Crooked Dog Farm

2005... It's on !

01/01/2005 – The farm is alive and well, and I have spent most of the past week working on getting some of the small saplings cut down, and clearing around the top of the hill. The work will never be done, but this has made a difference, and I can see the effects of my labor. There was also work done on the community road & my drive. I need to document what happened, because I do think that the way it unfolded was rather bazaar.

On Sunday 12/26, I traveled to the farm for the first time in a month. I have been rather busy at work and preparing for Christmas, so I was making the choice to let the leaves fall where they may. When I arrived, I was not able to drive my truck up the hill. The reason being, Marshall had come over before Christmas and smoothed the drive with his tractor & box blade. Well thank you Marshall, but it seems he had removed that last of the gravel from the road. Some months before, a nephew or cousin of Bill Hudson had done the same job, and nobody put gravel on the road. The result of all this and a hard rain the week before, was to leave the muddy hill slick as owl shit! I can understand Bill not knowing any better, but what’s up with Marshall? When the extended Hudson family showed up for Christmas, Bill had to shuttle them up the hill. On Sunday, Bill was out of town, so I spoke with Marshall in the afternoon. I spoke to Bill on Monday, and we got moving on buying gravel to cover the mud. On Wednesday afternoon, Sigman’s showed up with the first 17 tons of crush & run. Thursday morning a 16 ton and another 17 ton load. I asked that one or two tons be dropped at the gateway to my land, and there was at least that amount deposited right in the middle of my drive. Bill and I split the cost of the gravel 50/50, and the total invoice was $732.29. Thursday afternoon I spent 5 hours carrying gravel a shovel full at a time up my drive, filling in the tracks in the mud. I was tired, so I split when it got dark. Friday morning I had to run to stop Marshal from spreading the last of my pile over the drive. I had not asked him to do that, and I was beside-myself. I think he understood that I wanted him to stop, but rather than turning around and scraping the roads newly laid gravel bed, Marshall went to the bottom of the hill and started scraping the mud tract between the pavement I George’s drive. Left it in one hell of a mess, but maybe there was a reason. I do understand that this is to be paved, and the ditch on my side is now cleaned out, but really. I don’t know what is going on, and I would rather stay out of their affairs as long as it does not affect me.

There is so much more

... and more

changing seasons

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Tuesday's muse

Way back in the 80's when I was just dating my wife-to-be, she was boarding a horse outside of town with a gentleman she had known since her youth. I was living in a large house in town and was heating with wood, so I made arrangements to cut my wood on his land. At that time he owned several hundred acres, kept a few cows, and boarded a few horses. Now I am not a cowboy, or an equestrian of any sort. I have ridden, but was not moved to the point that owning a horse was ever a consideration, yet the wood was free, and I enjoyed having a place to go. Around about the same time that we got married, I was approached and offered an opportunity to purchase a piece of land, provided that we could find a place to our suiting. She owned a horse, so this seemed to be a very logical move. Now, the first couple of places that was shown were nice, but they did not really suit my vision of where I wanted to be. There was however a place with a partially cleared, south facing field, and the hint of level ground under what seemed like a hundred blown over pine & hardwood trees. It was a thicket that any rabbit would be proud to call home. Parts were so tangled with trees blown over during hurricane Hugo, that I was not able to traverse the pile, even crawling on my belly! The land falls off on three sides, with a road (of sorts) to the south, overlooking the neighbor's barn and the valley bottom to the east, and to the north is a spring on the land (also covered in a tangle). To the west, between us and the setting sun is a rather tall hill. I rationalized that losing the sun early is sometimes a blessing. A deal was struck, and a dream had been born of a homeplace. Suddenly I am faced with the opportunity to work as much as I desired. My wife and I were to live with a common goal, and everyone was happy. The money and the deal were all set after the marriage (this will become important later), so we did manage to get the place paid in a relatively short period of time.