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By Dave, May 13, 2005 9:57 am

Sitting here catching up with the last weeks postings. Been writing them on the hill or where ever and not taking time to post them. Got it up to date I think.

Came down and ate then went to work. Got the gate put up on the first post. Used the old manual hand drill to drill the pilot holes in the post. Then a wrench and/or a piece of pipe to screw the hinge pins in. Tight fit. First one hung fine. Measured the distance with the second gate to the hold and saw I was going to have to move it over a foot. So… Spent another couple of hours moving the 3 and a half food deep hole about 15 inches closer. half a gallon of water later I got it done. Hooked the post to the boom and moved it into place in the hole. Bit more than that sounds like as the weight of the post at the end of the boom was enough to lift the front of the tractor off the ground some. But a little back and fill and steering with the brakes got it in place. Bunch of rocks and a lot of dirt and was able to remove the chains and move the tractor out of the way. Bill came by about then and helped me finish filling and tamping the hole.

Another while with the drill and wrench and pipe and was all in place. Not quite as balanced but close.

Took a well deserved break.

Then to the qhut for a bite.

Finished the shelves in the junk room. Cut boards and put in place.

Back to the bridge for an afternoon sitdown.

Got to looking at all the crap along the fence row and got Bill and Neil to help hook the box blade on the tractor. Cleared about a hundred feet long strip 15 to 20 feet wide. Bill got the chain-saw and cleared branches and privet hanging out from the fence row. Till a piece hit the chain just right and popped it off. Got 4 teeth this time. Will file them in the morning. Should have put the other chain on and gone ahead but forgot I had it till just now.

Cat cut a bunch of stuff on the edge of the bank going down to the creek. Then I got the lopers and started clearing under the cedar trees. Got most of the low stuff on the 2 end ones. It’s now possible to walk from the bench across the road and along the creek heading south. Got more to clear and cut but major strides are being made.

And that’s about it for now. Till the morn…

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By Dave, May 13, 2005 9:36 am

Bits and pieces,
Pieces and bits,
I puts them together,
And sees how they fits…

Got the holes dug for the gate poles yesterday afternoon/evening. Got the south most one in and semi tamped. Need to get about another foot of dirt out of the other one before putting the pole in place.

Didn’t get anything planted. Twas a bit too hot for me. Broke down and reconnected the ac in the trailer. Works great! Course the power bill will reflect the usage I am sure. Will take a month to see just how much it costs.

One of the next big projects is going to be digging a ditch from the compound to the creek. Scratch that. I think I’ll just dig a hole instead. There is water everywhere under this area. So should be able to just dig a hole till I hit water and use it as the source. Be a lot less digging than the ditch though under more confining conditions. Now to figure out where it needs to be.

Guess I can see if the well drilling outfit is still operational. I think all the parts are here. If not I beleve Deeprock Mfg. is still in business.

About time to head down for breakfast and then hole deepening.

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By Dave, May 13, 2005 9:35 am

At the usual morning office on the hill.

Spent part of yesterday afternoon mowing grass. Then Cat and I went for a walk and I just happened to have a hatchet with me so when walking by the bamboo patch cut 5 pieces that were down from storms. Still got a bunch that needs removing but a few at a time gets there too.

Need to get the holes enlarged for the gate poles. Going that way in a bit I think. Need to see if there is a way that I can brace the hole auger so it drills straight down. Guess I can lock the brakes on the tractor and get off with it all running and the auger on the ground digging and hold it but would rather have a cable or brace that gives the support. Another round tuit I suspect.

Just now 8 am. Strange how my body has changed in the last year. Sleeping patterns are completely different. Ready for a nap after supper. Up midnight sometimes for 3 or 4 hours. Then to bed for 2 or 3 and up again. Yesterday I had a nap after lunch for an hour or so. Feeling better overall so guess this may be the pattern I need.

Worked on drawings of what I want to do at the qhut/trailer junction. Pencil and paper. Not up to learning enough cad to try this. And doubt I will build it by the drawings anyway. Just want to get a feeling for the beam placement. Planning a modified timber frame using rough cedar beams. Bracing is bamboo. Lathe is going to be split bamboo and probably bamboo limbs and pieces woven together. Cans with a cement/lime stabilized earth fill and plaster should complete the wall core. High lime and earth/clay finish coat for water proofing. Figure a 2 foot roof overhang should keep it fairly dry.

Need to make a peeling spud. Along with so many other things. One bite at a time eats the elephant. Or so I have been assured.

Deer flys are getting bad already. Killed 3 so far this am. Found it works better to let them light on your head, then take your hand and run it back like you are smoothing your hair back. They don’t seem to see this move unlike when you hit your self in the head trying to kill the little bastards. They always fly away when something comes from above but this from the side seems to catch them more often than otherwise. Need to get an old safari helmet and coat the top of it with grease. Understand that works with black flys and deer flys.

Think I will go down and plant some of the onions and tomatoes. Got 5 of the horseradish plants up so far out of 7 or 8. Waited too long on some of them I think. Course since I started with 2 last year thats not too bad. I need to check with some of the nurseries around and see about fruit trees too. Would like to put at least half an acre in this year.

