Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Octoberfrust

Not much progress to report yet this month. The woodpile is looking better, and some of the materials have gotten organized so I shouldn't complain, but I just might. This process is so enriching and energizing when things are flowing and you can see things getting done at some sort of regular pace. But it can be really trying when things happen slowly.
I know– in my reflective blogging state– that these trials are actually more enriching than the smooth sailing periods. This assumes that we manage to keep faithful through them, which for the most part we've been doing. I did allow a knot of anxiety to build up over the past couple of weeks which led to a head cold taking me out of service for a couple days this week. But that seems to have moved through.

There was a question in the comment box today asking how we got a permit to build in a wetland. We're not exactly in a wetland. We're about 25 feet in altitude up from the floodplain on a little sandy knob. It happens that water is very near the surface because bedrock is not very deep in this area. On the surface it looks like any other northern mixed-hardwood forest. It's only after you dig down a few feet, on the west end of the site, that you strike water.
So no special wetland permit. We did need a soil erosion permit for building near open water, which was not too difficult to obtain. Even if we got really badly washed out, there is no real chance that our disturbing of the earth would clog up our dear little creek.


So there is another week or so to spend on the woodpile, and then it's on to trim around windows...

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