Nine Months

Life has kinda kicked us in the privates the past few years.

We dealt with the illness and passing of my step-father last August.

We dealt with the illness and passing of my father-in-law this past April.

Kids have babies and houses.

But this is part of life, right?

We had not been able to travel to the property since we were up there with our children and grandchildren last October. It is now July. I have normally been up here five or six times before mid-July, but not this year. But let's move on.

We found a small opening this weekend for a quick trip just to check on things. It is highly unusual to not have winter storm damage to clean up for the mowers, but they never called to let me know of any issues. I have a great relationship with our mowers, so I am betting they cleared anything in their way. Great guys, and we are fortunate to have them.

The trip up was uneventful. We took the smaller truck for the first time and had no stops, so made it to Black River Falls in about 3.5 hours. Got some food from Hansen's and then to the property.

All looked good pulling in. After dealing with batteries and LP tanks for the camper, we went through our normal clean-the-building efforts, as a bunch of dust/dirt/dead insects (mostly stink-bugs) are normally everywhere and needs to be cleaned up unless you like walking around on dirty, dusty cement.

I feared all of the rock around the building would have weeds up to my knees, but it appeared our mowers had kept that mowed also. But I had brought some concentrated vinegar to do some weed-killing. Vinegar, water, salt and dish soap was the recipe. We did not bring the dog, because that mix would burn their paws. But I would rather use this than something like roundup (not capitalized on purpose).

So, I began spraying our rock around the building. I did not have enough to do it all, but probably got about 3/4 of it done. It amazed me to see weeds dying within an hour of application.

While I sprayed, Lorraine took off to clean off the stairs to the water. These stairs get covered with pine needles that hold the moisture, as does any moss that grows, so it needs to be kept clean to preserve the wood on our stairway. After she was done clearing, she sprayed Wet-N-Forget (an environmentally-friendly moss cleaner). Once it rains, it will wash the moss away.

When I was done spraying, I headed to the stairs with the weed-whacker to clear the area at the water.

We considered doing a tube trip down to the canoe landing at the Black River. Now that ATV's are allowed on the road, we can now easily drop a vehicle at the landing and use the ATV to get back to the property. But after working, it was getting too late in the day, and we really just needed to do some chill-axing.

We went to work on the wood pile near the building to get it burned up and burn up a maple stump that had turned into a bush in our little "tree island" area in front of our porch.

Dinner of BBQ, sweet corn and salads from Hansen's was very yummy. Showers at Arbutus East. To bed early, and up around 6:30. Cleaned outhouse and general work before cooking the normal breakfast burritos. Left for home around 10:00 and had a good trip back.

A few updates....

Our good friend Dave B is moving from our location in northern Illinois to southern Indiana. This will be a good move for Dave and his wife, but we will sure miss him a ton. Dave was always there to encourage me and keep me moving the ball forward. He also spent some time on developing our website. I cannot express my gratitude for all that Dave has done for us and brought to the table. He is definitely one of our MVP's, and he will be sorely missed. But I have a feeling he'll be back up there at some point in the future.

The clearings were a game-changer. The stairs were a game-changer. The utility building was a game-changer. The ATV/wagon was a game-changer. Now we have a DR Equipment Brush Mower that is also a game-changer. It is really challenging to manage a forest if you do not have the proper equipment. The brush mower will help us keep our driveways widened. But more importantly, we can now mow our way back to a clean-up job we need to do without wading through waste-high vegetation filled with ticks. We can now create more trails throughout the property with less effort.

While I did take a few pictures on this trip, they are pics of the creek that I have posted multiple times in the past, so won't do that again. I sure hope we can get back up there soon, and hoping I can bring the new brush mower with us.