I can't believe I haven't posted since February! I have so much to share. I'll pick up where I left off...
So, the first two weeks of February we didn't do a whole lot. The first week we quarantined prior to Matthews surgery, and the second week he was recovering and I was taking care of him. Once I got back to work, I was trying to maintain the road by snowblowing. One week I got the truck stuck in the ditch at the end of a long, cold day and Matthew had to come rescue me. The next day I got the tractor stuck in the ditch and he was able to get it back out. One thing we realized, we didn't put the footings on the snowblower back up once there was a nice layer of snow on the road. The result was every time it snowed we were leaving an inch or so layer of additional snow on the road. It make for some iffy conditions. To get the truck out we just used the winch on the front. For the tractor... it took him about 10 minutes of messing around going back and forth, digging the snow, to finally work it out.
By mid March the trees we cut at the build site were done and Bill, our general contractor, dragged them off to the lower field. He cleared the stumps as well so that toward the end of March we were siting the location of the house.
That was pretty much it for March, we spent time playing in the snow as well. Oh, and at the end of the month we realized the culvert we replaced with two was no longer working. We would have to replace it because the dirt between the two culverts had washed out!
hubbard park
trail in Worcester (forget the name)
Near the edge of our land, there's a swamp. Saw a lot of moose sign out there!
In April after we got back from VA, Bill had started digging the foundation.
We bought a new land plane to work on the road, make it flat and pretty. It has been extremely useful!
We also bought a generator, we were told by Unity we would need it for the build.
That's about it for April.. based on my photos anyway! Not much to report because I can't remember that month very well.
The reality is settling in. You aren't going to walk through the door. You won't be visiting me in Vermont. All the plans we discussed will not happen. I will not hold you in my arms and tell you I love you. No more inside jokes, or looks of understanding. We didn't need words, we just knew. I'm happy to report, no regrets. You know how much I love you, and felt your love as well. We had a great relationship at the end. I wish it could have lasted longer. I did take for granted the belief we would grow old and reminisce on our youth.
Dude, you would be overwhelmed, as I have been, with the love. You are LOVED. The same things keep coming up too. You are joy, sweetness, loving, funny, supportive and intelligent. Of course, you are more than that. We know you weren't perfect and that doesn't change that fact you were fucking awesome. I don't think you realized that. I wish you saw yourself the way I saw you. You often presented confidence, even though you were often insecure. I know you were in pain, the kind others couldn't see but was clear to me.
I keep wondering what I'm supposed to do... if I should be doing something differently. I know you would want me to continue being me. You were so proud of me, thank you for telling me that so many times. It somehow feels weird that I get to go on... without you. I get to be happy, because you would want that for me. I will do my best, but you are gone, so my happiness will always be bittersweet.
I will end this with gratitude and a promise. Thank you for being my big brother, my protector, a teacher, and loving support. I'm thankful for all the things about you I will miss, your smile, laugh, hilarious accents, and jokes. I will hold on to the memories that we created. My promise to you is to be the best aunt I can possibly be to your incredible daughter. I will share your stories with her. I promise to look out for her. I promise I will keep an eye on our little mama and the viejo.
We celebrated new years day with mimosas at breakfast. I think we just hung out and recovered from working on the land the day before.
Aaannd January 2nd we were back at it! We got a significant dump of snow and needed to clear the driveway. We were pretty excited because we got to use our new toy for the first time, the snowblower! I was nervous to try it, so Matthew did it and I followed recording it.
Just under 7.5 inches and it was still snowing while we were there.
The following video is a little long, showing some of the difficulty we were having because of the wet snow. Towards the end of the video while Matthew is stuck in a ditch I say he wanted the tractor, I meant truck, to pull him out.
In the end we accomplished our goal, got the driveway cleared and no accidents or injuries... so, Win! We did a little skiing down a fairly steep trail where I face planted a few times but it was a total blast while I was vertical.
These were taken at the top before we turned around
The trail pretty much dies out at this open field. It also flattens out.
The following weekend we had acquired chains and spacers for the tractor. It was a gorgeous sunny day that we spent putting them on. Matthew was really worried it would take like... 3-4 hours per tire just to put on the spacers because he'd done a lot of reading that it would be difficult. We both researched and ended up finding the same youtube video of a guy doing it. Once I watched it I knew Matthew was being a little... overly concerned. Ended up taking like 1.5 hours total. We had no problems. I know this isn't always the case, but it was fairly simple. Helps that he took the time and effort to figure out the best way to do it and have back up plans.
The tires are a little heavy but Matthew was able to roll this over himself. He thought he would need my help but he could have done the whole project alone. It was fun for me to learn though.
These are the spacers. They are needed because otherwise the chains would scrap against the inside of the tractor.
once the wheel was off we had to remove 6 bolts to replace them with longer ones to fit the spacer
installing the new, longer bolts. This is tricky, he used the jam nut method. You 'jam', two nuts together on the threaded part of the bolt and use them to screw the bolt in. These bolts are threaded on the ends only.
New bolts in, spacer seated. Next, we put the wheel back on then did it again on the other side.
But first, tea break. This is inside the hunting cabin. We have a couch in there, a table and some chairs.
Matthew got really good at the jam nut, here's a video showing the whole routine, had to do this for all 12 bolts...
