Landed Gentry June/July 2020

 As you are well aware this time of year brought on more challenges, not only were we at the beginning of this pandemic, but America was smacked in the face with it's internal illness of racism. There are many reasons this has been a tough year. Having the land has been one of the greatest blessings I've had, my husband being number one. June was spent doing a lot of internal work as well as the external work on the land. I graded the road, protested, read how to be an Anti racist by Ibram X. Kendi and took in the beauty of nature as it blossomed on the land. 

By mid June we were able to get to work on the second culvert. The cement we (mostly matthew) poured had plenty of time to harden and we were ready to build up the road. 

This is a before photo, except we already got started, this was after at least one load of rock was dumped. It worked like the first culvert, he dumped rock or dirt, I evened it out.

This is the after shot, it was a good days work, a lot easier than the first culvert.

Towards the end of the month we were in strawberry season! I found an organic u-pick farm and got to work. I, all by my big girl self, picked 12lbs of strawberries! I brought them home, processed them, and froze the majority of it. I've been using them in smoothies, making strawberry ginger jam and still have plenty for the winter.

At the start of July we got visitors. Matthews parents came to spend 4th of July with us. It was the first time we spent on the land and didn't work our butts off the whole time. Having them around... it was like we gave ourselves permission to take it easy and just take it in. We spent almost the whole time like this... 

Hanging out talking. We got them to swim in the pond! Sorry, no photos of that.

So part of the road work is clearing trees that are too close and/or blocking sunlight. This was my first time felling a tree of this size and doing it alone. You can make out my little yellow chainsaw, my favorite toy.

I took down two trees that day, this was the other one, you can see how much sun is on the road compared to the area where we still need to remove trees that is shaded. This was tiring work, but I felt like a badass.

New toy! We need a snowblower for this winter, we got lucky and found one on craigslist for way cheaper than we thought we'd find. It is pretty heavy and Matthew figured out a cleaver way to strap it to the bucket so we could get it off the trailer and place it next to our other toy the brush hog, which somehow I failed to ever take a photo of getting and using. 

That's pretty much it. I didn't take photos every time I was on the land. I did a lot of grading, we did a lot of tree removal and there is so much more to do. We plan to continue working on the land in the winter. We can still remove trees while the road is covered in snow.

Landed Gentry April/May 2020

 In April the snow melted and we got a better look at the road... which was a proper mess! The road in has 6 culverts you drive over, but there is a seventh giving road access to the capped well. This last culvert wasn't doing well, the road was sinking over the culvert and I decided to try tackling the ditch on the side the water flows in, open it up so the water will drain better. You will discover that we eventually just removed the culvert, fun video of that in another post. 

This is how it looked before

And after

This was a lot of digging and cutting trees

I got a little dirty

Went by a little later and there was a happy frog!

A few days later I worked on the 6th culvert. I didn't get a before photo, just this after shot...

Mostly what I did was build up rocks and dirt at the end of this culvert to make the road wider.

Later that same day I noticed the 2nd culvert on the way in, which is the biggest, had this going on inside... 

So there are two culverts that meet in the middle. Not a big deal we thought until later when I found a hole in the road where I could see this water flowing. That's a job for another post. 

In May we finally cracked open a bottle of honey mead we were saving to celebrate getting land and sat to have lunch out there for the first time.

We got busy working on the first culvert...

As the snow melted we realized half the road was sticks and logs

We had to pull all of these out, there were pine boughs in here and it was a mess!

This is after we pulled everything out

Matthew brought in slate from a source on our land and I did my best to build a rock walk to support the material we were going to put in. Matthew would use the tractor to deliver more slate that I layered as evenly as possible, then bring dirt and I would smooth it out over the slate.

This was the end result. These days it blends with the rest of the road and has been holding up well. The true test will be seeing how it does in mud season.

By this time we initiated talks with Unity homes, the company we are building with. They needed to see the condition of the road to determine if they could get in. We took a video of the road from where we were planning to build. I thought I'd share so you could see most of the driveway and the condition of the road, it's a lot better now. 

We are now building in a different location even further in so our drive will be a little longer than this. It's better overall, the new site has a great view, it overlooks the pond and is drier for building than where we were thinking of. Great to have professionals to tell you whats what. The next video was a day we went out to play with our new toy. The tractor came with the bucket, and we bought a rear blade to use for regrading the road. It happened to be snowing when we got to the land, but it cleared up later.

I didn't get video or photos of the final product, my bad. It looked a lot better, it was a little lumpy and I later went over it again with the blade and smoothed it out more. You can only get it so nice with the blade though. We are talking about getting a box blade which would make it way smoother... and toys hehe I don't have photos of it but the rest of the month I did some road grading and we filled the hole I found at the second culvert with concrete. It took about 6 bags of concrete, first Matthew crawled into the culvert and built a rock wall over the hole to keep the concrete from getting into the water. Towards the end of May it got really warm and I went for my first swim in our pond!

It was a good day.

