My Quixotic Quest For Water

 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the water."

Genesis 1-2 

This Independence Day 2024, we prepared our land to receive a well.  Water is the source of life.  Perhaps water is a connection with God, and even the beginning of the Universe and time itself.  Here's a video of our recent preps involving sourcing water on our homestead.

Reflecting On Progress

 Dwelling on all there is to do to accomplish a dream can be demoralizing. Reflecting all you’ve accomplished can be uplifting and satisfying (assuming of course you’ve actually accomplished anything).

Here’s the driveway of our property when we first bought it in 2017. 

We got stuck in the mud there more than once and camping in the rain was like an experience from an Infantryman’s perspective during WW2, as I’d imagine it. 

Seven years later and the rain no longer hinders our use of the driveway. We also have trees providing some shade from the sun during the Spring and Summer months. 

Soon after purchasing the property we naively planted a bunch of trees without first testing the ph levels of the soil.  We lucked out with the London Plane Tree. This species has thrived on our property so far. 

And so, in the last seven years, we’ve made slow and steady progress toward helping nature get her foothold again after the loggers laid the land bare.

This past week we planted some cover crops to help enrich the soil and feed the deer a bit. Pictured above is Buckwheat. 

We continue to strive to find balance between the needs of man and nature in creating and maintaining an organized and open space aesthetic amongst the chaotic growth of plants and animals. 

Ironically, machines really help in this regard.