Got Myself a New Gate on the Street Side!

It was cold, overcast and rainy as I arrived at the property Sunday. I had my list of things to handle and I was determined to get the list done.  So, good weather or not, I hit the ground running. 

First stop 100 gal Rainwater Collection Tank.  It is finally full!! It has taken months, but to be fair, it is just sitting in a field and collecting water on a 30″ diameter surface that runs into a 3″ mesh hole on top.  Not exactly idea but it was just an experiment to see if it would work & it has. Now I know that a real rainwater system, once I get it designed and up, will definitely handle all of our gardening and outside needs.

The rest of the work for the day included lots of cleaning up and organizing.  I was going to replace the tarp in the garden area with a smaller tarp, but after taking a look at it I decided to kept the same tarp on it as I am sure it wil need to cover more materials until we get the storage shipping container to eventually store everything for the garden.  I reorganized the few items that were under the tarp, drained the water on top of it, cleaned it off and added a few more stakes to keep it down and everything inside dry.

Then I went on another trash collection binge.  Amazing that I am still finding metal pieces, Styrofoam, old glass and plastic bottles, etc. on the property. I managed to fill another 55 gal bag with trash.  I think I have now cleaned up all the major areas where people had dumped trash, prior to my ownership, except for the street side along the fence where lots of stuff probably got tossed from cars/trucks passing.  I wanted to get to it today but just ran out of time. So that last piece will need to wait.

Finally I got to go to the South (street) side and got to admire my new gate.  For the all the months we were waiting for Duke to do their work my fence had been cut open so Duke could get in with their excavator to dig the trench and lead the cables from the pole into the ground.  This past week, now that Duke had completed their work, Jason, from Guardian Fencing, returned to install a gate into the hole in the fence near the electric pole.  As always, Jason did a FABULOUS job!!  It is a small one person gate and now will allow me to walk down the path he cleared from the house and get out on the street side of the property any time I might need to.  It will also allow me to let Duke in if they ever need to do any repairs on the underground cable.

Several things to note here: 1) in order to get the underground cabling installed I had to sign a release that allows Duke access to the entirety of the path where the underground cable is installed. 2) part of that release is that I cannot build anything on top of that cable path.  I can put in gravel on the path, for example, but no solid structures that cannot be removed.

Also, interestingly enough, when we started the design for the gate my street address was, of course, on the asphalt street side.  So I was going to be required to install my mailbox there.  At that time, it seemed like a perfect win-win, since Duke needed access by the pole, to have a gate there so that I could get my mail too. Since then, in my ever-changing world, the county (as part of the permitting process) changed my address to now be on the limestone road on the west side of the property.  Funny enough, that is what I wanted all along (than you Universe) but, now the gate is mostly just a convenience for me vs. something I will be using regularly.  All good!!!

So I made my trip to the fence and admired Jason’s work and put a cable and lock on the fence so now the perimeter is closed and secured again.  I have a BIG appreciation for that little extra security . I have several Reolink solar, motion sensitive, cell-service cameras ready to install, hidden a little way inside all of the fences, as soon as I am living on the property so we I can up the level of security then.  For now it is just locked up with warning signs on it from the outside!

I also tidied up the home area, checking containers under the tarp there and making sure that everything remained water tight. My little Home Depot 27 gal and 55 gal containers have held up really well and continue to keep dry. I keep envisioning the day that I have the storage shipping container over in the garden area to store everything securely without containers and tarps in various places. LOL.  Soon!

I must admit I was also busy this week doing the cleaning and clearing of the property because next week I will have more visitors.  Lauren, Freedom Acres’ Master Gardener will be coming to the property and bringing with her several friends/colleagues who are coming for the purpose of foraging on the property!  First of all, Loren hasn’t been able to be around for a while and … welllllll … until I can live there there hasn’t been anything we could really get started on. So it will be great to see her AND I am so excited as I can’t wait to hear and see what this team of women discover.  This, for me, is one of the steps to take to understand the natural eco-system of the land and help us to maintain that and know what we can grow here.
Lauren is all about regenerative farming and I have been studying that, permaculture principles and and whole-systems thinking over all these months as we have been waiting.  As we get closer and closer to me living on the land, my excitement about what can be created here continues to expand.  Soooooooo, having these women, who know what they are doing, along with Loren, show up and roam the property is like a dream come true for me. I can’t wait!!
Meanwhile, I posted videos, on the Freedom Acres YouTube Channel, of the rainwater collection tank weekly update, the garden tarp, Gracie running around acting like a security officer in her perfect hoodie and, of course, a short end of the day report.  Feel free check it all out by clicking HERE.  Also, feel free to subscribe and you can get notified when new videos go up! 🙂
We are now at mid January. The permits are still moving through reviews again. We are still having conversations about the concrete work that needs to be done for the foundations for the storage and home shipping containers. I have been telling myself that from the moment of final permit approval I can have everything done within a month.  Crazy?  Probably, but it COULD happen! So, I have now been creating being there by mid February now (Valentine’s Day anyone??? – what an act of self-love this all is!!!) 2024 is rolling for sure and I am still creating from a place of love, pushing anything low vibrational out of my way and wishing the same for you.  I am definitely sending Love, Joy and Freedom to you all til I come back next week!

(NOTE – UNABASHED UNREQUESTED PROMOTION : I am always about sharing the info on GREAT people to work with who do a quality job so if anyone reading this has any fencing or clearing needs in West/Central Florida then Guardian Fencing is who to contact.  Liz and Jason are AMAZING in every way and have always exceeded my dreams in everything they have done for me. Click HERE for their website & contact info!)