Landed Gentry Feb/March 2020

 Ok, so we've been land owners since February. I'm just now getting around to writing because... well, 2020. Need I say more? We own 82.4 acres of land in Worcester Vermont. It is landlocked, with the north western border against public trust land that connects to Putnam state forest. We have to drive through 3 other properties to get to ours, our driveway is 3/4 of a mile long. The first section you drive through is primarily wetland and can't be developed, the second half has a pond, a hunting cabin and is where we are planning to build a home. Here are a few photos from March when I snowshoed in. 

This tree comes up later in this post

A view of the pond

Pond from another angle

Moose tracks!

We spent February and March just wandering around on the land, getting excited and anticipating all that needed to be done. One of the big things of course was getting a tractor...

He was so happy

We had to get rid of the tree in the road so we could get the tractor and car in, Matthew did it all by himself, I just documented the event...

What you can see in the video, he has to remove the two small trees it as leaning on, then cut it down a little smaller and moved it out of the road. The next video he is driving the tractor in. It took a loooooong time. So I took a bunch of clips, you can tell I was getting bored because I even sing at one point. 

That was the last day of March. In April after the snow was mostly melted I started to really get to work. Next post will be mostly photos.

Reducing Plastic, Zero Waste, and other environmental efforts

I've been meaning to write this post for a while. Now with the Amazon Rainforest burning, seems more urgent to get this information out. We have been wanting and trying to reduce plastic in our lives for a while. Matthew has been on his no plastic backpacking mission for several years now and is pretty close. The environmental impact is the biggest concern for me. Climate change is a huge problem, I think the number one problem we face right now on the planet and we are loosing. That's why we have also been working on going Zero waste, to limit how much trash we create.

I want a better future for her.

Grocery Shopping:
1. BYOB - we bring our own bags. It's simple, it's not new, you probably see people do it all the time, maybe doing it already yourself... at the very least they are in the car and you keep forgetting them. We take it a step farther, we are lucky enough to have a Co-op with an amazing bulk section, so we bring our own jars to fill up on flour, spices, beans, etc. We also have our own reusable cotton bags for veggies. To top it off we walk. We live 0.5 miles away, so even in rain, snow or sun, we can be seen walking with our groceries on our back.

cotton veggie bags

large mason jars for bulk shopping

walking home with groceries!

2. Don't buy plastic - We have not perfected this. I could do it if we were vegetarian... or vegan. It's hard to find meat and cheese not wrapped in plastic. We buy in bulk to minimize packaging. Otherwise, if it's wrapped in plastic we avoid it. I've made my own tortillas and make my own bread. On rare occasions I buy chips. We buy loose leaf tea because even if it looks like paper 90% of the time that tea pouch has plastic that breaks down into microbeads. Don't believe me? Do the research. We buy a lot of things (even milk) in glass and you know we reuse and recycle!

whole wheat homemade bread!

3. Farmers market - one of the easiest ways for us to not buy plastic is getting our fruit and veggies straight from the farmer, and we are buying local! It makes us very happy to take our basket and cotton bags to the farmers market and fill up on delicious local foods. Even here though we have to be careful because some vendors put things in plastic.

farmers market basket

Hygiene products:
I could go on about this for a while... there is so much crap out there that isn't actually good for your skin or your hair and costs insane amounts of money!!

1. Matthew turned me on to apple cider vinegar (comes in a glass jar) for my hair. It's the same pH as your skin, it's gentle on hair and works well. It's not always enough for me. My hair is different from his so occasionally I need something more. I have an old shampoo bottle (reuse!) that I put a small amount of organic, all natural bar soap (package free at the Co-op) in with water, shake it up and wash my hair with that about once a week when I have significant build up. I don't use any other products in my hair. I only wash my hair about twice a week. People over wash there hair. By doing this it allows my natural oils to moisturize my hair and it is super healthy and happy. Someone recently described it as "full and luscious". So I know I'm doing something right lol There are actual shampoo bars you could try or Nohbo drops with dissolve if you want to try that.. http://www.nohbodrops.com/order/

2. Skin care is close to the same. I use vinegar and that watered down soap in the shower. I do have dry skin so I use coconut oil (glass jar) and Emu oil (plastic sadly but very effective, only use small amount so lasts a long time and I can recycle the bottle). Almost forgot to mention I have a handy rock I specially picked on a hike that I use for exfoliating my skin, I do that about once a week as well.

rock, apple cider vinegar, soapy water

3. Teeth I do have a plastic bottle of toothpowder (haven't used paste in years) but I hope to make my own when that runs out and reuse the plastic bottle. Sadly I have a plastic toothbrush but once it dies out I plan to get one like Matthews that is compostable.

4. deodorant is the same, I use plastic but just ran out! I reused the bottle and made my own deodorant. It's a mix of 2oz hot water, 2 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp Himalayan salt, and 2-3 drops essential oil. It seems to be working great, I've asked and so far no stink.

My shelf in the medicine cabinet. emu oil, deodorant, toothpowder

5. I use a diva cup for my period. It's made of medical grade silicone, reusable, comfortable, creates the least amount of waste (whenever I have to replace it, don't know when that will be, I've had it for years) and is nontoxic unlike those scary tampons. I also have two pairs of Thinx underwear - reusable period panties. I use them mostly for light days.

