Sorry for the lapse in postings.....

So much has been going on that I just don't want to post all the bad stuff so I'll start with the good stuff. 

Beekeeping class is going well and all four of us are enjoying it.  Our hives were delivered last week and the bees should be here in April or May.  Chris, Jackson and Cooper spent all of last weekend assembling and painting the equipment.  We all look so cute in our beekeeping costumes. 

We sold the tractor,  what a load off! We got almost what we paid for it so we are really pleased.  Now we can keep our eyes peeled for a smaller, newer model.  This time 4-WD will be a must!

All the seeds arrived for the garden this year.  I hope to plant lettuce this weekend and peas and beans next weekend.  We are supposed to have great weather both Saturday and Sunday so it will be a great weekend to work.

We put up the game camera(thanks Jim and Marie) and got a few shots of deer and a nice photo of four humans walking away! 

We are also working on getting certified as an Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary.  Wouldn't that be a cool thing?!

I am so glad I listed the good stuff first,  because now I realize there is more good than bad ;)

It has been really crummy weather and lots of rain on the weekends.  So we have not been out there as much as we'd like and the progress is slow.  After getting so much done in the fall it is a little depressing to have such little progress now.

Two weeks ago we were out for a hike and realized someone had gotten into our shed.  The took all our nice Stihl chainsaws, Stihl gas hedge trimmer, and loads of tools.  That was a big blow for us, both financially and mentally.  It is hard to think of some crook on our land and going thru our stuff.  There is so much more they could have taken so we are lucky, and we have insurance. 

Hopefully, over the next few weeks we will have a renewed energy and get lots accomplished. 

Winter aaaahs

Just spending time pouring over the seed catalogs and waiting for things to thaw.

New Year: Same Old Junk

I can't believe I haven't posted in a month.  After all the progress we made in late November-early December,  progress seems so slow.  With just the 4 of us working we have made some progress.  We have been cutting down trees and cleaning up some of the areas the scrappers cleaned out.  We have had a burn pile every weekend and got the small porch area of the house cleaned out. 

There have been some woes with flat tires and the tractor and a dead battery, but it is all fixed up now and back on craigs list for sale.  Hopefully it will sell soon and we will have the funds to get the septic and well in working order. 

This week we are expecting snow, so we may not be able to get out there soon.  Hopefully it will not be another monthe before I write again!

Thanks for all the help!!!!!!

Deer stand with a great view of the stream.

We made some huge progress this weekend! 
Saturday we had a big crew working.  Chris and Barbara Byron, Damian Danowski , Elsie Befekadu, Michael Mattney and Chris Finley.  We got the path cleared all the way down to the deer stand and the stand is up.  Damian was the poor guy who got to go up the stand and secure it.  They also cleared the garage area,  now we are down to just the main area of the basement.  That was a huge undertaking and it is so cool to be able to go in the garage and have a place out of the weather to park our lawn mower.

Sunday we had a scaled down crew of Mike Ruttle and George Baker.  They finished up the basement and also emptied the two trailers that were full of doors, windows and mason jars. Our 4th Dumpster is full and we are ready for the 5th.  Oh my!

We can't express how grateful we are to all the help this weekend.  It really warms your heart to have so many people show up to help out on such a cold weekend.

1 Year and Progress!

"I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy."

Marie Curie



Some of the chairs we have found

 Well,  we are putting that quote to the test.  At Thanksgiving we passed the one year mark of Watermark Woods.  We have been so busy the past few weeks.  Where to start?

A huge mile stone has been securing some reliable scrappers.  Affectionately called 'The Steves', our scrap haulers are making significant progress.  Several of the large barrels are gone and many of the smaller scrap heaps have disappeared.  We think they are even going to take the old international pick-up truck.

Another milestone has been the progress we have made cleaning out the house.  Mike Ruttle, Chris Byron and the Jim & Marie have helped us make huge strides.  Mike, Chris and the boys got the front porch completely cleared and even made it into the front door.  Jim and Marie came and we cleared all but the two back bedrooms.  Jim helped us with the burn piles and Marie shoveled more animal scat than any human should.  Thanks mom and dad!  Chris Byron came in and helped us clean out those last two bedrooms and we are down to just minimal cleanup.

Found Items:

• 20+ Antique chairs.  I hope to take them to the auction house.
• 5 toilets
• 2 auto windshields
• 1 really cool skeleton key and glass doorknob
• 1000+ cabinet doors
• 100+ cabinets
• 4 really ugly sofas
• 1 wheel barrow full of sand with a flat tire
• 2 dishwashers
• Several cook tops and stoves
• 1 antique craftsman table saw, with sawdust

Really you wouldn't recognize the place even if you have been there within the last month.

 

table saw

 

The Steves with two of the barrels on the truck



  



Movin' along

We have started really trying to clean out the house so that we can assess if it usable or not.  It would be so nice to live at Watermark Woods and get down to one property and one mortgage.  Given pending changes in taxes and the economy,  we are thinking it would be in our best interest to get out there sooner rather than later.

We have filled our 2nd dumpster and awaiting the arrival of the third.  Sunday we worked really hard and got most of the front porch cleaned off.  It will be nice to work on the actual inside of the house.  I will be out of town next weekend, but Chris is planning a work weekend while I am gone, so I expect to see significant progress, wink, wink! 

This week,  I finished putting the garden to bed for the winter.  I hope to get the soil of the back part of the garden turned over in the next couple of weeks so that we will be ready to plan corn back there this spring.

The herbs in the forest herb garden have not been dug up since that first time.  Thank goodness for small successes.

Endangered Herbs

My friend Judith gave me a great idea to have an endangered herb garden in the forest.  We picked out a nice spot for it and ordered some herbs.  This week I dug up some ground and planted hyssop, woodruff and wild ginger.  I now have a rustic little herb garden area in the forest.  My biggest fear is the deer will eat my treasures,  but hopefully they will go un-detected!

Judith also helped me identify some medicinal and edible plants we have growing on the property.  We came across tons of garlic-mustard.  There is a nice crop of mullein that would have been great the prior week for Jackson's bronchitis.  We gathered some yellow dock and I baked it into some muffins for Cooper and he never suspected a thing.  We also collected rose hips and I made some tea,  it was a little bitter, but I think worth the benefits.  We have lots of poke, but apparently that can be a little too potent if prepared wrong.  We found quite a bit of plantain which I was happy about,  I hope to make some plantain salve in the spring.  I was hoping to find jewel weed for my current case of poison-ivy,  but I will have to wait until spring.