Well, I pulled onto the land this evening and hung a large tarp in the trees where we stayed last summer with the help of a head lamp and the car headlights. It's been raining here, but I lucked out and it hasn't rained since although it's supposed to tomorrow and the next day maybe. I'm overwhelmed with all kinds of emotions. Relief at finally being here, anxiety at the amount of work to do and figuring out what needs to be done next, excitement over the amount of work to do and figuring out what needs to be done next.
I already hate our gas generator with a passion. It's like running a lawn mower. It drowns out the relaxing sounds of owls, frogs chirping, crickets, etc and makes me feel deaf. I can't wait for solar.
Tomorrow some journalism students from the University of Missouri are coming out to see everything and interview me. I'd normally want a little more time to get things in order but they have to turn their report in by the beginning of this next week so I said sure. They wanted to see the beginning, they'll get the beginning. A guy in the woods with a tarp over his head.
I'm waiting to set up the tent until I can build a simple stand for it. Bradley, a guy building an rammed earth bag house in Tennesse where I crashed last night on the way out here recommended it and I agree. Being up off the ground will help keep things drier, cleaner, and it'll be nice to have a flat surface to set things down on.
He also gave me some great ideas for replacement tarps. Apparently a lot of billboards have their advertisements printed on giant pieces of thick vinyl that they just throw away afterwards. It's like a super tarp that lasts way longer than regular store-bought tarps. Plus, who doesn't want to see a Whopper on their ceiling every day. Oh, maybe that's a minus.
I'm thinking part of my preparation for visitors and getting things rolling will be to get some of those pieces of vinyl or more used tarps from places so that people will have nice places to set their tents up. It'll give me a good opportunity to lay out the camping area how I'd like it too.
I also realized with the first tour coming tomorrow that I'm going to need to at least clear out a decent foot path from the old cabin, along the path where the road will be, through the field where the ecovillage center will be, down the road to the lake and back out. I already warned the journalism students that they'd be walking through the woods basically and that it might be raining.
The other big items on my to-do list are to dig a little drain ditch for a few of the bigger puddles on the road in here. Then I need to call about having some gravel laid down, preferrably something from a dry creek bed instead of a quarry for environmental reasons. Then I'll start work on the first composting toilet, and then the solar shower, a small make-shift tool shed, a small garden, and then start on the house. It's gonna be a busy year.
