Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 1176)

Hello Everyone!

A very windy day, A neighboring fire, Hiking in the woods, The storm arrives & Being concerned for the foxes!

Alright, I am starting the writing routine at the beginning of its timeframe this evening... which is good because I have been doing it a bit on the later side of things the last few days. Having that 'window' of time to work within each day sure makes sticking to the routine much easier... but occasionally I wonder if I should narrow it some to see if I can still remain on track with it all.

Last night I finally fell asleep much earlier than I have been lately and got a really good night's rest... and whoa did I need it after doing so much on only four hours of sleep yesterday. I even managed to wake up not all that long after dawn this morning... and was not tempted to fall back to sleep regardless of how cozy I was feeling.

Although the weather was supposed to be kind of nice before that big storm rolled in (which has only just arrived a few hours ago now) the wind had picked up a lot during the interim... and it was far from 'nice' outdoors. Since my lower back has been bothering me the last few days I decided against trying to push it too much... and more or less took the day off.

Before the storm could blow in, I did manage to get the dog bedding swapped out and mop the cabin floor... but that was about all that I accomplished. Hopefully, all the rain will give it a good rinsing because otherwise I will most likely need to wash it all by hand... which yeah is not one of my favorite activities.

Anyways, after all that jazz... I went on a long hike through the woods to see if I could figure out what was going on with a fire on an adjacent property. Generally speaking I try not to be nosy... but the wind was blowing super hard from that direction... and everything was really dry since the rain had yet to arrive.

Eventually I found a spot on the hill (on this property) where I could see the fire itself... and whoa it was quite the blaze. Whoever it is has been doing a lot of land clearing over there recently... and I guess they were burning the 'trash wood' because from the looks of it and the smell... it was a pine fire.

I have no idea why they thought that it was a good idea to burn such a big fire with the kind of wind that was blowing yet alone during the dry (low humidity conditions) but they were doing it nonetheless. I could not quite see how much area around the fire itself they had cleared... but honestly being backed up against the rest of the woods as it was (with that kind of wind combined with the size of the fire) it does not matter how much of a buffer there was in my perspective.

Needless to say I did not go over there and give them any grief over it all... and for all I know they might have had things well in hand and there was no danger of it starting a wildfire. That said though, when it comes to fire... leaving things to chance is not a good frigging approach... but heck for all I know they might have had a brush truck (firetruck) parked nearby... or some other plan in place in case the fire jumped containment... but honestly I doubt that was the case.

Whatever work they have been doing over there has been going on for the last few weeks now... and although there is an old railroad easement between this property and that one... whatever they are doing has been steadily inching closer. Hopefully, it does not mean yet another neighbor (especially one that close) and equally hopefully they are not creating a road (to a deeper part of that property that is currently inaccessible) because they would destroy the large fox habitat located near there in the process.

As I have remarked upon before, I have never had any problems from the foxes here... and seldom even bother to secure the chicken coop at night against them or other predators for that matter. I have yet to see any red foxes but I have seen several gray foxes... which makes me think that is what all the dens are made by but... there might be a combination of both species for all I know.

Well, I think that is all the words that I have in me for this entry. I hope that everyone is doing well and remembers to... look before you leap! Ta ta for now.