6. Shaving - when I shave I actually have a plastic razor, sadly. It was given to me by someone so I'm using it and will try to recycle it if I can at the ARCC(mentioned below). Otherwise, I usually use a straight razor.. very carefully.

7. Makeup - I thought I'd just add this in. I RARELY wear makeup these days but I know a lot of people do. I don't have anything sustainable here... unless you consider having the same things for years sustainable lol I did find this video on youtube Zero Waste Makeup Routine, that I found helpful for future purchases. 

Clothes:
You may have seen that I committed to #boycottfastfashion and not buy anything new for a year. I mentioned in my post that it would be fairly easy for me since I'm already close to it already. I buy at thrift stores whenever possible. I'm a minimalist so I don't shop often. If I buy new I do a butt load of research to make sure the company and product I buy meets these criteria...
1. Sustainable process obtaining materials and in making clothes
2. Ethical working conditions for employees
3. No plastic!! (in clothes and packaging to deliver)
4. reasonably priced
It's expensive. Fast fashion has spoiled us. This is another reason I have chosen minimalism. I don't feel bad spending more for a product to meet my criteria for ethical shopping. My new favorite brand is Toadandco.com They have gone 100% eco this year. Patagonia.com is also a great company that does a lot of recycled plastics, but they also have some great cotton and hemp items.

Rocking my Toad and co dress while hanging with my fam

When you end up with plastic:
sometimes you can't help it. We are not perfect but we do a lot, and every bit helps!! What do we do when we end up with plastic? Sometimes it does end up in the trash, because its not something we can reuse or is not recyclable. That's always a sad moment. Often we are able to recycle. For weird items that don't go in normal recycling I am happy to report there is a ARCC (Additional Recyclables Collection Center), only 15 minutes away. It's worth looking into if you have an equivalent. They accept things that might not go into the normal recycling like bike tires, instrument strings, beauty product packaging, bread bag tags, etc.

Misc.
Tissues - Generally I use a bandana, but you could get fancy and use a handkerchief.

Eating out - I order what I will eat so I don't have to take the plastic or styrofoam to-go box, OR if I'm good I remember to bring my own tin takeaway container.

Coffee shops - bring my own thermos

Water bottle - Reuse!! I have a thermos for hot things and actually two keene canteen water bottles (a small and large) that I use for water on the go. I cringe whenever I see someone using a disposable plastic water bottle.

Kitchen - I use reusable wax wraps (etee and bees wrap) for bread and veggies, Stasher bags to replace ziploc, and Wegreeco reusable bowl covers instead of saran wrap. Only have wood cutting boards, wood or metal cooking utensils, glass or ceramic containers for baking or leftovers. We don't buy paper towels, just use rags made from old T-shirts or kitchen towels.

 Etee wax wraps, well used. Had them on the road

 Long baguette sized bees wrap, solely used to wrap the whole wheat bread

 Stasher bags are great! haven't missed ziplocs

These wegreeco bowl covers were a gift, and very useful

compost - We are happy to, but also have to here in Vermont there is a composting law. I love this because it reduces waste in the landfills.

Lastly, VOTE. We need to vote for someone that believes in science and will take action on cleaning up the mess humans have made. I don't have kids, nor will I. I do have a niece and I fear for her future. I fear for all the children of my family and friends. What world they will inherit...

Ok, that's all I have so far. PLEASE ask me anything or let me know if I've missed topics you are curious about. I would love to share. I know this is a lot and there is so much more! It's just about taking those small steps towards being better. I know what works for me won't work for everyone or isn't feasible. Again its about make little changes. For example, my mom used to buy large packages of those nasty disposable plastic water bottles. I'm happy to report she has diligently been using a glass water bottle. *Angie does happy dance*

Last post... for now.

It has been about 3 months since my last blog post. In that time we have spent more time than we like in cities, gotten married, dealt with some medical issues and looked for land. The land search is taking longer than expected and it's gotten cold in Vermont. We decided to rent a place while we search and *gasp* get jobs to have more cushion for the purchase and afterward. Our new home is an adorable flat in Montpelier Vermont.

 I'm a little excited about the place

Really loving the brick wall accents and wood floors

Montpelier is the least populous state capital in the United States. Meaning it is perfect for us. It has more of a small town feel than a city. So far we have been doing a lot of running around to get settled. Finding out all the things we are missing for indoor life... like trash cans and a mop.

Matthew's impression of an anime character cleaning a dojo lol

Saw this on a night stroll

I'm excited about a number of things. First, to be inside while it is snowing outside. Refrigeration and an oven. Reducing our use of plastics! There is an amazing coop in town that is walking distance with a great bulk section. Composting, there is a composting service in town because Vermont. And, wow, you know your an adult when all those things make you excited lol 

First baked bread in the new apartment!

With any luck by next summer we will find a forever home. In the meantime I will enjoy 'city' life, and hope you come to visit us!