Hello Everyone!
Writing routine rearrangement, Weaving a brush wall, Some stormy weather & Musing on about improving my scenario!
Alright, it is not all that long before dawn... and I did the same thing as I did yesterday by falling asleep for a nap... and then winding up sleeping for much of the remainder of the day... and well into the evening. I did get up from the nap for a few hours, to feed the dogs and do some stuff online... but I was not feeling up to battling against the fatigue that I was feeling to make this entry.
It is probably best that I quit attempting to write these entries at night altogether, given how exhausted that I feel by then each day... not to mention that I tend to just want to get said entries done and over with... instead of enjoying the writing process itself. The only hitch that I see in the entire rearrangement of the writing routine, is that I often wake up feeling downright moody... and of course that will affect how and what I write about... but meh.
Anyways, early in the day I wound up working more on that Expanded Privacy, Security & Software Cheat Sheet that I started putting together months ago... and finally shared it publicly online in case others might find it useful. Although it is far from comprehensive... and I refrained from riddling it with disclaimers and cautionary notes... I like how it came out.
Once I was done with all that jazz, I got outdoors and began the tedious process of weaving together a brush wall... next to the little greenhouse that I setup the day before. My goal with constructing the brush wall, was to not only create more privacy between me and my neighbor... that needs a better hobby than glaring at me all day... but also to create places for birds to make nests and trellising for vines to grow on.
The kind of neat thing about how I constructed the brush wall, is that I started by forming a 'tripod' of sticks... and then used some longer sticks (oriented horizontally) to butt up to the garden fence that I built a few weeks ago. After the main pieces were in place, I then began weaving long sticks in vertically... and diagonally every which way that I could (by doing so) create more and more tension at all the bearing points... which made the entire structure more or less self-supporting in nature.
Fortunately I had no real shortage of sticks to use for that task... considering how many piles of them were already here left by the previous own... and all the piles of them that I created when I harvested those poplar trees last fall. Most of those sticks had actually held up quite well as far as rot goes... but had I done the project a few months earlier... a lot of the poplar would have had more flexibility... and less prone to breaking as I wove them into the lattice of the wall.
Per usual, it was a bit of an experiment to see how it would all work out as far as a sturdy wall goes... and to see if I could possibly use a similar method later if I decide to create some waddle and daub walls/fencing around the place. I am unsure if I ever mentioned it before, but I have long considered building a thick cob wall around the entire property here to create an illusion of privacy... and just recently I got to thinking about how making it from waddle and daub might be a less labor (and material) intensive route to take.
For now though, all I really want to achieve... is to create as many visual blocks as I can... so that I can stop feeling like every damned moment spent outside my tent... is me starring as the 'main attraction' at a frigging circus for nosy pearl clutching lookie-loos. To say that that aspect of things (on top of everything else) is annoying would be a massive understatement!
So, over the coming weeks (and probably throughout the rest of the year) I think that I am going to keep working on creating 'privacy' as much as I can... and first and foremost do it around my camp. If folks fail to grasp just how much my skin crawls every time I leave my tent (and why creating privacy immediately around it seems so important) just imagine having whatever sort of human bothers you the most... glaring at you from thirty-odd meters away nearly every time you are outside.
My other objective with creating the privacy walls (aside from animal habitat and vine trellising like I previously mentioned) is that I desperately need to create some shade for my tent. It has not quite gotten as hot as it soon will be outdoors... but whoa unless I remove the plastic that I have the tent wrapped in... it is going to be stifling hot inside of it come summertime.
The only other thing that I can see to do to improve my scenario... is to bite the proverbial bullet and either build a bushcraft shelter... work on my underground house idea... or some combination of the two. Given that the terrain (and the location of large trees) is not really on my side when it comes to building underground... without either destroying the tiny amount of natural beauty the place has... or wiping out my limited gardening spaces... I am hesitant to begin that project.
Of course, the other limiting factor in all of that is that there just is not a location here (to build at) that does not put me even closer to one neighbor or another... or even worse... closer to one of the busy roads. I know that I have done my best to explain the challenges the terrain represents here in previous entries... but let me reiterate that logistically, strategically and even practically where I am camped at is the 'best' spot... and ugh it is well beyond what I would term as: Less than ideal!
At this point I keep weighing the pros and cons of getting some big heavy machinery in here, taking out all the big trees growing in the gulches near the center of the place... filling in the gulches themselves... and building three meter tall berms on all sides of the cleared area. All of which is not all that bad of an idea aside from how much I like having the trees... the amount of impact the machinery would have... just getting it in and out of the place... let alone the collateral damage created along the way.
In the end, it might be the best thing to do in the scenario if I cannot somehow create some privacy via another means... which honestly would be much more ideal. The only real plus side to removing the trees, is that it would give me an incredible amount of timber to work with... either for natural building... or for sending to a saw mill to be cut into lumber for doing more traditional construction with.
On a different note, a big storm has been rolling over the area for the last few hours... and as with each time it happens... I cannot ignore just how exposed that I am on this hill and... how building something underground may well be the best approach. All these fierce storms, big fires, tornado clusters and such... that have been occurring... just make the whole 'underground' idea that much more appealing.
Eventually, I know that I will have to build something here that can withstand the harsher elements, extreme weather and natural disasters... but thus far I just cannot see where to do it at. Heck, I cannot even settle on where to dig a small root cellar at... which (as I have stated before) could double as a storm cellar if need be.
The other thing that I need to keep in mind going forward, is the rapid decline that the country itself is in... coupled with the increasing possibility (nay likelihood) of massive civil upheaval... which means that I need to create a much more secure scenario for myself. Considering how ill-behaved the folks around here have been with the 'rule of law' and civil society intact... I best not have any illusions (or delusions) on how they will behave without it... and honestly I would be a damned fool to think otherwise.
Long story short, I think that simply having some peace of mind here would go a long way... even if nothing too untold happens in the near future. What I mean by that is I can prepare myself and my scenario as much as possible for what is most likely coming... but at the end of the day (even if things remain more or less the same) I would still benefit from gaining some peace of mind and a modicum of having a sense of security.
Well, I have meandered on enough for this entry... and best get on with doing the tedious editing and sharing portion of things. I hope that most folks are doing well... and for today's saying the only one that comes to mind is: An ounce of preparation and/or prevention sure beats a pound of cure.
Thanks for reading!
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Cheers! & Hive On!
All content found in this post is mine!