# 469 - Small Leap Toward Cabin Construction Process

The big cleaning job here on the land has been tackled by my husband, Sgt. Dave. I get some fun jobs, such as decorative landscaping and gardening, but I have to admit, it's the big jobs that always impress me.

This old oak tree has a lot of wood that will be used for other projects. Once Sgt. Dave stood up this huge hunk of tree, he got inspiration...to carve a seat into the tree and the upper limb will be the reclining back of the chair and the two branchs will be the "arms." This will piece will go into the house and be treasured as a one-of-kind chair.

 

Can you picture it?

 

Living in the country is always interesting.

And we're still in what I would consider to be "Stage 1" of the cabin construction process. This week, my husband began to clear the construction site of clusters of trees, brush and vines. The below picture is a shot of the shrubs and newbie trees that needed to be removed from this area.

The two clusters of dense growth right here are the areas that
had to be removed. This particular photo was taken about six
months ago and had become quite compact with greenery to tackle.

So, here is the area more cleared out. There is a pile of limbs my mother-in-law dragged to the burn pile a few feet away. My mother-in-law and father-in-law have been visiting and things sure go faster with my father-in-law's construction skills. Every son should have a father such as him. He's like the rest of us, not perfect, but he loves his family and shows it in unique ways. I've always had a soft spot for my father-in-law, and I am glad the four of us are getting to spend quality time together.

There is a nice oak tree that my father-in-law began, years ago, by sticking one of the acorns in the ground. It worked. The tree is over ten years old now and needs to be replanted to a safe zone, away from our construction site.

 

You can again see this tree to the far left of the shot below.

Oak tree is to the left of the shot above. Nice tree to be re-planted
in cooler weather. No tree transplanting in this Texas-August heat.

The picture below is the future site for our cabin. Over the past few days, my husband has chopped, cut, sawed, pulled and dug out the mess that was growing on this site.

The beautiful view to the grove of pine trees in the distance will be our view from the living room/dining and kitchen. It is gorgeous in that direction and no neighbors will ever be able to build in that area because of a creek. There are also quite a few towering oaks to enjoy.

Also, the old starter frame for a screen-in shelter that had been built over a decade ago is on its way to being disassembled and the wood put aside for other projects. It will be nice to have this eyesore go bye-bye.

Before I could finish this blog post, my husband and his dad got this old has-been torn apart and the lumber salvaged for future projects.

Now, this area is my official veggie garden zone. I am happier about this than I can express! It works because we can capture grey water from the washing machine and use it to water the garden. Also, we'll be working toward catching water from the shed's roof into an above-ground barrel so that a low-spouted hose can passively leak water for the plants to have water.

So, I need to get out there and re-clean the ground of blackberry vines, weeds and other debris, then mark the zone with limbs so that the chickens can't get into the garden and pick it clean. I love my chickens, but free-range chickens and an open veggie garden do NOT go well together.

I might even take heavy duty black trash bags that are cut into strips and use them to make a root barrier around the border of the garden with extra bags to cover future gardening zones to prevent weed growth.

It seems as if we are finally making some head-way. I'm very happy the home-site is decided upon and that the "trash" weed growth in that spot has been removed.

So nice!