The progression on creating SHAPE Eco Farm continues slowly, but steadily. The weather and snow that has hit North Carolina has made things slower. The bright side is that we do indeed have our house on site though there is still much work to be done. My mom has been doing some serious painting and the work men are supposed to finish the upstairs which will be my domain. The upstairs flooring is very unique. It is foam tiles which inter-lock like a jig-saw puzzle.
While work on the inside has been taking place, we’ve also been working on the outside. Our path outside went from wood planks to a mulch path outlined with bricks which my mom created herself one bucket load at a time. We also created a temporary patio out of left over bricks. That is part of sustainability and being an eco farm; using what you have.
This is the before shot with my brother standing on the path. The first photo above is the new and more professional looking path.
This is the temporary patio with our fire pit. I had the job of loading bricks into the wagon. A tiring yet rewarding task. It was quite fun letting gravity help bring the wagon down the slop. The first time I tried moving the wagon down the steeper hill which wasn’t the wisest of things. I was in front of the wagon and of course the thing picked up speed as I tried to slow it down. Thankfully, I didn’t get run over by the wagon. Now I better understand the song “Grandma got ran over by a reindeer” except in this case it would have been “Elizabeth got ran over by a wagon.”
Okay confession time. My brother decided to take a turn taking the wagon down the hill. By then I had started taking the longer route which was not so steep. It is quite obvious that the hill is too steep, but with the previous account I shared, I figured it was worth a try. Anyway, my brother didn’t think anything of it and started down the steep hill. As I stood back in silence, he started down the hill. Well, of course the wagon picked up speed and almost tipped over, but no damage was done.
Working together to shovel gravel and fill in exposed clay.
My dad’s new toy call “The Beast.” A rather noisy gizmo that is worthy of such a title! We were armed with head gear and eye protection. A machine like this one could literally burst or damage an ear drum. Well, maybe burst is a bit dramatic, but boy does it hurt if you take of your head gear for a few seconds! Even with head gear my hears were ringing a bit that night. I felt like I had just returned from an airplane flight.
This is me taking a turn chipping. The mulch has many uses and using “The Beast” is a great work out. I’ve made a game of it trying to make the pile large. One commandant for using the machine is “Thou shalt not force large logs into the machine.” My dad learned that lesson and we had to disassemble it, but that is why they make the slot removable. For stubborn people like us who think they can cramp a too big of a log through the mulcher.
Keep a lookout for updates on our farm which I’ll post within the next few weeks as more action takes place. Thanks for joining me on this journey full of lessons and stories.