Procrastinate a bit longer and figure this one out. Half an acre would be aproximately 100 x 200 so with a grid of one tree every 20 feet you get 6 rows x 12 trees per row or 72 trees. Spacing on the smaller varities is less too and I would rather have mostly small tree. Guess I need to take a look when I get back into wireless range.

Need to look into solar recharged battery powered waterproofed wireless repeaters.

And to the valley.

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By Dave, May 13, 2005 9:33 am

getting ready to head to the Clinkscales family reunion below Pell City. Not sure how long it last. Cat’s family or a branch of it.

Not done much in the last couple of days. Been trying to get the bod to quit hurting so bad all over.

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By Dave, May 13, 2005 9:32 am

Getting closer and closer to something. Not sure what or why or where but something is working through the fevered ferment of the mind. Reading The One Straw Revolution right now and I suspect that is the largest part of it. Farmers in Japan used to take January, February and March off to hunt rabbits and just take it easy. Now they have 3 days at new years and go back to work. That’s progress?

I am not sure what or where I am going with this or really anything right now.

Changes, changes,
in my mind,
So damn tired,
no desire to shine…

More on the hill.

I am getting to the point I don’t want to deal with “businesses” or corporations but instead would like to deal with people. No wally world or kmart but rather the curb market or farmers market. No mall based store. No shopping center based store. But the one that the guy built to hold the shit he wants to sell.

I have internal debates with me, myself and I about profanity on a regular basis. The words that “polite” society has deemed unacceptable for public use are more like exclamation points than words. Or so they seem to me at times. Sometimes I use them just for the shock value. Other times I use them and don’t know why. Have thought about not using any for a while so I can cut the mental censor off. But mental censor only works when it wants to anyway so…

Clarity of thought begets correct action.

or something…

The ideas that lead to the experiment that produced the book “the one straw revolution” came about in the aftermath of getting really drunk. The main one is that “Nothing Matters”. And the thing about this is that he is exactly right! The only thing that matters is getting through the next while. Smell the farts. Watch the sun come up from the wrong end of the day.

But I must go to work, you exclaim!

Why, asks I?

Why to buy bright shinny objects to distract myself from the world that god made to give us all things and line the pockets of greedy corporations with, you reply indigently.

So it goes. A few years ago (in either direction I suspect) if you needed something you made it or grew it or traded someone you knew for it or did without. How much has changed today. I have more than any 100 people need and want more. I work all the time trying to build shelters to keep it dry and safe from insects and rodents and molds and rot. Moving it around. Working around it. Its all JUNK. Meaning nothing to anyone else. Just trash.

Look to the future. Make piles of money to keep you in comfort in your old age. But really just go in debt to get things you don’t need to do things that don’t need doing without the stuff thats not needed. What a vicious circle we create with things. Stuff as George Carlin calls it. Gotta have more stuff. And a place for our stuff. I got too much stuff. Some will go to the land fill. Some will be recycled. I’ll still build with found objects but I am not at all sure about buying materials to build with.

Read an article about Roman concrete that said they used lime, sea-water, rock and sand. Got limestone. Need to see if I can crack it with fire and water. Time is all it needs. We trade our future for saving time today. interesting concept. Save up time already spent in work with paper and coin to trade to someone else for something they have we want. Really distorted reality society has created.

Profit is almost always had at the expense of someone else’s time. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Not get as much profit as you can. I hate the capitalistic society we live in. A dog eat dog world.

So I have been living on the fringes all my life. Trying to give fair return in work for funds received. Sometimes I have done so, sometimes I haven’t. Still got a few debts that I need to take care of here real soon but for the most part I think the scales balance. I have offinded a LOT of folks with my bluntness (or rudeness as some have said). Some have said I was sick even. Never disagreed with them either. But I have never fit in with the 9 to 5 society. It makes me nervious. Don’t like to be inside all the time. I feel much better physically, outside in the fresh air, not in a city or even town but in the woods or fields.

Got a job to go do today. Don’t want to do it but it’s an old customer and I hate to let him down.

I wish he would find another tech as I really don’t want to be dragged back into the hi-tech game. Every time I do I feel I need to get back into this easy money game. But every time I have allowed myself to do so it has resulted in a steadly deteriorating mental and physical condition that finely causes me to go to bed for a few weeks untill I get out of it again. Then the slow recovery starts. And I do something again and over do it and so the cycle repeats.

This is not acceptable and I have to change something and break out of it. Still trying to figure out how.

Still working at something every day. But I have tried to change my focus. Now I am trying to spend a large part of each day in working on the land. Whether it is clearing fence rows or road sides or just walking in the woods trying to decide which areas to start clearing out for better tree growth and ground cover management. Sometimes I just walk around and look at the changes that the seasons bring. I feel like I am healing out here. But I go back and start trying to work on equipment and start resenting it. Or so it seems looking at it from this distance.

Time to take a break from this and get some food.

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By Dave, May 13, 2005 8:36 am

New Scientist Breaking News – Marburg outbreak now devastating all age groups