daughter had a better idea.

We borrowed a water pump from our parish and H once again headed the effort to pump out the water and then cleared out the junk dumped there by previous owners. Found was a number of light bulbs, various piece of garbage and a few more railroad ties that D had not yet pulled out because they were under water.

Before all the water was drained, the little one gathered as many tadpoles as she could and transferred them to the permanent pond on the property.

After the water was completely drained, H then spread a few loads of the gravel on the bottom of the water hole. I didn't get a photo before it rained again and covered the gravel, but at least now we know there is no trash under the water.
Our original plan was to fill in this hole with dirt and try to forget about the trash, but my daughter was determined to fix the problem and not just cover it. Thanks to her planning and diligence, we now have a 'sink' which gives the rain water a place to collect and prevent soggy areas and flooding in the pasture and tack room. Our next step is to plant proper foliage that will help keep the rain water clean and prevent mosquitos from using it as a breeding ground until we get our ducks which will eat the pests.

To think that we almost chose to rip apart something of value- something that just took some careful planning, and a few days of hard work and attention to be made usable again. As homesteaders, this is a valuable lesson to learn, and something we'll need to apply over and over again in order to become more independent. As a mother, I'm proud that my child knew to do this without my orders or even my prodding. She had it written somewhere on her heart and in her mind to find the value in what is in front of her, work with what she has and find the resources to fill in the gaps and get the job done.