The Permit IS in Review Finally!
As of last Wednesday, right before Thanksgiving in the US, the county had already begun to review the permit and a few of the approval levels had been approved. There is still more to go and now we will see how fast the rest moves. I am praying for full approval this week. That makes me either bat-sh$t crazy or just positive and optimistic. I will go with the later just for the sake of amusing myself since I am clear that I am bat-sh$t crazy anyhow so it doesn’t exclude that. LOL
The work to do on the property this week was to keep clearing and prepping for the concrete guys AND for the delivery of the shipping containers. Fortunately it was a little cooler and well … rainy. So that was going to come in really handy to get done what I needed to get done.
Before I get to the work however I had such a victory in researching my new creature friend that appeared on the property last week. It is indeed a tortoise not a turtle. I learned that turtles have flippers on front and back and they stay near water. Tortoises, however, are land creatures! They are also vegan and live off the vegetation on the land (You know that I love that it is like me LOL). I then determined that it is a Florida Gopher Tortoise! Seems they are environmentally protected in Florida so I will be very careful, as I had planned to be anyhow, to not disturb them in any way. We can co-exist!
Finally, as I was studying them I suddenly saw that they burrow into the ground. They can go 40-50 feet long and up to 6 feet deep with their burrows. They use their clawed flippers up front to dig and their sturdy back legs to kick the sand out behind them. When I saw that I dropped my jaw. See, since the first days on the land I had been puzzled by these burrow holes on the land. I had searched and search to try to figure out what they were. I am friends had guessing games going on … foxes, coyotes, giant pythons, etc. THEY BELONGED TO THE GOPHER TURTLES! Mystery of 10+ months resolved. I now even thing they were the ones who clawed and drug away the organic fertilizer bag with their front flipper claws! OMG!!!! I almost fell out of my chair when the puzzle pieces came together! WhoooooooooooooooHoooooooooo!
The last thing to figure out is if the one I saw was a male of female and that is going to require me getting closer. But, at least I now what to look for now since it isn’t as obvious as us humans LOL.
As for work … I did really work this week! I finished completely clearing the garden area all the way up to the cleared “road” into the property from the double gate. The point in this is two fold: 1) Make sure the concrete guys can easily get to the area to frame and pour the slab the storage shipping container will sit on, and 2) make sure the shipping container delivery guys can easily deliver the container and drop it onto the slab. Mission accomplished!! and I gave myself extra points for using up the battery in my brush cutter. This is the first time, after using it for a full year, that I have done that. I usually last, with my wimpy arms, for about 30 minutes and then I am done and have to move onto other things. But I stuck in there til the battery died and fortunately I was done at that point. So I marched around admiring my work and all proud of myself at the end! LOL.
Next I went to the home area to survey what work needed to be done there. Now this is where things got interesting. The same two considerations come into play there. I need to make sure the concrete guys can get there, to the area, in order to install the 10 cylinder concrete/rebar stabilized piers that the container will sit on and I need to make sure that the home shipping container can be delivered and dropped onto those piers. The concrete guys can already easily get where they need to go to do their work as I have kept the area in front of the staked area clear.
However, as I stood looking at it, it was oh-so obvious that the delivery of the container was NOT going to work the way it was now. The delivery truck needs to be able to drive down the main path through the property into the home area. Then it needs to be able to turn to back around to the left (facing it) side of the laid out piers and back up to it and slide the container onto the piers. The dilemma I have now is that when the original clearing was done in this area the clearing equipment broke and two small clumps of small trees and palmetto palms were left still standing. These two groups are completely in the way of the left side of the container. They would be blocking the delivery guys from turning and backing up to drop the container.
I must admit that I felt like crying when I realized this. It was going to take a lot of work on my part and now time was ticking on me to get it done quickly. I then had to fight my temptation to beat myself up for not realizing this earlier and getting it handled already. I had actually loved those little groups of trees and imagined how nicely the container would be nestled in near them. I had let that fantasy get in the way of me seeing the reality of the situation.
So now, I will need to actually take the clump of small trees on the left down and at least remove the saw palmettos grouping on the right down. It was too late to get started this Sunday so I knew I needed to clean and sharpen and possibly replace my chains on my chainsaw and my pole chain saw and come back and just get it done. Next time on the property would be a major work day. Fortunately the trees are fairly small so I can do it myself. I will need to add an extra dose of being uber strategic and careful to the game but I CAN DO IT (I say to myself out loud again even as I write this LOL).
Frankly, I just am not willing to spend the money to have it done or have to wait on someone else to do it for me. I am at the point, financially, where I am having to watch every penny in order pull off everything that still needs to be done to get myself living on the property. Seems everything I have done has cost more in time and money than originally planned and budgeted. It has amounted to being 5 months and about $40K more than I originally plotted. So, I am handling everything I can myself at this point. It is like: “Buck up & get busy, Kym!!”.
This week I posted videos, on the Freedom Acres YouTube Channel, of the clearings I did, the rainwater collection tank weekly update, photos of the Gopher Tortoise burrows action and discovering the new problem I have. Feel free check it all out by clicking HERE. Also, feel free to subscribe and you can get notified when new videos go up! 🙂
This week we will be the next stage of waiting. I am checking the permit, on the county site, daily for signs of activity. So far it is halfway done with four more items to be completed as each department review it. I am playing a game to have it completed this week. Once the permit is approved we get to run full speed ahead. The concrete guys comes to put in the slab and piers and I can order deliver of the shipping containers (both the storage one and the one I will live in). The Universe is now teaching me new levels of patience and I am getting better at allowing it to.
As always, I welcome any of your energy, sent in anyway you send it, in our direction, for Freedom Acres, Gracie and I for all of the continued progress. It is so much appreciated!!! Love and freedom to you til I come back in two weeks (next week is my 1 Sunday a week off)! I send Freedom to YOU on-goingly!!
