OK Back to Work

Well after resting for one, maybe two days, it was back to work for the Wheeler family. While my numb hands were still bothering me from so much building, I went back to milking the goats and doing all the other things that were needed bein' done. We finished the second cut of hay and split some more firewood with the splitter.

After being in beautiful Aroostook county for a eight days, I've been feeling a little "treebound" around our home lately. The wide open sky at the camp simply cannot be beat. We can see the early morning sun as it rises over New Brunswick, Canada and we can see the sun as it sets in the evening. At home, the trees that have been spared my wrath have grown well over the last 16 years and are now stealing the sky that I want to see. I do however have the cure, I'll simply gas up the Husky and start dropping next year's firewood. I hope to tackle about another two acres, I know a big task, but I want more field, I want a view of the eastern sky, and that is what we'll soon have. I am really a tree hugger in a way, I love to hug a big arm load of dry oak firewood and throw it into our indoor wood boiler on a cold winter evening.

Building season for the Farmer

Hello followers. The hot dry summer days seem to have given way to a rainy weather pattern. The fields and gardens were getting very dry, but now there is renewed life with the recent rain. The second cut of hay is all baled and packed away in the barn. We, I mean the Gatherer, has canned green beans, made pickles, blackberry jam along with freezing corn and many other garden items. The squash and pumpkins seem to be ready and most are picked and are stored away for later. We have had some of our new potatoes, a poor crop to say the least, along with some carrots. Overall we have largely avoided the grocery store this summer, except when we run out of peanut butter or toilet paper.

As you may have read in my last post, we were preparing for a building trip to Aroostook County, well it happened. In the middle of August, the Farmer, Gatherer and our four little farm hands headed North for a week of relaxation and oh yea, building our new camp.
Slowly at first, then a little quicker, the camp begun to take shape. With beautiful weather and a spectacular view, we worked from dawn until dusk, and sometimes later.


Everyone helped, when they could, but the Farmer really had to push to keep going. Hey this isn't a blog about the Builder, what do you expect? Well, let's go forward eight days, and look what we built. What a marathon build. The camp is a well built 12'x16' closed building, plus an 8'x12' covered porch, including a 12'x12' loft. We hauled about 8000 pounds of lumber north with our truck and trailer and left it there hooked together with about 5000 pneumatic nails. Tired, sunburned and unshaven, we made the 6 hour trip "down state", back to home and the farm. On the next day we rested.