Work Party

This past month we had some wonderful friends come over to the Island for the day to help get some projects done.  Things are evolving on the property, and we're taking some buildings down and re-thinking our use of the land.  The rabbits needed to be moved, wood was waiting to be cut, and the fence around the kitchen garden had already proved that it wouldn't keep out the deer.

Our solutions aren't pretty, but they are practical, and they'll serve the purpose! Adrian has taken to heart Joel Salatin's words "good enough is perfect."

The fence around the garden was probably 40 years old, and was sagging severely in spots - the deer had beaten me to my spring kale harvest, and I was determined to keep them out of my vegetable patch this year.  Before the plants could go in, we pieced together salvaged pieces from assorted fencing we'd taken down around the property as well as rolls of old wire fence we'd found in the brush, grown through with weeds.  Several pairs of hands, some work with zip ties and a staple gun, and we're happy to have 2-3 more feet worth of height around the perimeter.  Hopefully it will do until we can afford to replace it.  Over the past 2 weeks there's been no evidence of damage to the garden, so the deer may be happy browsing on native plants.

After all the trees had come down on the property, there was a lot of salvageable firewood left on the ground.  We made a landing zone for chopped wood with some salvaged pallets.  We made ends and dividers with more pallets, hammering salvaged rusty t-posts (found in one of the piles of discards uncovered when the big trees came down) to hold things in place.  It's functional and will keep the firewood neatly piled to dry out for use in the winter months.

A couple of hours' work, with barely a dent in the piles still to be cut!  We'll be working to build our supply over the weeks ahead.