I took a couple of days off to get some work done on the farm. The progress is slow but that’s attributed to the housing market more than anything else.

This trip had just one goal - to lay the boundary of the building site. Everything is a mater of scale on the farm and the building site is no different. The barn will be 80′x100′ and will have another 12′ overhang making the footprint 92′x100′. In addition, there needs to be space for the driveway, the turnaround, farm equipment, etc. So, the building site is about 3 acres - enough to leave some breathing room. It took me 8 hard hours to clear just one site line. Fortunately, I only needed to clear one line as the building side is a rectangle and bordered on three sides by fields.

To make things a little easier, I opted to camp on the property. My nearest family is about 90 miles away. That’s $35 of fuel at current prices and $34 in tolls. I probably could find a dog friendly hotel (Zen is traveling with me) but I figured it might be fun. It was and it wasn’t.

They always talk about how bright the stars are at night when you are in the country. The Farm definitely confirms it. However, I can’t recall once hearing movie dialog talk about how far noise travels with the land is flat and mostly crops and fields. Last night, Zen had a tough time relaxing because she first heard a car go by - starting about a mile and a half down the road and continuing a mile and a half in the other direction. (I should also say, some roads around the farm are long and straight.) Next was the train. It was about 2 miles away (at its nearest) but again, everything is flat and there are no overpasses or underpasses so the railroad tracks cross every side road and the train blows the horn multiple times AT EVERY SIDE ROAD <argh>.

We did manage to get some sleep. Still, I would have like more considering the work ahead. It was a brisk morning so I opted for a hot breakfast - stew on a camp stove. My camp stove is very old school. I don’t know if they make it anymore but it has a big advantage over some of the more modern units - it will use just about anything as fuel - white gas, unleaded, diesel, kerosene, or even alcohol.

Related tangests ...   Bathrooms in the rough   (pw hint: town I grew up in)   "The South Starts Here"

Posted in Campfire, Diesel, Eastern Shore, Farmhouse, Moving, Real Estate, Zen |

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