Next is a super short video of getting the chains on. You can see at the end he points at it. I had to be hands on making sure the chains were going on straight, so this is all I was able to record.
It was a success and we were really happy it went so smoothly. The weather was also incredible and I took in as much sun as I could. The next day was also gorgeous and we went on a glorious social distance hike up Worcester mountain with friends.
During the week I've been on the land alone cutting trees along the road. We have a LOT to clear in time for the house to come in the summer. The weekend of the 17th we had more snow that needed to be cleared and I tried the snowblower for the first time! But before I could do that we had to get all the way in to the tractor. Matthew felt confident he could drive in and all was going well... until it didn't. I mentioned those trees along the road? Well a lot of the birches are hanging into the road with the weight of the snow bringing them low enough to hit the windshield. This was fine until we hit a particularly big one, which blinded us and we slid a little off the line we wanted to be on. Didn't end up in the ditch but didn't want to risk it. Here's the video!
And now, my first time snow blowing. It was super easy. It was a colder day, so everything was drier and had no trouble since the chains were on the tractor now. The only issue was getting really cold cheeks. The wind occasionally caused the snow to hit me directly and my cheeks were exposed, got painfully cold at one point. I will wear something to cover them in the future.
This gets repetitive, the last three videos are during the week I'm up on the land alone cutting trees, then on the weekend we are on the land together at the build site, and back to me alone clearing trees at the build site.
On the last day of January we tried putting a piece of horse stall mat on the rear blade. As the video will show it worked great. What the video doesn't show, is that at the end the mat disconnected along the center bolts. It also doesn't show how hard it was for us to get it on because the bolts are short. We need to buy longer bolts, which we will and then we'll add the blade with the mat to make it more durable.
This is what it looks like with just the mat, we'll add the metal blade over this with longer bolts.
And that's the end of January! Don't know when I'll post again. Matthew has surgery (small procedure, but still surgery) this month so I think it will be fairly quiet while he recuperates. I'm sure I will still be doing a lot of the same, cutting trees. Maybe a few adventures in the woods. Sometime in the next few days I'll be up on the land clearing the snow we just got. If you are reading this, I hope you are safe, healthy and happy.
Going to sum up 3 months for this post to round out the year. We started October with a nice hike at Lake Elmore. We wanted to hike somewhere new, but also avoid crowds and it worked out well. It was a gorgeous weekend.
On October 6th we celebrated our 2 years wedding anniversary... this is actually a few days later because we completely forgot about it lol Thanks to a reminder from a dear friend we ended up celebrating it! Been distracted I guess.
I think it was around the 15th that I flew out to VA to visit my family. I decided I would not travel during the holidays... I thought it would be safer to try visiting in October. I got tested, quarantined and was all clear after the trip. This took up most of the month.. and it was worth it.
I allowed Tati to play with my moms makeup on me... it kept getting thicker lol
My pumpkin creation!
getting the fire ready
s'more making
Quarantined and spent the last day of the month working on the land... well documenting Matthew working. We wanted to clear some brush in the lower field and along the road with our fancy new brush hog. We waited until most of the lovely field flowers and plants went dormant. Here's a video of that and me talking about our midden heap.
November, I don't know what I did. I know it snowed and I was up on the land.. maybe cutting trees? I didn't document it, so I don't know. When I do these posts I look back at photos to see what we were up to. Anyway this will be a short summary, we did stuff and went to the in-laws for thanksgiving.
First snow of the season
This will be part of our view once the house is built, house going to be in the woods to the right of this photo
Took care of the neighbors cat while he was away
Thanksgiving time, hiking with in-law dogs, Mokey and Gobo.
another day hike with Eric
The dogs were busy running around so didn't get them this time.
On to December! We had a failed experiment trying to get the water going. There is an artisan well that flows once you get it going but will eventually stop with long periods of not being used. I didn't document it but probably some time in Nov we tried filling a hose with water and attaching it to the lower pipe to see if we could get a siphon going, no luck. This was our second attempt to get it going, this time with a pump. Here's my first time getting Matthew to talk on a video!
I took these photos the same day, must be from working in Nov, we started to clear the build site...
You can see we have two piles so far of trees.
Did some more work on clearing on a snowy day...
Our last attempt of the year to get the well water flowing... spoiler alert: we failed.
Our first Christmas tree! And first time spending a holiday at home. I cut this tree myself on the land.
snow started to stick around, this was from a hike at North Branch, it's a short drive from our apartment.
Added this as a reminder to mention my staying warm game is on another level! It's all about layers and every type of wool you can get your hands on lol I have yak wool tights, alpaca sweaters, merino sweaters, cashmere... and what's shown here, rabbit fur hat, silk scarf, down coat. I usually just wear wool layers with a water proof shell for working, then put on the down coat to sit and take a lunch break.
Big reveal here... Matthew let me cut his hair (first time in 20 years) a Christmas miracle!
before
After! He even looks happier lol Probably from all the weight lifted off his shoulder, ha!
Spent new years eve working on clearing some more trees on the build site.
That's it for 2020! Now it's a countdown to do our part to prep the land and be ready for the house in mid summer. Right now the plan is for Unity to deliver the parts in July/August time frame.
