When my Mr and I first started this project we called it the never ending story, because we had to prep for the fencing. The prep work involved clearing the land of these giant debris piles, removing what seemed like decades of vine growth, leveling the ground, and trying to stay motivated with the sun blasting away at us. The prep work was by far the hardest thing we have done on the homestead.
Earth is heavy. Shoveling earth sucks. It's easy to feel that never ending sensation; shovel after shovel, hour after hour, day after day the same task is on going!?!
Along the way we dealt with crazy Texas weather, tiny random eggs, spiders, snakes, and scorpions oh my.
So here's a few pictures of the crazy storm that blew in. You notice how the angel of the pictures are from the car, that's because we were trying to get to safety. In a matter of minutes the temperature dropped twenty degrees and both my Mr and myself felt the energy in the air change, it was charged. I actually believed a tornado might form and we did in fact see swirling in the clouds. I couldn't get any more pictures because every piece of glass in the car fogged over, instantly. It really was a super creepy feeling. I've lived in Texas almost all my life and can attest to its crazy weather but this was wild.
The weather wasn't the only wild thing we had to deal with. We also had wild vine growth. Vines are so intrusive and as the pictures show, the vines can damage saplings. We spent countless trips out just on vine and overgrowth control. While my Mr has been blessed with the most amazing skin, he has no allergies to poison ivy or poison oak, so he was able to dive right in and yank the vines out. I wasn't blessed with the same amazing allergy free skin so I had to be covered from head to toe but we got the job done:)
Now, these eggs are a mystery. We found them while digging out vine roots, just under the surface. Not knowing what they were we decided it would be best to rebury them. The soil was in a shady spot and a 50/50 sand mix. The eggs themselves were a bit rubber like, not hard with a shell. I took all this information to my friend google search and came up with a few options. They are either lizard or snake eggs. At that point we decided that we didn't want to take the chance of them being a small poisonous snake and agreed we needed to remove them. (mr had already killed one coral snake, yikes!) As soon as we got back out to the land we rushed to the eggs and discovered we were too late, they had hatched. Not hatched as in broken open but they were no longer full; the eggs were raisin like in appearance like they had deflated.
The egg mystery continues and so did our work. While we sang "the never ending story" we shoveled away at more dirt mounds. This particular pile was the smallest one at four feet tall, twelve feet in length, and eight feet wide. To keep ourselves on track we strung up fishing line the length of the fencing and used it as a guide. Just running the line through the "jungle" proved to be a job in itself.
I know you were probably thinking "wow, can this article get any better?" .....a girl can hope:).....Well, it can! I'm now going to start including some really basic (common sense) ways to reduce your water and electric usage. Not to mention lowering your carbon footprint, yay:)
Soak pots and pans instead of letting the water run while you scrape them. Even better, use an Energy Star-qualified dishwasher. With a built in rinse cycle so you don't waste water rinsing every plate and bowl first. When the dishwasher has completed the cleaning cycling, open the door and air dry.
Till next time, keep it classy.
-Shalimar
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