Slow Progress

I've only been able to get up to the property once a week, sometimes not even that. The driveway took much longer than it should have. It's covered with stone now but it's still too loose to drive on unless you have 4 wheel drive. I still need to rent a compactor but I want to thin out some spots that have too much and repurpose it elsewhere before I tamp it all into place well.

We built stairs to access an area that was very difficult to get to, on top of a berm. Still need to make a better bridge over the swale, for now it just has a couple of thin logs to balance on to get across.

I am currently working on developing a natural spring for my water source. I had gotten estimates for a well but they wanted $9,500 and another wanted $12,700. My spring will probably come in under $1000. It doesn't look like much right now but that hole is 7 or 8 inches deep and 24 inches across, it took about a half an hour to fill up after I had dammed it. I have to do some more accurate measurements but as a rough estimate, it is pushing up 380 gallons a day, even if it's less, it's plenty to fulfill my needs. I have another spring I could tap into as well but I still need to find the head of it. I'm excited to see what it looks like once the clay settles and the water clears. I won't be able to drink from it until I have built a proper spring box to keep surface contaminants out of it and have it tested but it is so cold and clear when it bubbles up through the disturbed sediment, I bet its going to taste amazing.


While I was playing in the mud, lol, my helpers have been removing some trees from the designated area at the end of the driveway. This area needs to get enough sun for solar panels to be effective. It will also be the site for the RV and a shipping container for storage. I had planned on just putting the RV in the driveway but after clearing some of the trees I found a spot closer to the spring that I would prefer to put it on.

Also, to clarify, I use "RV" as a general term, I am not getting a vehicle, just a trailer of some kind, most likely a fifth wheel camper. My truck does not have the towing capacity to be moving it so once I get it placed on the property it will be staying in that spot.

I had thought the RV would have been bought and placed by now and I would be able to be spending more time up there working on getting everything ready but I have found that all my careful planning often needs to be very flexible and that my time frames and deadlines never seem to remain on schedule.

I love the trees, it kills me to have to remove some of them. I've just been trying to pick areas that are somewhat clear already.