Tiny House Update – 12.23.10

There is nothing quite so frustrating as rain. Yes, cold weather is a beast but at least you can freely move about and function out of doors even when it is cold. Rain on the other hand typically debilitates and causes a great migration inside. NOT a good thing when your task du jour is to begin really clearing debris and cutting away underbrush and overgrowth.

Last weekend I had it set in my mind that I was going to begin cleaning away and hauling off nearly 30 years worth of residual “junk.”

NOTE: For those who are not familiar with southern culture (on the skids, of course), any spare land we have or unused yard will inevitably become a home grown landfill, of sorts. During our time on that land unused car parts, unrecognizable tin signs, old bottles and cans, a few tires, and even parts of a dog pen we intended to convert to a chicken coop, will eventually pile up and be grown over in said landfill. Thus has been the case for the southern most tip of our little acre. Not by anyones design but rather by default. So in order to begin clearing our land and really plotting our homestead we first had to get rid of “the landfill.”

So last weekend found me up at nearly 6:30am, coffee in one hand, pick axe in the other, prepared to dig up and move out. My plan was quickly averted though by a large, threatening cloud and its accompanying day long shower. Sunday brought more of the same and my weekend was all at once thwarted. I had resolved by this point to dedicate every spare moment (including the weekend) of the following week conquering the task at hand. I was thrilled then to wake up Friday to clear and even warm skies! By 3pm Crystal and I had all the trash dug up, loaded up, and ready to be hauled off to the legitimate landfill. Mind you, just the thought of having to discard items into the landfill is bothersome to us. It is a necessary evil in our new county though. Nearly 2 hours and $38 later we had unloaded the trailer and truck bed and were already burning the under brush, dead wood, and stray branches. We continued to do so until nearly 8pm at which point we had to stop for dinner and to warm up. The thermostat had dipped to 31 degrees and we were exhausted.

Saturday morning began with more burning (this time involving leaves as well) until the early afternoon brought an inevitable amount of rain. We were already pleased with our visible progress though and felt comfortable with going back to Georgia for the next month and basically abandoning our homestead.

By Monday morning (yes, I do a lot of outdoor work before I start my “day job”) we had burned off the entire pile of brush, the leaves, and the underbrush. All the trash was gone and we were contemplating beginning to layout the path to where Tiny House will sit. We decided not to resigning to the fact that we had already accomplished more than we anticipated by this time of the year and fully devoting our time to enjoying what we had almost forgotten was Christmas week. I am quite certain that our recent accomplishments, our commitment to minimalism and our Tiny House, are the best gift we could have given each other this year…or any other for that matter!