On the road

We've been planning and drawing and talking and it was finally time to do something that we can see on the site. So last Saturday we started our new road.

Instead of the existing road which winds east, north and northwest from the bridge over Raccoon Creek to the clearing, the new road is being routed almost directly to the site where the barn will be erected. In four hours two of us cleared about 60 feet of brambles, vines and small trees. We have marked the route so far to avoid any significant trees and only had to take out four that were less than four inches in diameter, a few less that 1 inch across and about twenty that we pulled up by hand. Many of these very small ones were Russian olives, an invasive that we will eventually eradicate throughout the site. The root balls were removed but we will likely need ot take out some hidden root sections when we excavate for the road.

There has been a lot of rain at the site over the last month, and the area on and around the road route is very wet. When the roots were cut on a tree and the tree rocked by hand back and forth, there was a sucking, gurgling sound. When the last root was cut and the tree hit the ground, a pot hole of water was left where the root ball had been. This was the case with every one of the trees. I hope things will be drier when we get back to it on the 15th. (I need better boots!)

Each of the trees that might have some value for a fence or post of some sort was trimmed of all branches and stacked upright to keep it as dry as possible.

The weather was warm enough Saturday for the frogs to be peeping and chirping. We hadn't been aware of how wet the area can get, but we know now! We will need to place a series of small culverts to maintain the flow from one side of the area to the other. Otherwise our new road will serve as a dam, and we don't want that.

I'll try to remember a camera next trip, and maybe we can find a way to put the frog sounds on this blog or the community web site.

We are getting ready to present our site plan to the county planning folks, but are still working on some alternatives for waste treatment before we can proceed. The road doesn't require any permits, so we can put our energy into it while the planning goes on.

The shorter route will save a lot of money in road material - fabric and gravel, road clearing equipment time, and in the cost of burying our power line which will be below the middle of the road. It will also save a lot of our labor. The old road will revert to a hiking trail.