This video shows the south border and completes the preliminary tour of the land. Next up will be setting fence posts!!!
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This video will give you an idea of what your east border is like. This border sits alongside our road.
The next line we worked on getting preliminarily cleared was the west line. This was a lot easier than the north line, by far. Enjoy the tour! This video shows the north border of our property after preliminary clearing. The short-term goal was to establish a safe and quick way to get from the front of the property to the back of the property. This was the first area we worked on. We just need to tidy up a little more, then it will be ready for fence posts to be set. We thought it might be fun to give you all a monthly wrap-up of what we have accomplished. We started working on our 10 acres July 12, 2014. We had a 10 day plan in place, that we met and continued onto our next set of goals. The most important goals were to clear the borders so that we could essentially walk completely around our property. We also wanted to carve out a parking area so that we could park on our own land instead of in the right-of-ways.
Our next set of goals included creating a path so that we could easily walk to the northern border from our parking area. Future goals will include paths to the west and south borders. We are quite proud of ourselves for meeting our first set of goals.//tr It had to happen. We had to do work along the main road. The North, South and West lines have all been cut. The East side road frontage is the only line that has work remaining on it. The goal was to make a cut into the property that will first serve as a place for us to park our vehicles on our own land as well as begin to establish our future driveway.
We have avoided this for a couple of reasons. First, the road is on the East side of the property. From about 7 am to 8 am its nice and shady. After that, it's not a pleasant area to work because you are being baked. Somehow the jungle heat of the interior of the property paled in comparison to that day's work due to the blazing sun. We would have to walk across the glaring limestone road that captured every last ray from the burning star overhead to seek relief in the only sliver of shade within sight. The second reason we have been avoiding working along this section of the property is that it is inevitable people are going to stop and start asking questions. While this is not a bad thing - we both feel knowing our neighbors is beneficial - it feels kind of weird being the couple questioned. We do understand the curiosity of two strangers hacking away along the road with hoes, rakes and shovels on a piece of property that has sat idle for greater than 20 years. So the day we worked the road, we met some of the locals. The conversations and comments ran the gamut from "you're not going to cut these trees down and clear this land, are you" to "cut them all down, they are all junk trees!" Mostly everyone was kind and welcoming. They asked what our plans were and if we would be moving out there soon. It’s funny, because when we asked a few questions of our own, many of the negative comments about the area centered around the roads. The road and it’s access is actually one of the reason why we chose this particular piece of land. One guy was trying to scare us by telling us all about the multiple 5 foot rattle snakes he kills all the time. When my husband extended his hand into the truck’s cab to shake hands, he later commented that he got a contact drunk off the guy. It’s is Florida, and the saying goes, “up by 7, drunk by 11.” A couple of folks were even bold enough to ask us what we paid for the property. We were perfectly fine offering up this information, it is public record, but I don’t ever recall asking a stranger what they purchased their home or property for. Immediately after asking that, they harkened back to the days of the last real estate bubble. We achieved our goal for the day of being able to park our vehicle on our own land. The fact that neither of us had a heat stroke was an added bonus. //tr&mr It's mid-July, in Florida, and it's hot. I must preface this though with a statement that Florida is not the hottest place we have ever dealt. We lived for many years in Arkansas, where triple digit temperatures, straight-up, no heat index were normal. Don't even get me started on the heat index... Florida is a different kind of heat - more along the lines of a jungle heat. If you wander into the shade, it's instantly cooler. If you sit down and put a cold water soaked bandana on your neck, it's instantly cooler. If you eat your weight in watermelon, you are instantly brought back to a cooler internal temperature.
You have to be careful, and you have to pace yourself. You have to know your limitations, and you have to know what you can and cannot do. You have to rest when you feel fatigue setting in and you need to stay hydrated. We worked for about 6 hours today with rest breaks totaling around 45 minutes. We sat in the shade, we drank Gatorade and ate watermelon. We brought enough water to last us twice as long as we were out there. We achieved our goal for today (clearing the West line) and decided to eat our sandwiches and take a little break before packing everything out. As I was inhaling the last bit of sandwich, I found myself staring off into the landscape. You know, that far off stare where your mind is completely empty and void of all thoughts. I finally heard a voice, "stay with me sunshine". Ooops! It was time to go home. A bit more water, a nice change of clothes, and a sweaty walk back to the car put an end to me. It was a pit stop at the ABC store, then straight home to the pool to cool off - gotta get back out there in the morning!! //tr |
About UsIn 2014 a couple of 40-somethings decided to make a change. The purchase of 10 raw, pine scrub acres along Florida's Nature Coast started it all. This is that story. Archives
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