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This sh*t is hard. We didn’t expect easy, but it is H-A-R-D.
Between there being no road to our property, and the survey markers being buried under 40 years of growth; we feel like we can’t even start working on our property yet! It’s been a huge reality check for sure.
Today we spoke to the realty company we purchased the land through. They put us in touch with a surveyor who helped us find GPS coordinates for each marker. Hopefully, we should be able to get up in the morning and find them easily. But the surveyor did say if we had trouble he’d come out and help us find them, so we will find our markers soon!
Once we find the markers then we still have to get everything out there. A 4 wheeler just does not have the towing power or weight capacity of a truck, so we may just end up driving the truck down the beach. We’ve seen plenty of people do it, but we haven’t attempted it yet. There is still frost under the beach so there are unexpected soft spots we have been hitting in the 4 wheeler and that makes me a little worried about taking the truck out.
For right now though, we are still camping at the lake, which is beautiful!
We also did our first load of what I’m affectionately calling “bush laundry”. We will definitely be needing a wringer (Amazon affiliate link) to go with our washboard (Amazon affiliate link) for our next load!
Also this week, Ronan found out what happens when you harass a porcupine!
Link showed up at the pound we got him from with a face full of quills so he was smart enough to stay away, but Ronan must have actually tried to bite the porcupine because he had quills pretty far back in his mouth.
Pro tip: clip the ends of the quills before pulling them out, it makes it much easier! Pliers like these (Amazon affiliate link) make it a little easier. And also, train your dog to allow hands in his mouth. We didn’t have anything to knock Ronan out with, but he’s well trained enough with touching his face and mouth that he didn’t bite even though I’m sure he was in quite a bit of pain. We pulled quills from under his tongue, gum line, and his throat. Hopefully, he won’t ever make this mistake again!
After 30 minutes of pulling quills, Ronan was very happy to have them all out!
Kyle and I both have hunting and fishing licenses now. I bought a .22 today so we’ll be able to hunt for some of our food. I’m honestly considering eating that porcupine if we happen across him again. They are supposed to be good eating this time of year.
Away from the reality check and back to camping for now!
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Wow! That’s a tough day! Remember you can do this! I look forward to your posts and you write them so well. You two are inspiring. I remember when you had dreamed of this opportunity. Just didn’t t realize it would be so far away! you have a brave spirit and will accomplish all of your dreams no matter where there are! Thank you for sharing them!
Thank you! Even with the huge learning curve and hard lessons we are really happy and enjoying ourselves out here!
What about the fishing? I would be after some seafood. Keep up the blog and more pics please!
We have fishing licenses, now we just need to get gear! The lake we’ve been camping by is stocked with trout though, so that’ll be a good place to start!
I have a brand new 22 rifle for sale- & lots more:)
You guys are doing great! And yes, porcupine are good eating 😉 . The first time we had to do this with a black lab we used to have I thought he’d never make that mistake again either. Unfortunately, he never learned–he was just too playful. Hope your dog is a quicker learner than ours.
Happy homesteading!
Maybe next time we get a porcupine I’ll be brave enough to try it! Thanks for reading! 🙂